Other People & Strangers

It’s really funny how Paige and Taylor interact with total strangers.

This morning, Paige had a doctor appointment. The waiting room was full of other children and their respective moms/dads and during the brief 15 minutes that we were waiting for our turn to see the doctor, Paige and Taylor managed to circulate through the entire waiting room, walking up to nearly every person and chatting it up with them. Paige showed people a picture she had colored, Taylor pointed out the fish, turtles and other sea-life images appearing on the doctor's office walls and proudly named each of the images for everybody she encountered. She wanted everyone she talked to to know exactly what was on those doctor's office walls! Wanting to be a considerate mother, respectful of other people’s time/space, I tried to corral the twins back to their seats several times but to no avail. Fortunately, most of the people in the waiting room didn’t seem to mind the twins coming over to them and jibber jabbering away. To those who did seem a little annoyed by Paige and Taylor’s friendliness, I apologized and simply said, “So, sorry, somedays they think that everyone in the world wants to meet them.”

Following the doctor’s appointment, and upon our departure from the office, Paige and Taylor, just as we were exiting through the doors, turned and waved to everyone in the waiting room and chimed together, “Bye, everybody, see you next time!” Too funny.

Later in the day, we stopped at one of my favorite Chinese restaurants to grab a bite of lunch. It was lunch time and the restaurant was packed. We managed to find an open table next to an elderly couple. No sooner did the girls and I get settled into our seats did Paige and Taylor start turning on the charms and start chatting up the elderly couple next to us. The elderly couple asked lots of questions about the girls and talked to the girls periodically throughout lunch. Paige and Taylor took turns smiling, laughing and talking to each other and the couple next to us. I just kept thinking to myself, "these girls really know how to turn on the charm."

One of the great things about having twins is that you really don’t ever need to ‘socialize’ them. I’ve heard about other kids and young children, who might not be used to being around other babies, children or adults outside of their own family who might be strangers, and that these kids can be shy or a little reserved. I think they call it ‘stranger anxiety’. Anyways, I guess because Paige and Taylor have always had each other, interacting with other people so easily and quickly is a given for them and that whole socializing thing just seems to come naturally.