Oddities

Often, walking in public places makes us feel like celebrities, or circus performers. We regularly have watchers, and have often drawn a crowd.

People stop and watch as we walk by.
People take our children's hands and pat their faces, sometimes scold them for putting their fingers in their mouths.
Parents herd their toddlers toward us, encouraging their kids to poke or smile at our children.
Outside Dave's office, a woman took L--'s hand and started to walk away. Kidnapping is unheard of in China, so she had no idea what a horrible thing she had done. I was less than gracious.

During a rain storm, we put the rain cover over our double stroller and went for a walk. To pause and walk around a mall, we pulled in the large front doors into an open area. A rotunda of sorts. There we took off our jackets, removed the rain cover, and made sure our children were both still breathing. Task completed, we took a look around. There was literally a crowd circling us, about 3 people deep all the way around.

Yesterday we chose to picnic. It was a small picnic. We ate sweet buns and curry sandwiches on the steps outside the grocery store. A Chinese family was doing the same thing with their toddler, less than 30 feet away. As we ate our buns and drank our water, we consistently drew a crowd. People would stop for a moment, smile, and then walk by. Others would stop for considerably longer, try to take our picture, and offer our girls some candy. One man stood and watched us the whole time, although we later learned that he just wanted our water bottle. The truly ironic part was that the Chinese family down the way was poddy-training their child in the park. That's right. As we drew a crowd for eating buns in the park, a 2-year-old pooping over the manicured lawns in her father's arms drew no notice at all. Her mother didn't even stop eating her sandwich.