The Visible Purple Family

The other day we were at Lowe's buying lumber for Ella and Maya's super duper, Sandi designing on steroids, play set. We were walking through the store, Ella on Sandi's shoulders, Maya strapped on me in the Baby Bjorn. A cashier, with no customers, was out milling in the main thoroughfare and came out to see the girls. She oohed and aaahed over them and Ella even told her she was three when asked (something she has never done with a stranger.) The women said to Maya, "You out shopping with your mom?"

In the easy manner I use in these situations, I simply said, "Yup. Their out with both their moms."

Now some people wonder why do this. What does the Lowe's Lady care about a 2 mom family. The answer (which most reading this blog would gather) is simply that it feels incredibly important to be visible, to be proud, to be relaxed and be happy to be just what we are. It is so critical to us that people see that same-sex parent households look a whole lot like the standard.

She smiled and we went on our way. A few minutes later, I ran back to the bathroom to get water for Maya's bottle and passed her on my way out.

She told me to have a nice day and then, as I was running toward the parking lot and our crying baby, she called, "By the way, you two make a cute couple... and a cute family!"

And a side note: Ella got a kid-safe princess hand fan at the store the other day. It was in the "impulse buy" section of the check-out, right at kid level. She had asked me for it on at least 5 other trips and I had told her no. This day, she had been so good and patient through the whole trip and I was so appreciating her patient perseverance, I said yes. I told her the biggest reason why I said yes was that she had not complained every other time I had told her no.

So she proudly brought the fan home. She was playing with Maya in the kitchen and I was unloading the bags. I had asked her the same question a few times with no answer from her and she was getting aggravated with me. Finally, she spun around and thrust her fan-clutching hand toward me, pointed it with some serious precision and threatened, "IF YOU ASK ME THAT QUESTION ONE MORE TIME I WILL TURN YOU PURPLE!"