Awkward!!

Last Sunday we took Ani out for a high-tea buffet to celebrate her birthday. Since she really like salmon sashimi and the Mrs has always like the spread at Carousel, we decided to buy her lunch there.

The original plan was to leave Isaac at my dad's place in order to allow Ani time and space to enjoy her birthday treat. With Isaac around he will surely be a handful and we felt that Ani may not be able to enjoy as much. However Ani was a little sad when she learned of our plan so we decided to bring Isaac along.

Is this cone too hard or I do not have enough teeth?

On that day it was also the first time that we used the twin stroller that my SIL had bought us all the way from Canada. She is a citizen there and when she learned that we were having twins she immediately told us that she will get a twin stroller for us as a gift. She had to lug it all the way from Canada as well when she came over to visit during the Chinese New Year.

She would be pleased to know that the stroller was a breeze to handle and it is also not that heavy. Like most twin strollers it is rather bulky and would have problem fitting into our old car. But with this new 7 seater we had no such problem although we had to give up the last row of seats. From our trip that day we also concluded that in fact there are a number of escalators that will not be able to take our stroller.

Overall lunch was good and we all enjoyed ourselves even though Isaac was a little cranky. He was not feeling well as he had probably caught the virus from his cousin. He was always demanding to be carried or fed so as usual the 3 of us had to take turn to carry and pacify him. Before we knew it almost 2 hours had passed and we had to leave as the restaurant prepared itself for the dinner buffet.

She just can't bear to celebrate without Isaac

Who says caring for 3 kids is easy?!?!!?

The Mrs and Ani caring for 3 of them like how they do on a daily basis.

Now those of you who had followed this blog since day one will probably remember that I had for the longest time chosen not to reveal our identities because the Mrs has always been afraid of unwanted attentions. Imagine her shock and uneasiness when we wheeled out the twins in their new stroller for the first time. People were staring at us and for the most part smiling. She was so uncomfortable from the short walk between Shaw House where we parked our car to the Royal Plaza on Scotts. I could tell that she was evading eye contact with the strangers who were walking in our direction.

As all the 3 babies needed to have their diapers changed we decided to head towards Isetan Scotts since they have one of the better nursery around.

On the way back to Shaw House the Mrs again felt very awkward and had to always engage me in conversation in order to avoid making eye contact with oncoming strangers. I also suggested for her to wear her shades the next time we bring the twins out in their stroller.

The observations we made was rather interesting because this is not the first time we brought all the 3 babies out but we have always had the Mrs and Ani sling the twins while I carry Isaac. Although there were stares but they were never quite like what we had experienced with the stroller. Immediately upon crossing Claymore Hill road we were stopped by 2 Chinese ladies. They asked if they were twins and requested to take a picture of them. While I was replying them the Mrs had already walked on.

I should have read that as a sign that she will not be of any help from what is to come next!

There were no further incidents and we reached the nursery at Isetan Scotts rather quickly using the lift of course. Even though the very long escalator looked like it could handle the stroller I was not confident I could manage getting the stroller on and off the escalator. I told Ani I will have a trial run another day without the twins actually in there of course.

Nothing much happened in the nursery except for some pleasant exchange with another 2 ladies there who were feeding this little boy.

Once we were done they Mrs and Ani wanted to pick some stuffs up for the babies department and since the stroller is too big to be manoeuvred between the aisle and rows of products I decided to park myself with the twins right next to where they display the prams and strollers.

Our twin stroller!!

What happened next was something that even I had difficulty handling. The twins in their stroller literally stopped traffic. Everyone that walked down that aisle would stopped and check if they were twins and their genders and age before proceeding to guess which is the boy and which is the girl. Those who were with their family and chanced upon us first will guessed and then once their family members caught up they will made them guess the gender as well. If only I get a dollar with each guess..........

Most people are excited to learn that they are of different genders.

The Isetan employees and promoters also left their post just to come and sneak a peek. Some even got their colleagues from another section to come and look and again guess the gender.

There was this Caucasian man who became a father himself 5 days back showed me the pictures of his daughter in his phone and asked to take pictures of the twins at the same time. Basically I spoke with men and women of different colour, age, shape and size.

Can you tell who is Luke and who is Hayley?

All this while the Mrs and Ani along with Isaac were at a distance away watching and sniggering away. I could tell from the look on the Mrs's face that she was REALLY glad she was not the one who had to wait with the twins. Think she will probably dig a hole and bury her head in.

After what seemed like an eternity these people finally moved on and before more came down this aisle I quickly moved away with the twins and join up with the Mrs.

If I didn't know any better I would have thought mine are the last children on earth, think Children of Men. The way these people reacted was nice but a tad too overwhelming. While I am fine with strangers staring and smiling away and asking the odd question or two, this experience with the crowd was a little too weird.

Although this little experience did nothing to deter me from bringing the stroller out again I know for a fact that it will take a lot more now for the Mrs to agree to handle the stroller alone with the twins in it.