You Know Your Family Is Different When...

You know your family is different when...

1) Your kids ask for wallet photos of themselves to create pretend passports...and they remember to include visa stamps...and they line up at a little table with one of them sitting behind it with a grim face saying "Passport Control" and seriously giving the "passport holder" the onceover as they compare photos with the face.

2) Your kids lay their arms down on the table and line them up according to skin color.

3) A friend asks the evening of 4th of July if your son needs a jacket because it is growing cooler and as he casually walks away he responds over his shoulder "Naw...I'm Kazakh...we don't get cold!".

4) You are at Target with your kids and one of their buddies who happens to be a cute little blond guy, and your kids are spending gift cards received from Grandma, and the clerk says to your son's buddy "Well how fair is that? Mom and Dad buy gifts for your friends and you get nothing?"...and you tell the clerk "You have it wrong, he's the one who isn't ours!"...and she STILL looks at you like you are crazy and you can tell she still can't even figure out which kids are really yours.

5) You see someone at an event in town whom you haven't seen in a long time and they ask jokingly "So...do you still have 2 kids? Or are you up to 5 or 6?"...and they are joking...and they don't even know you currently have 3...you don't know how to tell them it really WILL soon be 5!

6) Your kids ask you what countries hit your blog today.

7) You drive behind an SUV with those stick figures of family members on it...and your son says "Man, mom...look at that, that's a lot of little guys on there!"...and you quickly count and say "Yes, but that's one less than we'll eventually have..." and your son's eyes grow ever slightly larger. Then, in some misguided effort to make it sound better you say softly "...but at least we don't have the dog. Yet."...and your voice kind of drifts off...

8) Your son gets into an involved conversation with adults about the merits of traveling via Lufthansa versus other carriers.

9) You walk through Walmart and you see 2 little girls standing off to the side staring at your family and one of them is making "slant eye" faces which thankfully your children miss...and you walk by and don't hesitate before out pops out "You girls ought to be ashamed of yourselves..."

10) It takes more than 5 minutes to explain the birth order of your children.

And finally...#11 - When you experience all of the above on a daily basis and DON'T think of your family as different!!