Thank You

So...when we woke up yesterday morning we had no milk. My boys are cereal lovers, which meant we had a small problem. Nothing that couldn't be fixed by a quick trip to the milk store, however. Typically I make this trip by myself while everyone else in the family is still sleeping. The little men had been wanting to "help" me with this errand for a while, though, so I decided yesterday was the day.

We got dressed, loaded the milk crate with empty bottles into the wagon, and headed off down the street, enjoying the brisk fall morning as we went.

It looked a little bit like this:

It always does.

While we were finishing up our business in the store, an older gentleman walked in, looked at the boys, and asked me if all 3 were mine. I answered him nonchalantly in the affirmative, not really paying much attention, and expecting him to follow up with the usual "you-have-your-hands-full" type of comment that comes off more as a commercial for birth control or a critique of my parenting than anything else.

He surprised me.

"Wonderful. Just wonderful," he said with a smile.

I didn't really know how to respond. "I've got lots of helpers, that's for sure."

"They sure do try, anyway," he continued, still positive in his outlook.

I smiled and nodded, still taken aback at his unusual response to seeing a woman with 3 very young children actually dare to set foot into a store with all of them.

After a beat I said, "Thank you. Thank you for saying that. It's not very often I hear somebody say anything other than that it must be rough."

He just smiled again and replied, "Well, I've got 4 of my own."