how many is too many??

that is the question. i have always felt it was a personal decision. 

we are currently vacationing with our vacay buddies, the tillmans. at the end of last year, we both gave birth to another baby, our third and their second. our biggest concern in traveling was entertaining the infants. would they cry, be too loud, need to nurse all the time? but no worries, people rarely even notice we have infants. they are too busy gawking at how many of us there are.

when eating at restaurants, we have heard the following:

"put them in the back." (whispered to the hostess seating us)

nice. 

photo hijacked from jennifer's blog

"do you mind eating inside? if not, i have a great place for you."

in case you were wondering, that is the bathroom door behind us. we were the only table upstairs that wasn't on the balcony. we spent the entire evening telling people they had to push harder to get the door open. seriously.

while hovering for the only large table at panera, we mommies and toddlers apparently sparked a new topic for the older ladies occupying only half of it. i overheard one say to the others while eying our children, "i mean, i want my grandchildren to come visit, but i don't want to raise them."

we aren't asking you to raise these cuties, we're asking you to get up so they will have a place to eat

another photo i hijacked from jennifer's blog

while entering banana republic, one of the people waiting for us to come through the door, "wow, did you see that party of 12?" no, lady, just 9.

while shopping at j.crew, i overheard two twentysomethings say, "this place is full of babies and strollers." nope, just two, us and them.

i always joke that my 3 kids can feel like 15 or 492, but apparently i am not the only one who feels that way . apparently, the world feels that i have reached my reproductive limit.

am i permitted to have 8 or 18 children only as long as i allow the public to ogle us like side show circus freaks?

oh, so tacky, and yet so funny

i have always loved the idea of having a big family, not in the octomom or duggar kind of way, but in the normal kind of way. i have actually read several editorials recently where people said they thought having more children was irresponsible in our current economic crisis and ecological distress. are you freaking kidding me? 

ugh. back off. and be nice. i know it is shocking but not everyone puts the priorities of the earth above the people that reside on it. not everyone sneers at the contagious laughter of children because it is too loud. not everyone's heart is two sizes too small . . .