A funny thing happened

at the playground today. As we entered the sandy side of the playground, Ellie walked up to her clone. Yes, her clone.

There she was, this little Chinese girl, a bit smaller than Ellie and Grace, with eyes spaced just a bit wider, whose face was just a bit flatter, yet who was Ellie's look-alike even more so than Grace.

I stared, hoped my mouth wasn't agape, told Ellie to say hi and then turned to search for the mother...who in turn was staring before turning to search for the mother. We met in the middle. She asked if Ellie and Grace are twins and if they are Japanese or Chinese. I answered and asked the same in return - the Japanese or Chinese part, that is.

By this time, Ellie had ventured over to stake her spot in the sand while Grace was at the swings yelling for me to push her. Ellie's look-alike was climbing up the slide. We both did our motherly duty and went to attend to our kids.

After Grace had been swinging for a few minutes, she asked why Ellie had taken her shoes off. Only the top of Ellie's head was visible to me. Figuring Grace could see her feet at the apex of the swing, I answered that I didn't know why...probably she just decided to take them off. I did notice that Ellie's look-alike was barefoot, but thought nothing of it...then thought maybe Ellie had noticed too and decided to do the same.

A few minutes later, Ellie's look-alike decided to swing too. As her mother helped her into the swing at the opposite end of the set, Grace turned to her and yelled, "Ellie. Ellie! Come sit by me." Yep, Grace thought the little girl was Ellie that's how much they looked like each other.

I told Grace that that wasn't Ellie, that Ellie was playing in the sand. Grace wasn't having any of it. She yelled at "Ellie" again. And again, I told her that the little girl was not Ellie, etc.

Grace then asked why Ellie had changed her clothes. See...she did notice that. Once again, I told Grace that that was not Ellie. My next step was to stop the swing, move it forward enough that the real Ellie was visible to us both in her spot in the sand and to tell Grace that THAT was Ellie.

"Oh. Who dat? She look like Ellie." was Grace's response. Pretty good comment coming from Ellie's twin.

Unfortunately, I didn't have the opportunity to talk to the other mother again. They left soon after swinging. Hopefully, we'll meet again at the playground and talk more. Could be our kids will end up being bff's. Hmmm...stranger things have happened...