If I had known there was a contest for this, you KNOW my wedding party would have done this.

Last night, as we do almost every Wednesday night, we went to PoBoy Factory for dinner.  We do this for a plethora of reasons, but the frontrunner is that the food is ALWAYS spectacular.  It’s made-to-order, and no one else in town has a better breading on fried foods.  Not to mention the crawfish.  THEY HAVE CRAWFISH.  And on Saturdays, not that I’ve been yet this year, they have boiled crawfish.

(Which, I must tell you, made me salivate to even type.)

Anyway, we took our usual table at the restaurant, and pretended to labor over the menu. (When you go somewhere every week, you really don’t have to decide.) And the waitress came over (mind you, it’s one of two servers we always get, so it’s not like we’re new to her) and remarked on The Boy’s strawberry blonde hair and freckles.  She does this every week.  And then she looked at me and said, “He gets the red from his momma, huh?”

I hate this part of stepparenting.  Normally, I just smile and nod, because — technically – he does.  I’m just not “momma”.  And she’s not with us.  But last night, The Boy caught on to the question.  And he was confused that I nodded and smiled. 

“Hey, Sarah has red hair too!” he said, pointing at me.  I nodded again, hoping to just glide over the awkward moment.  The waitress paused long enough to make me uncomfortable and then went on her way to the drink station.

I know that Bryan and The Boy didn’t feel weird about this.  It’s just me.  But every time we have him and someone mentions how much we look alike, I feel the need to say, “Well, that’s amazing, since I had nothing to do with his conception.”  Because, really, that kind of sounds like a snarky answer that a bitter wife would give.  And it reminds me of when people liken a dog to its owner.. which is also snarky.  I don’t want to be snarky.  I want to be snappy.

So what am I supposed to say when a complete stranger tries to lump us into a nuclear unit?  What’s the correct answer there?