Is this irony?

I'm pretty sure I don't really grasp the meaning of irony.  But, I was at a *mandatory* parent orientation meeting for Mateo's preschool tonight and I noticed something.  First, as far as I could tell from those in attendance, we are still the only gay family in the group, despite it having grown significantly since last year.   Last year, the school was in its first year and not all the way full.  This year, word has gotten around and the director is already getting applications for NEXT year! 

Anyway, so we're the only family with two moms in the school.  I get the feeling that this may be the story of our kids' educational lives, which is kind of a bummer because Portland is full of gay families.  I guess we're just all too spread out for our own good!

Then, as I was casually perusing the list of everyone attending the school, I realized the we are in the distinct minority in one other way.  What is that way, you ask?  That we all have the same last name!  In other words, that one spouse took the other spouse's last name and then both kids got it, as well.  There are some straight families like this at the school, but a huge number of them have the husband and wife with their own names and then the kids' names hyphenated or with the husband's last name, or, in one confusing case, with a completely different last name. 

(As an aside, there were also some crazy hyphenations, such as (I am making this up, but it gives you the idea) Gonzalez-McKinley.  Having lived with a hyphenated name for three years after Sacha and I got married, I have some fairly strong opinions about them, most of which are overwhelmingly negative and which I will avoid sharing here.  I'll just settle for saying that it makes me feel happy and content that Sacha and I and the kids all share one one-word last name.   Obviously, this feeling is not shared by everyone, but I'm glad we made that decision the way we did.)

I guess my point in writing this is that I just had to laugh that we are on the far alternative end of the spectrum in terms of our family's two-mom structure, and on the far traditional end in terms of our last names.  It was weird to be the only lesbian there but to have taken the most traditional route possible in terms of taking my wife's last name and giving it to our kids.  Is that irony?  I don't know, but it was definitely interesting.