Times, They Are A Changin?

There's definitely something weird going on.. Not sure what it is though. Daniel has always been big into Superman and Douglas into Batman. It's like blasphemy if you even look at it as the other one will freak out saying "no that's mine"! Same way with some stuffed animals. Douglas has this puppy which he affectionately calls, well, puppy. And Daniel this very soft and cuddly blue bear, appropriately named, well, blue bear. Daniel also has this white pound puppy he just calls white. I don't know where they come up with these names.

Now it gets weird. Earlier this past week, Daniel actually gave, not traded mind you, gave his blue bear to Douglas for him to have in his bed while he sleeps. This is the blue bear that goes with him to his grandparent's house every weekend. He cannot sleep without it. Instead he wants to take this alligator.

This alone, while a little weird, would not have been such a big deal.

However, this past Saturday he allowed Douglas to wear his long sleeve Superman shirt. Ok, he's being nice and sharing his shirt. But then, in a stunning turn of events, said that he could keep it in his drawer! I had to ask him 3 times to make sure I was hearing it correctly. This essentially means that he will no longer wear it. Because they wear the same size shirts, their drawers are kind of interchangeable, however they do have "their" shirts that only they wear. The Superman shirt was definitely one of those and is now being discarded like an expired coupon. Douglas then gave his Batman shirt to Daniel which is now his to wear along with puppy to sleep with.

It gets even weirder. I went in to tuck them in before I went to bed and didn't even realize until the next morning that they had switched beds!!

Are they growing up realizing they want different things?  Are they just going through a phase? What are they going to do next say that they don't want to wear Angry Birds, Ninja Turtles or Phineas and Ferb underwear anymore?  Oh, that is going to be a sad day..

Twinny Twin Twin!!

New York City, 6p. Wendy Smith is boiling some water for dinner and accidentally burns her right hand. At the same time, across the country in Los Angeles, Wendy's twin sister Bonnie feels a sudden and sharp pain in her right hand. Coincidence?

Remember those? Whether you believe them or not, there is no doubt that twins is an interesting thing. There is absolutely an innate connection. While mine are fraternal (two separate eggs fertilized), they are still as close as identical. We saw 3D ultrasound pictures of them in the womb where they would be rubbing heads. And very often, after they came home, if we put them in the same crib to nap, they would end up with their heads touching, even though they didn't start that way.  It also happens on the couch. They'll be sitting on the couch watching a movie, separated by maybe 1/3 of the couch. Sooner or later you just see them drift towards each other until they are right next to each and don't even realize it.

Sometimes I equate them to the aliens in one of my favorite 80s' movies, "Just One of the Guys". (I highly recommend it). There are these alien twins who appear at the school and cannot be separated. Check out this clip. Fast forward to about the 1 minute mark to see what I mean:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fMwIYmgviP0

I'm not saying it's always like this, but there are points where they need to be together. I swear there's nothing cuter than going into my twins' room and finding they are sleeping in the same bed. Only they don't always start that way. Clearly at some point one goes into the other's bed. Daniel has a full size bed and Douglas a twin. For a while they were sleeping in Daniel's bed and that was fine because there was enough room for both and as long as they slept, we didn't care. But lately, they've been wanting to sleep in Douglas's bed, which remember is only a twin. Now we all know how much room there is in a twin bed. More likely than not, many of you reading this have slept in one. Sometimes even with company. We all know it's not the most comfortable of night's sleep.

But really, who is it hurting? Well, I guess it's hurting Douglas because he woke up with a bloody nose the other morning. You know why? Because Daniel had hit him in the face while he flailed around in his sleep because there's NO ROOM FOR TWO PEOPLE IN A TWIN BED!

But we figure it's easier to let them grow out of the stage where they want to sleep in the same bed then force them to do anything that will produce the sound from this video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fMwIYmgviP0

Do You Believe in Miracles?

The following is a real conversation between real people.  These are not actors.

Max: "Mitch, can I play with the Iron Man Flashlight please?" (Spoken in a normal voice with no whining)

Mitch: "Ok."  Hands him the flashlight.

Max: "Thank you Mitch."  "Daddy, Mitch shared!"

Daddy:  "I know Max. I know", as he wipes the tears away from his eyes.

I now believe that anything is possible, even miracles.

Happy Monday.

Double Trouble

When I first found out we were having twins, the first thought that went through my head other than a big fat F bomb, was double everything.  Double the diapers, double the clothes, double the cribs, double the Bar Mitzvah's..  Ok I jumped ahead on that one, but it's something you gotta think about.

But really right now, it's not so bad as they are pretty good at sharing so double the toys really isn't too necessary.  They have their own beds and kinda share clothes now that they are the same relative size (more on that to come).

The real kicker right now is double the birthday parties.. And in more ways than one..  We decided to put them in separate classrooms.  We felt that they relied on each other too much and wouldn't branch out socially if the other was always there.  So when they became toddlers at school, we put them in separate classes and it seemed to work fine.  However they do still wait for each other when it's time to go to the playground, and I'm ok with that.  It's also kinda cute.  But since they are in different classrooms, they are making different friends.  Good so far.  However different friends means more birthday parties.

So the standard pretty much is there are two kids, you get two presents.  So if it's the boys' birthday party, more often than not they will receive 1 gift each from the child guest.  If it's a close friend of ours obviously both boys will be invited and there will be two presents purchased for that birthday child.  However, when it's another child's birthday say in Max's class, both boys will get invited because the parent knows they are twins.  We're trying to move away from that and have Max invited to his friends' parties and vice versa for Mitch.  It's challenging as they've pretty done everything and gone most everywhere together for the better part of 4 years, but if we don't do it now, it'll be harder to do when they are older.

Now, if we can only figure out how they can drive themselves there, we'd be all set.