The term “identical twins” makes it sound as if my girls are carbon copies of each other, impossible to tell apart, with the exact same traits. Well, I can tell you right now that they’re not.
Monozygotic-diamniotic twins means that they’re genetically nearly identical and are always the same sex. There can be differences in height, facial features, birth marks, different fingerprints, and their personalities can be completely different. Which is the case with my girlies.
Meet River. This wide-eyed, kicking, bouncing, almost-crawling baby is very energetic. She doesn’t smile to strangers easily, and she loves investigating things around the house. She also loves watching TV and was the first one to roll, babble, and click her tongue. She has really big eyes, a friendly smile that will melt your heart, and my husband’s eyebrows. Her voice is raspy. She has no birthmarks of any kind, no abnormalities.
Meet Lydia. This talkative, squinty, drooling, thumb-sucking baby is very lazy. She smiles at anyone, and she loves staring at her hands. She’s starting to watch TV, has finally rolled as of a week ago, will babble your ear off, and she’s recently found a love for screaming. She has significantly smaller and differently shaped eyes than her sister, but she has the sweetest smile you’ll ever see in your life. She does all of my husband’s expressions, and she looks a lot like his side of the family. Her voice is high-pitched. She has a birthmark on her right shoulder, and no abnormalities.
It’s the funniest thing watching them interact with each other. Their voices are completely different. The way they react to things going on around them is different. Their temperaments are very different as well; River will get upset easier than Lydia does. Their cries are completely different; Lydia sounds like a squeaky toy. River is definitely more adventurous, while Lydia just loves to watch. The girls recently got evaluated to see if they qualified for Early Intervention services. River does not need any at the moment, but Lydia will be receiving them at our home. We’ll be talking to the E.I. folks in two weeks about how we’re going to go about the program and what we’re going to be working on. I’m very excited about this – it means I was not being paranoid noticing little things here and there.
I catch myself wondering what they’ll be like when they get older. Rick and I always joke around about one being one thing and the other being something else, but what if they become a lot alike personality-wise when they get older? What if they start liking the same things, have the same hobbies, the same friends? What if they grow up to be completely different, with different interests and different after-school activities and different sports or extra-curricular activities? We keep thinking those thoughts and, when we do catch ourselves thinking them, we always have to remind ourselves to focus on now. They won’t be this little and cuddly forever (soon they’ll be 16 and hating me).
I don’t care how different or alike they are or turn out to be. As long as they grow up to be close, if not best friends, I’ll be happy. This twin bond is such a cool thing to witness and to have in your life. Can you imagine being born with your best friend? They love each other – they babble back and forth, they kick each other, they always have to be touching, they try to soothe each other when one is crying, they stare at each other. How sweet and pure is that? I didn’t teach them to love one another. They just do.
