Twinniness

As I type this, the girls are launching into what will probably be another marathon nap session. This week has been full of those! See, Tamsie is not feeling well, and Evie is... Tamsie's twin. So if T wants to sleep extra, generally E will as well.

E earlier this week during one of those marathon nap sessions I speak of. I often find her like this, with her hair sticking out of her crib during naptime! So silly!

It has been the same with their eating habits this week too. T hasn't been feeling like eating much, and neither has E -- even though E seems to be feeling fine! This twinniness, as we call it, manifests itself in several other ways too:

E hanging out with her Granddaddy and her copy of Romeo and Juliet from her Aunt Carissa

 - They are working on their own version of Twinspeak. It's real, y'all. This is how it happens: you'll start noticing that you're hearing the same word coming from both of them. (Usually it's a word you've heard them pronounce properly plenty of times before.) Then they'll say it to each other over and over while giggling. The most recent one has been "chee-yah-bah-bah." We couldn't figure out what on earth it meant, but we knew it meant something to them since they say it all the time! After much detetective work on my part, turns out it means "Cheerios!" They also call each other Diddy sometimes instead of Sissy, although they are fully capable of saying "Sissy." I think they're trying to make P. Diddy (or whatever he goes by these days) proud -- you know he is a father of twins and all! (These days I really know more than I should about famous twins and which celebrities have twins!)

T, however, prefers the Cheerios (or Chee-yah-bah-bah) book! 

- One can sense when the other isn't feeling well. It's a true story! The other night, E was upstairs with me and T was downstairs with Chris. All of a sudden, E went from playing and having fun to crying uncontrollably, which is very strange behavior indeed for my even-keeled girl. She ran over to the gate and looked downstairs sadly. About the same time, I heard T crying downstairs, so I scooped E up in my arms and we went down to investigate. Turns out, T had just gotten sick! How did E know?!

Tamsie and her Amma, as she calls her

 - We think they're still exhibiting various behaviors unique to each of them due to the tumultuous way they entered the world... like the way teething has taken a much tougher toll on T than it has on E, for example. Chris and I aren't totally sure about why this is, but we wonder if it's not related to the effects of Twin-to-Twin Transfusion on them. When they were still inside me, right before they were born, E was the one who had it tougher, the one who was in distress. She barely had any blood at all in her body when she was born, because T had taken the vast majority of it (not intentionally, of course!). She was nearly a pound smaller than T, and she was so white that her NICU nurses called her "the ghost baby." They also told us that she had been forced to become VERY tough in order to survive what she went through inside of me, and that it made her mature a little bit faster than T in those early days. Now when T was born, all of the blood and nutrients that she had taken from E had caused her blood to become as thick as sludge, and she was very swollen and red all over. All at once, where she had been close to thriving inside of me, she had to adjust to being in a lot of pain and suffering. She didn't take to it well (I mean, can you blame her?!), and we were told that even though she was the bigger girl, she was the one fighting harder than E once she was born. We know it's purely speculative, but we think that's potentially why she takes pain a little harder than E does even now -- although they're both champs in my book, of course! :)

Hanging out with one of their favorite people ever: their Granddaddy! My friend Tiffany made these tutus for the girls back before they were born. Now they fit perfectly! :) 

- We often catch them sleeping in mirror-image positions. Sure, it could be a coincidence, but still... it happens A LOT.

Playing together with "SHEPS!" as Evie calls her shapes. (E is on the left; T is on the right)

 - When one doesn't feel well, the other one tries to share her paci (gross, I know, but you can't deny the cuteness of the gesture), and she'll often pat her sick sissy.

They're getting pretty good at this!

 - Even when they're not sick, they usually eat and drink about the same amount. I mean, they might randomly have a huge breakfast one day and polish off about half of their cups of milk, and then eat a ton of banana at snack time but maybe skip the puffs today. It happens so often that it's kind of freaky. In a good way. :)

They're even getting good about playing together without as many confrontations... for now anyway! :)

- They make each other laugh more than anyone else can.

I love their twinniness!! One of the things I pray for regularly for them is that they grow to appreciate the special gift God has given each of them in a twin sister. They really are treasures!