Five instances this week during which they proved to be the geniuses I always thought they were

I think I need to give my children more credit for what they know and understand. I jabber all day long, not really thinking they are listening or comprehending all that much - but they proved me wrong the past few days.

Incident #1: We're preparing to go outside and I say to the girls, "Okay, ladies, let's go put on our shoes."

Twinski reaction: They both walk over to the closet, pull out their shoes, and bring them to me. (Admittedly, they grabbed 2 mismatched shoes, by hey, pretty cool, huh?)


Incident #2: We've come back inside from yet another sweltering, humid day, and I say, "Let's take your shoes off."

Twinski reaction: Anna sits down and begins pulling on the Velcro strap on her shoe.


Incident #3: Anna has dug my keys out of my backpack and is carrying them around the house. I call to her from down the hallway and say, "Anna, please bring Mommy the keys."

Twinski reaction: Anna walks on over, hands the keys to me, and smiles. I felt like I should have patted her on the head and given her a treat.


Incident #4: Margaret hands me a small, crumpled up piece of paper that she found somewhere in our house. I act surprised and truly overjoyed to receive this gift, and say, "Oh, how nice, it's beautiful, but I insist you keep it - it's for you."

Twinski reaction: Margaret takes the piece of paper back and puts it to her ear.*

(*Okay, that one needs an explanation. Whenever we're playing with the myriad of toy phones we have around the house, I pick it up, pretend to have a conversation with someone, and say something like, "Oh, you'd like to speak to Margaret? Okay, she's right here. Margaret, it's for you!" So I think when Margaret heard the words "it's for you," she instantly thought we were playing the phone call game. Cute!)


Incident #5 - or, my heartwarming moment of the day: I'm in the girls' room, about to put them down for their morning nap, and we're playing with their dollies. I pick up a doll, and to demonstrate being affectionate, I give the doll a hug and a kiss.

Twinski Reaction: Margaret watches intently - then leans over and gives Anna an enormous hug. Awwww!!!!!! Moments like this make the challenges of raising twins all seem so very, very worth it.

Of course, the hug then went on for 30 seconds too long for Anna, and turned into a wrestling match with kicking and screaming, but it was cute there for a second.

So it's not much, and certainly no need to sign them up early admissions to Harvard. But I guess I find myself so surprised that they're absorbing so much - and understanding so much language. It also makes me realize that their ability to selectively listen is there - and when I'm saying to one of them, "stop pulling your sister's hair!" but they refuse to stop...it's not a lack of understanding as much as mind over matter.

On a completely different note...we took a few photos of the girls outside this past weekend, and so I thought I'd post them. They look so OLD to me - my goodness, where have my babies gone?