Twinning it!

Slice of Life Day 19

Our youngest daughters were born on the same day, yep they’re twins, six minutes apart and such a delight from the start!

For their first nine months, they dribbled, gurgled and projectile vomited their way through our daily household routine…. it would have been handy if they’d slept a little more and for longer stretches, but it didn’t happen with my other three, so I managed.

Their older siblings helped me out no end, our eight year old son would come home from school and immediately sprout an extra baby growth from one hip or the other. Once our oldest daughter started school, she would sit her little class of two down and teach them everything she’d learned that day. I listened in and learned all about the joys of ‘show and tell’. Once they were older, they too wanted a turn at being teacher. Lots of arguing…. end of classes!

(Not a dirty face, just a very old photo, the only one I have here!)

They invented a special way of crawling really fast with their bottoms stuck up in the air, a bit like a crab. It looked hilarious. Once they started walking upright, when one fell over and hurt herself, it would be the other one who would cry because SHE wanted the plaster and didn’t get it. When we went shopping, if one pulled out a packet of something and dropped it on the floor, the other would giggle and… you guessed it, that meant both would run down the aisle, randomly pulling out packets of this and that, shrieking with laughter. As much as possible I confined them to the trolley where it was easier to retrieve stuff when they plopped it over the edge.

When I went out with them while their brothers and sister were at school, they would make comments to each other LOUDLY, “Look at that lady with the funny hat!” “Oh, see that lady, she’s got fat hands!”

They were two when I went back to university to finish my degree to become a teacher (and have a bit of a break). I would drop the twins off at a crèche a couple of times a week. They are identical and quite hard to tell apart. When I went to pick them up one afternoon, a carer told me that they had discovered that Ruth had a freckle under one eye and they would try to spot it before calling her name. That afternoon when they were checking, she apparently rolled her eyes and exclaimed, “I’m Ruth, I’m the one with the freckle under my eye.”

Their then 13 year old brother vowed he would travel by an earlier bus once they started school. They had become just too embarrassing. He actually never did, because he discovered that his mates thought that having twin sisters was a bit of a novelty and they happily put up with their comments and cheekiness. They got away with a lot, including nicknaming one friend, ‘hairy legs’.

When my husband came home from work, he used to call out one of their names, to see which one would respond and then note what she was wearing for future reference for that day!

The time has flown by and they are now adults, but their ‘twinness’ is still a joy. They are each other’s best friend, even though these days they are often in different parts of the world and have different occupations (one is a teacher and one a midwife).

Their voices are very similar. If one calls me on the phone I have to be cautious as to which one I’m speaking to. They frequently clothes swap, so I get caught out that way too!

Love them to bits, along with all our wonderful children and the ones currently in my teaching care here in India!