They may have the same birthday...

But that's about all they have in common...

It has been a very interesting experience to raise twins

Especially some as different in every aspect as our boy and girl.

They have all of the classic differences:

one completely outgoing

one who I had to literally carry to the stage kicking and screaming for his first violin recital

...  one who loves reading

... and one who loves math

... one who picks up on things very quickly

... and one who needs plenty of repetition and practice to master some things

Yep, same birthday,

Different everything else.

This years Valentine's Day mailboxes are no exception to the rule:

Seth's box

(finished in about 10 min)

Sarah's box

(which took well into the night, 

and then some more 'touch ups' in the morning to complete)

Love my twins!!

When I'm a mommy....

 I knew it would come, the day I heard, "When I'm a mommy..."

...  I just didn't know it would come so soon...

This seems to be Sarah's latest line of defense when she doesn't agree with my parenting things... especially on things as torturous as, say, bedtimes, and cleaning rooms....

The past few months it started, first it was, "When I'm a mommy, I'm not going to make my little girl go to bed.  She is going to get to stay up as late as she wants!"

Then it moved onto, "When I'm a mommy, I'm not going to make my little girl clean her room.  She is going to be able to keep it as messy as she wants!"

Then we moved into, "When I'm a mommy, I'm not going to make my little girl brush her teeth so much!"

(The boys that come to Sarah will have no such protection, however!  Something I will remind her of in the future, I'm sure!)

Today I had to laugh when she jumped right into mommy status as we were watching word world.  I have a perfect "nerdy mom" jig that I do to one of the main songs on this movie, something that annoys Sarah to death.  When we flipped it on this afternoon, I jumped right into the song, and Sarah turned to me and said, "You need to stop.  I'm going to turn it off if you don't stop right now!"   Oh, the horror - no Word World!! 

... so I couldn't resist, I just kept right on going to see how long it would take her to realize that she is the one who would suffer more from her sense of 'disciplining' me...

... she got almost to the TV, and then turned to give me a few more warnings.  I had to laugh over this one.  She is definitely 6 going on 26!

... and yes, mom, this is where you see the "one day you're going to have a daughter just like you" come full circle.  Feel free to give that little 'ahh yes' smile, because it has happened :).

Go get'em, Tiger!

  So, we are half way across the country from our kids right now - fun on one end, gut wrenching on the other end.  They have been going to the Mayo back up day care during the day and then staying at a friends house at night (HUGE THANK YOU Summer and Paul - you guys are amazing!!).  

    The first day after their day care experience, we got a call from Sarah.  It is the call that breaks any parents heart - someone was being a bully.  Here is how it went down from Sarah's perspective:

    "Mommy, there was a mean kid in a black shirt who pushed me.  I told him to stop, but he didn't, and I told the teacher, but she didn't do anything."  Right about now, I started going through the steps that I would take to catch the next flight home to track down said mean-kid-in-the-black-shirt and turn momma bear on him, but then Sarah continued:

    "When he walked by me again, I went 'GRRRRRRR'.... just like a tiger!"   Me, "Did he push you again?"  Sarah, "No he didn't!"

    Yep, she's going to be just fine.  

Freaks of Nature...

But Freaks in a GOOD way :)...

Some traits in my kids are just, well, not normal.  

Exhibit A)  Friday morning the kids are watching PBS while I am cleaning up the kitchen upstairs.  Sarah comes up the stares and says, "Mommy, I have watched too much movie.  Can I wash some windows?"  I get her the cleaning supplies, and she literally washes EVERY window on the top floor.  She even commandeered Benjamin to help out. (of course this can't have anything to do with the fact that she is trying to earn money to buy a scooter...)

Exhibit B)  I ask Seth to throw away a water bottle when we were finished drinking it.  He did, and then came back to me and asked, "But mom, shouldn't we recycle that bottle?"  To which I replied, "Yes, we probably should."  Seth, "Well, then why did you tell me to put it in the garbage?"  He ran and fetched it out of the garbage and then went out of his way to go out back and put it in the recycling bin.

Exhibit C)  I tell Sarah to put the clothes she took off in the dirty clothes hamper.  I come back a little later to take the said hamper downstairs, to see that sure enough, Sarah's dirty clothes are there, all neatly folded and placed gently in the hamper.

Seriously, where did these kids come from ?!