DO NOT FREAKIN' MESS WITH MY TWIN SISTER

Twin Tub Time - We think it is Becca on the right and Cathy on the left but we may have to check with the "tell-the-difference-between-the-twins" expert - aka MOM.

Becca Solo Post:  

Hi All!

So this is my first solo entry.  Cathy is definitely the one who adds the creative spins and laugh-out-loud touches to these posts but I am hoping this is at least pleasant to read :):)

Anyone who knows a set of twins knows that even though we can look so similar, we are often very different creatures  from one another on the inside.  In our case, my sister is a creative, funny person and a proliferate writer while me on the other hand, I am a bit more introverted and quiet and definitely would not call myself creative.  Although I must admit that I can be pulled out of my shell instantly when my twin sister is around.  It's the comfort I guess.   I must admit though that there are guaranteed times in my life when my introverted-ness and more reserved side gets "checked at the door".  And these times occur Always when the comfort, safety or happiness of my twin is threatened in some way.  As we have written previously, the bond and love between twins is like no other bond.  I have been living in Europe now for a year and although I miss my sister more than anything, I know she is always there for me, no matter the distance, and that the relationship we have is unchangeable.

So tonight, one of those moments occurred were my reserved side went out the window.  A typical scenario unfolded in my house.  Cathy called and I was putting my two year old to bed.  Ken, my husband, answered Cathy's call.  He was putting our older daughter to bed and was somewhat distracted by the bedtime process.  Now Ken is a gem, but occasionally he has the phone etiquette of a troll.  So I hear him talking to Cathy with the half-ass energy I often hear him giving off while on the phone.  So of course, I go into "defend my twin mode" instantly (my reserved side thrown out the 4th story window) and I come bolting into the living room.  I whisper...with the intensity of a scream, "be nice to my sister or I will knock you out.".  

Now folks, don't be alarmed, I have no plans to clobber my husband with a broom handle, but I will tell you...if your mean to my sister , or in this case, simply don't make an effort with her, you're going down.  It is just an instinctive response and a feeling that has always existed between us.  Husband, boyfriend, friends, children...They have all learned early on in our relationships with them not to mess with our Twin or they will "feel the wrath!" 

Its funny too, the way we defend each other.  Cathy will always say to my kids, "Hey, don't talk to my sister that way or else", or " That's your mother, don't talk to her that way".   Then there was middle school.  Whatever girl wanted to meet us "out back after school" for a little rumble (and there plenty of moments like this), always found out soon enough that we'd always be there for one anothers backup and that they were rumbling with two, not one.  The irony with this though was that at home, we'd kick the living you-know-what out of each other ourselves for something as ridiculous as who got to use the sapphire blue eye liner first (it was the 80's you know) or the non-clumped mascara.  I remember once getting into such a crazy fight that blood was drawn and hairdryers and hairspray cans were launched at each other.  It was intense.  Cathy even hit a wall when I ducked from her incoming punch (she still has a scar on her hand as proof of this brawl).  But when it came down to it, no one messed with our twin sister (well except for the other twin sister of course LOL).  

And there is that "thing" with twins.  No matter how angry we get with one another, it really means nothing to us, 'casue in the end we'll always be there for one other.  Parents of twins have it hard in many ways but this trait of twin-ness should be a relief to them. Across the board, most twins truly do forgive and forget quickly when it comes to each other so parents of twins shouldn't feel to worried if their twins fight a lot early on 'cause in the end, it usually means nothing to the twin themselves.  And these parents shouldn't feel so strong a need to step-in during those "twin fights".  The pair will surely work it out (even if a little blood is drawn before it is all said and done- LOL).  They will surely still love each other as the bloody mess is cleaned up.

My greatest nightmare in life is that something terrible could happen to my children (I really do have night terrors about this), but my next biggest fear would have to be the thought of something terrible happening to my twin.  She is always in my mind, in my thoughts, part of my plans, and dreams.  I am her and she is me.  It is no doubt cheesy to hear, but is simply true.  It wouldn't be a life without her.

So there!.. a bit light, a bit heavy...whatever you want to call it.  All I can say is, having my sister for her advice with kids or just to simply blather with all the time is so important, there aren't words...so I will leave it at that.




Becca

The Naming of Twins

We have lived life with pretty common names,  Catherine and Rebecca.  There had never been a plan behind naming us in some creative way like some twin parents do since our parents did not know they were having twins.  They found out there were two of us when our mom was in the operating room having a C-section.  One doctor said "you get the first one, I'll get the second".  My mom responded "Don't even joke guys, we know I already have two at home".  Well, those "joking" doctors then held up over the separation sheet 2 little bundles-of- joy.  Oh what joy my mom felt...NOT...She passed out.  At least that's what she said happened when she saw us.  We think the medical staff in that O.R. just decided to pumped her full of some serious "Sleepy" meds. to knock her butt out so she wouldn't have a nervous break down on them.  
(We will go into how she did not know she was having twins in another post.)  But you can imagine that this experience was quite a shock to these young parents of ours.  They already had a 3 year old boy and a 4 year old girl at home so adding TWO more babies to the bunch was gonna be quite a crazy experience.
Our dad was told about this surprise finding in the waiting area of the hospital (Remember, this was the olden days, when men still paced in the waiting area while their wives gave birth in sterile O.R.'s with medical peeps all around). Our dad, needless to say, was overcome with joy...Oh wait, No....Got that reaction wrong too...We meant terror.  But soon he swallowed down his terror and headed out to the local baby store to buy some additional baby items for unexpected baby #2.  Good Daddy.   
Of course there was another, more pressing issue to address, what to name this second little bugger.  Well, the story that we were told about our naming goes something like this...
Dad worked at a local college and had some close colleague friends.  When they heard he had had his bundle of joy, now known as his "BundLES" of joy, they wanted to post this joyful news at the office building on campus that our dad worked in.  They posted a big sign announcing our entrance into the world, that state thatmy dad was the proud father of twin girls.  They then proceed to announce our names on the sign as Rebecca Colby and Catherine Colby.  And there it was.  They had taken the original name that our parents had chosen for us when they thought "us" was just a singleton baby, which was Catherine Rebecca Colby, and split it into 2 names.  Our parents thought, "hey, this just might be a nice solution to the naming problem we are facing right now as new parents who are sure to be sleep deprived over the next few months and in no shape to be effectively naming two newborns."    And so it was.  Our parents went with it, and officially named us Rebecca and Catherine.
Because of the way our naming occurred, we did not grow up with middle names. This was always a little weird to explain to our friends when we were younger since most of them couldn't understand how we did not have that center name, but it worked out well in the long run.  We are both married now and so we happily slide our maiden names into middle name position and we then were able to share our birth family's names with our new family's names.  So, we say well done to those coworkers of my dads.  They picked some nice names for us and saved that young couple some tough hours discussing, arguing and negotiating through the process of naming that second, unexpected little bugger.


Out of curiosity, we wanted to research what some parents of twins are naming their little one these days.  So we looked up celebrity families to see what they named their twins. Some have been...

• Tabitha and Loretta - Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick
• Emme and Max - Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony
• Vivienne and Knox - Angelina and Brad
• Charlie and Dolly - Rebecca Romijn and Jerry O'Connell
• Hazel and Phinneas - Julia Roberts and Danny Moder
• Valentino and Matteo - Ricky Martin
• Eden and Savannah - Marcia Cross and Tom Mahoney
• Ava and Grace - Mia Hamm and Nomar Garciaparra
• Darby and Sullivan - Patrick Dempsey and wife Jillian
• Dexter and Frank - Diana Krall and Elvis Costello
• Rodney and Ryan - Holly Robinson Peete and Rodney Peete

(http://www.parentsconnect.com/parenting-tips/best-celebrity-twin-baby-names also tells you about some of the reason why these names were chosen)


While researching recent twin names, we happened up one website that gave examples of paired twin name.  Some of these pairings cracked us up. Would you or did you dare to name your twins shared names like these...?

• Abbott and Costello      Abercrombie and Fitch      
• Adam and Eve              Amethyst and Topaz      
• Bonny and Clyde          Baskin and Robbins     
• Chip and Dale               Ebony and Ivory  
• Fife and Drum               Hearts and Spade
• Jekyll and Hyde            Block and Tackle
• Jessie and James           Jack and Jill     
• Jedi and Yoda               Julius and Caesar     
• Mai and Tai                  Ozzie and Harriet     
• Possum and Blossum    Reno and Tahoe      
• Sailor and Soldier          Smith and Wesson  
• Spock and Kirk             Star and Sky     
• Michael and Jackson    Thelma and Louise     
• Zoey and Joey              Yogi and Bear     
• Yankee and Doodle     Garth and Brooks     
• Wilma and Betty          Tom and Jerry     
• Hewy and Dewey        Anna And King

(You can check out the whole list of combos at http://www.lowchensaustralia.com/names/twinnames.htm)


So tell us...


*What was naming experience like for your twins/mulitples...(How did you come up with you twins names?)
*Would you... 

      ...rhyme your twins names since they are twins?
      ...choose unique combinations that may be seen as a little "different" for your twin babes.
*Did you know you were having twins ahead of time and if not, how did you decide on 2 names instead of 1?

Some Quotes

Some Quotes that sum up some of what we feel about being twins -

1. "People don't get it.  Our husbands don't get it.  Our children don't get it.  But they love it.  To them, being a twin is something uncanny."
2. "We've never had a point in our lives where we wish we hadn't been twins.  It has always been the two of us"
3. "The connection is something that nothing in the world could ever replace or even match"
4. "A twin is much closer than a best friend or a beloved spouse.  This other person is part of my heart."
5. "It is not the amount of physical time twins spend together that creates this twin bond...The bond begins at birth and continues during the course of a lifetime."
6. I believe the best part of being a twin is that you never really feel alone-even when you are apart."


CATHY says:  Quotes #5 and #6 really resound with me lately since Becca lives in Europe now with her husband and two little girls.  I miss them so much and recently visited her and had a wonderful 9 day catch up.  I felt totally at ease and at peace there (even when we were fighting, and we did fight -lol.) but although I do miss her and sometimes we aren't able to chat for a few days due to timezone issues and child/work commitment issues, that bond is still there.  Quotes #5 and #6 sum up this whole long-distance experience that we are going through.  The bond NEVER changes.  The physical connections may not be as often but the emotional ties are permanent and unchanging.  A part of twinness I love so much.

The Quotes are from sections of the book Twin Stories:  Their Mysterious and Unique Bond  http://www.amazon.com/dp/1885171587/ref=rdr_ext_tmb

Twins, moms and life as we know it!

Yup!  This is us back in the day.  Hard to deny that twins next to
eachother  in a picture sure are cute!

And so it begins.  Our first post.
HI!  We are twin sisters, Cathy and Becca.  That's me, Cathy, there on the right looking a little bewildered.  And that is me, Becca, on the left, licking all that yummy toothpaste off of my toothbrush.  We are about 3 here.  Cute huh? (Oh and man would we kill for those natural highlights now in our older years).


A long  time ago, we came to realize that being twins was pretty cool and that we really find all things having to do with twin-ness pretty interesting.


In this blog, we plan to share some of our stories about being twins and our life experiences as mulitples.
We are also planning to share our parenting life with you. We are both moms of little ones.  They are certainly a huge part of our daily lives.  Since we are moms and twins, we thought that our parenting experience would be kind of unique compared to non-twin moms and thought it would be a novel blog topic to share with others (for example, when our kids where small babies, and were crying their heads off, we were each able to calm eachothers child down when no one else could - cool party trick LOL)

We also plan to write about, and sometimes review, some of the fabulous Twin products out their on the market today.  Especially the ones mom's of multiples say that they simpy can not live without.


We look forward to sharing who we are with you, why we think being a twin is such an amazing life experience (As we always say, the best thing that ever happened to us) and how we think it has made us who we are today, both as sisters, wives, mothers, friends, employees, daughters, aunts...


Lastly, feel free to post questions/comments in the "comment section" on this site about all things "twin" related (ie. advice on raising twins, questions to us about what it is like to be a twin, your thoughts on twin moms and raising kids, your thoughts on dressing twins alike or not, whether twins should be placed in the same clasroom vs differents ones, twins sharing a bedroom or not, twins and friendship, Twins going through puberty, twins and boyfriends/girlfriends, supporting twins strenghths and weaknesses, finding twin's own individuality and voice...)
We look forward to hearing from you and getting to know you!


Cathy and Becca


*Some ideas we will be working on for future posts...

• Fraternal and Identical Twins 101
• You say you are fraternal twins, but you look so alike.  Are you sure you're fraternal?  
• Have you ever gotten a DNA test to prove that you are not identical twins? Why? Why not?
• Mom's of Twins - Favorite car seats  you can't live without.
• Mom's of twins- Favorite Twin pregnancy resources on line.
• ....