My favorite question that I get asked as a father of twins is, “Are they identical?” I always want to say, “Do you know what identical means?” After all one of them is clearly a girl and the other clearly a boy. One is about two inches taller than the other.
Other than appearances, though, the kids are clearly very different little critters.
We have always been an earlier to bed, early to rise type of family. When they were born, I worked 6am to 2:30pm and the kids just got used to that schedule somewhere alone the way.
My schedule has shifted later over the years but the we all still basically start the day around 6-6:30am.
But Geetle is starting to rebel against that. She frequently is the last out of bed and spends her first hour or so laying around half asleep. She’s in for a rude awakening when school starts in a couple weeks and we set the alarm at 6am and get her eating, dressing, bushing her teeth, etc. so she can make the bus. Fortunately, when she does have something planned for the morning, she is normally pretty perky and quick to get ready most of the time.
Pookie on the other hand is still quite a happy camper at 6am. In fact, this morning I had to get into work early so I set my alarm for 5:30am. Giggles needed a pacifier at about 5:25am so when I got back in bed I just turned off the alarm. Pookie started talking to himself when I went to help Giggles so I stayed in bed a couple minutes to see if he would fall back asleep if the house stayed quiet.
At 6am, I woke up (yeah, I had fallen back asleep – I’m just glad I woke up again before noon). Pookie had already gotten out of bed, gone to the bathroom, changed his clothes, headed downstairs and started drawing pictures. Based on the pile of paper he had been drawing for at least 15 minutes so he probably got out of bed right when I got back into bed.
I think he will be find with the morning routine when school starts. The biggest problem for him will be getting him to actually eat breakfast and get mentally ready for catching the bus instead of plopping down at the art table to do some real work.
August 27th is when our kids head back to school. When does your summer come to an end?
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{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
my circus returned to school yesterday….whoo-hoo!!!!
my bro and sis in law have a set of fraternal twin. when queried she usually replies that they are not identical because SHE doesn’t have a penis. honestly, i prep new parents of multiples for the stupidity thanks to their experiences.
good luck with your back to school.
My summer off from college ends August 25th. But considering that I have been off since the beginning of May, I think this is a pretty fair deal.
I can’t believe that people ask if they are identical…this just proves biology is another subject going down the tubes.
We don’t really have an end to summer here in san diego. And since our kids aren’t in school yet, there will be little difference in our day to day lives.
But I can totally relate to the “are they identical” thing. I always bite my tongue so I don’t belittle their lack of intellect.
Matthew, You really don’t realize how long summer break is until they go off to school and then hit their first break. I never noticed it during their first few summers. Even they seem to notice how much school becomes a part of their routine and how hard it is to fill that 2-3 hour void.
As for the identical thing, I used to just say “Yes” every once in a while. I guess I can be blamed for spreading the confusion. We don’t get asked that as much anymore because of how much taller Geetle has gotten then Pookie. They just assume she is a year older.
Here’s hoping full year school gets approved sometime during this school year!!!
I thank God every day that my twins ARE identical. I don’t know how parents of boy/girl twins tolerate that question with any tact or grace!
Good luck getting them out of the house in the morning. We are still a few years away from that circus starting up. Part of me can’t wait the other part of me thinks I’m not ready for them to be old enough for that!
I had a few sets of identical twin friends when I was in school. It seemed to be in the water in our neighborhood. I could never tell them apart. Even the ones that were in my class and that I played with regularly. I am so glad our twins are fraternal or they would constantly be making fun of me for calling them by the wrong name.