Two of a Kind?

If you can look past the mess on the floor, (remember we live here) those are our identical twin boys. Now, when I used to think about twins that were identical, I just assumed that meant they were exactly alike. Well, having had almost two years getting to know my OWN set of adorable twins I can assure you that while they may have been born with the same DNA, they have very unique differences. There are a lot of things they both like, they love to drink milk and they really like animals, they also love Mickey Mouse, but each day something comes up and it helps create more individuality for our boys. From the day we brought them home, Matt and I have made it a point not to label them as "the twins". We wanted to make certain that each boy was allowed to be whom he chose to be, and to like what he wants. There are occasions when it is fun to show them off as twins, and they guys get an incredible amount of attention just because they are twins without Mom and Dad forcing the issue. A simple errand can take 45 minutes because people want to ask a bunch of questions about them: "how much did they weigh?", "are they identical?", "how long did you carry them?", you get the picture. Then, there are the people that know twins and just have to tell me everything they know about them! My boys are such an amazement to me, and I know the excitement others feel when they are curious about them. The excitement changes each day as the boys grow and learn new things. Garhett loves to read books and Brenden will sit for about three seconds then try to rip the book in half. Brenden likes to play catch with his Dad for hours and Garhett would rather build something with his blocks. Brenden is so far the more adventurous brother, and he is more of a risk taker. I have been calling Garhett the observer lately. He seems to watch what his brother is doing before deciding if he will try it himself. Even with all the differences, they are connected more than any of our other kiddos. When one is upset or hurt, the other will race to his side and even try to console him. Just today Garhett hurt himself and Brenden did not leave him until he stopped crying, Brenden kept saying "oh-no!" There was real concern on his little face. They are so awesome, and I think Matt and I are pretty lucky to have this experience.