The Gift of Twins

 Most days I love having twins, especially boy/girl twins. I remember the day we went in for an ultrasound and the technician told me I would be having two boys. The month before that they had told me we would be having a boy and a girl. I daydreamed for hours both of wrestling with them, and also playing house and dolls. I pictured having long talks with a daughter when she was 16 and hearing about her first kiss. So, when I heard I would be having two boys, I broke down crying for a good 15 minutes.

 I remember praying, God, you can do anything, right?  You could even change the sex of one of the babies if you wanted to, right? Crazy, I know. But I had really gotten used to the idea of both a boy and a girl. Then, when my doctor came in the room, read the ultrasound again and said they had been right the first time, I said a little prayer of thanks.

Lately, the kids have been in the habit of telling stories to each other. Or rather I should say making up stories with each other. They sit face to face on the couch, and one of them will start the story, usually Alexa. She'll say a few lines, pause, and then Jared picks up where she left off. One day they did this for almost a half hour.

Not that having twins is even close to being easy. The first six months of their lives is still mostly a blur to me. I've had quite a few people tell me they prayed for twins, too. Well, before you say that prayer, take a look at the list below and think twice. Here are just a few things the kids have done, just off the top of my head, that I could have done without.

~ took an entire tub of butter to the playroom (which had just been newly carpeted), and threw handfuls of it all over the walls, carpet and ceiling. Yeah, I just sank down and cried for a few minutes before getting a bucket of water and soap and scrubbing for the next hour and a half.

~ Alexa strips naked, gets into the shower, and dumps almost an entire bottle of shampoo over her head, while at the same time Jared strips down, pees into a measuring cup, and when I slowly try to take it away, dumps in all on the hallway floor

~ find an old lipstick, cover themselves with it, and squirt perfume all in their hair

~ Jared melts a chocolate bar in his hand, rubs in all over his face, clothes, even the bottom of his socks, and then sits on the new couch

~ when they were a few months from turing two, while I'm in the bathroom, Alexa dumps an entire container of salt on the coffee table, then proceeds to take a huge lick from the pile and screams her head off. While I'm washing out her mouth, Jared dumps all the pepper out, takes a huge lick of that, and then screams his head off.

Believe me, there are plenty more stories where those came from.

But seriously, twins really are a gift. They can get into so much mischief in such a small amount of time, but they also have a constant playmate. They bounce creative ideas off each other all the time, and the ideas they come up with together are truly remarkable.

Sure, they fight. Some days they reduce me to tears with their bickering and teasing. But, to watch them play together, hug and kiss each other, also brings tears to my eyes. And the thing I'm most thankful for? They will be able to have a strong relationship because they are growing up in an atmosphere of freedom with large amounts of time to know themselves and family better. Unschooling  gives them the precious gift of time: time to realize their gifts to the world, time to become truly great at things, and time to live and love life.