Twins at 18 Months

So. A year and a half.

We spent the day before the kids' half-birthday at a reunion carnival that their NICU puts on each year. It was such a neat time to think back on how far they've come, and to see the other happy kids that have come through similar experiences, tossing beanbags and eating cotton candy. 

I was thinking about personality today. People ask a lot about what each of them is "like" - how they're different, what their personalities are like. I have a very hard time answering - to me, they're completely distinct little people, but not in ways that are easy to categorize. They both chatter like magpies, in an identical mix of babble and real words (and frequently I realize that something I thought was babble is actually a real word I just wasn't understanding); they're both increasingly adventurous (but still pretty cautious) when it comes to climbing around playgrounds; they're both starting to pay a lot of attention to music and dancing and singing; they spend a lot of time involved in games that involve a lot of laughing and a lot of improvising.

The "twin" thing is something that fascinates me every day. Obviously, I have no personal frame of reference for it, and I'm really enjoying learning about it firsthand. I wonder how it's going to play out in the rest of their lives. They're not completely joined at the hip - in fact, in some ways, I think they're more independent than a singleton their age might be, because they always have the confidence that the other is still there, somewhere. 

It's like they're little planets that orbit around each other. Maybe they're not always together, maybe they can't always see each other, but their unseen, unspoken gravity always brings them back together, if only in passing.

I'm really looking forward to seeing what the next six months will bring. Health-wise, they're amazing - definitely caught up on the growth charts and both tall for their age - and they're both just the sweetest people you could know.

It's certainly been a week of milestones! 10 years married, 18 months parents. Somehow it still feels like just the beginning, and I couldn't be happier about that.