After an e-mail exchange with my sister-in-law, Mrs. spaghetti sandwiches, I realized I neglected to blog about a funny potty training story. I have now decided to stop the potty training, because while the girls would go if I asked them, they couldn't quite tell me on their own when they needed to go. During the middle of our big "training day," my little girl was standing in the kitchen kinda bent over. She was holding herself and had a strange look on her face. I asked her, "do you need to go pee-pee?" She sheepishly replied, "sure," then a gush immediately sprang forth. I yelled "no!", then instantly realized I shouldn't scare her or get on to her, so then I started yelling excitedly "run, run, run!" She stopped mid-stream, which I was very impressed about, and I put her on the potty chair. When she "started up" again, she then took her hand, put it in the stream, and splashed it all over the place exclaiming proudly "splash, splash!"

If that didn't sicken you enough, tonight we had a pretty gross encounter with "poo" in the bathtub. I WISH it had been Winnie the. But it wasn't. Since they got two baths tonight, and I gave four baths total, I plan to bathe myself, relax, and enjoy my evening.

Another question I often get is "are they identical or paternal?" Yes, a few people really have asked me whether they are "paternal." (They mean "fraternal.") I am not exactly sure why people are fascinated with this, but I usually give them an answer. Sometimes I say, "yes, they're identical." Sometimes I say, "they're fraternal." In truth, we really don't know, so I just tell them whatever I feel like at the time.

The real answer is pretty long, and sometimes I explain it to people (especially other parents of twins). Our doctor said they were fraternal because they were in separate sacs. Since then, I read that 33% of identical twins have separate sacs. The NICU nurses said they were identical because they weighed the exact same, were the exact same height, and even their hair swirled in the same pattern. (They still have all these similarities.) They have some differences--the biggest is personality. The elder has freckles and a rounder face, the younger has an oval-shaped face. Fact is, we will never know for sure unless we have their DNA tested. It's not that important for me to know the answer (and it would cost about $300), so I won't have it done. The girls may decide to do it someday, but for now, I get to choose!

This weekend, the girls and I made our first attempt at potty training. Whoever said potty training was easy or could be accomplished in a weekend was probably training a four-year-old instead of a two-year-old. My oldest brother (hp calculators and spaghetti sandwiches's twin) said "well, my kids just potty trained themselves." I'll check with her later, but I bet his wife would beg to differ with that statement.

Overall, we had some success, especially with my youngest twin, but I think it'll be a few months before we try again. They just can't quite verbalize their needs enough yet. Now, to clean up the mess...