Last Monday, when Samantha was in the hospital, the girls experienced their longest separation to date. The most they’ve ever been apart was an hour or so each week when Jake had to take Samantha in for her Doc Band (helmet) appointments when she was five months old.
What we discovered after spending a day with just one of our twins is that they act differently when their sister isn’t around. After settling us into our room in the PICU at the hospital, Jake took Amelia home for her nap and they spent the day together.
For some unknown reason, Jake later decided to take Amelia to McDonald’s and let her loose in the Playplace. He said she was far more outgoing without Samantha around and quickly crawled over the ball pit, through the tunnels and up to the top.
Having apparently not considered this possibility beforehand, Jake discovered he couldn’t fit in the tunnels and had to ask a little kid to help bring Amelia down. “You know,” said the kid, condescendingly, “You have to be THREE to play in the Playplace.”
In addition to Amelia’s newfound sense of adventure, the other thing Jake discovered was that Amelia is actually pretty neat and tidy! He texted me this picture, with the caption: “A clean floor! It’s confirmed. Samantha is the instigator who throws food on the floor, not Amelia!”
During meal times, I’m not paying a lot of attention to who is throwing food at Bandit or littering the floor with sweet potato. All I know is that by the time they are done eating, it looks like a nuclear bomb went off and I find myself reminding Jake over and over again when he mops the floor after dinner that I SWEAR I had already mopped the kitchen three times that day!
Jake said that, amazingly, Amelia never threw food on the floor or (gasp!) dropped her sippy cup. Apparently, she just copies what Samantha does when they’re together.
Along with noticing how Amelia’s personality changed a little bit without her sister, we both had fun spending some quality alone time with just ONE twin. Despite my best efforts to not always categorize them together, sometimes it’s just more efficient that way and I tend to forget they are individual kids with individual preferences.
I don’t always remember the little things, like Samantha loves sweet potatoes, while Amelia doesn’t, or Amelia is content to sit in the wagon and take a few laps around the neighborhood, while Samantha gets antsy for some action.
Jake and I definitely want to make having a little “date” alone with Samantha and Amelia a regular thing. Even though they are just toddlers, we love getting to know their little individual personalities and how they interact with the world when they don’t have sister around to copy or follow.
Next time we have a “date,” we hope it’s not because one twin was in the hospital.
Lots of love,
