When we first discovered we were having twins and after I recovered from the shock of having two babies instead of the one we had been planning on, I began to form in my mind what the babies would be like when they arrived. This was particularly hard since we didn’t know the sex of either baby yet. I have an active imagination, however, and I did pretty well imagining all the baby-like qualities of the twins. I pictured cute, round faces, lots of cooing and a smile here and there. Basically, I pictured every baby on television commercials.

What I didn’t think of and couldn’t even begin to imagine was how different they would be. It never dawned on me that baby 1 and baby 2 would be so wonderfully different. In fact, in the past few weeks I have noticed a tremendous change in how I view the little ones. Instead of something to feed and change and feed again, and change again, they are little human beings that interact with me in their own special ways.

Bri will smile at me and just melt my heart. In the early morning I feed her and gaze into her eyes. We stare at each other for long periods and suddenly Swee’Pea will smile around the nipple of the bottle. It’s as if she’s mocking her old man for loving her so darn much. Her personality is so happy that when she gets cranky her facial expressions alternate between laughing and crying as if she’s doing a pretty darn good impression of the Tragedy and Comedy masks. When I put her down to take a nap after feeding her in the morning, she smiles and coos at me and we have little conversations that don’t mean anything, but really mean everything. She also has her mother’s determination. She has not been that great at breast feeding but seems to be trying really hard at it. Now, that hard work is paying off and lately she has been feeding like a barracuda (I’m so glad I don’t have to know what that feels like). The amazing this is that nothing seems to bother this little girl. I get the feeling she could be bitten by a dog and be excited about getting to touch the dog. Swee’Pea is a sweet, sweet baby. There’s just no other way to describe her.

Jonathan, on the other hand, is completely different than his sister. From the beginning he has cried more and when he first started communicating, all he did was grumble. He is very cuddly and loves to be held. When I come home from work and see him for the first time, I’m greeted with smiles and he seems to melt into me as I pick him up for a long overdue hug. He knows the sound of my voice and will follow me across the room. When we make eye contact, I’ll smile and he smiles right back. Recently, he picked up a new trick. Unknowingly, as I over-emoted in front of him while playing, I was raising and lowering my eyebrows at a quick rate. Suddenly, he got a look of deep concentration on his face and then, in a quick moment, his eyebrows darted up and then down. He looked at me, I looked at him and we both broke into smiles. At night, Jonathan is a handful. He continues to wake up at night sounding congested. I continue to do all I can to help the little guy and hopefully we’ll get this thing figured out soon. He loves to sleep on my belly and it’s those times that I feel so very close to the little guy. But I can’t let him get used to sleeping on me every night so I try to limit it. If I could, I’d have him sleep on my belly every night.

How lucky am I? Yes, I panicked a little when I found out we were having twins, but I can’t imagine my life any other way. These two little ones are my children. My daughter. My son. How very strange and how very wonderful do those words sound. And the best part? If the first 3 months have been this great, I can only imagine what the future will bring.