My girls love to snuggle together, cheek to cheek, and I was reminded last week of how powerful that action is.
The other morning after putting them back to bed, no matter what I did they fussed and fussed. Out of options, I laid them together so their faces touched -- and instantly, they calmed. Sadie even popped her binkie out and relaxed with a sigh, as of to say, "Ahh, that's what I've been asking for. Thanks, Mom. Love you, Beth."
It's not always a cure-all, unfortunately. Some days one will want to cuddle and the other not so much, but there are other pitfalls -- like yesterday, when Beth spit up ... All over Sadie's face. Luckily it didn't wake Sadie, but still. GROSS, girls.
Even less ladylike is what my sister calls "zombie" behavior: One twin will be searching for a binkie or a bottle, but instead find her sister's head and say, "This'll do," and latch on vigorously. This does not bode well for the twin being snacked on, but since they do this in equal share, it's the law of the jungle.
"Om nom nom!"
Another twin quirk that is slightly adorable but mostly maddening: Their cries sound exactly the same, not just in pitch and tone but cadence. When they both get going, it is a sound that defies description, but I'll try. Say you had a recording of a newborn crying, and you made a copy of that recording. Then say you put those recordings on CD and put those CDs in two separate players. If you push play on one, wait two-and-a-half seconds, then push play on the other, and then somehow magnify that sound until it resembles the cries of 10 babies, there you have it. Imagine this at 3 in the morning, muffled yet amplified through a baby monitor, you can see why we jump when one baby cries and try not to wait until both get going at a fever pitch.
Luckily, one sister's crib crying does not wake the other. Lying side by side it seems to have no effect, but separate the two and then you have a situation -- and adorable yet slightly tragic situation. Say one baby is in the bed and the other on the changing table. If one baby starts to wail a scared or painful cry, the other will instantly become unsettled. It's like a scene from an action movie when one hero has been captured and dragged away, leaving the other hero to wail in response, "What have you done with her, you monster?!"
But so far the most unexpected manifestation of the twin connection is this:
Two babies, one pose, randomly and spontaneously yet in perfectly coordinated choreography.
ADORABLE. And I can only assume it will get better.
And throw big brother into the mix, and it's bound to keep melting my heart.
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