The Old Switcheroo

For the first 30 months of our sons' lives, only I could definitively tell them apart...even my husband struggled. Luckily, W has a small mole on his lower back for people in the know to check when in doubt. But at a glance, they are apparently very hard to tell apart. Further complicating matters was that they really didn't know their own names. They knew that they were "D & W" but if you asked "where's D?" D was just as likely to point at his brother as he was to point at himself. I blame this on the poor things being called by the wrong names so many times. However, once they started preschool last fall, things clicked and they started to say their own names. Everyone in our family (immediate and extended) and all of our friends were so excited! Now when one was in doubt, all you had to do was ask "what's your name?" and you would get a correct answer. Until yesterday...

Our babysitter was putting them down for their naps and, in order to place him in the right bed, asked W what his name was. First, he said W. and she went to tuck him into his bed. As she did so, he said "No, no that not my bed. I go in the other bed. I'm D." He said all of this giggling and grinning. Needless to say, she finally got them sorted out, but we are all dismayed that the trickery has begun at such a young age. I thought we had a couple of years at least before we had to deal with this.

I am reminded of a story that we heard when we were expecting the boys. We were sitting in the doctor's office waiting for a room, and the most adorable pharmaceutical rep sat down next to us and struck up a conversation. When she heard that we were having identical twins, she told us that she was an identical twin. Then she told us a story that we have vowed NOT to forget. When she and her sister were in high school, they would take turns going home in time for curfew on the weekends. Their parents would always be in bed, but the rule was that they had to go into their parents' bedroom when they returned to let them know they were home. So, one girl would go in and out of the room TWICE, pretending to be both herself and the other sister. They got away with this for a whole year before their parents caught on to it...at which point they were grounded for eternity. Once they were "ungrounded" they always had to present themselves TOGETHER in their parents' bedroom.

So, D & W, here is at least one trick that mom and dad are already wise to. I'm sure you'll think of lots of other things to keep us on our toes, though.