Monday, May 19, 2008

They are what they wear

A pregnant woman apparently felt panicky today so she sought advice on an online bulletin board for multiples. She is carrying identical twins boys and she is terrified, she said, that she will mix them up after they are born.
It got me thinking.
We don't use the blue nail polish anymore. We don't have to now that a single blue vein has surfaced across the bridge of each boys' nose. Jonathan's is thick and Matthews is thin. The difference is subtle, but we can see it if we look closely enough.
But there is another way that I tell them apart when I can't see their faces, and I hadn't realize it until today. It's a subconscious thing and it happens when I dress them in the morning or see them for the first time after my husband has gotten them ready for the day.
It happened this morning.
My husband dressed the boys in identical shirts and camouflage shorts. Though the shorts were similar, they were made of different materials: Jonathan wore cotton. Matthew's were made of a bathing suit material.
After I read that post, I caught myself checking out their shorts before I called their names. It happened again and again and I couldn't help it. I had programmed my brain this morning with their identities: Jonny in cotton; Matt in bathing suit material.
And that's how I thought of them all day long.


I still don't know how to do captions, but in the photo, Matthew is on the left and Jonathan is on the right.

4 comments:

Mommakitten said...

I am just now realizing that you are in Cincinnati too! Your boys are too cute!

The Myers Family said...

They look precious! I STILL can't tell mine apart from the back. I just yell both names until on turns around and i can see who's who...b/c one has rounder cheeks and one has a bigger head. I too, worried about how i was going to tell them apart...to be quite honest..i'm not sure if they are who i think they are b/c when i go back to look at pics i keep thinking they are the opposite. Guess it doesn't matter now...they know "their names" and i don't know if anyone would ever really be able to tell who was baby a and who was baby b for sure!

Have a great week!
Brenda

Mommakitten said...

I know I was excited to see that you live so close! Hey I am a stay at home mom, so if you want to ever get together, I am all for it!

jay_say said...

I know I haven't stopped by in a while - I'll try to change that...

It's funny how your brain tries to make it "easier" for you throughout the day... I can tell the boys apart by their voices - their pitch is different but noone else seems to notice. Jon and Matt are also at a point in their life where they dress themselves - and usually in different clothes.