Split Personalities

As parents of twins, life isn't always easy, but we do get one major advantage over single-baby parents in that we get to watch the progression of two little personalities as they simultaneously develop. People we talk to usually want us to compare their personalities, talking about how they're the same and how they're different.

I always have trouble answering that one. I mean, what does "personality" mean for a baby, anyway? Especially in the first three months or so, people would ask me that, and I would struggle to make up an interesting answer. Um, well, Leah likes to eat and um, Riley drools a lot. Are "hungry" and "drool-y" personality traits? And um, what about "poopy"? 'Cause those babies sure can poop with the best of 'em.

Even now, the babies each have individual traits, but I sometimes wonder if we sometimes just project personalities on them that aren't really there. Like, Leah has this high-pitched squeal that sounds like an 11-year old girl on a roller-coaster or at a Jonas Brothers concert or something. People hear this sound and say - aw, that Leah is absolutely adorable. They think, that Leah sure is a fun-loving, excitable, free-spirited personality. Except Kathy and I know from experience that Leah makes this squeal not only when she's happy but also when she's super-exhausted or extremely grumpy. When she's tired, she'll squeal over and over in earsplitting fashion, and the squeal turns darker and more sinister, until it finally starts to sound like something out of horror movie. And suddenly, Leah doesn't seem quite so fun-loving and free-sprited anymore.

Longtime readers of the blog know that Riley has always been the more "challenging" of the two babies. I've talked at great lengths about how Riley freaks out easily and how she goes from happy to frantic without warning and how she's impossible to calm down. Kathy and I had gotten so used to thinking that Riley was the more difficult baby that it took us a month or so to realize that it's not really true anymore. For weeks and weeks now, Riley has been a happy, calm little angel, and Leah has actually become the more difficult baby to put to bed, the more difficult baby to calm down, and recently even the more difficult baby to feed. But because we had this image of Leah being such a carefree soul, we didn't really notice that the babies have now switched places and that Leah is now the "challenging" one.

So now part of that whole vision I had in my mind of my daughters personalities is shot to hell. Next, you'll be telling me that Riley's not actually drool-y.

Nah. There are some things in life that just don't change.