The Parent Trap

Kathy and I have recently come to the realization that at some point during the past two months, Leah and Riley got together and swapped personalities.

I've talked a little bit about how Riley suddenly went being the fussy, "challenging" one to being a happy-go-lucky angel, and how Leah has taken over Riley's role as the fussy one. But it goes beyond that.

At exactly the same time the babies started switching temperments, they also switched their mommy/daddy alliances. Basically, Leah went from being a mommy's girl to being a daddy's girl, and vice versa for Riley. All of a sudden, those daddy games that Riley used to think were so hi-LAR-ious were now met with cold, detached gazes, while Leah became the one who couldn't get enough of daddy. They switched at exactly the same time -- there was no period where both the babies liked mommy or both liked daddy. The babies just woke up one day and switched alliances as if it were one of those plot twists on "Survivor".

And then yesterday, without warning, both babies switched alliances again. I got home and walked over to Riley, leaned over and said "Ba-ba!", and Riley started laughing her ass off. I'm talking 90 seconds of uninterrupted, rolling-around-on-the-ground, tears-coming-out-her-eyes, gasping-for-breath laughter. I walked over to Leah and tried the same thing and got a confused look of disdain, followed by a glance over at the still-laughing Riley that seemed to say "what the hell's wrong with HER?"

Then Kathy came in and tried repeatedly to duplicate the Riley laughter. For several minutes, Kathy was dancing around, singing, twirling around, jumping, chanting "Ba-ba", using rattles like maracas, making raspberry sounds -- pretty much doing everything she could think of short of standing on her head. I thought it was pretty freaking funny myself, but Riley just sat there with a Bruce Willisey half-smirk on her face. Leah, however, was enchanted. The babies had switched alliances yet again.

It felt like one of those sitcoms or movies like the Parent Trap where the identical twins keep switching places without telling the parents. And then the clueless parents wonder what's gotten into those twins, but they never catch on that the twins are just changing their hairstyles back and forth, and the one who used to wear her hair in pigtails is now wearing it in a ponytail and the one who used to wear it in a ponytail is now wearing it in pigtails.

Leah and Riley aren't identical twins and don't even look remotely alike, so I haven't quite figured out how they're managing to make these little switcheroos. But I'm telling you, something fishy is goin' on here, I just know it.