My sweet little ogres...

One minute we're outside, riding bikes jacket-free. The next minute, we're bundled to the max, wearing boots and slurping soup. The cold weather has virtually no impact on the girls - they are in such a groove right now with one another... all day long, they move from playing Shrek and Fiona to coloring to the dollhouse to singing/dancing to legos to reading to pretending to be Maria and Liesel. I have always thought, in my back of my mind, that we should separate them occasionally - give each one some one-on-one time without the other. But we've just never seen it as a necessity - they get along so well the vast majority of the time that we just roll with it. Over the past couple of weeks, the tides have turned: if I'm running an errand, one might choose to go and one stay, which never happened before; they both always stuck together. However, during a split over the weekend, a song came on the car radio to which Elise commented "this would be much more fun to sing with Abby here". Upon returning home, John shared that, while playing "dizzy games", Abby commented "I wish Elise was here to play dizzy with me". 

Clearly, we think siblings are important (including the soon-to-be baby of the family who is currently kicking at about the same rate that I'm typing). But having the companionship of a twin is amazing and I love that we've kept them together - in so many families, especially when there are age differences, older ones head off to preschool when the babies are just becoming interactive. I feel like keeping the girls together has provided them with the time and the opportunities to learn how to navigate a truly intimate relationship, skills I have to believe will be powerful in future relationships.