Twin Sister Bond Experiment #1: After getting both girls home I excitedly placed them next to each other to watch the magic unfold. Within seconds Peanut grabbed her sisters arm and tried to nurse! Cookie screamed, I unlatched Peanut, and then she started crying too. Experiment fail.
What I learned: Newborn infants do not play well together. They will scratch, lick, latch onto, and kick whatever is within reach.
Twin Sister Bond Experiment #2: For Christmas I got the girls beautiful (and expensive) French made dolls. The dolls were the same shape and design but with different colored outfits on. They both adored their tiny dolls and spent minutes (that's forever in baby attention span time) tracing the doll's face and chewing on the fingers. I thought they could bond over their shared love of their dolls and put them each in a Bumbo facing one another. I gave each girl her own doll and watched. Cookie started chewing on her doll's hat while Peanut bounced her doll up and down. Then Cookie noticed Peanut's doll bouncing up and down. Witchcraft! How is sister's doll doing this?!? Cookie flung her doll to the side and grabbed for Peanut's doll. She managed to grab the dolls hat and started pulling. After realizing her doll was being kidnapped, Peanut squealed at her sister and grabbed the dolls foot. I decided to stop the baby tug of war and gave Peanut her doll then gave Cookie her own. Cookie screamed in anger at me giving her sister a clearly superior doll and Peanut was still crying from the tug of war. No one wants to play with their dolls anymore. Experiment fail.
What I learned: Babies do not instinctively share things very well. They are selfish little things who are very fickle. They also lack empathy. The first time Peanut laughed at Cookie crying I thought that I must have little meanies on my hands. Now I sort of miss those empathetic days where only one baby cried at a time. At around 8 months old if one girl started crying the other will drop what she's doing to join in. My hearing will never be the same.
Twin Sister Bond Experiment #3: Now that the girls are crawling and playing independently I am able to place them in a playpen without needing to entertain them. One day as they played quietly I decided to get some dishes washed. I could see the girls from the sink so they'd still be supervised. After about 5 minutes of washing I heard a high pitched yell followed by angry crying. I could see little eyes peering over the playpen at me. I rushed over to see Cookie standing on Peanuts head. She was using her sister's head as a sort of step so she could see over the playpen. They had to be separated the rest of the day because Peanut squealed anytime Cookie looked at her. She was so mad! Experiment fail.
What I learned: A lot of baby shenanigans can happen in just 5 minutes.
Twin Sister Bond Experiment #4: One day I was running late getting dinner ready. The girls are used to eating at 6pm and it was 7pm (that is three days in baby time). I put them in their baby walkers with some teething rings while I got everything ready. They both started fussing and ramming their walkers into my shins. After throwing dinner in the oven I realized that it was way too quiet in this twin baby home. Both girls were near the trash can randomly giggling and Peanut was chewing on something. Cookie had gotten her little hand into the top of the trash can and found some moldy bread I had thrown away. She was tearing off pieces of bread and putting it in her sisters mouth. Both girls found this hilarious! After gagging a little I rushed over and gathered up all the moldy bread to throw away again. Both girls cried in protest of me ruining their fun game. In the coming weeks Cookie makes a game of shoving a whole slew of things in Peanuts mouth including her own fingers, string, dog toys, Ziploc bags, leaves, and dirty socks. Peanut giggles, gags, and giggles even louder. Sisterly twin love has been found!
What I learned: Babies are gross.
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