Brothers

I get asked almost daily if Johnny and Hank are twins. Less so now that Johnny got a hair cut and Hank, thus far, has not taken the give-Daddy-a-shave-for-a-haircut deal, but still pretty often. Even though I'm their mother and they look completely different to me, I can understand why people think they are twins.

For one thing, they are nearly the same height. Hank is really tall for his age (over 100th percentile... I should probably write about his last doctor's appointment) and weighs only three pounds less than Johnny, so they are very similar in size.

For another, they both do very similar things. If Johnny jumps off a wall, Hank is going to go jump off that same wall. And add a somersault. Then Johnny jumps off the wall, does a somersault and a spin. Then Hank- etc, etc, etc. You get it. The fact is that they are really well-matched physically. Yes, Johnny can run faster and his coordination is just a little bit better, but Hank is right there with him.

They even have dimples on the same side! The left, like Daddy.

So yeah. I get it. They DO look like twins to an outsider.

They're not, but they're really close and I love that.

Before I was pregnant with Hank, John and I talked about how long to wait to have another baby and we both decided to have them close. Which is why the boys are only 18 months apart. I'll be honest, it wasn't a picnic having a newborn and a toddler at the same time. Johnny was still really needy and so was Hank (obviously) and I had a tough time balancing their needs and choosing between them.

Now though? It's awesome. Yes, there are sibling fights, but I know those would be happening regardless of age difference because, well, that's what siblings do. But it's really cool having two boys of a similar age because they can relate to each other rather easily. For instance, both are really into Curious George right now and will willingly sit down and watch an episode together when I need to make dinner/go to the bathroom/have five minutes without someone TOUCHING ME. Even though Hank is into the Cars movie and Johnny has kind of passed that stage, they will both play with the multiple Lightning McQueens we own and race them down ramps together. Johnny is more into trains than Hank is, but that doesn't mean Hank won't get a kick out of watching the trolleys pass for an hour or enjoy playing with the wooden train set with Johnny.

They have their inside jokes already and will laugh together even when I have NO clue what they are talking about. It's really cool to watch. And, of course, I'm interested to see how the dynamic will change with the addition of a new little one at the end of the year. Hopefully it will only get better.