Sunday, January 4, 2009

Twins Birthday

My twin boys turn twelve years old this Tuesday, so I thought I would blog a few things about them.

When they were first born, the only way we could tell them apart was that the older of the two had an extra toe. We soon learned to distinguish them by other characteristics. We gave them nicknames to match some of the things we saw.

The younger always seemed to do things first and faster, so we nicknamed him 'Lightning', while the older one was a little louder and always seemed to follow the younger one around, so he became 'Thunder'. Lightning crawled first, talked first, and walked first. Thunder, living up to his name, crawled like he was trying to pound his hands through the floor, and when he learned to walk, he stomped his feet with every step.

You could never give just one of them a treat. If you presented either of them with a cookie, for instance, he would run and get his brother, and drag him back by the hand to get his treat as well. They have always been either the best of friends or the worst of enemies, and I have said many times that if they survive each other, they will be tough enough to survive anything. As kids, they were constantly dreaming up ways to get into trouble, and what one couldn't think of the other could. One would hold the chair, while the first climbed onto the counter to get the cookies and hand them down. They used to get up in the middle of the night and go out to the refrigerator. They would open the door and then proceed to unwrap all of the butter cubes and throw them on the floor. Eggs came next, and we lost several pounds of butter and several dozen eggs before we found a way to stop them (a lock on the fridge door). :o)

While they were still in the crawling stage, Lightning jumped onto the bed where Thunder and he were playing, and landed on his arm breaking it. Later, Lightning would part company with the Hatch town merry-go-round, landing and breaking his collarbone. His bad luck with play equipment continued a while later when was pushed off a zip line like toy in a fun room to land on his arm and break it as well.

Thunder had an infection in his left ear that caused swelling, blood clots, infection (including spinal meningitis), and several other complications. He spent six weeks in the critical care unit of Primary Children's Hospital, and still suffers from some of the effects of that trauma to his system (including a prosthetic bone in his left ear).

They are enthusiastic about sports, and both of them have played soccer and basketball for several years. I think that if their bodies ever catch up with their will to play, they will be excellent players. They already show talent, and get better each year. They also both enjoy being in the small school band. Lightning is learning to play the trumpet, and after some choice making, Thunder is learning the saxophone. I hope they continue.

They both love the scouting program, and are excited to be going into boy scouts this next week. We love them, and hope the best for their futures.

Take care. Stick.

3 comments:

Delirious said...

Happy Birthday S and A!

Nene said...

Happy Birthday Boys! Thanks for posting Stick. I loved reading this and learning more about the twins!

Inklings said...

Happy birthday boys! It was fun to read about you.