Today Caleb and Joshua went to the doctor's office for their 2-year checkup. Both boys are healthy and on-track developmentally. When Dr. Russell saw that they could read the letters on the cover of a dinosaur book in the examination room, he was impressed and referred to the boys as "smarties", which we take as a compliment from a man whose career accomplishments have ranged from English professor to pediatrician! We also like Dr. Russell because (unlike some other doctors we've seen) he doesn't raise a stink when we bring the boys into their appointment wearing cloth diapers (he cloth-diapered his own kids), when we tell him that the boys are still co-sleeping with us, and when we opt out of the non-required vaccines. Why bother? Last year all 4 of us got the flu shot, only to be rewarded with a nasty case of the flu!
Anyway, on to the stats: Caleb is 34" long (70th %tile), weighs 28.5 lbs (65th %tile), and has a head circumference of 19.75" (90th %tile). Joshua is ever so slightly bigger than his big brother. He is 35" long (75th %tile), weighs 29 lbs (70th %tile), and has a head circumference of 19.5" (80th %tile). It's pretty interesting that the boys have always been virtually the same size ever since they were born... always measuring within a few ounces and quarter-inches of each other. I think that's pretty good evidence to support our new theory that they are monozygotic (identical) twins.
The boys are saying all kinds of new words and 2-word phrases these days. Some new phrases are "Cool car!", "Cool bike!", "good grief", and "oh crap!" (we are trying to encourage them to replace the latter with "oh brother!". They also like to point out whenever they see 2 of anything: "2 eyes! 2 B's! 2 flies!" etc. Caleb seems to have inherited my penchant for pointing out bugs, although he seems to be less terrified of them than I am. One time he pointed to a cricket and said "bug!" and looked absolutely horrified when I proceeded to vacuum it up (later to be released back out in the wild, or into the hands of our neighbor Lily who is obessed with adopting "pet" crickets). Joshua's leg is doing so much better now, and he is even running again. We are so thankful for good health.
Hooray for healthy boys!
ReplyDeleteThat's the first I've heard of doctors who would think it strange to cloth-diaper. Why would they care?
And, out of curiosity, I was wondering how it would be possible that the boys could be monozygotic twins: is it not possible to tell on the ultrasound that there are two placentas? (Sorry if I'm asking a dumb question -- I just don't know.) At any rate, they sure look enough alike to be identical!
I don't know why she'd care! She became flustered and threw her hands up in the air, saying "I don't know how to do this!" when it came time to put the cloth diaper back on the boy. C'mon, you're a doctor, you should be able to figure this out! Hehe. The same doctor also rolled her eyes and shook her head when I made it clear that I did not intend to wean them at age 1.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, there were indeed 2 placentas and 2 sacs, but even monozygotic twins can have 2 placents if the split occurred early on. We were told at our first ultrasound that they were fraternal b/c there were 2 placentas, but it turns out that's not necessarily always true.
I'm always so fascinated by this sort of thing (the twin zygosity, not the cloth diapers. haha, although, my parents only used cloth diapers). The debate on whether or not they are fraternal or identical can go on forever, unless....you get their DNA examined. Hehe, I don't know whether or not you and Joe have ever considered doing that, but I've read that it may help later on in the future, should either twin need an organ or tissue transplant, and for other health-related reasons. Hopefully that won't be necessary! Anyway, at the rate science and technology are going, I won't be surprised if when Joshua and Caleb are in middle school they'll be able to buy a kit from Walmart to test their own DNA.
ReplyDeleteI've been told that the DNA test costs several hundred dollars, so in light of that we are content not knowing for now... we will wait til they're $10 at Wal-Mart :)
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