By Holly Engel-Smothers
When my twins were four, we took a parent/child art course that lasted a week. I took Jaynee, who was a mere year old, with us, and she sat happily in the stroller during the four-hour lessons. Jaynee didn't cry or fuss or blow raspberries or scream. She's always been happy and content. But some children are simply not that laid back. Enter: "The Brat."
I'd never met an actual brat before, but I'd heard many stories, and by all accounts this little girl was a B-R-A-T! She would not leave baby Jaynee alone. The Brat would come over to Jaynee's stroller during class, pick up Jaynee's toys, and shake them, crunch them, Velcro them--right in Jaynee's face! Brat even found a bottle at one point and shoved it in Jaynee's mouth. Jaynee just stared at The Brat like, "Hey! This is a new thing--a Brat! Right here in my very own space is a BRAT! This Brat keeps shoving things into my mouth. What a Brat! This Brat keeps playing with my toys! What a Brat!"
After two days of being "Brat-ed" upon, Jaynee's sisters had seen enough. During the lesson, Brat (in her best "GI Joe" mode) crawled across the classroom floor right to Jaynee. Before I could intervene and rescue my baby, I saw Bailee and Rilee silently get up from their chairs. One twin walked up on the left side of Jaynee's stroller, and the other one walked up on the right side of the stroller. Brat was reaching her hand into the stroller for goodies when the twins stepped forward. One said, in a devilish voice, "Don't touch our baby sister." And then The Brat was stared down by the "devil twins." Bailee and Rilee combined their stares into one, making for a laser beam of disdain right between Brat's eyes. The Brat backed off, slowly, like you would if a wild bear had just spotted you. "We took care of that Brat!" thought Bailee and Rilee.
Sometimes I worry that my singleton daughter feels left out or lonely in the midst of her sisters' twinhood. But I have found that the twins regard Jaynee's singleton status as awe-striking, just as most people find identical twins. The idea of being alone since the beginning of time is enough to actually make both of them cry! So they embrace Jaynee as one of their own, and Rilee announces to curious onlookers, "Bailee and I are twins. Jaynee is a singleton, but we call her our ‘twingle' because she is part twin and part singleton." Perhaps the average public gawker doesn't realize the magnitude of this bond, but considering that Bailee and Rilee have embraced their sister with a genetic makeup different from theirs is as impressive to this seasoned twin-mom as a pack of wolves raising a baby human as their own (like in The Jungle Book).
But don't let this sweet tale of attachment fool you into believing that this connection means household harmony. There are plenty of times that I have thought, "Wow! My kid is really a BRAT!"
[NOTE: This column is one of many from talented writer, mom and educator Holly Engel-Smothers, who will be sharing her tales of life with twins (and a twingle) with readers through this "TwinGrins" column, which will appear on a regular basis on TwinsTalk.]