Are they identical?

"Are they identical?" Okay, so I am a little sleep deprived and this is a rant. Excuse my attitude and sarcasm, but today I decided to dedicate my post to this question. I get it all the time. To me, it seems so obvious. Of course they aren't identical -- they are a boy and a girl!! I guess I could kind of understand if they were both boys or both girls, but people need to think this through... The more unbelieveable part of this is that I get this questions from people that are twins themselves, nurses, and last night, even a doctor!!! That one surprised me the most. It isn't like in medical school we just got a talk about the stork dropping off babies in the hospital. We had in depth discussions about genetics. Come on, now. They should know better.

The other question I get a lot is almost the opposite of this question. "How can they be twins? They don't even look alike." My twin brother, Jimmy, and I got this question our entire childhood. I guess this goes back to the concept that some people don't understand what it means to be a fraternal twin.

I thought about at one point making a FAQ handout or something that I could give to anyone who asked me these questions, but my husband told me this would be over the top. So, I have resigned myself to just politely answering these questions and the numerous others that I continue to get such as:

"Do twins run in your family?"

"Did you take fertility treatments?"

"I thought it skipped a generation?"

"Which one of you is smarter?" (got that one growing up --now I get "Which of your twins is smarter/cuter/your favorite etc?"

"Are they the same age?" (another personal favorite...I guess the answer is no if you consider that Claire is one minute older)

Okay. No more ranting for today. Jack and Claire update for today -- Nick saw Claire smile a little this morning too. I have yet to really see it for myself though. Jack hasn't done anything new except refuse to take his morning nap this morning. I have him draped across my belly as I type, and he is wide awake cooing (picture above is what he should be doing right now).