The Twindaoes | picklebums.com

September 2, 2010 | Filed in: Muski,Number 4,The Twindaoes

We called the baby ‘Number 4′ before he was born.
Then he became known as ‘Quatro’ while the world waited for us to decide on a ‘real name’, but now that he has one, he is rarely if ever actually called Noah!

We call him “No No” or “Noey” and even “Nobody”.
Some times he gets “No-bo” or “Noob” or “Noo-bi-do”.
A friend’s little girl calls him “Baby No Name”, which I am quite taken by.

Yes…. we are attempting to scar our child for life with his many terrible nick names. But it’s ok…because we are scarring all our kids equally when it comes to nick names.

Morgan was named ‘Muski’ by the girls when they were waiting for him to be born and iot has totally stuck. We took a long time to name him too and while the world waited, the girls added to his nick name with loads of variations until he became known as …
“Morgan Muski Butterfly Marshmallow Poop Face”

Of course we also shorten his name… to ‘Morgues’.
Yep, his nick name means the building where they store dead people.
Now that’s gonna scar!

And the girls?

Izzy’s name is really Isabella but no one ever callas her that.
She gets called “Bizzy” or often just “B” which seems to confuse people because of course Izzy starts with an I not a B, but it makes total sense to us.
Sometimes she gets call “zipper” and quite often “feral Sheryl”

Zoe gets “zoob” or “Zobo” or “Zoo-bum”, because in true Aussie style, if your name is already short then we’ll lengthen it instead!
And a derivative of that? “Goober”…. lovely.

And then there are the multi use nick names…. because I often can’t remember which child I gave which name to, so it’s easier just to call them all…

Chooky Bum, or just Chook
Snookie La
Bood, or Boodie
Stinky
Oliver Boliver Butt (A prize for those who know which Dr Suess story this is from)
Pickle Knickers (say it out loud it makes your lips feel happy)
and of course.. Picklebum!

Surely I am not the only one who is scarring their children with terrible nick names. Please share and make me feel better!

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“What does that say Mum?” she said pointing to a post title on a blog.
I looked at what she was pointing to and tried to distract her but it was too late….
“S-E-X-T-ing…. does that say ‘sex- something’?”
“Yes” I said hoping a quick and simple answer to the question was where it would end.
“Sex what Mum?”
“Sex-ting” I reply still going with the simple answer idea…
“What is sexting mum?”
Now the particular blog post I was reading was talking about the dangers of sexting and how to educate and talk with your kids about it… but they were talking about teenagers, not 6 year olds!! There were no tips on how to explain sexting to a 6 year old!

Lately their reading has just come on in leaps and bounds and the magic of reading has opened up a whole new, wonderful, world. Suddenly they can read all kinds of things – random signs and billboards, headlines in the local paper, the back of the cereal box…. All these things that we, long time reading adults, take for granted. All these things that as a parent, I never paid any attention to, until now…

E-gads this is going to mean a whole new kind of difficult questions isn’t it!
And I guess there will be no more secret spelling of words like ‘i-c-e-c-r-e-a-m’ and ‘l-o-l-l-i-e-s’ between the father figure and I.

Reading sure is magical, hey.

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At the shops with the girls someone asked me ‘The Question’…
“Are they twins?”
Lets ignore the fact that the girls are now well old enough to be addressed personally and answer that question themselves. Lets jump right on in to the next questions…
“Are they identical?”
Harmless curiosity, while sometimes annoying, I know most people mean well and I can smile and answer both those questions with a polite ‘yes’…. That is until they ask the next question.
“Are you sure they are identical??”

We get this a lot.. so much in fact that I wrote this article for Blissfully Domestic and I thought I’d post it here too…

If I had a dollar for each time someone asked me if my girls were identical or not… and if I had two dollars for each time someone argued with the answer I gave… I’d be a rich woman!

I have identical twin girls, and yes I am sure they are identical… and here’s how I know.

The Befores…

During the an early specialist scan a number of things were found to make us think our babies might be identical.

* They appeared to share a single placenta.

Of course you can’t be 100% sure there is only one placenta using ultrasound, but the technology is pretty good and they were confident there was only one placenta. Fraternal twins do not share a placenta. Some Identical twins share and some have separate placentas, but if there is one placenta the twins must be identical.

* They appeared to have one ‘outer sack’ with only a thin membrane separating them.

Fraternal twins always have separate chorions (outer membrane of the amniotic sack) and amnions (inner membrane). Some identical twins also have separate chorions and amnions, but some share an outer membrane with a thin inner membrane separating them (as in our case) and a small percentage share both outer and inner membranes (this causes an increased risk for both babies). If the babies share a chorion they must be identical.

The During…

* We had Twin to Twin Transfusion Syndrome.

Twin to Twin Transfusion Syndrome (TTTS) is a complication where the babies don’t share the placenta equally. It only occurs in identical twins who share a placenta.

The Afters…

* They look the same…

While I’ve always been able to tell them apart (even though I was scared I wouldn’t be able to before they were born), from the very beginning they looked the same, despite the differences caused by the TTTS. As they’ve grown older they’ve gotten more alike, of course they are not totally identical in appearance but they are very similar.

* They’ve had a DNA test that confirms it!

Of course the only way to know for sure is with DNA fingerprinting. As part of a research study we take part in, the girls were tested when they were babies. DNA samples are collected either from blood (usually a finger prick) or cheek cells and sent away to the lab… the results came back that our girls are 98.9% genetically identical. Aboust as identical as you can get without being a conjoined twin.

But you know… without all the fancy testing and technical talk I think most parents of twins, triplets or more have a pretty good idea if their children are identical or fraternal. I see so many differences between my girls, but I also see how incredibly alike they are. I see how often even people who are close to us mix them up. Without any testing, if you feel that your children are identical… then they probably are. And if you ask someone if their twins are identical, please accept their answer and smile and move on.

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