Few people get to experience more than one baby at a time unless they are day care providers, and I imagine their experience isn’t quite like the twin experience. I hope one day my twins will be eloquent enough to describe what it was like to grow up with someone else constantly in their lives, even while in utero. But I know one thing—I’m jealous of their relationship already.

I can hardly believe the amazing patience my babies already show each other at the tender age of 11 months, though I have to admit it wasn’t always so. When my twins first began sitting up, my boy Quinn’s preferred method interaction with his sister Moia was to take her toys away, which resulted in much wailing and gnashing of teeth. I would run over, comfort her, return the toy, and then go back to the mountain of insert-household-item-here. Eventually, Quinn stopped the constant toy stealing, but Moia kept squawking anyway. Quinn would just touch her on the leg or shoulder, and she’d burst into tears. I sometimes wonder if the memory of him crowding her space in the womb was still fresh in her mind. Even as a tiny infant, Moia slept like a starfish with all limbs completely outstretched, a blissful half-smile on her face. “Aaah!” her face said, “Finally a bit of room around here!”

            But by the time they were six months old, Moia seemed to have forgotten the trauma of twin pregnancy and from that point on, they have been able to do pretty much anything to each other. They steal toys, and then they ply each other with toys. Quinn will crawl up to a quietly playing Moia, sit next to her, and begin whacking her on the head with an open palm. She almost always interprets it as an affectionate gesture, hunkers down with eyes scrunched, and waits for him to get tired of this and go away. When Quinn is quietly playing, Moia enjoys crawling up to him to point at him. She points at everyone, she is so proud of her ability. Quinn often leans forward and bites her pointing finger. He just got his second tooth, but despite his chompers, he never bites hard—and they both find his nibbles quite funny.

            My four-year-old has been trying to figure out fun things to do with his new siblings since they were able to crawl, and they love all of his games, even when they mostly involve being carried around by my son and plunked down like a sack of potatoes. But now the two babies have begun playing games together. They “hide” from each other with one baby sitting by the side of a chair, the other baby in front of the chair, then they peek around the chair at each other and giggle hysterically. One baby puts her head under a play silk while the other tears it off, and they often play tug of war with each other over various toys. I spent a good week thinking I should jump in and “rescue” one baby or the other, but luckily they set me straight pretty quick and told me to leave them alone to their fun.

            Of course, their relationship is not perfect. When one baby is tired or hungry, he or she rarely finds any of these games funny.  But what I find remarkable is how rarely they become tired of each other, and more surprisingly still, they aren’t jealous of each other. If I nurse one baby, the second the other baby invariably notices, and soon I’m nursing two babies, but that’s fine with them both. I’m often carrying two tired babies around at the same time (you should see my biceps!), and again, this is perfectly fine. They do not have the same tolerance of their older brother. Quinn in particular gets annoyed when he comes over for my lap and finds my oldest son sitting in it. And forget about holding someone else’s baby. But when it comes to his sister, Quinn is completely accommodating, and she of him.

            Check back with me a decade or so from now, and I might be longing for the time when the twins got along so well. But for now, I try to appreciate every moment, and marvel at a relationship so rare and so precious.

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