Mila and Siena: 1 year pictures

The girls turned 1! So we took a lot of pictures of them.

Mila refused to keep her headband on, which was unfortunate, because look how cute she looks in it below!  (That picture was taken a different day.)  But by 12 months, babies kind of do whatever they want, so we tried to go with the flow.  And the 'flow' was basically sitting them on the ground clicking the camera as many times as possible before they crawled away.  After repeating that a few times, we called it a day.

 

Siena is trouble.  She climbs up everything, and ends up in places we don't expect to see her. (When she falls, she doesn't usually cry, like Mila would/does.)  She is very close to walking, and has even taken 4 or 5 steps on her own. Holding onto our hands, she can walk all over the place.  Mila has no interest; if we hold her hands up, she usually just sits down.  It's funny how different two babies can be.

It surprised me to look at these pictures because Mila hardly looks like herself.  Her face usually isn't as scrunched up and squinty.  Maybe it's a new look for her.  And Siena looks quite sweet when she's usually more mischievous.

A few new tricks: they clap when Hyrum says "bravo!" and Siena opens and closes her hands when we sing "twinkle twinkle little star."  Mila laughs at pretty much anything, particularly if you put your head on her stomach.  They can down bananas like they're nothing.

They're very particular about their milk, and refuse to eat it if its not warm.  Drama queens.  I'd love to fight them on it, but there are so many changing variables in their schedule these days (ie: cross-country move) so I'm putting it off.  And once they start eating cold milk, we'll work on taking away their bottles..... sigh.

Identical or fraternal?

The first thing the doctor told us when she saw twins on the ultrasound is that they were dichorionic.  That meant nothing to me, but in the months since, I've learned that there's an entirely new vocabulary with twins, particularly the "how" and "when" behind the twins.

[Dichorionic meant the girls each had their own chorion, as well as their own placenta. They're considered di/di twins.]

Most non-twin-moms and non-scientists probably don't talk in terms of 'monozygotic' or 'dichorionic' or 'monoamniotic', but everyone knows how to ask one question:

Are they identical or fraternal?

And unfortunately, we didn't know.  Which baffles people.  Here's why: di/di twins can be fraternal or identical, it just depends on how many eggs were involved (in turn, how many zygotes.)  Here's a handy little chart explaining.

Since 2/3 of identical twins share at least a chorionic sac, it's a common misconception that di/di twins are fraternal.  The only way to really know is by the way they look or a DNA test.  We thought it would be funny to have one white-skinned blonde baby and one brown-skinned black-haired baby. (Fraternal twins look as similar or dissimilar as any siblings would.)

They came out[1 year ago, today!] looking like babies-- not wildly different and not wildly the same.  So we wondered.

They looked enough alike that I worried occasionally about who was who, but I was also a little cautious because a lady in my ward had sons that looked identical, but she said they weren't.

But pretty quickly we realized that people outside out house were able to tell them apart without much effort.  Mila's face was thin, with barely any cheeks and a smaller forehead.  I thought she looked like a bird; Hyrum thought she looked like a mouse.  Siena had a rounder face and higher forehead.

Then I'd see pictures like this and think, same mouth, same eyes, same lips... but still different?

Very different:

Very similar:

Very similar:

Different, but also similar:

Different:

Different:

But from other angles, very similar:

I was tired of wondering, and not being able to answer people difinitively when they asked.  So for the girls first birthday I bought them a DNA test.  [Fun parent award.  Actually, Hyrum insisted we get them a toy, too.]  And the results:

Monozygotic, ie: identical.

Here's an interesting chart of the 'splitting' process, but basically, to get di/di identical twins, the zygote needs to split in the first three days.

It obviously doesn't change anything, and wasn't necessary to find out, but I'm glad we know.  So happy birthday, Mila and Siena: you're identical.

What does this mean for me?  My chances of having another set of twins is 1 in 70,000!  Thank you, DNA testing, for a little peace of mind.

[More birthday celebrations to come later!]