Do they look alike, and are they identical?

These are the two questions that us twin mommies constantly ask and are asked.  All. The. Time.

So, take a look at these pictures, and tell me what you think:

I bet you thought I was going to post a picture of my boys, right?  Ha!  That is one question I don’t need to ask you.  I think my boys look completely different, even though they are identical. (Although, that split pic above makes me think they might look a little bit alike.)

What are also identical?  These silly red cars.  They are exactly the same.  I bought two of the exact same cars so that the twins would not fight over them.  Do you think it worked? Of course not.

I removed each car from it’s package, and gave one to each twin.  After careful inspection, my big guy decided he needed the little guy’s car.  Little guy was not having it.  Screaming ensued.

I grabbed both cars, put them behind my back, switched them around a few times, and gave them back.  Screaming again.  I obviously gave them the wrong cars.  Ugh.

I know I should have learned my lesson when I bought two additional “Diesel 10” trains (from Thomas the Train) so each boy would have one.  We had one from my first son that they both fought about, so I bought two more off Amazon.  I figured it would be worth it to stop the fighting.  After my big guy hoarded all three for a while, they now sit in the toy bin because no one wants them.

And let me tell you another funny little story.  When my oldest was a baby, I bought him the Leapfrog Scout.  It’s a green dog stuffed animal that sings songs, and the cool thing is that you can hook him to your computer, and download your child’s name, favorite food, color, etc.  How fun is that?  I would have loved to have a toy singing my name when I was little.  Anyways, I got each twin one, and they got them for Christmas.  They’ve just been laying around, but recently since we’ve been singing lots of songs, they took some interest.

They wanted to take them to bed the other night, so  I checked to make sure I gave each boy the one that said it’s name.  I turned off the light, said night, night, and closed the door.

I hear thump, thump, thump, thump.  Followed by screaming and crying.  Then one of the Scout’s paws being pressed until it said a name.  Yup.  My big guy had to take little guy’s Scout, and make sure he had it by name.  What?!  Are you kidding me?!

So, what have I learned from all this toy nonsense?  No two toys are ever exactly the same, at least to my boys, so don’t even try.  If they are not fighting about one toy train, they will find a new one to fight over.  If I want to get something personalized, just don’t.  At least until they are older.  Basically, I am just hoping this phase passes soon.