Grandpa Bob in the Land of Twins

My parents bought a van when I was in sixth grade, and I immediately commented on how clunky and enormous the thing was. I climbed into the back seat and envisioned riding along on the road, being the only teenager in an awful, massive, gas guzzling, RV/camper monstrosity. By the time we drove the van off the lot, I was convinced I was a member of the lamest family around. However, on that ride home, I began to notice something puzzling. There were several other vans on the road. In fact, there were tons of vans all through the traffic snarls we meandered that day. By the time I was home, I was no longer convinced that we were the lamest family around, only that there were a lot of lame-o's on the road that day.

Anyway, my van story illustrates a phenomenon that I find happening in my life once again. Once a reality is noted in your brain, from that moment on your mind will go out of it's way to note all the occurrences of that reality. Case in point: since Rachel gave birth to the twins, I have found other parents of twins at every turn. This morning in the doctor's office we waited next to a mother of eight-month-old twins in the waiting room. The stylist that cut my hair on Saturday, the crazy Asian lady who gave Rachel a pedicure last week, a woman in my MBA group, and a Navy co-worker: all parents of twins. Even last night, as I fed Malorie and watched the news, a story came on CNN about "The Land of Twins," an Argentinian village where ten percent of all births are twins (compared to one percent in the general population). Twins, like vans, are everywhere I tell you! Everywhere!

The simple truth is that the vans, and the twins for that matter, have been all around us from the start. All apologies to author Malcolm Gladwell, but there has been no Tipping Point here, I was always just too oblivious to notice. But once I did notice, and the veil was lifted, I got to see a new aspect of our American culture.

Also getting firsthand knowledge of the twin phenomenon is my father-in-law, Bob. He arrived Saturday to meet Micah and Malorie, and has been doting over them ever since. Micah decided to show off for Grandpa, so he lifted and turned his head for the first time during tummy-time. Malorie, ever the princess, just likes to be held by Grandpa and look adorable. And now it's Bob, the first time Grandfather, who is becoming keen to another aspect of parenthood. This morning, while he was reading his newspaper, Grandpa Bob stumbled across a picture of tennis star Roger Federer that under normal circumstances, he likely would have ignored. However, the new grandfather of twins took note of Federer, who was holding his children, a set of twins. Consider another veil lifted.

Beards for Babies is beginning to taper off, but if you are still inclined, the donation page is still active from the link on the upper right of the page. Just click on my bearded face, read our story, and then donate some money to the very worthy Wolfson's Children's Hospital NICU. As for Mal-staches, they just keep poring in, so I'll keep posting them. These are the children of my co-worker I spoke of above, Forrest Pendleton and his lovely wife Shannon. They are sporting the pencil thin Mal-stache, made popular by villains since the turn of the century. Nobody let these kids near a train, because if they can find pistols or a bandana, they may just hold that train up.