Who Is You

To my daughter Rosie,

 

For all intents and purposes, genetically you are the exact same as your sister. I must admit that throughout your young life I have times where I get you guys mixed up. There are a couple minor physical diffirences we have used to verify we are talking to the right girl. 

 

When people ask how I tell you apart, I say it is easy and then ask you or your sister the purposefully gramatically incorrect, "Who is you?" A couple times, your sister and you have tried claiming to be the other. Luckily you guys have not inherited the Irish ability to say BS believably. Your mischief attempts are thwarted by your giggle or even the other culprit in mischief chiming in and blowing the gag.

 

You also live an entwined life with your sister. You are constantly together. You enjoy the same things. You both laugh when daddy carries you upside down to bed. You also both think it is hysterically when you fart on daddy's neck while he is carrying you to bed. Some people swear they can tell you guys apart from attitude or personality. You both have a distinct personality but honestly the similarities make it so you can easily lose track of who is who.

 

Of course, after last night, we have another physical distinguishing feature, a four stitch scar on the forehead. You and your sister were spinning in the hallway last night. Your mother warned you to stop. I warned you to stop. Like most kids, you assumed you knew more than your parents and didn't allow caution and common sense to stop your twirling fun. Dizziness and gravity won out and decided to make a love connection between your forehead and a jutting corner of two walls. The blood gushed as head cuts tend to. A couple hours in the urgent care, you were stitched up and now are on the mend.

 

Eileen was beside herself. "My sister! my sister! Oh no." She tried her best to stay up till you got home, even willing to kick daddy every time he picked up her sleeping body to move her to bed. "I can't sleep yet, I have to wait for Rosie to come home to make sure she is okay!"

 

The similarities between two twins is a fact of life. There is no point in fighting it. There will be times when you look to establish yourself as your own person, establish your own uniqueness. The connection and love between you two might have been a foregone conclusion too. I count it as a blessing. But you are unique and each of you are on your own unique path with your own unique likes and dislikes and quirks and adventures and successes and failures and memories and scars. This was just one of the major events at which you two have diverged. There will be more.

 

On a side note, you were a trooper through the whole ordeal. After you finished at the clinic, you told your mother, "That was fun!" or something to that effect and meant it sincerely. You relayed the same sentiment to me except you added, "...besides the yucky stuff," and you apologized for the whole event to me saying, "this is all my fault." Oh sweet girl, I love you so.

 

Sincerely with love from your dad,

Leo

Above is a sticker on your mask at the urgent care clinic.

Your sticker gift was a prized possession from the visit.

Above is a picture of the gash before stitches.

You were pretty zonked the next morning. Here is Ilee giving you a stuffy and covering you with blankets to make sure you were comfortable as you healed.