Liam’s twin brother Seth was here for Thanksgiving. We love it when Seth is here. It’s not like we do a whole lot. Usually our visits consist of playing cards, eating too much food, and playing this fantasy card-game Dominion where we each try to expand our Monarchies into more powerful kingdoms collecting treasure and Duchys and Provinces. It’s a real geek fest. Occasionally we might venture out for a hike or some sight-seeing.
When writing down her birthday or Christmas wish list, Emerson is known for putting “Uncle Seth” as one of the things on her list. And why wouldn’t she? After all, he’s the semi-bachelor, fun uncle, who buys her things we wouldn’t.
As for me, I like it because I like watching Liam and his twin interact. They can bicker like an old married couple, they can unconsciously do things that are similar and uncanny, and I know this is going to sound strange but it’s fun to watch Liam get exasperated at behaviors that completely mirror his own. Let me give you an example. Almost every night when it’s time for our daughter to go to bed Liam has this habit of getting incredibly goofy, making up songs (usually short, repetitive, silly songs), or doing ridiculous dance moves and, in general, goading and whipping my daughter up into a manic clothes-throwing, bed-jumping frenzy. Sometimes this routine is funny. Sometimes I’m like, “Oh my god, please calm down. You two are driving me absolutely mad.” During Seth’s visit he began singing little songs in a variety of booming operatic voices and Liam said, “Wow you are really annoying.” And I’m like, “Oh Really? You find that annoying? Interesting — because that is EXACTLY like you.”
Of course, I could never confuse the two of them. It would be nearly impossible to fool me. It makes me think of when Emerson was just a baby, before she could even really speak. She called Liam, “Da-da”, of course. But when Seth came to visit she called him, “Ah-da-da” in happy baby voice. As in, “Hey, look it’s another da-da”. She naturally recognized that there was both a similarity and a difference.
I can’t wait until Seth comes back in a few weeks for Christmas. In the meantime, I better get the expansion pack for Dominion.
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