Ever since the day we learned that we were expecting twins, Arianne and I have been looking forward to being able to witness the close relationship that our daughters would have.  In the course of their first year of life, there were so few examples of them acknowledging each other, though.  We have a few pictures of them smiling at each other; when they would play, it was almost as if they were just sharing play space and they’d only play with their toys.  But in the last few weeks, it seems that the girls have finally discovered each other.  A nap time doesn’t go by without them playing and laughing with each other before they conk out (IF they conk out).  I’m actually listening to them have a conversation with each other right now over the baby monitor; there’s a lot of “yaaaaaaaahs” and “Dadas.”  But it’s clear that they have no problem understanding each other, since the laughter is in full swing.  A few times, Ari and I have gone up to see what was going on, and the scene is pretty much the same each time:  Julia and Marayla are standing up in their cribs holding onto the rail, facing each other, and gabbing away like two neighbors gossiping over a shared fence.  Sometimes, they’ll get so close that they’ll touch hands, which usually leads to the uncontrollable laughter (best sound in the universe).  Recently we have seen that Marayla has a gift for putting Julia in hysterics (the good kind), simply by touching her and playing with her facial features.  Last night, during their bedtime bottle, the girls were giggling like crazy with each other, and when they flailed their arms (like they always do when excited), they kept catching each others’ hands, which they held on to for a few precious moments.  Ari and I are so thrilled to see that they are showing signs of their special bond, that they have a language all their own, that they can make each other laugh with the silliest things.  It’s a relationship that Ari and I will never fully understand, but that’s ok.  We’ll watch the goings-on of their exclusive club from the sidelines, laughing along with them.

In a previous post, I mentioned that Marayla has shown that she has a firm grasp on language; she’s been babbling quite a bit, and bibbling her bottom lip with her fingers a lot (yes, I just coined that term “bibbling”).  So, it was only a matter of time before a coherent word escaped her mouth.  A week or two ago, she started to focus on the D and/or T sound, and eventually she put in the ‘ah’ and ‘eh’ sounds with it, usually resulting in a long string of “Deh deh deh deh deh deh.”  The next step was her using different inflections, sometimes as if to ask “Where’s deh-deh?” or declaring, “There’s deh-deh.”  Now, I’ll be the first to admit that it is not 100% clear as to what deh-deh is; I’ve found that many of her favorite toys have been referred to as “deh-deh,” so has a Cheerio in her hand, and something she found interesting outside the window.  However, I can’t help but feel pretty excited that when I come home from work and step into the kitchen to see the girls eating their dinner, Marayla looks up at me, smiles a huge smile and yells, “Dada!”  So, after much deliberation (it took many seconds), I’ve decided that Marayla’s first word is Dada, and it only refers to me…she’s simply telling her toys, the Cheerio, and the something outside all about her Daddy.