The other day, I was shopping with my Mom when this dear woman came over to ask me about my children. Just as I expected her to because so many people do, she asked about the twins, "Are they identical?" I sighed. "No, they're not. He's a boy, and she's a girl." Seems pretty blatant, doesn't it? But seriously, I get the question a lot. I might understand it if I made a habit of dressing the twins in hats and gender neutral clothing, and requiring them to walk around with their eyes closed. But I don't! Lucy has blue eyes, Sam has brown eyes. Lucy's hair is a little darker than Sam's, and she is also a little taller. Oh, and Sam is a boy. I was a little more tolerant when they were tiny babies, but now that they are nearly four years old, it amazes me that people still ask the question.
My sister gets the question a lot too. While her twins are both boys, as you can see, they don't look very much alike either, atleast not like identical twins. On the other hand, I have a cousin who does have identical twin daughters. When she is out with her girls, who very frequently are dressed exactly alike from their hair down to the color of their socks (i've never been able to tell them apart), people ask her, "Are they twins?" Ummmm, no, just friends. Isn't it amazing how much they look alike? I guess what it comes down to is that people, in general, often speak without thinking. Either that, or a large number of Americans flunked high school biology and don't really realize differences like hair color, eye color, and ummm, gender, actually disqualify twins from being identical.
