Let the nesting begin

A. finished painting the nursery this week -- he did a fabulous, beautiful job -- and on Thursday we put up the above wall border. Adorable, ain't it? There's also a camel on it, which you can't see on the swatch, but which is ecologically incorrect anyway. Camels don't live in the same habitat as monkeys, elephants, and giraffes. I hope this kind of thing won't keep our daughters out of the Ivy League. On second thought -- yeah, like we could afford to send one child, let alone two, to an Ivy League school. Yes, girls: two-humped camels live in the African savannah. 2 + 3 is 7. And it's pronounced "Nuke-yuh-ler." Now fill out those beauty school applications.

Anyway, all the gear that has lived on our porch for the past month now lives in the nursery. Next up, we need to assemble the cribs, move in the old bureaus my parents are bringing down for us, hang some curtains (I may make them, if I'm feeling inspired), and add some other decor. When it's all done, probably not for at least a month, I'll take some pictures and post 'em here.

I also scored some stuff today from the big tag sale put on by the Mother of Twins club. Oy. What a zoo. First, you have to make it past the shrieking, nubile young teenage field hockey players running a car wash out front (it was held at a high school). Then, you wait in line (it opens a half hour early for members, and I was told that all the good stuff goes quick) and make chit chat with other twin mothers or mothers to be. Then the doors open and you cram into a space which was most decidedly NOT the gym, as I had imagined, but something much squeezier and labrynthine, and try to maneuver your way around unwieldy double strollers and unwieldy pregnant women, oblivious toddlers, beleaguered fathers, and aggressive grandmothers to get to the gear section, where the "good stuff" is.

As I wasn't in the market for cribs, high chairs or a stroller (a friend just gave us their gorgeous Peg Perego double stroller -- ciao bella!) I just checked out the bouncy seats and bathtubs, scored one of each in mint condition, then moved on to the clothes. There were mounds of these. I got a bunch of 0-6 month stuff -- onesies, sleepers, denim overalls (too cute for words), etc., much of it Baby Gap and Carters. Quality shit, man.

Getting the clothes raised an interesting question in my mind: at what point will it be important for each of the girls to have "their own" clothing, rather than communal, interchangeable stuff? At this point, I'm definitely not thinking of clothes for Twin A and clothes for Twin B. I'm just thinking: clothes. Whichever baby and onesie I happen to grab first, well, that's what you're wearing, kid. Any thoughts, theories, etc.? I'm guessing there's probably an age (maybe around 2 or 3?) where twins start to get possessive about what's "theirs," and maybe this will be the time to start "hers" and "hers" wardrobes. I just hope they start sharing again by the time they're teenagers.

And at this point, incidentally, if one of these babies turns out to be a boy, he's just going to have to be a transvestite. I may start playing some Judy Garland for the babies in utero, just so I have my bases covered.