I have always loved twins.
When I was five years old, I made myself believe that I was adopted by my parents, Edgar and Elena. I believed that somewhere in a faraway kingdom, I have a twin sister who looks just like me. I fantasized that one day, a gold carriage will pick me up in the house where I grew up and my Queen of a Mother will take me away and bring me back to the castle where I rightfully belong. There, in the castle, I will meet my twin sister. We will both wear the same dresses and people will stare in wonder and awe in our presence. “Twins, oh twins, what magic! What miracle!”
Of course, that never happened and I found myself still living in our modest houses in Cebu and (later) in Leyte. I was the eldest among four children so there placed on my scrawny shoulders the major responsibility to do household chores (although I was able to skip most of them when my siblings were old enough to do the job for me, hehehe) and to be the “role model” to Stephanie, Hendrix and Kevin especially when it comes to getting good grades and performing well in school.
But my love for twin babies never left me. When local and international celebrities started popping out twin babies, I publicly declared that I wanted twins for myself. Before I even met my husband, I already started praying that I be granted that rare blessing of being a Mother to twins. I also believed that in order to make things happen, you have to claim that it will happen so as to attract all the positive forces of the Universe. I did just that. I knew I will be having twins. I just didn’t know when.
So imagine my glee when I found out that I was pregnant and will be having not just one but TWO babies. Jeff almost fainted and the doctor had to tell her assistant to get some cardboard for Jeff to get some air. Little did I know that both sides of the family have “twin genes” so there was that high possibility that I will be having twins. After the ultrasound images were printed (and after paying the bill which I personally think was overpriced), I treated Jeff to a sumptuous dinner at Cafe Laguna .
And here we are, 10 months after the birth of Nicholas and Antoinette. We are now in China and I am raising the children without any househelp. I initially thought I won’t be able to manage and gave myself two weeks before I will be screaming for help from a person, who will be paid at least $600 a month to work from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Mondays to Fridays. Yes, I found the amount outrageous but I will tell you in another post (in the next Twin Time update) what made me reach that final decision to not get a househelp (or make that, househelpers) when we had two in the Philippines.
The 10 days – April 24 to May 3 – here passed by so quickly and I was even surprised when I realized last night that I need to post another update. Frankly, we don’t go out too much here because it takes so much effort to pack a bag of baby essentials. But we try – at least once a week – to go out together as a family. “It doesn’t matter what we do, as long as long we’re together” is the Ruffolo family motto.
So here are the happenings in the last 10 days. Notice that Antoinette is the ever camera-ready Missy and Nicholas is the ultimate cute boy of all time. I also posted videos in The Reading Ruffolos Facebook Account so you can view their daily activities there. As usual, thank you for reading and enjoy!
