They're back!

That's right, our twins are back. For nine months of the year, we get to call Shoun and Isaac our resident twins. And with Isaac's birthday today, he's caught up to his 3-months-his-senior older brother and just like that, our twins are back.

One birthday tradition that has developed in the past several years is that of speaking words of affirmation over the birthday boy or girl. Every family member gets a chance, once a year, to be the center of attention and to bask in the truths that the others speak. Well, every family member except for the family organizer who, as the one making certain everyone else gets their words of affirmation, never got hers this year. And in response to that, I have just three words: peanut butter balls. So now we're even.

Anyway, during Isaac's words of affirmation experience, the Good Doctor started out this way, "When I was a youth pastor and I would speak to the young ladies about the man they would someday marry..."

At this point you should have seen Isaac's face.

Isaac: Dad, where are you going with this? I'm 14, remember?

Good Doctor: Just listen.  As I would speak to young ladies about the man they would someday marry, I would tell them to watch any potential suitor to see how he treated his mother. That's a pretty good indication of how he is going to treat his future wife.

Isaac: Aaaaaannnnnndddddd?

Good Doctor: And, I look at how you treat your mother and I can say with confidence that you are going to make a great husband someday.

There was definitely more than one nod of agreement around the table after these words were spoken and as the token mother in this group, I can vouch for Isaac's character in how he treats his mother.

Isaac, my teddy bear, the first to volunteer to help, the first to give a backrub, the first to eat my food without complaint (and yes, even egg casserole for lunch which apparently is the very worst thing I could ever serve) and the first to assist in caring for Victor. Indeed, that has been the most obvious to me this year. Multiple times during the day

it is Isaac who is entertaining Victor, by choice. It is Isaac who sings to him, who teaches him new tricks and new words. It is Isaac who who will randomly take Victor out of my arms and play with him

for a time. And during the Christmas season, as I spent a few days each week working outside the home, it was Isaac who took care of Victor with more love and expertise than I could probably find in most female babysitters. The two really are inseparable.

And the day after my birthday, it was Isaac who realized that no one had offered any words of affirmation to me and who came and said the sweetest things.

He's not perfect but

Go ahead, Ladies, start lining up now.