When I was a little kid (think single digit years) I built tiny little offices all over the house fully stocked with random acquired office supplies. My sister on the other hand wore only slips (the ones that went under a dress) along with a pair of white cowboy boots. She looked like a contestant straight off Toddlers and Tiaras until she about 6 years-old. Now that I am a mommy, I’m pretty sure my mommy kept all my little eyesore agencies up and let my sister dress like Kit from Pretty Woman to avoid some crazy child meltdown. I no longer have a desk behind a lazy-boy but do wig out when someone touches my paper planner. My sister no longer wears stripper outfits but does freak out over new fashion trends.

I now wonder if the weirdness my offspring display is inherited or if all three have a small case of OCD. I’ve observed a lot in the last couple of months.

My eldest would rather starve than eat a piece of macaroni that has touched applesauce while my daughter takes each piece of food off her plate stacking them in sections on the table before she eats each one. Prior to climbing under the covers for the night my four-year old needs his pirate ship light on, noise machine on to ocean, door cracked in the form of a triangle and each of his stuffed animals facing the same direction. Each morning for the past week my two-year old son has insisted on eating breakfast with his comforter wrapped around his head with two stuffed miniature dogs in his lap. This same two-year old is adamant about having a separate utensil for each of the items on his plate. God forbid he eat his eggs with the same spork that was used for his yogurt.

I try to avoid having guests over during nap time to steer clear of having to answer the question “What is that noise?” I would have to explain that the dull thudding is my little girl rocking herself in her sleep (butt up in the air) against the side of her crib, a ritual she developed at a wee four months. The other moaning and muffled hyena sound is her twin brother as he sleeps. Her partner in crime must sleep with his head under a blanket as he moans and laughs in a deep coma sleep. Each of these children have caused me to lose sleep with these oddities, first out of worry in the early months of their lives and now out of annoyance as I realize they are just being themselves.

I also have come to recognize that many of the fights that ensue between the Halperin siblings involves one or more of their weirdo tendency or “rules.” Each one loses their head if one of the other even lays a pinky finger on their spot on the couch. A full-out emotional tornado accessorized with a punch to the face from sister to brother took place the other afternoon when one twin had the other twin’s preferred color of sippy cup. How could I have been so careless to give the GREEN sippy to the wrong twin, what an idiot I was! Or to put Spiderman pajamas in the wrong drawer, I was almost damned to be burned at the stake but was punished with a fit of 4 year-old rage instead. And how inconsiderate I was to not let my little princess wear her snow boots during her nap! She must have been planning a hike during her slumber that I was unaware of.

Looks like life has come full circle, that what goes around does in fact come back around. So here I am, a weirdo, raising a bunch of weirdos.