The One With the Matchy Matchy

Ok, so a few people have asked me about my girls consistently wearing matching clothes.  You see, when I was pregnant with the girls, I SWORE they would never match. EVER. People asked me if they should get me matching clothes, and I was basically offended. How could anyone be that cheesy? How could people strip the identity away from their children by dressing them as one unit? The horror.

That lasted about 5 seconds.

You see, after I had the babies I turned...how you say...neurotic about certain things.  Suddenly, after they were born, they HAD to match. I have no idea why. It literally stressed me out when they didn't match. I think it was because I was trying so hard to get them on the same schedule as each other that I was just dying for them to do something the same. They always had to be in the same room, too. (Which even typing that sounds weird now.)  I just needed this peace of mind seeing my unit of babies together, alive, doing the same thing. I needed some consistency.

Here are my thoughts about twin matching:

-My original plan was for my children to wear perfectly coordinating, yet not exactly matching outfits. As in, the same adorable dress: one pink, one purple. Ha. (I still think this is an adorable, yet unattainable goal.) They don't really make clothes like this very often. You really have to hunt them down. Then you have to hope and pray that these coordinating clothes come in the right sizes. Hunting for cute, coordinating outfits involves extra time and extra money. I lack both.

-When the girls wore non-matching outfits in the beginning, EVERY SINGLE PERSON in public would say, "Oh, a boy and a girl?" Clearly one of those babies in those non-matching dresses is a boy.  It was so awkward. I eventually decided to just agree with whatever conclusion people came up with. It was easier that way.  "Yup! Totally a boy right there! Well....see ya!"

-When putting on 2 non-matching outfits, I always felt secretly guilty that one girl got to wear the cuter outfit. (Let's be real, some clothes are just cuter than others.) I didn't want to have "favorite baby in cute outfit" and "deprived baby in a potato sack."
P.S. I know how dumb and shallow this sounds, but come on! Everybody has that shirt in their closet that you're like, "Sigh, I guess this is the only thing clean."  Now imagine deciding which of your 2 adorable babies has to wear the blah outfit. I felt so guilty. I rest my case.

-IT IS JUST SO MUCH EASIER.
Instead of thinking about 20 different, yet coordinating individual outfits, I just think about 10 identical sets of outfits. Amazing. The end.

-If my girls were identical, then I might not have them match. It would be super hard to distinguish them from one another. With mine, I can easily say, "Emily has hair." If they were identical though, it might be easier on friends/family if they didn't match.

-My girls won't always match. (Unless they want to.) When they are a little older, I will give them the choice in what they want to wear. I'm assuming some days they will want to match, and some days they won't. At that point, I won't care.
Side story: I hope they don't match forever. I was an R.A. in college, and some of my residents were twins and STILL MATCHED AT AGE 19. Same shoes, same purse, everything. Gross. It was a little much at that point.

-Neurotic confession:
I group the babies' matching outfits together in big, gallon-sized zipper bags. Then I clip the bags to a pants hanger in the closet. I do this because:
a) I'm psycho.
b) We don't have a dresser.
c) I loathe hanging things on actual hangers.
d) It's easy for my hubby to just grab a bag of clothes with all the coordinating pants/jackets/onesies inside.

   (Neurotic hanging bags. Hanging clothes on the right are unworn yet. I don't do hangers.)

-My girls look so different from each other that now people in the store say, "Oh, they are so cute! Wait... are they twins? Wow! They don't look anything alike!"  It makes me kind of glad that they are matching.  Maybe otherwise, people would just think they are just buds or something.

So for now, I'm just treasuring the times that my children can match.
It's a phase in life where matching is publicly accepted, endearing, and non-creepy.
Plus, it's freakin' cute.