Chad: Four months old and proud to be a NEST baby!
He's done a handful of studies over the years, including two just this summer/fall. One of them is how he got his Ninja Turtle scooter, and the other was a treat because he got to wear his own little Fitbit for a whole week. (He also got $55 for that one, which went to me because 1) I was literally minutes from leaving for the airport and realized I had zero dollars in my wallet, but money from the study was sitting right there and 2) all Chad had to do for that study was go about his daily life with a Fitbit whereas my responsibilities consisted of many surveys and meal diaries, so I'm sorry, but I think I deserved it more than Chad anyway.)
Natalie and Theo are registered with both Duke and UNC in case they are ever eligible for a study, but since there's no NEST data on them, I guess they aren't top candidates. And most twin-specific research studies only care about identicals and their matching genomes. In fact, the day we found out we were having twins I was scheduled to give a blood sample for a research study, but the scientists came in to say that twins were ineligible because even if they found a biomarker in me, they couldn't tell which baby it came from.
However, a few weeks ago we got a notice about a student doing a research project specifically on families with boy-girl twins. It seems like more of a sociology and fine arts project, so I won't pretend to understand what they're looking for. But instead of compensating us with cash, they were offering copies of the photographs they needed for free. Sure, sign us up!
The researcher and I e-mailed back and forth a few times to find out what parts of our daily life would be convenient for us, and helpful to her. We decided that she would come over in the evening and watch the kids eat, bathe, and go to bed. I was a little nervous about how cooperative everyone would be, but it went great!
Although neither twin would eat the delicious butternut squash and sage pasta I made (Chad liked it!) dinner went smoothly. We just ate and the researcher asked us general questions about how Natalie and Theo interacted with each other (lately, by stealing toys and pushing each other) and what they called each other (Nanny and Dodo) and how we all reacted to finding out we were having twins. It was a normal dinner, but she had a super fancy camera sitting on the table and would surreptitiously snap pictures of someone eating. We had a not-overly-splashy bath time and bedtime, and she took some super cute pictures to capture the twin lifestyle. Like, I had their matching pink and blue toothbrushes with toothpaste on them, and she swooped in and snapped a picture. I would have never thought to do that, but I guess that's not why I'm not a photographer.
We have a second date in a few weeks, timed so that Natalie and Theo will be playing together for a little bit before we tuck them in for a nap, and after that we're doing interviews. She even asked Chad if he'd like to be interviewed. I kind of can't wait to eavesdrop in on that one.
We haven't seen our wonderful photos from that day, but until then, here are some other twin-ish shots!
Yes, I made them turn around. The matching jackets are just as cute from the back!
Future post to come about the adventures surrounding this photo!
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