by Diana Day
Since I can remember, my two-and-a-half year old twin daughters have selected toys in pairs or have playacted in pairs.
For example, one of the first “skits†they perform is the Charlie Brown and Lucy football scene – you know the one, where Lucy tries to get Charlie Brown to kick the football? They each take a part, act out the scene, complete with a miniature football prop, and then they switch parts. They also play Zak and Wheezie (the two-headed dragon) from Dragon Tales, Pip and Pop, purple twin otters from Bear in the Big Blue House, and Thomas and Gordon, two of the main characters from Thomas the Tank Engine.
One of my favorites is when they act out Thing 1 and Thing 2, Dr. Seuss’ rambunctious pair from The Cat in the Hat. Dinah decided one day that she was Thing 2 and that Djuna was Thing 1. When they play Thing 1 and Thing 2, they run around the house pretending to fly a fishbowl on a kite string. Fun.
[Note: In fact, the appearance of Thing 1 and Thing 2 in The Cat in the Hat is a metaphorical description of carrying, giving birth to and raising twins:
“I call this game FUN-IN-A-BOX,”
Said the cat.
“In this box are two things
I will show to you now.
You will like these two things,”
Said the cat with a bow.
“I will pick up the hook.
You will see something new.
Two things. And I call them
Thing One and Thing Two.
These Things will not bite you.
They want to have fun.”
Then, out of the box
Came Thing Two and Thing One!
And they ran to us fast.
They said, “How do you do?
Would you like to shake hands
With Thing One and Thing Two?”
(And then Thing One and Thing Two proceed to create delicious havoc in the house.)]
As far as toy pairs, Dinah has enjoyed her “Maggies†for ages. Maggie is one of Fisher-Price’s ® Little People, and Dinah has three of them (in case we lose one). She always plays with two Maggies at a time. She never refers to them as twins though, so my husband and I have never been sure if she perceives her Maggies as a pair. We just know that when she plays with Maggie, she has to have two of them.
Dwayne and I don’t know if they playact pairs because it’s a natural choice — there is always a sib around to take the other part — or if they actually perceive themselves as part of a duo, and therefore integrate duos into their play.
With two-and-a-half year olds, I guess it could be anything, for any reason.