There was fairly recent TV coverage of a 'twin convention' and yes, one of the prizes went to 'dissimilar twins'. No mention of cash prizes, but wouldn't that be lovely?

Well, can't help you, but I don't think your boys would win :-) This is why...

Did you hear about the black/white girl twins in England? Their parents were both the offspring of a white mother and a black father. One girl got the black genes, the other got the white genes. They are so beautiful. I'm including a link.

Here is a link that might be useful: Mixed Twin Story

I don't understand the bleeding hearts line--what do you mean?

And that's *wild*, proudmama! Thanks for sharing it.

Did you hear the one about the lady in Holland I think, whose twins were born as a result of artificial insemination? Also one white and one much darker. Because neither parent was known to be of mixed race, they did genetic tests on the two and found that the darker baby had been fathered by the previous male client at the infertility clinic. They had re-used the pipette! The parents had filed a lawsuit...

Those twin girls are precious! Thanks Proudmama!

yikes! proudma, they certainly won't be able to fool their teachers at school..they are adorable!
flyleft, not always, but more often than not, when questions or a topic out of the ordinary on children comes up, the poster will be reminded that at least your children are healthy and you are lucky to have them, there are so many women who can't have children, and one should count your blessings. i agree with this all and i just lightheartedly wanted to save other people some time in reminding me of it. my humor is dry at times...

My boys are as different as night and day--appearance and otherwise. One is sturdy and tall, while the other one is thin and small boned. They are totally different in personality. One is "spirited", won't go to sleep, challenges my patience about 18 yrs a day and won't eat anything but cream of wheat--but he is the funniest child in the world. The other one is sweet, easy, eats anything that doesn't eat him first, and goes to sleep without a fuss. But, like you I know that I am the luckiest woman in the world and wouldn't trade my life with twins for all of the gold in Fort Knox.

I have four kids and my mom says that not a one of them looks like me.

Well, my twins (girls) are only 3 (we're celebrating a birthday! Born 3/4/03) so I don't know how much alike they'll look as they grow, but each day it seems they look less and less like one another. They looked *exactly* the same for the first year, and then they began to go in different directions, LOL. Personalities are nothing alike, either. However, their coloring is very similar which I guess is why everyone asks whether or not they are identical. One twin is a whole size larger than the other and has strawberry-blonde ringlets to her waist. She is tall and stocky (can you put those 2 things together?) and strong. The other twin has wispy blonde shoulder-length hair that defies description as far as curly/straight/wavy. She too is tall, though not as tall as her sister, very lean and wiry and is my gymnast.

Since fraternal twins are no different than any other brother/brother, brother/sister, sister/sister combo it isn't surprising that some look nothing at all alike. I don't resemble my sister in the least, yet we are full siblings. That's the beauty of genetics! I think people in general get confused between identical and fraternal twins and even we twin parents kind of fall into the notion that twins should be more alike than different, even when we know better. I feel at times like sharing a womb should have conferred some kind of mystical link, but I haven't noticed this to be the case :)

I love having twins! I have 28 month old identical twin girls. We are having a blast.

I have 10 year old identical twin nieces. Obviously they look alike (because they are identical, Lol). But what amazes me is the height difference. the older twin is more than 2 inches taller. I don't get that. I thought genetics determined someones height. So identical twins having the same DNA would be expected to be the same height, right? Obviously, external factors player a major role in determining someones height.
Maybe when they are fully grown they will be closer in height. Who knows.
They are definitely double the fun.

and something else, my guys don't seem to have much loyalty for each other, but one school year i asked if they wanted to be in seperate classes and they had a fit! like typical guys, they don't want to show their emotions, but deep down inside, they will pull together in the end. They also seem to get along much better when their older brother (by 19 months) is not around.
when they were growing up, we would call them 'the little guys' instead of twins. one announced, when he was about 5yrs, that he didn't want to be a twin anymore, girl twins are twins, guy twins are guys. so, all 5 of them are "the guys"
and the twins are 'the little guys'' even though i have a 13 yr old too.

I had identical twins that worked for me after school cleaning stalls. I could not tell them apart.
Gave up and asked if I could call them "twin" because I never knew to whom I was talking. They got a kick out of that. But they would often say they were the other one. Drove me nuts.
Terrific kids.

Did you ever see a movie called "Start the Revolution Without Me"? It stars Gene Wilder and Donald Sutherland as two sets of twins who were mixed at birth. Each set has one Gene Wilder and one Donald Sutherland. One set was born to an aristocratic couple and one to a peasant couple -- and they grow up in time to participate in the French revolution. The Gene Wilders obviously belong to the peasant couple -- very rough and rebellious, and the Donald Sutherlands are very delicate and refined. Both of them have these personalities despite having been raised in the "wrong" family.

Of course, they run into each other and "hilarity ensues".

I'm not suggesting your twins were switched -- just that your post brought that movie to my mind. It really was a funny movie, I saw it about 25 years ago!

I have identical twin nieces that are now 19. One is about two inches shorter than the other. She was on depakene for years for petit mal seizures, and we think that probably slowed her growth compared to the other twin. So, external factors can certainly play a part.

I have identical twin nephews that are 26. They both have cutaneous lupus (the less serious kind). So, this certainly demonstrates how much genetics can play in disease.

Wow, blsdgal, 2 sets of identicals in your family. How lucky for you!!
Sorry to hear about their medical issues. I do hope they are well. My aunt has had what she calls discoid lupus for over 20 years. And except for the nasty looking rash that appears for months at a time, she is a very healthy 80+ year old woman.