mark-elliott.net

This software provides me with a great deal more stigmergic collaborative capacity and much more control over my information than stigmergiccollaboration.blogspot.com did. Constructed with TWiki wiki, this site functions as my info portal, blog, information management system, and well, just my own personal digital playground with collaborative activities soon to come.

The site’s structure is pretty straightforward:

• category links in right hand nav bar for blog content
• links across the top to various info in the website

I am trying desperately to get some RSS feeds set up for the categories, however this is proving a bit more difficult than I anticipated. But I’ll certainly post word when this happens, until then, you’ll just have to wade through posts on my twin boys… sorry.

Alternatively, you can browse via tags in the archive. Please feel free to comment or email me – mark.alan.elliott AT gmail.com – if you have any questions or suggestions.

So, are they identical or not? This is the question…

Having had a placenta and amniotic sac each, Cedar and Lucas are either straightforward fraternal twins (non-identical), or identical with the egg splitting within the first 3 or 4 days – before the placenta began development. According to Wikipedia.org’s article on twins (see also multiple births), male identical twins are the least probable combination. Without some sort of DNA test (which we’ve never been offered), we will just have to wait to see how they develop to tell which is the case (we have been told that it is usually the mother that picks it within the first six months).

Their head shape (which impacts their facial features) was affected by their position in utero – one was up-side-down (Cedar) and one was right-side-up (Lucas). These differences are supposed to even out (even if they are fraternal) in the first six to twelve months. This makes me feel even more like they are identical, as I can tell them apart relatively easily if I am looking at them front on and can see the crown of their head – Lucas is more narrow here than Cedar – you can sort of see this in the picture to the right, Lucas is on right, Cedar on left. However if they have a hat on, are somewhat covered up, or even on the side profile, I have a much more difficult time distinguishing them from one another.

But then sometimes they look quite different from each other, sort of:

So I guess the bottom line is at this point, we are still unsure, but tend to lean towards the identical side of the situation. I’m leaning very strongly towards identicallity – mainly because I often can’t tell without making an effort to see Lucas’s small birthmark on the top of his head. I often have this odd experience of dealing with a ‘general’ or a ’specific’ son depending upon how tired and or busy I am and wether or not I’ve confirmed who I’m dealing with. Very strange…

Here’s the usual barrage of pix and vids, the first one gives you an idea of how little sleep we’re getting…