The Daly Story: The twins meet the twins*

After Hurricane Irene finished up her performance on the Connecticut coast, my dear friends from growing up came to visit. Christina and Rebecca are amazingly talented musicians (violin & cello, respectively) who I had the honor to play in a string quartet through high school. We lived in different towns, but met in East Hartford several times a week to rehearse and for lessons, along with our fantastic violist, Michael. High school was tough for me, as it is for a lot of teens, and music & the quartet was really where I felt happiest. I'm still friends with them to this day, and when we found out I was pregnant with identical twin girls, they were among the people who I was most excited to tell. Such a crazy coincidence - having good friends who are identical twin girls and then giving birth to them!

Chris (who resides in Zurich) and Becs (who resides in Santa Monica) just happened to be visiting their grandmother in CT at the very same time that we were at the beach! They drove down to visit for the day and we had an amazing few hours. Knowing Chris & Bec is such a blessing for Leah & I as we navigate raising two daughters who look quite similar -- how we encourage their special bond to remain strong, and at the same time, facilitate their own individual growth and the development of their special, unique personalities. *For example, our first lesson from them was the advice to try to limit the use of calling them "the twins" - which lumps them as a unit and not as individual people. I think we'll still use the term from time to time, but I now won't forget to also call them "the girls" (like Leslie & I were often called growing up), or just plain "Char & Em".