Of Birds, Blue and Red

Stephen and Daniel were arguing this morning about which TV program to watch. As we are geographically between New York and Philadelphia, we get three PBS stations, one from each of these cities in addition to the local PBS affiliate. Today Daniel wanted to watch one station and Stephen another.

"Let Daniel pick first," I called from the kitchen where I was eating breakfast. "He's in school all week and doesn't get to see his show."

"Ha ha ha-ha ha!" sang Daniel.

Stephen trudged into the kitchen, a mournful look on his face. He approached Matthew who was sitting next to me at the kitchen table, busily coloring a Christmas tree.

"Matthew, Daniel's being mean to me," he sniffed.

"Aw, that's too bad," Matthew answered in a comforting tone. He put his arm around Stephen's neck and hugged him. "Do you want to help me color in the ormanents?"

(Ormanents is Matthew's pronunciation of ornaments.)

"Yeah. Can I sit next to you?" Stephen asked.

"Sure, you can sit next to me!" said Matthew, moving over on the chair to make room for his twin.

Tab and I smiled at each other over the two bent, blond heads so close together. The two of them occasionally fight with each other, but they also share a special closeness.

Of course, that special closeness was forgotten an hour later in the car. We were on our way to Lawrence Township's Memorial Day parade when I spotted a blue jay flying up to a tree branch and pointed it out to Matthew.

"I see it, I see it!" he cried excitedly. Matthew thinks of blue jays as his birds since blue is his favorite color. Stephen, who prefers red, has claimed the cardinal.

"Where's a cardinal? I want to see a cardinal," demanded Stephen.

"I don't see any cardinals right now, Reno," I said.

"That's no fair!"

"Well, honey, we've seen cardinals lots of times on our walks. Matthew hadn't seen a blue jay yet this year."

"I haven't seen a cardinal in a whole week!"

Tab was fed up. "Quit the whining, Stephen," he snapped.

Stephen subsided to a low grumbling. Gazing out of his window a few minutes later, he spotted a cardinal (or what he thought was a cardinal, anyway) and all was well again.

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