September 8, 2006

Silicon Valley Mom

Happy tears

By Dona Nichols
Special to the Times

Kids love to hear stories about themselves as babies. They also enjoy listening to details of the quirks and cravings during pregnancy. Dylan, the alpha male half of my fraternal twins, always starts the same way.

“Mommy, how happy were you when you found out you were having twins?”

I have to choose my words carefully before answering him.

“Sometimes people are so happy that they actually cry,” I say to him, hoping to make him think that I cried tears of joy the day I found out I was pregnant with twins. “Have you ever cried happy tears at a movie?”

“Oh, you mean like when Spongebob was rehydrated,” Dylan says. “Or like when Shaggy and the gang got back together in the Scooby-Doo movie?”

“You cried at those movies?” I asked.

“Yeah, but I didn’t want anyone to see me,” Dylan said.

“That’s because you’re my sensitive child. When I found out I was having twins, tears just rolled down my cheeks,” I told him. “Actually, the doctor thought it was triplets at first, which really made me cry.”

“You must’ve been super happy,” Dylan said.

“Twins are very special,” I said. “Girl and boy twins are extra special because they’re just womb mates.”

“I’ll tell you what’s really special,” Dylan said. “Vietnamese twins, now that’s special.”

I’m pretty sure he meant Siamese twins.

Dylan asked, “How did you know you were pregnant?”

“One day I came home for lunch and ate two cans of spinach,” I told him. “I thought it was delicious. For the next three days I rushed home and ate spinach straight from the can. I couldn’t get enough it. After going through about a dozen cans of spinach your dad asked why I suddenly had an insatiable appetite for canned spinach. That’s when I knew.”

There are three sets of fraternal twins within five houses of our home. There used to be another set of fraternal twins across street but they moved. My husband says there’s something in the water. Now I drink only bottled water.

People always ask if I was on fertility drugs.

“No, just lucky,” is my standard reply. “At 41 I’m pretty sure I only had three or four very old and hard eggs left. Two got fertilized. I’m going to Vegas I’m so lucky.”

Dona Nichols teaches journalism at San Jose State University and does stand-up comedy on the side at the Improv in downtown San Jose. She lives in Evergreen with her husband and three children. Email her at: DonaNichols@gmail.com.