Watching the Twins Grow Up

When I was living in Nathalia 25 years ago as an exchange student, Thommo was one of my best friends. He, Bean and myself spent a great deal of time hanging out as teenagers do, kicking the footy, playing pool, having the odd stubby and solving the world’s problems.

Living back in Melbourne has given me the opportunity to rekindle old friendships that in most cases never really dwindled but what also has been fun is watching our friend’s kids grow up.

Harrison and Jack are Thommo and Alicia’s boys. When I was in Melbourne on a business trip in 2006 they were recently married and expecting twins (I am not sure they knew they were having twins at the time). When we arrived in 2007, the boys were just tiny babies and we have loved watching them grow up over the past 2.5 years.

About three weeks ago we spent a Sunday afternoon (it turns out our last time with them as Thommo came down with the Swine Flu during our last week so our plans got changed) at the Melbourne Zoo and the (almost three year old) boys had come to play and act as tour guides.

I am not sure if any two kids know every inch of that Zoo like Jack and Harrison. Name an animal and you will have your hand clasped and escorted to the next section after a rendition of the animal’s sound and a unique pronunciation of the animals names (e.g. ‘rilla).

They also love the camera as you can tell here and have a close bond as many twins do. I know I will miss these boys but also know that we will continue to watch them grow up and torture their parents through Skype, Facebook, blogs and today’s fantastic instantaneous communication vehicles.