Mom and Dad called Amanda and Benjamin in to the living room. They are going to give them some wonderful news. Dad sit Benjamin on his lap and Mom called Amanda over to her. We have something wonderful to tell you. It is going to be hard and you both will have to help in some way.

Amanda is in for a shock and so is Benjamin. Now Benjamin has been the baby for over a year and now there are going to be twins in the family. Amanda loves her brother and has learned to share everything with him so now she has to start all over again in sharing everything. She has to give up her big room that her and Benjamin share . Benjamin has been in her room for over a year and she doesn’t know if she can part with him or not. Her little heart is broken and she ask Mom to let Benjamin stay with her. Mom is trying to explain to her, she can have a room of her own now since she is older, she doesn’t want it. "Honey", Mom said, "we need the big room for the babies and Benjamin, you will be right next to them."  "What if Benjamin needs me and what if he has a bad dream?" Dad told Amanda for the first six months Benjamin can stay in her room and she can teach him to watch over the babies, well that helped a little. Amanda did not want her parents to know she didn’t want to stay alone in her room, she thought they would think she was a baby because she was afraid to be alone. She didn’t think she was going to like the new babies, she was very upset. "I don’t think you should have the babies," she told her Mom, "I don’t want them."  She started to cry, she got Benjamin by the hand and they went upstairs. She asked Benjamin, "will you miss me?" and Benjamin started to cry also, "Yes , I will, lets make Mom send them back, we don’t need them."

Dad heard them talking and his heart was broken, how was he going to convince them it was a wonderful thing to have a big family and how wonderful it was to have brothers and sisters and to share funny things with them?

Mom had a plan so she started with Amanda. Everyday she would take Amanda to the park and she told Amanda she wanted her to bring her stroller and two baby dolls and to push them in the park. Then they would stop and set on the bench and she would tell Amanda to feed her baby dolls and talk to them and play with them, Amanda loved this, it was fun. Then she would tell Benjamin to take one out and hold it and pretend it was real and feed it a bottle, they liked this, it was fun for both of them. Everywhere they went Mom told Amanda to bring her baby dolls and then it got to be a habit and so one day Mom told her, "You know how we have been playing and how you took your baby dolls everywhere?"   "Yes"  Amanda said  "I like that",  "well that is how it's going to be with the new babies, we will have all kinds of things to do and enjoy together."  Amanda still was not real sure, she asked Benjamin, "what do you think Benjamin?"  Benjamin said  'I like the baby dolls but they don’t cry a lot "Mom, will the babies cry a lot? '  "Well" Mom said "not if we take real good care of them and make sure they don’t get hungry, I am sure they won’t cry a lot." Amanda said "Mom, I will not change the diapers, no, no, no, I won’t do that."  Mom just laughed, "its okay, I won’t ask you to do that."

Well it came time for the babies to be born and Mom went to the hospital, she was gone for a couple of days, this upset Amanda, she didn’t want the babies now because they had taken her Mom away. She didn’t understand. Then Mom came home but she didn’t have the babies. Benjamin started to cry, "Mommy we didn’t mean it, we said we didn’t want the babies but we didn’t mean it!"  Mom smiled, "its okay they are just so little and Daddy is watching over them, he will make them all better and get them strong enough to come home." Amanda started to cry too, "I am sorry Mommy, I want the babies too, tell Daddy to make them all better."  Amanda said, "and I promise I will sleep in my own room and they can have the big room and I will help take care of them. You see when Amanda and Benjamin thought they had wished their baby sister and brother away, they realized how much they loved them. I just wonder how much mischief twins can get into?  See the twins in Amanda's Album