They're my only grandsons, they're their parents' only children and they're the only twins in our family. So they are sort of special.

The Boys, as we call them, came into the world two months before they were supposed to, weighing a little under two pounds (Gabriel) and a little under four pounds (Isaac).

They were delivered early because their doctors thought leaving them in the womb much longer would imperil Gabriel's life. He wasn't getting his fair share of nourishment from his mother.

For the first two months of their lives, Gabriel and Isaac lived in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at Lucille Packard Hospital at Stanford Medical Center. Friends and family hovered over them, watching their every move and hoping they would not only survive, but be normal and healthy.

They did survive and, as far as anyone can tell, they are healthy. They went home after the two months. They celebrated their first birthday Nov. 23, 2003. They are almost walking these days—a little late, perhaps, but still pretty much on schedule.

They weigh respectable weights, too—again, a little less than non-premature babies. They are eating whole foods (they like tofu, avocado, Cheerios, chocolate cake, ice cream and milk) and they are beginning to make what sounds like words. None of the words are, of course, intelligible.

What is most interesting is that they are so different. They are non-identical twins. They don't look alike and the older they get, the less they seem to act alike.

Isaac was born with a shock of black hair that, unlike for some babies, has never disappeared. Gabriel was born as bald as a cue ball and until recently that's the way he's looked.

But gradually over the last couple of months, golden reddish hair has begun to emerge from his scalp.

Nor are their facial features very similar. Isaac looks like his dad (although his dad had reddish-blond hair when he was a baby). Gabriel looks the picture of his maternal grandmother, with an impish smile that makes you want to pick him up and hug him as soon as you see him.

Isaac is super inquisitive. He loves to open and shut doors, any kind of doors. In part, I guess, this is because he's able to move something on his own. In part, though, it seems to be because he is fascinated by the mechanical means by which doors are open and closed.

Gabriel is more contemplative. He often is content to sit and stare, sometimes at a balloon, for instance, as it dances around. Isaac would be more likely to try to grab it and squeeze it to see what it's made of.

The other thing about them I find fascinating is that only in recent weeks The Boys seem to have discovered one another.

Then suddenly they discovered there was another child—approximately their size and development—in the house and they became acquainted. Now when they wake up, or when sometimes one wakes the other up, they talk for long periods in a language only they understand.

They also pass blankets and toys back and forth from one crib to the other, sort of in the same way Presidents George Bush and Vincente Fox got reacquainted in Monterrey, Mexico, recently—gingerly.

The other thing I've been impressed with and which I am sure their parents are aware of, is how much more work it is to raise twins than it is a single child.

But dealing with one baby is a lot different than raising two at the same time. Just handling the equipment they need is a chore.

Fortunately for me, grandparents only get a little of this test of endurance.

But we get all the rewards of seeing them grow and prosper. Two times over, too.

Carl Heintze is a frequent contributor to the Los Gatos Weekly-Times.