Tootsie! Why our cousins and grandma can’t tell us apart

Having a look-alike has its major advantages, see the Sea World post below. But, there are also some major disadvantages. It makes it hard to distinguish who is who. Even those who we are around weekly have a hard time telling us apart. I've provided a few pictures to illustrate this. The picture to the left - who is who?! I can't really tell to be honest, but I think Darby is in the front...


Exhibit A: Grandparents and cousins see us nearly every Sunday and cannot tell us apart. Grandma just called us Tootsie for the first 10 years of our lives when she saw us. Most of the time it’s just a “Hey!” instead of “Hey Dallin!" or "Hey Darby!” The funny thing is, most of the cousins that have married into the family can tell us apart; mostly because they actually try to tell us apart. Cousin Doug probably comes in first with guessing-to-success ratio. Cousin Kallie would have to be second and Cousin Julie a solid third place. The other cousin spouses do try, but these three definitely are in the top echelon. Cousin John thinks that it’s so rude that our cousins and aunts and uncles make no effort to tell us apart. He doesn’t get it.


But Darby and I are pretty used to it. The only time that Darby has been called by her name was when I was in Argentina for 18 months. The family (and everyone else for that matter) had a 100% chance of getting it right.
Even I have a hard time telling us apart sometimes. The picture to the left here is much easier: Dallin is on the left and Darby is on the right. I'm certain :)

Exhibit B: 3rd grade school picture. I wrote on the back of a picture that it was me...it was not. It was Darby. Any other year in school pictures I can tell, but not that year. It doesn't help that we had the exact same outfit on that year.

So, even the parties involved have some problems at times. It makes me have some empathy for all the rest of you.