My husband and I thought that we knew a lot about parenting. After raising our twin boys for the past five years, we are realizing that we still have a lot to learn. Despite being older parents, their antics are keeping us young. Here are a few examples of our fountain of youth.

A few weeks ago, Matthew lost his first tooth. After reading a story about the tooth fairy, he was very eager to put his tooth under his pillow with a note. The next morning, Matthew found two coins. He seemed satisfied with his gift. The next day, however, while sitting at the dining room table, I noticed that Matthew had only half of his bangs. Brian, his twin brother, had convinced him that the hair fairy pays more than the tooth fairy. I found the hair clippings under his pillow. Matthew quickly learned that hair fairies do not exist!

The other day I found Matthew sitting under a tree putting mud all over his bike. My curiosity got the best of me, so I asked him what he was doing. Very confidently, he responded, "Turning my bike into a dirt bike!"

After the first day of school, I was anxious to hear about their day. I turned to Brian and asked him what he had learned that day. He somberly responded, "we went over the school rules." My response, "well, can you name one of them for me?" Brian turned to me with sadness in his eyes and said, "you can't get married in kindergarten." Boy, I sure am glad they got that rule covered!

The boys came home from kindergarten with their sight word list. My husband was reviewing the words with them. They came to the word "mom." My husband had the boys say the letters M-O-M , and then told them he was giving them a hint. He said, "It's the name of your favorite person in the whole world." Matthew quickly shouts out, "Emma!" You gotta love that boy.

On Saturday morning, I was busy getting ready for a meeting. Matthew and Brian were playing quietly in the office while my husband was making breakfast. Brian came running into the kitchen to report to my husband that Matthew was talking to someone on the phone. When my husband realized that Matthew was playing with an old, obsolete phone, he scolded Brian and told him that it was just an old phone and that it hadn't worked in years. A few minutes later, the doorbell rings. My husband answers the door to a policeman and two squad cars. It turns out that an obsolete phone really can have 9-1-1 dialed on it.

At this rate, these boys should keep us young for years!