I’ve written quite a bit over the last six months about my two wonderful, loving, often challenging girls. Let’s face it – Chloe and Sophie are terrific kids, but they are known to drive us crazy at least several times a day with their demands, their temper tantrums, their unchecked emotions…

So it always astounds me that when we enter a group setting, like the 20-person Passover dinner we celebrated tonight at my cousin’s apartment, the girls instinctively put on their “we’re adorable” hats and impress everyone in the room with their charm.

Not a peep of complaint from either one of them, not when they were hungry, not even when they were tired. Just smiles, smiles and more smiles. Chloe reading to everyone from the Haggadah, showing off her spelling skills, interacting with her twin one-year old cousins – one of whom was particularly taken with the big girl who was suddenly paying so much attention to her. Sophie gently approaching the babies, dancing and spinning, eating ice cream – even going potty on a stranger’s toilet…It truly doesn’t get much better than this.

The thing is – several hours straight of angelic behavior from both of them simultaneously is so rare that I never know what to make of it when it happens. It makes me proud, of course, but also more than a little bit suspicious. On the one hand, it’s comforting to know that we’re at least doing something right in raising them, since they know when to behave. On the other hand, it might simply be that we’re raising master manipulators who know how to work a crowd. You know, future politicians or actresses.

Either way, my girls were truly terrific tonight. I won’t question the miracle any further – I’ll simply try to channel the memory of this evening the next time Tweedledum & Tweedledee cause me to question how we could have spawned such offspring.