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Kelly and Carter are nine years old and now they can walk
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So we previously filmed with your family back in 2018 and then we came back in 2020
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First one of the day it gets cookie. But for anyone who didn't see your previous episodes
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can you tell us a little bit about Kelly and Carter and their condition
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So Kelly and Carter are a phallio-ichiopecus conjoined twins with two legs between them
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Valio means stomach and the ischiaopagus means hip. So they're connected by the hip and the stomach
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It happens in one to 200,000 births and not very many twins survive, usually about 20%
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And only 5% of those twins last longer than 24 hours. How did you, as parents, kind of react to those numbers
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That must have been quite tough. We both had a really hard time kind of coming to terms with it
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This is the first time I've actually, I think, looked at these since the girls were born
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because I would just think that they were going to die as soon as they were here. We just kept believing that it'll either be bad or it'll be good
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but we can't focus on the bad. Hi, my name's Callie and I'm nine years old
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And hi, my name's Carter and I'm nine years old as well. You're both twins, aren't you
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Can you tell us what it means for you to be conjoined twins
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It's kind of difficult because usually Callie would wake up first, They probably have to use the bathroom, hungry or thirsty
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My mom gives up a sleep, because until like 10 o'clock. And I still stay up until like 1am, but I wake up at like 6
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I just wake up at 6am and I'm like, God, I can't go faster. Did you ever have conversations with doctors about the possibility of surgery to separate Callie and Carter
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We thought whenever Callie and Carter were born that we were going to separate them
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about three days after they were born. The doctor advised us not to have separation surgery
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because they are healthy as they are. It's a hard decision. It really is because there's no right answer
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There's no guidebook. There's no one holding your hand. But I feel like we made the best decision we could
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Do you think the girls would ever want to be separated from each other? I have mentioned separation surgery a couple times
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They like we don want it We would be alone Like why would I want to be away from my sister They never been alone in their life I think it a fear for them honestly What the best thing about being joined to your twin sister
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You're never bored. And if you want to fight, you've got someone to fight with right there
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Do the twins ever get into fights or disagreements if one wants to go do something but the other one doesn't
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I can't remember the last time they fought, honestly. It's been so long
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I kind of taught them, like, hey, you need to talk it out, and it worked out pretty well
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I think the last time we had an argument was when we were like, bye
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It was about toys. It was about, should we play with our slime first
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or should we play with all these toys? How do you handle those situations
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Let's just do a lot of baby scissors before the parents come. I always do
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Callie is still more laid back and kind of just likes to chill. Carter's still the one that's like
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let's go do all this crazy stuff. But they've learned to cooperate better
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Whenever we last filmed with you guys, Callie and Carter were walking very slowly with help of Nick
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Let's go. Hey, Callie and Carter. About maybe a year and a half later, they started to actually stand up, take steps
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Do you remember how you kind of learned how to walk for the first time
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Yeah. I remember we struggled like very much at first. I remember this one time when we like took our first steps and we fell to the floor
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I was so happy we were taking our first steps and then boom, we fell to the floor and I started crying
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because I knew everyone was happy, but we felt it's a name sound that we felt
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They have six limbs between them, so they have two arms each, which makes it four, and then the one leg each
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Callie's responsible for all three of her limbs, and Carter's responsible for all three of her limbs
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which is what makes walking a little bit more difficult for them. Yeah, because whenever they walk, one has to completely lift their leg up, and it's like they're floating in the air
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My mom bought us a walker, a smaller walker for babies to help us try to walk better
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We managed to walk with them at the age five. Now they are nine years old and they can just walk and run all over the place and go to school and do anything any other kids can really do
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Well running still a little limited because one of the girls will go a little bit faster than the other so they do tumble over a lot but they do go outside and play with the kids and run around just like all the other kids And they obviously incredibly independent Are there
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any things that you do still have to help them with? They are very little girls are six year old
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is taller than they are already so things in the kitchen that are on the top shelf they definitely
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need help but we just try to make them as independent as possible. They brush their teeth
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They put on their own clothes. They brush their hair. What are some of your favorite things to do together now that you are able to kind of walk around
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Maybe like play games together and like play with each other outside with our brothers
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We have an older son named Jason. He is 13. Micah, who is six
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Do the boys have to be mindful or careful of, you know, them when they're playing together
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We don't really be careful with them. Nick's usually the one that plays with them and they fight
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and he'll make them do little flips and everything like that. Whenever Michael and Jason are fighting, we join in
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but we never fight each other. Our older brother is like, how about you fight your sister
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And I'm like, man, we're gonna go jump you guys instead. And what about at school? Do you have lots of friends at school
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Yes, yeah. I think there's like 315 kids at our school and every single one wants to be our friend
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Callie and Carter are going in the fourth grade. They currently have a bunch of friends
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They're known as the playground fairies at school because they love to play on the jungle gym and do cool tricks
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Did you ever have any concerns about Callie and Carter going to school
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and coming into contact with children who maybe don't understand their condition
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We really haven't had to deal with too much bullying. The girls are good about sticking up for themselves and they're quite quippy
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So when people do try to usually say something about them, they're quick to respond and they handle themselves really well
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And have any kids ever said anything mean to you at school? It's the kindergarteners and first graders
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I do it. Yeah, like this kindergarteners, we're like, sorry, little cat, but can you please move your block and slide if you want to go down
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We thought we were a four-year-old. They're like, I had your four-year-old up. Oh, they had to go down first
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We were like, what not? We said we were third graders and they all ran off like a meter away manner Why do you think they thought that you were younger than them Because we like we kind of short We like short Our little brother is like taller than us
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And he's 59. Do you foresee any challenges still ahead for Callie and Carter
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The one thing that I am concerned about is puberty. Whenever boys come around and whenever they're that age
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I'm not going to be very relaxed like I will do with my sons
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I will be like going on the dates and I will be like driving them to the dates I don't even care
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how old they are like I will be watching them to make sure nobody's doing anything bad I don't play
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with my kids and I don't play around at all when it comes to them especially those girls
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with all the progress the girls have made uh what do you hope their future looks like the long-term
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goal is to just treat them like any other kids which means when they're 18 if they need to go
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out and have an apartment then they're going to if they need a car at 16 then we're going to
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We want them to become independent. We want them to live in their own apartment
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If they choose to go to college, we want them to go to college, do whatever they want to do
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What do you both want to be when you grow up? Would you want to do the same job as each other or would you want to do different jobs
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We're not sure. All we know is right now we both want to do the same job
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Probably a cashier or something because it would be easier if I be a cashier
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We kind of want to do whatever our mom's job was. Do you think you're quite good at working together
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Yes. Being Callie and Carter's mom and dad, how has that changed you as people, do you think
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I think it made me kind of lose a lot of my self-arrogance that I had
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in realizing that it doesn't matter how big you are or how strong you are
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life does what it wants. How proud are you of Callie and Carter
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I am super proud of Callie and Carter. It took them a little bit to kind of walk, took them a little bit to kind of talk, but
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once they caught on to it, it was just so fast. Like, it was just rolling down
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They're so great, and I just couldn't be any more prouder of them
