The Power of No

Why is it that when I tell one twin not to do something, his brother immediately drops whatever he's doing and scurries over as fast as his legs will carry him in order to do the exact same thing??

(I don't have an appropriate picture for this entry, but the one in my mind is of two little boys gleefully chomping on the vacuum cleaner cord.) 

It's not like we don't give them lots of attention when they are behaving, and we try not to say "no" or "uh uh" in an overly exciting way, but they nonetheless think that "no" means "this is the best possible thing in the world to do."  Clearly we have not yet established the Iron Fist of Discipline around here. 

I still remember one of our early visits to the Special Infant Care Clinic, when one of the docs asked us if they responded to the word "no", and was very careful about saying that they understood that some families don't use that word, etc.  At the time, we never had to say no to the boys because they never really had the opportunity to do anything they weren't supposed to do.  (Perfect little angels!)  But I wondered at the time and I still wonder now who the heck these people are who don't believe in using the word "no" for their kids -- what exactly do they say when their child is climbing on something potentially dangerous, trying to eat something that isn't food, and all the other things that little ones do that they shouldn't?