Newborn twins" birthdays straddle dawning of new year Brandon's birth at MedStar Washington Hospital Center in the District was among the region's first in 2014, and the timing gave their father, Warren Begazo of Wheaton, another reason to delight in the twins" arrival. "A few minutes and a year apart is special," he said Wednesday. The babies and their mother, Yaleni Begazo, 39, were doing well, even though the twins arrived weeks ahead of their Jan. 21 due date. Lorraine weighed in at about six pounds and in the early hours was the more active of the two, said her father, who described her as "a princess." Brandon was just a little more than five pounds and was "passive . . . the quiet one - for now," said Begazo, who has an 18-year-old son, Dylan, from a previous marriage. Begazo, 53, and his wife are from Arequipa, Peru. He works as a waiter at the National Press Club, and his wife has worked in child care, he said. The prospect of twins initially left Begazo "in shock and happily anxious. I worried about the responsibility for two at once, their college funds. But they "will give Dylan a chance to be called brother, and he won't be alone at home anymore." There were 131,024 infants born in "twin deliveries" in the United States in 2012, according to the most recent annual statistics on the Web site of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The rate of twin births rose steadily from 1980 to 2009 but had been essentially unchanged since, hovering at 33.1 per 1,000 total births, according to the CDC site. The timing of the Begazo twins" arrival, though unusual, was not unique. A Toronto area woman delivered twin girls: one the hospital's last baby of 2013 and one its first of 2014, according to a Canadian television network. Begazo said he foresees a minivan in his future, not the Chevy Impala he drives now. And he has sized up the tax implications. "Lorraine is the deduction for 2013," he said, adding with a laugh, "I got one in the bank with Brandon."