Our viewers voted — these are the problem-solvers you need for fall
Rachel Paula Abrahamson
Kids are experts at creating delays. Someone suddenly needs the bathroom. A shoe mysteriously goes missing. In one family’s case, the delay came from unexpected animal passenger disguised as a baby doll.
Alanna Matson was shuttling her 5-year-old twins, Bria and Cora, to ballet class in upstate New York, running behind schedule, when suddenly she heard a sound. What happened next, equally chaotic and charming, is now going viral on TikTok.
In the video, Matson, a middle school Spanish teacher, explains that her daughters often wrap their baby dolls in blankets and cradle them in their laps during car rides. But that day, something was definitely off.
The camera shifts to the backseat. Bria is holding a doll, nothing unusual there. Then there’s Cora, beaming and clutching their family pet, a large cat named Tito. His loud meows and wriggling limbs leave no doubt: He wants out, and fast.
When Matson, 42, asks Cora why she sneaked Tito along, she replies, “He’s my best friend!”
In the comments, viewers were surprised by 10-year-old Tito’s size. Matson agrees he looks “massive” in the footage, though in reality, he only weighs 12 to 15 pounds.
Matson says her daughters deserve Academy Awards for their performances, keeping perfectly stoic faces after sneaking Tito into their mom’s minivan, giving no hint of the mischief afoot.
“About a mile into our trip, Tito made his presence known,” Matson tells TODAY.com, with a laugh. “Tito was like, ‘I think we’ve made a grave mistake here.’”
That’s when Matson says Bria and Cora exchanged a glance and instantly burst into fits of giggles.
The preschoolers are “always in cahoots with each other,” according to their mother. Lately, they’re in a hiding phase, especially enjoying watching their older brothers hunt for their football gear.
“They like to watch us squirm a bit, so we’re really up against a duo like that!” Matson says. She notes that the “we” also includes Tito. While they don’t take make him search for his toys, they do enjoy playing stylist with him. Most recently, the twin sisters dressed him up as Glinda from the “The Wizard of Oz.”
Says Matson, “They put the full crown on him, made him pose with the wand, and he just sat there like a champ!”
Rachel Paula Abrahamson is an entertainment journalist-turned-lifestyle reporter living in Boston. She covers parenting, pop culture, and news for TODAY.com — and fancies herself an expert on all things twin-related! In 2024, Rachel received an NBC Gem Award (Going the Extra Mile) for her contributions to NBC. Rachel lives in the Boston area with her husband, their two daughters, and labrodaughter Asti. Follow her on Instagram.
© 2025 NBCUniversal Media, LLCApple®, Apple logo® and App Store® are registered trademarks of Apple Inc.
