FARGO (AP) - Only a grandma can brag about blown-out diapers.

Linda Burrows, the maternal grandmother of conjoined twins Abby and Belle Carlsen, couldn't have been more thrilled.

"I got it twice," she said, snuggling two sleeping girls to her chest. "It was a mess, wasn't it?"

Linda and Bill Burrows, the parents of Amy Carlsen, flew into Fargo from western Montana late Monday and held their first grandchildren for the first time.

The twins are identical, but grandma and grandpa identified each girl right away. They had studied their photos for nearly three months.

Linda wasted no time slipping into grandmother mode. Within the first hour, she changed two diapers - no small feat on twins who can't lie on their backs.

Abby and Belle, born in late November, are connected from mid-chest to their navels. Preliminary studies showed they are joined at the breastbone, liver and part of their intestines, but they have separate hearts and other vital organs. Doctors have been doing tests before setting a date to separate them.

This week, their grandparents have watched the girls so Amy and Jesse Carlsen, the twins' parents, can catch up on such things as haircuts and taxes.

The girls look a lot like Amy when she was a baby, Linda said. And Belle, who demands attention and thrives on 20-minute power naps, is the perfect payback for her mother, who acted the same as an infant.

Along with her helping hands and keen observations, Linda dispenses motherly advice passed down through generations.

"You know, the best thing for a rash is Bag Balm," she tells Amy, who cringes at the thought of putting salve designed to soften cow udders on her daughters' bottoms.

"And my mother always told me to put burned flour on your rashes," Linda continues.

Meanwhile, Bill organizes the couple's garage and vacuums Amy's car. He loves to talk to the twins - "You're my girls. Yes, you are," he promises with a quick kiss to each, though he's less comfortable holding them.

Instead, he looks forward to the day they'll be separated, a date that is still unknown. Then he'll organize cookie races, a game that requires the girls to race for a treat.

Jesse's mom, Patti Carlsen, drove to Fargo from eastern Montana a couple of weeks ago. Although she met the girls when they were born Nov. 29 in Minneapolis, she couldn't hold them. It was torture, she said.

"My mom told me that you'll never understand how special grandchildren are until you have your own," said Patti Carlsen, who is now a grandmother of three. "She was right. It's just a feeling you can't explain."