One year already?!

Oh my goodness, I've missed your birthday. Not your actual birthday, but the part where I write about it and you and all the amazing things we're up to. So here goes.

Happy belated birthday Lucy! Happy belated birthday Jane!

You two have been with us now for a whole year, and I can hardly believe that you haven't been with me for my entire life. What did I do without you? Oh right - sleep and eat and run errands with careless abandon. Just joking around. I mean, it's all true, but as it turns out, you're both worth all the sleep deprivation, the eating hot meals cold and cold meals hot, and the packing up of the world to make a "quick" trip to the grocery store.

Speaking of the grocery store, you both were there, but I'm not sure you realized that I got chastised at the grocery store a couple of weeks ago for trying to take one of the kid carts outside. "Those have to stay in the store, ma'am." "Um, I got this one from the parking lot. So it was out of the store. And I can't get both of my kids back out to the car without pushing them in this cart." "Well, it has to stay in the store." And so on... And speaking of kid carts, you both love the grocery store and especially get a kick out of the cart where you each get a steering wheel. Jane, you were a little tired last time, and you leaned your head on Lucy's shoulder at first, but then you got in the spirit of things and started steering. Both wheels. Yours wasn't enough. You needed your sister's wheel, too.

We've been able to watch you two grow and change over this past year, and I have to tell you, it has been like an observation in nature vs. nurture. We treat you the same, but you are DEFINITELY not the same. I hope that helps as you continue to grow and become. I worry already about the twin thing and making sure that people treat you as individuals rather than "the twins".

Some highlights of our year (in no particular order):

Bringing you home from the NICU. I hadn't prepared myself for the possibility that we'd be going home from the hospital without you. Your dad and I cried ourselves silly on that drive home. We were with you every day. I held you and fed you and read magazines to you and changed diapers and sang to you and finally, after twelve very long days, the doctor said that you, my little feeder-growers, were eating well enough on your own to be released. And you were still soooo tiny. Ay caramba. I look at pictures of you now from back then and think it's amazing that we didn't break you. Your little legs were like pipe cleaners and your pacifier took up most of your face.


So many diapers! Your Uncle Eric started stocking up on diapers for us before you were born, and thank goodness he did! Anytime your Nana and Pops came over to visit, they'd bring a big box of diapers. I'm pretty sure that I'm a favorite customer of diapers.com where, get this folks, your order is delivered the next day! And, if you deliver to an address in KS (thanks Shawna and Amanda!), no tax! This is just an approximation, but I believe we've gone through about 18 millions diapers this year. No pressure or anything, but if you want to be early potty-trainers, I'm all for it.


We took your first long road trip when you were only five months old so you could meet your great-grandma, great aunt and uncle, and many cousins in South Dakota. I can't decide if your daddy and I were brave or crazy or a little of both, but you did better than we ever expected, and you even got to see the Corn Palace.

Food. Sometimes you love something, sometimes you hate it, but it's always an adventure. Things you've loved: peaches, quiche (spoiled little Room 39 quiche eaters!), yogurt, smoothie pops, oranges, pasta with pesto sauce, cheerios, pineapple, macaroni and cheese, biscuits and gravy, oatmeal. Things you haven't loved so much: hummus, quinou, green beans. I completely understand why gerber and those nasty looking gerber graduates meals exist. Because sometimes little people don't care that mama or daddy just made them some amazingly delicious, homemade, good-for-you food and choose to spit it out or throw it at the cat or stuff it in their little ears.If we have to go through a phase where all you eat is white or chicken nuggets or something equally disturbing, I think a part of my soul will shrivel up and die. Right now, since one of you (Lucy) is at the 7th percentile for weight, and the other of you (Jane) is at the 10th percentile, you're getting ice cream after dinner, pudding for snack, and all the pumpkin bread you can eat. I feel like we're fattening up the Christmas goose or something.

Peekaboo, That's Not My Monkey, and our morning wrestling match. You both love peekaboo, especially when you play with your dad. It involves hiding under a blanket and flapping around with glee both while you're under there and when it gets pulled off and we scream "PEEKABOO" at you. Watching you sit in the middle of the living room floor with a blanket thrown over you while you wiggle and squirm and wave those little arms is adorable. We have read, re-read, and re-re-read That's Not My Monkey and other favorites so many times now, but there are a handful that are still your favorites, so how can we say no more monkey book? We can't. Now that it's getting cold, you have to wear coats when we leave the house. It doesn't matter how early I try to start the getting ready to go process, it always takes us right up until 5 minutes after I wanted to leave. That may be because I have to chase you two little rugrats all over the place trying to put socks on and then your coats, ah, your coats. Lucy, you scream like the world is coming to an end when I try to put shoes on you. And Jane, you become a WWF woman (minus the greasy body and weird costume) when you see me coming at you with your coat. If you don't believe me, know that it took three grown women to hold you down when you had to have blood drawn for your 1 year appointment. I am impressed with myself every morning when I get the three of us out of the house dressed and more or less ready for the rest of the day.

Snuggles, hugs, and more baby love. I can't tell you how much I love the hugs you girls give. Or when you rest your little head right into that crook of my neck. Or when I'm working in the kitchen, and Jane, you crawl up behind, stand up, grab the back of my legs and hang on. I don't think I'll ever care how dirty you've just gotten my work pants. That's how much I love it.

Words. Things you said when you were born: WAAAAAA. Things one or both of you say now: yellow, more, wa-wa, poop, windmill, ball, light, block, cookie, amy, pops, pa-pop, nana (both for grandma and banana), mama, dad, knee, bath, yo-yo, watch, hippo, car, truck, and more every day! And your animal noises! oh my! you know what a cow says (moo), what a rooster says (cock-a-doo), what a tiger says (roaar), what a kitty says (meeow), what a monkey says (ooh-ooh-ahh-ahh), what a sheep says (baa), what a doggy says (woof), what an owl says (whoo-hoo). I can't wait until I get to ask you how your day was and you tell me!

Girls, I love you so much. You are two of my very best people in the whole world. Thanks for being my babies