Growth Spurt!

Anna and Margaret visited the pediatrician today for their 12-month appointment - otherwise known as the "it's all fun and games at the doctor's office until the needles come out." They received an excellent report of perfect health, and they're right on track with their milestones - although we did get a mini-lecture on how to put a stop to all those night wakings that we still (STILL!) are experiencing every - single - night. My little non-sleepers - trying to prove to the world every day that they can survive on 6 hours of sleep per night. Dr. Long gave us some good tips - so once the Fourth of July holiday is over, it's Ferber method from here on out!

To my great amazement, the girls gained THREE inches from their 9-month appointment, which means that they're either sneaking fruits, vegetables, and growth hormones behind my back, or perhaps there was an incorrect measurement at some point. Here are the stats:

Anna
Height: 30 inches / 73%
Weight: 20 lbs 9 oz / 38%
Head Circumference: 46 cm / 76%

Margaret
Height: 30 inches / 73%
Weight: 19 lbs 5 oz / 19%
Head Circumference: 46 cm / 76%

So, let's see, I have small(ish), tall(ish) girls. Though many say the girls look exactly like me, those kinds of dimensions definitely don't come from my side of the family, so perhaps Joey's family's DNA is at work and the girls may be taller after all! Of course, Dr. Long indicated that kids often have growth spurts, and then level off, so I imagine they'll even out in the end and grow up to be somewhere near my 5'4" stature. I'm sorry, girls. I'll root for your Daddy's genetics in this case. What definitely comes from my side of the family are those huge noggins. Check out the head size on my kiddos! I have a huge head, as does my father - I'd like to say we need more cranium to fit our enormous brains. Right.

There was a funny little mix-up at the doctor's office when the nurse weighed Anna and declared her to be "29 lbs," a weight which was promptly entered into the computer, assessed by Dr. Long, and raised some red flags as to how Anna gained 12 lbs in 4 months (well, she did eat a lot of birthday cake). After a few seconds of confusion, a once-over of Anna by Dr. Long, and a re-weigh, they discovered their mix-up - obviously the nurse meant 20.9 lbs.

Have a wonderful Fourth of July, everyone! I can't even remember last year's 4th - I was so delirious at that time last year from day 6 of caring for newborn twins. So I'm so excited to be among the land of the living this year, and enjoying it with family and our adorable one year olds. Have a great holiday!

Birthday Party Recap

I've finally recovered from the whirlwind tour and birthday party extravaganza to post a few pictures from our incredible day. The girls' first birthday party in St. Louis was absolutely wonderful, and I could never thank my family enough for going above and beyond to celebrate Anna and Margaret's special day in such an amazing way. We feel so spoiled and so lucky.

I didn't take any photos during the party, but my Dad took a bunch. I haven't gotten them from him yet, so I'm shamelessly stealing my friend Anne's photos to post here - thank you, Anne!

The beautiful party table that my mom decorated - she's truly got a designer's touch! Do you like the pink and purple overload? Pre-children, the idea of a princess-themed party would make me a little nauseous. Somehow it's a little more palatable when you've got 2 pretty little girls who look great in pink.

My completely amazing and overwhelmingly generous friend Anne, whose has furnished half of the girls' wardrobe over the past year, had these M&Ms custom printed with the girls' faces and names on them - pretty cool, huh? She had 5 lbs (!) of M&Ms printed, and now they are all sitting in our kitchen in a canister, and I think I alone have eaten 1 1/2 lbs of them. Darn you, Anne!

Joey holding Anna as the festivities were kicking off. I think Anna was a little bit overwhelmed by all the activity - particularly since she woke up from her afternoon nap to 8 new people staring at her. She clung to Joey for the first 30 minutes from waking up - quite the Daddy's girl.

Finally warming up to everyone and allowing Aunt Aggie to hold her - particularly since she's got a cool bracelet to play with!

Our little family. Why do I always have some kind of stain on my shirt (check out the drool stain on my shoulder)?

These cute little party hats lasted approximately 15 seconds on their heads

Singing happy birthday!

Margaret's reaction to the cake in front of her. Just its very presence seemed to bother here. Don't worry, Margie, you will soon learn to love desserts, particularly in this family. While she didn't touch the cake, she ate her weight in blueberries over the course of the past week. Where does this love for healthy food come from? She's reassuringly a fan of Macaroni and Cheese.

Margaret says, "I said, No Cake!" Don't you like her pout face?

In completely opposite fashion, Anna dug right in.

That's my girl!

Trying to shake the cake crumbs off their dresses outside - and realizing our attempts were futile. So the dresses came off.

Opening some very cool presents. Nana and Grandpa gave them the Little People school bus and SUV, which they totally love. And the SUV looks exactly like (and is about the same size as) my Honda CR-V, which Joey oh so affectionately refers to as the "grocery grabber." I guess I should have been a better steward to the environment and searched for a hybrid car instead - or perhaps a Fisher Price bicycle.

In the end, though, the present bows and ribbons were far more entertaining than the actual gifts.

Thank you, thank you, thank you, from the bottom of my heart, Mom, Dad, Amy, Anne, Linda, Pat, Grandma, Mary and Aggie for hosting and throwing such a fun party for the girls -they were truly treated like princesses.

We're headed up to Mishawaka to visit Joey's family this coming weekend and can't wait to spend the Fourth of July with them - and celebrate the Twinski's first birthday, round 2!

They're ONE!

Happy First Birthday, baby girls!!  I can't believe this day has arrived.  Technically, I'm writing approximately 14 hours before their official birth times of 2:31 and 2:32 p.m.  At this time last year, I was laying in my bed, wide awake, nervous and excited, and extraordinarily uncomfortable from the weight of almost 13 lbs of baby in my belly.  And I didn't sleep a wink on the night of June 28, 2007 - while Joey soundly slept next to me - so I figured it would only be fitting to not be sleeping a year later.  

And though a severe lack of sleep may appropriately describe the past 365 days of our lives - it can be better be described as the most joyous, amazing, beautiful year of our lives - filled also with heartache, worry, and doubt, as every first parent feels - but overwhelmingly full of happiness.  I'll take every good and bad thing about being a new parent and do it a thousand times over to experience being a mother to Anna and Margaret.  Little girls, you have made my life.  

We have an exciting day ahead of us - a princess themed party with family, complete with adorable little birthday cakes with pink and white icing, party balloons and streamers, presents galore, and pink birthday hats with pink pom poms on top for the ladies of honor.  And although the girls are sure to melt down from the exhaustion and pressure of being the center of attention long before the presents are even touched - I'm positively giddy with excitement.  Isn't that the best thing about being a parent?  Getting the opportunity to relive the happy parts of childhood all over again, like the nervous anticipation of a birthday party -  but through their eyes.  

I have pictures and stories from this past week of being in St. Louis - from a mini birthday celebration for Anna and Margaret hosted by my own two best childhood friends, with whom I used to play Barbie dolls and hide and seek (and now all 3 of us are each parents of 2 girls!), to the girls' first carousel ride in the park and a giddy exploration of a jungle gym.  But I haven't uploaded any of those photos to my computer.  And so, for now, I leave you with this.  

June 29, 2007

Summer 2008

My how you have grown, Anna and Margaret!  You are beautiful both inside and out, and you make me so very proud.  Your Dad and I are so blessed to call you our daughters.  I cannot wait for this next year - we're going to have so much fun together.  All our love, hugs and kisses to our birthday princesses, from a very proud Mom and Dad.

How to make us laugh - Anna edition

Walk around the kitchen with a plastic colander on your head and covering your face, bump into the wall head first, and then laugh hysterically. You're a goofy one, my girl.

** sorry about a lack of pics so far this week - I forgot to bring my camera to St. Louis. Doh! I'll borrow my parent's camera and get some pictures posted soon. **

It's just a matter of time before something gets broken

We've been at my parents' house in St. Louis for just under 12 hours - and in that time, Anna and Margaret have managed to do the following:

- Called 3 people on my parents' call list on their phone and probably left some interesting "breather" voice mails. What is it with the fascination with the phone? Of course, minimal interest has been shown to the Fisher Price play cell phone that we purchased for them.

- Broke a piece off of the vacuum

- Made several loops around the kitchen island while pushing the step stool

- Attempted to swipe 3 breakable items off the table

- Made a very valiant effort at climbing on top of the fireplace and throwing themselves headfirst into the fireplace screen

- Climbed up and down the stairs about 9 times (Nana and I are getting a workout following them)

- Roped my father into the "let's see how many times you pick up my sippy cup after I throw it off this highchair" game. He lasted about 11 pick-ups - what a patient grandpa.

- Nearly successfully knocked down 2 end tables

- Placed fingerprints all over Nana's bathroom mirrors

- Banged the remote control repeatedly on the glass top coffee table

All of the toys that Nana bought for them? Untouched. My parents' belongings are going to be stacked up vertically to the ceiling by the time we're out of here.

I can forgive them for all of this, though, after sleeping soundly for 5 hours straight as we drove here last night, without as much as a peep. That, and the cute thing they did yesterday while watching "Clifford the Big Red Dog" (they both stuck their tongue out simultaneously as they watched Clifford lapping up a big bowl of water) gives me enough energy for Round 2 of house destruction when they get up from their morning nap in the next half hour. Off to get a shower and take advantage of the quiet time!

Your cuteness saves you, my dears

A few photos from the weekend

Just a few snapshots from this past weekend. The weather was beautiful and we enjoyed a lot of time outdoors!

Mom and her little ladies at the park

Dad and Margaret

Anna checks out the playground

Funky hairstyles in the bath

An unsurprising revelation: kids totally love popsicles. Check out the purple lips on Margaret!

If only I could freeze these moments

For the past year, I've kept a document saved on my computer with little notes about Anna and Margaret - funny little things they'd do, milestones they hit and when they hit them, little mannerisms and expressions that were unique to each girl, and just little things they did that made me laugh. I've never done anything with those notes - and their baby books remain sadly incomplete - but I some day (hopefully soon) plan to put those notes in writing and document the unique things about each of them that have made me smile over the past year. I think it's important to do - not only because I won't remember these things years from now, and probably won't have time to do much with those notes - but also as a reminder that even though they're identical twins, they're two unique people with oftentimes completely different behavior. It's so easy with twins to just lump them together so closely that they're almost one child. They've always been "the girls" to me - they've never spent more than an hour apart from each other, and they're entire lives have been choreographed in synchrony, eating together, sleeping at the same time, dressing almost exactly alike, same pediatrician appointment times, etc. I have to imagine that as they get older, that will be hard for them, and we'll have to make an extra effort to treat them as individuals with different needs, wants, and desires. They certainly have already shown us that they have very different personalities!

Even though I haven't put those notes together about the girls' unique traits, there are some things that Anna and Margaret have been doing over the past few weeks that I wanted to share. Lately, when Anna wants to get our attention (and that seems to be often...she's a little bit of the attention hog), she does this funny little thing. She cocks her head to the side and gets as close to your face as possible, and then flashes this huge grin. It's so completely adorable and makes me laugh every time. She's done that to me numerous times while I've been holding her in one arm while surfing the web - it's like she's saying, "hey! Look at me! You're not paying attention!!" The other night, Joey was playing with the girls in their bedroom, and he was laying on his stomach on the floor. He was playing "peekaboo" and had put his head down on the floor (or maybe he was just playing "Daddy needs a nap"). Anna came over to him, took her little fingers and put them under his chin, pulled his head up off the ground, and gave the head cocked/big smile look. I love it.

Margaret has this completely funny way of showing excitement, which she displays daily as her Daddy carrys her down the stairs in the morning. She swings her hands around wildly in this Kung Fu chopping motion, almost like she's intending to clap but the excitement is so great that she misses her hands and just keeps going. While she's swinging her hands around, she sucks air in through her mouth and makes this funny gasping/squealing sound. It's so Margaret - always showing such pure joy and excitement for life.

I was telling my friend the other day that I finally feel like I've gotten the hang of maintaining this blog, and though I'm not a very good or entertaining writer, I'm still glad I'm doing this. And she pointed out that some day, I'll love looking back and reading about what the girls were doing at a certain point in time. I hope that I'll look back and read about these little funny things they did and laugh - because I know these moments don't last very long. Have a great week! Countdown to the Twinskis' First Birthday: 7 days!