ONE YEAR OLD!!!!!!!!!

Dear Daughters,

You are one!!! I can hardly believe it! And boy, am I in trouble. I took down the fence because I was tired of you both screaming every time I went into the kitchen or the bathroom.  It’s opened up a whole new world of ways for you two to get into mischief. You’ve discovered how to open cupboards. And you love it.  Dad keeps adding more and more locks.  I kind of feel bad about that, but my poor head can only take so many pot lids clanging on the floor.  Another exciting discovery in the kitchen has been the curtains.  It’s so fun to watch you both play in them and with the sliding glass door.  

We celebrated your birthday by eating chocolate cake at Grandma and Grandpa Jones’ house.  Your aunt Andrea made you some cute t-shirts and party hats to wear.  I think you liked eating the hats almost as much as you liked the cake.   

E,

You still love to share. Sometimes you will feed Cheerios to your sister or me. It's the sweetest thing ever.

You are picking up on sign language.  I’ve only taught you two signs and the one that you use all the time is “MORE!” As in, “I want more Cheerios” or “Feed me more of that soup” or “More graham crackers, please!”

You and your sister always want to eat whatever the grownups are eating.  The other night, I was eating some yummy lasagna, but it was really hot. I gave you girls graham crackers instead.  After a while, I realized that whenever I would blow on my lasagna to cool it down, you were blowing on your graham cracker.  Too cute!

Should I be worried that you're licking the monkey's tongue?

L,

You are walking all over the place now. I knew it wouldn't take you long to catch up with your sister. One of your new things is to open your mouth super wide as you are walking around to show your excitement. It's the best.

I went in your room after you woke up from your nap one day. You were so excited and called me “Mama!” Who knew you could fill my heart with just one little word? My elation was soon replaced by confusion as I tried to figure out what had happened to your crib. You sucked the paint right off of it and exposed the wood underneath! I guess you had been awake longer than I realized. I'm now working on protecting your crib.

You now have one little curl on the top of your head.  I’m in love with it.  I can’t wait until you get more hair.  If your hair is anything like mine, though, it will still take a while to come in.

  

You are such a fun girl. And adventurous, too. You love finding new places to explore.

I have a confession to make. On a regular basis, I find myself saying, "This would be so much easier if I only had one baby." Well, this month I got a little glimpse of what it would be like to have just one. Dad took E on a trip with him for a weekend, while L stayed home with me. And I was right. It was easier. I got more sleep, going to the store was a breeze, and I could give my undivided attention to my sweet little girl. But, I'm still so glad that you came to me as twins. I love seeing you play together. I can't get enough of your giggles. The greatest part about it, though, has been the fact that I've needed help. That's not something that I would have previously thought I'd be so grateful for. Ever since I was put on bed rest, I've been blown away by how blessed our family has been. It still hasn't stopped. I'm continually being served in so many ways, big and small. So, thank you for giving me the opportunity to allow people to serve our family. I hope you always remember how loved you are.

I love you both so much!! It's been one incredible year.

Love,
Mom

P.S. Thanks to your incredible aunt Andrea for lots of these amazing photos! (all the good ones)

E-L-E-V-E-N MONTHS!!!

Dear Daughters,

I love you both so much! And I’m not just saying that because you both finally slept through the night last night. Although, I wouldn’t mind if you repeated that tonight. ;) It’s so fun to see you interact with each other and with others.  You are very aware of what’s going on around you now.  It’s almost impossible to sneak anything by you these days.  

You’ve started copying me a little more.  I picked up a toy cup and talked into it the other day to make you laugh.  Now you both do the same thing and love to hear your voices echo in the cup.

I love seeing you get excited. Sometimes, one of you will see something and start moving towards it.  Then, you’ll glance over your shoulder at your sister and check to make sure that she’s going to come and check it out, too.  It’s my favorite.

You both love to wave at people to say ‘hi’ and ‘bye.’ I can’t get enough of your little fingers.  You also are starting to get upset when people say “bye” and they leave.  It breaks my heart when Dad goes to work and you both start crying.

 

E,

You are walking, walking, walking.  Even though your steps are still ‘baby steps,’ you can make it across the whole room with no problem.  You have even perfected the pivot.  

Your dad is already teaching you how to share.  He’ll sometimes pretend to drink from your bottle or eat your other foods to be silly.  Now you willingly share them with both of us and love to see us ‘eat.’

L,

You are kind of obsessed with a few of your toys.  You always have to have something in your hands.  You still love the ‘fish’ toys.  Now, you also hold tightly to your toy wrench and your rattle.  You bring them to bed with you and won’t even let go to hold your bottle.  I think we’ve got a multi-tasker in the making.

You love to point with your finger. It’s the cutest thing ever.  You are walking more and more each day.  You prefer to crawl most of the time since you’re so fast.  Your other trademark move is to put your head down on the floor and look through your legs.  It makes me laugh every single time.  

Girls, I love being your mom so much!!

Love,

Me

Ten Months Old

12 December 2016

Dear E,

You are getting so big! I can hardly believe it. You love standing up. The other day, you took your first step. Pretty amazing!  Of course, you took that step while you were screaming and crying, so it was not anything close to the moment I had imagined. Darn teething pain! Your dad keeps saying that you've got to be almost done now, but it just doesn't seem to go away.

You can often be found clapping. It's the cutest thing. You clap a lot while you are standing.

One of your hobbies right now is getting stuck under chairs. You always find a way to get yourself wedged into the little spaces that are tricky to get out of.  

A few days ago, you woke up from your nap while I was finishing something in the other room. I wasn't able to come right away, but you still kept a good attitude. I checked the video monitor to see what you were doing. You had pulled down the stuffed turtle from your dresser and started playing with him. I was so impressed at your ability to entertain yourself.

You and your sister are both big fans of sticking everything in your mouths, playing with anything that resembles a string or a cord, banging toys, shaking rattles, touching technology, sucking on books and paper, and eating Cheerios.

 

Love you forever,

Mom

Dear L,

You are growing so well and practicing your standing all the time. You were not going to let your sister show you up this month. You took your first step on the same day that she did.  I was not expecting that so soon from either of you!  

You have been making all sorts of noises lately. Your favorite probably has to be blowing ‘raspberries.’ You've also been doing a lot of growling and baby talking. Last week, you were making so much noise in church while someone was sharing a very personal experience. You always seem to have the best timing.

You love waving. I think it's your way of expressing how happy you are. The people in the grocery store love it when you wave at them.  Well, they just love you in general.  

Spoiler alert: you are both getting new car seats for Christmas.  You are just too tall for your current ones. The best part of this gift definitely has to be the giant boxes that they arrived in.  Hours of countless fun.  Dad and I have to keep stopping you from eating the box, though.   

Love you forever,

Mom

Nine Months

12 November 2016

Dear E,

You finally got to meet Great Grandma Rogers and Great Uncle Paul this month. They loved being with you so much. We had to drive about four hours to get there. You did fine on the drive up, but got really upset on our drive home. You cried so much that you threw up all over yourself and your car seat.

Your first two teeth are in! I'm loving your smile.  The doctor told me he can feel a ton of teeth that are just about to break through your top gums. No wonder you've been so miserable lately.  The picture below sums up how you and I both feel about teething. 

You have also grown a little bit more hair. It's the perfect amount for you to play with. You love to play with it when you're trying to fall asleep and sometimes while you're drinking your milk. Another thing you started doing while falling asleep is slowly kicking one of your legs against the mattress. 

Even L likes playing with your hair. 

You love standing up. You are constantly practicing. You're getting pretty good at staying up for long periods of time now. It's so fun to see the big smile on your face as you do so. 

You have had a cold twice this month. Combine that with teething and it's no wonder it's been pretty rough for our family. I can't wait until you are totally better. I'm sure you can't either. It's not like you to be grumpy this often. 

You love your dad so much. It's so fun to see your face light up when he gets home from work. Nobody can get you to laugh as much as he can. Riding on his shoulders is a favorite activity right now. He also created a game where you and L try to escape to the kitchen over and over again. I could just watch you playing with him all day. 

The favorite toy right now is a teething ring shaped like a fish. Thankfully, we have two because you and Lucy always steal one from each other until I place the second one in your line of sight. One is currently lost and I'm searching high and low for it. Sometimes when you and your sister steal toys from each other, you get really upset. Other times, you both start laughing. It's the best. Oh, how I love watching you two interact.

I've taken you to the store before, but I always had you stay in your carseat.  Now that you're such a good sitter, you have been sitting in the grocery cart.  You love it so much since you can see everything going on around you.  The people in the store love it, too.  

Serious shoppers 

I'm sure I say this a lot, but you are such a wonderful baby. I'm so blessed to be your mom. 

Love you!

Mom

Dear L,

Great Grandma Rogers and Great Uncle Paul were so excited to meet you earlier this month. We had a great time visiting them in St. John's. They couldn't get enough of you and your sister.

One of your trademark things right now is ‘eating’ people. You open your mouth super wide and go for their face or whatever body part you can reach. Then we get covered in lots of your drool. It’s so funny (especially when you get Dad).

Speaking of your dad, he sure loves you. He loves to play with you so much and you are always in heaven when he does so. When he gives you shoulder rides, you hold on tight to his hair and you sometimes eat it. It's a guaranteed way to get you in a good mood. Another favorite is when you ‘escape’ by quickly crawling to the kitchen and Dad pretends to freak out. He brings you back to the carpet as E escapes. You both loving being ‘caught.’  It goes on and on until you wear him out. 

You have had a really hard time sleeping the past few weeks since you have been sick. There have been many nights when it takes forever for you to get back to sleep in the middle of the night. On one particularly hard night, your dad slept with you on the floor all night long because that was the only way you would sleep. It was so precious to see you asleep together when I went to check on you. 

You are moving around so much. And you are starting to stand up on your own. I had to borrow a baby corral since our kitchen isn't very baby proof. You don't really like being caged in, but I think you like it better than falling and hitting your head over and over. 

You are OBSESSED with the fish shaped teething toy. It is in your hand all day as you crawl around the house. You even hold it sometimes while you are sleeping. It's always still in your hand when you wake up. One of the two was lost for a few days, so you kept stealing the green one from your sister. Sometimes when you steal toys from each other, the unfortunate one will get really upset. Other times, you both start giggling. Oh, how I love watching you two interact. 

You are such an amazing girl who brings joy to my life each day. 

Love you!

Mom

8 Months Old

Dear E,

I am loving you more and more each day. You are my little talker. You just jabber on and on. I love it when you make sounds that remind me of “old man noises.” It's the cutest. It is also fun when L talks back to you. Sometimes you both squeal back and forth for quite a while. It makes me so happy to be a twin mom. 

You have totally mastered the skill of sitting up on your own! You love looking around from this new perspective. You were getting pretty tired of being down on the floor all of the time. Over the last few days, your crawling has gotten really good, too. I've been pretty impressed. 

You are so funny while you are eating food. You like to smile and make noises while you're eating peas, spattering them all over your tray. So far, you've liked everything you've tried, with the exception of avocado. Your dad recorded a pretty hilarious video of you and L making funny faces while he tried to feed it to you. We will have to try that one again another time. 

You and your sister are such good babies.  The only time you go crazy is when you're tired or hungry (which is totally understandable). You do really well around other people. However, you girls are not fans of animals right now. You start crying whenever you are around your grandparents’ dog or the Carrolls’ cat.

You are obsessed with lights of all kinds.  It's fun to watch you play with the lights that shine through the little holes in the blinds.  You also love screens.  TV is a favorite, but I think you prefer phones the most since you can also chew on them (if nobody catches you first).

That basically sums up our month. The only other thing I can think of is that you drool a lot and put everything into your mouth. Your teeth are so close to coming in. I'm going to miss your gummy smiles when they're gone.  

Love you lots!

Mom

Dear L,

You are little Miss Adventurous! You want to explore everything. It's your determination that lead to you learning how to crawl and how to climb up on things. Yes, you climb on everything. And you fall a lot. I'm hoping the falling dies out soon. It breaks my heart every time. You quickly figured out how to pull yourself up on the furniture and on your crib. It was pretty easy to move your crib mattress down, but ‘baby proofing’ the rest of the house has been a little tricky.  

Watching you learn to crawl was so fun. You used to lift your arm way up in the air and then slam it down as you would move forward. Now you're cruising around like a pro. Since you figured out crawling a little bit before E, you definitely used that to your advantage. When there was a toy you both wanted, you would quickly crawl to it and take it before she could get her hands on it. Or you would steal something right out of her hands and crawl away. She's stealing things back now, though. I didn't realize I would have to deal with toy snatching so soon.

 

You have a tooth! It just barely poked through. It had caused you some pain, which was so hard for me to see. The second one will be here any day now. Who knew I could love your smile any more than I already did?

You have been pretty quiet up until now. You just started making more noises this week. I can't wait to hear what you have to say. 

You are such a good girl and are generally easy to please, as long as I keep the milk and the naps coming. You don't like being around animals right now, but I think that will probably change as you get bigger. 

I just love being your mom. You are such a fun, curious baby. I love watching you play with the sunlight shining on the carpet.  You are growing so fast and amazing me every day.

Love you lots,

Mom