The big 1-7

Man, yesterday was a big day. It was the first day back to school for Stephen. It was the day that Uncle John and Aunt Mariel flew out for their big European trip. It was the day my uncle had a very serious surgery (which I won't elaborate on since my cousin hasn't elaborated on her own blog - I am trying to respect their privacy but suffice it to say that prayers are still much needed and appreciated in this situation). There were lots of prayers swirling around in our house yesterday. Looking forward to hearing how J&M are enjoying their trip. Looking forward to a clean bill of health for my uncle. Looking forward to next summer when school is out again - just kidding.. sort of.

I have been getting lost in the blog worm holes lately - this is what I call it when you click on one blog and then from there to another and then another and so on... soon you aren't sure how you got there or how to get back to where you originated. I normally don't do this because I find it frustrating. However, this most recent bit of exploration yielded an exciting find. I found a huge network of multiple mamas with blogs. I don't just mean twin mamas either! I mean twins, triplets, quads.. and even families with multiple sets of multiples. Reading their entries gave me ideas that I not thought of (like this ingenious way to grocery shop with twins!) but also re-ignited a fire that I have apparently been stifling. A great day of these mamas are the dress your twins alike sort of twin mamas - which have been adamantly against since the girls were born. Even going so far as to apologize to folks when I have dressed them alike (twice in their lives). Well suddenly, looking at all these adorable pictures of twin girls dressed alike I felt ..well.. a little jealous to be honest. I have been so focused on making sure we treated the girls like two individuals I think I have been missing out a little bit on what has always been the most exciting aspect of my girls.. THEY ARE IDENTICAL TWINS!!!!! I remember being SO excited when I found out I was having twins - just ecstatic. I kept it under wraps a bit because I didn't want to hear any nay-sayers telling me how hard it was going to be. I am STILL ecstatic that I have twins. I am not saying that I suddenly want to dress them alike every day but I am saying that I might start dressing them alike when I feel like it - and no apologies. I mean, I can tell them apart and that is all that really matters right? After all I have TWINS! I have wanted to have twins ever since Christa and I used to dress alike and pretend to be twins when we were little (a la The Parent Trap of course). Their twinness melts my heart every day. I see them chasing eachother around the coffee table, playing peekaboo with each other, "talking" to each other from accross the room on their "phones" - and I melt. I think about their little hearts being knit together for life. How they cry when the other is in distress (diaper rash :( ), how they offer eachother their pacies to soothe these moments. How there are times when I feel completely on the outside of whatever is going on between them and how safe that makes me feel. How I know they will always have eachother. I still feel very strongly that need I felt to encourage them in their individuality. But I think you might start seeing some changes on this blog soon. Just sayin'.

Guess who....

... took her first steps today?!??!???! That's right.. Ms. Ada Grey!!!!!!

Here's how it went down:

I had just changed her diaper, in preparation for the morning nap, and I put her down on the floor - standing up. She stood there watching Margot chew her teether across the room and then she just took off.. 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - plop! She took 6 steps before she plopped down on her diaper butt to crawl the rest of the way :) She is a natural! 

I think it's funny the moments that make your heart soar as a parent. For me it has been discovering their first little teeth poking through, seeing them army crawl,  Margot learning to clap, finding them standing in their cribs and now seeing Ada take off across the carpet :) I am sure Margot isn't far behind. 

Feet

Anyone who has ever watched the girls eat their meals has commented on their footsie play. 

It never gets old. 

So close they like to touch while they munch their breakfast. Speaking of breakfast, now that we have reached the ripe old age of one, we are able to eat egg whites! So I have been getting over my aversion to scrambled eggs and have been preparing this for the girls breakfast for the past 4 mornings. So excited for them to get this little protein boost in the A.M. They, big surprise, love their eggy weggs. 

We are climbing everything in sight these days. Ada and Margot both can climbing the stairs, their red chair, onto the coffee table, into their stroller.. and many more. Think Ada wants to take a walk? Too bad it's raining out. 

So at one year, the girls weigh 19.1 lbs (Ada) and 19.4 lbs (Margot) which is the largest weight difference since their birth. They are 28 3/4" (Ada) and 28 1/2" (Margot) in length. I am not putting their percentiles up b/c I really don't pay attention to that stuff. Let's say they are on the low end of average for weight and the middle for height = normal healthy baby girls. 

They have been crawling on their knees for 2 months or so now. They are cruising around the furniture/walls and, as before stated, climbing onto/over everything. They love to "finger walk" and can do that with one hand. They can push their walking toys all around the house on their own. 

They are still eating very well but have recently started dropping food onto the floor and spitting things out. Their first food boycott was green beans, followed closely by peas. We have ignored these refusals and find that after a few minutes they will change their minds and start eating them anyway. They know how to use their bowls and spoons, however messy this process becomes.. we are thrilled that they understand the concept - dipping spoons into food and then putting it into their mouths. Can drink out of sippy cups (been doing that forever it seems) and from sippies that have straws. Can drink out of a glass if one of us is holding it. 

They both clap and wave..

They both use random objects as "phones" and will "talk" to each other from across the room. 

Language development is coming along as well. They have been saying Mama and Dada for awhile now but now they definitely relate these words to us. Other verbalizations include 

"dodo (with hand waving)" - All done

"gogo (Ada)" - Margot

"Ka" - Book

"Sss" - Shhh

"a-duh (Margot)" - Ada

"cuh-cai (Ada)" - Cupcake (this happened several times one day while Daddy was reading "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" to her and hasn't been repeated but I think it still counts)

Ada can point out the ball on a page of their Richard Scarry word book. Margot can point out the butterflies in "I am a Bunny" (We love Richard Scarry in this house). 

I really wish I could read to them more. I try so hard. I try giving them their blankies and sitting in the rocker with them - it lasts about 2 minutes before they are too wiggly to listen. I try just sitting on the floor and reading to them while they play.. not sure any of that is getting through. Am I the only one who has a hard time getting her twins to sit still to listen to a book? I drive myself crazy thinking that I am doing something wrong and hindering their speech development. They just seem to enjoy being physically active right now.... 

So they are probably doing more things that have slipped my mind at the moment but.. that is at least a rough run down on our skill set at one year :)

Happy birthday .. take 3

Sunday we went to Mom and Dad's for a final birthday celebration for the baby girls. Our camera ran out of space on the memory stick (bad Mommy and Daddy need to go do some photo printing pronto) so we have a couple of little videos from the day instead. 

Margot and Ada discover the piano, Margot plays piano with Uncle Page, and the babies have their first chocolate birthday cake with homemade ice cream.. Margot gobbles it up and Ada is once again not a fanatic for the sweet stuff. 

Keeping Quiet

The babies are still sleeping. I am on the computer checking "the news" - Facebook, Yahoo, my blog links.... real world news stuff gets me down in the morning. I just read MKD's most recent post. It got me thinking. We recently had a very heated meeting with someone who told us they had been essentially putting up with all our talk about Brooklyn and our former life in New York. They let us know they "didn't care that (we) lived in Brooklyn", reminding us that to them we were just from High Point and Tallahassee. Even as I write this, my chest feels tight. I hate High Point. The only thing worth visiting in that town is my family and a few close friends. For me it is filled with bitter memories and people lurking within their daily lives that I would be happy to never see again. Living in Brooklyn was like the ultimate fresh start. It was nice to feel so at home in a place and to be excited when you ran into someone you knew. It was tough moving to Raleigh. I spent my college years nearby and I have less than thrilling memories from that experience as well. What that person said was extremely hurtful. Their words plunged me back into my social dungeon. Suddenly my face burned when I made reference to a restaurant or museum or experience that took place in ... Brooklyn ... or ... New York City ... I had felt comfortable to speak openly about our life there and now I felt a pang of regret every time the words left my mouth. I found myself apologizing for mentioning things that happened there. Started saying "In our last place..." or "Where we used to live...". It felt like the wind had been taken right out of my sails. I was humiliated, wondering if I had really behaved in a "I'm better/cooler than you" manner. If I had it was completely unintentional. Had people been rolling their eyes behind my back? I had been so homesick for Brooklyn and it felt so nice to be able to speak openly about life there. I turned inward and had to force myself to be social. I thought a great deal about these things while we were in Florida, relieved to know I wouldn't need to watch my words. When we returned to Raleigh, it was with a renewed sense of self. I was actually excited to be within the city limits. As unpleasant as it was, maybe this person's comments helped me learn to embrace the here and now and be more intentional about leaving the past in the past. I will always talk about my life prior to becoming a mother. Those experiences shaped the person I am. Still, Raleigh feels more like home every day. 

Happy Birthday ...take two

We had a birthday party for the girls today. We invited their little friends from the area to come and hang out and eat pink frosted cupcakes that daddy made. 

For awhile it was just our buddy Zach ( who made the awesome "Happy Birthday" sign in the above picture) and Aunt Ellen and baby Evan. That was just fine with Ada and Margot, who were excited to sport their birthday party outfits, complete with monograms. 

We hung streamers and set out snacks, and soon our other friends began to arrive. Our buddies the Jacksons came over with their twin cuties. We missed Seth and Ben so much (they were home sick) but we will see them again soon. There was only one little friend in attendance who could move around and play with the girls..

.. this is our friend Josie. 

Josie says "Please stop taking our picture so I can show Margot how to ride this here Moose."

Margot wonders "Can we both ride at once?"

Josie says "Maybe if I ride on his nose?"

Enter Ada. "What is going on here? I know a game we can all play together!"

"We call it 'dada Glad Ware telephone' and we can you show you how! See I talk into this bowl and Margot puts her ear to another one and she can hear me! Dadadadada... wanna play? Grab a bowl!"

Who needs cupcakes :)

Swing

Between dinner and cake, we went for our evening constitutional and the girls got to enjoy some time in the swings. We had the park to ourselves. 

Ada looking so grown up. 

Margot with her own grown up visage. 

Goofy looking Daddy = Uncontrollably giggly Ada Grey

We had a wonderful time with our little family yesterday, enjoying  the thoughtful moments of their first birthday. We have come so far in such a short amount of time. 

We are having lots of little friends over for a little birthday fun on Saturday and then off to Nana and Papa's on Sunday for a celebration with family so.. more birthday goodness to look forward too!!!

Birthday Cake

Stephen is the birthday cake chef in our home. He has made me a different birthday cake for each birthday we have been together. For the girl's first he made this beautiful and DELICIOUS Strawberry layer cake with petal pink cream cheese frosting. 

Margot was a huge fan.

She tried to put the whole thing in her mouth at once. 

Ada was  a bit more timid but did seem to enjoy her first taste of cake. 

It was soon clear that Ada was not into the whole cake thing. Notice that Margot's cake is gone (I took half away myself - didn't want her to get a stomach ache) and that Ada still has all her cake on her tray. She was not really into the whole sweets thing. 

So I held Ms. Sticky-Fussy Pants instead. 

We cheered Margot on and she smeared icing on her face and tummy. 

Then she decided to share some her first birthday cake with her Ollie. 

This was loads of fun for all involved. Puppy kisses tickled her fingers. 

All in all it seems that Margot likes sweet stuff and Ada was definitely more into the burger she had for dinner. 

One Year

Today our babies are one year old. So hard to believe. Here they are enjoying Daddy's special birthday blueberry waffles with banana. I think they ate 4 "wafs" altogether (shout out to Silas).

Then it was time for presents. I must apologize for the photo quality - hope to have better ones to add later today. Margot went straight for the musical instruments. 

Ada enjoying their new rocking moose. 

Ride 'em cowgirl. 

Here Margot is taking the special blocks that Daddy made for their birthday out of the sack. 

More photos to come. 

So hard to believe that one year ago today I was laying in a hospital bed with monitors on my tummy, listening to two steady little heartbeats and trying to steady my own. They were moving all around and seemed so cramped and uncomfortable. I could hardly breathe with anticipation. In a matter of hours, life as we knew it was going to change forever. 

911

Last night we heard an unfamiliar noise in the back "yard". When I peaked through the blinds I was met with a pair of clearly amused eyes. I screamed and immediately realized that it was one of Stephen's students, and when he opened the door we found this. He and his lady friend had worked so hard on trying to do it without making a sound. We left it that way. Pretty impressive, right? Simply love that Stephen teaches high schoolers. 

The time has come to reintroduce spoons into our meal routine. I was surprised to see that they actually remembered the concept. They started dipping them into their bowls right away and putting them right into their mouths. I have been procrastinating with this next stage because of the extra messiness of it. Messiness, shmessiness! How adorable are they!?

On a more serious note, what would you do if you looked up from dinner preparations and saw your precious babies (at the other end of the room) chewing on broken glass? Well, I screamed "Oh my God! Please help us Lord!" and ran with Stephen to snatch them up. We grabbed the glass out of their hands and started digging in their little mouthes for shards. Margot's mouth was bleeding and she was trying to swallow a small piece. Thankfully she was the only one. They were screaming, we were white with panic - it was not pretty. TERRIFIED that they might have swallowed a piece, I called 911 and the EMS arrived within minutes.. along with the Fire Department. The EMS ladies took one quick glance at the girls and send the FD boys on their way. Margot had a miniscule cut on her lip, but that seemed to be the only damage done. They did a thorough exam and had them try to take a drink of something - which caused them no pain whatsoever indicating that they had not swallowed anything. We also closely examined the remains of the snow globe and did not find there to be any glass missing. The woman who was here was also a mom of a little girl the same age and she was extra cautious and told us a few things to be on the look out for and that we should call them back if we see any changes in behavior that worry us.  I have checked on them 4 times already since they went down tonight.  You must be asking yourself how in the world we could have let this happen? We have been asking ourselves the same thing. We felt horrible. We have both shed many tears tonight. The honest truth is that we were watching the girls play together with the remotes on the coffee table, something they do all the time, we looked away for a split second.. split second... and suddenly there was broken glass everywhere. I will never think harshly towards a parent who "looked away for a second" again. We are thanking God tonight for protecting our babies. It has been a long evening. 

Artsy

Disclaimer: All crayons used during this artsy moment were non-toxic, and though they were heavily slobbered on, none were harmed during the creation of this work. 

Dinner last night..

... tasted even better than it looks. God bless Jamie Oliver. 

Last night..

We played with Daddy on our red chair. 

Hunting

I have heard that some of you readers out there don't like to read my posts when there are no pictures. Just don't have a picture to go with this one.

We are church hunting. When we first moved to Raleigh, we joined a church family. We have since decided that, though we love our friends there very much, it just is not the right fit for our family. Thus.. the search is on for a new church home. We have narrowed the list down to 4 different places to visit. We are looking for something that is in our neighborhood (downtown) so that really rules out places that are beyond a 15 minute drive. A church with sound doctrine, that has a strong children's ministry, well established.... this is sort of embarrassing to admit but we don't really have a very long list. Bottom line is that we are trying to find a church where we feel the Lord leading us to be.

That being said, today we decided to visit Vintage 21. We were so excited on the drive over there. People have been telling us we should visit this place since we moved here. Now we understand why. Aesthetically, this place is right up our alley. It is a converted warehouse or bar or something. We looked around and saw "our kind of people" all around us. Everyone was super friendly, particularly those in the children's ministry. The girls were immediately at home. You can't judge a church on one experience alone and Vintage 21 asks that you give them six weeks to really show you what they are about. We really enjoyed our visit. The worship was awesome, the message was convicting. I am ready to go back next Sunday. We particularly liked the way they handle communion. After the message, they have more worship songs and during that time you are encouaged to take communion in your own time from one of two communion stations set up on either side of the seating area. I like that intimate feeling of being able to take communion in my own moment with the Lord.

Purposefully searching for a church is not an easy task. It is something we are spending a lot of time praying about.

Just in case you've been hanging out under a rock and haven't seen this yet..

...I have been humming this song all day. It makes me grin. For some reason it really makes me think of my friends MKD and L ... This should have been you guys :)

And the answer is..

.....Ada on the left and Margot on the right!!!!! Thanks to those who were brave enough to venture a guess :)

Happy Day!!!

Translation: Happy Birthday Grammy Mary!!!!!!!!!!!

Grammy is still in Uganda and in honor of her birthday we have a little birthday quiz for everyone. For the second time in their lives, the girls are dressed alike. Can you tell which baby is Margot and which is Ada? Please leave your guess as a comment below. I will reveal the identities in the next post. 

I love you, Grammy!!!!! 

I love you, Grammy!!!! Watch me ride my new car!!!! Vroooooooom!!!!

To celebrate Grammy's big day, the girls are wearing their special onesies from T-Bonz and BK, who sent these quite some time ago but they just now fit. The picture on the front is of our subway stop in Brooklyn. These are going to be one of those outfits that we keep for the girls forever. Thanks you guys. 

To Grammy from Ada and Margot:

Happy Birthday!!!! We had such a fun time playing at your house while we were visiting. We especially loved going swimming with you at Great Grandma's and Mrs. Warren's house. Thank you for spending so much time with us and for our new toy shelf and all the fun books we got to bring home. We love you so much and can't wait to see you again!!

Big hugs and slobbery kisses, 

Ada and Margot

To Grammy from Mommy and Daddy:

Happy B-Day Mary!! Since we have seen what your special African birthday treat is going to be it is a bit easier for us to imagine just how much fun you will have there. Thank you for loving us and for supporting us through the years. Thank you for loving our girls and making us feel so at home in your home. You are blessing in our lives and we feel so privileged to be a part of your family. We love you more than we can say. Looking forward to the next visit so much!

Hug an elephant for us :) 

Sarah and Stephen

To Grammy from Oliver:

Wooo wooooooo!! Rfffff!!! Grrrrrr!! (lick lick) (jump) (wag wag wag)