12 Months/ 1 Year

10-9-14

Here are their stats:

Adelyn	Clara
Weight:   25lbs 9.2 oz (98%) Height:  2’8” tall (100%) Head:  46.5 cm (87%) Loves to mimic people Crawls everywhere Loves to stand Walks behind walker Steals Clara’s toys Understands what NO means Sleeps with giraffe and sucks       On tail Very PICKY eater Loves blueberries, raspberries, crackers Says:  mama, kiddy, no, dank yu, daisy, sista	Weight:  25 lbs 14.1 oz (98%)       1st time Clara weighs more       than Adelyn!!! Height:  2’8.5” tall  (100%) Head:  47.5 cm (97%) Very TALKATIVE Favorite word:  NO Doesn't crawl but scoots Sleeps with pacifier Loves most foods Doesn't particularly like:       Blueberries, raspberries,       Plain oatmeal Loves cheese, veggies Says:  mama, kiddy, no, dank yu, daisy, wow, ah oh, weee, sista

WOOOOOOWWW!!!!  We have made it a year.  I cannot believe that it has already been a year.  This time last year, I didn't think I was going to survive.  I was suffering from severe sleep deprivation and I didn't see the light at the end of the tunnel.  The babies were up every two hours and their routine consisted of sleep, eat, poop, repeat. 

      As time went on, things got easier and it has been an absolute joy, honor, and treasured experience to watch the girls grow.  Their personalities have developed and they have become their own little people.

Adelyn 's brain is always thinking

 Adelyn has a spunk that lights up any room.  Her sense of humor is sharp and she can just look at you and give you that twinkle she has, and she has you.  It doesn't matter how bad of a mood you are in, she will make you laugh.  She gets it.  She reads you, and does exactly what you need to make you smile.   Along with her fabulous sense of humor, she loves to shake her head no...but she does it with a smile... she looks at you, smiles with her mouth and eyes, and then shakes her head no...how can you be mad at someone who does that...you can't!  She LOVES LOVES to pull herself up onto EVERYTHING.  She will crawl to whatever and then pull herself up to a standing position.  She has even walked by herself behind a baby walker for a short period of time.  Any day now, she is going to be off running, instead of crawling and then I am in trouble.        Adelyn also picks up clever habits.  Her latest one is to cough at you.  If she is ever lost in a crowd of babies, I can easily find her because all I will have to do is cough twice…cough cough… and she repeats it back.  She does it on her own first sometimes too…after she coughs twice she looks around to find me and when I cough twice back at her, she gets a huge grin and giggles.  WOW! Little amazing brains!

She left the hat on for about 3
seconds so I could take the pic

Her vocabulary is limited but she does say, kiddy (kitty), die die ( bye bye), mama, hi, waz zat (what’s that) and my mom swears she heard her say "sister" the other day.  She is a SUPER picky eater as well.  I don’t know if she has a keen sense of smell and immediately is turned off by the food or she is just stubborn.  Probably a little of both.  She will squint up her face and sputter out air as you are trying to put food in her mouth.  She locks up that mouth of hers pretty tight.  While she does that, I turn and feed Clara and eventually Adelyn opens her mouth for a bite.  70% of the time, she actually likes the food that she originally protested against.  The other 30% of the time, she legitimately hates the food we try to give her.

          Clara is very different than her sister. She has a very high vocabulary. Every day

Clara has eyes that can look right into your soul

she seems to learn a new word.  She says mama, no (which I think is her favorite word), woooow, ah oh, kiddy (kitty), daisy (dog...my mom's dog's name is Daisy so now every dog is named Daisy), die die (bye bye), hi, waz zat;    her sister tends to steal most toys she is playing with so she has gotten really good at saying NO!  She yells "NO!" and then shakes her head no and waves her arms across her body to mean no.  She even tells our dog, Nalla, "No" when she gets too close to her while she is eating.  In many videos I have taken of the girls, you can hear Clara in the background yelling "no" to someone or thing :).   She also is sooo polite.  Whenever you take something from her or she is down with something she will hold out the item, and say “thank you” (sounds like dank yu).  Toooooo sweet!!!!

Clara is such a character!  She just makes
me laugh all the time

 Clara is such an observer. She pays careful attention to what is going on around her and never forgets.  She can see you do something once or put something somewhere and she won't forget. In addition, Clara is very dramatic. If she doesn't like something she will put her hand to her head and shake her head no.  She has a “sigh” down pact and just melts your heart with her smile…all two bottom teeth of hers.  (which by the way, hurt like HELL when she tries to give you a kiss and bites down on a part of your cheek…I am pretty sure my face is permanently  scared from all the scratch marks from the girls and bite marks.)

Unlike her sister, Clara eats everything.  She is so willing to try new foods and

on rare occasions, she refuses to eat certain things.  You can tell the food must truly be bad, if Clara won’t eat it.

Both girls go to my mom’s house for daycare.  I can’t even express how blessed I

This was taken the morning of their birthday!  Such happy girls

am that my mother lives close and can watch the girls.  Mom’s house is set up as a home away from home for the girls and they have their routines down to a science.  Every morning I get to my mom’s around 6 am.  Mom has their bottles and breakfast ready.  I help feed them and then we take them into the play room to change them.  I leave around 6:15 and usually around 6:30 Lloyd comes down and eats his cereal in the play room.  The girls love to huddle around him on the floor and he feeds them bites of his cereal.   Mom keeps the girls entertained all throughout the day and I love hearing about how her day when I pick them up around 3.  The girls make Mom (Gramma) laugh everyday and I enjoy hearing about all the day’s activities.  I don’t know if I have her enough but I am soooooo truly thankful for all her help!  There are people in this world that would drop anything for you and help you out in a time of need.  I don’t have too many people in my life like that and she is one of them!  Thank you Mom!  You are an inspiration and I hope that I can be as good of a mother to my girls as you were to me.  You are my rock and role model and the girls are so lucky to have you as their Gramma!

The other day the girls had their one year check up.  I have learned that I have to plan for a long stay wherever we go, just in case and sure enough, I was glad that I did.  Our appointment was at 3:30 but we got there at 3:30 to check in.  They got us back pretty quick and the doctor was very happy with their progress.  It was the first time that Clara actually weighs more than Adelyn…on a side note, Clara has been sucking down her milk like no tomorrow.

Happy Birthday 

After the appointment they told us there was a 30 minute wait at the shots room.  We could either come back tomorrow or wait.  I wasn’t going to have my mom bring the girls in for their shots on her own, so we waited, and waited, and waited.  I think we waited about 40 minutes.  Luckily, I had packed food and snacks so we were able to keep the girls busy until they called us back.  Finally around 4:50 they called us back.  The moment of dread!!  I took Adelyn first while Mom had Clara in the hall.  There were two nurses and they decided to give the shots at the same time.  Adelyn needed six shots (three per leg).  The nurses were FABULOUS and did the best they could but despite their careful touch, Adelyn started screaming.  I was holding her in my lap and had her arms pinned to her chest while she screamed in my ear.  I am a STRONG believer in vaccinations and the ends justify the means but man, it tugs on your heart strings when your child is in pain.  After the shots I hugged her and she buried her head into my shoulder.  I had to pass her off to Mom so I could do Clara.  I could hear Adelyn screaming “mama, mama mama” in the hall.  It was the first time that she has actually called for me and I couldn’t help her.  She has never called for me before and man, that was tough. 

The nurses repeated the procedure for Clara.  Unfortunately for me and the nurses,

Gramma and Granpa Marquardt got the girls chairs for
their birthday and they LOVE them.  Clara has such
perfect posture whereas Adelyn just melts into her chair

Clara has a high pitch scream and she didn’t disappoint.  I think my head still hurts from her cries.  She actually recovered after the shots a lot faster than Adelyn; she cried for a couple minutes but then was back to her normal self .

We didn’t get home until around 5:45 so Mom stayed to help give the girls baths and bottles.  The girls slept “like babies” all night.  For the record, whoever created that term, “sleep like babies” wasn’t a parent.  Slept like a baby is supposed to refer to a solid night sleep…that is so far from the truth as you could get.  Most babies wake up every few hours and even my girls wake up every 3 hours starting at 12 am…sleep like babies, my behind.   Anyway, I digress…they slept so well, I actually went up to make sure they were still breathing.

10/18/14 update:  Clara actually sat up in her crib for the FIRST time ever.  She has been struggling with getting up if she is lying on her back.  She just can’t do it.  We have been going to PT once a week for a couple months and it is helping soooo much.  Today, I went into their room after nap time, and Clara was in her crib, SITTING, and looking at me.  I thought it was a onetime thing, but she did it again after her second nap!  YEAH CLARA!!!!

Adelyn actually got herself from the floor ONTO the couch and then stood up on the couch while she looked over the back of the couch!  OMG!  She was strong enough to pull herself up!  I am in trouble!  Today marks the day that life with the twins has taken a new turn on our adventure.