We are ONE!

Well, it's official...the kids have turned the corner from infancy to toddler hood in just one single day. *Sigh*, what a year! This signifies yet another era coming to an end...one door closing, another opening. The emotions we have experienced over the last 12 months have ranged from exhilaration, to terror, to exhaustion, to placidity and finally to pride! More emotions than I have ever felt in a lifetime; packed into only one year. The memories have been amazing and the journey has been incredible. To see these children change into little people has been the most rewarding experience of my life! This is why I am here on this Earth, why we have (almost grudgingly!) become parents...and I cannot thank you enough for enabling us to be all we can be.

The help we received from our family and friends - with TWO unrivaled baby showers full of incredible gifts of love; borrowed, beautifully made and bought cribs and changing tables, donated clothes, diapers, formula...meals made for us and driven all the way from across WNY! Cards of encouragement at just the right time when we felt broken, even from total "strangers" (who aren't strangers anymore!)... Baby paraphernalia filled our house to resemble a daycare, helpers filtered through our revolving doors during feeding times - which were 8 times a day! Whatever we needed, it was there...we felt watched over in the best sense of the phrase.

Throughout the colic and reflux throes, we had friends there to weather us through the screaming, if only to keep us sane. "Family" enduring the difficulties of caring for all three so we could go on a date night. Calls of offered help came daily, the support was breathtaking. I can only say, "thank you"...we owe so many people a debt of gratitude; I only hope we can repay your kindness someday. Thank you for being there, for being a part of our journey, for expressing your love in tangible ways to us, and we hope you continue to share in the joys of toddler hood!

Getting Ready for the Big Day

I can't believe I am getting emotional about this....but I am. :( We are getting ready for the babies' first birthday on April 20th...and it is making me so sad! I guess nostalgic would be a better word, but it feels sad nonetheless. Where has the time gone?

It's a good sad, though...moving on to bigger and better things! Walking, talking, eating pizza! Oh, the joys that are to come... It's a bittersweet time, but the new experiences and discoveries around the corner are what keeps me going.

I have been taking pictures of the kids every month of this first year to document just how much they have changed, so here is a slide show of just that.

It's amazing to see how much they have grown. You can almost see their personalities come through the pictures toward the end. What an evolution! It has been an incredible, amazing, difficult, terrifying, tiring, emotional, proud, engaging, draining, humbling, exciting, challenging, educational, and satisfying year. And I wouldn't change a thing. We are proud to have made it through this year, and proud of the kids for what they have accomplished! So, enjoy...here are the first 11 months and also a few of their firsts thrown in.

By the way...the "Zero Day" picture was to celebrate the day they turned "zero". Since they were preemies, they were born 7 weeks before their due date...so developmentally, the experts tell you you can't start "counting" their adjusted age until their original due date (the date they "should" have been born), which for us was June 10th. So, June 10th was...Zero day! The day they turned zero. :) Hopefully we will have party pics and details very soon...next Sunday is the big day!