2nd Birthday Video-2 year old twin boys!

My 2nd attempt at creating a video/photo slideshow to highlight the memories in the last year. One thing is for sure: I take A LOT of photos! We showed this video at the boys' 2nd birthday party, but if you missed it, check it out here!

Owen and Aaron 2nd Birthday Video

Two.

If you're like me, you haven't celebrated your own birthday since junior high when you hosted a sleepover complete with pizza, the game Girl Talk, prank phone calls, and enough sugar from the bulk candy bins at Cub Foods to make your stomach ache.

But if you've ever been a parent to a toddler (or two at once), you know that birthdays are something to be celebrated. It's that date on the calendar that pinpoints another year under your parenting belt and forces you into constant reflection mode: What were things like exactly one year ago today? How have things changed? Are they better? Do I have this mothering thing down yet?

While the changes in the past year aren't as physically dramatic as when our twins turned 1, turning 2 feels just as monumental in its own way.  It seems as though we are finally starting to see through some of the fog that has been present for so long: a time when their little bodies literally needed us for every piece of their day. To feed them, to carry them, to clothe them, to change them, to help them make sense of a world that doesn't speak in baby language.

(13 months old)

It's not to say that the dust has finally settled or anything like that, but just that I can finally start to see my boys as something outside of myself. The times when I stand back and look at them from across the room and something that they are doing literally takes my breath away. You just lined up all your cars from end to end--you're so imaginative! You just unzipped your jacket all by yourself--I didn't know you could do that! Yes, that is a blue truck--you're so smart! Thank you for offering to carry your jammies downstairs--you're so helpful!

Silly boys and best friends (most days, anyways...)

The moments that stick out for me over this past year are not major milestones. They are only little glimpses into an average day that, had I not written them down somewhere, I probably would have forgotten about. The first time you hugged each other before bed. The time when we were in the process of getting new carpet, we came home from daycare and there was no carpet in the dining room; the way you both tried to explain in your limited language where the carpet went. How you would lean in to the Christmas tree to give it hugs and how Owen would wave and say "hi" to the people and horseys in our Dicken's Snow Village. How you only like singing the "choo choo" song before bed and how you both belt out "A-MEN" after we say prayers each night. How you are obsessed with seeing if there are ice cubes in Mommy and Daddy's water glass at dinner every single night. The time when our house had suddenly gone silent for the first time since the babies were born...Dan and I looked at eachother dumbfounded wondering where the boys were until we noticed that they were sitting right in front of us stacking their MegaBlocks into towers like little champs without any adult help. How Aaron says "yaaaaaa" in a perfect Minnesota accent, complete with an over-exaggerated head nod. The first time I heard you say, "yuhve you, Momma" in your angel little voices, how nothing else in the world seemed to matter at that precious moment.

It is truly hard to remember how we filled our days when "woof, woof" was the only word you were able to communicate with me for several months after just turning 1. Now, you are running out into the street after a runaway ball yelling proudly, "I ga dit, Ma-mee!" Just recently you spent an entire shopping trip to Target telling every stranger we passed who was kind enough to stop and try to decode "buh-ckle bo-ken," your story of how the first cart Mommy tried to secure you into had a broken buckle, so we had to go to a "diff one."

You now sleep with grown-up sized pillows in your cribs and are three times the size of the baby blankets we brought you home from the hospital in. You eat gummy bear vitamins and we now share our kitchen table with messy little eaters who prefer to use the same kind of fork and spoon as Mommy and Daddy. I'm convinced that wearing helmets 24-hours a day would be the best way to keep you safe from your adventurous spirits that don't quite know the limits just yet.

2 year old twin boys

And while there are glimpses of what friends warn is to come in the next year (how dare I take the string cheese out of the plastic wrapper, I forgot that you want to "doo wit" yourself for goodness sake), I do try to hold onto what each day brings. I know in just a matter of time, we will be able to play at our neighborhood park without my blood pressure spiking every time you get close to the edge when Mommy is still making her way through the tunnel. I will probably have forgotten that we spent a month (or more) of this past year sleeping on an air mattress when one little guy just needed to know that Mommy and Daddy were close by. We will forget the crabbiness that accompanied the welcoming of 22 new teeth and molars into this world in the same year (okay, so maybe we will never forget the joys of teething). But you will laugh when we tell you how much you loved to read the Superhero Potty book or how you would ever so politely say "key que" (thank you), complete with the baby sign language, just after stealing a toy right out of your brother's hands. Soon, you will no longer be asking me to carry you up the stairs to go to bed. Before long, there will be new hurdles to conquer and milestones to reminisce.

So for today, we CELEBRATE turning 2.

To read my thoughts on my twins turning 1, read my post from last year here.

My Little Helpers

If you know me, you know that I like to be efficient and get things crossed off my to do list as quickly as possible. More jobs are waiting to be completed and I am already thinking about my next project before I am even done with my first.

My husband and I learned long ago that we do not cook well together. He is one to measure sugar perfectly by leveling it off with a knife, actually sifting the flour if the recipe calls for it, and will not bat an eye when just about every dish in the kitchen is being used for said recipe. He is a great cook and the end result is always worth the...ahem..long wait.

I, on the other hand, try to hurry up and get the brownies in the oven so I can wash the dishes and put them away so the kitchen will look pretty again. I resist the urge to wipe up the flour on my countertops each time it spills, and the sight of all the ingredients sprawled out on every flat surface of my kitchen makes my blood pressure rise. (OCD much?!)

I am just really not one for messes.

But, Santa must have been listening when I told him that all I wanted for Christmas was a cleaning lady. He even sent 2! Their hours are 5am-7pm and are immediately at my beck and call if they see the need arise.

"Howp?!" In Owen and Aaron's language this means"help" and let me tell you it has become a favorite word around here, usually right as I am about to get down to some nitty gritty cleaning for the first time in 3 weeks. From doing laundry to washing dishes to vacuuming up Brady's fur to wiping off the food that is caked on our dining room walls, our to-do list is always a work in progress.  And each night, just as I open the fridge to gather some ingredients to throw together for dinner, I hear the tiny voices asking to help...and, as if they already know the answer, they push over the 2 booster-less dining room chairs so that they can hog stand at the counter with me to help.

I secretly cringe at the fact that my 30-minute meal will undoubtedly will now take a good hour.

But every time, my answer is the same. Yes, you can help. Deep down I know that not much gets done when my helpers are at my side. The floors will need to be swept again. I will have to re-wipe the windows down in all the places that were missed. And I will have to re-wash a load of laundry that just came out of the dryer because I couldn't bear to tell the boys to take the clothes out of the washer once I saw the proud looks on their faces when they knew that they had "helped" their mommy. 

In the end, it is not about how clean my house is or how quickly I can make a meal. It is about spending time with my little helpers. And for that, I will take all the help I can get. 

Now, can I get someone to help me pick up these toys?!

We DIG being 1!

Turning 1, in the moms of multiples world, is nothing short of a major milestone. I couldn't let it pass without throwing a big party for our favorite little duo. I decided on a construction themed party, and with a little lot of help from Pinterest, the day was perfect. There was wrapping paper shredding, cake smashing, and plenty of love and laughter that filled our home as our friends and family shared in Owen and Aaron's 1st Birthday.
(More on their 1st year here.)

Construction Party Set-Up

Cakes for Owen and Aaron

       Snack Food

       "Nuts and Bolts"

       Monthly Photos  

             

       Our Family
   
       Generous Gifts

    Owen showing off a new ball!

      Is that for me?!     

              

Owen ready for cake! 

Happy Birthday!

        Aaron wasted no time in digging in

He ate almost half the cake!!   

          Mmmm, chocolate...    

Owen was a little hesitant at first, but then dug in, too. 

Happy 1st Birthday to our favorite little boys!

1st Year in Photos and Video

I recently attended Video Production Class 101 in order to create this video to highlight the boys' first year. Okay, not really, (I probably should have attended a class) but I did slave over the computer for an ungodly amount of hours navigating unknown computer programs, reminiscing tiny babies, browsing the 4,372 photos we took in their first year (seriously!), and then uploading the bagillion photos in order to make this video come to fruition. I've still got lots of learning to do, but I couldn't have been happier with the results. We played this video at the boys' 1st birthday party, but for those of you who missed it, here it is:

One.

It seems hard to measure one whole year in such a small word. Today Owen and Aaron are One Year Old boys. Not one day. Not one week. Not one month. But one YEAR.

One year ago today I had been on bedrest for just under a month. My doctor wanted me to save up my calories for Baby B, as he was measuring on the smaller side, and not growing at the same rate as his brother.

My only adventures out of the house included a bazillion doctor’s appointments and ultrasounds, which I looked forward to immensely. If the doctors would have told me I needed to have an ultrasound every day of my pregnancy, I would have been beyond giddy. I loved laying on the plastic bed in the dark room, my husband beside me, holding hands, watching the TV monitor at what appeared to be static, to slowly begin to hear the 2 healthy heartbeats of my babies and then see them kicking and squirming around inside of me. Those appointments were the assurance I needed and craved and I loved every second of them.

As much as I loved “seeing” my babies via sonogram, there wasn’t a day that went by towards the end of my pregnancy that I didn’t secretly hope that “this” would be the day. I wanted to hold my babies. I wanted to be a mommy.

On Friday, May 18, 2012, I woke up with some new symptoms and called my doctor. I was 35 weeks and 2 days pregnant with twins, a major feat in the twin-mommy-to-be world. As I had just seen the perinatologist the day before and everything looked good, I assumed my doctor would tell me to keep resting. My scheduled C-section was just 5 days away, and let me tell you, I was counting. I was surprised when my doctor told me to come in for a quick check-up. Little did I know, I wouldn’t be returning home until I brought my 2 babies with me.

Owen Andrew (Baby A) and Aaron Joseph (Baby B) arrived at 6:34pm that hot, sunny, Spring day. Hearing each baby cry for the first time, and then having my husband bring each baby over and place their tiny bodies next to my face are life-changing moments that surpassed my wildest dreams.

Welcome to this world!

This past year has been life’s biggest blessing. There was a long stretch of time that went by when the milestone of becoming parents seemed impossible. The journey of infertility was painfully stabbing, heartwrenching and real.  I often questioned if maybe Motherhood might not be in God’s plan for me. I am forever thankful that it was, and I do not take any day of it for granted.

365 days is a long time to sum up in words. We have celebrated moving up to the next diaper size, sleeping for more than 2 ½ hours at a stretch, and pooping after a 5 day hiatus. We have applauded rolling over, first crawls, and climbing stairs. We have felt the warmth of not one, but two sleeping babies on our chests, the times you know your physical presence alone is powerful enough to soothe a crying soul. We have experienced the looks of strangers staring in awe as a sleep-deprived (but showered!) new mom tackles a double stroller from the trunk of the car, unfolds, clicks in 2 infant car seats (with sleeping babies tucked inside), attaches a diaper bag, bottles, purse, and water bottle in 95 degree weather and somehow manages to open the double doors and push the stroller-limo inside to arrive on-time to our babies’ first doctor appointment.

We have been overcome with joy as we see our boys light up and smile as we enter the room or return home from work knowing they recognize their momma and daddy. I have learned to eat breakfast, go to the bathroom, fold 2 baskets of laundry, and put my hair in a ponytail in under 30 seconds. We can no longer view our household furniture as anything but the latest and greatest climbing equipment. We have witnessed our boys become built-in playmates and best friends. We have cheered when peas and macaronis have made it safely into their mouths, instead of dropped onto the floor for Brady’s next treat. I have felt ragged, please-pass-the-toothpicks so I can prop my eyelids open, physical exhaustion, only to be followed by hearing my baby say “ma-ma” and feeling as though someone just refueled my gas tank.

In one year it’s been the highest of highs: two babies smiling, two babies giggling with that deep belly-roll laughter, two babies reaching up to you for some extra time on your lap. Two babies who find comfort in not only their parents, but in each other, too.

And while it hasn’t always been all peaches and cream: there have been two babies crying, twice the diapers and dishes. Two babies teething, the messier-than-you’d-like house, two babies to teach to sleep through the night (still learning…), two babies needing your undivided attention at the exact.same.minute. Many days are filled with constant chaos and things don’t always go as planned (eek!). There are times when you wonder if you should throw on your referee shirt and whistle. The constant demands that do not go away, just because the sun went down. It’s taking 45 minutes to get into the car for a field trip to the local coffee drive-through, to get there and order, and arriving back home to realize that you drove away without actually getting your coffee. Oops.

But, my friends. THIS is the life I have dreamed of and prayed for. All of it. We are so grateful for each moment this past year and cannot wait for what is to come! We are so beyond blessed with 2 healthy boys. Owen Andrew and Aaron Joseph, you have filled my year with more happiness that I ever imagined possible.

Happy 1st Birthday to my little loves.

1 Year = 12 Adorable Months

I will admit, monthly baby photos was the first idea I gleaned from Pinterest back when I was on bedrest last Spring. It seemed like the perfect way to a) make sure I was taking at least one photo of our babies each month (ha!) and b) capture their unique milestones that would undoubtably take place during the first year.

What I didn't realize is that documenting monthly photos would a) require a staff of 15 photo assistants to wrangle babies into position and b) force my husband and I to learn to stand on our heads while making funny faces and calling out our dear babies' names in hopes that they might just happen to look at the camera at the same time and smile.

While it was my goal to have Aaron on the left and Owen on the right in each photo, there were certain months where the stars just didn't align and Owen was on the left, and by the time I realized it, a major meltdown was about to occur, so the photo shoot was over and on the left he stayed.

1 Month June 18, 2012

2 Months July 18, 2012

3 Months August 18, 2012

4 Months September 18, 2102

5 Months October 18, 2012

6 Months November 18, 2012

7 Months December 18, 2012

8 Months January 18, 2013

9 Months February 18, 2013

10 Months March 18, 2013

11 Months April 18, 2013

So happy to have captured their first year in "months." Just please don't tell me I'm supposed to continue this trend for the toddler years, too?!