The Big One

It's hard to express ourselves on a day like today. On one hand, it seems as though it could have been yesterday that these guys came into the world. How has it been a full year? But on the other hand, we can't remember life without them. We can't even imagine what we did before they arrived. You know, when we had social lives and dinner parties and hours-long bookstore visits and happy hours that lasted all night (oh yeah, that's what we did...). But we gladly traded all that in for life with these twins, and we have no regrets. They've filled our lives in ways we never could have imagined. They're just incredible, and they teach us something new—about them, about us, about life—all the time. We know how lucky we are, and we're thankful every day.

We made wishes on the kids' candles tonight. Very obvious wishes, but that's all we need.


Happy birthday, Tanner and Jane. We can't wait to celebrate many more with you.

Splish Splash

Tonight was the first night the kids took a bath together with toys and really got a chance to play around without our chasing them around with soap. They seemed to really enjoy themselves, splashing a ton and managing to soak Mom and Dad in the process. Here's to many more messy bath nights.

First Christmas Family Photo

Jane's First Haircut

We thought Jane needed a haircut, and it seemed timely to do this right before the holiday, so we brought her to Jack & Jill, a place that specializes in kids' haircuts. It was the most expensive four minutes of her life (even more pricey than Fred Claus), but it was worth it. Jane got to sit in a cool car while the hairdresser "evened her hair out." Jane didn't particularly love it, but she pulled herself together by the end. And she looks dang pretty. We're not sure when Tanner will be ready for his first cut—at the rate he's going, kindergarten?

Jane's First Purchase

We have bought many items for the twins during the past eleven months. Some have been fun purchases (books, toys), and some have been not so fun (diapers, wipes). Although all of the stuff has been for the kids, they have not participated in the buying other than sometimes to be present at the store. But the other day, Jane made her very first purchase. All by herself. Using our money.

I gave her the cable remote to busy her while I went to change Tanner's diaper, and when I came back ninety seconds later, Jane was watching the movie Fred Claus (a holiday classic, to be sure) on OnDemand for the bargain price of $4.99. This required Jane to have gone through an entire series of clicks on the remote to get to the viewing of the actual movie: click the big OnDemand button, click on Top Picks, click on New Movies, click on the movie (maybe even scroll a few movies down first), click on the "buy now" button. I had to laugh when I came back into the room and found her seemingly enjoying her purchase (she had even fast-forwarded the movie to about twenty minutes in—I guess the opening credits were boring her), but as a mean mom, I didn't allow her to continue watching. When Mike came home that night, I asked him if he happened to want to watch Fred Claus. He looked at me strangely and said, "Is this a trick question? Because you know I don't want to watch that dumb movie." And I said, "Yeah, but what if we already own it for the next twenty-four hours?" Regardless, we didn't watch it. I hope Jane enjoyed flushing that fiver down the toilet.

[Before you tell us that we should take the batteries out of an old remote and give that to the kids instead, let me assure you we've tried that. They play with the old remote (or phone, or Palm Pilot, or whatever it may be) for about three seconds before they realize that it's not the real one, it's not the one Mom and Dad use, and it's just not as interesting. Smarties...]

One Month Shy

Gone are the days of cooperative photography and getting two smiling faces to look at the camera at the same time...

The kids' eleven-month birthday was a day of firsts. Tanner wanted to stand up a bunch (with lots of help) at Book Babies at the library, Jane took her first nap on her stomach, and they started the transition to whole milk (three bottles down, more than eighty to go). Their figurative steps are getting bigger by the day, and it's incredible to watch them grow.

Tanner's First Tooth

Pardon Susan's finger, but Tanner has his first tooth! Jane has her third, fourth, fifth, and sixth teeth coming in (all up top), but Tanner's finally got his first!

First Thanksgiving Family Photo

Ten and Ten

The kids are ten months old today. Coincidentally, ten years ago today we had our first date. Dang.

Tanner hates to have his face and nose wiped.

Jane hates to have medical professionals stare at her and/or poke and prod at her.

It's been a rough month (think viral infections, multiple barf fests, and countless ruined onesies), but we're excited for the holiday season ahead!

First Halloween Family Photo