7 LONG Takes: 1 year with twins!

Friday, November 15, 2013

Ah, November 14...  Well technically I'm posting this on the 15th, but I'm writing it on the 14th...
 
Two babies, one co-pay!
 
Anyway, November 14, 2012 is when the twins were born, which means we just celebrated one year of insanity!  We spent 8 months with 4-under-4 (2.5 months with 3-under-2 and holding steady with 3-under-3), and have lived to tell the tale of the first year with twins!
 
I made brownies to celebrate their birthday today, and we sang to each of them separately.  Elizabeth thought being sung to was the most amazing and wonderful thing ever.  I kept thinking her smile couldn't get bigger and her eyes couldn't crinkle more, but it did and they did through the whole song!  She cared for the brownie not even a little bit.
 
Mary Claire cared not even a little bit about being sung to.  She wolfed the brownie down. 
 
Have I mentioned that they're totally different?
 
In honor of their first birthday, here are 7 things about each twin:
 
Mary Claire
 
 
1.  "Baby B" - Mary Claire spent her entire time in utero as "Baby B," which means she sat wedged on top of Elizabeth for weeks and weeks.  She still doesn't particularly care about respecting her sister's personal space.
 
2.  She's a talker!  She likes to mimic anything we say, and uses far more inflection than any of our other children have.  My favorites are how she calls any toy person "Baby" with a VERY excited voice, and how she says "Bah-Bye!" while waving to us.  And the "Bye" is in such an amazingly adorable squeaky voice - too cute!
 
3.  She loooooves fruit - every morning for breakfast she eats every bit of fruit on her high chair tray and then throws her cheerios on the floor so that she and Elizabeth can snack on them as soon as we clean them off.  Elizabeth, on the other hand, eats her cheerios first and mostly doesn't care about the fruit.
 
4.  She took her first steps first, but walks FAR less than Elizabeth.
 
5.  She's a ridiculous climber.  I keep moving things so that she stops climbing on the furniture, but now she's figured out how to climb in the bookshelf in the playroom without using anything to help her up.  Thankfully she can also get down by herself, and the room's carpeted so it's not a huge deal.
 
6.  Her eyes are actually still really blue!  It takes a while for our kids' eyes to change color, but I think hers might actually stay?
 
7.  She absolutely loves to be read to, especially if you point to every single thing on the page and name it.  She'll try to echo whatever you say and point at it too.
 
Elizabeth Anna



1.  Elizabeth has walking down!  She turns, she crouches and stands back up, she walks as far as she wants before she chooses to get down on the floor and crawl because it just happens to be faster!

2.  She loves to dance.  If I say the word "dance" she immediately starts bouncing up and down, panting and grinning while waving her little hands.  She has certain songs that she ALWAYS dances to and it's pretty adorable watching her bounce!  John Paul did that too when he was a baby, but not Cecilia.

3.  She's very interested in toys that involve building - legos, stacking cups, things like that.  Mary Claire's happy with stuffed animals, dolls, and books, but Elizabeth always wants to be shaking things, putting balls in cups, trying to stack legos, etc.

4.  She's so very joyful!  Except when she's incredibly angry...  Still not a lot of calm behavior from this one - everything is either incredible or terrible.

5.  She loves her dad.  She spends most nights snuggled up sleeping with him - when she wakes up (which is frequently) she wants him to cuddle her back to sleep more than she wants to nurse! 

This is a testament to what an awesome dad Andrew is, because some nights this means I actually get to SLEEP because Mary Claire generally sleeps through the night.

6.  She is our baldest (and blondest) baby so far!  John Paul was leaning towards being a redhead at this age.  Cecilia was very clearly strawberry blonde.  Mary Claire's got the exact same hair color as the older two (and me and Andrew).  But Elizabeth, when the light hits her hair so that you can actually tell she has some, is definitely a bit towheaded!  Now if only we could convince her hair to grow...

7.  She thinks the song "Open and Shut Them" is perhaps the most hilarious thing there has ever been.  As soon as I start singing it she starts grabbing my fingers and sticking them in her mouth and pulling them out again, laughing and laughing!

And now, 7 pictures of the twins!  I made them birthday crowns (loosely following this tutorial) and *tried* to get good pictures, but they're both getting over colds so they're super snotty and red-nosed...  This is the best I could do!

--1--

"Get this crown off of me!"
--2--
Dazed and Confused
--3--
"Quick, make a break for it while she's trying to keep our brother from using the camera!"
--4--
"Does she realize how stupid we look in these things?"
--5--
"If I slide slowly out of the chair, maybe she won't notice?"

  --6--
 
Hours old and already giving us attitude (Elizabeth)
--7--
 
Just born!  Elizabeth on top, Mary Claire on bottom
Aaaand with that very long 3-for-1 quick takes post, I bid you adieu!  Go check out more at Jen's :) 

22 comments:

  1. Elizabeth flipping the bird is the best :)

    Happy Birthday to the sweetest twins in all the land. I wish I could give them a big squeeze!

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  2. Cute!! Happy Birthday Mary Clare and Elizabeth!

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  3. One reason that I like reading your blog (apart from the humor, cuteness, etc.) is that it reminds me I should never complain about lack of sleep, since I only have one (so far fairly sleepy) baby in the house. :-)

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    1. Hey, lack of sleep is lack of sleep no matter how many kids you have! The only difference is that you get used to it as you have more kids :P

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  4. happy birthday to your girls! amazing the change in a year. I love the crowns!

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  5. Ooh, I can't wait to see them again! And to sing Happy Birthday to Elizabeth!

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  6. Happy Happy Birthday Birthday! That is amazing about their personalities, everyone is their own self, huh?

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  7. Happy, Happy Birthday to Elizabeth and Mary!! You did it Mama! One year with twins!! Wahoo!! Blessings and Grace from our family to yours.

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  8. Hip hip, hooray! Happy birthday to the twins! Can't wait to see them on Sunday and have them show Annie some new tricks (she's SO close to crawling, I think she just needs a more pint-sized example than me :)

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    1. Ha they will certainly show her some new tricks!

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  9. Happy Birthday to your cutie pies, and CONGRATULATIONS to you and Andrew! You did it!

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  10. It's so fascinating to see how different they are! Happy birthday girls!

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  11. Rosie that is such an amazing accomplishment! I hope you and Andrew have your own celebration for making it through! I know I always feel a sense of accomplishment at first birthdays because babies are so much work, but twins deserves an extra party I think! And the girls are so sweet, hope they had a wonderful birthday! Haha, I had 5 under 5 for 2 months...sooo you better get on that ;)

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  12. They are precious! I love hearing about their little personality differences. Our granddaughters are the same way: they may look almost exactly alike, but they are two distinct individuals.

    You have the cutest little family, Rosie, and you handle your busy and demanding life with such humor and grace. It's very inspiring!

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  13. Congrats on surviving a year with twins! One 17 more to go, right? : )

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  14. So very sweet! I love that their personalities are so different! My bestie adopted twins and she has had the same experience. Do your girls have their own twin language? That is something else she noticed. They started talking later than her other kids because they could communicate with each other in their own way.

    Congratulations on surviving the first year, and prayers for more adventure and blessings in the year ahead!

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  15. Happy Birthday to your little ones, and Congratulations to you and Andrew for surviving this past year - thank goodness for God giving us the grace to handle what he blesses us with!

    I'm loving all the little but extreme differences in your twins. I've always had a love for twins (I think it started when family friends of ours had twins when I was 7, and then continued on to being a nanny in high school for a family having twins as their 4th and 5th children). Yours are definitely on the super adorable list. =)

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  16. Happy birthday to those sweet girls! I'm impressed with the birthday crowns.

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  17. Happy belated birthday to your beautiful girls!! I absolutely LOVE the photos of them in their birthday crowns. :) I am slowly catching up on my blog reading and just had to comment because our twins are exactly 1 year and 1 day younger than yours. :)

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