ONE whole year old!

Ok babes....here is your, a little late, 12 month post. 

Zoe: You are the sweetest little creature ever created. Really, you are just too much! You have such a pleasant demeanor about you and just love life. You love to play & explore and snuggle. You LOVE your family, and in particular have taken a serious liking to your Aunt. I am going to pretend that you don't reach out for her and call her mama daily. Its a bit odd....but at times I kind of wonder if you think you have two mommies who look a whole lot alike! You have finally moved on from your crazy separation anxiety phase and it's so much fun to see you exploring your world. You love to "go". You get bored at home and jump to your feet and sprint to the door when I pick up the keys. You like to go anywhere. You love getting in your car seat and anytime someone comes in and leaves and gets in their car without you, you get a little sad for a minute and look at me like, "Wait, aren't we going too"? You love to wave at anyone and everyone and love to chase behind other big kids and try to keep up. You love playing with your cousin who is 6 months older than you. Its so cute to watch you follow behind and try so hard to keep up. You have become a climber, but don't have the coordination, balance or awareness to be such. You have been known to crawl on top of a picnic table and then just fall off. Like, fall straight back as if some magical force is going to catch you. While on that topic, I must say you have made some amazing strides this month in "threshold awareness"! Up until recently you would just walk straight out the front door or over a ledge with NO awareness of the drop. And you are fast so it was hard to catch you before the crash. But now you are such a big girl and navigate your world so efficiently! You love to stack your little blocks and knock them back down. You love to pretend play with your cell phone, hair brush, and tea cups. You now pretend drink your "tea" and then waddle over to give me a "sip". It's pretty cute. You say "mama", "dada", "uh-oh", "bye", "Hi" (but only on your phone), "eyes", "baby", "thank you", "mimi" (kinda), "Nor-Nor" (that one MELTS my heart!), and "up". However, you don't talk, as in using actual words all that much, but you are on the verge of some serious imitation, I can see it coming! You're a good sleeper, but are in a tricky nap transition right now. You wanna nap late in the morning, but still want an afternoon nap as well but won't fall asleep until 3:30 or so and then sleep late and go to bed LATE! We are trying to tweak this nap behavior b/c as much as we love you, we love to see you retire to your little room well before 9:30pm! You have been battling ear infections since you were six months old. We have been told we are one short of tubes. I actually think you have one now, we go in in the morning to see. So I suppose that will be an interesting appointment. But I am ready to stop putting your poor little body on so many antibiotics! You are a good eater, but have kind of become a grazer. It's kind of hard to really know whats normal for eating because the only person I have to compare you too is a bottomless pit that eats more than me....aka Nora, But I think you are an ok eater. You love all things carbs and if really hungry will eat the healthy stuff. We have cut out all processed food in our house and you have done well with the transition. I guess finding out your sister was allergic to lots of stuff at such a young age was better than if y'all were older! But I do sneak you the occasional cookie or bagel when Nora is sleeping or occupied! Zoe, your little passion for life and the people you love is such a joy to watch. I cannot wait to see the plans God has for you. You are a mountain moving type of girl and we are honored to be here to watch you grow and turn into the person God intended you to be! Happy FIRST birthday Zoester! 

Nora: You are a new woman! Now that we have figured out what was bugging you, you are a cheerful, funny, silly, sweet, little girl. You are definitely not a social butterfly and are much more of an observer. You have been known to cautiously watch people for an hour before deciding they are worthy of even a smile! You love your family, but if it's not someone you see often you struggle. You love love love to laugh and play games that involve us throwing you in the air or spinning you. You also love hide and seek and your current favorite game is hiding behind our curtains and popping out. You think it is hilarious. You are a good little sleeper, and even though you often give us a little drama at bedtime, you seem to actually sleep longer than Zoe now. I truly never thought I would type that sentence. I was sure you were destined to stay up at night until you left for college! Your skin care and allergies have kind of turned into what seems like a full time job. I didn't realize how unnerving it would be to send you out into the world or even take you to the zoo or playgroups, with our new knowledge of your allergies. It was a much simpler time when we were in the dark, but I am SO thankful we had you tested because I was literally about to give you a peanut butter sandwich and I'm sure it was only a matter of time before you got your hands on some almonds as I eat them constantly! My biggest struggle with feeding you now believe it or not, is that you can't have bread. And even if we find a wheat substitute, they all have egg. I will pay someone big bucks to locate a soy/egg/wheat free bread. For now, I have been making gluten free pancakes for you with egg substitutes and then making grilled cheese or whatever with it. I told your daddy that you get a McGriddle almost every day. Lucky! :) You are such a good eater. Your daddy and I stare at you in amazement at the amount of food you put away daily. And you are probably the healthiest baby around. You love cheese, avocado, broccoli, kale, chicken, beef, turkey, tuna, salmon and beans! You literally eat adult size portions at meals and usually polish off your sisters left overs. Its hilarious to watch. You hate sweets, which is good since you can't have them, and literally start jumping for joy when I give you leafy greens. You can say, "mama", "dada", "bye", "eyes", "uh-oh" (but you only say 'uh'), "block" and "baby". However, like your sis we don't hear all that much "talking". You do babble a ton and it's cute to see how your sweet little voice is gonna sound! You are such a fat little chunk and a total little priss pot! You love to shake your booty to a beat and walk around taking the smallest little steps with your little hands at your waist. It's very cute!! You love for us to chase you and squeal and run away. You both run now which is funny! You are trill taking two naps most days, however can totally hang with a one nap day and then go down for bed so easily. Your sister is SO not there, and I am accepting the fact that we are probably about to embark on a season of naps not coordinating. You have been waking up around 8:15am and your sister around 6:15am. Sigh! But I am learning to roll with the punches as a twin mom. "Learning" being key word! Nora we love you SO much and are so thankful for you. You have so much joy and are such a smart, inquisitive little thing. You are going to make a difference in this world and it will be a better place because you are in it! We pray we can keep you healthy and safe and that you know how loved you are by us and the one who made you!! 

So life with one year olds is actually much easier than life with infants. We are SO enjoying this, dare I say it, "toddler phase". However, now that we aren't eating any processed food and can't eat wheat, soy, egg, peanuts, tree nuts, peas, and a few other non issue foods, I do feel very busy! Before we were enlightened to Nora's allergies I was popping waffles in the microwave lots of mornings or just toasting bagels. I was buying yogurt that I knew was healthy"ish" but not reading labels like a detective. If the girls got fussy and needed a snack I would toss some some Cheerios on their trays and enjoy a break. But Now I kind of feel like I am in the kitchen constantly these days. I make breakfast, lunch and dinner now every day. We make all pancakes and waffles from scratch and substitute eggs in all that stuff lots of mornings. There are very limited brands we can even buy to use as the base or mix and I am learning to make these interesting foods yummy. We do lots of ground sausage for breakfast and white turkey meat and basic meat and veggies most of the time so it's really not bad at all unless we are wanting a carb type food. I have been on the phone with most meat distributors and am starting to get a good solid list of clean meats. Side note, I have learned so much and have become TOTALLY 100% disgusted with the food industry and I mean really disgusted! They are hiding so much nasty junk in our foods in order to let it sit on a shelf and stay "fresh" and in order to produce it cheap. I've learned that soybean oil is pumped into most all of our food and I'm talking from breads, to yogurt, to cheese to deli meat. It's gross. No wonder my child with a severe soy allergy was breaking out in a rash from eating a yogurt and we just assumed she was allergic to milk. I've also learned that companies produce very pure healthy "infant" yogurts and products, I'm talking about you YoBaby, and then once it's a toddler version sell it for the same price, but diminish the nutritional content like you would not believe. It's no longer yogurt but a bunch of filler junk that's cheap and easily preserved with a side of actual yogurt. They win you over with the good stuff and once you trust them switch it up. I suppose once your kid is one it's time to start getting them used to the crappy, processed food and to top it off us moms don't even know we are doing it. If you can't tell, it's really annoying to me. Ok sorry tangent, all that to say our new way of eating is keeping me busy but surprisingly it's cheaper because we are embracing it as a family, all eating the same stuff, and not eating out much and I know we will all be better for it!! 

But we are really enjoying the girls like I said! They love to go out, love to play, love new adventures and really just love life! We are really blessed!

Happy one year little munchkins! Can't wait for another fun year ahead!!

These have all been posted on Facebook but here are a few recent shots. Their favorite activity is the grocery store! They point to everything and gasp....like "wow look at all this cool yummy stuff!" Party pics up next!