It is impossible for us parents to believe, but Lucas and Olivia turned one last week! What an absolutely incredible year, from the earliest NICU snuggles, to a wonderful welcome home, and so many adventures through the summer, fall, and winter. We are so blessed to say that we now have two happy, laughing, crawling, exploring babies who enjoy scarfing down Grams' chocolate cupcakes:
The last few months have been filled with all sorts of developmental milestones - rolling over, crawling, standing on their own, and getting teeth! Over Christmas, Olivia figured out the inchworm crawl, which quickly transformed into a regular belly-up hands and knees crawl. She is now holds the land-speed record in our house, beating out her Papa in a race the other morning. It took Lucas a little longer, but he too is now master of his own playtime. His crawl started out as a side-leg scoot, but he is now moving around on hands and knees as well. The babies are now busy exploring everything. They particularly enjoy crawling under and around the dining room chairs, frequently squealing with laughter when their sibling shows up on the other side. They also enjoy following Fenway the dog around the house whenever she comes to visit. They don't seem to mind that her way of playing in return is to lick their faces.
Lucas was the first to finally cut a tooth - on the bottom in early December - followed quickly by its partner. He briefly considered using his new chompers to chew on Mama, but wisely decided they had better uses. Olivia made up for her delay by cutting four teeth nearly at once. She's got the standard middle bottom two, and two up top with a gap in the middle. Mostly she hides them, but if you get a really big smile, or cry, you can see two fangs peeking out. Lucas has got these two incisors coming in too, so we get two gap-tooth smiles now.
Both babies are healthy weights - about 16 and 18 pounds now - still on the small size for their age, but creeping up to the charts. And for height they are right where they should be, clearly thanks to their Papa. All else health-wise is great. Lucas got a clean bill of health from the cardiologist back in December - he closed his ASD, which was the last remaining preemie health concern for us. And after visiting the pediatrician for their one-year check-up, we were able to stop giving them vitamins, which was the final NICU-prescribed medication. Very exciting. They are both loving solid foods. They have figured out how to feed themselves, which makes mealtime definitely messy but much more fun. Olivia, true to her independent nature, pretty much refuses to let Mom feed her with a spoon now, so we're working on a balanced diet of finger foods. Current favorites include toast with hummus, scrambled eggs, chicken quesadillas, and cheese. If anyone knows of good ways to hide vegetables in finger food meals, let us know - both babies have already figured out how to pick out only the pieces of food they like.
The biggest change of the last few months was our move home to Boston. It was really hard to leave DC, but it is wonderful being close to family. We are currently bunking with Grams and Grandpa, and the babies greet them with big smiles at the beginning of each day and coming home from work. So far, it is a great arrangement for all of us. The huge snowbanks make navigating with the stroller a bit tricky, but Lucas and Olivia are pretty tolerant of riding partly up the side of snowbanks as we make our way to the library, music class, or other spots of interest. We will all be happy when the playground reemerges from its snow cover, although they did enjoy trying to crawl around on the snow last weekend, as usually they only see if from the comfort of their stroller, and not so up close.
In all, it has been an incredible year. There have been many challenging moments - both in the hospital and then finding our way trying to raise two babies - but so many more rewarding times. We are so proud of both Olivia and Lucas in how much they have grown and thrived, and so pleased to have two happy, laughing babies who find so much to smile about in their days. Here's to another wonderful year on the journey...
Check out a collection of photos of adventures over the last several months:
Lucas and Olivia - Fall & Winter 2010
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