Playing in the car

Alexis and Amelia love to play in the car. They LOVE it. But they do NOT want me to play. Any time I try to come sit in the front with me they try to shove me out and shut the door. I'm not too offended because at least they love each other and don't fight.

They love to play in all types of cars, big and small.

Sleeping in their stroller

We used to put the girls to sleep in the stroller each night. Amelia apparently has strong preferences about her sleep position. Always likes to have one arm by her head:

Climbing

Alexis and Amelia both love to climb. They also seem to be... abnormally strong. They climb up onto everything. Into everything. No box or bin is safe. They even both love to climb into the big box of megablocks, which I just can't seem to understand. It CAN'T be comfortable sitting on those pointy blocks, but they don't seem to mind. Now that they are both walking (yay!), the climbing is out of control - they climb onto everything! Check it out:

Climbing into things:

[Climbing into bins even when the bins are already occupied]

Climbing on top of things:

Video proof in case you were wondering how they climb up on that table (trying to capture her saying "ball," captured the perfect climb instead):

Climbing onto diaper box, rather unsuccessfully:

Clapping

Alexis and Amelia love to clap. They like to clap when people do things they like, when they see people they love, and when they do something they are proud of (like walking!).  Obviously, it's adorable.  They also like to clap objects together. The louder the sound, the better (the best sound is the sound of mom's iPhone hitting the tile floor).

When Nanna (grandma) brought them a new wooden puzzle with little handles on each piece Alexis and Amelia were in HEAVEN. Handles for better clapping! We went to visit Aunt Lisa's new house, and had quite the orchestra going on:

Here's Amelia showing off her clapping skills a few months ago:

Mid-clap:

Last night (err, this morning) at 4:50am, Alexis decided to impress me with her clapping skills. After nursing and tricking me into thinking she was asleep, I gently started moving her and she instantly opened her eyes, smiled, and started clapping. Super adorable, but really not a good sign that she'll ever go back to sleep. Sigh. It's a good thing they are so darn cute!

Teeth

Guess who has teeth? Alexis and Amelia!

They have had teeth for a little while now, but they definitely came late -- probably around 11 months.  Alexis has two teeth on the bottom, and one coming in on the top. Amelia has one on the bottom and one on the top. She's such a little hillbilly!

There are definitely more coming... This whole "teething" thing is no joke.

Check out these chompers:

Amelia says "no no no!"

Amelia loves to shake her head.  She started about 2.5 months ago, and we thought it was just a phase (maybe it still is?). At the time, we thought maybe she was just shaking her head to make herself dizzy. And maybe she was. But now, she understands when we say "no no no!" and starts shaking her head on command. It's pretty damn adorable:

One

It's official. Alexis and Amelia are one. They are one, and they are healthy and thriving.  The past month or so had a lot of anniversaries of really unpleasant events. The first day I was admitted to the hospital. The day they transferred me to Stanford (which to this day remains the worst day of my life by a substantial margin). The day the contractions wouldn't go away. And finally, the day they arrived.  I wish I could say that was the happiest day of my life, but it was not. It was one of the worst, beat only by the preceding 3 weeks in the hospital. But since that day, every day has gotten better and better.

Today, the girls are happy and healthy. They crawl, babble, and do everything they are supposed to do.  In fact, at their 12 month appointment, despite being sick for the past 3 weeks (or 5-6 weeks as Boris claims), their pediatrician said that they are on track with a normal healthy 12 month old... UNADJUSTED! They are still on the small side for a 12 month old, but they are giant for 9 month olds! And their heads are giant, even for a 12 month old... 85th percentile unadjusted. Smart babies.

Over the past few months I've been hearing a lot of awful stories about the twins who didn't do so well. Lots of losses, of one or both twins.  Some delivered before viability, others stillborn at nearly full-term.  Which makes me think back to our own traumatic experience and think, maybe this wasn't so bad? Maybe the Stanford doctors were right after all -- maybe it was better to deliver tiny, weak babies at 27 weeks and let them grow into the strong healthy babies they are today.

For those who haven't seen it already, here's my recap of Amelia and Alexis's first year:

We had a super fun birthday party, which I will post about as soon as we get photos!