Once again, I'm marveling that my smallest ladies are one year old. We thought Abby Jane was practically fully grown by the time she was a year old. We cemented this belief by deciding to expand our family when she was this age. One more tidbit on our having twin girls. There is apparently accepted research with a definite link between consumption of sweet potatoes and the incidence of twins. We used to have sweet potatoes about once a week, so these evidently are our little sweet potato babies.
That said, here's a little "then and now": you don't get much more brand spanking new than this... Jake's got Joy, I've got Blythe.
At one year, Joy waves bye bye to Dada, says "Hi!" all the time, says "nigh-nigh-nigh-night", blows kisses, gives kisses when asked and spontaneously, plays peek-a-boo. She does a lot of laughing and mimics tones of voice. Joy points at lots of things, and we're working on her accuracy in pointing to specific items when asked. She can stand independently for quite a long time, and we are forecasting a walker sometime around Thanksgiving. So far they both rolled over on Memorial Day, Blythe crawled on the Fourth of July, Joy crawled on Labor Day, so it would make sense for someone to walk on Thanksgiving Day. STILL only two teeth. But we started right after their birthday making the vast majority of their meals finger foods (along with their cow's milk- YEA we finished our year of nursing!!!) Her 1 year stats were 21 lb 9 oz ( 60%) and 29 1/4 inches (55%).
Here's my Blythe with her Polly horse. Mentioning Polly is relevant because this horse has become extremely sentimental and vital in the last few weeks- such that we need to separate them when she gets out of bed, or she'll have to take Polly everywhere she goes. Blythe's standing and cruising, but I don't think she's quite as on the verge of walking. She's a good snuggler, giggler, blows and gives kisses, plays peek-a-boo, is a reader for short periods (they both love books with textures!), and chews on anything. She, too, still only has two teeth! Blythe has a funny habit of putting her food on Joy's tray, then eating it off Joy's tray. This morning I turned to see what Blythe was fussing about- Joy was smacking Blythe's hand when Blythe was trying to retrieve her bananas she had relocated to Joy's tray! Oh dear. Her stats were 20 lb 6 oz (50%), 29 3/4 inces (80%)- so she's now taller than Joy.
Getting them to sit side by side in that chair was definitely more difficult now...
than then!
One other really fun part about this age is how they flip out for Jake. When I say, "Daddy's home!", they crane their little necks to see Daddy and go ahead and start laughing and bouncing with excitement. Jake's already roughhousing, gently, with them, and they belly laugh at his tricks. He is their hero, probably ties with Abby Jane on the funniest person they know, and he is firmly wrapped around the chubby little fingers of three small ladies in this home.
The children's minister at our church has recently been a foster family for a set of twin infants. I've never thought about twins ever being foster kids, but the concept of two tiny babies just floating around out there simultaneously broke my heart and made me want to hold on so tightly to my girls, never taking for granted the ability to raise my precious daughters.
It's amazing how a pink radio can help foster friendship quickly. What's crazy is that Betsy and I were only two years older than these girls when we first became friends!
Cracks herself (and us) up...
Jake and I had a shift on our small group's game, but my siblings seemed more into it than their kids did.
And Blythe was compliant enough to tolerate her duck hood just long enough for a few pics.
Birthday roses from Daddy, a tradition started by my dad.
Because I totally went overboard with the pumpkin theme, despite serious plans to keep it simple, I thought I'd be funny.
The pumpkin painting was successful, amazingly, despite the young ages of most of the artists!
A sampling of the babies in our small group at church- these six are all within four months of each other.
Blythe and Joy in their pumpkin dresses... and someone's arm tickling Blythe...
More artists...
Then came 
Just as we did at Abby Jane's 1st birthday, we had all the guests sign photo mats as a sweet memory from the day. I love this tradition, and all the precious friends and family recorded for the girls!
and the pumpkin cupcakes! My precious mom-in-law watched the girls all day Friday for me to make cookies, cupcakes, smash cakes, pumpkin muffins, pumpkin trifle, etc. etc. She was a HUGE help!
Jake spent his Friday afternoon getting the yard all cleaned up. He put in some serious time on all the leaves that dumped on our yard in the last week, but I have to say he had to have had one of the most glorious days of the year to be outside! He was also excited to use his new weedeater...
