hopefulandhungry

I’m finding this post to be bittersweet.  I love that my girls are growing, developing, learning and turning into these amazing little people, but I’m also sad that they are no longer babies and that life sometimes goes by too quickly.  How is it that we have already gone from small miracle babies that could almost fit in the palm of our hands to almost walking one year olds?  We’ve had sleepless nights, first smiles, coos, joy at a six hour stretch of sleep, cheers for rolling over, amazement over sitting up, giggles, crawling, trying first foods, splashing in the bath and now cruising along the furniture.  It never ceases to amaze me how much development occurs in the first year of life.  

Twins are a lot of work, but I cannot imagine life without both Jemma and Zoe.  I still remember so clearly the day we went for our last embryo transfer (November 23, 2013) and the embryologist brought out the picture of a single embryo and us telling him that we had decided to transfer not one but two embryos.  He smiled and gladly said he would go and defrost another.  He mentioned that it was still slightly frozen upon transfer but that it would thaw once placed.  Jemma or Zoe?  Who was the little frosty?  They are two peas in a pod and life couldn’t be more sweet.

My Mom aka Mimi to the girls calls Jemma our “comedian”, she makes the funniest faces and keeps us laughing all the time.  From her crinkled up nose and sniffing sounds, to her tossing of everythin you hand her over her shoulder, to sly smiles, to “mmmmm” to almost every food she eats and to the utter joy she expresses when splashing water everywhere-her little personality is anything but.  

Zoe also brings smiles to everyones faces, she freely smiles and giggles at almost everyone, holds her arms up for you to carry her and is so happy when you do.  She is our little busy body who can wiggle herself out of the TwinZ pillow when she should be drinking her bottle, barely will hold still for a diaper change, and moves from point A to B in a matter of seconds.  She has such a sweet demeanor and will often give in if her sister wants the toy she has.

Jemma and Zoe LOVE food and have not fussed about any food that I can think of.  They love berries, chicken, beef, avocadoes, corn, pasta, toast, pancakes, broccoli, beans, rice, the list goes on!  Both have eight teeth-four on top, four on bottom.  Both are cruising (a term I didn’t know until we saw the doctor) and are pretty proficient at feeding themselves.  Jemma’s pinscher grip is a little stronger than Zoe’s.  Jemma still loves to say “dada” and Zoe leans towards saying “mama”, but I still don’t think they associate the words with us.  Jemma and Zoe LOVE our cats Bode and Maya, Zoe is pretty good about gently petting, but Jemma gets very excited and screams and sometimes pulls their fur.  Eek!  Both are starting to mimic our behavior, recently, they started to hold their new baby cell phones up to their ears…so cute!  Jemma’s lovey is her white Jellycat bunny which now looks like a platypus from her sucking on it’s face and Zoe’s lovey is her white lamb (which use to be attached to her Wubbunub pacifier), she now uses it’s legs as a pacifier and they are yellow and gross.

The girls had their twelve month check up and both are doing very well.  Their pediatrician didn’t have any concerns and gave us advice to move away from bottles and to make food the focus of meals rather than bottles.  He said we should offer lots of finger foods and let the girls eat until they are full.  We have been giving the girls a mix of formula and goat milk (4 times a day) and are going to be transitioning to cow milk soon.  We just set up a milk delivery service that will bring it to our porch every Monday-I’ve been very excited about this!  Just like the old days.

  Twelve Months-our last onesie photo, very squirmy little girls!

  
Jemma

Weight: 21 pounds 9 ounces (75th percentile)

Length:  30.5 inches (89th percentile)

Head circumference:  47.2 centimeters (95th percentile)-big head like Mommy!

Zoe

Weight:  18 pounds 8 ounces (29th percentile)

Length:  29.5 inches (62th percentile)

Head circumference:  44.6 centimeters (41st percentile)

Both girls received their PCV13, MMR, Varicella, and HepA vaccines and did awesome.  Daddy promised gelato after, so we took them for a sweet treat after.

July 14, 2015-We took the week off of work and I unfortunately had been summoned for jury duty and reported to the King County Courthouse in downtown Seattle on Monday July 13th.  I was selected for a jury, but was lucky enough to get a trial that was only going to be a day and a half.  Therefore, I spent the first half of the day at the courthouse on Jemma and Zoe’s birthday, but we still had a fun rest of the day.  We took the girls to the Woodland Park Zoo and out to dinner at a neighborhood Mexican restaurant.  They also received their personalized big girl chairs and seemed pretty excited about them.

 Visiting the penguins-about the only animals they seemed to notice 
 Big girl chairs!  Jemma making funny noises and Zoe cracking up! 
The rest of the week we got to relax at home, get things ready for their party the following weekend, and enjoy the hot, sunny weather!

Their first birthday party was this past Sunday July 19, 2015, I think we picked one of the hottest days of the year so far.  I was happy to have sun, but I think all of us were melting!  We kept the gathering pretty low key, surrounded with family, relatives visiting from Hawaii and a few family friends.  We ordered Vietnamese food from one of our favorite restaurants and I made cupcakes for everyone and small smash cakes for the girls.  Stephanie-the amazing photographer who captured Jemma and Zoe as newborns and at six months came to our house and captured the special day.  Below are some teasers she posted and I will be following up with another post of pictures.  The girls cooperated and took good morning naps, so they were 90% cooperative, I think 10% cooperation went away due to the heat.  

  
  
  
The day was so hot that Hubby went and bought the girls a small outdoor pool, but not until the evening.  I think everyone would have appreciated having the pool during the party!

 
Dearest Jemma and Zoe-

Happy first birthday!  You have filled my heart with so much love that I often think it will explode.  Daddy and I cannot imagine a life without you.  You bring us so much joy and happiness!  We wished, prayed, hoped and waited so long for you and now you are a whole year old.  We feel so blessed to have two daughters who are happy, healthy, inquisitive and curious about the world.  I thank God everyday that He brought two miracles to us.  You are truly miracles and I love both of you so very very much!!!

Love,

Mommy

I’m sure I could keep writing, trying to think of all the small details that I’ll want to remember from this first year.  Time goes so quickly and I hope to savor and enjoy every minute.  Thank you to all of you who have supported me on my journey of infertility to pregnancy to being a new Mom.  I know I’ve said this before, but don’t give up hope if you are still trying to conceive, I almost had and  when I least expected things to work, they did.  

Goodnight……xoxo