Can it be...?

Can it be that you boys are already 1 year old? It seems impossible that time could pass so quickly...especially when looking back at the time when we weren’t even sure we would make it to week 29. Those days seemed to go by sooooo very slowly. Minutes felt like hours and hours like days. Days felt like weeks. It doesn’t seem possible now that I have 2 little boys that make me crazy almost every day. Looking back, I know things could have turned out much differently than they did. I’m glad they didn’t. We love you boys so much and are grateful for the blessing of all that extra time before you were born. We know it was because of the prayers and fasting of hundreds of people that you were born as late as you were.

Hunter---
You are such a joy!! You’re always happy and seem to take everything in stride. Even when you’re not feeling well, you’re good-natured. You take tremendous delight in stealing Lincoln’s pacifier...sometimes even directly from his mouth. He’s not too fond of that. It’s gotten to the point that he often starts to cry if he sees you coming toward him. Some other things you enjoy doing are picking toys up and dropping them onto the floor, standing up and dancing/bouncing while shrieking with delight, and trying to climb up mommy and daddy. You still don’t feed yourself. You’re much more interested in picking up and dropping the food onto your tray. Your ability to make a mess while “eating” is impressive!! Most of the food ends up in your chair or on the floor. You have 8 teeth, 6 more than Lincoln. You’re not too interested in sippy cups. You definitely prefer your bottle. You still have your big, blue eyes and your cute red hair. When people see you and Lincoln together, they can’t believe the two of you are twins.

Lincoln—
You are a thinker! Sometimes you look like you’re trying to solve all of the world’s problems with your furrowed brow. You’re definitely a more serious baby than your brother, but you have the most darling smile and giggle. Whenever you’re happy, all’s right with the world. We love your fat cheeks and your cute little vocalizations such as “ssssssssssssssssssssss” or “haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa”. You LOVE your wubbanub pacifier and can often be found caressing and playing with it. You don’t like it when Hunter spies it...he has a tendency to steal it. Then we hear about it. You’re amazingly communicative, although your communications can be really loud at times. You do have a way of letting us know what you think or want. One of my favorite things is to watch you eat. You’re very thoughtful. You pick up your food with just your thumb and pointer finger...the others are folded out of the way. Then you put it in your mouth. If you don’t like it, you make a face that seems to say “how disgusting” and then proceed to spit it out. If you like it, however, you chew and move that tongue around as if you’re savoring it. Your little mouth moves into so many different shapes while you’re eating. It’s so darn cute to watch. Your favorite food is yogurt, although Cheerios are a close second. That’s pretty much all you’ll eat right now. We’ve got a few tricks up our sleeves, however. Hopefully, they’ll help you to start eating a few more different foods. We’ll see. You’ve finally started crawling and get around really well. You still really love your bottle…..not sure how we’ll ever get rid of that, but we’ll think of something. You’ll sometimes try the sippy cup if it suits you, but it usually doesn’t. You also love your Daddy. You get all excited when he gets home. You crawl up to him and hold your hands up until he picks you up. You’re a Daddy’s boy for sure!

For your party, we invited all of the people who helped during bedrest and the first few months after you were born over to the house for cake and ice cream. We wanted to thank them for their help. We enjoyed talking to everyone and they had fun watching you eat your first cake and ice cream. We love you boys so much. Happy Birthday!!