Baby Love

There are just a couple more days until my baby girls turn 1 years old. I'm trying to soak in every last "baby" moment this week. I know nothing big is going to suddenly change on Saturday...but my heart has been aching knowing that this first year is over. It was hard for me when my girls started growing out of their newborn clothes. I continued to squeeze them into those precious tiny outfits for too long because I just couldn't accept that 0- 3 month size. That was a rough transition but since then it hasn't bothered me so much. Now that same anxious, weepy feeling has crept back in is as they approach this big milestone.

Rosie and Evie were home napping with daddy last Sunday during Relief Society so I was able to sit with a friend who has twin girls that just turned 6 months. I couldn't believe how tiny her girls felt in my arms. How relatively soft and floppy they still were...still a little wobbly sitting up. It just blows my mind how much my girls have changed and grown up in the last six months and how much faster the second half of this year was than the first. They spent the first six months not doing much at all and all of a sudden they are around the corner and up the stairs before you finish wiping off the counter. They are standing at the cupboard or at their toy box throwing everything out behind them. They are making all kinds of sounds that mimic words and shaking their heads in protest to foods they don't like. They are becoming possessive of toys and having to learn to share. All of a sudden they are mini little people. Not babies so much--but becoming toddlers.

I just want to hold them as tiny little infants for one more day... when they just lay still and stare up at you for as long as you want and never try to break free. Teeny tiny faces and fingers. As much as I wish I could have that, I am SOOO loving this stage. I would settle to just freeze the clock right now for a few months and not let anything else change--to push back that big 1 for a little while longer.

With babies, you are constantly aware of the passing of time. They are ticking time pieces right in front of you. Changing and growing and doing new things every single day (or at least at this age anyway). It is incredible to be a parent and watch all those firsts and know that is exactly what they are. You see babies all the time doing baby things but it is so different to watch and know when something is brand new. Knowing when they are touching grass for the first time, picking up a rattle by themselves for the first time, making a new funny face or sound they have never made before. It is amazing. There is a joy in parenting that passes between moms and dads at the dinner table every day with clapping and cheers or sometimes silently with excited smiles when you look at each other and both know what you're witnessing...and the whole world around you may see the exact same thing but have no idea how special it is.

Last night I laid in bed and thought of every detail I could remember from the day Rosie and Evie were born and I realized I never wrote it all down. I started to here but it got so ridiculously long that I think I may save it for another post...or I may just print it out and put it in their baby book (the baby book that unfortunately doesn't exist yet). argh. Things to do, things to do.

The short version is Rosemary Nell and Evelyn Irene came on June 25, 2011 at 6:43 and 6:44 am. They were big and healthy and beautiful and made me the happiest mama in the world. :)

My Rosie:



My Evie: