Remembering a Year Ago...

Hope and Grace on New Year's Eve in their "party dresses."

The girls LOVE their Taggie Blankets .


"Smile, Laugh, & Dream All Day"

If you are a regular reader of this blog, you probably have noticed that the writing/content posting has fallen off a bit... ok, A LOT! To be completely honest, as the girls have gotten older, we spend more time with them, and often times after they go down to sleep at night, our collective creative energy is sapped out of us, or is devoted to other areas like school. I also will admit, (I'm blushing as I write this) that I fell victim to another Web 2.0 tool called "Facebook" and have been caught up in the web of reconnecting with former high school and college friends and laughing at silly stuff on there (at times to my wife's chagrin).

Today, however, made me really think about a lot of things, as it was exactly one year ago today that the brilliant perinatologist with the personality of a two-year-old-stale Twinkie, said to Jeni, in his monotone voice, "there is a 50/50 chance that you'll deliver these babies." That image in my mind is contrasted with the images from this evening of Hope and Grace emitting huge belly laughs as Jeni engaged them in "tickle time," Hope sitting on her own for about a minute (granted she doesn't pull herself up quite yet, but is close) and me, here, writing this blog with my dress shirt covered with remnants of bananas, pears, sweet potatoes and rice cereal that were flung at me as the girls tried to grab their own spoons during their evening feeding of solids. So much happens in a year!

The girls also weathered their first cold this week. Both of them were congested and had drippy noses, but smiled and laughed their way through it anyway. Granted, they gave their beloved mommy their cold in the process, but the good news is that they have immune systems that work and that a little cold does not necessarily translate to a plethora of doctor visits and a return to the hospital.

All on all, it's been a roller coaster of a year... a year that I will never forget and a year that has left certain scars in its wake. There are certain things I still haven't been able to do... like read the story, "Goodnight Moon" or finish writing the girls' birth story (although I hope to accomplish this task by April). But there are other worries that I've had that have gone away, almost completely. The girls are currently in Daycare at my school and I get to visit them during my prep period every day. Their caregivers are wonderful and the girls are doing great. A little sniffle and a need to get out the bulb syringe (aka "The Booger Snatcher") is not a cause of great concern. The girls went back to St. Joe's for their "Stepping Stones" follow up appointment and we were told they are right on target given their adjusted birth age. They are small in size, but as my favorite Star Wars character, Yoda, taught us, "size matters not." The good news is they are growing at a good rate and are acting like healthy babies.

All and all, this past year has taught me an invaluable lesson, that Love triumphs over Fear and that we all need Hope and Grace in our lives. Our girls are certainly living up to their names!