One.

Although our lives are plural, I need to take a second to talk about something singular: ONE year.  We survived one whole year.  525,600 minutes.  8,760 hours.  365 days.  12 months.  1 year.

We are alive.  All four of us - alive and smiling.  How did that happen?

We made and fed two babies approximately 4,200 bottles total.  In the beginning we went through 112 diapers per week, 450 per month.  We've changed approximately 5,500 diapers.  We've watched all 10 seasons of FRIENDS.... and all 9 seasons of How I Met Your Mother all while feeding babies, which is AT MINIMUM 7 days and 20 hours of feeding/Netflix.  That was all accomplished within the first 5 months.  We've taken approximately 15 sick days.  We've had one hospital stay that lasted for 4 excruciating days.  We've been through about 450 jars of baby food.  We've gone to the pediatrician around 20 times, and KidMed 3.  We've lost countless numbers of hours of sleep.  We've been paid more than we need in baby giggles.

Life with multiples is hard.  Really hard. 
Life with multiples is amazing.  Beyond amazing.

This past year exceeded my expectations.  I was prepared for it to be really, really tough.  I wasn't quite prepared for how truly incredible it is.  The amazing has overshadowed the hard.  The giggles have overshadowed the crying.  When we're about to break, the girls give us a glimmer of hope and keep us going.  I had no idea watching two babies - sisters that were grown in the same womb, share a birthday, are absolute complete opposites - would be so mind-blowing and fun.  I wasn't prepared for that.

So the million dollar question that's been asked is: are you sad they are turning one year old?  I'm going to be completely honest about this one: no.  I don't miss middle of the night feeds, shuffling two crying newborns all while feeling completely inadequate, no head control, no smiling or laughing, and total exhaustion.  We've made great memories - lots of sweet baby snuggles, being a team in the middle of the night and watching Netflix together, and just being new parents.  But this phase seems so very fun, that I don't miss the "fog".  And if you ask me right now if we want to have more, we'll say no.  Maybe that'll change, but for now, we are so very content.  Floating on Cloud 9, with no intentions of rocking the boat.

The other question we've been asked is: did it fly by?  Well, yeah - kind of.  Some days, it felt like we'd never sleep through the night, they'd never hold their own bottles, or they'd always be blobs.  Other days, it felt like I had blinked and they were growing like weeds (well, as petite little weeds).  One milestone after the next.  It was such a great first year, that was so fast and so slow.  I try so hard to savor all of our moments... even reminding myself when things are tough..

"You're gonna miss this
You're gonna want this back
You're gonna wish these days hadn't gone by so fast
These are some good times
So take a good look around
You may not know it now
But you're gonna miss this"

Ella Grace Sink
Our beautiful, sweet, sensitive Baby A.  You're on both ends of the spectrum - pure joy straight into heartache.  You're belly laugh is contagious.  Your hair is light brown, eyes are brownish-greenish, a beautiful dimple on your right cheek, and a belly that begs for blowing raspberries.  You're a bit more withdrawn - sometimes you prefer to be playing quietly by yourself, away from Sydney's antics, and other times right there next to her.  You love to laugh at her.  You love shoes, and crawl right over to the shoe basket as soon as you can.  You also love spoons and maracas and your bottle.  You'll look at your bottle and talk and laugh just like it's an old friend.  When you're feeling emotions (happy and sad), you get "happy feet"... you kick them up and down and just let them go crazy.  You give kisses with your forehead, blow kisses with your hand, and love to snuggle.  Sweet.

Sydney Ann Sink
Crazy Sydney.  Baby B.  I look at you and your spunk and cute face and think "how is this one mine??".  You're so petite, and what you lack in size, you make up for in personality.  Two-fold.  We should have known from the time of our 13 week ultrasound, when you were bouncing around - always wanting to get in Ella's shot.  Your raspy voice is so sweet and cute.  Your hair is so very blonde and starting to curl, eyes are very much brown.  You have a huge mouth, and you're always smiling.  You love to climb, and just the other day we caught you on top of a walker.  You'll be the reason we get gray hairs.  You'll teach us to move quicker and have cat-like reflexes.  If we don't feed you fast enough, you yell at us.  You can say "uh-oh", wave and say "bye-bye", and my favorite - you can now say "Ella", which is more like "Ewwa".  Spunky.

I'm sure you're tired of reading my boring, emotional, and weird thoughts.  So... cue ONE YEAR pictures!  And since I have so many and I need to just go ahead and start posting... here are our cute tutu monthly pictures.  I'll have to write a novel for the actual birthday + party :)

Okay. So these BY FAR were the hardest pictures to get.  The girls wanted to climb on/off their boxes.  They wanted to grab their letters.  Ella wanted to put on a show with her facial expressions and hands.  Artistic expressions?  Anyways, I've had a few people ask me if I'll continue with these pictures.  Umm, no.  Absolutely not.  It was fun while it lasted, but no.

Ella is putting a spell on something invisible while Sydney cheers her on

get back on your box, Sydney.



it takes super-human strength to pick up the letter E

back on your box, Sydney

finally: a social network worthy picture.  and I love that this photo captures their personalities so perfectly:  Ella with a sweet smile, and Sydney with a huge crazy grin <3