Sylvia and Evelyn Turn One!!!!

On April 28, 2009, our little girls, Evelyn and Sylvia, turned 1. It is hard to believe 365 days ago at 7:17pm and 7:18pm our lives changed forever, in the best possible way. We have come so far and have experienced so much. It is truly amazing how much love you can feel for your babies.

They are incredible little girls now. I think the days of calling them "babies" may be over. They look and act like little girls. They love purses, fake lipstick, their dolls, bears, and playing in their playhouse. They now give big hugs, climb into your lap, kiss each other, and continue to melt our hearts with their laughs and smiles.

We are so lucky. People often ask us if we want to have more children. My response is almost always "Why?" David and I have a perfect life and a perfect family. Sure, another baby wouldn't make it unperfect, but we don't feel the need to change one thing. Life is good. Two on Two is great. There's plenty of love for these little girls and I couldn't imagine taking any of my time, effort, energy away from them.

We were told early on to "Soak Up the Magic" of having children. We do that every day. They are the best thing that ever happened to us. We couldn't be happier!

Happy Birthday, Evelyn and Sylvia. Mommy and Daddy love you very much.

[We are turning this blog into a book for their 1 year birthday. Talk about a baby book!]

Note about the pictures. They are getting so big and restless. We are going to transition into taking the pictures on the floor. We may have to take the pictures solo too. It is very difficult for Evelyn to sit still enough to take a decent picture.

The First Birthday Celebration

For the girls' actual birthday celebration on Wednesday, April 28th it was a day of fun! Their boyfrield Wyatt came over for a play date and brought them flowers. What a gentleman! Later, we went to dinner and enjoyed cupcakes. Sylvia wanted nothing to do with them. Evelyn dug right in! Sylvia was far more intereted in eating crayons! The big party is on Saturday.

Ready For Swimming

Evelyn tried on her new bathing suit and smiled big for the camera!

Cow's Milk

The doctor gave us the OK to start with cow's milk! This typically starts at their first year birthday, but the doctor said since they eat a ton of dairy already we are fine to start 2 weeks early.

They sucked it down like it was candy!

I'm excited because since I stopped giving them my milk at 10 months, the formula costs have increased. Thankfully we can now supply a few days of milk on just a couple bucks.

Check Old Posts

I went back and added some videos and inserted some posts (like 11 mos and Easter), don't miss out...go back and look!

Another Tooth

Sylvia got her right upper today!

Milestones

A few days ago, we stopped giving the girls' milk at bedtime. And, they have been off bottles for nearly 2 months. They get about 6oz with dinner and then water while we read books. It was no big deal. The next challenge is starting to practice drinking with an open cup. The experts say sippy cups should be used only temporarily as a transition from bottle to a regular cup. Prolonged use of a sippy cup can really mess up a kid's teeth and is said to impact language development. We will only give milk at meals, no juice, and water other times. This should help ensure good dental hygiene and not affect their language development (we hope! until they discover candy!). Now that they are very proficient at sippy cup use it's time to start practicing!

Also, the girls will have their first taste of cow's milk this weekend. We're starting the transition from formula to cow's milk!

Gosh, where did the time go?

Sylvia's First Tooth At 11 Months and 14 Days

Sylvia finally got her first tooth! It's her upper left and I think her upper right isn't far behind. I just wonder where those lower teeth are that typically come in first.

Evelyn has 3 teeth, 2 bottom center and upper right. The upper left is coming

Zoo

This week my 11 year old niece was in town and there were a lot of outings! Here are the girls at the zoo with a meerkat!

Field Trip

The girls visited the Natural History Museum today and liked the bug exhibit. Then, they passed out.

Summer Days in Spring

It has been HOT! At Monday's White House Easter Egg Roll (pictures to come) we roasted in the 90 degree heat. Yesterday, the girls' enjoyed a more breezy afternoon on the waterfront in Old Town, albeit was still hot (nearly 95! a new record!).

3 Generations

Grandpa Benson, Grandma and cousin Alexis are visiting for a week and a half from Indiana. We've had fun showing them the city and eating!

First Easter

Evelyn and Sylvia enjoyed their first Easter with family in town (Grandpa, G-ma and cousin Alexis). We got dressed up and went to the Baltimore Aquarium, which they loved, and enjoyed seafood on the harbor. It was a super nice day.

White House Easter Egg Roll

It was HOT on the day of the Easter Egg Roll. The girls were good sports and Sylvia even touches the Easter Bunny!

Bad Hair Days

Now that Sylvia's hair is long enough to put in pig tails, it looks crazy at the end of the day when we take it out.

Burke Lake Train and Carousel

There is an amazing park near us and they have a little train and carousel. The girls had a blast with their G'ma Debi and cousin Alexis!

Hats!

Evelyn says "Mommy, I need a bigger hat, I wore this LAST summer." Mommy replies, but you have such a small head and this hat is cute! Sylvia says "Mom, just give her a new hat."

First Birthday Cake

The girls' had never had sugar (besides naturally occurring) before their first birthday celebration in Scottsdale (which was really 1 day shy of their 11 month birthday). Can you tell who liked it more? Sylvia wouldn't really eat any and Evelyn cried when we took her cake away because we thought she was having too much. They really liked gelato though. It was really funny watching them dig in. I will post videos soon.

Here are more pictures from the trip: http://www1.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=2301060016/a=8289532_8289532/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish/

First of Many First Birthday Celebrations

We thought it was appropriate to celebrate Evelyn and Sylvia's first birthday while in Scottsdale and so many of David's family and friends were there. Grandpapa and Grandmama catered in Mexican (so good!), and we enjoyed cake! It was a good showing of friends and family: Grandpapa and Grandmama, Oma, Aunt Sylvia, David's childhood friends Jeff (his son and girlfriend) and Wes (and his wife Suse), Jeff's parents Olga and Lanny (who were like David's second family). It was very nice!

Trip to Arizona

This weekend the whole family headed to Scottsdale, Arizona. Grandpapa and Grandmama Romley (David's Dad and Step Mom) hadn't met the girls' yet, so we piggy backed on Daddy's work trip to see them. It took an insane amount of coordination and planning -- renting a condo, buying 3 plane tickets, ordering groceries in advance, renting cribs, highchairs, toys, baby gates, etc. It was unbelievable how good the girls were on the 5.5 hour flight! Only a little fussing at the beginning and the end. They were made for traveling. We visited a lot the first day with Grandpapa and Grandmama at their house. Thursday, when David was working, Oma (David's Mom, who came into town from San Diego) and Aunt Sylvia (yes, Sylvia's namesake) came and visited for a few hours. Friday, we went to the zoo. Saturday, we had an early birthday party for them! What fun!

11 Months

The girls are 11 months! No walking yet, but they are fast! Don't you love the picture of Evelyn about to climb out of the chair. Getting these pictures is not an easy task.

Poor Sylvia

After our bout with a nasty virus, Sylvia had a fever! It got up to 103.3 and would go down and then back up. I took her to the doctor and they told us she had a ruptured right eardrum. No wonder she was screaming! Well, we got antibiotics and we thought she was on the mend...until I saw fluid leaking from her left ear! We took her back to the doctor and her left eardrum is also ruptured. It's not uncommon and they should heal back well. Poor baby. She's been totally out of sorts lately and we were afraid this may cancel our trip to Arizona, but they said she's fine to fly. They said since the pressure is relieved, it's better. If it was just fluid build up they would have advised against it because the altitude would have been very painful. She's on antibiotics and eardrops. This is our first ear infection and first round of prescription drugs! That's pretty good.

It KILLS us to see our babies hurting. She's a super trooper though and always seems to be able to crack a smile or make a silly noise. She's such a good girl. Evelyn escaped it; it's nice to only have one baby sick at a time. That's for sure!

Riding on a Pony

The girls' love their new pony! I can't wait to get a video of how they rock it back and forth! They actually hug it and giggle. So cute!

Sick!

The entire Romley household (sans Daddy, he was on travel) was very sick last weekend, but the girls still seemed to have a good time.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

The girls wish you a Happy St. Patrick's Day! They are actually a good portion Irish; their daddy is a quarter Irish and their mommy is a euro-mutt, so definitely a little Irish!

Our Little Scholar

Evelyn loves books! She will grab a book and go over to the pillow corner and actually turn the pages on her books. She will do this for a while (maybe 10 minutes!). She's our little scholar...well, we hope they are both scholars!

Team Work

The girls' are definitely playing together (and annoying each other)! Here they are both behind the push toy ready to go! Click the picture and you can see Evelyn's 2 little teeth!

Kisses, Waves and Five's

The girls are super cute, they wave, blow kisses, point to the birds, cup, their head and belly, give fives, and all sorts of other silly things. This video shows some of it.

Take That Therapy!

Just days after our assessment of Sylvia's gross motor skills because of our over-reactive peditrician, Sylvia made HUGE progress. She's crawling, standing, crusing, climbing stairs, etc. She's really not behind at all -- I have two friends who's babies were born a day before and 3 days after and Sylvia is doing much more than they are. I need to take what our doc says with a grain of salt. But hey, we're continuing with the therapy. Why not?! It's covered by insurance, and we will have an expert at our fingertips for both girls 2x a month. Pretty good deal if you ask me! Here she is navigating a pretty large pillow to look out the window. Videos to come.

Trips Out

This is a picture of Sylvia and Evelyn on one of their daily outings; this time to a pet store. Of course, they couldn't leave the house without their books!

Tunnel and Tent Fun

The girls' (and Daddy) have a new toy -- an incredibly long tunnel and a cool little tent, which we've made plush with soft blankets and pillows. They love it!

Peek-a-Boo

The girls are so cute and play peek-a-boo whenever they can. Sylvia likes to play with her shirts. Evelyn loves to play with blankets. Soooo adorable.

Soft Play Room

We love soft play rooms...a nice relatively safe environment for baby fun.

Standing Babies

These girls are so cute and so big! I put Evelyn in Sylvia's crib while getting them ready the other morning. It amazes me how much they've grown!

10 Months!

As each month passes, we can't believe it. Where has the time gone? As they say, time flies when you're having fun!!

Sylvia 10 Months!

Sylvia has made a lot of progress this month. She is a pretty fast belly crawler, she rocks back on all 4s, will take a few movements forward on her hands and knees, will pull up to standing, will move from things (like couch to toy) if they are close, can sit from standing (this is harder to do than you think), and just started moving from belly to sitting (very new!). She is a little behind on gross motor skills, so we had her evaluated and the therapists say she has a weak right side (legs and pelvis) and simple exercises like putting toys on her right, holding her hips together when on all 4s, and helping her move from belly to sitting will help her get up to speed in no time. We are having someone come to the house 2x a month for physical therapy. The therapist said we don't have anything to worry about, but we just want to make sure Sylvia (both babies, really) have every opportunity she can to be successful. And, we know she will.

Sylvia's still a very happy baby, but is crying more as I think she's frustrated with her inability to move as quickly and easily as her sister. She fusses and then quickly cheers up.

In fine motor and communication, Sylvia excels. She is scoring at least 10 months and up to 12 months! Who knew that pulling off your socks is a 12 month skill?!

Sylvia is a bit more picky with what she eats, but she still eats very well. She loves cheese, fruit, yogurt, peas, corn, cheese toast, blueberries, raspberries, etc. She isn't as fond of proteins, but seems to prefer turkey, beans and ham.

Sylvia's hair is long too and we've just started pulling it to the side since they are taking out their barrettes. She still has no teeth!!! Most doctors say that's better anyways since they are getting a night bottle and milk rots teeth!

Evelyn 10 Months!

Evelyn is just as busy as last month, but more. She is a super fast crawler, pulls up on anything, cruises on furniture, and walks excitedly when behind her push toy or with someone. She waves, gives "5", points at the birds on the wall when asked "where are the birds", kind of says dog and bird (she is definitely trying to talk), occasionally points to her belly when asked, hands toys to you when you ask for them (most of the time), drops toys in a bucket when asked, among other things.

Evelyn is a very good eater. She loves everything! She will gobble down an entire scrambled egg yolk (they can't have whole eggs until they are 1), suck the juice out of mandarin oranges, eat as much cheese toast you put in front of her. She loves veggies, beans, cheese, fruit, fish, chicken, turkey, beef, etc. Sometimes I wonder if she will ever stop eating. She much prefers her food over milk and really doesn't like being fed. If it's something she can hold she will not allow you to put it in her mouth, she takes it out of your hand. A few days ago she was loving kidney beans so much, I probably let her eat WAY too many. Let's just say, it was a lesson...beans really do cause lots of gas, especially in babies. She was up crying and after hearing the worst gas of all times, we quickly figured out the problem. We gave her mylicon and pushed on her tummy and it really helped.

Evelyn's hair is super long! And, she has TWO teeth. The second tooth made its appearance on Tuesday, March 2nd!

10 Month Outtake!

It is getting more difficult to take this monthly picture. Check out these hilarious outtakes.