A letter to my daughters on their 1st birthday

Catherine & Emily,

I cannot believe how fast the 1st year of your life has gone. It seems like just yesterday I was elbowing dad in the back and telling him my water broke, and now you've been with us for an entire year. You brighten each and every one of our days and we are such proud and grateful parents. Dad makes fun of me because every 3 months or so I declare, "THIS is my favorite age!" You both do so many new things and are learning things so fast. It's been amazing to watch you grow from a tiny helpless newborn, to a toddler who can express emotions, walk, and be independent to an extent! You are both so curious about everything - and who can blame you?! It's a pretty cool world out there!

Catherine - my eldest, by an entire 2 minutes! You are such a happy and content baby. When sissy does something that you deem funny, you laugh from your gut. Which makes sissy laugh, and me laugh, and daddy laugh and soon the whole house is in hysterics. You love playing peek a boo with sissy especially. You also like playing with your toys alone sometimes. It's not rare to see you off to the side studying something and playing with a toy yourself quietly. You are so very good at fine motor skills. You can pick something very small up and put it right back. You seem to be very meticulous about those sorts of things. You can also point very well! When I ask you where I am, you point to my face! When I ask you how old you are you point "1". You also love to clap. All I have to do is say "yay!!!" and you clap!!!! You also LOVE TV! We watch the Disney channel during the day and you especially seem to love Little Einsteins, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and Octonauts. And at night you love Wheel of Fortune!  You are also a wonderful eater. You love to try new things. The only food you seem to dislike is bananas. I think you got sick of them. You still sleep pretty well! You have had some rough nights, but I think that's when you have a tooth coming in. You have 8 teeth by the way. You can take 1 step at a time, but you're not quite walking by yourself yet! But you can surely cruise around with the help of your walkler! You look JUST like your daddy. Everyone, even complete strangers, comment that you look like him! And you love him very much. You are a daddy's girl. You light up like a Christmas Tree when you see him walk into the room!!! You are an amazing and beautiful girl, Catherine. You have a wonderful personality and we are so lucky to be able to call you our daughter.

Emily - my baby! What a funny little girl you are. My gosh, do you have a personality on you! When you are happy, you are SO happy. When you are sad, you are SO sad. When you are angry, you are SO angry! :) You are also SUCH a momma's girl. You cling to me constantly, and I can't say I dislike it ALL the time! It's nice to know you love me so much! You are a tiny little thing - about a pound and a half less than sissy! But do you sure make up for it! You can WALK miss Emily, you can WALK! It amazes me every time I see you choose to walk over crawl. You just walk around the house like it's no big deal. You are even starting to run! You get so excited. It's funny to watch you walk too - you keep your arms right out in front of you like Frankenstein! But whatever works, little girl! You get bored with toys pretty quickly and always like to be on the move. You love to go new places and see new things. You want to get into EVERYTHING...especially things that you shouldn't get into! You also love to clap when I say yay and wave "hi" and "bye"! You honestly couldn't care less about TV. You never so much as glance at it! In terms of food, you get bored with that really easily too. You don't like very much! Some of your favorite foods are chicken nuggets, cheese, mashed potatoes and fried chicken. You also like to snack on goldfish and cheerio's. You sleep like a ROCK. I honestly don't think you've woken up in the middle of the night since you were 8 weeks old. Even if sissy is screaming or you have a tooth coming in, you just sleep through it. It's amazing how well you sleep. You do need your lambie and paci to help you sleep though, but me and dad think it's cute. You love to hold and stroke your lambie's ear. You have 5 teeth with a 6th coming in right now! You are a beautiful and rambunctious little girl, miss Emily. You keep us on our toes and we love it. We are so lucky to have you as our daughter.

Well girls, you are awake in your cribs so I'd better go get you so we can start our day of FUN! I made you cupcakes for later on, and we have presents to open!

Girls, I love you both so much. Please never doubt or forget that. You are my world and you bring so much joy into this family. You are healthy and happy and we couldn't ask for anything more. We love you.

Love,

Mom