366 Days (right? I mean it is a leap year!)

First-ever sweet indulgence: A cupcake, compliments of their Aunt Melissa, to celebrate their first birthday!

Today the girls turned one year old. What an incredible year it has been! In some ways, it feels like I was just checking into Labor and Delivery at Baptist East in Louisville... then taking my little ambulance adventure over to U of L... then being pushed in my wheelchair to the NICU to see those sweet, teeny tiny babies... then visiting them every single day for the 56 days they were there... then bringing them home at long last, on December 7, in the cold, after rooming in the night before at the hospital (craziest night of my life, by the way - first time dealing with two tiny babies overnight!!!), listening to Adele on the radio of our brand-new minivan (never say never! ha!) and loaded down with tons of hand sanitizer and other assorted hospital souvenirs and goodies. But it's weird because so much has happened since then that it kind of feels like all of that happened about five years ago. Time is just so weird like that!

They love walking this thing around their play yard. Yes, walking - but they can't walk by themselves just yet, without holding on to something!

I remember going out to eat at a restaurant in Louisville the day I was discharged from the hospital. It was all so new that I felt a little bit self-conscious because I was still hobbling around to a certain degree due to post-surgical pain. Chris and I were talking about how we were just coming to the realization that if someone asked us if we had any kids, our answer would be, "Yes! We have two!" It was a joyful, surreal sort of feeling, made kind of weird because our babies were in the NICU - so we weren't getting the kinds of parenting experiences typical of parents who have two kids. It's so funny to think that was nearly an entire year ago! Now it feels totally normal to tell someone I just met that I have two kids.

Evie cuddling with Grandma on one of her after-work visits

For Chris and me, today was totally a celebration of a year of being T and E's parents. Aside from Chris's taking T to the doctor for an early-morning check-up (she has had the same cough on and off for what feels like forever!) (and the doctor said it's nothing to be worried about - just a little virus), we just had a grand old time all day long.

I tried rotating this picture, and blasted Blogger still thinks this is how it should be! Here's sweet Evie cuddled up with her Grandma.

Chris and I took the girls downtown to visit his co-workers and then to eat lunch at Cappricio in the Peabody Hotel. Then we strolled around downtown for a bit with a couple of our favorite treats: for me, a Peabody duck-shaped chocolate-chip cookie (my favorite lunchtime treat back when I worked downtown), and a milkshake for him from Maggie Moo's.

Tamsie shows off how to take down some finger foods: banana bites and puffs

After lunch, we came back to the house, and Melissa took some pictures of the girls. She also treated them to their very first cupcake. (I'll be posting those pictures as soon as I have time. The girls were too funny!) Then, later on in the day, my sister-in-law Jennifer and her fiance Tyler dropped by to see the girls, and my Dad delivered part of their present to them. (Mom is out of town on a church trip, which is why the girls' party won't happen until next weekend.)

Evangelyn and a Baby Mum-Mum. She's Mommy's princess, too!

Tonight, I had Pandora on in the background while getting things done around the house. Various songs from high school came on, and if you know me, you know every song has a thousand memories attached to it. Somewhere in the middle of rocking out to some circa-2000-era Destiny's Child song, it occurred to me how hopelessly old-fashioned this song will someday seem to my girls who just turned one. Destiny's Child will be to them some girl version of what the Doobie Brothers are to me - something extremely old-school that my parents liked when they were in high school. John Mayer will be to them what Chicago is to me. So weird! (Except my parents more or less liked the same stuff. Chris cannot tolerate any measure of Destiny's Child or John Mayer - ha!) 

Tamsie in her Mommy and Me onesie - I thought it looked cute with Evie's Daddy's Princess onesie.

The world will change so much, and they will see so much in their lifetimes. It's just unreal to think about. But today, they're just my sweet little one-year-old T & E. And for that, I am crazy thankful.

Birthday Girl Evie wearing a fabulous outfit from her Aunt Jenny, Uncle Jonathan and Baby William

The girls on tour at Chris's office

At Maggie Moo's. Tamsie loves her daddy's kisses!

So does Evie!

But she can only stand so much before she pushes her Daddy away.

"OK, seriously, Dad! You're embarrassing me!"

Smiling down at Tamsie

Giggles!

Enjoying the view

What better way to wrap up this post than with a wave from Evie?