New Year New Blog

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http://yearoneandbeyond.blogspot.com/

We're ONE!!

Hi Everyone! We know usually our mommy writes on this blog, but today it's our turn.

We were born one year ago on October 19, 14 weeks earlier than we expected. We were only 1lb 13oz and 1lb 12oz- Mommy and Daddy called us peanuts - but we knew we were tough little guys. It was cozy in our Mommy's belly (until Grant wanted to push Landon out) but being born early wasn't all bad because we got to meet Mommy and Daddy sooner and they came to visit us every day at the hospital.

We stayed in a placed called the NICU - it was really neat - there were windows to look outside and we made a lot of friends. Our Mommy held us for the first time a few days after we were born! It was warm and snuggly. When they came to visit, Mommy and Daddy sat next to us while we slept and let us hold their fingers. We had some really great nursers take care of us when it was time for Mommy and Daddy to leave.

One day we realized that we wanted to go home too, and so Grant pulled his ventilator out and we both pulled our feeding tubes out. We thought everyone would catch on to this not-so-subtle hint. We started eating on our own and a couple of weeks later we started gaining weight and even maintaining our own temperature. Mommy couldn't WAIT until we could wear clothes and insisted on making us wear silly hats too! Well, we guess we were festive anyway.

We had to spend our first Christmas in the hospital but that was ok because we were given these cool hats and Santa even visited us here!

Landon got to come home first on January 12th and Grant wanted to stay a little longer to make the nurses think he was an only child, until January 27th! We couldn't believe all there was to see beyond the hospital walls. The first thing Mommy and Daddy did was feed us on the couch with our new sisters, the kitties. We all felt so free.

Being home was an adjustment at first but we love being at home. We love going on walks, we have lots of fun toys like our swings, kicking machine and we love our cuddly bears, a cool bedroom, and occasional visitors.

We've been sleeping through the night since May when our Dr. FINALLY let us sleep through the night without needing a bottle. We still need 3 cat naps a day, but that's okay because we're happy when we're rested and we do prefer to sleep in our swings and not our cribs.

We spent the first few months at home downstairs and got to sleep in these cool beds while Daddy watched over us at night. Since we had to get up every three hours to eat, Mommy and Daddy were in survival mode to make sure we grew big and strong.

 Here are some of the things we've accomplished this year!

We grew 17/14 inches. (We were 13/14 inches long, like the size of our kangaroo, when we were born.)

We tripled our birth weight. Almost three times!

We learned how to eat! Our first bottle had 1 oz and we usually couldn't finish it all. Now we drink 7-10 ozs and eat three meals a day! We love all of our purees, and love trying new things. Landon prefers yummy plain fresh donuts and Grant took a wheat thin away from Mommy this week! Mommy says soon we get to try table food like chicken, noodles, and hamburger, YUM!

 We've learned to roll, sit, and getting on all fours rocking back and forth. We're waiting to crawl until we know both Mommy and Daddy are watching. We love our pacifiers and think the ones the NICU gave us are just fine.

We laugh and smile a lot, especially when Mommy gives us kisses or Daddy plays airplane with us and of course tickles us too. We can't get enough bouncing. Thankfully we have two entertainers to bounce bounce bounce. Oh and seeing each other bounce sends us in giggles too!

We've developed quite the little personalities. The nurses said we were fighters from the day we were born. Landon is alittle more opinionated and loves to tell you all about it and Grant is content taking it all in. We don't mind big crowds and love to go on adventures, even if it means stopping at a brewery for Daddy to try a new brew.

We love to talk. We love our voices. Sometimes we even squeal really loudly (we secretly know it drives Mommy and Daddy crazy) and imitate sounds, even a girl. Sometimes it takes us awhile to fall asleep but if we talk and sing it helps us get sleepy.


In July, we went swimming and on our first vacation to the beach. Landon seemed to want to be inside playing with Daddy and Grandpa while Grant just LOVED the pool and beach. Oh and we got to try big boy swings! They're so much fun and we can't stop giggling, that is until we're just too sleepy and just want to be pushed.

This fall we got to go more places and even play with grass and leaves! We're really starting to like this outside of the house thing. We love all the attention!

We're getting teeth and love to chew on icees, puffs, fingers, you name it. We hope they all come in soon so our gums feel better!

We love bath nights and when Daddy spends extra time with us playing and giggling while Mommy makes our bottles. We know how to splash but sometimes we'd rather just lay there and chew on a toy because our teeth hurt.

Our friend Sherry comes to see us once a week. She plays with us and has cool toys - shiny beads, a big ball and  neat toys that play pretty music. She brings cool toys to coax us into moving and exploring in new ways. We usually cooperate and even smile, unless it's close to feeding time and we'd rather eat than play.


We haven't had to go to the Doctor's a lot and he even calls us TANKS. Mommy still gets nervous about germs though and doesn't like when we touch things in public. We make sure to bring plenty of our own toys to keep us occupied.


We're not really afraid of much, even if two of our cats have claws and can't wait to chase them around!

We do very well when Mommy and Daddy are away. We don't mind when someone different gives us a bottle or puts us to bed. We love when we get to spend time with our Grandmas and Grandpas and all the treats they buy us!

We've had thousands of pictures taken of us. We let mommy because we know it makes her so happy. (We don't like it when she puts funny hats on us though, how embarrassing!) Daddy told Mommy he thinks the cupcake hat pictures are over......we agree! They're definitely getting snug.

It's hard to believe we're already a year old! We wanted to celebrate by bringing some cupcakes to the many nurses and doctors that helped us in our "temporary home". We got to visit these wonderful people on our birthday and some were even able to take a picture with us!

Mommy says this year we'll go on our first vacation with an airplane. We'll go to the zoo. We'll go out to more restaurants together as a family. We'll visit our friends. We'll swim in the neighborhood pool. We'll go down the slide at the park. We can't wait! Thank you for everyone who prayed for us so that we can experience all of this.

Until next time...

Love,