Fifteen Months and Growing!

We celebrated Estella's and Cordelia's fifteen-month birthday this week. Every time we celebrate such a milestone, I reflect back on the girls' lives and the pace of time with kids. On the one hand, these past fifteen months feels feel like they have flown by! It is hard to believe that fifteen months have passed since I met these two beautiful girls for the first time, or that five whole months have gone by since they learned to crawl (it seems like just a few weeks ago!). Was really an entire year ago that we took them to balloon fiesta for the first time, and they just slept in their stroller the whole morning? On the other hand, when I think about how much both girls have changed in the past fifteen months, it seems like such a long time. Remember when they were newborns and I could hold them on my chest, curled up in little baby balls? Now they love to run when Adelaida chases them and are very squirmy when sitting on anyone's lap. I think about when they started rolling over for the first time (eleven months ago) and how much effort it would take for them to simply roll from their bellies to their backs. Now they are climbing ladders, getting into the bathtub by themselves, and opening drawers and cabinets in the kitchen -- such a huge change relative to only a year ago!

Here is a visual chronicle of Estella's and Cordelia's first fifteen months:

This is one of the first pictures of Estella (on the left) and Cordelia (on the right), when they were one day old. Estella weighed 7 lb, 3 oz and Cordelia weighed 6 lb, 13 oz when they were born. They were good-sized babies, but small enough to fit in a single bassinet together!

These are pictures we had taken of the girls when they were just a few days old. Cordelia is on the left and Estella is on the right. They used to curl up just like this to sleep on my chest!

Cordelia (on the left) and Estella (on the right) at one month old.

Cordelia (on the left) and Estella (on the right) at two months old. This is when I remember life just starting to calm down after the chaos of have two infants.

Cordelia (on the left) and Estella (on the right) at three months -- the girls were really becoming aware of their surroundings and interacting with us more. Such a fun age!

Cordelia (on the left) and Estella (on the right) at four months.

Five-month-old babies are no longer particularly fragile or delicate, and actually spend time awake and not nursing. At this age, Adelaida discovered that her sisters were fun to play with and she wanted to play with them all the time! Fortunately, Cordelia (on the left) and Estella (on the right) loved to watch Adelaida play and didn't mind Adelaida touching, hugging, and playing with them. Adelaida loved to give the girls toys and to put blankets on them. She took such good care of her little sisters then, and still does!

Six-month-old Cordelia (on the left) and Estella (on the right).

Cordelia (on the left) and Estella (on the right) at seven months old.

By eight months old, both Cordelia (on the left) and Estella (on the right) were crawlers, although Estella had had considerably more practice crawling then Cordelia. They had been so frustrated before they learned to crawl, and suddenly had so much freedom to crawl around the room to get the toy they wanted.

By nine months old, Cordelia (on the left) and Estella (on the right) were eating lots of solids and both loved meals. Estella would investigate her food -- pick it up, look at it, smash it between her fingers, see what it felt like in her hair, and sometimes even taste it. Food was definitely a toy for Estella rather than a source of nourishment! Cordelia was much more deliberate with her food. When something was placed on her tray, she would either pick it up and put it neatly in her mouth to eat it, or decide that it didn't belong on her tray and pick it up and drop it on the floor.

Cordelia (on the left) and Estella (on the right) at ten months.

Eleven-month-old Cordelia (on the left) and Estella (on the right) loved to climb on everything. They were always happy babies and loved to smile and laugh.

On their first birthday, Cordelia (on the left) and Estella (on the right) were both cruising around furniture and getting ready to walk. Independent steps came in the weeks after their first birthday, and by thirteen months both girls were walking more than they were crawling.

Now they are fifteen months old and love to play. Estella likes to figure things out, doing the same thing over and over and over. Cordelia loves to be chased and to laugh at silly things. They are both so much fun right now and we spend less time doing things for the girls and more time doing fun things with them. They like to put blocks in boxes, and to gather up toys into a bucket and carry the bucket around the room. Both girls love to play with Adelaida, and their big sister enjoys playing with them (most of the time).