It’s been hard to keep up with all that has been going on in the Fay household. The girls are walking all over the place now, although they do walk like Bambi - a bit wobbly. However, walking is more of the norm now than crawling or cruising.

We experienced some wonderful moments recently now that the girls understand the concept of kissing. The girls now love to kiss Mom and Dad - and even more exciting - each other. If we hold the girls, Iz will keep leaning over to give Emmy kiss after kiss on the lips.

It’s these precious moments that can make my week.

On another note, the girls have been playing dress up with Mom. Who looks like our long lost Jamaican daughter?

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Well, we made it through our first photo with Santa. The line was not as crazy as we thought it might be. The girls were enjoying themselves quite nicely…that is, until they saw Santa for the first time! Here is a nice candid moment from their first encounter with Father Christmas.

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Yesterday we reached a milestone at the Fay household. Drum roll please…Emily is walking! The girls can stand on their own, but yesterday I asked Emily to come to me and she walked up to four steps. Thatta girl! Not to be outdone, Isabel walked as well - perhaps it was a bit more of a forward-momentum lunge, but I’ll call it bona fide first steps as well.

Recent weeks have also changed some of the baby babble to legitimate-sounding words. Words like “car” and “cup” uttered while pointing to the object in question are becoming more and more typical. Now that the Christmas tree is up, it’s been fun teaching the girls colors while pointing to each light.

Photo courtesy Getty Images.

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Dear Isabel and Emily,

One year ago today, Mommy and I were first introduced to you. We met Isabel first, and Emily only 2 minutes later. Emily, you even wanted to bite the nurse! You both were so small, but you were (and are) oh so beautiful.

So much has happened over the past year. We’ve learned a lot together. Mommy and I have never before been so tired, so busy trying to keep up with you. You learned to sit up, you crawled, you grew a couple of upper and lower teeth. You learned to eat food and drink on your own. You learned to change your own diapers (I wish!). Just a few weeks ago you were able to stand up and support yourself with nearby furniture.

I’ve told Mommy that I’m a generally happy person, but I’ve never really known what it’s like to experience joy…that was until I met both of you. You both well me up with such joy that I cannot wait to get home from work to see you, to play with you.

Please know that Mommy and I love you very much. Our love is equal towards you both, unwavering. You can count on it. On this day we want you to know how very much we love you. We can’t wait to celebrate many more birthdays with you two.

To everyone reading this: The girls were born on October 27, 2005 and we brought them home on Halloween. One year later, we couldn’t imagine the joy our little ladybug and chick would bring us.

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It’s been so much fun watching the girls develop. The girls are now eating table food, which means Mom and Dad are finely cutting food they prepare for themselves. Gone are the days of blending all sorts of food into a liquid form, freezing them in ice cube trays, and then microwaving them when the girls were ready to be fed.

Both girls started out eating anything, but now in the finger food stage, Iz is much more picky - she sticks mainly to vegetables. Em, on the other hand, is two-fisting the food and eats at twice the speed as Iz!

The girls are crawling like crazy. Iz now has her upper teeth coming in.

These are joyous times indeed.

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Iz started to crawl a few days ago. It’s not fast or frequent, but it’s there. I also had a great time yesterday with the girls. Em was in the exersaucer and Iz was on the floor. The dynamic is that Iz will catch Em’s attention and Em will lose it - laughing and laughing and screaming. This only encourages Iz to be even more silly in order to make her sister laugh that much harder.

There were tears in my eyes I was laughing so much.

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I’m not sure what’s happened, but I have far less time to post. My apologies. We certainly have a lot of photos to upload…even some movies. Anyway, one of the things I want to be sure to document is when the girls hit a particular milestone.

Right around month 9 we were concerned that the girls were not sitting up. The girls were due to go to the doctor and sitting was one of the markers. Granted, mom and dad never really tried to have the girls sit. So, sure enough, when we put the girls in a sitting position, they were fine.

Well, since we gave the girls opportunities to sit up, their development has flourished. Now Em can sit up on her own from a laying position. It’s quite extraordinary to watch.

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I would like to announce that my brother and his wife have two little additions to their family!

Without knowing the specific details, their little boys were born prematurely at approximately 31 weeks (I’m sure Ron can be more specific). Since they still need to develop, they’ll spend some time in the NICU. Please pray for Ron and Sarah and these precious ones.

Here is the scoop:

James Robert (4 lbs 8 oz)

John Bowen (4 lbs 0 oz)(3 lbs 14 oz)

They were born this morning at approximately 3:30 am 2:30 am.

Congrats to Ron and Sarah!

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Well, Dad and Emily got sick, and we’re keeping our fingers crossed that everyone else is spared. For Dad, he was struck with a 24 hour fever. He returned to work, but then was stuck with a second wave of a fever, this time accompanied with severe congestion. Emily got hit with the same. We’re hoping the worst is over.

Over the last few weeks we’ve moved from straight formula feeding to introducing rice and oatmeal cereal. That has helped dampen their appetites, so they do not have to feed quite so much. Today Mom introduced vegetables - peas - and both girls loved them! Let’s see if the same is true for spinach!

Another first today - Mom determined that Isabel is starting to teethe! She’s been more irritable and has been drooling more, but today Mom could feel some razor-sharp niblet working its way out.

I will post some pics of Easter soon - I’ve been a bit lazy in my posting ever since coming down with my illness.

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