I knew it would be difficult to balance two kids in one blog (of course, when I started the blog I only thought we’d have ONE kid). Wait, let me clarify that for the younger child who will surely one day think she was an accident: We PURPOSEFULLY have two children. We just didn’t know we’d have two when we had the first. There, I said it.

Speaking of balance, this post is (pretty) balanced!

Last Wednesday Ella officially turned 1 year old – woo hoo! Doctor Jeremy confirmed that everything’s in the right place, she’s in great health, and she’s right on track for development. I know I’m not supposed to compare our children, but for posterity’s sake, here are a few milestone comparisons:

• For most of Zoe’s development, she was in the 70-90th percentile for height, weight and head circumference. Ella is in the 25th for height/weight and 50th for head circumference. (Zoe was 19 lbs, 10 oz at 9 months – Ella just hit 19 lbs, 8 oz last week!)
• Zoe rolled over at 4 months. Ella was closer to 7 months
• Zoe walked at 13 months old. Ella walked at 9.5 months and by now is a speedy little devil
• By one year, Zoe had 6 teeth. Ella has 3 (though 3 more are “on the way” according to the doc)

In fact, here’s the list of things Zoe could do before her first birthday (with an Ella update on the side):

• able to say 20 words, clearly (well, nana nana is a stretch but come on, who wants just 19 words) – Ella can say Hi, Bye and sort of say mama, dada, Zoe and Holly when she wants something. She’s just not that interested in talking yet, and besides, they say the 2nd child is slower because it’s hard to get a word in edgewise with the FIRST one.
• able to sign 13 words in ASL (unlucky but true) – Ella can sign milk, eat, dog, more, all done, mama, dada, baby and lion, so that’s something!
• able to make 10 animal sounds (applied to 10 correct animals) – Ella has quack, meow and a bark of sorts.
• able to stand alone (though she hasn’t noticed that yet) – see next point in regard to Ella…
• able to walk with assistance of a push toy or someone’s fingers – we can barely keep up with Ella the early walker!
• able to feed herself with both hands (sometimes simultaneously) – Ella can also feed herself and in fact wants to use a utensil (something that Zoe is still working on).
• able to use an iPad better than… well, many. I won’t name any names – Ella has less interest in (exposure to?) the iPad BUT she sure loves Siri on my iPhone. Now if only she could talk?
• able to smile and wave at strangers with more enthusiasm than you can imagine – Ella CAN smile and wave, but she’s not in love with strangers like Zoe was – she needs a little “warm up” time.

Some day my children will thank me for comparing them, I’m sure. As an identical twin, I know how FABULOUS it is to spend your life compared to someone, incessantly. You’re welcome, girls.

What else can I say to wrap up this first year with TWO children? We’re exhausted (I’m sure I’ve said that before), but every time I see Zoe and Ella smiling at one another, playing together, giggling, or even annoyed by one another, I know we did the right thing by “making” two of them ;)

And no matter what anyone says, I STILL think they look very similar as small children. I see the differences, of course, but in my totally biased opinion, we make beautiful little girls.