I know it's completely ridiculous that it has taken us this long to post an update, but life with toddler twins and a full time job is not easy! Regardless, the girls are doing great! They are both running and climbing and getting into everything they shouldn't. They absolutely love each other and have so much fun playing together. The other day the four of us went to the grocery store and Sadie and I went in a minute or two ahead of Zoe because she had fallen asleep in the car. As soon as the girls saw each other in the store, they screamed, giggled and ran to each other as if it had been weeks (not minutes) since they were last together.

While they are doing wonderfully developmentally, we have yet to be able to get Zoe off of her feeding tube and are considering moving to a lower elevation and participating a rapid wean program. She eats tiny amounts of food every day, most consistently yogurt and ice cream, but we have not gotten her to progress too much beyond that on the solid food front. She puts food in her mouth every day, but when she tries to swallow it, she gags and coughs and spits it back up. If anyone has any experience with tube weaning, please feel free to chime in.

Happy holidays everyone!

The girls are doing great! Zoe is just about off oxygen (knock on wood) except for when she's sleeping, and she is FINALLY walking! She is so proud of herself and we are quite proud of her too! She's still not really eating anything by mouth, but as with everything else (crawling, walking, talking, etc.) we are convinced that she will, just within her own time.

They are so cute together, they absolutely love playing together, and they (mostly Sadie) love giving each other spontaneous hugs. It melts our heart every single time.

Now that they are 20 months old, their personalities are as distinct as ever. Sadie has SO much energy, it is no surprise to us that she busted out of her water bag and 27.5 weeks! She goes a mile a minute, and she is incredibly strong. But she is also as sweet as can be, and she absolutely loves her little sister, who she affectionately calls, "Ba!" She is quite the little comedian and actor, she has a really rich vocbulary (opposite, kangaroo, and hippo, just to name a few) and whenever she sees bare feet in books, she loves to say tickle tickle tickle and scratch the page.

Zoe is a little more mellow. She loves, loves, loves, to give mommy, daddy, and her nanny super strong hugs. She loves to be cuddled and snuggled and she seriously wouldn't hurt a flea. She very sensitive and spends lots of time observing. Her vocabulary is pretty extensive too. While she says most things her sister says, she is a little behind in the articulation department, but the way she loves to say "good girl," OMG, few things are cuter.

We are as crazy as ever running around after them, but loving every second of it--especially given the fact that things are so much better than they were this time last year (thanks to Zoe's feeding tube). And minus that tube and Zoe's lingering feeding issues, we really are starting to feel like we just have two normal, adorable, amazing little babies. Lucky, lucky us!

Vegas 2011

Everyone is doing great! The girls are both mobile--Zoe is finally crawling and Sadie is running everywhere. They both say hi, bye, dog, ball, mom, dad, all done and a small host of other one syllable words, and they sign much more than they talk. For example, they sign please, thank you, sorry, they kiss good bye, they sign eat, more, outside, basically, they sign about half of the signs they watch on baby signing time.

We did find out some mildly disturbing news for Zoe. While her pulmonary hypertension has resolved (yay!) and her heart is in great shape, her right lung only has two lobes, as opposed to three, so her left lung is over compensating. We've got to keep a close eye on this and make sure she doesn't get sick because it's really important for her lungs not to have any more stress. We also have to make sure we keep an eye on her back b/c she could potentially develop scoliosis from having a larger left lung. So . . . we're really trying to keep her germ free as much as possible (thank G-d for our awesome nanny) and keep her healthy.

Zoe also does eat by mouth yet. She is just petrified that food is going to make her vomit (because of her severe reflux) so she won't swallow any solid food. She has, however started tasting a lot more foods and she loves to drink water from her sippy cup, so that's a huge plus for us.

Sadie, on the other hand, loves to eat everything, so we often find Zoe sneaking Sadie whatever is on her highchair :). Saide is also very verbal and full of emotion. She knows what she wants and what she doesn't want and she loves to tell you about it. All in all, we feel very, very lucky every day.

Just recently we took the girls to Vegas for a lacrosse tournament and they were over the moon! They loved the hotel, the warm weather and all the attention. There are a few shots above, and here is a video of our little peanuts, who were absolutely CRAZY about their sleeping arrangements in the hotel!