They’re getting soooo big! It’s probably obvious to anyone who doesn’t have kids, but these little humans grow up so quickly! We’re coming up on Chloe and Gabriel’s first birthday in just a couple of weeks. The last year has been the fastest of my life and we can’t believe that we’re already here! Each day brings new and exciting changes:

Gabriel is now crawling. We were a bit concerned that he was not going to crawl on his own because Chloe has been doing it for so long, but, as with everything else, he just needed a few weeks to catch up. The major difference between them with this was that Chloe was preparing to crawl for a while before she did it with rocking while up on her hands and knees and reaching for stuff that was out of her immediate area. Gabriel pretty much just decided to start crawling one day with very little notice! He’s now scooting all over the place and seems to be very close to pulling himself up to standing using anything he can get his hands on.

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Chloe is making lots and lots of conversational noises and trying to repeat everything that we say to her. Yesterday, Robyn had her saying “ball”. She also makes several gestures that are really funny. She’ll put her hands on her face and shake it back and forth when we say “aye yay yai!”. She also does “tremors” which is something that Douglas did when he was a baby, too. She tenses up her face and neck until she shakes – it’s very funny and it must be something that babies just figure out how to do because she began doing it all by herself. In addition, she’ll answer “How big is Chloe (or Gabriel)?” by spreading her arms, palm up and giving a big smile. This is her standard response to a few things, actually. They’re all very cute.

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Both kids love to eat Cheerios and Gerber Puffs now. We were so concerned that Gabriel was never going to get the hang of eating with his hands, but again, one day he just did it. A little while back Robyn and I gave them a tasty homemade dinner consisting of meatloaf, mashed potatoes and zucchini souffle. They both seemed to really enjoy the new flavors and textures. Gabey is still a little freaked out by some of the new stuff, but he is generally doing MUCH better with his eating. Now, if we can just get him sleeping through the night on a consistent basis!