One Year Pics

A few weeks ago Grady and Ella got some one year pictures taken. Ashley Schrage took them and did a wonderful job! She actually just got a website up and running: http://www.ashleyschragephotography.com/. I'd highly recommend her to anyone in the Waterloo area! She does a great job and works really well with the kiddos :) Below are a just a few of the pics she took!

Wow, have these twins changed in the past year! It's amazing what a year does. Ella is our silly little girl. She loves to chatter! Her current words are momma, dada, Dady (Grady), no-no, and deddy (teddy - every stuffed animal is a teddy to her). She's seeming to work on a lot more lately, but those are the consistent words. In the past week she has really taken off as a little walker. She's been taking steps on her own for quite a few weeks now, but is finally getting confident. She gets so excited at her accomplishments and breaks out in a round of applause for herself regularly :) Ella loves music! When I turn some music on, she instantly starts bopping, clapping, and singing. She's a funny sight to see in church. Ella loves to play with her brother as well as discipline him! Whenever I tell Grady no and she is in earshot, she goes over to him and says, "no, no". She has even taken it upon herself recently to discern on her own when Grady is doing something wrong and tells him no-no. She cracks me up! Ella has such a soft, girly side to her as well. It just melts my heart when she spots a stuffed animal, picks it up to hug it, and says, "de-ddy" :)

Grady is a crazy little boy! He definitely knows what he should not get into, and tries to get into it all day long! He has a funny little squeal/scream that he does when he's mad, excited, or just plain bored. This sort of replaces talking for this little boy! Ok, well he does say mama and dada. He's also started to say no. Of course this would be his other first word since he hears it all day long :) Grady is fast - at crawling that is. He walks all along our furniture but when he lets go, he gets down and does a sprint crawl to wherever he wants to go. I think it will be a while until he walks on his own because he's too darn fast of a crawler! Grady's favorite toy is his basketball he got for his birthday. He will pick it up, throw it, and chase it for hours! He has finally turned into a champion eater. We've struggled with him eating ever since we first started solids, but lately he's eating everything and a lot of it! He especially loves all fruit, and cottage cheese. I think he finally might start filling out (maybe?). At his one year check up, he was in the 10th percentile for weight at 21 lbs, and 75th percentile for height at 29 3/4"! With all of Grady's activeness, he also has a gentle side. Whenever he sees his blanket on the floor he does a head dive into it and cuddles up. He loves cuddling with mom and dad too!

It's also been fun to watch the interaction between Grady and Ella over the past year. They've always been aware of each other, but in the past few months they've started playing together a lot. My favorite is when they start chasing each other and squealing. They also like playing 'steal the pacifier'. They take it out of each other's mouth and go back and forth while giggling. It's also pretty normal to see one of them put a pacifier in the other's mouth if he/she starts crying :) They get very concerned about the other one when they're crying because of getting hurt - not if it's a whine. If one seriously bonks their head, the other will soon be there patting the other one! One that I will always remember is when Grady slipped on the wood floor and split his lip open. Ella was beside herself trying to console her brother with a very concerned look on her face. It's amazing watching these two. Every day is an adventure!