Our kids turned one year old a couple of weekends ago. We did the exact opposite of what everybody suggested: we had a big party. At one point there were 7 kids under 14 months old playing in the living room. What a zoo!
Deanna and I gave each other early presents: I gave Deanna the new Nikon D80, and she gave me the Sony HDR-SR1 Handy-cam - HDTV record to Hard-drive with 5.1 sound, wow! We've been using the new devices like crazy.
It has been an incredible ride this first year. We are now starting to have conversations like "Remember when she was so small?".. The first 3 months were quite the blur because of lack of sleep. Things are much more consistent now.
What are the kids doing these days? They both blow kisses, give kisses, wave bye-bye, toddling around, play (mostly) gently with the cat, play give and take with each other, giggle while holding hands, do a few baby signs, dive into the water, love to read, are eating finger breads, carrots; have many teeth, and are wonderful sleepers - rarely crying for their 2 naps + evening sleep.
Gwen has taken a few steps, said "Up" a few times, points to herself when asked where Gwen is, demands to have her hand held for walkies, is very responsive to boundaries, has been on a solid-food hunger strike for a while, and points to things she wants. She's definitely a fearless explorer.
Bryce is crawling up a storm after starting a couple months after his sister, pushing the boundaries (he thinks it's really fun to try to touch the fireplace and have dad say "no"), placing triangles and squares in their places, pointing out the red balls in hop on pop, and is an incredibly easy eater. He's a really gentle close-in explorer as he loves examining objects in great detail.
Sadly, the fall/winter weather has set in so no more Grouse Grind with the kids. I did manage 6 times with each of them. The "Tot" skyride passes are destined for the scrapbook. I never did manage both of them at once though. We had planned on going up during Canadian Thanksgiving, but it rained during the night and in the morning, so I aborted. After that it never dried out enough for me to feel comfortable risking it. I'm not sure about next year with the kids on the trail. I have no idea what 18-22 month old kids are like in a back-pack. My guess is that it won't work but we'll see. The snow is staying now, so it's got me thinking about going snowshowing with one of the munchkins..
We really are truly blessed with our kids, and it does go so quickly1