We're 1 year old today

Well, we did it! We made it through our first crazy, amazing, intense, beautiful year with the two best things to ever happen to us. I honestly can't believe that I have 1 year old twins. This past year has been full of so many fantastic moments, so many terrifying unknowns and so many insane times that getting to 1 year sometimes felt like a long shot! Not really, but it was definitely not a walk in the park and definitely gave me an intense appreciation and respect for my parents and how they raised twins and are still standing and look so fantastic. The gray hair around the Iofredo house this past year has been growing in abundance.
Reagan and Riley are honestly (and I truly, truly mean this) the most fantastic things in the world to us. They are so fun. SO MUCH FUN. We laugh so hard all of the time. They have such distinct and different personalities (and why shouldn't they...they're two different kids!) and we are having so much fun figuring them out and watching them learn and grow and try new things every day.
Reagan continues to love to cuddle more than anything. She has a particular fondness for her BopBop and both of her Nanas and most especially for her Daddy. Reagan loves to be with people and loves to laugh and dance and shake her head and point at things and play peekaboo and just be silly! She can be so funny and her laugh is contagious. I hear it and I immediately start laughing with her. She has the most beautiful eyes and is just so pretty. She takes my breath away sometimes! She LOVES her sister so much. People keep asking me if they play and interact with each other. Yes and no. They do a lot of parallel play I guess, but they do love to touch each other and laugh at each other and crawl and wrestle around together. So many times throughout the day, they chase each other down the hallway and just giggle and laugh the whole time. It's the best. Matt and I could watch it all day long. Reagan can be a tad aggressive with Riley and thinks that kicking her and hitting her are hilarious. Riley doesn't seem to agree. Overall, Reagan is just so unbelievably perfect. There is no way in the world that she will ever be able to understand how much I love her.
Riley is our miracle. Giving her a bath tonight we commented on how you can hardly even see her scar anymore from her surgery. I mean, of course, it's still there...you can see it. But, compared to what it was, or even what I thought it would be, it's astonishing how beautiful she is. When I think back to September 9th when we got the diagnosis, and then to October 20th to the surgery date and how scared and nervous and anxious and unsure we were about what her future would be, it makes me sad. It makes me sad that I didn't have enough faith in what a ridiculously strong little girl we have. She is my hero. She's been through more in her 1 year of life than I ever have and looking at her today, you'd never, ever know. She's SO close to walking. It's coming any day now. She's the happiest baby I've ever seen. She's strong and while she's tiny and little, she holds her own with her sister and knows how to get what she wants! She loves her Mama and Daddy and she loves books and laughing and clapping and smiling. She talks NON-STOP (I wonder where she got that from!) and we wake up every morning to our little chatter box talking up a storm in her crib. It's heaven. I am so proud of her and so proud of us for getting through such a difficult time. Our friends and family really pulled us through and we're still so thankful to everyone for all that they did for us and for Riley during this past year.
This is getting too long....I swear though, I could write for hours. I dreamed about someday feeling this way about a child. I wanted to have a baby for as long as I can ever remember and I knew that when I had one I would give it so much love that it wouldn't even seem real. I had no idea. The love that I thought that I would feel for a child is nothing compared to what I truly feel for these two precious girls. I am the luckiest woman in the entire world and I thank God every, single day for the opportunity He's given me to be their mom.
Happy Birthday Reagan and Riley. I love you more than you will ever, ever know and am so excited to see what this next year has in store for us. If you could keep the drama down, I'd appreciate it.