Bedtime

"One of them sticks a finger up my nose and drools on my forehead while the other pounds on the diaper pail drums," said my husband.

We were both laying on the floor of their bedroom, our evening tradition of helping them wind down before bed. Except lately they seem to get wound up rather than down.

Our big kids turned 13 months old today. They're still babies, crawling not walking. Compared to our little girls they seem more like kids. Making all sorts of sounds, earnestly chatting in a language we don't understand yet. Long, leaner limbs than they used to have. They scramble over the mountains of our stretched out mom-and-dad legs, tumbling to the floor and giggling. They steal each other's bottles. We try reading a book and their noise level increases, the story an invitation to kick up their pace to a gallop. They are wild and wonderful. This time last year they were in the NICU at a different hospital. We'd set our sights on having them home by the 4th of July (based on who knows what) and were deflated when we realized we wouldn't be getting out in time. This year we took them to a parade where we sat on a blanket in the street and watched cars, bikes, trikes, ponies and one dog riding a pony march by. They loved it, though the sight of the ponies lit a fire under one of them who decided it would be better to be IN the parade.

Today was the first day they really saw their little sisters. We'd taken them to visit before but it's hard to make the leap from a plastic box to a baby sibling when you're one. Pointing into a incubator and saying "There's your baby sister!" didn't make much of an impression. The room full of cords and wires was pretty interesting though.

When my husband brought them in this afternoon I had one girl asleep on my chest. I watched as my son's eyes widened as he noticed her. When I held our big girl in my arms above the other open isolette she pointed in at her sister. I have no idea what they think when they see these two tiny babies. I know they won't remember a time in their lives without two little sisters. I'm not sure how much we'll remember, though I hope we'll remember our first year as a family of four. We have a lot of pictures showing how much they've grown, how small and sick they were when they were born and how they are bursting with health and burnished by the sun now.

It's hard to imagine what our evening routine will be like once we have them home. I can't wait. And while we wait I am soaking up the time with our first babies knowing it will be different soon.