Brooklyn and Brylee Turn One

One year ago today I woke up to 5 missed calls and 7 texts, all asking me if I was with Jessica. I had no idea what had happened, all I knew was that I had hung out with her the afternoon before in the hospital while she was on bed rest. We had weeks to go before she was giving birth, and we had made plans for sleepovers at the hospital and set-ups for me with all the single doctors in the ward. Of course, my first thought was that something bad had happened. Then I got the top text, from Jess, that just said "babies are coming tonight." Holy moly. So, I fought the urge to call her, because, you know, she was a little busy, and instead, did what any normal person in 2011 would do: I checked Facebook. "Babies are coming tonight! Will update when they get here." Followed closely by "The Cejka twins arrived at 1am. 3lb8oz and 3lb5oz. Babies are in nicu. Mom is extremely sore, tired and hungry. Names will be announced later today. Thanks for all the thoughts and prayers for the girls!" Somehow, between going to bed and waking up, two little girls had pushed their way into this world. And let me tell you, those girls stole my heart from day 1.

I went to work and pretended to do something until Jessica actually told me I could come up to the hospital. I think I ran three red lights on the way there. I found Jessica in her room, super out of it and fighting with the pain medicine button: she would push the button, the machine would beep at her telling her she couldn't have more meds yet, and she would shoot the machine a go to hell look. They brought Jess some food and promptly took it away when they realized she couldn't have solids yet. I thought she was going to go after the nurse who took the food away (and punch her), but she couldn't quite stand up. Dusty took me down to meet the girls, and we took some pictures of the little ones on their first day in this world. It was such a cool day to be able to meet these little girls, and to wonder what their lives had in store for them.

Over the last year, I have fallen in love with these girls over and over again. It just seems like they have always been there, and they make everything better. We visited them in the hospital quite a bit when they were first born. We held them tight and told them we loved them the day we lost Suzy. They came home on my 30th birthday and I sat in the corner of Jessica's bedroom holding a little one and watching my friends try to figure out how they were going to do this without the help of the nurses at the hospital. We rooted them on as they learned how to rollover, sit up, crawl, and even stand. We sat in an 8x8 square space we dubbed "the gated community" and played with them for hours. I fed them little tastes of things behind their mother's back (Brylee LOVED cream cheese at 4 months). We took them swimming and out to all sorts of crazy events (picture Jessica and I with a double stroller at the Epicurean night). Jess dressed them matching every single day and I made fun of her every single day. We walked them around the fountain 100s of times. We ALL spent hours and hours walking around both little girls trying to get them to sleep. We sang nursery rhymes (ok, I sang, Jessica only does the ABCs). I held them both on my lap (a feat in itself these days) and read the Smurf book. Over and over again. We searched for green pacifiers for Brylee and little white flower pacifiers for Brooklyn. We made it though the MAJOR spitting up phase (Brylee) and whiny phase (Brooklyn), and are now in the temper tantrum phase (Brylee) and the biting phase (uh, both apparently). I have been trying to teach them to wave and blow kisses for six months, and have been less than successful at both. Brylee loves to play with my Blackberry. Brooklyn loves to play with, well, anything that Brylee is playing with. Brooklyn is almost walking. Brylee is in the 99th percentile for (get this) her head size, so she is a little too top heavy to be walking yet. I think Brylee is pretty much the mini version of Maxine (the old woman in the cartoon strips). She grunts and growls and is generally a pissed off old woman. This pretty much sums it up:


Yea, I love them, can you tell? Where the heck did that last year go?

Most of all, though, I have just spent countless evenings sitting with these little ones and watching them giggle and play. They are so cute! The last month has been a little stressful, and these 2 have kept me grounded, kept me sane, and most of all, kept me smiling. Tonight I arrived, and both of them looked up from their toys and broke into grins. When I sat down, Brooklyn took six whole steps towards me before diving at me. Brylee came and sat on my lap and just babbled at me. I have a lot of friends with kids, but I have never been close enough geographically to watch them grow up like this, and to form this kind of relationship. As I tell them nightly, I will always take care of them, be there for them, and teach them all the things their parents don't want them to learn. That's what Aunt Debs is for, right?

So, today I am celebrating these two little angels and the awesome lives they have in front of them. They are so sweet, and they are going to break a lot of hearts when they grow up. I can't wait to see it all go down!