This is Tessa, one year ago, on Christmas morning 2006:

And this is Nora:

And this is us now, Tessa and Nora, respectively:

I would not believe it if the pictures were not right in front of me.

Our bottles are a thing of the past. We can run, not just walk. We talk and sign and hold our own spoons. We kiss and laugh and smile and chase each other around and around. We are best friends.

We sing and dance.

We shake rattles. We ask for more.

We play together and apart. We have our own preferences, our own tastes, our own individual personalities.

We love animals and books and music. We love to ride in our wagon. We can color with crayons. We can put our baby dolls to sleep and kiss them good-night.

We shout and scream and giggle. We pre-brief at the beginning of each day and post-brief before we fall asleep. We wear our hearts on our sleeves.

We are warm and friendly and inviting. We love other kids. We are very, very busy.

We share. We apologize. We are gentle.

Sometimes we have bad days, or we are sick or sad.

But mostly we are happy and we have fun.

And we are in love…

We can’t wait to see what 2008 brings.