Birthday week extravaganza

The girls are 1 year corrected today! They are getting so tall and starting to really look like toddlers (minus the toddling). As most of you know I have been pretty stressed about their eating habits. The last thing I want to raise are two underweight, picky eaters so I had a hard time dealing with their total disinterest in anything beyond cheese, bread, baby food, bananas and yogurt. I have been told countless times to be patient and keep on offering different things. I even read somewhere that it can take something like 13 times of "trying" something before a kid will eat it. So much wasted food and messy floors. So tonight I made pasta shells and chicken with tomato and cream cheese sauce. First I gave them the pasta shells. They ate them. Then some chicken. They ate it. Then I added sauce and gave it to them. They ate it. Then some blueberries. They ate them. For the first time since they started getting baby food they had none for dinner! I'm so excited. I don't know if I mentioned that they eat their own breakfast now - chopped up bananas and Cheerios. We are getting closer to complete self feeding! To celebrate their 1st birthday we gave them a bottle of only milk this afternoon. They gulped it down no problem so the transition has begun. Friday was my 29th birthday and I had a nice day. John says I am impossible to buy for so rather than a gift I got - "Birthday week (not weekend!) extravaganza". It all started last Saturday with dinner and a movie and for the entire week my wish was his command. All I had to say was "um, John, I'm pretty sure they both pooped..." and he'd be off changing two diapers without complaining. It sounds pretty silly but it really was a great gift. I'm pretty sad it's over. The girls have done another switch. Leah has been a real handful these past few days. She's very whiny during the day and does not want to go to bed without screaming her head off. Emma for the most part is going to bed without a fight and sleeping well. It's very frustrating but we are at least grateful that they have yet to be in a funk at the same time. My parents should be arriving any time now for the week. It will be nice to see them and have some help.