Tiniest Baby Marks Major Milestone

Rumaisa Rahman and her twin sister, Hiba, got the full treatment on their first birthday: a full chorus of "Happy Birthday," a cake with enough icing to coat their hands and mouths, and the report of a proud papa about how well they are doing.

"Both are doing great," says Mohammed Abdul Rahman. "They are rolling over. They love to play with each other's feet. You know, they start imitating. When you do something to them, they do it back to you."

The only giveaway that it wasn't your average everyday first birthday party, points out CBS News Correspondent Jim Axelrod, was the clicking away of the news photographers' cameras.

Rumaisa was the tiniest known surviving newborn when she came into the world a year ago, weighing 8.6 ounces and measuring less than 10 inches. She was about the size of a cell phone.

The Guinness Book of Records lists her as the world's lightest birth.

A year later, she is 13 pounds, and two-feet tall. Her doctor says she's not just surviving, she's thriving.

And her parents?

"We are just taking care of them like … normal babies, you know?" says Mohammed. "Nothing difficult. We are not doing anything special. We are just treating them like normal babies."

Axelrod observes they just continue to be amazed by how much joy there is in finding out your kids are nothing more -- than normal.

Rumaisa and her nonidentical twin were delivered by Caesarean section 14 weeks early after their mother developed pre-eclampsia, involving dangerously high blood pressure.

Rumaisa was discharged from Loyola University Medical Center in Chicago in February. That's where the one-year party was held.

Hiba weighed only 20 ounces at birth but was discharged from the hospital a month before her sister. She now weighs 17 pounds.

Full-term, year-old babies usually weigh around 20 pounds.

The twins were the first children for Rahman and Mahajabeen Shaik, who are originally from Hyderabad, India and now live in Maywood, Illinois.

"I feel very optimistic that I don't think that either of them will have any significant handicaps," said Dr. Jonathan Muraskas.

Mohammed said doctors have told him the twins could be on the small side as adults but that only time would tell.

"If you have faith in God, everything is going to be OK," he said.