Here's to a New Decade!

The day started off well. I made my first ozoni soup (Japanese new year's soup) for good luck. I used chicken broth, dashi, soy sauce, daikon (round for good luck), green onions, spinach, and a little chicken. Despite the number of ingredients, I kept the soup sparse as I remember it from childhood. Now you may feel the chicken or the daikon was inappropriate, however, the ingredients of the soup vary depending upon the region of Japan. Some areas use chicken, some use daikon and carrots, some add salmon, miso and/or tofu.

Oh, and the mochi. The store-bought mochi burned a bit in the broiler, but after picking off the charred pieces it seemed okay. Lani and I really enjoyed the soup, and Chris seemed iffy about it. The babies were not impressed either, which surprised me as Arden is a huge miso soup/tofu/veggie fan.

Since the early breakfast was light, I decided to trot out second breakfast. I made homemade scallion pancakes and dipping sauce. Yummy! Everybody dug this, especially Arden. She made sure she got as many helpings as she could!

I think we've got our New Year's day tradition down for future years.

Arden is obsessed with riding in the push buggy or the rocking horse. That girl wants to move.

Cari in a less happy moment.

Arden in the rocking horse that I got for $10 on Craigslist. Obviously, she got herself in there herself.

Lani and her friend "A". We had his family over on 12/27. We had a lovely time.

The girls "coloring" together.

Lani was "instructing" her sisters in the art of drawing.

Video clips:

My Little Clingons

I've been remiss what with all that's been going on. Sorry for not posting in awhile.

Thanksgiving was a little dicey but it was wonderful to see the family. Alana LOVED her cousins Lilly (8) and Anna (14), who were really wonderful with her. She served as Lilly's shadow for the 3 days we were at Gramma Rose's house. Lilly also thought the babies were so cute and enjoyed watching me bathe them. Cari had a mishap in the tub (which she's bound to do as the wild girl) and luckily Gramma Rose was there to fish her out while I was drying off Arden. Chris and I were tortured during that trip. The twins were fussy/clingy during the day and into everything, then at night Cari cried her head off until 1pm each night and Arden started singing at 5am. Did I mention we shared a room with them? Lani was the only one who did well. She slept in a twin bed and didn't fall out once! Good girl!

The last 2 weeks have been hard, actually. The babies are going through a clingy stage wherein I cannot walk 4 feet from them without them bawling. I can't even load the dishwasher it's gotten so bad. I look forward to this stage ending.

On the fun side, the twins have done a few new things. Cari actually walked a few steps on Dec 1. Arden signed "more" for the first time yesterday. She was very proud of herself! Cari can use a crayon and pencil. Actually, she knew just what to do with it. When she grabbed the pencil, she looked for a book and started trying to "write". That girl is so observant! She also mimicked me when I showed her how to "scramble eggs" in Alana's toy pot. So so so cute!

Both babies can walk while pushing a toy table around. And Arden has been climbing the stairs for over a week. Today we go for the babies 12-mo visit.

Video clips to follow. I'm having a problem with Youtube at the moment...