Happy 4 months old!

Happy New Year!

If we manage to stay up for the next two hours hahaha! Happy 2008! Today (New Year's Eve) the babies had their 4 month old check up (they made 4 months exactly today).

Stats:

Sophie:

Weight: 15 lbs 13 oz
Length: 23 3/4 in

Hannah:

Weight: 13 lbs 6 oz
Length: 22 3/4 in

Both babies had 3 shots each and 1 oral medicine to take. They both were very brave and did very well. The doctor said they're doing great and to keep up the good job (that's to the parental figures hahaha). They also have been given the green light to graduate to solid foods, so we picked up some rice cereal and oatmeal. If they take well to the cereals we can move to vegetables and fruits! My babies are growing up so fast!!! Anyway we also bought them some cute pink baby spoons :)

Right now Sophie has found her "voice" and has been talking non-stop and squealing with laughter with daddy. I still say we must tape this and put it up, it is too funny to see and hear. Hannah has gotten less talkative which is strange. Hannah's talking is more of a soft coo like a little bird.

Sophie, Robocon, and Hannah. Robocon is mommy's favorite Japanese tv show back in the day.

Sweeties in the house!

It's a girls club and daddy's already feeling left out. Soph, mama, and Hann.

Thank you Uncle Jay for the outfits!

Good-bye 2007

2007 has been the best year we have ever had in our lives since the birth of our babies Sophie and Hannah! I hope all has been great to family and friends and I wish everyone the best in the coming new year!

The day before the babies came out daddy took a picture the night before of mommy's tummy literally hours before the operation.

Three days old and looking small and fragile.

A day before reaching 4 months and we're nice and chubby. My how we've grown!!!

Angie and family visiting

Christian, Chris, Sophie, Hannah, and Angie. Look at the cool onesies the twins got from Ang! Thanks!!

Angie holding Hannah and Sophie while Avalon and Christian hang out on the couch beside her.

Ohayoo Gozaimasu!

I returned to work this past Friday and thus the lag has already started with posting entries up. I am, to say the least, very tired and I can't imagine what a full work week will be like much less having less time with the babies *wah*.

It's cold and rainy and like I've heard from friends and family in Hawaii it's rainy there too. The weather makes us less likely to venture out. Although today to take a break from my work we decided to go to Costco and eat some dim sum for lunch at a local Chinese restaurant. It was a much needed break for me, but the twins weren't too happy about going out in the misty rain or maybe it was just me thinking that. In the short time we were out the girls gathered attention once again. I still find it amazing that people find that twins are that intriguing. I read online that twins and multiples lose their attraction once they get older and in a way I kind of hope so because sometimes I just want to shop and not make small talk to people. I just want to get in, grab what I need and huli on home. The girls have made me much more of a homebody!

Most of the time when we go out shopping as a family, I have Derek push the stroller around while I shop so he gets to answer questions about the twins. I am so evil sometimes. Anyway here are some morning pictures of us lounging around the house today.

Sophie, Daddy, and Hannah. I'm just glad they don't know who that guy is on daddy's shirt.

Hannah is mommy's alarm clock.

Can you tell that daddy picked out Sophie's bib to wear this morning?


Sophie and Hannah love the hats pictured in the pics, Thank you Louise for the beautiful hats you made!!!

Thank you Grandma and Grandpa Sakai for Soph Soph's outfit :)

Babies' First Christmas

Merry Christmas!!!

Hannah and Sophie wishing everyone a Mele Kalikimaka!

Christmas Eve at the Feng's

Sophie holding her bottle.

Hannah found her thumb.

Aunty Sonya, Snoopy, and Hannah.

Hannah and Snoopy pals for life.

Sophie loves Snoopy too!

Uncle Hsin with Sophie and Aunty Sonya playing wii at the Christmas Eve party at their house.

The girls and us had a fun time, thanks for inviting us to the party!

Holiday Fun

The girls are having fun with their first Christmas as they meet and greet new friends and play with their new toys. We've been introducing new toys for the girls to interact with. We will be opening up the caterpillar counting toy and some Einstein blocks soon, but for now they have their rattles that friends gave to us at the baby shower.

Sophie really enjoys the seahorse rattle it's her favorite thing to hold and shake. Unfortunately Hannah still doesn't like toys and would rather be held by mommy. Sophie also loves watching tv when we have it on and we've played Signing Times for her even though she doesn't understand it. She smiles, laughs, and talks to the tv, it's really cute. Sophie also loves my computer and keyboard and she loves to chat by typing random things (you can see that she takes after me). Hannah likes interacting with people and doesn't really like playing on her own. Hannah loves when you hold her upright like she's standing on her own. Hannah also likes when I sing to her she thinks I'm really funny. I don't blame her for thinking I'm funny, because I can't seem to remember the lyrics to the songs I'm singing her hahahahah!

Sophie with her seahorse rattle.

Hannah trying to play with her dragonfly rattle.

Sophie loving her rattle.

Hannah not loving her rattle.

Aunty Cynthia holding Sophie, Aunty Ryoko, and Aunty Elisa holding Hannah.

Old friends from the islands (a last minute get together, sorry didn't invite the other old Tower crew in the bay area!!!) - Lance, Elisa, daddy, Cindy B., mommy, Hannah, Huey, Audrey, and Jonah.

Family portrait - Mommy holding Hannah, daddy holding Sophie.

Growing is hard work

Have yourself a merry little Christmas,
Let your heart be light
From now on,
our troubles will be out of sight

Have yourself a merry little Christmas,
Make the Yule-tide gay,
From now on,
our troubles will be miles away.

Here we are as in olden days,
Happy golden days of yore.
Faithful friends who are dear to us
Gather near to us once more.

Through the years
We all will be together,
If the fates allow
Hang a shining star upon the highest bough.
And have yourself a merry little Christmas now.

Hannah slept 5 hrs today and when she woke up she was still a little fussy.

Daddy and mommy tried hard to make her stop crying, but in the end Enfamil AR did the trick and she was happy and content and went right back to sleep again.

Sophie was up all day and all night. Someone might've spiked her milk with something.

Two of my favorite Christmas songs that I play for the girls, "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" and "I'll be Home for Christmas".


I'm dreamin' tonight of a place I love
Even more then I usually do
And although I know it's a long road back
I promise you

I'll be home for Christmas
You can count on me
Please have snow and mistletoe
And presents under the tree
Christmas Eve will find me
Where the love light beams
I'll be home for Christmas
If only in my dreams

Christmas Eve will find me
Where the love light beams
I'll be home for Christmas
If only in my dreams
If only in my dreams

***A side note to fellow bloggers using the "compose" function to edit text from either a word doc or cutting and pasting from an existing file will cause problems with sizing and type it is really buggy!!! Sometimes I have to resort to "edit html" because something within their code will not convert changes to text which is really irritating. I think it has something to do with their interval timed "saving" on the entries something doesn't get pushed in real time and I think it doesn't register the font changes which causes major lag and/or funky fonts which is really irritating!!! Ok that's the end of my b-session :)

Santa lost some reindeers...

...and we found them!!!

These outfits are just too cute and I took uku billion pics, but thought you'd get bored seeing them all, so here's a few of them:

Hann and Soph Soph.

Lauren joined the fun here. Soph, Lauren, and Hannah Banana.

Oh Christmas tree! Oh Christmas tree!

Ok folks let's wrap it up, I think you took too many pictures!

Last week with the twins

I don't know how I'll ever have time once I get back to work because I barely have time now to do anything. The twins have good days and bad, but you never know which one you'll end up with on a given day. Once one is ok the other seems to know and acts up. I think they're ramping me up for some marathon or keeping me in line to force me to use better time management (which is good I guess). Right now I'm taking the opportunity to write this entry as fast as I can and post up some reindeer outfit pics in another post. Sadly this is my last week alone with them as next week our nanny starts and I go back to work that Friday! *sobs*

Time flies it seems like only yesterday I was pregnant and on maternity leave. Grandma and Grandpa Sakai and my parents all have come and gone. I surprised myself and got used to staying at home and of course it does help that there's two cute babies to keep me company, but now it's time to go back to work and start a new chapter in life as the working mom. How do mothers do it? I can't even imagine so much time away from Sophie and Hannah. :(

Sophie likes the music on that bouncer.

Hannah trying the exersaucer out.

New Toy

The girls love standing and as we found out they enjoy their new toy even though they can't reach the bottom of the floor with it. Daddy fixed that by putting something under their feet so they could turn around and stand up. To me what is really cool about the Einstein activity center (also referred to as an exersaucer) is that there is a little round button contraption with sub buttons inside of it with pictures of animals on it. The baby presses the picture and the first time it will make the noise of the animal, press it again and it tells you what it is in English, press it again and it tells you it in Spanish, press it one last time and it plays some classical music.

Anyway there are so many baby equipment/toys out there and unfortunately our house is running out of room especially because we keep buying two of everything. I think that this is a great toy to have and I might have to purchase another one. I can justify it because the girls not only work out their muscles in their legs, but they also manage to look around the room and discover other views. Plus I have to say Sophie is getting just too big for me to hold for long periods of time. We weighed her the other day and she is approximately 17 lbs!!! I love my momona baby! Hannah is still smaller and lighter she weighs about 14-15 lbs, but by no means is she skinny hahahaha! When I pick her up, I always say to myself, "What a light baby" even though I know she isn't that far off either. All in all chubby babies are the cutest don't you think? ;P

Sophie having a blast.

Hannah had to have extra blankets to hold her in place, but she didn't mind hanging out in the new toy.

Party at the Ko's

Today was a busy and fun day. Started off in the morning with a trip to pick up an exersaucer from a lady on craigslist, it's a bit old and needs a lot of cleaning, but we'll see how it goes. Maybe if the twins really like it we'll get a new one. Der and I decided that the girls love standing, so we should try one out.

Later after I was stuck in traffic from the construction off of 92 and 880, Liz and I took a walk to the store and I got my coffee fix. After all the prepping at home we finally made it across the street to the party. You'd think we'd be early seeing that we live across the street, but having twins...need I say more? The girls got hungry at 11 and they weren't having it until they ate. By the way the party started at 11.

Sophie and Hannah apparently were too excited to take their normal long naps while we were at the party and didn't eat too much meals either. Hannah took one power nap, but Sophie was fussy and wouldn't go down. I've never seen Sophie like that and it was really interesting (for the lack of a better word) on the affects of lack of sleep on her. Sophie did have a grand ole time in Lauren's exersaucer though. Both girls had fun hanging out with everyone and the adults had fun playing 25 words or less, snacking, and doing the white elephant gift exchange.

We left the party at about 5 p.m. and I was just as pooped as the girls. I pretty much crashed for the better part of the early evening. Now it's close to 2 a.m. and I'm the only one up writing this entry hahahaha!

Aunty Liz with Lauren who's holding Soph Soph's hand while Aunty Vincy looks on. Thank you Aunty Vincy for making the girls some cute knitted caps!!!

The girls chillin' on the Ko's porch. Do you see our house in the background?

Hannah hangin' out wit da local girl Adrienne 'n da local boy Scott.

Uncle Eric hanging out with Sophie.

Cute pic of Chris and Marcus.

Nick and daddy talking story.

Mommy feeding Hannah and looking dead tired.

Thank you Eric and Liz for the fun party!

Chillin'

The girls and I stayed home today, because I was dead tired. As I was folding some laundry on the bed I thought it would be good to multi-task and had the girls with me to keep me company.

This is what happened to them:

Binkies in mouth, toys in hand, and apparently they either got tired from watching me do all the work or I'm that boring either way it was just a power nap and I got excited over 15 minutes of sleep. Oh, it also could've been my love song playlist on my iPod hahahaha! Ah, I take what I can get in these power naps and do as much as I can. I managed to put away the smaller baby clothes and take out the bigger baby clothes. It's bound to happen this growing bit, but it sure does make me sad. All the cute itty bitty clothes are tucked away in some empty pampers boxes ready for the next girl baby to wear.

Tomorrow's agenda is to pick up some stamps, white elephant gift, ornament, dessert, and anything else I might've forgotten. Going to run errands with the twins is like troubleshooting on the fly, it all depends on how they're feeling, if they've been fed, how far the distance is, and if the planets are aligned right.

Tummy Time and then some

I know each child develops at their own pace, but it is hard to see one develop faster than the other. Each twin has had their firsts at different times, Hannah clearly smiled at birth and was the first one to "talk", Sophie took her time with both of these areas. Hannah was the first and only one to hold her bottle in place and was the first one to stand up when I pulled on her arms, but what scares me is that she is not getting the tummy time neck exercises.

Sophie has been doing well from a while back on this and not only has she been able to control sitting up better, but now she can lift her head and track. Meanwhile Hannah will not do any of this, she will cry and eventually give up to either suck her hand or sleep!!! Hannah, Hannah, Hannah what are we to do with the tummy exercises? Maybe I'm just an impatient mama, but it's just frustrating to watch her give up as soon as her tummy hits the surface.

In other news we have found our childcare solution finally! We will have a nanny start after Christmas (Our friend Adel referred her to us, thanks lady!). We've decided that was the best for the moment as the babies were too young to go to daycare (most daycares will not accept them until they're older or they are not equip to handle infants as young as the twins). It was a hard decision as I got to know one of the home daycare ladies really well (she probably would've taken them in that young too) and I will probably place the twins in her daycare when they are older.

So I've been stir crazy these past couple of days and today I decided we could get some Christmas shopping done. As I've learned before places are not very accommodative for double strollers :( I went to Stoneridge mall in Pleasanton again. Yes, I got frustrated and left, but at least I bought one set of gifts for my family. I have to say I'm really amazed at how many people were there and the line to see Santa was loooooooooooong. Santa felt bad for the kids in line and took a break to walk down the line and say, "Hi!". Holy cow I'm just glad we got to see him before all the mommies and daddies decided to take off. Now if only I can finish my Christmas shopping!!!

Speaking of frustrating, we are still dealing with Hannah's acid reflux *sigh*. I decided a while back to cut back on the Enfamil AR, because it was heartbreaking to see Hannah in pain passing the product. Now we're back to projectile that is coming out like a scene from Exorcist. So I will have to do some research and see what we can do for constipation and such. Maybe with a mixture of things we can get this all in order before I go back to work. I will probably run it by her pediatrician at our next appointment. Speaking of which, I have decided to change her doctor as well to some place closer to home since we now know what our childcare situation is.

A lot of change in the new year...

Go, Sophie go!!!

Hannah not so much :(

Here you can clearly see how much bigger Sophie really is compared to Hannah.