Thursday, November 27, 2008

Happy Thanksgiving!

A group photo of Berry, Eamon, Mark, Sophie, Mommy, Hannah, Daddy, Anna, Ethan, and Benson.

Today we had breakfast at the Ko's with Auntie Vincy and Uncle Micah. Later we celebrated Thanksgiving at the Clarkson house for lunch. We are very thankful for having great friends!

Happy Thanksgiving to our friends and family back home in Hawaii you are always in our hearts and minds.

Thanks again to Mark and Berry for inviting us over.


Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Doing the Shuffle






Tonight Hannah was shuffling her feet and I thought it was really funny, so I started saying "Do the shuffle". Of course Sophie didn't want to be left out so she got in on it too. When I finally took out my camera only Sophie showed off her stuff.

Saturday, November 22, 2008

Pretty in Pink

Today we went to dim sum at the Mayflower in Union City since mommy was wanting dim sum for a while now and also because we really like Chinese food more than anything else. Later daddy took us to a park in the Hayward hills where we had fun playing on the jungle gym, sliding down the slides, swinging on the baby swings, and just running around on the grass. Mommy forgot the camera, so no pics from today.

The girls are mimicking more than ever. An example earlier this week Hannah sneezed and I said, "God bless you... for your ahhhchooo". Two seconds later Sophie says, "Ahhhh chooo" and something that sounded like "bless you". Another two seconds later I hear Hannah do a fake "Ahhhh chooo", so this goes back and forth for a few seconds until the girls got bored, but it was hilarious. It's just strange how they only pick up things that they want to. We can say words to them over and over and they will not repeat them, but it's when you least expect it is when they choose to use the words they hear.

These pics were taken a couple days earlier:


Sophie decked out in pink.

Here the girls play hide under the blanket.

Hannah banana!


Sunday, November 16, 2008

Our Ritual

Before we go to gymboree class we usually stop for lunch at a restaurant called Ala Shanghai in Fremont. The girls love eating the combination fried rice, pot stickers, and a fish and veggie dish. If we're not too tired of eating Chinese food during the week, we usually end up here for lunch on the weekend.


Outside Mommy finally gets to walk with both girls :)

Hannah learns to walk with Mommy holding her hand. Sophie is a pro now.

The munchkins go free.

Hey, come this way.

Playing at the Ko's

Auntie Dana was at the Ko's house and the girls went over to visit. My memory is a blur, but I think it was a week ago these pics were taken?


Auntie Liz gets a good pic of Hannah looking at the camera.

Lauren taught Sophie to put the bucket on her head.

Sophie is now imitating Buckethead.

Mommy and Soph, Auntie Dana and Hannah, Uncle Eric and Lauren.

Mommy is trying to hide.

Auntie Dana with the babies.

Thank you Auntie Liz for the pictures!!!


Saturday, November 15, 2008

Playing with my purse


Sophie and the purse.


Hann shows off some dance moves.


Monday, November 10, 2008

Playdate

This weekend we had some friends over to play with us - Eamon, Ethan, and Lauren (of course the mommies and daddies were here too: Mark, Berry, Anna, Benson, Liz, and Eric). We had a lot of fun playing indoors as well as outdoors at the playground on our complex grounds.

The girls enjoyed Gymboree today although their usual teacher wasn't there, so they got to sing different songs and do a little different routine. Hannah got a lot of exercise walking around the Gymboree playground, while Sophie got more exercise walking around the mall area, holding mommy's hand of course. Later in the day the twins were extremely social and ended up playing peek-a-boo with the cashier at Safeway, waving to the firemen, and waving to people in the parking lot.


Sophie

Hannah

Lauren (making a serious face)

Ethan

Eamon

As always it's hard to get all the kids to look at the camera, but this shot has everyone in it. Look how excited they are to see Der blow bubbles.

Bubbles!!!

Here Lauren shows Hannah and Sophie how to catch the bubbles.


Thursday, November 6, 2008

Election and updates

It's been an exciting week as not only did daylight savings change the time, but the nation has made history to elect the next African American president, who was born and raised in Hawaii none the less. I wouldn't think in my lifetime I would be able to witness such a thing, but I have. The girls do not understand yet, but I will let them know that they were born in an era where something so important such as this happened. Sure they don't have the greatest music genre, fashion, and heck the economic situation is disastrous (houses foreclose all around the country, gas prices soar, huge companies shutdown, wall street is under water, etc). I can only hope that Obama will live up to his promise for my children to have a better situation.

On to the girls...Updates:

Sophie can sign and say please and use it at appropriate times (peas). She also gets into everything and I cannot turn my head for a minute without her getting into some kind of trouble. After all she is my child, so I can expect that...ha ha ha ha! She also uses her cute smile to get out of punishment, but I'm onto her. She is much more interactive and as Derek and I watch her progress we see her building her own personality which is so cheery and always brings a smile to our faces.

Hannah picks up signs quickly as well, but she is more vocal than Sophie, so will use her voice instead of signing. She's at a stage where she wants to share everything and will give you anything and everything she has in her hands....toys, food, bottle, etc. When we go on walks she will narrate the entire trip. Her favorite words are dog, bubble, and baaaa (when you ask her what a sheep says). Her walking is much more polished than Sophie was when she first started walking, but we think it's because she took a little more time observing to figure this out. The one thing she hasn't learned, but Sophie has is when she falls forward from a standing position to put her hands out, so she doesn't face plant. Hannah has a shy personality and she is definitely a more girly girl.

The virus side of things: Daddy is still sick, Sophie has fully recovered, but my poor, poor Hannah is suffering the worst of it. She has tummy problems, a runny nose, and a nasty cough. It sounds really congested in her chest and I'm really worried about it. I know there might be nothing we can do at this point as they say a cold is something that just has to run it's course and they do not prescribe anything for children under the age of 2, but it is very difficult to watch.



Soph Soph before bedtime.

Hannah chatting.


Sophie playing with Elmo.

Oh, for our ohana back home the time has changed to a 2 hr difference and the weather is cold at least by Hawaii standards :)






Saturday, November 1, 2008

Happy Halloween!

Today was quite an exciting day, the girls went to daycare with tutus, then went to work with mommy, and after all of that they met up with our friends Cori, Mark, and baby Phoenix. Yay!!! We finally got to meet P! They also did a little bit of trick or treating (just to a couple of neighbors). All in all it was an exciting day.


The winning team's workspace. This was not my work area.

This is my work area.

Hannah in her tutu.

Sophie showing her scary face.

Hannah in the kitty cat outfit.

Sophie's tired.

Phoenix, Hannah, and Sophie.
:)

Girls just want to have fun!

Thank you for the ballerina tutu's Michelle Boison!