Last night, Brooke kept waking up crying to be held. We’re not sure what’s going on since she’s usually a great sleeper. At one point, Mike and I thought we’d let her cry it out. It was getting pretty severe, so Mike went in to check on her. Next thing I heard was, “Honey, she threw up. It’s everywhere.”

I ran in to help. Mike passed me Brooke and I took off her PJs and washed her off. I see that he already put her blanket in the tub and thought that was it. Mike yells at me, “What did she eat?! It stinks!” I said, “Food.” (Since when does vomit not stink?)

On my way out of the bathroom, my foot got damp. Gross. I yelled, “It’s on the carpet?!” Mike yells back, “Yes, I told you it’s everywhere.” At this point, Aidan woke up crying and is laying in our bed. I rinsed off my foot and in the hallway is my ottoman, covered in vomit. I yelled out, “The ottoman too?!” Mike yells back, “Yes, I told you it’s everywhere.”

So I go in and sit with Aidan, who, at the mere sight of me, starts to whimper and tries to climb up my shoulder to be held. At this point, Brooke seeing that she may ‘lose Mommy’ whimpers and grabs onto my shoulder. So I had two kids clawing at me and whimpering and Mike was knee deep in vomit.

We finished cleaning up and putting them back into their cribs around 12:30am. Ah, the joys of parenting…

I got news from two different friends that they lost their pregnancies within the first trimester. *Sigh* I am so heartbroken. I remember with the twins, I was a wreck that first trimester. Always worried that they’re going to ‘disappear’ on me. I could tell a lot of people thought I was being overly paranoid, but the truth is, I wasn’t. It could happen and it could happen to anyone. I’m sure in the bigger pictures of things, things will work out for the best. I say it all the time…if it wasn’t for my difificulties with pregnancy, I wouldn’t have had my twins, so it worked out for the best. I’m sure these ladies will also have their blessings someday but for now, my heart goes out to them and I pray that they have the strength to pick themselves up and move on with their goals. It will happen.

Even since Brooke was just an infant, Mike and I coined her “Dragon Breath”. She doesn’t possess the same sweet baby breath that her brother does and we’re not sure why. (She’s going to hate this post some day.)

Lately, she likes to stuff her blankets and (her brother’s blankets) into her mouth. We’re not sure if it’s fun or if she’s created her own binkie, but she does it all the time. Sometimes, when we check up on her during nap time, you will find a good fist full of blanket in her mouth while she’s fast asleep. Weird, weird child. The result of this? We are doing laundry round clock because all their blankets STINK!

Thanks, Brooke…thanks.

Every year, Mike’s family goes to Hsi Lai temple for Tet. And every year, Mike and I have gotten out of going…until now. If you know me, you know I hate going to LA. I hate everything about it: the traffic, the bad driving, the crowds, the heat, the poor air quality…the list goes on. But this year, we had no excuse. Tet was on a weekend. Hahaha.

The drive wasn’t so bad. I thought it would be further but the temple is in Hacienda Heights so it was just about 18 miles away from Garden Grove. We had breakfast at Mah-mah’s house and drove to the temple. The kids napped for the entire drive.

Once we got there, I was surprised on how organized they were. It was like Disneyland, but a Chinese temple. We were smoothly guided to great parking. (I guess the trick is go get there early, before 11am, because Steve and Jenny came a little after us and were not able to get good parking and decided to turn around and go home.)

Mom did her praying thing as we walked around. It was beautiful. Easily the most beautiful temple I’ve been to (not that I’ve been to many). The kids were great sports and in good spirits despite the 80 degree heat. We lit some incense, rang a gong, threw coins at a bell for luck, ate some vegetarian deliciousness and went home a little before noon. I even at stinky tofu for the first time, and it wasn’t bad!

To see more, photos, view our February 2010 photo album.

Overall, we had a really nice time. Happy Year of the Tiger, everyone!

Go figure, the kids are speaking and signing like crazy. My favorite word that they say will have to be “na na na” which is banana. It’s so funny because the tone is perfect when they say it. Plus as a bonus, they will sign it while saying it.

Brooke is a lot more verbal than Aidan. She pretty much will copy whatever you say to the best of her ability. Aidan calls everything “BAH”. He’s also our pointer.

They both squak at birds, “Caw caw” means crow. Hahaha.

Here’s a list of the words they can say right now and what they sound like:
* Pepper | Pah pah
* Hi
* Bye bye
* Ball | Bah
* Mommy | Ma ma
* Daddy | Da da
* Banana | Na na na
* Milk in Chinese | Nai nai
* Thank you in Chinese | ta che
* Cheese | Seeee
* Juice | Zheeee

Signs they can do:
* Eat
* Milk
* All done
* Bird
* Fish
* Banana (of course)

I’ve been a lazy blogger…and I apologize. But the truth is, the person I hurt most when I am lazy is me…I’m not recording the kids milestones and I’m going to regret it later.

This month, Aidan and Brooke are both standing on their own and walking. Aidan is walking a lot more than Brooke. She takes 3-4 steps and is done. Aidan walks in circle and tonight for the first time was able to get up by himself with out other support. He just pushed himself up in the middle of the living room and was so proud of himself. Hahaha. I was pretty proud myself!

Brooke is in her ‘clingy to mommy’ stage. She does not want anybody but me…especially if she was to wake up at night. Kids are well sleep trained. They both go down around 8pm without fussing or crying. It is a beautiful thing. We couldn’t be more pleased.

I finally uploaded three months worth of photos to our family Picasa account. The kids are growing up so fast and sometimes I find myself wishing they were older and sometimes I’m panicking that I’m not taking in the moment enough and they are flying by…sigh. I saw a quote somewhere that is so, so true. I’m not sure exactly what it is now but it goes something like this:

When it comes to parenting, the days are so long and the years are so short…

This is definitely very true.

My kids are so spoiled. They have more toys than 10 kids combined. But when their Dad built them a fort out of used Amazon shipping boxes, that instantly defaulted as their favorite toy. (And Dad’s…he even went as far as purchasing velcro to velcro the boxes together so I can take it apart at the end of the night and put it away…).

They would crawl in and look on the windows and just laugh. Lately, Aidan’s trying to take it down by shaking it so we will see how long it last. For now, they love it!

2010 may be Brooke’s year! Yesterday she did a combo of standing on her own and take her first, second and third step for the first time towards her Di Tu! It was precious. We have it on video but it’s on the “good” camera so we will need to compress it. By the time we do, there’s a chance she’s walking like crazy…hahaha

Van and Eric Ceremony Performance from Monachetti on Vimeo.

The kids opening presents for the first time.

We had a great year. Last year at this time, celebrating Christmas was the LAST thing on our mind. We were knee deep in bottles, diapers, spit-up and more.

This year we did it right with two happy, healthy babies, lots of presents, great food, family, singing and so much more.

We are so blessed and so thankful for everything we have…especially our two little ones.