Miso Soup

Our kids love miso soup. They love the little squares of tofu, they love being my little tasters while I'm cooking it and they especially love to drink the soup from the bowl without using a spoon. I make it all the time and put various things in the broth, but I recently changed my dashi brand and I really think it made a huge difference. Last night's soup was yummy! Here's the recipe.

Miso Soup

4 cups water

1 bag of Yamaki No MSG Katsuo Dashi

1/3 cup Shirakiku NonMSG AkaMiso

1/2 block firm tofu - cut into squares

1/2 block kamaboko - sliced

1 green onion - thinly sliced

Add bag of dashi to 4 cups cold water. Bring to boil. Remove bag of dashi and whisk miso into broth. Add tofu and kamaboko. Serve in bowls and top with green onion. YUM!

Picnic at the Zoo

Lately when we take the kids to the zoo we also take along a picnic lunch. That way we don't have to rush home to feed them and/or pay the high price for zoo food. Plus with Bailey's allergies it's just safer. Our picnic usually becomes the main part of our trip, but we are still able to see a few animals. We ALWAYS see Bailey and Gregory's favorites. Bailey loves the zebra and Gregory loves the giraffes. Today we even saw a little baby giraffe! So cute.

For our picnic today we had spam musubis, nigiri (see the cute nori animals?!), kabocha, grilled asparagus and zucchini, pan fried spam, chicken teriyaki and some quick Japanese pickles. YUM. The kids just pick up food with their fingers and eat between running around the grassy area of the zoo.

After lunch the kids wanted to ride the train so we did that and came home.

Nice way to spend a Sunday afternoon.

Painting

This morning our electricity went out. We had errands to run, but mommy couldn't get the car out of the garage so we decided to go outside and paint. The weather was perfect, so why not enjoy it!

Well, I think Gregory ended up with more paint on himself than his paper, but they both had a great time. They both seem to love art projects and painting is at the top of their list. Thank goodness for easels and sunny days. Clean up is so much easier when we paint outside! :)

 

Bailey's painting is on the left and Gregory's is on the right.

Firsts

Today we had a couple of firsts!

After running errands this morning we went to the park by our house and both Bailey and Gregory climbed up this ladder type structure all by themselves! It took a few tries before they were confident enough to do it alone, but by the end of our stay they were both going up all by themselves! Whoo hoo!!

Our errand this morning was to buy some nail polish for Bailey. We were celebrating a GREAT following directions day with her physical therapist and she wanted to paint her finger and toe nails as her reward. She picked a light pink shiny polish and I gave her a manicure. Her first manicure! She spent the rest of the day admiring her beautiful nails. What a cutie pie.

Bailey Loves...

 

Bailey is growing up to be a young little lady who loves to be our little "helper bee." She especially loves to help in the kitchen - cooking, setting the table, clearing the dishes, even feeding Gregory when he has troubles. She isn't too keen on cleaning up her toys and often has Gregory do all the work, but we are working on that.

Bailey loves to play with her calico critters. She can only play with them when Gregory takes a nap since there are too many small pieces, but she loves to throw them parties! Has me make party hats and cakes. Sometimes even decorations!

She also enjoys playing with all her small "friends" - animals and people. Our living room gets covered with little toys daily. I need to invent a toy vacuum to clean up after them.

Bailey loves to eat and doesn't really have any favorites. She's starting to get a little picky about the veggies she eats - not crazy about zucchinis at the moment, but she'll still eat the mini zucchinis from the farmer's market. She LOVES noodles and serving herself. I need to watch out when we eat family style since she can't tell when she's full and will continue to serve herself whatever is near her.

She still goes for physical therapy once a week. Her therapist is Kevin and he is contracted through the school district. We go to a motor room at Mauzy where she'll be attending preschool in the fall! She also goes for occupational therapy at the Children's Hospital in Oakland with Nina. We only have two more sessions though. Insurance covers most of her OT, but I don't think they'll be approving any more. We'll miss Nina.

Bailey is going to start summer school next month. I'm hoping this will make for an easy transition into preschool. We'll see. She talks about going to school quite often and seems to be looking forward to it. For a while she kept telling me she was going to school with her cousin Emma, but I think she is now realizing she'll be going alone.

I think that's about it for our Bailey update. She still follows her daddy around like a shadow. She tells him he's her sweetie pie and he tells her she's his sweetie pie too.