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This journal is about raising identical twins.After 12 months
Previous entries
Thursday, Aug 6, 1998 (12m)
Today is the twins first birthday.
Saturday, Aug 8, 1998 (12m+2d)
I worked overtime at the office. My wife took the twins to shop at the Great Mall with her sister and niece. I later joined them for dinner at Umi Sushi Boat.My wife told me that when they were resting on a bench in the shopping mall, the twins reached and poked other peoples' back. Several people had to move away to avoid them. It was embarrassing to my wife, but I thought it was funny.
My wife said she thought she heard Joanne said "ma" for the first time. The twins could say the "d" and "b" sound quite well now, but the "m" sound is yet to come.
Sunday, Aug 9, 1998 (12m+3d)
My wife's Cousin Ken married Emily today. I heard they had been dating for 9 years since high school days. It is a marathon of love.We went to their parents' house in the morning, then we attended the wedding in the afternoon in Alameda. The twins were babbling during the ceremony, it was embarrassing. They behaved very well otherwise.
We attended their wedding banquet at MayFlower Restaurant. The place were crowded (300+) and noisy. We cut up the food with a pair of scissors. The twins ate everything we fed them. After the dinner, they cleared an area for dance. The music were so loud that we decided to leave for the sake of the kids.
The kids woke up 4am in the morning crying. I got up and tried to comfort them. I guessed they were having nightmares because of the noisy party. After they stopped crying, they wanted to get out of the crib and play. I refused and put them back in the crib and they started crying again. I let them cried for about 10 minutes and they got tired and went back to sleep.
Monday, Aug 10, 1998 (12m+4d)
We took the twins to the doctor for the 12 month check up. They had their MMR and chicken pox shots today. We need to prepare for fevers and chicken pox in the coming weeks. (as of Aug 22, no sign of reaction from the shots.)The doctor said the twins are healthy and strong.
Joanne weighed 15 lb. and 7 oz.
Jasmine weighed 15 lb. and 5 oz.
(with no clothes or diapers.)
They both measured 28¾ inches in length. Their length and head circumference growth are normal, but their weight are way below the 5th percentile curve. After learning about their eating habits, the doctor suggested we use more spread (such as peanut butter, cream cheese etc.) on their bread and crackers to increase their calories in-take. She also speculates their high activities may be the cause of their slow weight gain. But she wants a blood test to verify there is no other causes.We were at the lab, I had to hold Jasmine very still to get the blood drawn. She was crying so loud that the whole clinic came to check out what was going on. Joanne watched on with no sympathy to Jasmine's crying. I asked my wife to take Joanne outside. The technician was not very good at it, he barely got enough blood for the tests before the flow stopped.
When he tried to draw blood from Joanne, he failed on her right arm. He gave up and then ask another nurse to do it. The other nurse worked on Joanne's left arm and only a few drops came out. During the process, Joanne was crying like hell. She realized by now why Jasmine cried so loud earlier. At this time, Jasmine had already stopped crying and she watched on with no expression on her face. They wanted to let Joanne rest awhile and tried again after she calmed down. Since they already poked holes on both her arms with no result, I told them not to bother before we talked to the doctor again. Because Jasmine's weight problem is worse than Joanne's, her blood test should be sufficient to give us a hint if anything is wrong. Instead of putting Joanne through the ordeal one more time, we want to see Jasmine's test result first. (A week later, the doctor called and said Jasmine's blood test showed no problem. She said it was a smart decision to cancel Joanne's blood test.)
The twins probably will have nightmare again tonight.
Tuesday, Aug 11, 1998 (12m+5d)
Both twins like to climb up to the red couch. Jasmine started couple days before Joanne. But Joanne learns quickly by watching Jasmine. Initially, they climbed with the aid of a cushion on the floor. For their safety, we tried to discourage their climbing by removing the cushions. Nothing could stop them, they figured out in no time that they could grip and pull on the fabric of the couch without the help of the cushions.When we could not stop them, we tried to make it safer for them. My wife showed Jasmine how to climb down the couch by hanging the legs to the floor first. Now both can come down from the couch safely. Though we put some alphabet playmats (colorful foam paddings) in front of the couch, I am still nervous when I see the twins coming off the couch.
Thursday, Aug 13, 1998 (12m+7d)
Jasmine has been trying to walk for couple of days now. She usually fell down after a step or two. Today, she had a break through, she could walk forward several feet. I took out the camcorder and let her walked towards me. She took 12 steps successfully before falling down (I have the videotape to prove it :-). She will be running around in no time.Joanne has not attempted to walk yet.
Friday, Aug 14, 1998 (12m+8d)
Joanne's upper right incisor (tooth E) is visible finally. The score now: Joanne 5, Jasmine 4.
Saturday, Aug 15, 1998 (12m+9d)
I worked overtime again at the office. My wife took the twins to shopping with her sister.
Sunday, Aug 16, 1998 (12m+10d)
We took the twins to Andy & Josephine T.'s wedding in the Stanford University Church. The church has beautiful stained glass windows, a domed skylight and a hugh pipe organ. The ceremony went quite smoothly with an occasional "gawk, gawk, gawk" from Jasmine. :-) Some friends saw our twins for the first time and they were amazed how fast time has passed.After the wedding, we took some photos around the Stanford University campus, we bumped into KingFai P. and his wife Maggie. He was showing his Alma Mater to his friends. Then we went shopping at the Stanford Shopping Center, and we bumped into Doris C. and her daughter Josephine.
My wife's sister came babysit for us while we attended the banquet at Mayflower in Milpitas. The twins behaved very well the entire day.
Friday, Aug 21, 1998 (12m_15d)
My college friend and ex-roommate Rick S., and his wife Kathy and two boys Raymond(15) and Derick(12) came to visit the twins from UC Irvine. We had dinner at Golden Island in Milpitas and we chatted till 11 after dinner. Ricky likes to play with kids and the twins played with him in laughters and giggles. They planned to visit the Monterey Bay Aquarium tomorrow.
Sunday, Aug 23, 1998 (12m+17d)
I worked overtime at the office over the weekend. We did not take the twins to any place other than shopping at Costco and eat-out last night. The twins were very happy playing at home.The twins have several puzzle type toys, e.g. rings and pole, cups of increasing sizes that fit into a stack, a half dozen plastic eggs each has different shapes to fit in a matching box. So far, the twins enjoy taking them apart. The scenario usually goes like this: I take the toy out, the twins will dash towards the toy, each grabs one piece, throws it away then goes for the next piece. After the toy is taken apart, I put them together again and they repeat their disassembly. This cycle goes on until I stop putting the toy back together, then they start to lose interest of the scattered pieces and they wander off.
Something changed this week, Joanne started to watch how I assemble the toy and attempted to fit the pieces together. Though she had not been able to bring any two matching pieces together, it was a giant leap compared to just crawling away.
We noticed now Jasmine's two upper lateral incisors (tooth D and G) have shown as two tiny white dots. The score now: Joanne 5, Jasmine 6.
Joanne has more confidence standing without support since couple of days ago.
Tuesday, Aug 26, 1998 (12m+20d)
Today's is our 3rd wedding anniversary.Joanne can walk 3 to 4 steps at a time now. Jasmine was impatient to walk one step at a time, she "ran" and dived into mommy's lap. She laughed and giggled for her stunt. I guess the diving part was because she could not balance herself while walking faster than she could.
Saturday, Aug 29, 1998 (12m+23d)
We took the twins to my company's annual picnic. The picnic had a county fair theme and was held in the Walden West School in Saratoga. There were a lot of activities for kids, but ours are too small to participate. We strolled around the fair ground and stopped at the pony ride, the twins watched other kids on the ponies, they were not too excited. We also stopped at the petting farm and let them see the goats, calf, pig, duck and chicken, they were not too excited either.It was a very hot day, we tried to stay in the shade. The only shady area was under the big tent where a live band played loud western/rock music. We spent most of the time under the tent chatting with coworkers though the loud music made the chatting a shouting game. Some coworkers saw our twins for the first time.
We were back home at around 4:30pm and we packed up the kids' daily stuffs and headed for Grandma Ling's place. My wife wants to take the kids and stay at her moms' for a few days. With the twins, we cannot go on a real vacation. So a few days away from home may be good for both mom and kids. I also stayed overnight at Grandma Ling's.
Sunday, Aug 30, 1998 (12m+24d)
Since we were close to San Francisco, we called up Simon & Winnie to have Dim Sum lunch in Richmond District, San Francisco. After lunch, we went to Golden Gate Park, we stopped at Spreckles Lake where people launched their radio controlled boats. We saw a model sail boat and an Ohio Class model submarine. We brought along a loaf of bread to feed the sea gulls and pigeons. The gulls fought for the bread so fiercely that we had to move the babies away for safety.On the way to the stable near by, we saw the buffaloes at a far distance, they were too far for the twin to see though. At the stable, we saw jockeys preparing horses for a ride. We were asked to keep a distance from the horses because the horses don't see a baby stroller everyday. Horses can be very dangerous when scared.
In two days, the twins had seen many types of animals. But they didn't seem to be excited at all. They just watched with a straight face. I am looking forward to the day when they can name each animal in the zoo.
I went home alone after dinner, the twins stayed behind. I'll miss them for a few days.
Thursday, Sept 3, 1998 (12m+28d)
The twins and wife are back home. The twins just grabbed me and stared at me for a long time. Jasmine didn't even let me put her down. Certainly they missed their daddy.Jasmine developed eczema on her ear lobe again. This time it is pretty serious. She also got a tiny blister on the right corner of her mouth. It looks like cold sore. I don't know where she got the virus.
Looks like the air conditioner is broken, the house is getting very hot in the afternoon. My wife is planning to take the twins back to her mom's place again for the weekends.
Friday, Sept 4, 1998 (12m+29d)
We had dinner at Kioku Sushi. They make their Sushi huge, it is kind of hard to stuff one in the mouth. Though I appreciate the big portion for the same money, but the big size gives a totally different (odd) experience to eating sushi. We took the twins to Grandma Ling's after dinner. We planned to stay over the weekend.The twins played happily with grandparents and Auntie Jun. Jun gave a flip-open pocket mirror to Joanne, she looked into the mirror and said "Aaaaaaaaaaah!!!" every time with a big smile. When you gave the same mirror to Jasmine, she closed it up with a click and handed it back so that you could open it again for her. I predict that Joanne will grow up as a movie star or fashion model, and Jasmine will probably grow up as a mechanical engineer or something. I already got an idea of what role Joanne can play for her first movie. She can wear a costume with a big exclamation mark on the chest (compare to the ? on the riddler) and play the Aaah! girl in a Batman movie (DVD|VHS).
At home, the twins sleep in their own crib in their own room. At Grandma Ling's place, we slept on makeshift beds by putting mattresses on the floor. We slept on one and the twins slept on another next to us. With them in close proximity and the twins could get on and off the mattress freely, we observed some funny sleep patterns of the twins. Perhaps it was because the nights were hot, (my wife said it was because of my snoring instead) Joanne often crawled off the mattress and slept on the floor in the middle of the room for awhile and then crawled back into her own bed. She sometimes climbed up into our mattress too. Jasmine on the other hand, woke up early and crawled to Joanne's bed and woke her up. They both woke up at around 6am and cried for a feeding. They went back to sleep after a bottle of milk.
Saturday, Sept 5, 1998 (12m+30d)
We took the twins and their Cousin Natalie to Golden Gate Park in the afternoon. We rented a motor boat and cruised around Stow Lake for an hour. The twins were quite excited and moved around the boat to watch the passing water over the side of the boat.We later went to Sparkles lake to feed the sea gulls. We met another set of twins there sunbathing with their mom. They are 9 month old fraternal boys. They already weigh more than our twins. We later had dinner in Richmond district in San Francisco.
Sunday, Sept 6, 1998 (13m+0d)
The twins are 13 month old today.
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