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This journal is about raising identical twins.Sixty Third Month
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Sunday, Oct 6, 2002 (5y+2m)
The twins are 62 months old today.Daddy woke up at 4am in the morning with a sharp pain at the lower back. The medical hotline connected me with a doctor on duty. She suggested that it could be kidney stones because of my history of gout. She suggested me to wait till the morning and then go to a lab to do a urine test to confirm if it was really kidney stones. Meanwhile, I was in such excruciating pain that I couldn't bear any longer. I went to the emergency room in a nearby hospital to seek relief on the pain. I told them about my gout problem and described my pain. The staff put me on IV and gave me some narcotic painkiller and other medication to reduce inflammation. The painkiller made me dizzy and let me sleep through the pain. They woke me up several times to do things that I couldn't remember now. The painkiller was so strong that everything was like a dream. I barely remembered that they took me to do a CAT scan. They confirmed that there were some stones in my kidney, the biggest one was roughly 3mm in diameter. The passing of the stone from the kidney to the bladder probably caused the pain. When the stone blocked the tube between the kidney and the bladder, the pressure built up in the kidney and hence the intense pain.
They woke me up at 8am to ask me about the pain. I told them the pain was totally gone thanks to the painkiller. They said the pain was gone probably because the stone had already passed to the bladder. I was given a urinal and a strainer to capture the stone from the urine when it leaves the bladder. I was then released from the hospital.
Due to the pain medication still in my blood, I had to call mommy to pick me up. She didn't want to wake up the kids and bring them along for the trip. Instead she called Aunt Jun to come to babysit the twins before she could leave the house. Aunt Jun arrived really late. I sat in the hospital waiting room for almost 3 hours. Because of the medication, I had no trouble dozing off. So the 3 hours just flew by.
After I got back home, I ate some breakfast and went to bed. The remaining medication in my blood was so potent that I basically slept the entire day. Mommy and twins went to the mall and did the usual Sunday things with no involvement from the unconscious daddy.
Monday, Oct 7, 2002 (5y+2m+1d)
Daddy called in sick and didn't go to work. I stayed home the whole day. The kidney stone was captured when it came out with the urine.The twins went to school as usual.
Tuesday, Oct 8, 2002 (5y+2m+2d)
Daddy returned to work as usual. I had an appointment with the doctor to discuss my new health issue. The kidney stone was sent to the lab for further analysis. The doctor needed to know what type of stone it was before a proper treatment could be prescribed. However, he said that usually kidney stones are treated with diuretic drugs to increase the flow of urine. But since I have gout problem, the drug will cause major side effect when the drug dehydrates the body. Under such situation, the only course of action was to drink a lot and a lot of water throughout the whole day to increase the flow of urine naturally. I asked for advice from the doctor on how to take care of my new health condition via a better diet. He couldn't help. He said he could only prescribe medication for me.The remodeling project was halted. The countertops in the bathroom were scheduled to be done on Friday by another contractor. Our main contractors could not do much until the countertops were in place. Two of them decided to go on a vacation and take a 2-week trip overseas. The kitchen countertop will arrive even later. Mommy is making complaints to the countertop company for causing delays in our project.
The twins went to school as usual.
The twins called daddy at work. Joanne told daddy that she had written a story about Goofy. She wanted me to read the story when I got home.
Daddy worked overtime in the office to catch up on work piled up due to my sick leave yesterday. When I got home, the twins were not in bed yet. I asked Joanne to show me her story. It was a long story filled a full page of paper. She had trouble reading every word from the page. I asked her that she should be able to read every word she wrote by herself. She admitted that the story came from the computer. Jasmine said that Joanne got the story from Disney.com. Despite the lack of creativity, she did some hard work to write plenty of words to fill a page.
Wednesday, Oct 9, 2002 (5y+2m+3d)
The twins went to school as usual. They went to ballet class after school at the community center near our home. It had been several months since the last dance class, the twins really looked forward to it.Daddy worked overtime in the office again. Everyone was asleep when I got home.
Thursday, Oct 10, 2002 (5y+2m+4d)
Joanne came to our bed early in the morning asking about her classmate's birthday party. She asked,"Did we cross over the birthday party?" I guess she meant if we had missed the date of the party. They were happy when we told them we had not forgotten and the party would be on the coming Saturday.The twins went to school as usual.
Friday, Oct 11, 2002 (5y+2m+5d)
The countertops in the bathrooms were scheduled to be installed today. However, the company called at the last minute to reschedule for tomorrow.The twins went to school as usual.
Hing and Lucy invited us to dinner. Terence played with the twins after dinner. The twins took turns to ride the tricycle around the house. Terence stood at the tail-platform of the tricycle and held on to the girl's shoulders for a ride.
The twins wanted to watch Disney's Monsters Inc. on video. Terence walked by and saw the funny monsters on the screen. He pointed his finger to the screen and screamed in fear. We had to turn off the TV to calm him down. The twins found the movie funny, but Terence found it scary.
Saturday, Oct 12, 2002 (5y+2m+6d)
The counterman called to reschedule his appointment again to Monday. The landscaper came to put a finishing touch in our backyard. He planted a tree and some scrubs, laid a new lawn and fixed the sprinklers. The twins used to ride their bikes on the sidewalk in front of the house when we couldn't take them to the park. Mommy didn't feel that was safe. We built a concrete path around the backyard so that the twins could ride their bikes inside the fence. Mommy could then watch them from the kitchen windows.We stayed home all day long. The twins watched the Beauty and the Beast DVD on their computer. They have watched the original version many times. The new DVD version included a new song "Human Again". The twins said they like the new addition to the movie.
Sunday, Oct 13, 2002 (5y+2m+7d)
We thought about going to the annual Fleet Week in San Francisco. The news said that there were estimated over a million people who watched the Blue Angels air show yesterday. We finally decided to cancel the plan because the twins didn't seem to enjoy the loud fighter jet noise. The twins hid from the air show when we took the twins to Fleet Week in 2000 and 1998. Of course the other reason was to avoid traffic and parking headache in such a large event.We had dinner with Grandma Chui. We returned to our house before I took her home. Jasmine wanted to go along the trip with grandma because she knew she would get candies from grandma. Joanne decided to stay home with mommy because she knew Jasmine would bring home candies for her anyway.
Monday, Oct 14, 2002 (5y+2m+8d)
The counter-man didn't show up. He didn't answer his phone either. Mommy was extremely upset because she had to cancel the appointment for the shower doors. The shower doors could not go in before the counter-man installed the counter-tops and the shower enclosure.The twins went to school as usual.
We let the twins sleep in total darkness since they were infants. We read about some research report regarding some negative effects of light to the growth of the eyeball during sleep. Lab mice that sleep in darkness are healthier. Lab mice that sleep in dimly lighted environment have poor vision. Regardless of the research, we believe that one can sleep better in total darkness. That is how nature meant to be.
The twins never complained about sleeping in the dark before. However recently when I checked on them at night, I noticed that they always turned on the light in their walk-in closet. And they left a crack at the door of the closet to let out a little light. Of course, I would turn off the light for them after I checked them. When I asked them why they turned on the light, they said they don't like the room to be too dark. They didn't say they were afraid of monsters in the closet. We had never, in their life, scared them with stories about monsters in the closet or under the bed. But after watching Disney's Monsters Inc., they may have developed such fear subconsciously. I reminded them that the monsters in the movie were good monsters and they were funny too. I really don't believe parents should scare their kids with monster stories.
Tuesday, Oct 15, 2002 (5y+2m+9d)
The counter-man did not show up or call. Mommy complained to EXPO, where we ordered the counter-tops. They didn't seem to care, they didn't even answer the phone, and they just sent everyone to the voice mail. Mommy then complained to the company that EXPO subcontracted the project. They said they would send someone tomorrow. Given their track record, we need to wait and see if they would fulfill their promise.The twins went to school as usual.
The twins turned on their closet light again at bedtime. I asked who did that the next morning. Joanne said Jasmine asked her to. Jasmine said she only asked Joanne if she wanted to turn on the light. She didn't tell her to do it. The girls tried to push the responsibility to each other. I asked Jasmine why she suggested Joanne to turn on the light. She said she didn't want scary dreams. But when I asked what scary dreams she had, she refused to answer.
Wednesday, Oct 16, 2002 (5y+2m+10d)
The counter-man did not show up in the morning. However, he finally came in the afternoon. He spent the afternoon to finish the kid's bathroom countertop. The countertop in the master bathroom was almost done too. But he found a defect in the sink. He said that he could make a new one for us, i.e. that would further delay the project. However, mommy welcomed the idea because now she could pick a different color for the countertop. The counter-man worked till 8pm and mommy convinced him to return the next day.The twins went to school as usual. There was a ballet class for the twins after school. However, mommy decided to skip the class because she needed to stay home for the counter-man.
Jasmine had a library session today and she borrowed a book from the school library. She called daddy at work after school. She asked me to come home early so that she could read her library book to me. In the entire book, she only needed my help on a couple of words that did not follow the general phonic rules.
Joanne didn't offer to read anything. She handed me a stack of blank paper with a header written at the top of each page. The headers said "Lilo and Stitch", "Beauty and the Beast", "Snoopy" etc. She wanted me to draw pictures for her to color.
Thursday, Oct 17, 2002 (5y+2m+11d)
The counter-man continued his work on the shower enclosure. He needed to return on Saturday after he remade the countertop for the master bathroom.The twins went to school as usual.
Hing and Lucy invited us to dinner. After dinner, the twins wanted to see Beauty and the Beast. Terence wanted to watch too. When he saw the wolves, he screamed in fear. Lucy said he used to have no reaction to anything on the TV. Now he is old enough to fear.
Friday, Oct 18, 2002 (5y+2m+12d)
The counter-man didn't show up. He called and said he needed to stay in the shop to make us a new countertop. He needed to return tomorrow.The twins went to school as usual.
Daddy worked overtime past midnight. Everyone was asleep when I got home.
Saturday, Oct 19, 2002 (5y+2m+13d)
The counter-man didn't show up and he was holding up our remodeling project. Mommy scheduled our own contractors to work expecting the counter-man would have finished his job on time. But instead of spending one day as his estimate, he had worked 2 days plus several days of no show. Our own contractors did whatever they could and made a lot of progress despite the delay. In my opinion, EXPO did a terrible job in handling their own subcontractors. We would definitely file a formal complaint after this ordeal.The twins wanted to watch Beauty and the Beast as soon as they woke up. They have watched the movie too many times and they never got tired of it.
Daddy returned to the office for a few hour of overtime work in the afternoon. Mommy and twins stayed home to supervise the contractors.
Sunday, Oct 20, 2002 (5y+2m+14d)
The counter-man came to work on a Sunday. We know he tried his best, but he really took a long time to do his work. We wondered if he was not properly trained for the work. He came in the late morning and he worked till dusk. We were glad that he finally finished the work. There was a spot that was not done to our satisfaction. But we decided not to press further because we didn't think he had the skill to fix the problem. We didn't want this to drag on for another week.Mommy stayed home to supervise the work. Daddy took the twins to lunch. We then went to Expo and Home Depot to look for ideas and bought some parts. The first thing the twins wanted to see was the crystal light department. They also wanted to see the player piano on display. They were disappointed when they found that it was turned off.
When we came back, I took the twins to the park. They rode their bikes and daddy walked along. They spent a long time in the park. They played on two set of playground. They rode the bikes around the park in full circle. They played with 10-week-old puppy called Buster. The owner of the puppy was as old as our twins were. The mommy of the puppy owner said that they bought the puppy just hours earlier and this was their first outing to the park.
Monday, Oct 21, 2002 (5y+2m+15d)
We bought the kitchen counters from EXPO also. The kitchen counters were contracted to another company. They came today and finished the job in just a few hours. I wished the company that did the bathroom counters were as efficient.The twins went to school as usual. Before dinner, they went to the Target store to buy Halloween supplies. The twins were very excited about the trip. They bought some 50 pieces Barbie puzzles at 99 cents each. Daddy and family rendezvoused at the restaurant for dinner. They were eager to do the puzzles as soon as they came home.
Mommy was not in a good mood today. When she found out that the twins turned on the closet light after they went to bed, she scolded them. She demanded to know who turned on the light. Joanne said Jasmine did. Jasmine said Joanne told her to. Mommy asked Jasmine to bring out the hand that flipped the light switch. Mommy slapped Jasmine's palm as a punishment.
When daddy went to their room to give them a good night kiss, Jasmine was sobbing quietly. When I asked Jasmine why she turned on the light after they already went to bed, she said Joanne asked her to so that Joanne could read to her. I told her that next time she should say no to Joanne's request. There is a Cantonese saying, "The smart one makes the request, the dumb one acts upon it." I guess Jasmine learned it the hard way.
Tuesday, Oct 22, 2002 (5y+2m+16d)
The twins went to school as usual. School starts and ends early on Tuesday.
Wednesday, Oct 23, 2002 (5y+2m+17d)
The twins went to school as usual.
Thursday, Oct 24, 2002 (5y+2m+18d)
The twins went to school as usual.Daddy worked overtime at the office. The twins were all asleep when I came home.
Friday, Oct 25, 2002 (5y+2m+19d)
Joanne looked for her yellow T-shirt as soon as she woke up. When mommy told her that it was in the laundry hamper, she cried because she could not wear it to school. She complained that she didn't wear the shirt out of the house yesterday so it was clean. Even when daddy explained to her that the weather was too cold to wear a short sleeve T-shirt to school, she continued to sob sadly. Sometimes, the kids became moody and easily saddened by any excuse. I don't know if 5-year olds are affected by hormonal mood swings like the adults.The twins went to school as usual.
Saturday, Oct 26, 2002 (5y+2m+20d)
We had lunch with Lucy. The twins received several Halloween gifts from Lucy. Lucy was thinking about going to the Picture People store to take some picture of Terence for Halloween. She invited our twins to come along to take some fun pictures too. We brought along the twins' Halloween costumes for the photo session. We went to the photo store after lunch. We found that the store was overbooked, and they couldn't squeeze in another appointment. The twins were disappointed. Lucy and Terence needed to leave early for a birthday party. We went our separate ways.We did some window shopping at the mall. The twins saw many kids wearing Halloween costumes. They wanted to change into their Belle and Ariel outfits too. They spent a lot of time spinning around to see their dresses fan out by the spin. They didn't feel dizzy, but we did by just watching them spin.
We bought some children's book at a bookstore. We bought two pairs of boots for the twins at a Rockport shoe store. They both have a pair for snow boots for their snow trips to the High Sierra. But this was the first time we bought regular (street use) boots for the twins. They both tried on the boots. Joanne simply walked around in them. Jasmine asked if she could run with them. She sprinted around the store couple of times. Since boots were bulkier and heavier than regular shoes, we were curious to see if they could run well with them.
The salesman gave the twins two tiny clip-on radios that came with ear buds and flashlight. The radios had "Rockport Kids" printed on them. They were promotional items, but the twins were excited to use them right away. With the ear buds in their ears, they were not responsive to what we told them. We got a preview on how we would be treated when they become teenagers. :-)
We were strolling along in the mall. A stranger waved at me. After he confirmed who he thought I was, he summoned his wife and kids to meet "Joanne and Jasmine, the twins on the web site". They said they had been reading this journal for quite some time. They were glad to see Joanne and Jasmine in person. I could tell it was true if they could recognize our faces and remembered our names so well. When I started this journal, I wrote it for the twins and ourselves. Given my poor memory and busy work schedule, I might not remember much of the twins' growing up if I didn't write them down. Sharing the experience on the Internet was only a side product. We didn't expect there would be real followers to my lousy writings.
They introduced their 3-year-old identical twin daughters Elma and Elizabeth to us. The girls were beautiful and they looked exactly identical. The father was Caucasian and the mother was Korean. When we commented on how their girls look alike, they said that they could easily tell them apart. Similarly, they had a hard time to tell Joanne and Jasmine apart. However, to us, Joanne and Jasmine were very different.
The mother told us that she read our twins' birth story over and over again when she was pregnant with her twins. It was understandable because carrying twins is quite different from regular pregnancy. The father said he found this journal very useful to him because he also worked in this area with similar long work hours. He said that many things he read from this journal also happened to them at different stages. The journal gave him what to look forward to. They also sent their twins to the Challenger preschool. One of the differences was that the mother's parents babysit the twins because both parents worked full-time.
While we were exchanging our experience in raising twins, Joanne and Jasmine were preoccupied with their new radios. They did not respond when we asked them to say their names. Perhaps they were too shy, or they couldn't hear us with radio music in their ears.
We had dinner with grandma Chui and Aunt Elaine. The twins were both listening to their radios in the car on our way home. They demanded us to turn off the car radio so that they could listen to their own music. The new radios became their center of attention. After we returned home, Jasmine was eager to read the new books to daddy. Joanne interrupted Jasmine's reading when she opened the gift she got from Lucy today. Joanne got Chumsley the cat, a micro-pet. Jasmine got Siren, a micro-Dalmatian. They played with the micro-pets for awhile until mommy told them to go to bed.
Jasmine wanted to wear the ear buds to listen to her radio in bed. Joanne started crying because she couldn't find her radio. Joanne wanted us to find it for her. Mommy told Joanne that she was supposed to take care of her own belongings. No one could help her because no one knew where she put it except herself. Joanne cried harder because she said she put it on the keyboard and Jasmine took hers. We asked Jasmine if that was true. She said she couldn't tell because the two radios were identical. I asked Joanne to go to bed first and I would look in the car. I couldn't find it, but I didn't tell Joanne the bad news. Otherwise she wouldn't sleep.
When I checked on the twins after they fell asleep, I removed the ear buds from Jasmine's ears. It might be fun for her, but leaving the ear buds in all night might hurt her ears.
Sunday, Oct 27, 2002 (5y+2m+21d)
As soon as Joanne woke up, she turned on the computer and asked daddy to help her visit www.micro-pets.com. She found the URL on the toy's package. Although the twins were too young to understand what Internet really was, they were Internet users already. At least they knew they could get to the .com thing via the computer.Mommy dropped off the twins with Aunt Tina. She went shopping in San Francisco with Jenny. Daddy went for a hair cut and then worked overtime in the office.
We forgot Daylight Saving Time ends today. We gained one hour when the clock set back to Standard Time. We could have slept an extra hour. However, the twins would wake us up regardless.
The twins spent the day with Cousin Natalie. Jasmine brought her new books with her. She said she wanted to read to Natalie. Mommy and twins had dinner at Aunt Tina's place after shopping and returned home after dinner. The twins fell asleep on the way home. We put them in bed after a semi-conscious trip to the bathroom. The twins might not aware of the time change today. But their own biological clock told them that they needed to sleep early today.
Monday, Oct 28, 2002 (5y+2m+22d)
The twins got up early and chatted in bed. When daddy checked on them, Joanne was listening to the radio. I asked where she found her radio. Jasmine said Joanne's radio is still missing, but she gave her radio to Joanne. What a generous girl! I didn't think Joanne would do the same under the same situation.I asked Jasmine if she read to Natalie yesterday. She said Natalie didn't listen.
The twins recently wrote the names "Sarina" and "Carina" on their drawings. I asked who were they. Jasmine said Sarina was her other name because Joanne called herself Carina.
The twins went to school as usual.
Mommy asked Joanne to read her library book to her. Her book this week was "Olive, the other reindeer." Mommy was unhappy because Joanne uttered one word at a time. Joanne paused at every word to figure out the pronunciation. Mommy was impatient with Joanne because she lacked reading practices. She should have spent more time on reading like Jasmine instead of drawing pictures. On the contrary, Jasmine could read whole sentences in a machine gun manner. We often had to ask her to pause at the comma and period.
Mommy kept rushing Joanne to read faster. I didn't think mommy's tactic would change anything when Joanne needed the time to think about the pronunciation rules. Daddy rescued Joanne from mommy's high pressure reading session. I told her to take her time to read, but she needed to practice more so that she could read as fast as Jasmine did. It took quite awhile for Joanne to finish the book. She said she was too tired and immediately ran to bed. Jasmine stayed and read the book once more with daddy.
Tuesday, Oct 29, 2002 (5y+2m+23d)
The twins went to school as usual. Tuesday was on the early schedule. Since the twins came out of school early today, mommy took them to the pumpkin patch on Grant Rd. The twins spent a long time there riding the mini-train etc. They told daddy they bought a small pumpkin. They wanted daddy to carve a Jack-o-lantern.Daddy worked late in the office. When I called home, Jasmine said Joanne did not want to talk to me because I was not her daddy. Later when I talked to Joanne, she explained that she was playing a game and she became Carina, so I was not her daddy at the time.
The twins spoke mostly English on the phone. Occasionally they spoke Chinese in face to face conversation. They replied in English on the phone even when I spoke to them in Chinese.
When I got home late, the twins were getting ready for bed. Joanne had a painful bump on her forehead. She said that a boy crashed into her in the pumpkin patch today. The twins wanted daddy to carve the pumpkin. Of course, mommy insisted they must go to bed.
Wednesday, Oct 30, 2002 (5y+2m+24d)
Jasmine came into our bed at dawn. She wanted daddy to carve the pumpkin. Mommy scolded her for disturbing our sleep and sent her back to her room. She left with tears in her eyes.Daddy went to work before the twins got up.
The twins had not grown much recently. They still weighed around 33 to 34 lb.
Thursday, Oct 31, 2002 (5y+2m+25d)
Joanne was nagging for something in bed before she got up. She kept yelling "Eh!" When we asked what she wanted, she didn't say. She just said "Eh!" We told her she had to speak or no one knew what she wanted. After a while, we ignored her nagging. She started to cry sadly because she didn't get the attention that she needed. It was again one of those days that she became moody. Mommy asked her to cry as much as she wanted because she was being unreasonable. Jasmine later told daddy that Joanne wanted someone to help her to wear her stockings. After daddy helped her, she smiled again with tears still in her eyes. I couldn't figure out how Jasmine knew what Joanne wanted when she just said "Eh!"It was Halloween. School started and ended early because of the costume party. Jasmine later told daddy that there were two Spidermen in her class. The twins wore their princess costumes.
After school, mommy took the twins to the mall to trick or treat. They went with some of their classmates. The twins collected a bag-full of candies. Sharleen and Claire also went there. The twins were almost done their round and were hungry when they arrived late. The twins and Claire trick-or-treated for a few times before they parted their way. Daddy went to the mall to join the family for dinner.
We went home after dinner. The trick-or-treaters were still roaming our streets. The twins waited at the front door to give out candies. We bought some "Fruit Rollups" and crackers as treats to hand out. However, Jasmine decided to give away the candies she collected from the mall. She said she liked the crackers and Fruit Rollups better than the other candies. Joanne kept her bag of candies to herself. There were some teenagers at the door as tall as adults were. Jasmine asked daddy why the big people wanted candies from her. We didn't take the twins to trick-or-treat in the neighborhood because it was quite cold today. The twins' costumes were not warm enough. By the costumes would not look nice with a jacket on top. We knew the twins would insist not to wear a jacket because of the look. We decided it would also be fun to see the trick-or-treaters come to our doors.
Friday, Nov 1, 2002 (5y+2m+26d)
There was no school today because of Halloween last night. Mommy took the twins to visit their twin classmates. There was another set of boy-girl twins in school. One of them was in same class as Joanne and one with Jasmine. So both sets of twins played along quite well. Mommy left the twins there after lunch to give a ride to Sharleen and her family. They were taking a month long vacation in Australia
Saturday, Nov 2, 2002 (5y+2m+27d)
Our remodeling project was put on hold because of various delays. The contractors returned to work after their three-week vacation. Mommy's Uncle and Aunt Colin, her Cousin Kevin and his wife Vivian came to visit us. Mommy invited Uncle Colin to inspect our remodeling project because he used to be a builder himself. They almost got into an argument when our contractors refused to take criticisms about the mistakes that they made. We went out together for a late lunch before they departed. We return home to rest while the contractors wrapped up their day. We then went out again for quick dinner at a Pho restaurant. We came home and went to bed early.
Sunday, Nov 3, 2002 (5y+2m+28d)
We went out for dim sum with Grandma Chui. We left the twins at grandma's home after lunch and went to a car dealership to check out the 2003 Acura MDX. When we picked up the twins, they were playing some kind of game. Joanne was walking around and Jasmine crawled behind her. Joanne introduced Jasmine as her pet tiger. I thought Princess Jasmine in the movie Aladdin had a pet tiger, but I didn't know Jasmine would become the tiger herself.The twins put two nametag stickers on their shirts. Joanne had a tag that said Miss Carina. Jasmine had a tag that said Sarina. It was no surprise to me because I learned about their pretend names sometime back. I asked why Jasmine's name wasn't Miss Sarina. Joanne said it was because she was the teacher and Jasmine was the student.
We went to dinner with Uncle Ivan and family. The twins glued to Cousin Natalie throughout dinner. We sent the twins to bed early after we bathed them. After their bath, Jasmine said she wanted to pretend she was baby again. She wanted daddy to carry her to her bed and put on her clothes for her. She also faked some baby cries. After I carried Joanne to the bed, I said Mommy Joanne would help Baby Jasmine put on her clothes. The twins found my suggestion so fun that went into the role-playing game right away.
Monday, Nov 4, 2002 (5y+2m+29d)
Daddy went to work before the twins got up.The twins had been taking hot lunch from the school cafeteria since school starts. Recently, they saw other classmates were bringing their lunch boxes. They requested mommy to prepare cold lunch for them too. They were excited to bring their own lunch bag today. They went to school as usual.
Daddy worked late in the office.
We daddy came home. The twins were rather quiet. I found out that mommy was angry with them because they spilled some fishy food on the carpet. Due to the remodeling, we had to eat our meals in the bedroom most of the time. Despite mommy fast action to clean up, the fishy smell still lingered in the room.
The twins found the lyric cards we got from the Challenger school before. Jasmine sang the songs aloud. Joanne didn't participate, I bet she couldn't read the word fast enough. Let alone singing the words to the beat. When Jasmine sang the song "It's a small World", she said she remembered riding a boat into a tunnel in Disneyland where this song was heard. Wow! I was surprised she remembered the details of the trip that took place more than 2 years ago. They went to Disneyland when they were 34 months old. They didn't say much when they were toddlers just because they didn't know how to express themselves. Only when they described their memory, we found out they remembered so much from so long ago.
Tuesday, Nov 5, 2002 (5y+2m+30d)
Daddy left for work early. The twins were up early too. They got to kiss daddy goodbye.The twins went to school as usual. School starts and ends early on Tuesday.
The contractors started to finish the hardwood floor. The floor was installed for over a month now. It was unfinished bare wood for all this time. The contractors wanted to leave the finishing to the end so that the on going remodeling activities will not damage the finish. They filled the cracks and sanded the floor smooth. Then they applied the nature color stain. They will return on Thursday to buff it and re-stain again. They were supposed to apply the stain/sealant three times.
We were not allowed to stay home before the finish dried. We went to Hing and Lucy's for dinner and stayed overnight.
The twins requested to go to bed early. Terence was rather upset when the twins disappeared into the bedroom.
Wednesday, Nov 6, 2002 (5y+3m)
The twins are 5.25 years old.
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started on Nov 9, 2002