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This journal is about raising identical twins.Eighty Fourth Month
Previous entriesNote: This page may contain Chinese text in Unicode encoding. Some web browsers (e.g. Internet Explorer 5) can display the text without any user intervention if the fonts are available. Some web browsers (e.g. Netscape) will display the Chinese text only if you switch Character Set under the View menu to Big5 traditional Chinese.
Tuesday, Jul 6, 2004 (6y+11m)
The twins are one month less 7 year old today.The twins returned to summer school after the fourth of July long weekend. After school, mommy took them to swim lesson. The classes were divided into three groups. The twins got in the second group because they already knew how to float and breath out of water. Nicholas and Patricia went to the first class because they could swim half a lap. The swim lesson only lasted half an hour. Mommy called Benjamin's mom to see if the twins can swim more in their pool.
Sad news arrived that the twins great grandpa, i.e. mommy's fraternal grandfather, has just passed away. As Chinese tradition, it is inappropriate for a mourning family to attend any celebration, such as wedding. Mommy cannot attend her cousin Jennifer's wedding this coming Sunday. The twins were very disappointed because mommy bought them a pair of new dresses for the occasion. The twins had not met their great grandpa because he lived in China. In fact, they didn't know they have a great grandpa.
At bedtime, Joanne didn't let Jasmine to read the second half of "Easter Carol". Jasmine picked the Hunchback of Notre Dame. She read 10 pages to Joanne and daddy before going to bed.
Wednesday, Jul 7, 2004 (6y+11m+1d)
The twins went to summer school as usual. They have swim lesson after school 4 times a week. Mommy cancelled their abacus class for other summer activities. They were already doing 2 digit division with remainder. Mommy thought they were far enough for now.When they were home after piano class, mommy wanted them to do abacus exercise. Joanne took an entire hour with absolutely no progress. Mommy wants her to finish her work or she could not go to bed. Jasmine finished early but when mommy checked her answer, she found Jasmine did every single one wrong. Jasmine could not sleep either until she corrected all the mistakes. Daddy sat with Jasmine to see how she did her division and reminder. She did the calculation correctly, she just write the wrong part as answer. We had to cancel bedtime story because the delay in their abacus exercise.
Thursday, Jul 8, 2004 (6y+11m+2d)
The twins went to summer school as usual. They have swim lesson after school 4 times a week. They also went to a local pool that was for kids. The admission fee was only a dollar per person and the water was only 4 feet deep. There was also a water slide and a diving board into a 9 feet pool. The twins were not scared to use the board because there was a lifeguard on duty.In the evening, the twins fought for a LEGO toy. They fought so hard that Joanne punched Jasmine's arm several times and made Jasmine cry. The LEGO toy was taken away for them as a punishment. They needed to learn that no one wins in a fight. They were asked to talk about what happened and apologize to each other for fighting. Mommy also asked Joanne to recall who pulled her out of the water when she was in trouble this afternoon. Joanne should have been grateful instead of being mean.
They were asked to clean up their mess before they could go to bed. Joanne read the second half of "Easter Carol" to daddy and Jasmine as bedtime story.
Friday, Jul 9, 2004 (6y+11m+3d)
The twins went to summer school as usual. They have swim lesson after school 4 times a week. They went to art class after school. The twins brought home some of their previous work from the art class.
Saturday, Jul 10, 2004 (6y+11m+4d)
The twins woke up at 6am in the morning. They were chatting in bed at their top of their lungs. We were waken by their conversation even wen both our bedroom doors were closed. Both mommy and daddy had entered their room to ask them to keep the noise down. They didn't obey. Mommy asked them to return to sleep, they didn't obey. We slept till 9am. They talked till 9am.We got up to have breakfast and get ready to go out. Nicholas' family came to join us for a trip north. We carpooled to Chabot Space & Science Center in Oakland to see an exhibit called "Dragon Skies: Astronomy of Imperial China". We left at 10am and we arrived at 11am. Today was the opening day, we got to see the end of a lion dance as part of the opening ceremony. There were also martial arts demonstrations. We watched awhile before entering the museum. The main feature exhibit was opened to the crowd in a control manner. We had half and hour before we would be admitted. We spent the time to grab a bite to eat. The kids then went to the "discovery lab" to play with some exhibit items.
When the time came, we went to see the Chinese exhibition. It was essentially a display of replicas of many Chinese astronomical instruments including a seimograph, a celestial sphere, a model of a water clock tower and many more. The observatories were also open to display the resident telescopes, including a 8" refractive, a 20" refractive and a 36" reflective telescope. The 8" telescope was set up to view the planet Venus in the day time. The astronomer explained that Venus transited in front of the Sun just last month. It was located on one side of the sun in between the Sun and the Earth. As a result, we could see Venus appear like a crescent moon. The kids were surprised that the telescope could spot a planet was was invisible at day time.
We then proceeded to the planetarium to see a presentation on Chinese constellation. The shows presented some western constellations and some Chinese constellation. For example, the Chinese sees only the big dipper while the westerner see it as a part of a bear. The Scorpio is the tail of a dragon in the Chinese constellation. The summer triangle in western astronomy has a love story about a weaver fairy and the cow herder in the Chinese story. The dome of the planetarium was very educational because the kids could see how the stars look in the sky and then seconds later a picture of the constellation laid on top of the star patterns. It is hard to point precisely at the sky to see the constellation without the visual aids.
We left the place and then went to Chinatown for a very late lunch. It was 2:40pm when we arrived at the restaurant. Since we all had a quick bite earlier, we were not too hungry. Nevertheless, the twins ate quite a lot. We then hurried to look for a bathroom because the restaurant shared a public one with all the stops in the building. The twins begged to go to the Sanrio store. Nicholas didn't want to go. So I took him to the Chinatown library while the girls and moms went shopping. We left Oakland and headed home after 5pm.
Due to a late lunch, it was too early for dinner. So we went to a park on the way. The kids played there until 7pm. We had Japanese dinner on Nicholas' request. During dinner, the twins wanted to use our digital camera to take pictures for us. When daddy told Joanne that her pinky was hanging in front of the lens, she rolled her eyes and then put three more fingers in front of it. Joanne was mischieveous unlike Jasmine who was usually very serious about everything.
We went home after dinner. The twins practiced piano for awhile when daddy took care of the cars in the garage. Jasmine read another 10 pages of Hunchback of Notre Dame to daddy and Joanne for bedtime story. It was 10:30pm when the twins were tucked in. They said 6am to 10:30pm was a long day. We were amazed that they didn't ask for a nap during the long trip today.
Sunday, Jul 11, 2004 (6y+11m+5d)
The twins gave daddy a nickname "swollen feet". Daddy asked them where was the other swollen foot because I only got one. Today was mommy's cousin Jennifer's wedding day. We were in mourning of the twins great grandpa's death and we were supposed to stay out of any wedding. Daddy decided to stay home all day. Aunt Jun came to lunch with mommy. I asked the twins if they wanted to stay with daddy or go out with mommy. They initially said they wanted to stay with daddy. Then they changed their mind when they found out daddy would not go out. They went out with Aunt Jun for lunch.Terence was sent to our house in the afternoon. His parents were going to see Lion King the Broadway musical. Since they would come home very late, they decided to let him stay overnight. Terence was also very excited to stay over. He spent the whole afternoon playing with the twins.
At bedtime, Jasmine read another 10 pages of Hunchback of Notre Dame. Terence was rather impatient of the story. We had to order him to stay still.
Monday, Jul 12, 2004 (6y+11m+6d)
The twins returned to summer school as usual. They went to swimming class after school. They practiced piano and abacus before dinner.For bedtime, Jasmine requested we skipped the storybook and do questions and answers. Jasmine asked some questions to test daddy. She asked about when puppies are born, are they in a sac? After the puppies are born, do their mommy lick them clean? When the puppies are born, are their eyes open yet? Daddy got all answers correctly, Jasmine seemed to be disappointed. But Jasmine said I should know the answer because I went to college and I was old too. After each question from Jasmine, Joanne got her turn too. She rolled her eyes but didn't come up with any question. I told her it was okay to say "pass!". She said it three times. After Jasmine's three questions, Joanne finally came up with one. She ask "Is whale a mammal?" Obviously they knew the answers before they could make up a question.
When they were out of questions, they started talking about their swimming lesson in the afternoon. They told daddy that they went to two different groups in the class and they had different teachers. They also said they learned back stroke but Jasmine has trouble keeping her body straight. They lied on bed and showed daddy their body positions. Daddy pointed out that Jasmine was swimming with her chin down so her butt sank into the water. I told her that if she swim with her chin up, her mouth would stay out of water and she actually can see where her head was going. Jasmine said she bumped her head on the side of the pool because she didn't see the wall. Joanne described how she jumped from the diving board into the 12 feet pool. They said they could swim in the 9 feet pool but they could only stand up in 3 feet or 2 or 1. When I swim with them, I often have them swim in 4 feet or 5 feet where I could stand in the middle of the pool and let them swim to me. I would never swim with them in 9 feet or 12 feet pool because I have not confidence to keep afloat when two kids started climbing on me. Of course, the teachers all had life saving training and they knew how to teach them swim. The swim lesson was on every weekday. When they swam 5 days a week, they definitely would learn something.
Tuesday, Jul 13, 2004 (6y+11m+7d)
The twins went to summer school as usual. They went to swimming class in the afternoon.Before bedtime, daddy measured their height on their growth chart. We were surprised to find that they were about one eighth inch shorter than last month. I didn't believe they had shrunk, so I inspect the growth chart on the wall. The chart had not moved. However, the wall is not quite flat, so when I leaned a square angle on the wall, it didn't form a perfectly level edge on the twins heads. I believed the measurement from the past few months may be off a little when the level edge tilted up or down because of the bumps on the wall.
Wednesday, Jul 14, 2004 (6y+11m+8d)
The twins went to summer school as usual. They went to swimming class in the afternoon. They also went to their last piano class for the summer. The teacher was going to take a vacation so that all her students could have a time off too.We went out to dinner with Nicholas' family. Joanne complained that she was tired towards the end of dinner. Mommy sent them to bed at 8pm. They were still up when we checked on them at 9pm.
In the morning, Joanne ended up in Jasmine's bed.
Thursday, Jul 15, 2004 (6y+11m+9d)
The twins went to summer school as usual. They went to swim class in the afternoon.For bedtime, Joanne read one page and daddy read a page of the Aladdin story. Jasmine read 10 pages from the Hunchback of Notre Dame book. Jasmine's was a picture book, and 10 pages was about the same amount of words in one page of a wordy book.
Jasmine warned Joanne not to sleep in her bed again. She seemed to be bothered by Joanne last night. Joanne told Jasmine in a begging tone of voice that she was too scared to sleep alone. Everyone knew it was just an excuse because both twins slept alone since they were infants.
Friday, Jul 16, 2004 (6y+11m+10d)
The twins went to summer school as usual. They went to swim class in the afternoon. The twins received their report cards from the swim teachers today. They were rated for the following Primary skills for level 2 class:Joanne got every skill completed. Jasmine got three items (13-15) that needed improvement. Joanne received the comment "Good job" on her card. Jasmine got the comment "Nice work! Just practice swimming farther! Next session: Level 2" Joanne could promote to level 3 but Jasmine needed to repeat level 2. Jasmine wrote on Joanne's card "You may stay in level 2." She probably wanted Joanne would stay with her.
- Step from side into chest-deep water and recover to a vertical position
- Get out at side of the pool
- Retrieve object in chest-deep water
- Hold breath with fully submerged head for 3 seconds
- Orientation & exploration of deep water with support
- Flutter kick on front
- Flutter kick on back
- Turn over front to back
- Turn over back to front
- Back crawl arm action
- Finning on back
- Level off from vertical position
- Combined front crawl, 5 yards using kick and alternating arm action
- Combined back crawl, 5 yards using kick and alternating arm action
- Demonstrate treading water
- Rhythmic breathing turn head side to side 10 times
- Assist non-swimmer to feet
- Discuss process of rescue breathing
- Perform reaching & extension assist from deck
They also went to art class in the afternoon. They did a drawing with chalk and pastel on canvas.
We skipped bedtime story because the twins watch the Lizzie McGuire Movie which delayed their bedtime. The twins put their pillows on the side of Jasmine's bed. They slept perpendicular to the length of the bed with their feet hung across the gap onto Joanne's bed.
Saturday, Jul 17, 2004 (6y+11m+11d)
The twins woke up at 6am and they started chatting aloud. Their voices could be heard through two closed door and woke us up too. Mommy asked them to stop talking. They didn't stop until climbed out of bed at 6:55am and stopped their conversation in their room. Mommy ordered them to return to sleep. We all got up before 10am. Jasmine again complained about Joanne getting into her bed. She said Joanne tucked her head under Jasmine's pillow. After we got ready, we went out to lunch with Auntie Tina, Uncle Ivan, cousin Natalie and aunt Jun. Mommy wanted to buy Natalie a lunch and give her a gift for her upcoming birthday. After lunch, we all went to Natalie's home to see their big screen brand new HDTV ready TV. We left the twins with them when mommy and daddy went to see a movie. We went for Spiderman 2, but it was sold out and we watched "The Terminal." Meanwhile, the twins enjoyed playing with their cousin Natalie. We watched some more TV after we came back. When it was dinner time, we went to the restaurant directly and had dinner with grandma Chui. We went home and rest after dinner.
Sunday, Jul 18, 2004 (6y+11m+12d)
The twins were already playing when we woke up. We got ready and left the house at around 10:30am after a quick breakfast. We were in Santa Cruz an hour later. Daddy's company held the company picnic at the boardwalk. After we finished lunch, we went into the arcade. We spent $5 there, the twins were not too interested in playing games that were not for tickets. They saved the ticket in mommy's purse. We went to the boardwalk amusement park to take the thrill rides. We basically strolled down the boardwalk and took every single ride the twins were tall enough to ride. They were quite disappointed when some rollercoasters require them to be at least 48" tall. We spent the afternoon rides after rides because we wore the unlimited ride wristbands. Some of the most fun rides were ridden twice. Mommy didn't let them take any third ride because we wanted to try as many varieties as possible. We strolled from the boardwalk over to the fisherman wharf. We picked the first restaurant on the pier. We had dinner at around 7:30 pm. After dinner, we strolled back to the boardwalk. It was dusk, the sun was already behind the mountains, the cloud in the sky was bright orange against the purplish blue sky. Jasmine commented that she had painted a painting with a sky in that color before. From the pier, we could see the boardwalk amusement park over the ocean. By this time, the rides on the boardwalk were all lit up in flashing light. Though the sky was not totally dark yet, the lit up boardwalk at a distance was quite beautiful already. I asked the twins if they wanted to ride more because our unlimited ride wristbands were good till 10pm. Both twins said they wanted to go home. We went directly to the car. The twins fell asleep on the way home. We woke them up and mommy gave them a shower. We placed them in bed with no bedtime story tonight.
Monday, Jul 19, 2004 (6y+11m+13d)
The twins started chatting again at 5am in the morning. Mommy couldn't stand the noise and asked the kids to shut up at 6am. The twins returned to sleep and didn't get up until 11am. Their summer school has ended. The twins have no more school until the school starts again in the fall.In the afternoon, they went to the pool in the neighborhood and found that it was closed on Monday. Disappointed, they returned home and found that the sprinkler in the front yard was on. Since they were already in swimming suits, mommy let them play in the sprinkled water. Later in the afternoon, they went to the swimming class.
Even when they have no school, mommy let them do some 2nd grade exercise books we bought from Costco. They also did abacus exercise and practiced piano.
Since they don't have school in the morning, mommy let them watch TV until 10pm.
Tuesday, Jul 20, 2004 (6y+11m+14d)
The twins didn't wake up until 10am. They were still in their summer break. In the afternoon, mommy left the twins with Sharleen. Mommy went to play tennis. Sharleen took Claire and our twins to her neighbor's Sonja's pool for a swim. Then mommy picked them up and took them to the swim lesson. After the lesson, the twins didn't have enough. So mommy took them to Benjamin's place to swim in his community pool. Mommy said the twins were in and out of the water from 1pm till 6pm. It was a very hot day, so the twins really enjoy the swim.For bedtime story, we returned to some more educational readings. We left off long time ago after reading about the Maya, Inca and Aztec people in America. Today, we read about the Europeans coming to the Americas.
Wednesday, Jul 21, 2004 (6y+11m+15d)
The twins woke up at nine. Their summer school has ended.Joanne called daddy at work. She represented mommy to ask if daddy could come home for lunch. Mommy voice was in the background. Joanne acted as an interpreter. Both daddy and mommy spoke in Cantonese, and Joanne passed on the messages in English. To the kids repeating in Chinese was more difficult than translation.
Daddy came home for lunch. Mommy invited Nicholas' family and Jill to lunch too.
It was a hot day in the 90s. They went to play tennis in the afternoon. The twins played badminton under the shade of a tree. Mommy turned on a sprinkler in the backyard to let the kids play wet. When it was time, they went to swim class. Joanne stayed in level 2 with Jasmine. But today she changed her mind, she blamed mommy for not talking to the instructor about switching her back to level 3. Mommy told Joanne to do it herself after she made up her mind.
They returned home after the swim class. Mommy opened an pineapple. Joanne complained that her tongue hurt after eating a few pieces. She also said one of her teeth was moving. Daddy asked her to pull it out herself, but she failed after trying for a while.
For bedtime story, we read about how the Spanish conquered the native Americans.
Thursday, Jul 22, 2004 (6y+11m+16d)
It was a hot day again. The twins had no school yet.They went to swim class in the afternoon. Mommy let Joanne stay at level two. Both daddy and mommy had a talk with Joanne yesterday. We tried to convince Joanne that she didn't need to rush to level three. She could practice and improve on her level two skills while giving Jasmine's time to catch up. We asked the twins to guess when daddy and mommy learned swimming. They both were surprised to learn that we didn't learn swimming until 16 years old. So the twins were 10 years ahead of their parents already.
Mommy said the twins were able to swim across the pool widthwise without stopping. The students in level 3 need to swim across the pool lengthwise instead.
Nicholas' family invited us to their home for dinner. We went home at dusk. For bedtime story, we read about Mexico and their independent war against the Spanish.
Friday, Jul 23, 2004 (6y+11m+17d)
The twins had swim class in the afternoon. They also went to their art class.
Saturday, Jul 24, 2004 (6y+11m+18d)
We got up very early in the morning. We were ready by 8:30am. As soon as Terence's family arrived, we took off for Vallejo. It was about 10:30am when we arrived at Six Flags Marine World amusement park. We spent the day taking rides and watched several shows. The twins particular enjoyed the dolphin and orca show. We also saw a bird show partially. One particular bird of interest was a big owl with an over 3 feet wingspan that weighed less than 4 pound.. It flew down from the top of the auditorium passing silently only 3 inches above daddy's head on its way to center stage.On the way home, we stopped by Oakland Chinatown for dinner. Joanne went to sleep right at the moment we parked the car. She refused to wake up. She often pretended to be asleep in such situations. Sometimes she giggle and blew the pretend, but most of the time we couldn't really tell. We had to carry her into the restaurant, lined up some chairs and let her sleep through the dinner. We tried to wake her couple of times and she just ignored us. After dinner, we carried her back to the car. All kids went to sleep on our way home. When we got home at around 11pm, Jasmine got up and took a shower and went to bed on her own. Joanne continued to be as still as a log. We carried her up to her room. They put on a lot of sun tan lotion in the morning, mommy didn't want them to go to bed without washing off the greasy stuff. Mommy changed her and stood her in the shower to wash her. She remained asleep even in the shower. We didn't believe anyone could stay asleep in a shower, she either was unconscious or she was pretending.
Sunday, Jul 25, 2004 (6y+11m+19d)
We woke up early again in the morning. We were out of the door at around 8:30am. We picked up Terence's family on our way to San Francisco. We stopped by Daly City for an early brunch. Then we went to the Exploratorium. Terence's family has a family membership. The twins went into the museum with them. Mommy and daddy went to the SONY Metreon. There was the San Francisco Theatrical Festival in the garden right outside the Metreon. We watched a free comedy show before we went inside. We didn't wear a hat and the sun was too strong for us. We watched "Spiderman 2" on the IMAX theater. The ticket cost $14 each, but the giant screen and superb sound system was well worth the extra cost. The Spiderman movie was an extraordinary when shown on the IMAX theater. When we got back to exploratorium after the movie, the museum was just closed. We met the kids at the gate. We took a stroll around the palace of fine art. Then we went to Japantown for dinner. On our way home, all the kids went to sleep in the car. We carried them back to their beds. But since they were not very dirty today, they were allowed to sleep without a shower. After mommy tugged the twins in, daddy went to check on them a few minutes later. Joanne was snoring, but Jasmine sat in her bed flipping a book in the dark. I initially thought she was sleepwalking (or should I say sleepreading). I later found out she was actually awake when she talked to daddy about what happened in the day. I turned on the light for her and let her finish the book before returning to her sleep.
Monday, Jul 26, 2004 (6y+11m+20d)
The twins ran to our room in the morning. They were excited to tell us a story. Jasmine woke up in the morning looking for a toy ring she bought from Marine World on Saturday. But instead of finding the ring, she found a tooth in her bed. She woke up Joanne and asked her what she saw in her mouth. Lo and behind, Jasmine had an extra hole in her mouth, it was the upper incisor on her left side. Joanne said Jasmine looked funny when she had lost both her front teeth. Jasmine didn't mind because she knew only big girls had missing teeth like hers.They went to swim class in the afternoon. Mommy asked them to step on scale. Joanne weighed 42.5 lb, Jasmine weighed 43.5 lb. In tonight's bedtime story, we read about the first English visitors to the America and the lost colony on Roanoke Island.
Tuesday, Jul 27, 2004 (6y+11m+21d)
The twins went to mommy's tennis game. They were very helpful in picking up balls. The twins went swimming class in the afternoon.
Wednesday, Jul 28, 2004 (6y+11m+22d)
Daddy found Jasmine sleeping between mommy and daddy in the morning. Joanne was awake when daddy went to work. She looked bored and unhappy being alone in the room by herself. In the afternoon, the twins went to Santana Row, Target and then to their swimming class. Mommy taped some swimming video footage so that daddy could see how the twins took their lesson.
Thursday, Jul 29, 2004 (6y+11m+23d)
The twins went to Costco with mommy. Mommy bought them two books, What Your Second / Third Grader Needs to Know. They bought some kid-size tennis rackets that were only 21" long. The twins wanted to play tennis because Nicholas could play very well. Then they went to swimming class in the afternoon. We went out to dinner with Nicholas family in the evening. Nicholas' dad came back from Taiwan on vacation. After dinner, the twins wanted to try out their new tennis rackets. We went to the court near our house and played until the sky turned dark. The twins couldn't swing the rackets properly, not to mention hitting the ball to the right place. Jasmine cried because she kept missing the balls. Mommy didn't like Jasmine's altitude. She wanted her to practice instead of crying.The twins flipped through the two new book they bought today. Jasmine wanted daddy to read the Aladdin story from the third grader book. The twins interrupted the story many times because the story used a lot of words they have never heard of. Joanne said she didn't understand why Jasmine would picked a third grader book to read. Jasmine said that it was okay because she learned many new words. Jasmine said she didn't like the story because it was not the same as the story they saw in the Disney cartoon. Joanne said it was better because it was based on the original story told in the 1001 nights.
After the bedtime story, they ran into mommy room and declared it as the "all girl's" room tonight. Daddy had to sleep in the twins room. Jasmine fell out of bed in the middle of the night with a loud thud. Mommy asked her to climb back to bed. In the morning, Joanne said she didn't want to sleep in the middle anymore because she couldn't turn in bed between mommy and Jasmine.
Friday, Jul 30, 2004 (6y+11m+24d)
The twins went to target to buy some new toothpaste and hair untangler spray. They went to swimming class in the afternoon. They also went to art class after that. They practiced hitting the tennis ball that daddy pitched to them in the backyard.For bedtime story, we read an excerpt of the Peter Pan story in the second grade book. The original story was very similar to the Disney cartoon, though Joanne still pointed out some difference.
Saturday, Jul 31, 2004 (6y+11m+25d)
We had lunch with grandma Chui and Aunt Elaine. At the restaurant, we bumped into Claire and her family. Her parents were going to shop after lunch for some marble stone for their upcoming remodeling work. We offered to take care of Claire for the day while they got busy with their errand.After lunch, we got back home to put on sun tan lotion. Then we went to the park nearby to play tennis. We pitched the balls towards the kids so that they could practice hitting the balls. When they got tired and went to the playground next to the tennis court, daddy and mom got to hit the balls a little bit ourselves. Benjamin and his family joined us in the second hour. We repeated the same with the kids and Benjamin. When the girls went off the play again, the parents played some tennis on our own. Benjamin didn't enjoy playing in the playground with the girls. He got bored and started to pick up the tennis balls. But he didn't pick them up for us to use. He picked them up an packed into his parents' duffel bag. We got the signal and left. Now just because of him, but because someone was waiting for the court and we had been there for two full hours. We invited Benjamin to our place for an ice cream float. He was not in a good mood to join us.
We served the girls ice cream float. Then mommy took the "three little pigs" upstairs to take a shower. The twins remembered that they took a bath together with Claire when they were very young. I remembered that they shared a bath with Valerie back in July of 1999 when we had a vacation at Clearlake. When daddy questioned their memory, the twins said they have photos to prove that. I didn't want to pursue such trivial though I believed they confused Claire with Valerie. It was also doubtful that they remember clearly what happened when they were less than two years old.
We went to Bonnie and CW place for dinner. We brought Claire along. The girls had a great time playing with Deanna. Claire had a great appetite at the dinner table too. We returned Claire to her parents at around 9pm. The twins played a bit more at Claire's home before we returned home.
They fell asleep just a few minutes before we arrived home. Jasmine was willing to get up and brush her teeth. Joanne was lazy and let mommy dropped her in bed. No bedtime story for the twins because they had a long day.
Sunday, Aug 1, 2004 (6y+11m+26d)
Mommy's whole family came over for lunch. After lunch, mommy dropped off the twins at Ansel's birthday party. Then grandma, great grandma and Aunt Jun went with mommy to Stanford shopping mall. They picked up the twins after their shopping trip.We went out to play tennis with Uncle Ivan and cousin Natalie. The rest of the clan stayed home to watch TV. When we got to the tennis court, all the courts were occupied. The twins played in the playground while we waited. Daddy pitched the balls to the twins to let them hit the balls. We waited for more than half an hour before our turn. We played for almost an hour. We left when someone else waited for our court.
When we returned home, dinner was ready. The in-laws left after dinner.
At bedtime, we read the story of "Puss in the boots." The twins seemed to be confused to hear about Puss' lying and cheating to get rich. Daddy didn't want to comment on the happy ending because the story was basically about Puss as an con artist. Of course sometimes ago, we read about Jack and the beanstalks, which is about the giant being robbed and murdered by Jack. I was surprised that children stories could be so unethical.
Monday, Aug 2, 2004 (6y+11m+27d)
Mommy didn't sign up the twins for swimming class for this fortnight because we didn't want them to be too occupied near the end of summer. Sharleen arranged for an art and craft series for her students. She invited our twins to join them. The kids had art from 9am to 2pm, they had painting, clay etc. After their lesson, Sharleen sent the kids to another home where they worked on beads. The twins spent another 3 hours there. Mommy was one of the helper too. Near the end of the lesson, the twins were exhausted and hungry. They originally wanted to go to Party City store this afternoon. But because the unplanned extra activity, mommy postponed the shopping. The twins were kind of disappointed, but mommy told them it was their own fault to sign up something that mommy didn't. The twins was so exhausted they fell asleep on the way home. I told them that when they played from 9am to 6pm, it was harder than work. Mommy bought some sushi and together with some left over from yesterday, dinner was taken care of.The twins filled up the bath tub by plugging up the drain with a wash cloth. We removed the drain plug just to prevent them to play with water at shower time. They figured how to do it on their own. They played in water until they turned into human prunes. When daddy asked them how wrinkled they were, they climbed out of the tub voluntarily.
At bedtime, we read about the Puritans in early American history. Before going to bed, the twins played a game on the electronic globe we bought them sometimes ago. They needed to identify the continents and oceans in 4 rounds of 45 seconds each. They tied in score at 39 points each. They spent less than 5 seconds to identify a place on average. It wasn't too bad for the first graders Jasmine was behind initially and she was not very happy. She was happy again when she found out she didn't lose. We always told the twins that losing is okay as long as they work harder to win next time. Joanne took the lesson nicely, but Jasmine would cry every time she lost.
The twins decided to switch bed for the night. Daddy reminded Jasmine to go to the bathroom once more because she drank some water after the last bathroom trip. She said she was fine. Daddy joked that it would be okay to wet the bed tonight because it would be Joanne's bed. Joanne jumped up from bed and forced Jasmine off to the bathroom.
Tuesday, Aug 3, 2004 (6y+11m+28d)
The twins returned to the art class at Sharleen's home. Mommy took the twins out of the class one hour before its end so that they can go play tennis. They later went on a shopping spree in preparation of their upcoming birthday this Friday. They went to Party City, Target, Didams, Aaron Brothers. They bought party supplies, some art supplies and picture frames. While mommy hung some pictures around the house, the twins did some painting. The twins helped mommy to choose some photos to hang. They played dolls for awhile. Joanne read a chapter about insects to mommy. They took bath before dinner. In the evening, we went to Sportmart to buy some tennis balls. When we got home, we asked the twins to use their Hello Kitty rubber stamps to mark our new balls. They had some fruits before going to bed. At bedtime story, the twins wanted daddy to read about insects, the same chapter that Joanne read to mommy earlier in the day.
Wednesday, Aug 4, 2004 (6y+11m+29d)
Mommy cancelled the twins' art class at Sharleen's place. The class continued without the twins. Mommy had a gathering with Nicholas & Annette family today. They went to ice skating and later went to Santana Row. The twins moved along the edge of the rink slowly. Annette could move around faster and she tried to drag the twins forward. The twins wouldn't let her. She later challenged Patricia and Nicholas for a race. During their race, Nicholas fell at high speed with his palm landed on the ice. He got an abrasion on his hands. The twins continued safely and slowly along the edge. Daddy later asked the twins if they like ice skating, Joanne said "yes" and Jasmine said "not really." Mommy signed them up for a lesson two weeks from now.The twins and mommy played tennis with Benjamin's family before dinnertime. The twins lined up their dolls and stuffed animals to snake around their bedroom. Daddy had to step over the line to read them the bedtime story. We read about slavery coming to America in 1619. I asked the twins to count the animals in the line, they got 92. Some of the dolls didn't participate in the line up yet.
Thursday, Aug 5, 2004 (6y+11m+30d)
Joanne lost her 5th tooth overnight. She asked daddy to wash it, put it in a bag. I asked her to put it under her pillow for the tooth fairy. She said she did not care for the dollar.
Friday, Aug 6, 2004 (7y)
It is the twins seventh birthday today.
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started on Aug 14, 2004