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This journal is about raising identical twins.Eighty eight month
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Saturday, Nov 6, 2004 (7y+3m)
We went to lunch with grandma Chui. We went shopping for some snow boots for the twins. They outgrew their last pairs. On the way to the store, we made a detour to Frys Electronics to check out the dancing video game. Instead, our attention was attracted to a drum beating game. The twins played with the drum for a while. Mommy called aunt Tina and found that cousin Natalie had a dancing video game that she had not used for a long time. They offered to let the twins borrow the game. We went to the next store and picked up some new snow boots. We then went to pick up the video game from cousin Natalie. We dropped off grandma at her home before we returned home.The twins did some homework before dinner. We called several families to arrange for a dinner gathering. Lucy just recovered from an illness and like to stay home. Siu Ling and Betsy had prior engagement. Ronald and Evon were free, they were in San Francisco Mart for their semi-annual sample furniture sale. So we picked a midpoint between our two locations. We went to dinner at a restaurant near SFO airport. It took half and hour driving. The twins took a nap on the way. They woke up for dinner with no problem at all.
After dinner, we returned home and we all played the dancing video game. Jasmine did it very well, and Joanne lost interest when she couldn't beat Jasmine. They stayed up quite late so we skipped bedtime story.
Sunday, Nov 7, 2004 (7y+3m+1d)
Daddy woke up finding Joanne in the middle of the bed. She asked with a begging voice "Are we going to the theater?" Daddy went downstairs to check the showtimes for the movie "The Incredibles". The early show was at 11:00 and 11:30am. It was almost 10am when we woke up everyone. We could barely make the 11:30am show. Mommy called Nicholas' family and they would like to join us too. Everyone got ready and out of the door within half an hour. We were at the theatre at 11am. Nicholas' family arrived a few minutes before showtime. We all enjoyed "The Incredibles". The movie lasted more than 2 hours including the trailers and commercials before the movie. It would be a bit too long for most kids, but it were a problem to our kids. It was a great movie for kids and adults alike. It was like a cross between a James Bond movie (evil plot of the villain), Star Wars (high speed jungle chase) and a regular Disney cartoon.After the movie, we had lunch at a nearby pizzeria. Before we got our table, the kids played foos ball for a while. Nicholas didn't want to play. I guess it was something he had not played before and he refused to try in front of everyone. Jasmine and Patricia joined the game with a couple stranger boys from another family. Joanne sat at a corner reading her "Captain Underpants" comic book she borrowed from school library. The twins had a big appetite due to the late lunch and a light breakfast. They both had pizza and pasta with meatballs. We parted our ways after lunch, the kids needed to do their homework.
On our way home, we stopped at Costco to pick up the Shrek 2 DVD. Jasmine wanted daddy to buy the Disney's Aladdin DVD too though we already have the movie on old Laser Disc. Kids nowadays know DVDs are superior than Laser Discs in picture quality and convenience. Besides DVDs usually carries much more contents such as games, deleted scenes, commentary etc. The twins bumped into Karyssa's family at Costco. They were glad to see each others, but they didn't say a word to each other. Mommy commented that the kids talks a lot in school. But they had nothing to say out of school.
When we got home, the twins needed to complete their writing exercise. The exercise was to write a description of a person of their choice. Jasmine wrote about Karyssa. Joanne wrote about Hilary Duff, the actress who played Lizzie McGuire on TV.
Nicholas' family came to our home in late afternoon. They came to play our video game and we planned to had dinner together afterward. Jasmine was the best player among kids and adults.
The kids had good appetite at dinner despite a late lunch. Perhaps the video game gave them some physical exercise earlier. When we got home after dinner, mommy sent the twins to the showers and then to bed directly. The twins said they were tired earlier, but they were no longer tired after they played a card game after shower. Mommy ordered them to stop the game and sleep immediately. No bedtime story for tonight because they had a very busy day including a two hour long movie.
Monday, Nov 8, 2004 (7y+3m+2d)
Mommy forgot to set the alarm clock. She woke up only 15 minutes before school started. Jasmine had an eye doctor checkup appointment in half an hour. We woke the twins and rushed them to get ready. Joanne was out of the door with daddy in less than 5 minutes. She had a piece of bread in her hand when we got on the car. We arrived at the school just when the other kids were entering the classrooms. We barely made it on time. Actually after the bell had rung, if it was at the former campus, she would need a later pass to get in.The twins went to Annette's house in the afternoon. They did some craft with some construction paper. Jasmine kept her work to show daddy in the evening. Joanne led daddy to the garbage can to show her ripped work. She said she didn't like it, Annette ripped hers too.
The twins borrowed Hilary Duff's "A Cinderella Story" from Annette. They watched it once in the afternoon. They played the movie one more time during dinner. They were telling daddy every plot that was coming up. They maximized the way to spoil a movie. Fortunately, it was not a movie that daddy cared about.
At bedtime, the twins asked daddy to read bedtime story because we had not done so for a few days. We read about how the Jade emperor sent an army trying to capture the monkey king after he made a lot of troubles in heaven. The twins rooted for the monkey king even though he was a trouble maker.
Tuesday, Nov 9, 2004 (7y+3m+3d)
The twins went to school as usual. They went to writing class in the afternoon. After dinner, the twins were excited to do art class again. Today daddy taught them how to add white and black into the primary color to produce various tints and shades. It took an hour to finish just three colors. They wanted to do the secondary colors in shades too. Mommy wanted them to practice piano instead.
Wednesday, Nov 10, 2004 (7y+3m+4d)
The twins went to school as usual. They had piano lesson in the afternoon. The twins called daddy on the phone and ask if we could do art lesson again today. After dinner, Joanne surfed the Internet to play some computer game. She told daddy that it was homework from the music class because the game had background music and quiz on the musical instrument. Jasmine also took her turn to play. It was late after they played the game. Daddy told them they could not have their art class because they were delayed by the game. The twins have a long weekend starting tomorrow. It would be veteran's day tomorrow and the teachers have a seminar day the day after. The twins will visit Benjamin in the morning. They were so excited that they said they didn't need bedtime story because they need to sleep early.
Thursday, Nov 11, 2004 (7y+3m+5d)
The twins had no school on Veteran's day. Daddy needed to go to work as usual. According to the original plan, mommy would play tennis in the early morning. Daddy would drop off the twins at Benjamin's house before going to work. Mommy would pick up the twins after tennis. It rained in the morning, mommy's tennis was canceled. Joanne got up regardless and went downstairs to make her paper fortune telling device. Jasmine got to sleep in a little before visiting Ben at around lunch time.Mommy and twins had lunch with Ben's family and another family from Singapore. After lunch, they had their writing class in the afternoon. In late afternoon, the twins had their last session of ice skating lessons. They passed the tests for the "Introductory" and "pre-alpha" class. They could move on to the "alpha" class next. Mommy originally planned to let them take a break during the holiday seasons. However, since they had been promoted to the next class, mommy signed them up for another 8 weeks.
Daddy joined them at a restaurant for dinner. During dinner, they said they wanted to do art class again. But when we got home, they changed their mind and what Mickey Mouse's "Twice upon a Christmas" on DVD instead. They took showers and went to bed after the movie. When daddy read them "Journey to the West" for bedtime story, they asked daddy to stop before the end of the chapter because they were too tired from a full day of activities.
Friday, Nov 12, 2004 (7y+3m+6d)
The twins had no school after the Veteran's day. They were awake when daddy went to work. But they rather stayed in bed a little longer because the morning was cold. Before lunch, mommy had them do the homework assignment from yesterday's writing class. The teacher wanted them to add more to last week's assignment to make a longer passage. Joanne said she had nothing more to say about Hilary Duff, so she changed her topic to describe her own sister Jasmine. Jasmine stayed with her original topic.The twins wanted an art lesson after dinner. We did different tints and shades for the secondary colors. After the lesson, the twins continued to paint their own picture. Joanne painted a Hamtaro character, Jasmine painted some flowers. They each painted a picture of a flag too. The idea of the last two lessons were have to learn how primary colors, black and white are mixed to produce all shades of colors. Another objective was to train them to keep the brush clean so the color on paper is exactly what they had in mind. When they mixed their own colors for their pictures, they mixed all muddy colors. The result was not every encouraging.
They were sent to bed with no bedtime story before daddy and mommy watched the movie "Troy on DVD.
Saturday, Nov 13, 2004 (7y+3m+7d)
When daddy woke up in the morning, the twins were already playing in their beds. Daddy joined them in their games. We played UNO and the twins taught daddy some of the funny songs they learned from their classmates. After a quick breakfast, we went out shopping. We went to EXPO and then to IKEA. The twins loved the meatballs with French fries kids' meal from IKEA's cafeteria. We had a full meal for lunch before continuing in shopping. We bought some art supplies and other stuffs.In the late afternoon, we went to Patricia's piano recital. We also sat through the performance of her teacher's other students. It was almost 8pm when we got out of the recital. We went to Koi Palace for dinner with Patricia's family. We had a reservation for 8pm, but we didn't get our table until a quarter to nine. We had a big delicious meal, all four kids ate a lot because they were starving by the time we sat down. We were home past 11pm. We canceled bedtime story.
Sunday, Nov 14, 2004 (7y+3m+8d)
We slept in for the Sunday morning. The twins didn't wake up until 11am. We went out to lunch with Deanna's family. After lunch, we went shopping at Macy's. The twins and Deanna played hide and seek among the clothes racks. Addison needed to shop for a pair of jeans. His mom was surprised because he only wore knee length shorts all the time even through winter. When he asked for long pants, this year's winter must be colder than usual.The dads and kids returned to Deanna's home. The two moms continued shopping. The twins played hard with Deanna. They each drew three pictures on a white board. Then they made some ballots to collect votes from everyone in the house. Joanne won the election with the most votes. Jasmine was the runner up. Deanna ended up last.
The kids played some dangerous game by rolling on the floor and another kid jump over the rolling human logs. Daddy ordered them to stop because one mis-step may end up with some broken ribs. The kids didn't listen. Just before daddy wanted to take some action to stop them. Jasmine's foot kicked Joanne's nose. The game stopped as it should. Joanne ran into the bathroom to check her nose. It didn't bleed but the kids got a lecture from daddy.
The moms returned with pizzas. The kids returned to play after dinner. When it was time to leave, daddy went around the house to look for the kids. They were all hiding. Since we were guests, I couldn't really look around. After two trips to Deanna's room, I called the hostess for help. We found Deanna hid under a blanket in bed. The twins were in the closet. They were so proud that they eluded daddy twice. They usually gave away their position by giggling. This time they kept their cool and remained silent.
We were home before 10pm. They took showers before going to bed. Again, we canceled bedtime story because of the late hour.
Monday, Nov 15, 2004 (7y+3m+9d)
The twins went to school as usual. Michelle was dropped off at our home in the afternoon. Her brother needed to attend a reception in San Francisco from a boarding school his parents were considering. After they had finished their homework, practiced piano. The kids played games. They pulled blankets and pillows on the floor. Our floor was always kept clean so it was not a problem. Joanne said on Jasmine's pillow. Mommy commented that Joanne's pants might be dirty from playing in school's playground. Jasmine broke into tears because she said Joanne sat on her pillow without permission. Jasmine later said Joanne wrote her a sorry note, but she didn't even write why she was sorry for.After Michelle had left, mommy give the twins some Chinese phrase building exercise. They needed to add more characters to a leading character to make a phrase. They were allowed to look up the dictionary if they couldn't come up with any idea. Jasmine finished quite fast and she was sent upstairs to get ready to bed. Joanne took her time and she was less than half way through when Jasmine finished. Joanne was not done half an hour after Jasmine was already in bed. Daddy read the bedtime story without Joanne. When Joanne came in and notice the story was started without her. She broke into tears immediately. Mommy and daddy gave her a lecture on the disadvantage of not using time wisely. Joanne wept so sadly that daddy had to give a quick summary of what she missed before finishing the chapter for the day. Within the night both twins wept sadly for one reason or the other. Mommy remind that they would have a school picture taking session the next day. Crying too much would gave them swollen raccoon eyes for the pictures. They didn't wept too long after hearing mommy's beauty tips. They picked their clothes for the photo session before going to bed.
Tuesday, Nov 16, 2004 (7y+3m+10d)
The twins went to school as usual. They went to writing class in the afternoon. After they finished their homework, the twins wanted to play school. Mommy suggested the twins to bring out their babies (stuffed animals and dolls) in front of the white board and teach their babies what they learned in school. The twins taught their babies vocabulary and math. Mommy watched without interruption. The twins actually went through and reviewed their own school work via the game. Anyone who has prepared any teaching materials understands that it is more demanding then regular homework. And most important of all, the twins were motivated to do that for their babies. When daddy came home, they were still teaching.After dinner, they asked for art class from daddy. Daddy gave them a choice between completing their color wheels or do some pencil sketching. Jasmine picked coloring, and Joanne picked sketching. They decided by Rochambeau. Jasmine won, so we did coloring. This was our fourth week with the color wheels. We did pure primary, secondary, and tertiary color in the first week. We did various tints and shades of primary colors in the second week. We did the same for secondary colors the third week. Doing tertiary color in different shade would be the same as what we did in the past 3 weeks. So we decided to do tints and shades with other colors that we bought from IKEA last week. We did tints and shade with silver, gold color. We also mixed just black and white to make different shade of gray. By then, Joanne left the table and returned to her teaching. Jasmine continued with brown and skin-tone color. Then she walked away too. In the past weeks, we only did three colors each time. Today, Jasmine did five. Daddy continued to mix silver and gold to give different tints of gold color to fill the remaining slot on the color wheel. The twins' color wheels still had several blank slots. We would leave it alone because we would move on to other skills in next lesson. We canceled bedtime story today because daddy had an upset stomach.
Wednesday, Nov 17, 2004 (7y+3m+11d)
The twins went to school as usual. They went to piano class in the afternoon. Daddy rendezvoused with them at a Korean restaurant for dinner. When we got home, the twins continued on their white board. They wrote up some homework packages and they used the copier to make two copies. I asked them how their babies would do the homework if they couldn't write. They refused to answer daddy's silly question. We continued on the Journey to the West story at bedtime. We read about the Monkey being captured by the Jade Emperor, but he couldn't be executed due to his magical power.
Thursday, Nov 18, 2004 (7y+3m+12d)
The twins went to school as usual. They went to writing class and ice skating lesson in the afternoon. They went to bed early because they would have a field trip the next day. For bedtime story, we read about how the Buddha trapped the Monkey King under a mountain as a punishment for his misdeeds.Mommy said she was a classroom helper today at school. One of the kids' assignment was to write what they were thankful for. The twins didn't want mommy to see what they wrote, but mommy insisted to read their writing before they turned it in to the teacher. Joanne wrote that she was thankful for her family. She thanked daddy for reading them bedtime stories at night. She thanked mommy for helping on their homework. She thanked Jasmine for being her twin sister. She wrote a lot more on Jasmine, but mommy didn't remember the details. Jasmine wrote that she was thankful for food. She thanked the turkey which kept her from starving to death. Mommy told her she should write something more meaningful than just turkey. Jasmine insisted that the teacher told them to write anything they wanted.
Friday, Nov 19, 2004 (7y+3m+13d)
The twins went to school as usual. Mommy told the twins and Benjamin to the new public library in town. Joanne borrowed a Calvin and Hobbes comic book. They didn't believe it when daddy said we had the same comics. Daddy collected the color collectible versions that combined two books into one. The book she borrowed from library was just one of the two. They had to see the identical comics to believe daddy.After dinner, the twins asked for an art class. Daddy taught them how to do pencil sketching. Daddy wanted them to put down the pencils when daddy was doing the demonstration of each step. Then they would repeat the same step. Joanne followed the instructions. Jasmine went on drawing on her own and deviated totally from the assignment. Daddy asked her to stop and she didn't listen. Mommy yelled at her and sent her to take a shower because she was not learning the lesson. Jasmine went upstairs crying. When she came downstairs later, daddy and Joanne had already proceeded to the next project. She was upset because daddy didn't wait for her. Mommy gave her a lecture that it was her fault to not listen to the teacher in the first place. Jasmine walked away saying she didn't want to draw. Daddy told her that no teacher would miss students with bad attitude. It was up to her to drop out. No one would force her into art.
At bedtime story at night, we read about the sand monster turning into a Buddhist monk in the "Journey to the West".
Saturday, Nov 20, 2004 (7y+3m+14d)
We slept in for the weekend. The twins woke up earlier than we did as usual. They were playing in bed. They later came into out bed and played UNO card game with daddy. After we washed up and had a quick breakfast, we went to San Francisco. We arrived at the SONY Metreon by noon. We bought the movie ticket and then went to lunch. After lunch we had some spare time, we went into the SONY PlayStation showroom. The twins were attracted to the EYE TOY games. They played the games at Matthew's home few weeks ago. The salesman showed us the new SONY PlayStation 2 SLIM version. It is about one quarter the size of the original PlayStation 2. Everything is tightly packed and the power supply is now an external AC adapter. The SLIM version was out just this month and not many stores carried the new model yet. There were only 3 left in the SONY store. We were convinced that we needed to buy or wait quite awhile before supply picked up. We bought an Eye Toy to go with the PlayStation 2. We had not purchased any video game for the twins until now. We didn't believe sitting on the couch and exercising the thumbs to play video games. This new EYE TOY had changed our views towards video games. It uses a video camera to put the image of the player inside the game. The player does not use the thumbs and fingers to play the game. The body and the arms are used to control the game. The video games are fun to play and they also serves as cardiovascular exercises. The players really work up a lot of sweats after just a few games. The PlayStation now is the official exercise machine for the family.After shopping, it was time for the movie. We traveled 35 miles to San Francisco to see the new movie "The Polar Express" in IMAX 3D. Since it was on IMAX, there was no Matinee bargain. Adult ticket cost $15, kid ticket cost $10. The movie alone cost us $50. The movie was pretty good as a Christmas movie for kids. The computerized 3D effects were quite amazing, though the computer generated characters made the whole movie look like a moving wax museum. The theater was nearly full. As the credits rolled, there was a round of applause. Jasmine clapped her hands too. I asked the twins if they liked the movie, Jasmine said yes but Joanne said she didn't know. However, both twins watched the whole movie in full attention. I later asked if we had to choose between "The Polar Express" and "The SpongeBob SquarePants movie", what would they pick. Joanne said she would pick SpongeBob. Jasmine said she didn't know because she liked "The Polar Express".
After the movie, the twins wanted to shop at Old Navy across the street. There were some items on sale. The twins helped identified what they liked. We spent $240 on two bags of clothings for the twins.
We went across town to the Sunset District for some desserts and drinks. While we were in Sunset, we called mommy's cousin Winnie in San Francisco. They bought us dinner at a Shanghainese restaurant. They invited us to their home after dinner. The twins played in Samantha's room and they mixed in very well. Samantha showed the twins how to play Chinese Checkers. The adults later joined the game too. Out of the six players, Jasmine finished first and daddy finished last. We left at 10pm. We asked the twins to take a nap during our 45 minute trip home. They were sound asleep when we got home. We carried them into bed without waking them.
Daddy set up the PlayStation and EYE TOY games. Mommy and daddy played some video game while the twins slept.
At hind sight, the trip to SF turned out to be quite costly. The movie cost $50, the games cost around $250, the clothes also around $250. Together with the meals and some other spendings such as parking fee, drinks etc., we spent over $600 in one day. Ouch! We probably needed to watch the budget more closely.
Sunday, Nov 21, 2004 (7y+3m+15d)
The twins were up earlier than we did. They changed into the new clothes we bought yesterday. They rotated the new clothes like a fashion show. It was quite cold in the morning. Mommy went down stairs to turn up the heat to make sure the twins wouldn't catch a cold.The twins asked daddy if the game was set up. They ran downstairs to try out the new EYE TOY games. They had a great time playing the games.
After we have freshened up and got ready, we went out to lunch with grandma Chui and uncle Ronnie. Uncle Ronnie had some vacation hours to burn before his company wrote them off. Since it was a "use it or lose it" situation, he took two weeks off and flew in to spend his vacation with grandma Chui. After lunch, mommy took the twins to Claire's birthday party. The twins had great fun at the party, they brought home a tie-dyed silk scarf they were very proud off. They said the party was very special because they met four Michelles there.
Daddy took grandma and uncle Ronnie to shop at IKEA and Home Depot. Daddy's cellphone ran out of battery. Mommy was unable to make dinner arrangement with daddy. She and the twins went to dinner with Claire's family.
Daddy went out to dinner with grandma Chui and uncle Ronnie. After dinner, they came to our house to wait for aunt Elaine to pick them up. While we were waiting, we played some EYE TOY games. Aunt Elaine arrived just a short while before the twins and mommy came home. The twins joined us in the video games and they got quite an exercise. Grandma el. al. left when the twins went in the shower to get ready for bed.
For bedtime story, we read how the pig-face monster turned into a Buddhist monk in the "Journey to the West". As daddy left the room, I noticed a sign posted on the door which said "You are a very mean daddy, from Jasmine". Jasmine added that it was because I didn't wait for her in the art class two days ago.
Monday, Nov 22, 2004 (7y+3m+16d)
The twins went to school as usual. They had a visit from the cigarette man at school. The cigarette man was in costume and he told the kids about smoking and addiction, and lung cancer.At bedtime, we read more about the pig-face monster in Journey to the West.
Tuesday, Nov 23, 2004 (7y+3m+17d)
The twins went to school as usual. In the afternoon, mommy took them to the rink to practice ice skating. When they came home, mommy asked them to do homework. They wanted to take a nap instead. Joanne wanted to sleep on daddy's spot. Jasmine said nothing was as comfortable as her own bed. Jasmine asked Joanne to come back to her own bed. Joanne refused. Jasmine was upset and cried for awhile before she fell asleep. Mommy asked Joanne to return to her own bed. She was already half asleep, so she obeyed the order like a sleepwalker.Uncle Ronnie wanted to buy us a dinner. Daddy picked up uncle Ronnie and grandma Chui after work. Aunt Elaine joined us at the restaurant. We had Korean food for dinner.
The twins went to bed half an hour later than usual because they had a nap earlier. But most important of all, they would have no school the next day. We continue the bedtime story. We read about Guanyin arrange the young dragon and the Monkey King to become the pilgram's future steed and the protector respectively.
Wednesday, Nov 24, 2004 (7y+3m+18d)
The twins had no school today before the Thanksgiving long weekend. Mommy and twins had lunch with uncle Ronnie and grandma Chui. Daddy joined them for lunch. The twins were surprised to see daddy at the restaurant. They thought daddy didn't need to eat lunch. They went shopping at Stanford mall in the afternoon.In the evening we went to Annette's house for a pre-thanksgiving dinner. The twins kindergarten teacher Ms Mao was invited too. She recently was elected the teacher of the week by San Jose Mercury News. Annette's daddy cut of the newspaper article and framed it along with a picture of her with her students. The photo he picked was from two years ago which had Annette, the twins and Celine in it.
Mommy contributed a baked turkey from the neighborhood supermarket. Annette's parents contributed hot pot. Nicholas' family contributed dessert. The moms played Mahjong after dinner. The dads watched TV. We left before 11pm.
Thursday, Nov 25, 2004 (7y+3m+19d)
Daddy didn't need to work on Thanksgiving day. Uncle Ronnie left for Hong Kong in the morning. We stayed home all day. Daddy and mommy helped the twins do their writing homework. Joanne was scolded by mommy for not taking her work seriously.In the afternoon, daddy and mommy set up the Christmas tree in the living room. The twins helped daddy to fetch the artificial tree from the attic in the garage. The previous owner of the house set up a pulley system to handle heavier items. The twins lowered the tree parts with easy. The twins also helped mommy decorate the tree. We had the left over turkey for dinner.
After dinner, the twins wanted daddy to take a close up picture of their stuffed animals. We printed the photos and made masks out of them.
Friday, Nov 26, 2004 (7y+3m+20d)
Mommy woke up early in the morning for the after-Thanksgiving sales. She was not really awake when she drove the car out of the garage with the hatchback still opened. The garage door sheared the rear window wiper off the car. No saving in any thanksgiving sales would recover the damage.The next person out of bed was Jasmine then followed by Joanne. Daddy got up the last. When we were washing up, mommy was back from her shopping. Mommy bought some Christmas outfit for the twins Build-a-Bears. The twins loved the new outfits and asked daddy to take pictures of them with the new outfits.
Daddy took the twins to see the "The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie" in the afternoon. Mommy was not interested, so she returned home after we had lunch together. After we came out from the movie, the twins wanted to play some video games in the arcade. Jasmine took out her wallet and she was very motivated to spend her money. She paid for Joanne's games too. The twins still didn't know the value of money. She just want to spend for spending sake.
In the evening, the twins played the Eye Toy game for a while. They also wanted daddy to take pictures of them in front of the Christmas tree. The artificial lighting was not too ideal for photographs.
Saturday, Nov 27, 2004 (7y+3m+21d)
After we got up in bed, we took some family pictures in front of the Christmas tree. The natural daylight in the morning was better for the family photos. We went out to lunch at the pancake house. In the afternoon, we went to the ice skating rink to skate with Ansel. After we skated for awhile, Joanne noticed that her classmate Rachel was also there. The twins turned their attention to Rachel totally and left Ansel on his own. Ansel pouted and was upset when nobody skated with him. He cried on our way out of the rink. Initially mommy planned to invite Ansel and Rachel to our home to play a bit before dinner. However, Ansel's mommy wanted to take Ansel home because of his moody behavior. Rachel's mom got something to do at home, so mommy called off the plan.We took the photos to Costco to develop. We planned to shop for one hour to wait for the pictures. But the photo department was too busy and the pictures wouldn't be ready until the next day. We canceled our shopping plan because the place was too crowded to begin with. We went to Santana Row for dinner.
We rented movies for the night. The twins rented a "Bratz - Starrin' & Stylin'" movie. We watched "The Day After Tomorrow" after the twins went to bed.
Sunday, Nov 28, 2004 (7y+3m+22d)
We went to lunch with Claire's family. After lunch, we went to play miniature golf. It was already late afternoon when we arrived there. It was windy and cold especially when we were in the shade. The twins played many times before, but it was Claire's first time. Rookie and veterans all played golf like hockey. Only the kids played and the adults only gave advices and help when needed. The kids rushed through all 18 holes in about one hour. We didn't try to slow them down either because it was too cold to stay out for too long.We went shopping at Costco and picked up the photos from yesterday too. We then went out to dinner together. It was about 8:30pm when we got home.
We rented some movies again. The twins rented a "SpongeBob SquarePants- Spongeguard on Duty " video, but mommy sent them to bed early in preparation for school the next morning. We watched the "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban" movie after they went to bed.
Monday, Nov 29, 2004 (7y+3m+23d)
After a five days Thanksgiving break, the twins returned to school as usual. Daddy also returned to work after a 4 day weekend. It was a cold day. It was in the low 40s in the morning.The twins finished their homework in the afternoon. They got to see the SpongeBob video after dinner. After they went to bed, we watched "Star Trek - Nemesis".
Tuesday, Nov 30, 2004 (7y+3m+24d)
It was a very cold morning. The temperature was below freezing. The twins went to school as usual. The twins played soccer with Kalico today.The twins were Ken Jenning's fans in the Jeopardy! game show. They were surprised to see Ken lose the game today. He raked up $2.5 million dollars after appearing in 75 episodes. He was the biggest game show winner in TV history. He lost on a clue in the Business and Industry category.
The Final Jeopardy! clue was:
Most of this firm's 70,000 seasonal white-collar employees work only four months a year.Ken asked "What is FedEx?" We were surprised because even we got the right answer as H&R Block.The twins would have a field trip the next morning. They were excited and they picked what they wanted to wear before going to bed.
Wednesday, Dec 1, 2004 (7y+3m+25d)
It was a very cold morning again. Their school had a field trip. They had a hiking at a place called Hidden Villa in the hills. The twins said they like it and we should go there on our own some other time. They also said one of their classmate fell down twice and got hurt.They went to music class in the afternoon. In the evening, they did some origami and then watch the "Bratz - Starrin' & Stylin'" movie.
Joanne requested to resume bedtime story. Daddy told them that if they didn't get into bed on time, bedtime story would be cancelled. They had missed many night of bedtime story recently. We read about how Guanyin found the pilgram who would journey west to get the Buddhist scripture.
Thursday, Dec 2, 2004 (7y+3m+26d)
The twins went to school as usual. They went to writing class and ice skating in the afternoon. Daddy met them at a restaurant for dinner.
Friday, Dec 3, 2004 (7y+3m+27d)
The twins went to school as usual. Mommy was a helper at school today. The twins were glad when mommy told them she was meeting daddy for lunch.In the afternoon, mommy took the twins to Sunnie's home. Her fraternal twin boys were 5 weeks old. We wanted to wait till they were accustomed to the new arrivals before we bother them. Daddy joined them after work too. Michelle and her 4.5 year old son Aaron were there too. The twin boys' elder brother Ryon was only 2.5 year old. He liked to played with Aaron, but not with our twins.
We had ice cream after dinner and watched some TV. Joanne complained about being tired before we left. Both twins fell asleep on the way home. We carried them into bed when we got home.
Saturday, Dec 4, 2004 (7y+3m+28d)
Mommy planned for the twins to take a makeup (for Thanksgiving break) skating class at 10:15am today. Daddy overslept. We cancelled the plan at 9:45 because by the time we got there, the twins would have missed part of the lesson. It would take time to drive there and put on skate etc.Mommy went grocery shopping. Daddy and twins went to Target to buy some clips to put on Christmas lights. When we were in the store, the twins headed straight to the toy department. They found a Bratz doll on sales at $14.88. Jasmine took out her wallet and pulled out three $5 bills. Daddy asked where she got the money. She said she earned the money when she was young. In fact, they got the money from red pockets from relatives during Chinese New Year . They also asked daddy to buy some wet wipes for their classroom. Jasmine said she was only going to pay for the doll. She figured out she would get some change back from her $15. When daddy told her about tax, she was totally lost. Obviously, the teacher have not taught tax in school yet. Daddy let her go through the cashier on her own. In the car, the doll was in Joanne's hand already. Apparently, Joanne promised to pay back Jasmine. Jasmine in fact was again just buying something for the sake of the buying experience. I didn't think she really wanted to own the doll. We needed to use this as a lesson and lecture her on how money should be spent properly.
When we got home, daddy climbed up the roof to put on some Christmas lights. The twins took out their kid's chairs in the middle of the driveway. They said they wanted to watch daddy hanging the lights. I opened the windows of the car and turned on the windows. The twins played in the car on the driveway while daddy worked on the roof. Jasmine said she wanted to climb the ladder, but daddy didn't let her unless someone could catch her from below in case she fell. Aunt June, great grandma, grandma Ling and grandpa arrived before mommy returned home. They prepared lunch and watched TV while daddy continued with the Christmas lights hanging. Daddy took a lunch break when mommy came home. Uncle Ivan, aunt Tina and cousin Natalie arrived in time for lunch.
Daddy went out to buy more lights and some electrical parts. The kind of Christmas lights we wanted were all sold out at Target and Home Depot. We had enough to hang around the garage. We might need to wait till next year to hand more light around the front door too.
The twins had a great time playing with cousin Natalie. Though Natalie is almost 12, she still played with the twins. According to uncle Ivan, she had no other choice.
We started hotpot dinner before 6pm. We had some special ingredients today. Grandma Ling brought some code fish fillet. Mommy bought some geoducks, lobsters and Kobe sliced beef. We all had a very full dinner. We took some family Christmas photos before the party ended.
The twins went to bed early. They asked for bedtime story. We read about the Tang monk starting his journey west. When we read to the point when the monk was captured by the scary monster, Jasmine's snoring stopped the story. The twins played hard from morning till night. We actually expected them to collapse sooner.
Sunday, Dec 5, 2004 (7y+3m+29d)
It was a cold morning and we stayed in bed for the warmth. We got up at 11:30pm when Nicholas' mom called us for having lunch together. We also picked up grandma Chui on the way to the restaurant. Jasmine commented that they met Nicholas' grandparents when they visited last time. Nicholas had not met the twins grandma yet. She said it would be interesting because grandma did not know Mandarin.We had lunch at Pasta Pomodoro. Surprisingly grandma liked the spaghetti dish. She usually didn't like the Italian sauces, but this one brought her appetite, she almost finished the whole dish which was rather a big portion for her age.
After we dropped off grandma back at her home, we went shopping at a huge Target store again for more Christmas lights. This branch was like twice the size of other Target stores. They still had much inventory of what we wanted. We bought three more strings of the lights to wrap around the eaves over front door. I put up one string before dusk.
Mommy invited Benjamin and Nicholas' family to dinner. Benjamin's daddy caught a flu so only Ben and his mom came. Ben, Nicholas and the twins played while mommy prepared dinner. Ben and his mother left after eating a little. Patricia and Nicholas played the EYE TOY after dinner.
The twins weighed themselves before taking shower. Jasmine weighed 48.5 lb. Joanne weighed 45.5 lb. No bedtime story tonight.
Monday, Dec 6, 2004 (7y+4m)
The twins were 88 months old today.
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started on Dec 6, 2004