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This journal is about raising identical twins.Tenth month
Previous entries
Wednesday, May 6, 1998 (9 months)
The twins are nine months old today. The twins have already recovered from their running nose. It is amazing how resilient babies are!!! It had taken longer for me to recover from the same bug.Jasmine learned the lips trick from Joanne. She started doing it these few days.
With two grandmas taking care of the twins, we sneaked out to watch the movie "Titanic" (DVD|VHS) before it comes off the big screen. I guess no one can fully appreciate the special effects when watched on video.
Tuesday, May 12, 1998 (9m+6d)
It is a lot of work taking care of twins. My wife reminds me today that each kid eats formula 4 times and baby food 3 times a day. That is 14 feedings each day.It is very obvious that Jasmine has a much shorter attention span than Joanne. When Joanne plays with her toys, she can plays quietly for half an hour. Jasmine picks it up and throws it away in less than a minute. Jasmine likes to grab whatever is in Joanne's hands. Joanne is the mellow type, she will just let her little sister have her way.
When I told my coworker the different personality of the twins, he said "Let me guess." He then looked at the photos in my office and correctly pointed out Jasmine. I asked him how, he said he could see the aggression from Jasmine's eyes and the kindness in Joanne's.
Joanne smiles with a bigger dimple than Jasmine.
Wednesday, May 13, 1998 (9m+7d)
The twins like to pick up a hollow toy and babble into it. They love the echo it makes. They look like singing with a microphone.
Thursday, May 14, 1998 (9m+8d)
Joanne became very active today, climbed over us, bounced up and down, made a lot of noise. I mistook her for Jasmine several times today.
Friday, May 15, 1998 (9m+9d)
When I read the alphabet books with the twins, Joanne will sit on my lap very quietly and look at everything I point to. Jasmine on the other hand keeps snatching the book from my hands.My mom taught the twins how to clap their hands and wave goodbye. They do it sometimes when prompted, as a matter of fact, only when they feel like it. Joanne does her wave bye-bye with a full arm motion, like hitting something. Jasmine does hers by squeezing her palm. They were taught the same way, but they picked up the trick differently. Their minds definitely work differently despite they have identical DNA.
Jasmine's second tooth (lower left central incisor, O position on the dentist chart) has emerged. The score is now: Jasmine 2; Joanne 0.
Saturday, May 16, 1998 (9m+10d)
The twins came to visit me at the office while I worked overtime. Many other coworkers brought their kids to the office too. Carmen's 10 years old daughter Angella helped babysit the twins. She helped feeding the twins some baby food too.We went out for dinner after work. We had to take turns to hold Jasmine through out the whole dinner. Joanne slept through the whole thing.
Sunday, May 17, 1998 (9m+11d)
I stayed home fixing the backyard. We did not take the twins out because it was very windy outside despite it was sunny.
Monday, May 18, 1998 (9m+12d)
The twins had their 9 month check up today. They had their 3rd hepatitis B shot. The doctor said the twins are very healthy. And she urged us to start giving them finger food, though my wife worries about the mess they will make. The doctor said we need to deal with the mess sooner or later. However, the kids will be less picky if we expose them to more variety of food at younger age.Joanne weighed 14 lb. 8.5 oz.
Jasmine weighed 14 lb. 8 oz.
Tuesday, May 19, 1998 (9m+13d)
We can feel the budding tooth in Joanne's lower jaw by touch. We cannot see it yet, but it seems to be the lower left central incisor (tooth O).Joanne can move forward in her sitting position by rocking her butt. Though she advances half an inch each time, it is an effective method of propulsion for her. Joanne likes to lick on everything that she gets her hands on, including people's faces. Yuck!!!
Jasmine's current claim to fame is the ability to climb up to a standing position all on her own, she cannot crawl or walk yet. Jasmine likes to tear up paper. If she manages to snatch a magazine or a piece of paper tissue, it will become shreds in minutes. No wonder some children books are made of cardboard paper.
Thursday, May 21, 1998 (9m+15d)
The twins usually don't pay much attention to the TV. They play happily next to us while we watch TV. However, there are couple of commercials, which will turn their heads. Whenever the PacBell 3-way calling commercial is on, the twins will stop everything they are doing and watch the screen in a trance. The commerical has 5 animated cartoon faces and a baby starts the commercial saying "ma, ma". The twins will watch the entire commercial and they will return to their play immediately afterwards. There are two more TV commercials that draw the twins attention, one from Jade Galore Jewelry Store in San Francisco, the other is the KTSF channel announcement. Both commercials start with some piano solo music, the latter plays "the music box dancer". The twins seem to like the sound of the piano, I doubt they are attracted by the jewelry at this age.
Saturday, May 23, 1998 (9m+17d)
My wife's Cousin Jennifer graduates from UC Berkeley with a degree in Civil Engineering. We took the twins to the commencement at the Greek Theater (an open amphitheater) in Campus. We don't want the twins to sit under the sun for hours, so we timed ourselves to arrive after the ceremony. The timing was perfect, we got there just in time for the photos. Thanks to cellular phones technology, we were able to find them in the crowd. When everyone else was pulling out, parking was extremely easy too.The twins took a nap at granny's place in the afternoon, and we had a family reunion dinner to celebrate Jennifer's graduation. The twins behaved well all day long.
Sunday, May 24, 1998 (9m+18d)
We took the twins to dim sum lunch with friends. Afterwards, my wife went shopping with her friends and I stayed home to take care of the kids. With my mom help, the day passed quite effortlessly. The only exception is that Jasmine has yet another diaper leak and soiled her pretty dress. Oh, what a stinky mess!
Monday, May 25, 1998 (9m+19d)
Today is Memorial Day. We took the twins with us to a Shanghai style lunch. In the afternoon, we visited a photography studio in Fremont. The twins slept peacefully in their baby carriers. They woke up at around the time we were leaving. The day was simple.Jasmine likes to nibble my finger. She usually nibbles 3 to 4 times with various strength, sucks couple of times, pulls it out, takes a look and then repeats.
Joanne's first tooth was quite visible now. I offered her my finger for the first time. She bit me so hard that she almost broke my skin. Fortunately, she was startled and stopped when I screamed.
Saturday, May 30, 1998 (9m+24d)
Alan and Wendy L. came to visit. They brought their baby daughter, Valerie. Valerie was born on Dec 16, 1997. She is now 5.5 months old. She already weighs over 15 pounds. We looked up the growth chart, she is at 90th percentile for her weight. Our babies almost double Valerie's age but still weigh less. Alan told us that Valerie's cousin (11 months?) weigh over 26 pounds. That is over the 90th percentile for his weight. Of course, if we add up our twins' weight, we are still ahead of many babies. :-)The babies spent couple hours playing together. The twins seem to be very interested in another baby.
Sunday, May 31, 1998 (9m+25d)
My wife's high school buddy Amy threw a first birthday party for her daughter, Stacy. We took the twins to the party in Oakland. Stacy cannot walk yet, but she can stand very well when holding on to something. She likes to watch Barney the dinosaur.The twins played with Stacy for a while. We left after lunch and headed to Tilden Regional Park in the nearby Berkeley hillside. We ride the small steam train, which goes through the woods in the hill side. (Trains lovers, mark your calendar for the TrainFair '99 in June 1999 in Old Sacramento, CA.) The twins were kind of quiet probably because of the unfamiliar surrounding, but they watched everything intensely.
The train is small, with about 20 cars, each about 3 feet wide and 12 feet long. The locomotive is steam powered. There is another miniature steam train system in the park operated by the Golden Gate Live Steamers club. It is even smaller than what we rode. The train is about 12 inches wide. The miniature trains were closed for maintenance so we didn't get the chance to ride them. We shall definitely come back when the twins are big enough to ride on their own. We later found out that the two train systems are operated by different people and they have different schedules. Next time we go, we should pick a time when both trains are running in order to make the trip worthwhile.
We fed the twins a jar of baby food, changed the diapers and then left the park at around 5pm.
We went across the Bay Bridge and visited my wife's Cousin Winnie in the Richmond district of San Francisco. Winnie and Simon asked us to stay for dinner. Their daughter Samantha (2.5 year old?) took out her toys to play with the twins. She is a sweet, kind and generous little girl. We had dinner, watched some TV, took some pictures and left at round 9pm.
It had been a long day. The twins slept all the way on the return trip. We got home, fed them formula, put them back in the crib. We did all that without waking them. The twins finished the bottle in their sleep within 5 minutes, they usually take 15 to 30 minutes when they are awake. The trouble with the good sleep was that they woke up 4am in the morning wide-awake. We fed them another bottle of formula and made them sleep again.
The twins are now used to going out. Several months ago, we wouldn't dream of taking the twins away from home more than a few hours at a time.
Wednesday, Jun 3, 1998 (9m+26d)
The twins enjoy their finger food. Joanne can pick up cheerio one at a time using her thumb and index finger and put in her mouth. She initially likes to nibble on the cheerio, but after couple of days, she just pop the whole thing in the mouth. Jasmine is lazy. She grab with her fingers and palm. She throws the cheerio around and she wants others to feed the cheerio into her mouth.Both likes to taste our food. When we are having dinner, they will make a lot of noise to ask us to feed them our food. They basically enjoy everything we feed them.
Jasmine is full of jealousy, she won't keep quiet when we feed Joanne. Joanne is not jealous at all.
Friday, Jun 5, 1998 (9m+30d)
I can feel Joanne's second tooth with my finger, but it is not visible yet. Jasmine crawled forward for the first time. My mom was playing with the twins on the floor. She crawled forward to grab a toy for the babies. Jasmine saw that and crawled forward a few steps. My mom then moved to another spot and waved the toys at her. Jasmine crawled to her grandma 7 to 8 feet away.
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