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This journal is about raising identical twins.One Hundred and Ninth 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.
Sunday, Aug 6, 2006 (9y)
The twins are 9 years old today. We called the front desk to find out if our friends had arrived. We contacted them and found out that they arrived after 11pm the night before. Their flight was delayed because the plane was damaged by birds during landing in an earlier trip. They had to wait for the repair or replacement of the airplane. They were stranded in the airport for more than 6 hours. It was past bedtime when they all arrived.We went to a late breakfast together before the restaurant closed at 11am. The two families brought the twins their birthday presents. The twins also prepared goodie bags for their friends too. Joanne was especially glad because the Tamagotchi was amongst the gifts. Ashley, Brandon and Jasmine W. all brought their own Tamagotchi too. After breakfast, all the kids started to connect their toys via the infrared ports.
We went to the hotel swimming pool after breakfast. At the pool, Ashley found another girl with a Tamagotchi. They asked if their Tamagotchis could be connected. This 10 year old girl Maggie from San Diego was very excited because her Tamagotchi could be connected to 5 other Tamagotchis in one morning. Maggie asked her mom if she could hang out with her new friends. With her mom's approval, she hung out with our kids from morning till night. They had hours of fun playing with their floating mattress, lifesaver buoys and underwater "toypedos".
The twins said they stayed away from Kendall in the pool. But they also didn't like to swim near Taylor either. They said Taylor always tickled them to make them fall off the buoy so that she would take the buoy away. Taylor didn't know how to swim though she was tall enough to stand in the water. She still tried every way to take over a buoy because standing in water all day was no fun. The twins had no problem with Maggie and all their friends because they all knew how to swim quite well. Even young Brandon could take care of himself in water.
Maggie joined us for dinner. After dinner, we asked the waiter to stick a candle into the twin's bowl of ice cream. We sang happy birthday to the twins. The twins said they didn't mind not having a big birthday party because they enjoyed going on vacation instead.
The kids borrowed our camcorder and started to make a TV program at a quiet corner of the restaurant as soon as they were done with the meal. Maggie seemed to be born with the genes to produce TV shows, she came up with a script and directed other kids to act in the taping too. Since Ashley and Jasmine W. just finished a drama summer camp just couple weeks ago, they were very enthusiastic in playing the parts. Joanne and Jasmine played a part too, but they preferred to be the cameraperson. Ashley's dad walked Maggie back to her hotel room after dinner.
Monday, Aug 7, 2006 (9y+1d)
It was a rainy day. The temperature was comfortably cooler due to the rain. Since we were on vacation, we all slept in and only got out of bed just in time to catch breakfast before the restaurant closed. After breakfast, the parents wanted to visit the local town outside of the hotel. The kids only wanted to swim in the pool. Daddy suffered from the gouty foot again and decided to stay behind to babysit the kids. Daddy and the kids went to the pool. Maggie was there at the pool waiting for us already. Her family planned to have a snorkeling trip today, but it was canceled due to the rain. Though it was drizzling on and off, the pool water was pretty warm. The kids stayed in the water to keep warm.Jasmine said a little boy kept climbing on her floating mattress and said very rudely that it was his. She said she just flipped the mattress so that he couldn't stay on it. Daddy told her that she should have asked the kid nicely to get off on his own before taking any action. Jasmine said she didn't know what to say except to say something mean. But she chose to just act without saying anything mean.
Towards the late afternoon, the rain started to pour. Almost everyone left the pool except us. When daddy heard some rumblings in the distant sky, we left the pool to avoid being struck by lightning. We all retreated back to our hotel room. The six kids wanted to make more video again. They collected all their toys on the bed and they produced a home-shopping network TV show selling electronics such as their Tamagotchis and hair products. Each of the kids messed up their hair to demonstrate how well the shampoo and detangler spray helped them groom their hair. When it was Brandon's turn, there were not much to show with his crew cut.
Daddy took the kids to the restaurant to look for a snack, but all restaurants on the hotel ground were closed until 6pm. We bumped into the other parents who came back from their excursion at around 5pm. Since no restaurant was open and the kids were hungry, we just waited outside of the restaurant until it opened. The kids were busy playing with their Tamagotchis in the waiting room, they weren't aware that we had to wait for an hour for the table because the restaurant was closed. We were the first group to be admitted to the restaurant. Each of the kids ate well because they were very hungry by then. After dinner, Maggie followed us back to Jasmine W's room. The kids continued to produce their home-shopping TV show. The adults had a game of mahjong in the room. Maggie's mom told her she would be in the hotel lounge if she was not in her room. We left several voice messages for Maggie's mom to let her know where her daughter was throughout the day. She never called back. Maggie asked if she could sleep over with our kids. Since we had not heard from her mom for the whole day, we thought it was not appropriate to do anything without her mom's approval. At 11:30pm, we still have not heard back from Maggie's mom. Jasmine W's mom decided to walk Maggie back to her mom or her room. In the hotel lounge, Maggie recognized her mom's friends, so we released our custody of her. For the past two days, Maggie stayed with us most of her waking hours. Though Maggie was a very well behaving girl, we were kind of displeased about how her mom didn't even attempt to check on her own daughter while going on her own business for two days.
Tuesday, Aug 8, 2006 (9y+2d)
Surprisingly, we didn't see Maggie today. Perhaps she went to the snorkeling trip with her mom. In the afternoon, Jasmine W. dad joined our vacation. He had to go to Japan on a business trip until today.We went to the activity pool in the afternoon. We played "monkey in the middle" in the swimming pool with a water volleyball. Since the water was too deep for the kids to stand in, the parents lifted their kids so that they could breath above water while playing the game. Joanne stood on daddy's slightly bent knees while daddy held her knees to keep her balance. In such position, Joanne was a couple feet taller than other kids, hence an advantage in playing "monkey in the middle". The 5 kids and 6 parents had fun for quite awhile until the parents were exhausted tossing the kids up and down to catch the ball.
On our way back to the hotel room, we spotted Maggie in the other swimming pool. After we showered and tidied ourselves, we had dinner at the Mexican Gourmet restaurant at the hotel. Since this restaurant didn't have a table big enough for us, we sent the kids to a separate table. In fact, their table was out of our sight from where we sat. We asked if the kids could take care of themselves, they answered yes and we had a carefree dinner on our own. The kids ordered their own meals themselves from the waiters. After they finished, they played with their Tamagotchis without disturbing us. We stood up occasionally to check on them from a distance. Since they behaved well, we didn't bother them and they didn't bother us.
Wednesday, Aug 9, 2006 (9y+3d)
The kids went to the computer room next to the hotel lobby to play on the Internet. Specifically, they visited the Tamagotchi website to obtain secret codes for their Tamagotchis. With the codes, their Tamagotchis would receive electronic items as gifts or foods. They saw Maggie in the lobby, she and her mom were waiting for their shuttle bus to the airport. They were going home today. We asked the kids to exchange their email addresses so that the kids can send Maggie the pictures and the video footages they'd made together. The day was as usual: we swam a lot in the pool and ate a lot in the restaurant. We ate at the steakhouse and grill restaurant today.The moms went to play tennis after dinner. We went swimming again until the pool was closed at 9pm. Only one under water light was on. We almost swam in darkness. Daddy told the kids to use the light for direction underwater. Jasmine said she didn't want to look at the light because the movement of the water made it looked like a hypnotizing eye of a witch who said "come here, come here". We went to the hotel's Fiesta Mexicana to watch some performances of Mexican dance.
At around 2am, Jasmine woke up with an upset stomach. She said she wanted to throw up but couldn't. She must have eaten something not very clean. We were not very surprised because we were in Mexico. Mommy gave Jasmine a plastic bag and let her sit next to the sink. Joanne was waken up by all the commotion. She rushed to the bathroom saying she got a tummy ache too. But after she pooped, the aching was gone. Daddy gave Jasmine some TUMs to comfort her stomach and suggested her to poke a finger at the back of her tongue to rid the bad food out of her stomach. Just like what happened to Joanne, she might feel better after the bad food came out. Jasmine refused to induce the puking because she didn't want to vomit. She chose to sit at the sink with a plastic bag under her chin. Everyone went back to sleep. Jasmine sat there for two hours before she returned to bed.
Thursday, Aug 10, 2006 (9y+4d)
We got up early today and finished breakfast by 9am. We went to Los Cabo San Locus for a snorkeling trip. The shuttle bus sent us to the marina to ride a glass-bottom boat. The boat took us to the south most tip of the Baja California peninsula to look at the rock formation in that area. Then the boat dropped us off on the Lovers' Beach for an hour and a halfn of snorkeling in the Sea of Cortes. Our tourist guide held Joanne's hand and led her to the deep water. He dove to the bottom of the ocean and picked up a starfish for Joanne to touch. The rest of the kids were snorkeling in shallow water for perhaps 15 minutes. Then all of them lost interest and decided to just sit on the sandy shore and let the ocean waves lap on them and push them around on the beach. Daddy gagged and vomited every time the snorkel was put in the mouth because it tasted and smelled awful with some kind of Lysol like chemical. It was impossible to swim in the ocean while puking every other minute. Daddy just stayed on shore to videotape the kids instead. The other parents had fun snorkeling into the deep water. Mommy followed Ashley's and Jasmine W's dads to feed the fish. They got to see many fish in the deep water because the food attracted many of them.When the boat came back to pick us up, we returned to Los Cabo San Lucus. The driver dropped us off at a shopping mall. We walked to a nearby restaurant for lunch. When we got the $200+ bill, it was much more than our expectation for a Mexican lunch. We decided to check the calculation ourselves and found that we indeed ordered much more than what we could finish and we were also overcharged by about 13%. We asked the waiter to explain. He denied any knowledge of it and sent us to the cashier. The cashier tried to make up all kind of excuses and claimed that it included a kitchen fee, some kind of taxes, and also due to our large party, the tip for the waiter too. We told the cashier that we were not paying the bill as charged, we would decide how much we should pay based on prices listed in the menu. The cashier agreed. When we left the restaurant, the waiter chased after us stating that we didn't pay enough. We sent him to talk to the cashier because what we paid included tips as explained by the cashier. We struggled amongst ourselves whether we should report the restaurant's business practice to the Mexican tourist bureau. But we figured we would not make a dent to the system, and we just let it be our lesson to always check the bill. We walked back to the shopping mall and spent the rest of the afternoon window shopping until the driver returned to pick us up. The kids looked up the mall directory and found a Sanrio store. We paid a visit to the Sanrio store but the kids were disappointed because it was small and didn't carry much inventory.
We had a tropical buffet by the beach tonight. One old couple next to our table celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary, they said our kids were lovely and wanted to offer their anniversary cake to us. Jasmine was tired and rested her forehead on the table because she stayed up for two hours for her upset stomach last night. Daddy took her back to the room to sleep early. Mommy took Joanne to Jasmine W's room to play more mahjong.
Friday, Aug 11, 2006 (9y+5d)
Ashley's and Jasmine W's dads were certified SCUBA divers. They left the hotel at 7am for a SCUBA diving trip. They went to a remote location some 90 minutes driving from the hotel. Their trip was very interesting because they saw all kind of creatures in the ocean, such as a two feet long lobster, a school of bat rays, a large moray eel, and many colorful tropical fish etc.The rest of us were not certified for SCUBA diving. We slept in and got up just in time for breakfast. We found a shady spot behind the pool cocktail bar and played mahjong. The kids swam in the pool until they were tired. We took a break for lunch. Jasmine, Ashley and Brandon quitted swimming first. One of us walked them back to the room and left them a walkie talkie. They played with their Tamagotchis and watched TV for the rest of the afternoon.
Joanne and Jasmine W. swam more in the afternoon. When they were tired, we moved our mahjong game back to the hotel room. The other two dads came back at around 4pm. We went to have a snack in the afternoon because our dinner reservation was very late. After the snack, we took a stroll on the beach. The kids loved to stand on the edge of the ocean to let the waves lap on their feet. They didn't want to leave because on the first couple days, the waves were so big that we didn't let them step too close to the ocean. They wanted more because it was the last day of our vacation.
We returned to the pool and swam until 8pm. We then took a shower before going to dinner at 9pm. It was a nice sit-down dinner and the kitchen was so slow that we didn't finish until 11:30pm. In the middle of the dinner, a woman from the next table approached us and told us that she had two boys who could never sit still and she was amazed by how quiet and well behaved our kids were. She called our kids angels. We told our kids that we were proud of them for the compliments from the stranger.
Saturday, Aug 12, 2006 (9y+6d)
Daddy was waken by the pain in the gouty foot at around 6am. Mommy and Jasmine was waken by the noise when daddy fumbled for water and pain medication. Twilight came into the room through the gap between the curtains. Daddy asked if we should go watch the sunrise. Mommy said yes without hesitation. We told Jasmine to return to sleep and we would be back very soon. We sat on the beach with the camera and camcorder in our hands. We waited till the sun popped up from the horizon over the Sea of Cortez. Since we lived in California in the Silicon Valley, we could see sunrises over mountain ridges, but never over the horizon. The occasion was very special and it was definitely worth the early trip out of bed.We returned to bed after watching the sunrise. We had breakfast at around 9:30am. We took our luggage to the lobby and waited there for the shuttle bus after we'd checked out of the hotel. We arrived at the airport at around noon. We went through several rounds of inspections due to the recent terrorist plot to blow up airlines from the UK. The water bottle and several bottles of lotion in my carried on luggage was taken away. When Jasmine wanted to put on some lotion and found out the lotion was gone. She thought the Mexicans were mean.
Two and a half hours later, we were back in California. Hing gave us a ride back home. Mommy started several loads of laundry. We didn't used all the clothes we brought to Mexico. But since it was too humid in Mexico, mommy decided to wash everything regardless. We went to dinner with grandma and aunt Elaine. It was aunt Elaine's treat because she said it was for the twins' belated birthday.
The twins practiced piano in the evening after a full week of hiatus. They also watched an episode of Naruto that we recorded in our absence.
Sunday, Aug 13, 2006 (9y+7d)
We enjoyed our own beds very much after a week away from home. We slept in and stayed in bed until 11am. The twins got up much earlier and they entertained themselves with their Tamagotchis. Mommy made some phone calls and within minutes, we had the rest of the day planned.We went to dimsum lunch with Christopher's and Claire's family. Then we went to Malibu Grand Prix and miniature golf in Redwood City. We telephoned and asked Jasmine W. and her mom to join us. Claire's mom got some coupons from the Internet. We all played a round of miniature golf for free.
Then we went to drive the race cars next doors. The kids were not old enough to drive on their own yet, so the adults drove with the kids riding as passengers. Joanne was riding with mommy. Mommy thought the ticket was for multiple laps and even convinced the attendant there that she could go around the race course 5 times with a single lap ticket. The attendant didn't mind and let her keep going for more. Mommy and Joanne decided to quit after 6 laps when she noticed all of us were done much earlier after one lap.
The kids went to the video arcade for more games until we left at 6:30pm. We went out to dinner together with Jasmine W's dad and a family of Claire's friend joining us at the restaurant. We had 21 people from 5 families spanning two large tables for dinner till 9:30pm. On the way home, mommy commented that it was nice to be in school because the kids could take long vacation breaks often and when they were in school, they learned a lot to became smart too. Jasmine responded that she didn't really enjoy school though she was still smart.
Monday, Aug 14, 2006 (9y+8d)
Life returned to normal. There was no scheduled activity for the twins because it was towards the end of the summer break. We noticed a nail in one of the tires, mommy ran around the tire stores and dealership to get a quote. The twins followed mommy everywhere to run errands. Daddy worked overtime as usual.
Wednesday, Aug 16, 2006 (9y+10d)
We invited Jasmine W. and Ashley's family to dinner. We also invited Ms. Dong family too. Ms. Dong entertained the kids at her community pool several times this summer. We really appreciated her generosity. Ms. Dong's son Calvin is at same age as Brandon. In fact, they are good friends. Calvin has a slumber party with Brandon just last night.We served the kids dinner first, so the adults could have a peaceful dinner after the kids went off to play on their own. Jasmine came to daddy and said their Naruto video game was missing. We spent a few minutes looking of it. Daddy told Jasmine that they were responsible for their own stuffs. She should not have misplaced it in the first place. After all the guests have left the party, Joanne confessed that Jasmine W. and she hid the game away from Jasmine because the video interfered with other group activities.
Thursday, Aug 17, 2006 (9y+11d)
The twins had their piano lesson today. Mommy switched them to a Russian teacher. Since Russians are famous for their piano training, we wanted the twins to try it out.
Friday, Aug 18, 2006 (9y+12d)
The twins set their alarm clock to get up before the guests arrived in the morning. Shannon came to our house for a play day. Shannon had the version 1 and version 2 of Tamagotchi, but she would not have the version 3 until her next birthday. The twins said when their version 3 Tamagotchis connect to Shannon's, they only appears as strangers to her. She and her mom arrived at 9:30am. They left in the afternoon because she had a play day with another friend of hers.In the late afternoon, mommy took the twins to Jocelyn's house to play. For dinner, daddy joined them at the Willow Street Wood Fired Pizza restaurant. Then we went to Target to shop for some presents for the twins visiting cousins.
Saturday, Aug 19, 2006 (9y+13d)
We slept in in the Saturday morning. We stayed home all afternoon. The twins' cousins and their family form LA arrived in the late afternoon. We went to dinner at a Shanghaiese cuisine. When we came home, Amanda's mom mentioned that she had received the kid's STAR test results. We hurried to the mailbox to find the twins' test results too. Both twins are in the proficient or advanced level. Joanne got 398/600 in English and 565/600 in Math. Her English score is only 4 points away from the "advanced" level mark and her math score is way above the 414 point "advanced" boundary. Jasmine got 414/600 in English and 493/600 in Math. Both scores were in the "advanced" level. Their school average English and math score at third grade was at 391.5 and 445.2 respectively. There was no STAR test for their Chinese. But according to the school reports, the teacher were quite happy about their progress. Andric's mom said she wished Andric would get the same kind of score. Since Andric was the youngest in his class, he had a disadvantage.When we returned home, the adults started a game of Mahjong. Amanda played with Joanne. Andric and Jasmine played the Naruto game on the PlayStation. Jasmine was more indulged with the Naruto game. Joanne didn't care too much about video game. At night, Amanda set up an air mattress inside the twins room. Andric slept in the guest room with his parents. Amanda's grandma stayed over at the twin's grandma's home.
Sunday, Aug 20, 2006 (9y+14d)
We went out to dimsum lunch with grandma Chui and aunt Elaine. We visited grandma's home after lunch. Aunt Elaine taught the kids to play the "Rummikub game. Amanda and the twins were interested but Andric gave up early. Andric wanted to go to ice skating instead. We returned home to check the skating rink schedule, we found that we could only skate for 30 minutes before closing time.We decided to go to Valleyfair mall instead. We spent some time in the Apple store. The twins demanded to check out the Build A Bear and Sanrio store. Joanne spent her own money to buy bubble gum. She also spent a few more dollars to buy a Hello Kitty necklace.
We rendezvoused with grandma & aunt Elaine at the restaurant for dinner. We returned home for another game of mahjong. The kids played more Rummikub with aunt Elaine after they practiced piano.
Monday, Aug 21, 2006 (9y+15d)
The twins got up at 8:30am in the morning. They had a field trip to NASA Ames research center this morning. After breakfast, Amanda's dad asked Joanne where she was going. Joanne answered she didn't know. Jasmine answered NASA. But I was quite sure Jasmine didn't know where she was going either because we never told them what NASA was and they didn't ask. Sonja's mom worked at NASA Ames research center and she was a very active mom. She arranged a group tour for the kids in the school. And many kids from the twins class were invited too. The tour was from 9:30 am to 12:30 pm. Benjamin's dad agreed to drop off our twins in the morning. Mommy agreed to pick up Benjamin at the end of the field trip.The twins had a great time there. Firstly, they got to see many of their classmates they missed in the summer break. Secondly, there were many educational fun activities designed for school kids. Jasmine said her favorite was throwing balls to each other while spinning on a pair of orbiting chairs. Joanne said the balls didn't go where she wanted to throw, but Jasmine was very good at hitting the target.
After mommy picked up the kids, they joined Amanda's family and the grandmas for lunch. Mommy suggested Benjamin could sit next to Andric because the boys could play together. Benjamin sat right between the twins and refused to move. Andric sat next to his sister Amanda, they ended up fighting before the lunch was over. Amanda's mom paid for the lunch.
Amanda's family left us after lunch. They had other cousins to visit for the next few days. Their other cousins were related on their grandma's side. We are their cousins on their grandpa's side of the family, So though their other cousins lived in the same area as ours, we didn't know them at all.
Benjamin played with the twins for the rest of the afternoon. They played video games initially. Mommy suggested them to play card games instead because prolonged video game was not good for the eyes.
Joanne spent her spare time packing her school backpack. She said she was ready for school coming this Thursday.
Tuesday, Aug 22, 2006 (9y+16d)
Jasmine woke up with a loose tooth. She pulled it out and wash it under the sink before showing it to our sleepy eyes. We asked her to put it down first and return to sleep. They got up before 9am. They went to breakfast with Jasmine W. and her mom. They played tennis afterwards.Daddy worked overtime but returned home before the twins went to bed. Mommy said the twins were playing rough and almost get hurt when being pushed around among the furniture.
Wednesday, Aug 23, 2006 (9y+17d)
The twins and Jasmine W. went to the local pool to swim in the afternoon. It cost them $3 each for admission. Mommy took Joanne to see the orthodontist. It would cost us $900 to correct her inward bite.
Thursday, Aug 24, 2006 (9y+18d)
School started today. The twins already had their school bags prepared days ahead. They said school was good today, much better than they thought because there was no homework. They were excited to return to school after a long summer break because they got to connect their Tamagotchis with their classmates'. Joanne said her tamagotchi's friend list was full and she had to delete some.They had piano lesson in later afternoon. They came home late and didn't have dinner until 8pm. Daddy worked overtime, but returned home before they had dinner.
Today, the International Astronomical Union demoted Pluto as a dwarf planet. We needed to change what we've learned in science class since 1930. We now only have eight planets in the solar systems.
Friday, Aug 25, 2006 (9y+19d)
The twins went to school as usual. In the evening. mommy invited Rachael's and Jasmine W's family to dinner at our place. Rachael's mom, Christine invited our twins to swim in their family pool many times this summer. We wanted to return the hospitality. Rachael's dad Mike came to our house for the first time. He is a vegetarian and the moms prepared some dishes especially for him. When daddy came home, the kids were already fed. The adults had their dinner after the kids went off the play. They played video games on the Playstation. Grand Turismo and EyeToy was the favorite for the night.After dinner, we had a game of mahjong. Jasmine W's mom is Korean, but she loved to play the game. We were surprised that Rachael's dad knows how to play mahjong despite he is Caucasian. On the contrary, we were also surprised that Rachael's mom does not play mahjong despite she is Cantonese. Rachael's family goes to bed early everything. When they left at 10pm, it was two hours past Rachael's bedtime.
Saturday, Aug 26, 2006 (9y+20d)
Daddy got out of bed before 10am. The twins were still sound asleep in bed. We talked about going to see a movie at 11am, but none of their friends were free to go. Besides, since the twins had no intention to get up early, daddy decided to cancel the plan for a later date.Daddy watched some TV before the rest of the family got out of bed. We just ate the leftover from last night as lunch. We stayed home most of the day.
In late afternoon, the twins and Jasmine W. went to a swim team tryout. Jasmine W. had a classmate who was trained by this coach and she won many medals before. Many of his students were swimming champions. So when we mentioned the connection, the coach asked the kids to swim a 25 yards lap. He immediately sent an assistant instructor to correct the kids' swimming techniques. He told us, all three kids were pretty good swimmers but still need some skill adjustment. For example, they were kicking too much with the calves and their toes were not pointing correctly. The assistant instructor spent a full hours with the kids to show them what they did wrong. At the end of the swim session, the coach told us that the kids were a little late to start training at the age of nine, but since they could swim quite well already, he would accept them as his students. The kids could start next Saturday at 1pm. That means we cannot go on a trip in the Labor day long weekend. The lesson today was free of charge.
It is daddy and mommy's wedding anniversary today. Mommy picked to have a nice Japanese dinner. The twins were glad because Joanne liked to order Udon and Jasmine liked to order Tonkatsu.
Sunday, Aug 27, 2006 (9y+21d)
We went to dimsum lunch with Deanna's family, and Jenny & Albert. The twins asked why we had dimsum every week, we should do something different. After lunch, we continued our gathering at our home.The kids started their video games on the Playstation. We showed our guest our Los Cabos vacation pictures and video pictures. Then we started a game of mahjong. The kids played with the garden hose in the backyard. The girls sprayed water at Addison. They were soaked and muddy when they were done. We sent the kids to the shower before we went to dinner at a Vietnamese restaurant.
When we returned home, the twins picked several items for show and tell in school. They were to pick items that can represent themselves. Both picked some baby pictures at age one and a stuffed animal. Jasmine picked a trophy from her piano recital and a Naruto manga book. Joanne picked the pink plush baby dolls she had since birth. It was from a set of dolls given by Evon and Ronald in the twins' baby shower. She said that she still remembered they liked to suck on the hair of the doll when they were babies. Then both twins said "yuk!" at the same time. It was interesting that they could remember what they did so many years ago. The twins practiced piano before going to bed.
Monday, Aug 28, 2006 (9y+22d)
The twins went to school as usual. They followed mommy to shop for stationary. The school required them to buy calligraphy pens and 3 hole punch etc. The items they needed were out of stock in some stores. They ran around to three different stores in three hours before completing the purchase.Due to the shopping trip, they had to stay up a little late to complete their homework and practice piano.
Tuesday, Aug 29, 2006 (9y+23d)
The twins went to school as usual. Daddy worked overtime, but came home before the twins went to bed.
Wednesday, Aug 30, 2006 (9y+24d)
The twins went to school as usual. Mommy played tennis with Ashley's mom in the morning. She wanted to played as much as possible before she start her new job. She will start teaching at the twins' school in the Mandarin immersion program. She probably will teach the lower grades, so she would not be the twins' teacher. Daddy worked overtime, but came home before the twins went to bed.Joanne took the challenge from school and took home some extra credit homework. Jasmine didn't take the challenge so she just watch Joanne did her work. The challenge is some wordy math problems that she needed to solve through reasoning. When she asked daddy to help, daddy really couldn't come up with a 4th grade level reasoning approach. It really needed special educator training to teach at the right level for kids. The only method came to mind was using algebra, but the kids had not learn that from school yet. While I showed Joanne how algebra help her solve the problem, her eyes widened with enthusiasm. Jasmine commented that cousin Amanda said the other day that she was learning algebra in grade 7. She was not impressed when daddy was not using the reasoning to solve the problems.
Thursday, Aug 31, 2006 (9y+25d)
The twins went to school as usual. They had piano lesson in the late afternoon.Daddy worked overtime in the office. Jasmine called daddy to come home soon to help her on her homework. They were to design a crossword puzzle based on a list of words they chose. When it was 10 o'clock, the twins were still not done with their homework. Joanne was in better shape because she worked on her homework while Jasmine took her piano lesson. Mommy was mad at Jasmine because when they were taking turn for the piano lesson early. Jasmine didn't bring her homework along, she brought her Tamagotchi instead. Mommy said Jasmine couldn't finish her homework because she spent too much time on her toy. Besides, they had the whole week to do their homework, they shouldn't have waited till Thursday. Mommy ordered them to put down their work and go to bed and they needed to explain to the teacher why the homework was incomplete.
Joanne woke up in the middle of the night to get water and take care of her bleeding nose. She returned to sleep in about 10 minutes.
Friday, Sep 1, 2006 (9y+26d)
Joanne set the alarm at 6am to finish her homework. Jasmine said since mommy told her not to do it, so she didn't. She took mommy's sarcasm literally. The twins went to school as usual.The news said hurricane John hit Los Cabos today. We were glad that we left Cabos before the storm came. Today is a spare the air day, but they no longer offer free public transportation. The fund for the free ride was used up long ago because we had too many spare the air day this year.
The twins went to Rachael's house to swim in the afternoon. Ashley, Brandon, and Jasmine W. were there too. After the swim, they all went to Sweet Tomato for dinner. Daddy joined them after work. We bumped into Natasha's and Sonya's family in the restaurant, but they finished before we sat down.
The twins practiced piano before going to bed. They borrowed a book from Ben titled "The Truth about poop. The twins seemed to have studied on it because they started to test daddy's knowledge about poop.
Saturday, Sep 2, 2006 (9y+27d)
The twins got up and played in the morning. Mommy also got up briefly and warned them that if they couldn't finish their assignments before we left for the swim class, then they had to cancel their slumber party tonight. They immediately stopped fooling around and took turn to practice piano and the other one went to do some music theory home work. Daddy cooked them a simple hot breakfast. Joanne took a tray and put in a napkin, a fork and a knife next to the breakfast plate. She tried to serve mommy breakfast in bed, but mommy didn't answer her. She took the tray downstairs disappointed.We took the twins to their swim lesson at 1pm. After daddy dropped them off at the pool, daddy went off to fill up the car and pick up some photo prints from Costco. The twins were half way through their class when daddy returned. Daddy videotaped their class so that they could review their moves. Ashley and Brandon joined the class too. Together with Jasmine W., our kids took up half the class.
We went out to lunch with them after the swim. After lunch, Ashley's dad went off to run some errands. The rest came home to change into tennis gears. Daddy stayed home but everyone else went to play tennis. Rachael and her mom joined them in the park for tennis. They played until 7pm. Daddy joined them for dinner at a Vietnamese restaurant. After dinner, the twins followed Jasmine W. home for a sleep over.
Sunday, Sep 3, 2006 (9y+28d)
Jasmine W's mom took the twins to join us at brunch in Santana Row. The kids spent some time in the Borders Bookstore after brunch. Joanne requested to visit the Sanrio store in Valleyfair mall. We spent sometime in the mall and the kids had a pizza break in mid afternoon before we left. The moms and kids went directly to the bowling arcade while daddy returned home to fetch his own ball and shoes. The lanes had bumpers over the gutters to guarantee good scores for kids. The kids' balls bounced around like a billiard ball before hitting the pins. They were quite lucky with lots of strikes and spares. Jasmine W. scored 125; Jasmine scored 112; Joanne scored below 100. The moms scored good enough to beat Joanne, but lost to the Jasmines. Daddy did extremely well to score 208 despite the kid bowled the first frame for daddy before daddy arrived. Jasmine W's mom was tired before the kids wore her down last night in their slumber party. She decided not to join us for dinner because she deserved some rest.We went out to dinner with Christopher's family. They showed us the photos they took in their Disney cruise in the Caribbeans. We also had our Los Cabos's vacation picture in the car. So we looked at each other's vacation albums.
When we came home, the twins practiced piano while mommy served some fruits. Mommy asked Joanne to check her tooth that had been loose for sometimes. Mommy helped Joanne wiggle the tooth to loosen it more. She then wrapped a dental floss around it and pulled. The tooth came off without problem.
Monday, Sep 4, 2006 (9y+29d)
We went to dimsum lunch with Jenna's family. jasmine W. and her mom joined us too. Christopher's and Benjamin's family also came to the same restaurant. The kids finished their meal early and they came over to play with the kids at our table.After lunch, the twins suggested bowling again. Jenna and her young sister Tara, and parents Sam & Winnie joined us too. Christopher and Benjamin's family decided not to join us. Daddy went off to shop for some flash memory drives for the twins' school supply. The 128M byte memory daddy bought for them was not big enough. The teacher asked for 256M or bigger. They would use the flash memory drives to transport homework projects to and from school. School projects usually wouldn't take too much memory space. They needed the extra space to put class photos etc.
When daddy rejoined them at the bowling alley, they had already finished a game. The kids went off to play in the game room after one game of bowling. The adults decided to bowl one more game. Sam & Winnie were the winners. Daddy didn't performed well and only go half of yesterday's score.
After bowling, we went for a snack and Chinese style desserts. Then we went home to change for tennis. The courts near our house was occupied, so we went to the court in the local high school. We played tennis until dusk. Jenna and her sister played badminton and tennis with the twins. They also ran up and down the spectator stand next to the football field. They had a lot of exercise for one day.
We parted our way and went home for dinner. We finished the left over from multiple meals over the long weekend. The twins practiced some piano before going to bed.
Tuesday, Sep 5, 2006 (9y+30d)
The twins returned to school as usual after the Labor Day long weekend. When they came home, they started piano practice and homework right away because they had plans. After they finished their work, the visited the Tamagotchi website and they copied all the Tamagotchi characters onto letter size paper. They did quite a good job in scaling up the drawings to fit one per page. Then mommy asked them to practice touch typing on the Internet "website. Daddy worked overtime till 8:30pm. The twins were winding down for the night and they went to bed just after 9pm.
Wednesday, Sep 6, 2006 (9y+1m)
The twins are 9 year and 1 month old today.
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started on Sept 10, 2006