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This journal is about raising identical twins.Eleventh month
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Saturday, Jun 6, 1998 (10m)
The twins are 10 months old today. Jasmine is still not very good at picking up cheerios, she just grab with her hand. Sometime she hold the cheerio between her thumb or one of her fingers and her palm. She probably is too impatient to hold her food properly. She just stuffs them in her face one after another.Joanne is very good at using her thumb and index finger to pick up cheerios, but she does not eat as much as Jasmine.
We spent the morning doing yard work while my mom takes care of the twins. We went to Golden Island Restaurant for Dim Sum lunch afterwards. We met another set of twins at the restaurant. The waiters and waitresses were very excited to see two sets of twins at the same time, they kept coming to us and pointed us to the other twins. We chatted a little bit with the other parents. The mother has a very heavy Russian or East European accent, the father sounds like regular American. Their twins are almost two years old fraternal boys. The boys looks alike though not identical, but one is almost 6 inches taller than the other. I initially thought the taller one was at least three years old. The father is over 6 feet tall and looks like one of the twins gets most of his genes. The mother told us she meets with a twin's mother group in the area. But my wife finds herself too busy with the twins to attend any meeting. We probably will join some twin support group after the twins get bigger and easier to take care of.
Sunday, Jun 7, 1998 (10m+2d)
It was a windy, cold and grey day. We stayed home most of the day. We took the twins to the nearby park and put them on the swing. The twins showed no emotion on the swing. They are not excited perhaps because of the overcast weather.The in-laws came for dinner and they also helped us rearrange the furniture to make more room for the twins to move around.
We fed the twins some fish meat from our dinner. They like that a lot and keep asking for more.
Friday, Jun 12, 1998 (10m+6d)
Nothing new happened this week. Everything was so routine. Gosh, I cannot think of anything to write!!!
Saturday, Jun 13, 1998 (10m+7d)
The twins' bowel movement is quite regular. They usually poop in the late morning. Today my mom let Joanne sit on the potty when it was about time. Of course we cannot call it potty training because Joanne does not know how to tell us when, however Joanne did her thing cleanly and we saved a diaper, it is in the right direction.My mom told me that when I was a baby, I seldom soiled a diaper because I'd cry like hell before I pooped. That saved my mom a lot of work if she responded to my crying promptly. Back in those days, disposable diapers were not as popular, it made a big difference in amount to washing work.
We took the twins to Maternal Connection for a weight check.
Joanne weighs 15 lb. 10.2 oz.
Jasmine weighs 15 lb. 5.6 oz.
both weights include diapers and clothes. Their weights are below the 5th percentile.
Sunday, Jun 14, 1998 (10m+8d)
My wife's uncle is a constructor. He (actually with help from two of his employees) built a house for himself recently. We went to his house warming party in Alameda today. The house is very big, 3580 sq. ft., 5 bedrooms (2 are master suites), 4 baths and a small sewing room for his wife. The entire downstairs are covered in hardwood, except the kitchen and bathrooms are in marble. The upstairs rooms are covered in wall to wall carpet.The twins were quite happy there. All the in-laws were there too. Jasmine was crawling and sliding on the hardwood floor. Joanne just sat there as usual. One of the guests brought along a small dog and a puppy. They ran around in the backyard. I put the twins next to the screen door where they can watch the dogs. It was the first time they saw a real dog, their reaction was kind of reserved, not too excited. One of the dogs jumped at the screen door and scared the twins and they cried for awhile.
After the party, we went to the residential area in Bay Farm, Alameda. The area has a pathway next to a man-made lagoon. On the opposite shore of the lagoon are people's homes where they can launch a small boat from the dock in their own backyard. They can row a boat to the supermarket at the other end of the lagoon. We strolled around along the lagoon, watched the ducks swimming around. It was a relaxing day.
Wednesday, Jun 18, 1998 (10m+12d)
Nothing much changed this week. As usual, Jasmine is crawling all over the house. Joanne prefers to stay at the same spot where you put her down.I don't know how to play music, but I bought a 61 keys Casio electronic keyboard for just fun many years ago. Instead of collecting dust on it, I put it on the floor and let the twins bang on it. Joanne likes to use her index finger to poke on each key, button and switch. Jasmine likes to use both palms on the keys, and she rocks side to side like Stevie Wonder does.
The weather is quite hot recently, we take the twins to stroll in the park after dinner when the temperature is cooler. The sandbox at the park is usually filled with children and the twins like to watch them play.
The twins are waking up in the middle of the night these days. Sometimes one's crying wakes up the other. Sometimes the other one just ignore the crying and sleep all the way through. We have tried different ways to deal with the situation. We found out that if we pick them up, the twins will cry even longer sometimes for over half an hour. If we leave them alone, they will cry for about three minutes and back to sleep. My wife usually goes check if everything is okay afterwards.
This strategy works only when they cry at 1am in the morning. If they cry at 3am, then they won't stop until we feed them a bottle. The day's last feeding usually takes place at 10pm. We tried feeding them more, but they refuse to take more than 5 oz. at one time. It is quite obvious that they cry because they are hungry when they wake up. If they are tired enough they can sleep through the night, else they wake up hungry and cannot get back to sleep. Feeding in the middle of the night is not an easy task. Perhaps the best solution is to wear them down before they go to bed.
Saturday, Jun 20, 1998 (10m+14d)
We took the twins to the pool today. We bought couple of floating rings for babies. They are basically the floating version of baby walkers. We let the twins sit in the buoy and we pushed them around in the water. The twins were slightly scared at first but with some hugging, they sat in the rings calmly, not very excited though. After a few minutes, Joanne was bored and she laid her head on the ring as a pillow and closed her eyes. We got the signal and took them home for a warm bath.The twins slept very well. They went to bed at 10pm and slept all the way till 8am in the morning.
The before and after work was much more than the main event. We went shopping for the buoys, swim diapers, baby swim suits. We then inflated the buoys, changed their diapers and clothes, walked to the pool. Swam a few minutes. After the swim, we dried the babies, we walked back home with all the wet stuffs, gave them a warm bath and a change of warm clothings. Not to mention, drying and changing ourselves. All that in exchange for their good night sleep, well, it is still worthwhile.
Sunday, Jun 21, 1998 (10m+15d)
It is my first father's day. The twins are not old enough to throw me a party yet. So besides a gift my wife bought me, it was just a normal day.We took the twins to my wife's previous church in Oakland. It is almost an hour drive from our home to the church, she had not gone back very often ever since she moved in with me after we got married. A lot of her friends, except the closer ones, saw our twins for the first time. We then had lunch with Jenny, Lillian and Simon, Anita and her two kids, Wayland and Lorrie. Lillian and Simon brought their baby too. He is 6 months old and 21 lb. Compared to our 10 months olds at 15 lb., he is a big baby.
We went to the in-laws and stayed for the father's day dinner. On our way home, Jasmine fell asleep and Joanne played happily with mommy for the entire trip.
Saturday, Jun 27, 1998 (10m+21d)
Mommy went to attend the bridal shower for her cousin's future wife. I was left with the twins at home. Everything went smoothly.After mommy came home, we went out with the twins to shop for baby shoes. So far we just let them wear socks without shoes because they are not walking yet. Recently, shoes became necessary because Jasmine often wants to stand on her feet, and the floor is not always clean when we are away from home. We got two pairs of Nike baby size 3 sneakers, they are very cute.
With the shoes on, Jasmine totally lost her feel of the floor and couldn't stand anymore. She points her toes to the floor like a ballerina and forgets how to put her feet flat on the floor. It makes no difference to Joanne, because she does not like to stand to start with. Instead, she brings her shoe, foot and all to her mouth. It is okay to suck on it when the shoe is still brand new. We just hope she would lose the habit by the time the shoes get dirty.
Sunday, Jun 28, 1998 (10m+22d)
We took the twins "swimming" again. We pushed their floats around the pool. Again they showed no emotion. This time we stayed in water longer and we stayed at the deep end of the pool, away from the other kids. We got out quickly when the twins started to shiver.We had dinner at Ikenohana in Cupertino. We fed the babies before we left home and the twins fell asleep on the way there. Jasmine woke up in the middle of our dinner and we fed her some Japanese food. Of course, no raw fish for her. Joanne did not wake up until we returned to the car.
Tuesday, Jun 30, 1998 (10m+24d)
Joanne started her attempt on crawling these two days. When she is eager to get to a different spot, she will crawl with her elbows and her left knee. Her right leg is dragged behind. Instead of crawling on all four like Jasmine, she crawls like a soldier in a battlefield. It is not a pretty sight. We cannot tell if her leg is injured or she just doesn't know how to coordinate her moves.I am very worried. Polio, hips and joint infection, pulled muscles, bone fracture, all comes to mind. When I suggested to bring her to the doctor, my wife said she saw Joanne dragged her other leg yesterday. If that is true, her right leg is okay. Besides, she "walks" fine with both legs in the walker. I also inspected her legs, both looked okay. When I moved her joints, she didn't express any sign of pain. Perhaps I worried too much. We will observe for few more days to find out.
Wednesday, Jul 1, 1998 (10m+25d)
In the past week, Jasmine starts crawling to the stairs. We always stopped her before she could get up one or two steps. Today, my wife followed her and let her climb the stairs as she pleases. Jasmine climbed all the way to the second floor. Took her downstairs, she climbed again two more times. She got a good exercise and a long nap afterwards. Joanne can climb the stairs too, but not as fast as Jasmine.We recognize this as a potential danger. If the babies climb the stairs when we are not watching, they can hurt themselves. We need to block the stairs from now on.
Jasmine used to just fall on her butt when she wanted to sit. But the fall hurts, so she sometimes becomes very frustrated and cries after standing too long. Recently she has learned to bend her knees before sitting down and becomes a happier baby.
Friday, Jul 3, 1998 (10m+27d)
I got a day off because of Independence Day tomorrow. We took the twins shopping at Gilroy Outlet Center. We went with Jenny, Marianne and Grace. There was a stop-and-go traffic jam leaving San Jose, the usual 45 minutes trip took almost two hours. The twins were crying like hell. Since we were moving at 0-5 miles per hour speed, we decided to break the law and took the twins out of the car seats. They stopped crying and played happily when mommy held them. When the traffic flew smoothly again, the twins were strapped down and they cried until we reached Gilroy. We had lunch at McDonald's at the shopping center. After we returned, we had dinner at Golden Island Restaurant. The twins were well behaving all day except crying in the traffic jam.
Saturday, Jul 4, 1998 (10m+28d)
Today is the Independence Day, the 222nd birthday of the United States of America. We figured the twins will not enjoy fireworks at this age. In fact the loud explosive noise may scare them. My coworker told me her son was scared when he watched fireworks at age 2. So we decided to avoid the crowd and the noise. We just went to my wife's sister's home for dinner. On the way home, we saw fireworks at the distance, but the twins were asleep. The day just passed quietly for us.
Sunday, Jul 5, 1998 (10m+29d)
Day 333!We had Taiwanese style lunch with Simon and Michelle. The in-laws came to visit in the afternoon. After they'd arrived, we left the twins home with them and we sneaked out to see Disney's Mulan (buy DVD|VHS). It was a great movie. I highly recommend it. Some details, such as the animated people in the background, can only be seen in a big theater. Don't wait for the video, because video won't do justice to the quality of the animation.
Monday, Jul 6, 1998 (11m)
The twins are 11 month old today.
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