This website is made possible by the advertisement on these banners
This journal is about raising identical twins.the twelfth month
Previous entries
Monday, Jul 6, 1998 (11m)
The twins are 11 month old today.We found out Joanne's upper left central incisor(tooth F) is coming out. No wonder she sometimes wakes up and cries in the middle of the night. No sign of new tooth in Jasmine's mouth yet. Joanne catches up on Jasmine for a change. The score now is Joanne 3, Jasmine 2.
Joanne has reached a stage that she would cry in frustration after standing too long. She has not figured out how to sit down without hurting her butt. Jasmine has already past this stage last week.
In terms of crawling, Joanne's elbows and belly technique is no match for Jasmine's palms and knees approach. Despite her extra effort, Joanne's crawl is pretty fast too. I've observed that Joanne uses her right leg in all other things, including climbing stairs. Looks like there is nothing wrong with her leg, she just doesn't use it when she crawls. I am less concerned now, but we will still ask the doctor in the next check up visit.
Saturday, Jul 11, 1998 (11m+5d)
We took the twins for a weight check at Maternal Connection.
Joanne weighed 15 lb. 15 oz.
Jasmine weighed 15 lb. 12 oz.
both were weighed with clothes and diapers.
both are now 27 inch tall standing up.We straighten Joanne's elbows when she crawls, she immediately gets on her knees. But after about two steps, she resumes her elbows and belly crawl. It is very obvious now that her legs are okay, she just does not know how to crawl with straight arms.
Sunday, Jul 12, 1998 (11m+6d)
Jasmine's upper left central incisor(tooth F) is also coming out (one week later than Joanne's).
Again we were away from home all day long. We had lunch with Simon, Winnie and Samantha in Oakland, stopped by my wife's uncle's in Alameda, went shopping at Costco in Fremont, stopped by Aunt Tina's, had dinner at Black Angus. It was 10:30pm when we got home. Both twins behaved well today.
We took some pictures of the twins. Joanne would make a funny face after each flash. She grinned and squeezed her eyes and nose. It looked more like a silent snarl than a grin. Actually she makes the same face at many occasions, e.g. after she heard a loud noise, or someone startled her from behind etc. It is like she is saying "I'm scared!" with her facial expression.
Wednesday, Jul 15, 1998 (11m+9d)
Joanne finally crawls like a regular baby, with palms and knees. She hasn't smoothed out the coordination yet, she moves one limb at a time as if she needs to plan the next move. She uses the new technique when she wanders around aimlessly. However, when she wants to go somewhere fast, she returns to her old reliable technique.Jasmine likes to stand without holding on anything. She can stand and balance for up to 15 seconds. But as soon as she start moving, she needs to hold on to something. She will take her first step any day now.
Joanne is still at the stand-stranded-then-cry stage. We tried very hard to teach her to bend her knees to sit down. But her legs are locked stiff like two steel bars.
When we say goodbye, Joanne will now squeeze one of her palm like Jasmine does. Perhaps she learned it from Jasmine. She used to just wave her hand up and down.
Sunday, Jul 19, 1998 (11m+13d)
A heat wave attacks the US this week, the SF Bay Area is no exception. Inland temperature in the Bay Area reaches over 100°F. Compared to the 120s in some states, we could be considered cool. We decided not to go anywhere this weekend, just to keep the twins out of the heat. The twins stayed in the comfort of the air conditioner at home. I, on the other hand, came to the office to work overtime for both days.The twins have not changed much this week.
Thursday, Jul 23, 1998 (11m+17d)
Jasmine picks up a new trick of wagging her tongue left and right inside her month to make a "la-la-la-la" sound. We didn't teach her that, she just invented the trick herself. Jasmine once in a while will refuse to be fed by us. She grabs the bottle and drinks the formula on her own. We were happy at first thinking that she can handle the bottle on her own. However, the problem is that she seldom finishes the bottle that way. We end up have to chase her around to feed her the rest.We often found Joanne putting something in her mouth. When we check on her, she often has a strand of hair in her hand and she enjoys playing with it on her tongue. Despite we vacuum the carpet every other day, Joanne still manages to find yet another strand of hair somewhere. One thing for sure is that she has good eyesight and she picks up hairs better than our vacuum cleaner can. I just hope that she is not pulling hair off Jasmine's head while we are not looking. And of course, I'll start watching my receding hairline more closely.
Saturday, Jul 25, 1998 (11m+19d)
Jasmine's upper right central incisor has come out (tooth E). The score is now Joanne 3: Jasmine 4. Though Jasmine is catching up on the number of teeth, Joanne's upper left incisor is longer than Jasmine's.We took the twins to Valley Fair Mall, and then we had Japanese dinner with Hing & Lucy at Gonbei in San Jose Japantown.
Sunday, Jul 26, 1998 (11m+20d)
Joanne can turn around in 360° very quickly in her sitting position pivoting on her butt. She had this ability even before she started crawling. On the other hand, Jasmine knows how to crawl much earlier, she turns around by first flipping over to her crawling position, moves to the desired direction and then returns to her sitting position again. Since they turnaround using totally different techniques, this becomes a distinctive feature to tell the twins apart from a distance.I don't remember exactly when but Joanne has passed her stand-stranded-cry stage. She can comfortably sit down when she has stood up too long.
I need to work overtime today. We took the twins to the office.
After work, we went to the Japanese Friendship Garden in San Jose to see the Koi ponds and we strolled around the nearby Kelley park. Then we had a Vietnamese dinner. Everything went quite smoothly until we found out Jasmine had a diaper leak. My wife had to take her back to the car to get changed before we resumed our dinner. So far Jasmine had diaper leaks numerous times while Joanne had none yet. The reason is quite obvious, Jasmine is just restless compared to Joanne.
The twins can sit very well in high chairs. We now carry the twins into the restaurant without the baby carriers. The kids enjoy being held directly and we had two less pieces of bulky luggage to carry.
Thursday, Jul 30, 1998 (11m+24d)
Jasmine got a high fever. She was at 102°F around noon. However, she was still very happy, laughing and giggling, there was no symptoms other than the fever. She threw up the formula we fed her. We called the doctor about the condition. She said it is most likely Jasmine caught a virus and her body is fighting it. She just prescribed Children's Tylenol (acetaminophen), water, Sprite soda, rest and hold off the feeding. We would continue to monitor her condition. At around 9pm, she burnt up to 104°F. She still crawled around a little, but she looked very tired and hugged the pillow frequently. I put an ice pack near her forehead and she fell asleep on her pillow. We called again, and the doctor told us to switch to Children's Motrin (Ibuprofen). We gave Jasmine a drop of Motrin when she woke up at around 11:30pm. By 1am, her temperature is down to normal.
Friday, Jul 31, 1998 (11m+25d)
Jasmine's fever is gone. She has not eaten much since yesterday afternoon. We try to feed her formula, but she still throws up.
Saturday, Aug 1, 1998 (11m+26d)
We had the twins' first birthday party at the clubhouse next to the community pool. Because the clubhouse is not very big, we could only invite the people who visited our twins often. Their real birthday is still a few days away, however it does not fall on a weekend. And my wife's cousin is getting married next weekend, so we decided to hold the party this week instead of the next.The twins were very happy at the party. Many guests wanted to hold them. Joanne clung to daddy or mommy like a magnet, she refused to let anyone else touch her. Jasmine on the other hand acted as the friendly ambassador.
In the party, we had catered Chinese food (kind of disappointing in my opinion), snacks, drinks, fruits etc. In addition, we had a BBQ grill cooking chicken wings, sausages, shish kebab with veggie and shrimps, beef steaks and sea bass steaks. Thanks to CW at the grill, the grilled food were the most popular. We cut the cake at 1:30pm and served with ice cream.
The party ran from 11am to 3pm. Many kids (and some adults too) enjoyed themselves in the swimming pool.
We have to thank Hing and Lucy for taking the video and photos and picking up the cake; Ivan and Tina for lending us the chairs; Carmen for lending us the ice chests; Kevin and Ivan for picking up the catering; Jason, Jun, Jennifer and Elaine for decorations; Simon, Winnie, and Ivan for cleaning up; last but not least, all the guests who attended the party and brought gifts to the twins.
Sunday, Aug 2, 1998 (11m+27d)
Joanne got a fever in the morning, she was at 103°F. I guess she picked up the virus from Jasmine couple days ago. Perhaps she knew we were having a great party for her, she held on to it until now. We gave her Children's Motrin, the fever was lowered, but not gone completely. The problem is that she refuses to drink a lot of fluid or rest, or let us use an ice pack on her head. She plays happily with Jasmine despite her fever.The doctor told us we can switch to regular cow milk when the twins are one year old. Today, we started to mix regular milk into the baby's formula. Other parents advised us that the babies may have bad reaction if the formula is changed too suddenly. We will gradually increase the amount of milk until we eliminate the expensive formula totally.
Monday, Aug 3, 1998 (11m+28d)
Joanne still had a fever this morning, she was at 100°F. Her temperature has gone down to normal in the afternoon.Before bedtime, she finished a 6 oz bottle of formula non-stop. Perhaps she was drinking too fast or she had some gas from the sprite she drank earlier, she puked everything including the noodles she had at dinner. It was a stinky mess. She looked very happy after puking. We decided not to feed her again for the night.
Tuesday, Aug 4, 1998 (11m+29d)
Joanne is back to normal. She eats, plays and sleeps as usual. We have been expecting the upper right central incisor(tooth E) in Joanne's mouth. To our surprise and unlike Jasmine, that is not where her fourth teeth shows up. Her upper left central incisor(tooth G) is showing, but still no sign of tooth E. The score is now Joanne 4: Jasmine 4.Jasmine is very noisy these days. She babbles a lot and VERY loudly. Joanne makes noise much less frequently than Jasmine. They both say "ba" while pointing to a balloon or beach ball.
Jasmine likes to tease Joanne. Jasmine can stand on her toes, hence she can reach further than Joanne for things that we try to hide on our nightstands. If she picks up something hard to get, such as mommy's hair clip or an ATM card, she would go wave it in front of Joanne. When Joanne wants it, she pulls it away and makes her cry.
Thursday, Aug 6, 1998 (12m)
Today is the twins' first birthday. Since we had already celebrated on Saturday, we don't have special plan for today.When looking back, the year just flew by. It was tough in the beginning when the babies were premature and we were inexperienced. As they grew, everything is getting easier and more fun everyday. Our work will be even easier when they start talking and entertain each other.
Previous Next Site map Book List
Search this site!
Visitor Count