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This journal is about raising identical twins.One Hundred Twentieth Month
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Friday, July 6, 2007 (9y+11m)
The twins are one month from 10 year old.
We had a vacation in Japan. More to come about our trip in Japan.
Tuesday, July 11, 2007 (9y+11m+5d)
We departed Osaka, Japan and arrived at Hong Kong. More to come about out trip in Hong Kong.
Monday, July 16, 2007 (9y+11m+10d)
We heard on the news that a big 6.4 scale earthquake hit Japan. The epic center is at north of Tokyo. The news footage showed some collapse houses. We were glad that we left before the quake hit.
Daddy had a reunion dinner with some high school ex-classmates. Some of us have not seen each other for over 20 years. With the advance of Internet technology, we kept in touch and shared photos from time to time. So we were not total strangers even after a few decades.
Tuesday, July 17, 2007 (9y+11m+11d)
Daddy returned to the US. Daddy found an ant line going into the pantry. The twins have left some candies in the multiple places in the pantry. The cleanup lasted through the next 3 days.
Due to the jet lag, daddy slept the whole afternoon. The sleep at night was not very restful.
Meanwhile in Hong Kong, the twins and mommy moved to Lillian's home in Kowloon Tong. We took over their cousin's home for the past week. They moved to a different host to spread the disturbance. Lillian was very glad to receive the guests because she was very impressed by the twins' good behavior.
Wednesday, July 18, 2007 (9y+11m+12d)
Jenna's family was also in Hong Kong. They got together and went to the book fair together. The twins bought some Chinese books. They also bought a catalog of Pokemons. The twins had not watched the Pokemon TV shows for year. It was a surprise to daddy that they would want such a book. It turned out that they planned to play the Pokemon games on the Nintendo DS. The twins went swimming in Lillian's community pool.
On this side of the pond, daddy returned to work. The jet lag made work almost impossible in the afternoon.
Thursday, July 19, 2007 (9y+11m+13d)
Twins went shopping on the Women's Street. That was a famous place to buy cheap stuffs. The twins were impressed by how cheap some items are in Hong Kong.
Daddy continued to struggle with jet lag at work.
Friday, July 20, 2007 (9y+11m+14d)
Twins went to Lantau Island to visit uncle Ronnie. They went to the airport exhibit center. As a detour, they took the Disney Train. They didn't go inside Disneyland. They just took their train because the cars are all decorated with Disney motif.
In the USA, a 4.2 scale earthquake hit the East bay Hayward fault around 4am in the morning. Daddy was awakened by the violent jolt. Daddy thought it was a dream about an earthquake in Japan. It was later reported in the news that it was a shallow quake near the surface hence it was felt strongly by most people.
Saturday, July 21, 2007 (9y+11m+15d)
Ritz took the twins and mommy to some kind of cultural center in Tsim Sha Tsui. She was sick last week. So mommy didn't bother her. She has not find a new job yet after her recent trip to the US.
Daddy went to lunch with grandma Chui. Daddy stayed home in the afternoon, and took a nap on the sofa. Daddy had dinner at grandma's and then watched the Miss Hong Kong pageant on TV.
Sunday, July 22, 2007 (9y+11m+16d)
Lillian took mommy and the twins to shopping in Shatin. They visited some great eateries to enjoy the famous Hong Kong cuisine.
Daddy slept all day at home trying to reset the biological clock to cure the jet lag.
Monday, July 23, 2007 (9y+11m+17d)
Ritz took mommy and the twins to Ocean Park. Due to the 10th anniversary of Hong Kong returning to Chinese rule, any kids born in 1997 are admitted to the park for free this year. It was a great saving for mommy. They got at record-breaking heat today. When mommy called daddy on the phone, the twins didn't want to talk because it was too hot.
Tuesday, July 24, 2007 (9y+11m+18d)
Mommy and twins called daddy at the airport. They boarded the flight at 9:10am Tuesday (it was Monday around 6pm back home). Their connecting flight in Tokyo was delayed for over an hour. They arrived at San Francisco at around 11am Tuesday (They gained a day due to the time zone change and the day change at the International day line over the Pacific Ocean.) Jenna's family returned to the US earlier than they did. Jenna's mom picked them up from the airport.
After lunch, they all took a nap. Daddy worked overtime at work. The twins called daddy at 7pm. They have slept 6 hours instead of regular 2-hour afternoon nap.
They got in bed again at midnight, but stayed awake for a while.
Wednesday, July 25, 2007 (9y+11m+19d)
The twins got up at 5am in the morning. They played their DS in bed. Since they got up too early in the morning, they needed a nap in the afternoon. Mommy ordered them to resume daily piano practice because they have not done so for the past 3 weeks. They stayed up past midnight.
Thursday, July 26, 2007 (9y+11m+20d)
The twins got up at 5am in the morning. They played their DS in bed. They needed a nap in the afternoon due to jet lag. They stayed up past midnight.
Friday, July 27, 2007 (9y+11m+21d)
The twins woke up at 3am. We sent them back to bed and asked them not to get up too early. They got up at 7am and played their DS. They needed a nap in the afternoon because of jet lag. Daddy worked overtime every day in the week. The twins had their lunch and dinner without daddy every day. We forced the twins to go to bed early trying to fix their jet lag problem.
Saturday, July 28, 2007 (9y+11m+22d)
We got up at 8am and had a family breakfast together. Finally the twins adjusted to US time. We went to lunch with grandma Chui and aunt Elaine. Grandma had not seen the twins for almost a month due to our Asian trip.
In the afternoon, we went to visit cousin Natalie. The twins helped her set up the R4 for her DS. While they were busy with the computer, mommy and daddy went to check out the model homes just across the street from their house. The new project in their neighborhood added many million-dollar homes just next to their home. We predicted that their home values would go up very soon too. When fortune comes to them, nothing would stop it. What a luck!
In the late afternoon, we all went to grandma Ling's place for dinner. We returned home immediately after dinner. Due to jet lag, Joanne fell asleep in the car. Jasmine tried very hard to stay awake and she did it.
Sunday, July 29, 2007 (9y+11m+23d)
We got up at 8am and had a family breakfast together. Further proved that the twins have adjusted to our time for real. Jasmine had adjusted better than Joanne because she stayed awake last evening. We went to lunch with Claire's and Terence's family. After lunch, Claire and Terence came to our place to play the Wii. They stayed until dinnertime, so we went out together for dinner too. We tried out a new Chinese Buddhist restaurant. They have a lot of fake meat dishes on their menu and they all taste really good.
Monday, July 30, 2007 (9y+11m+24d)
The twins went swimming at Jenna's place. Claire's mom bought the twins two sets of science projects from Discovery store. One of the kits was a DNA explorer. Joanne was very excited about it and wanted to do the experiments.
Tuesday, July 31, 2007 (9y+11m+25d)
Mommy left the twins at Jenna's so that she could get a facial. In the afternoon, mommy took Joanne to the dentist to adjust her retainer. Then mommy made some arrangement for the twins upcoming birthday party.
Wednesday, Aug 1, 2007 (9y+11m+26d)
They had a play day with Ashley and Brandon. The twins helped mommy to setup their birthday party invitation via evite.com. Daddy complained that the invitation never arrived.
Something terrible happened in Minneapolis today. An 8 lane Interstate highway I-35W collapsed into the Mississippi River. Over 50 cars fell into the river. At least 4 confirmed dead, and close to 80 injured. It was a wake up call to the US government that some of the bridges are getting too old. Hopefully the government would divert some of the money from the Iraq war back to rebuilding the country's aging infrastructures.
Thursday, Aug 2, 2007 (9y+11m+27d)
Jenna's & Ashley's family came to play with the twins. Karissa came too. Jenna's mom helped mommy to check the evite.com setup. It turned out that they didn't confirm the invitations yesterday. They were not sent until they fixed the problem today.
The twins did the DNA exploring kit under daddy's supervision. We were supposed to get the DNA fibers out some peas. We didn't get any fiber. Joanne said the rising bubbles were the fibers. The twins were quite contented with the experience. But daddy thought the experiment failed.
Friday, Aug 3, 2007 (9y+11m+28d)
Mommy took the twins to watch Sonya's play in the park. Daddy worked overtime and didn't join them. Mommy bought some take out food on their way home because they didn't have a full dinner before the play. Daddy shared some of their "late" dinner.
Saturday, Aug 4, 2007 (9y+11m+29d)
We had lunch with Terence family to celebrate his mom's birthday. After lunch, we went to the swimming schools to check out the available lessons. Terence mom signed him up for swimming class at DACA. We had dinner with grandma Chui and aunt Elaine.
Sunday, Aug 5, 2007 (9y+11m+30d)
We had lunch with grandma Chui. After we dropped off grandma at her home, we went to the bowling alley. We hosted the twins' birthday party there. Most guests arrived on time and we started the bowling games at 3pm. We have 4 lanes opened for the kids. The lanes had bumpers so the balls would not fall in the gutter. We have over 20 kids at the game. Some parents joined the games too and we opened a separate lane for the adults so that they could do real bowling without the bumpers. Pizza and drinks were served on the tables behind the lanes.
The games were shut down at 4:30pm. It was BD cake time. Mommy ordered an ice cream cake from Baskin Robbins 31 flavors next doors a few days back. The twins picked the cake decoration themselves. They refused to pick any princess pattern. They picked a cake with a bowling theme.
The ice cream cake was very popular and many kids asked for seconds, though we had about 4 pieces left at the end that no body had room for. We distributed some arcade tokens to the kids and they have great fun in the arcade. At the end, the kids pooled together their winning tickets and exchange some cheap toys from the prize center. The attendant was very generous. The kids were given the prizes they asked for even when they didn't have enough points. Some kids and adults continue to bowl another game before leaving. The guests gradually thinned out and the birthday party ended informally.
Valerie's and Claire family stayed behind. We decided to go out to dinner together. Valerie's favorite is Korean food. So we went for Korean BBQ. During the dinner, the kids asked if they could have a sleep over. No parent objected so it was approved. After dinner, they all came to our house. The twins opened all their presents. Valerie helped to write down which gift came from whom.
After the gifts unwrapping, the kids disappeared into the bedroom. The adults chatted and watched the replay of the video we took earlier in the bowling alley. The gathering ended before midnight. Valerie and Claire stayed behind for a sleep over.
Joanne told daddy the next day that Valerie wanted to keep the light on in her sleep last night. The other girls found it too bright and veto the decision. Less than a minute after the light went off, they heard Valerie was already asleep with heavy breathing.
Monday Aug 6, 2007 (10y)
The twins are 10 years old today.
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started on Aug 22, 2007