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This journal is about raising identical twins.Eighteenth Month
Previous entries
Wednesday, Jan 6, 1999 (17m+0d)
The twins are 17 months old today.The twins like to poke the power switch of the TV in our bedroom. They probably like the high voltage pop and sizzle sound when the TV comes on. I told them many times not to do that, but they did not listen. I snapped Jasmine's hand today trying to discourage the behavior for the sake of the TV's longevity. That resulted in a crying baby.
Joanne's lower right lateral incisor (tooth Q) has just shown up.
The score now: Joanne 8, Jasmine 8.
Jasmine's lower 4 teeth are fully grown now, so it is still very easy to tell them apart by the teeth even though Joanne now also has 4 lower teeth. Joanne's previous tooth came out on Oct 10, which was almost three months ago.
Saturday, Jan 9, 1999 (17m+3d)
Aunt Jennifer and great-grandma came to visit. We had lunch together before mommy took the twins to shop with them at Valley Fair Mall. I went back to the office to work overtime. I was told that the twins were very fussy probably because they were waken in the middle of their afternoon nap and they refused to get back to sleep with so much distraction in the mall.Great-grandma stayed overnight so we can have lunch with Simon and Winnie the next day.
Sunday, Jan 10, 1999 (17m+4d)
We had lunch with Simon and Winnie's family at Hong Kong Flower Lounge near the San Francisco Airport. Winnie's mom was going back to Vancouver. So we picked a location closer to the Airport for obvious reasons.We also went to Costco after lunch because Simon's Cousin Edward has just moved to the Bay Area from Vancouver. He wants to see if he can buy something for his new apartment. He works for Stanford University Medical Center as a post-doc researching on the area of pediatrics.
We all went to the airport to say farewell to Winnie's mom at the gate. The twins were excited riding the people movers (conveyor belt) in the airport. They were not as excited on the escalator because they were not allowed to move around. We pointed them to see the airplanes taxiing on the ground, or taking off in the air. But they were not interested. Instead, they preferred pushing a luggage cart around near the boarding area.
We had dinner at Umi Sushi. The twins slept through almost the whole dinner.
(See video clip of twins trying on their new berets. [3.5 Mbytes])
Tuesday, Jan 12, 1999 (17m+6d)
Both twins had minor diarrhea. We will observe for awhile before taking them to the doctor.
Thursday, Jan 14, 1999 (17m+8d)
I was told by some old folks from different sources that when babies have their first molar, it usually comes with diarrhea, and some times slight fever. Though not confirmed by doctor, we poked our finger into Jasmine mouth and felt her gum. Believe it or not, the folk tale is true. Her lower left first molar is on the way out. It is hard to the touch, but still not exposed yet.
Saturday, Jan 16, 1999 (17m+10d)
We went to Yohan on Saratoga Ave with Aunt Tina and Cousin Natalie. We bought lunch at the concession stand inside the store. The twins enjoyed slurping in the soba noodle strain by strain. Mommy bought some tableware from the ceramic store inside Yohan.There is a photo sticker machine in Yohan. One can pick some decoration or border, takes a photo and have it printed on 16 tiny 15x20mm stickers. We tried to take one for Natalie with the twins. But the twins cried and bailed out at the last moment. Since the machine won't wait, only Natalie and some commotion in the background got on the picture. :-)
Steven and family bought us dinner at a Shanghaiese restaurant in celebration of Laurie's 6 year old birthday. They brought the birthday cake to our house after dinner, and the party went on. After we put the twins in bed, we continued chatting past 1am in the morning.
Sunday, Jan 17, 1999 (17m+11d)
We had lunch with CW's family at MayFlower restaurant at the Great Mall. We saw a set of three months old twin girls at the adjacent table. One of the twins was born at around the same weight as ours, 4½ lb., while the other one was a pound lighter. Their sizes are still quite different after three months. The mother said the twins switched position at the last minute before birth. They thought the bigger one would come out first, but the little one became the "big" sister. It is hard to tell if they are identical twins. The parents don't even know what identical twins are. The twin babies have a 14 months old sister. The parents are busy with three babies, though the grandparents are helping out. They have a baby carrier that is custom made, it holds three babies.We walked around in the Great Mall after lunch. Bonnie, Addison and Deanna helped to take care of our twins. I could relax a little bit.
We had dinner with William, Lillian, and CW's family at ABC Seafood restaurant. The restaurant is just a couple months new, the kitchen is not run very efficiently yet. We waited over an hour to get our dinner. Tables next to us finished their dinner earlier than us despite we arrived and ordered first. Fortunately, CW's daughter Deanna played with the twins and they were happily entertained while the adults chatted. I hope Deanna won't get a sore back because she kept lifting the twins up. William and Lillian just came back from Shanghai after spending several years there, we had a lot to catch up on.
We continued the party at our home after dinner. Deanna, Addison and the twins played with the toys while we chatted and had several games of Sequence. The party was over at around 11:30pm. The twins were so tired that they fell asleep within seconds we put them in bed, and they slept straight through the night.
Wed, Jan 20, 1999 (17m+14d)
With force and lure, we managed to look inside Jasmine's mouth. We found that Jasmine has two new teeth, the lower and upper right first molar are both visible.
The score: Jasmine 10, Joanne 8.Jasmine drinks milk much faster and more than Joanne for many weeks now. Joanne starts to drinks a little more in the past few days. Jasmine is now about half inch taller than Joanne. We believe the difference will be farther apart if Joanne does not drink more milk. When Jasmine walks she likes to tip toes, that makes her appear much taller than Joanne from time to time.
Friday, Jan 22, 1999 (17m+16d)
The twins still don't speak, but recently they learned quite a lot of vocabulary in Cantonese. Mommy has taught them the eyes, ears, nose, mouth, fingers, toes etc. When asked, they will touch the corresponding part of the body.Sometimes they got frustrated when we don't understand them. To ease the frustration, we try to teach them some form of sign language. We ask them to touch their mouth and tell them what to say before we feed them. We ask them to touch their ears and tell them what to say before we turn on the music for them. They seem to catch on very fast. They still don't speak, but they are happy when they get what they want by signing. One thing they enjoy doing is to mimic mommy's "no, no, no" by wagging the index finger from side to side.
They like helium balloons a lot. They rather play with balloons than drink milk from their bottle. Mommy sometimes must hide the balloons in closets to reduce the distraction especially before feeding. They have good memory. They remember all the places where mommy hides the balloons. They would point to the door and say "ball ball". They continue to ask long after the balloons were deflated and discarded. We have to open the door to show them there is no balloon and they will check all the usual places before they will stop.
Sunday, Jan 24, 1999 (17m+18d)
Not much done this weekend besides taking the twins to the Great Mall and going out for lunch & dinner. Grandma Chui is sick in bed with flu symptoms for the past three days. She tries her best to avoid seeing the twins because the twins would jump on her and get her flu.Jasmine is mommy's little helper. She seems to understand what is right and what is wrong. When Joanne wanders near the stairs, Jasmine will say "Uuh!" and swing her index finger as if telling her not to. In the mall, whenever they wander in different directions, we simply ask Jasmine where Joanne is, she then will run to Joanne, grasps her by the arm and drags her to us. It is the perfect trick to bring them close to each other in a public place.
Tuesday, Jan 26, 1999 (17m+20d)
The Bay Area had another cold spell in these couple days. We can see the snow cap on the nearby hill tops. The twins stay home for warmth.Joanne is a more difficult child to take care of compared to Jasmine. She cries whenever she does not gets what she wants, like a typical whining crybaby. She does not like to take "no" for an answer. It takes a long time to feed her, she stops and runs away at every ounce. She would run faster when we ask her to come back. Despite her other bad habits, Joanne likes books, she always asks us to read to her while Jasmine prefers to play elsewhere. Also she often puts on a lovely smile when she is not crying.
Jasmine usually finishes her bottle in one shot and she is proud of the achievement too. After she finishes her bottle, she would look at us for praise. She usually claps her hands with a big grin on her face to give herself an applause. Jasmine is a very good helper. Yesterday, after I put on her jacket, she went and grasped Joanne by the arm and brought her to me. She seems to understand the routine and enforce it on Joanne without my suggestion. Sometimes we are amazed what goes on in her little mind. Jasmine often looks very serious, she needs to put on a smile more often.
Wed, Jan 27, 1999 (17m+21d)
Joanne understands routines too. This morning, I told the twins to go to our room for their feeding. The first thing Joanne did was went to the CD player and turned off the music. That was exactly what mommy would do everyday before taking the twins out of their room.
Sat, Jan 30, 1999 (17m+24d)
We invited Jim, Kioko with Mikki & JR, Hing & Lucy, Kay & Dave to dinner at our place. Jim's family came early so that Kioko could help on cooking. Mikki & JR had a great time playing with the twins and their toys.We bought some sushi and sashimi as appetitizer. We baked a rib-eye roast and several lobster tails. We had steamed asparagus, rice and sauteed portabella mushroom as side dish. This was the first time we served western cuisine to a big group. The food tasted good, but we still need a lot of improvement in the presentation and serving process. It is much easier serving Chinese style dinner. We had a tiramasu and a cheese cake for dessert.
We chatted and played the "Sequence" board game after we put the twins in bed. The party ended at around 11pm.
Sun, Jan 31, 1999 (17m+25d)
Stayed home all day to watch Super Bowl.After I wrote about Joanne's excessive crying last week, she stopped the bad temper completely for the past week, as if she knew about me bad-mouthing her. It was Jasmine's turn this week while Joanne behaved well and drank her milk fast too.
Wed, Feb 3, 1999 (17m+28d)
Mommy poked into Joanne's mouth and felt a new tooth, the upper left first molar is exposed.
The score: Jasmine 10, Joanne 9.That explains why Joanne cried so much the week before. Given that Jasmine cried so much this week, we expect to see another tooth in her mouth soon.
I bought a flatbed scanner (UMAX Astra 1200S). Look forward to see more new photos on this site soon.
Thursday, Feb 4, 1999 (17m+29d)
Mommy literally walked the twins to the neighborhood park. She let the kids walk on their own without taking the stroller. She just pointed the direction and followed. She needed to yell "no no" couple of times when the twins wander near the curb. But the twins stayed on the sidewalk most of the time. On the way back, Jasmine wanted mommy to carry her, but Joanne walked home.Jasmine often yells "jeh-jeh" to get Joanne's attention. "Jeh-jeh" means "big sister" in Cantonese, that is what we call Joanne sometimes. Both twins say "Bo Bo" and raise their arm when they want us carry them. "Po" means "carry" in Cantonese. Looks like they will start to speak soon.
Friday, Feb 5, 1999 (17m+30d)
One more day before the twins turn one and a half. Looking back, the twins picked up quite a lot of new habits. There are many anecdotes that I have not written down and I try to recall some here.The twins are utilizing their hand signalling skill. They ask for music every day by standing in front of the boom box and touching their ears.
The twins enjoy getting involved in daily routines. They are excited when we ask them to put some trash in the trash can for us. Jasmine would walk from the family room all the way to the trash can in the kitchen, while Joanne would take a short cut and put it in the nearest one. They would do it with pleasure, and come back for more. Mommy sometimes had to make unnecessary trash to please their crave.
They like to climb on everything. They knew how to get up and down of the sofa since they started walking. Only recently, they are tall enough to manage to climb on regular chairs. It posts a danger because Jasmine fell off the chair once, and she cried like hell. The twins have their own 10 inch tall kiddie chairs, but they don't like sitting in them, instead they would lug the kiddiey chairs around to help them climb up to different places. Recently, they used their chairs to climb up to the sink, trying to wash their hands under the faucet. Of course, they don't know how to turn on the faucet yet and the sink is too high a place for them, we try our best to discourage this activity.
Sometimes when we go out, after we get back to the minivan, we don't usually strap down the kids right away. We have removed one seat in the middle row of the minivan, so there is a small staging area for us to prepare the kids, like dressing up before opening the door, dressing down before strapping them down in the car seats, feeding and changing diaper etc. This convenience does not come with regular sedan. Usually if we are not leaving right away, we would let the twins play in this staging area while we get ourselves ready. Recently, the twins like to climb up to the driver seat and pretend they are driving. They poke every button on the dash board and they particularly like the eject button of the CD player. They laugh when the CD pops out.
One time, Joanne sat at the top of the slide for a long time. Mommy went and tugged her leg a little to make her slide down. She had so much fun that she went up the slide again and sat there for another tug. After several times, mommy got bored so she asked Jasmine to help. Jasmine stood next to the slide providing the tugging service while Joanne went round and round in laughters. Jasmine got bored serving Joanne and walked away, Joanne cried and cried until Jasmine came back.
Saturday, Feb 6, 1999 (18m+0d)
The twins are 18 months old.
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started on Feb 10, 1999