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This journal is about raising identical twins.The Twentieth month
Previous entries
Saturday, Mar 6, 1999 (19m+0d)
The twins are 19 month old today.We went to Central Park in Fremont with uncle Ivan, auntie Tina and cousin Natalie. We took a leisurely stroll on the shore of Lake Elizabeth. We stopped at the children's playground, the twins had a great time on the slides and swings. We took some pictures and video shots. Now we finished the roll of film in the camera, I can post some new pictures real soon.
Mommy went shopping with Lucy after putting the twins in the cribs for the afternoon nap. I worked long hours the night before so I also took a nap in the afternoon. By around 4:30pm, I was waken by the noise from the baby monitor. I went to the twins' room. To my surprise, I found Joanne crying hysterically and banging on the door. Jasmine was standing in her crib wagging her finger to Joanne (as if saying No! No!) As soon as I hugged Joanne, she stopped crying.
It finally happened, the fear that we had for weeks came true. Joanne managed to climb out of her crib. I checked her arms and legs, she was not hurt. In fact, I bet she didn't cry because she hurt herself while getting off her crib. She made a total mess in the room. All the stuffed animals were on the floor. The laundry basket was emptied with all the clothes scattered in the room. She cried out of boredom probably because she could not find other things to play with.
Bonnie told us that their kids climbed out of their cribs at age 12 months. She is not a bit surprised of what Joanne did.
Sunday, Mar 7, 1999 (19m+1d)
We went shopping for beds and mattresses. Our baby book recommends retiring the crib when the child is 35 inch tall. Our twins is still 5 inches short of the threshold, but looks like our twins broke the rule of thumb, so it is about time to retire our cribs.We found some children beds that we like. They are made of solid maple with optional huge drawers under the bed. They are made by a company called Vermont Precision Woodworks. But they are outrageously expensive ($900 a set with the drawers, but not including the mattress). I told my wife we can wait and shop around first. I guess buying solid wood furniture is too luxurious for our affordability.
After we got home, we arranged the furniture in the twins' room. We want to make sure that they won't get up in the middle of the night and fetch something that they are not supposed to touch.
Monday, Mar 8, 1999 (19m+2d)
After we put the twins in their own crib, we sometimes found them switched places in the morning. And then a couple of hours later, both twins end up in the same crib. The fences of the cribs can no longer keep the babies in. They just roam freely between the two cribs.At one point of time we tried bathing the twins in the big bathtub, they cried so hard that we abandoned the idea and continue bathing them in their baby tub. Recently, we tried to use the bathtub again, and they like it very much. They enjoy playing the water toys. They are so eager to take bath that whenever we mentioned bathing, they would start tearing on their own clothes.
Thursday, Mar 11, 1999 (19m+5d)
The mattresses that we ordered last weekend were delivered today. They are twin size mattresses with pillow tops made by SpringAir in Union City, CA. Since we have not found the bed frames at the right price, we just put the two mattresses side by side on the floor to create a sleeping area bigger than a king size bed.The twins took no time to break in the mattresses. Whenever we tell them it is bedtime, they look forward to it by rushing to their room, and they climb up to their own bed. They used to cry a lot when we put them in the crib. Now, they just go to sleep quietly.
Friday, Mar 12, 1999 (19m+6d)
Now their beds are just a foot tall, they can get off anytime they want. All of a sudden, the babies become early birds, they get up and play in their room early in the morning.Since we turn off the house's central heating every night, we use a small oil filled radiator type electric heater in the twins room. In the past, the first thing mommy did every morning was to turn off the heater when she picked up the twins from their cribs. Ever since the new mattresses arrived, mommy found the heater already off each morning. The twins have learned that as their morning ritual.
Saturday, Mar 13, 1999 (19m+7d)
We had lunch with Denis and Jane, Poon and Sharleen. In the restaurant we bumped into Louise and Angella too, so they joined us at our table. Jane's pregnacy is really showing now. Poon & Sharleen brought their 3½ month old baby Claire. She is already 15 pounds. In no time, she will be heavier than our twins' 18 lb. feather weight.Denis and Jane need a new TV stand and we are still looking for bed frames for the twins, so we went shopping together at a furniture store after lunch. The twins were excited and thought the store was a playground, they ran around checking out drawers and climbing on sofas etc. We saw a quite decent bed frame with drawers under the bed selling at $270 each. It is much much cheaper than the solid maple bed we saw last week, because this one is made of particle board with wood veneer. We are in no hurry to buy yet because a bed frame will raise the bed to a dangerous height when the twins roll around too much in their sleep.
Afterwards, daddy went to the office to work overtime. Mommy left the twins at auntie Tina's so she could go shopping alone.
Sunday, Mar 14, 1999 (19m+8d)
We took the twins to the park in the morning. It was overcast and chilling cold, so no one was in the park except a 20 month old Chinese boy riding an electric powered tricycle at boring turtle pace. The twins kept pointing to the tricycle with a nagging whine. When we asked the care taker about where they bought the toy, the old lady told us she didn't know, she only knew the boy's daddy paid $250 for it. I told my wife, it won't be fun for the twins to fight for one bike, but it also won't be fun to rid my wallet of $500 to get a pair of snail pace vehicles. So I told the twins to forget it, they are not getting electric powered tricycles.We also let them played on the lawn and we showed them how to blow on the dandelions' seeds. They laughed happily as the seeds flew away in the wind. We let the twins played on the slides for a while before returning home.
Daddy went to the office to work overtime after lunch. Grandma Ling and grandpa came to see the twins. Auntie Tina and cousin Natalie came too.
Wednesday, Mar 17, 1999 (19m+11d)
While the twins were playing in the family room, mommy told the twins that mommy would be busy in the kitchen, if they were tired, they could go to bed. Mommy later found that, the twins went upstairs to their room and went to bed all on their own. They closed the door too.
Thursday, Mar 18, 1999 (19m+12d)
Mommy took the twins to the pre-school nearby to sign up for Fall term 2000. The school told us it is too early to get in the waiting list one year in advance. The twins played with the toys in the preschool before returning home.
Saturday, Mar 20, 1999 (19m+14d)
Daddy went to the office to work overtime in the morning and early afternoon. Mommy took the twins to grocery shopping for the party in the evening.We invited several families to a dinner party at our place. The guests included CW, Bonnie, CW's mom, their kids Addison and Deanna; Simon, Annie and their kids Jocelyn, Carolyn and Kristen; Lillian is in Shanghai, so William came alone.
We served miso soup, sashimi appetitizer, and rib eye roast, followed by desserts. The guests also brought a cheese cake and raspberry mousse for dessert. After dinner, we sat around the desserts on the dining table and chatted. The husbands chatted about computer and high tech related topics. The wives formed a different circle and chatted about in-laws and other gossips. My mom and CW's chatted at a different corner on their own topics. The kids were horsing around the house and had a really great time playing with each other. We put the twins to bed at their bedtime and the party went on till around midnight.
Sunday, Mar 21, 1999 (19m+15d)
We are still looking for the bed frames for the twins. Bonnie recommended a store in Dublin, CA. So we went to Dublin to take a look. The store carries good quality furniture made of either solid pine, oak, maple or cherry. The prices are very reasonable for solid wood furniture.The store owner also agree with us that the beds are too tall for the twins and it would be better to leave the mattresses on the floor for now. Instead, we bought a solid maple 5-drawer dresser for the twin's room. The store is owned by a Chinese couple, so we did our bargaining in Chinese. We were able to get a discount on top of the sales price.
For those who are shopping for wood furniture, I also recommend it. The store is Classic Furniture, at 7232 Regional Street, Dublin, CA 94568. (925) 828-8889 It is close to the intersection of I-680 and I-580.
We loaded the dresser into the chunk of the minivan (we saved $60 delivery fee) and headed home. On the way, we saw signs of some new homes in Dublin. So we stopped to check out the model homes. Those homes are around 3500 sq. ft. and are in the $550-700K range. Besides being too far from work (40 min. off peak hour, and perhaps 90 min. during rush hour), these homes are too expensive for us. (Click here to see the home prices in the Bay Area.) Nevertheless, it is a pleasure to walk around huge luxury home and dream. The twins enjoyed the trip too.
We were home at around 6pm. Mommy's cousins were coming over from Alameda. Ken and Emily are expecting (14? weeks now). Since the twins cribs have already retired, we passed one on to their baby. Kevin came too to help on the hauling. We had dinner and desserts and chatted for awhile before they took off.
Monday, Mar 22, 1999 (19m+16d)
Mommy called me at work and told me that she was totally grossed out by the twins. The twins pulled up their clothes in front of the mirror and tucked in the belly and then let it bounce back. They had great fun doing it.They learned this trick from daddy. This was exactly the same trick I did to them when the twins wanted to check out my belly button.
Tuesday, Mar 23, 1999 (19m_17d)
We have not checked their teeth for a while. We found that Joanne has caught up with Jasmine, she also has 12 teeth.The score: Joanne 12, Jasmine 12.
Wednesday, Mar 23, 1999 (19m+17d)
For weeks, the twins had been pointing to buttons on any clothes and told us "Ball Ball". We had been trying to correct them by telling them that is not Ball, it is "Nau Nau (button)". They never changed to the new word.Then today, it suddenly dawned on me that they are not trying to say "ball", they are trying to mimic me. Since birth, every time after I changed their diapers, when I buttoned up their pants, I would say "barc, barc, barc, barc ..." as each button snapped in place. I did it for attracting their attention so that they wouldn't run away before I finished.
So I told the twin, "barc" not "ball". Immediately, they started saying "barc, barc" when they point to the button. I have found that the twins were learning alright. It was we who were not paying attention.
Thursday, Mar 25, 1999 (19m+19d)
Mommy took the twins to Stanford Shopping Center. The twins used to like to play in the "space ship" in the Warner Brother's store. Today, they preferred going aisle to aisle to check out everything on the shelves. Mommy had a hard time picking up after their mess.I have been working overtime almost every evening this week and the last. I only got to see the twins in the morning before I leave for the office. Tonight, mommy bought sashimi dinner and brought the twins to the office for a surprise visit. The twins were excited and ran around the place. When my coworkers came to see them, the twins were so nervous that they just stared like a deer staring at a headlight.
Joanne bent down under a table to pick up a balloon and when she stood up her head hit the underside of the table, and she hit it really hard too. She cried for a few seconds and she stopped as soon as we hugged her.
Jasmine climbed on an office chair and fell down. She cried for a few seconds and she stopped as soon as we hugged her.
I saw how both accidents happened, but both happened so fast that I could not prevent them.
Friday, Mar 26, 1999 (19m+20d)
Mommy took the twins to the park. Despite bright sunshine, it was very windy. The park was deserted.Mommy called and told me that the twins were giggling and laughing in their room while they were supposed to take an afternoon nap after the trip to the park.
An hour later, mommy called again and complained the twins had gone into their closet and spread their clothes all over the room. That explained the laughters we heard earlier.
Saturday, Mar 27, 1999 (19m+21d)
Mommy went out to have her hair done. The twins and daddy stayed home all day. Aunt Tina & cousin Natalie came to visit the twins.
Sunday, Mar 28, 1999 (19m+22d)
We looked around for open houses. We thought about picking a better school district for the twin's future schooling. We took the twins in and out of the car at every stop. But the twins did not seem to mind about the frequent stops. The twins also enjoyed getting into other people's houses.
Saturday, Apr 3, 1999 (19m+28d)
Mommy's friends Jenny & Connie came to visit. We went shopping at Yoahan and we had lunch there too. We then went to the Great Mall where the twins saw some helium balloons and they again went crazy. We had to buy two to stop their nagging. We bumped into Rebecca and Marianne et al. Rebecca later followed us home. Mommy chatted with her friends while daddy took care of the twins.Grandma Chui was really happy today and bought us dinner, we dined at ABC seafood restaurant. The restaurant was crowded and the kitchen was slow, we spent almost two hours there. The food was excellent, so the wait was worthwhile, the only problem was that the twins were restless towards the end. We saw Simon's family there on the way out, we said hi before we left.
Sunday, Apr 4, 1999 (19m+29d)
We heard that the Saratoga school district is very good. So we went to check out the neighborhood. But the houses there are outrageously expensive. (Click here to see the home prices in the Bay Area.)Daddy went to work overtime at the office in the evening.
The twins picks up some new routines these days. They always ask for their toothbrushes when they see us brushing. We will help them brush a little bit and then we will let them bite on the bristle for a while for the extra cleaning. The problem with that is they will use the toothbrushes to brush the table, the bed, the carpet and then put them back in their mouths. Also they sometimes gag with the toothbrushes in the mouth, so we try to wait awhile before giving them the brushes if they have just eaten.
Before bedtime, they will stand in front of the sink and nag. They like to sit on the counter top with their feet in the sink. We'll fill the sink with water while they "brush" (not really) their teeth. We take the opportunity to wash their faces, hands and feet before taking them to bed.
Monday, Apr 5, 1999 (19m+30d)
Daddy took some time off to take grandma Chui to a cataract eye surgery in the morning. The surgery went very well according to the doctor. Grandma said she can see very clearly with her "new" eye. She said the actual surgery only took about 15 minutes, the rest of the time were spent on preparation by the nurses and waiting for the available operation room.Dr. Ngoc Nguyen in San Jose is highly recommended by grandma's classmates at the senior center where she learns English. Many of her classmates had very successful removal of cataract with no complication at all. Many can see very far with no glasses on. The doctor office is always packed with patients. The nurse at San Jose Medical Center told us that this doctor is very popular and efficient. She said the doctor has scheduled 7 surgeries for today alone and she can finish one surgery in about half an hour. We will need to wait 6 weeks for the healing to verify how good the surgery actually was.
Daddy worked long hours to make up for the personal time off. Mommy said Joanne cried because Jasmine didn't take the balloon when she handed her one. I guess crying over a rejection is better than crying over a lost fight.
Tuesday, Apr 6, 1999 (20m+0d)
The twins are 20 months old today.
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started on Apr 8, 1999