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This journal is about raising identical twins.The Twenty First Month
Previous entries
Tuesday, Apr 6, 1999 (20m+0d)
The twins are 20 months old today.After we put the twins in bed, we usually check on them again before we go to bed ourselves. We often found the heater turned off, and the twins had their cardigan sweaters taken off. We know for sure that neither one knows how to take off the sweater by herself yet, they must have helped each other to pull it off. Sometimes, if they did all those acts after we checked on them, the twins would have icy cold hands and feet in the morning because they most often kicked off their blankets too.
Neither twin speaks yet. However, Jasmine is more willing to repeat some words we teach her. And she babbles occasionally as if she is singing a song in her own language.
Friday, Apr 9, 1999 (20m+3d)
Just in previous entry few days ago, I said Joanne was not as willing to repeat our words. It has all changed now, Joanne also repeats the words we taught her. She must have the sixth sense on what I have written about her and she corrects me with her action.Mommy took the twins to shopping at Stanford Shopping Center with Elizabeth and her kids Lorri and Harrison.
Saturday, Apr 10, 1999 (20m+4d)
We all (including mommy's entire family) went to great-grandpa's grave to pay respect. We had lunch afterwards and then we went across the bay to San Francisco. We let the twins play a little at FAO Schwarz and we also checked out the flower show at Macy's. We returned to Grandma Ling's place for dinner with the whole family.After dinner mommy went to meet with Marianne to talk about her upcoming wedding. Daddy stayed with the kids in the car.
Sunday, Apr 11, 1999 (20m+5d)
We went to check out more houses in Saratoga. We found out that a lot of the Saratoga addresses do not use the Saratoga school district. And the prices differ a lot depending on the school district. The twins seemed to enjoy the in-and-out trip. At one stop, I stayed in the car while mommy went to check out an open house. The twins cried and wanted to get out.Daddy worked overtime at the office in the evening.
Monday, Apr 12, 1999 (20m+6d)
Jasmine threw up her milk in the first feeding in the morning. She later developed a fever and she threw up anything she ate. She cried a lot because she was hungry but she could not hold anything in.We told ourselves that we had to knock on wood because the twins have not been sick since December. It had been a healthy four month period despite several abnormal cold spells this winter. This is the first illness the twins have for months.
Tuesday, Apr 13, 1999 (20m+7d)
Jasmine's fever continued, she had diarrhea and her stool turned greenish yellow. We called the doctor's office, the nurse told us it is caused by viral infection in her digestive system. Her body is fighting the virus. We should stop feeding her milk and solid food. We can feed her rice porridge and a lot of fluid to prevent dehydration. Children's Tylenol is not needed unless the fever goes above 102°F. She does not need to see the doctor unless her conditions worsen.When Jasmine saw me come home in the evening, she cried in my lap very sadly. I guess she tried to tell me she suffered much today. She looked very tired. She just lied on the bed quietly. Sometimes she fell asleep, sometimes she woke up crying.
Luckily, Joanne was not affected. She was happy as usual. She tried to get Jasmine to play with her, but Jasmine just lied there.
Wednesday, Apr 14, 1999 (20m+8d)
Jasmine's fever is lowered. And she wants to eat. The vomiting has stopped, but she still has slight diarrhea. She seems to be much better, at least she is walking around as usual.
Thursday, Apr 15, 1999 (20m+9d)
Same as yesterday.
Friday, Apr 16, 1999 (20m+10d)
Jasmine seems to have recovered, but she still looks very tired. When I picked up Jasmine, and Joanne, I could feel a different in their weights. Jasmine could have lost up to a pound.Joanne has a fever at 99°F, but she does not have any other symptoms yet. She might have gotten the bug from Jasmine. Joanne's fever is down to normal in the afternoon. She recovered fast.
Unlike Jasmine who had totally lost her appetite for a few days, Joanne ate a lot and drank a lot of fluid when Jasmine was sick. I guess the fluid help her get through her fever in just a few hours.
Saturday, Apr 17, 1999 (20m+11d)
We attended Steve & Irene Sargent's wedding. The twins were quiet during the ceremony in the church. But during the bride's speech in the reception at the hotel, Jasmine cried loudly in tears for no apparent reason. Mommy had to take her out of the room.In the reception, we met a lot of ex-coworkers from the former Frame Technology (now Adobe.) Many brought their babies and small kids. The hosts hired two teenagers as baby sitters, we let the twins play with the toys in the kid area. We left the party at around 3pm when the twins became very fussy because it was well past their nap time.
In the afternoon, we went to Uncle Ivan's place and watched the movie "Lost in Space" on DVD (VHS). In the evening, we went to Kioku Sushi for dinner.
Sunday, Apr 18, 1999 (20m+12d)
We took the twins to Great Mall to shop for some summer clothes. In the afternoon, daddy went back to office to work overtime. Uncle Ivan, Auntie Tina and Cousin Natalie came to visit the twins and we had take-out dinner together. After dinner, daddy went to work again when the twin went to bed early.For the past few weeks, Jasmine was a crybaby while Joanne was very nice. Even weeks before her fever, Jasmine was very cranky probably because of teething. When looking back in the past journal entries, I found the opposite. Joanne was a crybaby while Jasmine was very nice some time back. These two babies take their turns to act nice. That is better than two crying babies at the same time.
Tuesday, Apr 20, 1999 (20m+14d)
The bug is getting to Joanne for real this time, she has diarrhea just like Jasmine did, she lies on the bed lazily just like Jasmine did. Her fever is not as high, she is not vomiting and she is not as cranky as Jasmine. We hope she recovers soon.Looks like mommy also caught the same bug. A sick mommy taking care of two sick babies is tough work.
The twins said "Ma Ma" accurately for the first time, that makes mommy very happy. Looks like the M sound was not easy for them to pick up compared to the D and B sound they had no trouble picking up months ago.
Jasmine has another new tooth, it is the lower right cuspid (tooth R)
Wednesday, Apr 21, 1999 (20m+15d)
We installed the @Home cable modem Internet service by TCI@Home today. It is blazingly fast, according to @Home, it is 100 times faster than 56K modem on telephone line. We have just seen the true World Wide Web, no more World-Wide-Wait for us, no more tying up the phone line either.I've heard there is an experimental optical fiber network set up in the city of Palo Alto, but I think cable modem is the next best thing. Besides, the cable service is only 2X what we pay for AOL on phone line. Getting 100X the speed and 24 hour unlimited access for 2X the price, it is still a good deal.
Mommy's condition worsen, she had diarrhea all day long. By 5pm, she was shivering uncontrollable. She could not reach me at work since I was in a meeting. She could not reach her doctor because it was past her office hour. So she called 911 to get help. The firemen and paramedics arrived, they said she was simply sick, most likely a flu. They checked her vital signs and her temperature was at 104°F. Because it is not life threatening, they refused to take her to the hospital.
I rushed home as soon as I got her voice mail. Her fever and shivering had subsided. Her doctor called back and suggested we should see a doctor right away. But her office was closed at the moment, so we should go to the emergency room at a hospital. Mommy called Grandma Ling to come help taking care of the twins. After grandma and Auntie Jun arrived, we headed for the emergency room to see a doctor.
The nurse at the hospital said mommy was dehydrated and she was put on the IV to replenish her body fluid. The doctor also prescribed some medication to stop the diarrhea, it was injected to the IV tube. The doctor said the test on her stool found white blood cells, which indicates bacterial infection instead of a flu. He diagnosed it as food poisoning and prescribed 400ml of Cipro IV (an antibiotic, Ciprofloxacin) via IV injection.
Thursday, Apr 22, 1999 (20m+16d)
Mommy got some rest on the hospital bed, but I could only took couple of naps on a chair. Over the course of the night, she received three bags of 1000ml Saline solution in addition to the 400ml of antibiotic via the IV injection. When we left the hospital at 7 o'clock in the morning, mommy felt much better and she looked plumper due to the 3000+ ml of fluid. We got home and I slept until noon before I went to work.My mom told me later that when the paramedics was in the house, the twins clung to her and didn't make a sound. They handled the situation quite well. The twins were asleep at home during mommy's trip to the hospital, so they weren't even aware of it. With two grandmas and Auntie Jun taking care of the twins, mommy can take a good rest and she recovered well. Mommy lost 4 pounds compared to three days ago.
In the past two days, Joanne was eating well and she stopped having diarrhea. Looks like she was stronger than mommy in fighting the bug.
Saturday, Apr 24, 1999 (20m+18d)
Cousin Natalie came to swim at our community pool. We also took the twins to watch. There were other kids in the pool splashing around. Since the water is very cold, we just let the twins stand on the step to get their feet wet.Uncle Ivan took Grandma Ling home.
Sunday, Apr 25, 1999 (20m+19d)
We left the twins at Grandma Ling's while we attended Marianne & Ken's wedding in Berkeley. It was a big party, Ken is the only son and his father has many business associates. The room was packed with people, I was told they have invited 300+ guests. They had the wedding at HS Lordship's Restaurant near the Berkeley marina. It has a great view of the bay. Since mommy has just recovered from diarrhea, we didn't stay for the banquet.Grandma and great-grandma said the twins behaved very well while we were gone. But Jasmine turned into a nagging monster as soon as she saw us coming back. It is very frustrating at both ends because the twins cannot tell us what they want. I hope they start speaking soon.
Wednesday, Apr 28, 1999 (20m+22d)
The twins are more willing to repeat after us. We would ask them to repeat the name of the items before handing to them. Some words are difficult for them to pronounce accurately, but at least they try. In the past, they usually just gave us a blank stare.
Saturday, May 1, 1999 (20m+25d)
We took the twins to the Happy Hallow zoo in Kelley Park, San Jose. When we told them what the animals are, they waved to them. They were interested in the animals, but not very excited. When we tried to take the twins into the petting zoo area, they were so tense that they clamped onto us like a pair of iron claws. When we showed them the goats, they turned and buried their faces into our clothing.We later tried to ride on the carousel of wooden horses. They cried and struggled to get off the horses. We ended up sitting on a bench on the carousel. There was another carousel with miniature police cars and fire engines. Both kids were interested and were willing to ride without our presence. After the first ride, Joanne didn't want to get off, but Jasmine wanted to leave. So we put both kids into the same car and let them ride one more time. After the second ride, Jasmine really wanted to get off, we had to remove Joanne with some resistance.
We had dinner with William and Lillian. We wanted to try Higashi West restaurant in Palo Alto, but was told that dinner on weekends requires reservation a week in advance. It must be a very popular restaurant. Higashi means "east" in Japanese, the name of the restaurant implies they mix Asian and Western cuisines. Being turned away at the door, we went to Sushi Tomi in Mountain View instead.
We went to Wil 'n Lil's place after dinner. We chatted a bit and played the "Sequence" board game. The kids went to bed early in the guest room. After we left them in the room, they giggled and played for awhile. I told Lillian that the room must be too bright with the night light on because the twins are used to pitch darkness when they sleep. Lillian went in the room and unplugged the night light from the wall. Silence was achieved within minutes. We went on with our games and we left past midnight.
Sunday, May 2, 1999 (20m+26d)
Mommy went shopping with Lucy, daddy stayed home baby sitting the twins.The twins have very good appetite recently, they eat almost anything we feed them. They eat quite a lot too. I hope they would regain all the weight they lost when they were sick few weeks ago.
The twins enjoy the daily routine of going to bed. When we say it is bedtime, they would climb on our back to be carried to their beds. Then they would climb to their own spot in their beds and wait for the good night kiss. Sometimes they would even pull up a blanket by themselves.
Thursday, May 6, 1999 (21m+0d)
The twins are 21 months old today.
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started on May 7, 1999