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This journal is about raising identical twins.The Twenty Third Month
Previous entries
Sunday, Jun 6, 1999 (22m+0d)
The twins are 22 months old today.We went shopping at Costco and then visited some open houses in Saratoga. None of the house we can afford, but we just hope some cheaper one will come on the market. We later had dinner with Hing & Lucy at Joy Luck Place in Cupertino.
Thursday, Jun 10, 1999 (22m+4d)
I heard the twins giggling early in the morning, so I went and checked them out. I found Jasmine lying on her bed with her sleepwear unbuttoned and the diaper opened. The twins had figured out how to pull off the snap-buttons on their clothing. Now they figured out how to undo their diapers too. Worst of all, the diaper was loaded with noisome poop. Both twins giggled and burst into laughters whenever Joanne peeked into the diaper. I immediately checked their hands for contamination. I was lucky to catch them early enough that they have not touched the poop. I cannot imagine the mess if they start smearing the stuff all over their room.Uncle Alex came to the area on a business trip, he stopped by our place today. We went out for dinner together.
Friday, Jun 11, 1999 (22m+5d)
The twins had a weight check at the doctor office.
Joanne weighed 19 lb. 5 oz.
Jasmine weighed 19 lb. 7 oz.They are still on their own growth curve, well below the 5th percentile curve. Nevertheless, their curve is slanting up at a steady pace. We heard on the news that some recent study shows that over 50% of the kids in the U.S. are overweight. In other words, if the kid is on the 50th percentile curve, he is too heavy. I think it is okay for our twins to stay below the curve as long as they are healthy and happy.
Saturday, Jun 12, 1999 (22m+6d)
We attended Aunt Jun's graduation commencement at Cal State Hayward. The twins just sat in the stroller while we stood in the sun to get roasted. The ceremony was over in about two hours, but we spent another two hours in traffic jam before we got out of the campus. We had a late lunch in Oakland, by the time we left the restaurant it was almost 5pm.We went back to Aunt Tina's place to just relax. We waited till past 8pm for dinner, we had Korean BBQ at Korean House Restaurant in San Francisco's Japan town.
It was a long day travelling from San Jose to Hayward, to Oakland, to Fremont, to San Francisco, and back, but the twins were happy and well behaved.
Sunday, Jun 13, 1999 (22m+7d)
We had lunch (Dim Sum) with Alan, Wendy and their daughter Valerie. Valerie is 4 months younger than our twins, but she is as tall as them and now weighs 24 lb.After lunch we went housing shopping again. We had Italian dinner afterward.
Monday, Jun 14, 1999 (22m+8d)
When mommy checked on the twins during their afternoon nap, she found Jasmine in her bare butt. Somehow, she unbuttoned herself, took off the diaper and slept with no protection (to the mattress, that is) at all.
Tuesday, Jun 15, 1999 (22m+9d)
Mommy found Jasmine sleeping without diaper again.
Wednesday, Jun 16, 1999 (22m+10d)
Joanne hurt her chin (I don't remember how). She got an one inch long hair line scratch under her chin.
Friday, Jun 18, 1999 (22m+12d)
Mommy took the twins to the neighborhood park today. The twins plucked almost all the dandelion out of the lawn. They enjoy blowing on the seeds and watch them fly in the wind. Come to think of it, they helped spreading the weeds.
Saturday, Jun 19, 1999 (22m+13d)
I worked overtime at the office all day, I don't remember what the twins did today. In fact, over the past week, I worked such long hours that I went to work before the twins got up and came home after they have gone to bed. At one point, I did see the twins for over two full days.
Sunday, Jun 20, 1999 (22m+14d)
Today is my second Fathers' Day.We took the twins to San Francisco and let them play with toys in FAO Schwarz for over two hours. We then did some baby clothes shopping in Chinatown.
We had the Fathers' Day dinner at Equinox, the revolving restaurant, above the Hyatt Regency in Embarcadero Center. It has a great view of the bay, but the meals are expensive.
After dinner, we went to the atrium in the lobby level. We sat next to the pianist who was playing live music for the hotel guests. The twins played peek-a-boo with the pianist and they laughed and giggled loudly but not in harmony with the piano music. They also ran around the lobby until Jasmine hit her forehead on the corner of a sofa table.
When we got home, I asked Jasmine to lie on mommy's Tempur-pedic pillow. I told her that it is an expensive pillow I bought for mommy's birthday. Jasmine seemed to understand the significance and enjoyed it very much. Later at bedtime, she fought her way back from her room into our bed. She lied on mommy's pillow refusing to get up. It was late at night and mommy did not want to fight with her, so she let Jasmine have the pillow for the night. Jasmine contentedly went back to her own bed with her trophy.
Monday, Jun 21, 1999 (22m+15d)
At nap time this afternoon, Jasmine pulled the same trick on mommy and wanted to take her pillow. This time, not a late night condition, mommy did not yield to her. She explained to Jasmine that the pillow is not hers and she cannot have it. Well, Jasmine seemed to understand and stopped the nagging.In these days, when the twins are put in their room for their afternoon nap, they would play for over two hours before quieting down, then they would sleep for about an hour before waking up. They would sleep longer if we had taken them out of the house to wear them down a little.
Tuesday, Jun 22, 1999 (22m+16d)
We checked the twins' mouths. Jasmine has a total of 16 teeth in place, i.e. all except the second molars. Joanne has one less than Jasmine's.When I look back at this journal, I noticed that I wrote more about Jasmine than about Joanne. It is not because we paid less attention to her. It was just because Joanne is less eventful. She behaves well and everything was as expected. She didn't take off her diaper, she didn't nag for mommy's pillow, she is just a good child. We love them both equally.
Wednesday, Jun 23, 1999 (22m+17d)
The weather was getting hot. The twins wore shorts today. The shorts were little oversized. It is funny to see their skinny limbs sticking out of the lantern like shorts. Mommy gave the twins a haircut. They now look more like boys than girls.The twins babbles a lot these days, we don't understand most of what they say though.
Jasmine spilled a few drops of milk on the carpet, she ran to the drawer, took a wash cloth and rushed back to wipe off the spill. She just knows how to take care of things. She also takes care of Joanne's business too. For example, she would find Joanne's doll and return it to her bed at bedtime.
Thursday, Jun 24, 1999 (22m+18d)
The workload at the office eased up a little. I didn't have to work overtime today. So I could catch up on writing this journal after a three week hiatus.Mommy took the twins to visit Sharleen and baby Claire. Sharleen's neighbor holds a pool party every Thursday. Six babies were in the pool today including our twins. Our twins were the oldest among all the babies there. The next oldest baby was 15 months old. The twins were not used to being the "big sisters", they tend not to play with the babies.
Before they left, mommy asked the twins to kiss baby Claire goodbye. When Jasmine approached Claire, she pushed Jasmine aside. She is a strong 6 month old baby. Though Jasmine took the rejection well, I guess our twins need to build up some muscles to match up with her.
Saturday, Jun 26, 1999 (22m+20d)
We went to ABC seafood restaurant in Foster city for lunch. After lunch, we walked to the boardwalk by the bay shore. We stopped at the pavilion on the shore. As soon as we walked in, we saw a set of twins with their mom and grandma. We sat down next to them and talked about twins. They have a set of 9 month old energetically bouncing fraternal boys. The twins also have a three year old sister who are very proud of her brothers. The mommy is a twin herself in a family of seven children. The grandma promised her twin daughters that she would quit her job to help if they ever have twins. Now she is here to fill her promise. They grew up in the midwest and moved here from the east coast recently.While we were chatting, another mother came in with a double stroller. Of course, the first question we asked was "Are they twins?" Sure they are. They are 9 month old boy/girl fraternal twins. An unplanned occasion with three sets of twins coming to the same place is a very unlikely coincidence. And the mix was very even too, we got twins boys, twins girls and boy/girl combo and both identical and fraternal twins were represented too.
Our twins were shy and hid next to us all the time.
We later went to Zany Brainy and Toy 'R Us nearby and bought some toys for the twins. We bought two sets of dolls complete with fake milk bottles. The twins were busy "feeding" the dolls immediately.
We had a Japanese dinner with William and Lillian in Cupertino. After dinner, we went to Wil'n'Lil's place to have dessert and looked at the pictures of their recent trip to Spain and France. The twins played happily with William and Lillian.
Sunday, Jun 28, 1999 (22m+22d)
In the morning, we swung by Alameda to pick up great-grandma. We then had lunch with Simon, Winnie, Samantha and Winnie's mom in San Francisco's Flower Lounge Restaurant. After lunch, we went to their place and Samantha shared her toys with the twins. Four year old Samatha filed an objective report to her father. She said: "The red one (Joanne's dress) is not sharing, the blue one (Jasmine) is sharing." Such report pretty much summarized her impression on the twins' personality.We went to Grandma Ling's place for dinner. We were home at around 9pm. The twins had a long afternoon nap, so they were still very energetic and played happily for hours before going to bed. While playing, Jasmine babbled and made a lot of noises. I quietly videotaped their activity and perhaps I can ask her to interpret the speech when she grows older.
Saturday, Jul 3, 1999 (22m+27d)
We left home at 9am, drove through the traffic jam in San Francisco and headed for our vacation at Clear Lake, CA. We arrived at the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas in Talmage at around 1pm. We rendezvoused with CW C. and Alan L. family there.We took a tour around the campus. Besides the Chinese style gate at the entrance, there weren't many signs hinting this is a Buddhist temple. The campus was converted from a hospital built in the 30's. When we went into the worship hall, the Buddhist monks and nuns were doing their daily chants. Unlike the exterior, the interior was decorated just like a traditional Chinese style Buddhist temple. After the short tour, we had a vegetarian lunch in the restaurant on campus.
We left CTTB at around 3:30pm and continue our way to Clear Lake. We arrived at the WorldMark resort in the city of Nice at around 4:30pm. We checked in to a 2 bedroom condo unit, with a hide-away bed in the living room, it accommodated three families quite comfortably. The unit has a gas grill on the balcony. Bonnie and CW used it to prepare a very nice BBQ dinner for all of us. After dinner, we walked to the pier on the lake shore hoping to see the fireworks from the nearby cities. It was too windy and we didn't stay long.
Sunday, Jul 4, 1999 (22m+28d)
At around 4:30am, Jasmine woke up and cried hysterically. It took us almost half an hour to calm her down and back to sleep. Joanne was waken by the commotions and she cried a little bit too before getting back to sleep. We still couldn't figure out why they cried, my guess is the unfamiliar surrounding.Today is the 223rd birthday for the USA.
We spent the morning and early afternoon at the swimming pool. All the kids, including 18 month old Valerie, enjoyed the one foot deep kiddie pool where they could wade around without wearing the buoys.
After drying ourselves, we went exploring the towns nearby. We found a Sicilian restaurant near Kelseyville and we had an Italian dinner there.
After we got back to the condo, CW, Addison, Alan and I went rollerblading on the paved road along the lake shore behind the resort. We quitted when it got too dark to see and dodge the stones and twigs on the roadway. When we returned, Bonnie, Wendy and Sandy had already prepared the kids for the fireworks shows.
We were told that the city of Lakeport, Lucerne and Clearlake all had their fireworks shows. We went to the pier and waited for the spectacular Fourth of July fireworks. When the fireworks started, we were all disappointed. Due to the distance from those cities, the fireworks were as small as a thumb nail at arm's length. Some local people were burning their own fireworks on the lake shore near the pier. The small fireworks close by were drawing more attention than those across the lake.
Joanne and Jasmine were so scared of the noise that they tensely hid their faces in our clothes. After we suggested them to cover their ears, they eased up a little with their little palms firmly pressed against their ears.
Jasmine woke up crying again at 2:30 in the morning.
Monday, Jul 5, 1999 (22m+29d)
Again, we spent the morning in the pool at the resort. After lunch, CW, Alan and their family left us and headed back to the Bay Area. We rented and watched the movie "Dance with me" (DVD|VHS). It was an uneventful day.
Tuesday, Jul 6, 1999 (23m)
The twins are 23 month old today.
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started on July 14, 1999