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This journal is about raising identical twins.The Thirtieth Month
Previous entriesNote: This page contains Chinese text in Big5 encoding.
Thursday, Jan 6, 2000 (29m)
The twins are 29 months old.
Saturday, Jan 8, 2000 (29m+2d)
We left the twins at aunt Tina's place in the afternoon. They like to play with cousin Natalie. Daddy and mommy went out to see the movie "Bicentennial Man" (buy DVD|VHS) by Robin Williams. We went to dinner with friends at the Koi Palace restaurant in Daly City. It was past 10pm when we picked up the kids again. The twins were tired but happy, and they fell asleep on the way home.
Sunday, Jan 9, 2000 (29m+3d)
We took the twins to the children's Museum in San Jose. They had a fun time playing there.Mommy retired the nippled milk bottles. The twins now drink milk from a bottle with a straw.
Monday, Jan 10, 2000 (29m+4d)
Mommy took the twins to grandpa's. She helped grandpa handle the insurance paper work for the new car. The twins was happy playing with their grandparents and aunt Jun, hence mommy could take a time-out to have dinner with her friend Jenny.After the twins went to bed, we took down the Christmas tree.
Tuesday, Jan 11, 2000 (29m+5d)
The twins are 888 days old. The number 8 is good for Chinese because it sounds like the word for prosperity. We should have bought a lotto ticket.Joanne cried when she came downstairs. She missed the Christmas tree.
Saturday, Jan 15, 2000 (29m+9d)
The week was as usual, mommy taking the twin to shopping or meeting with other moms and babies. Their usual routine is to have lunch with another mom, then go out to the mall and then let the twins take a nap in the car on the return trip. They spend much time with Debbie and baby Kendrick especially.Daddy is unusually busy at work and missing all the actions with the twins. Daddy is tied up by a software performance problem reported by a customer and had been working long hours to optimize the computer code for weeks now.
We went to the "Home Show of the South Bay" at the Santa Clara Convention Center. We rendezvoused with Wil'n'Lil there. The twins ran around the aisles for about one third of the time, they wanted us to carry them the rest of the time. It was an arm-busting trip. After the show, we went and checked out William's new house. They get a great view of the Silicon Valley from their living room. We left them at around 5pm.
Mommy did some shopping at Costco while the twins and daddy take a late afternoon nap in the car. We then had dinner at SuWon Korean BBQ buffet. The twins ate free.
Sunday, Jan 16, 2000 (29m+10d)
We had lunch with Poon and Denis' family. Baby Claire walks around quite well now. Baby Jonathan didn't change much except a bit bigger. Daddy worked overtime in the evening.The twins are doing their quotidian routines quite well. They like to brush their teeth because of the taste of the oral gel. They don't mind letting us add couple of brush strokes to make sure they don't miss a spot. The part they enjoy most is the rinse. We bought them a two level steps so that they can stand above the sink when spitting the water.
Tuesday, Jan 18, 2000 (29m+12d)
Today, we submitted the twins' pre-school enrollment application for Summer and Fall term at the Challenger School. This year, the school changed the application procedure at the last minute from a first come first serve basis to a lottery system. There used to be a line of parents camping outside the school three days before they accept application forms. I heard that when they accepted application for returning students two weeks ago, a big fight broke out at the line outside the other campus. That might be the reason why they cancelled the first come first serve procedure so that it gives no incentive for parents to fight to get in first. I am very glad that they changed the procedure because we would not camp out on the street for 72 hours and besides I don't know Kung Fu to defend my spot in the line.
Wednesday, Jan 19, 2000 (29m+13d)
Mommy invited several moms and babies to have lunch at our place. Only Sharleen, baby Claire, Debbie and baby Kendrick showed up. The other babies were sick. It is good for the twins to spend more time with other kids before they attend pre-school.
Friday, Jan 21, 2000 (29m+15d)
Daddy has worked long hours everyday this week. The only time I got to see the kids is the 30 minutes in the morning before I leave home for work. The software performance problem that I have been working on for weeks was finally resolved, just in time for my vacation next week.The babies start to like Barney the dinosaur. I know Barney is a character hated by many adults, but the kids love to hear the songs. Every morning, the twins either ask for Elmo, Laa-Laa or Barney. Joanne is very particular that she be the one to put the videotape in the machine. She would shove Jasmine away if she were in the way. She often put the tape in the wrong way. Mommy always has to remind her to look for the arrow on the cartridge. She will do it right if reminded.
The twins used to scream loudly. Mommy told them that they hurt her ears. And the twins picked up the phrase. Now, whenever they hear any loud noise or music, they will cover their ears and say "�j�n�եJ�h" which means the ears hurt.
Thinking back, when the twins first started to communicate with us, they just said "Erh, Erh!" for almost everything. We had to guess their meaning from their gesture, facial expression and the current circumstances in context. Then they repeated partial phrases we used in our sentences. When used in appropriate situations, we can readily tell what they want such as milk, diaper change etc. Now they went one step further and can make their own broken sentence by combining phrases their own way.
For example, when our car drove to a darken street with no street lamp, they would say "�¹���ڻ����" the Cantonese phrases for "dark, cannot see".Even though the phrases are not connected in a complete sentence, we can clearly tell that there is a thought process in their little minds, they can convey a message by building from phrases they have picked up from various situations.Another example, when mommy told Joanne she had bad breath, she responded with "�f������pupu" the Cantonese phrases for "bad breath, brush teeth, rinse mouth" and then she ran to the bathroom to brush.
After they finished watching their videotape, they would say "ڻ���˱a�h�@��" in Cantonese "finished, rewind, once more".
Once after Joanne greeted grandma Ling on the phone, she told herself "�s�C�C�Ĩĥ{�{" in Cantonese "greeted grandma, good girl, well done".
This morning when I put the twins in the car, and I told Jasmine I cannot find her toy in the car, she told me "�Y���}��" (it is in mommy's room.)
Saturday, Jan 22, 2000 (29m+16d)
We bumped into Bonnie's aunt Christine in the restaurant after lunch. She was with her daughters Mandy and Michelle. Michelle came to the twins first birthday party with her mom, so I still recognized Michelle even though she is much taller now. However, I have not seen Mandy for 4, 5 years and almost could not recognize her because she is now a grown woman turning 21 soon. Wow! Time flies.We got an invitation in the mail from Autowest Honda in Fremont where they serviced my car before. They are having a sales event this weekend with a giveaway grand prize of $25,000 and they guarantee a prize if we bring the invitation to the dealership. We had nothing else to do, so we went to claim our prize. Even before we turned into the parking lot, the twins were nagging for the big balloons flying above the new cars. The receptionist told us our claim number won a sportwatch. But when she saw our cute twins, she gave us an extra one. So we pushed our luck and asked if the twins could have some balloons. They were each given a big 15" balloons. And as usual, Jasmine claimed the yellow one and called it A-choo (for Pikachu) and Joanne claimed the red one and called it Da-da (for Charmander).
They developed this color preference ever since we bought them the (jumpsuit like) sleepers from B.U.M. equipment. Jasmine took the yellow one and Joanne took the red one. Once one baby in yellow and one in red watched the Pokemon videotape, I jokingly called one Pikachu and one Charmander. And the names of the cartoon characters stuck to the colors since then.They are very good at telling which belongs to whom. We can never put on the wrong clothes on them. They will tell us and refused to wear their sister's clothes. They have a pair of Hello Kitty plush toys. The toys are identical except Joanne's has a little defect. They will tell us when we give them the wrong one. With one of a kind items, they are willing to share and take turns. When they are fighting for any item, "��j�j" (elder sister's turn) and "��f�f" (younger sister's turn) are the loudest verbal exchange.
After we got our prize, we looked around the new car lot and a salesman showed us the Honda Oddessy. It is a very well designed car. We especially like the way the third bench-seat at the back folds into a well below the floor. When the seat is at its normal position, the well becomes an extra deep trunk space. We wouldn't have bought a Dodge Caravan if this car were available when we shopped for a minivan. It was just wrong timing.
We then walked over next door to the Lexus dealer and let the twins play in the luxury cars in the show room. We looked at the RX300 and mommy said it is her dream car. Someday, someday when we get the money...
The kids had so much fun jumping on the leather seat that we had to take them out of the car by force. Once we are out of the dealership, the twins asked to go to the toy store. So we went to one nearby. The twins got their hands on almost all the toys they saw except the rocking horse. They didn't even want to go near it. There were several big stuffed animals that had a seat on their backs. I tried to have Jasmine mount a dragon. She screamed in horror. I guess she does not qualify to become a knight. Then I took her to a better-looking Unicorn, she refused to mount it either. It is not wise to turn away from the symbol of luck.
We fed them crackers and milk in the car on our way home. We all took a two-hour nap before we went out for dinner. We bumped into Hing and Lucy in the restaurant. Lucy's pregnancy is showing now. Lucy gave the twins a pair of Pooh Bear who dresses like a firefly.
Mommy usually tells the twins who bought them their gifts. And the twins remember quite well. They often point to their clothes and say "�C�C�R" which means grandma Ling bought this. They would pick up a toy and say "�����R" which mean auntie bought this etc. And they seldom make mistake in identifying the items even after a long time.After dinner daddy went back to work overtime in the office.
Mommy called daddy at the office and hung up before Jasmine had a chance to talk. She cried. That showed how much she missed daddy.
When it was bedtime for the kids, they continuing playing on the bed. Mommy was mad and threatened to take them to the dentist if they didn't get under the blanket immediately. They usually are scared of the dentist due to the previous visit at the dentist office. The threat was not effective today for some reason. Then mommy lied to them that she was sick and needed to get rest. The babies put their hands on her forehead to check her temperature, said "���}�f�f" (mommy's sick) and then quietly went under the cover. That showed how much they love mommy.
Sunday, Jan 23, 2000 (29m+17d)
Daddy worked overnight last night and slept in for half the day.
Monday, Jan 24, 2000 (29m+18d)
Daddy started a one-week vacation. However, there are still some works unfinished at the office. So I went to work for half a day, and would make up for the half day later.
Tuesday, Jan 25, 2000 (29m+19d)
In preparation for a Las Vegas trip tomorrow, we dropped off the twins at grandma Ling's place today. Mommy was tossing and turning all night long. She missed the twins, it was the first time she was away from the babies overnight.
Wednesday, Jan 26, 2000 (29m+20d)
We traveled to Las Vegas. We arrived at the Paris Hotel before check-in time, so we left the luggage with the Bell Captain and went off for sight seeing. We walked around the strip to check out the new hotels and casinos, it had been over 4 years since we visited Las Vegas. After we checked in to the Hotel in the afternoon, mommy couldn't wait to check on the twins by phone. The twins asked about mommy once, when grandma Ling told them mommy went to the bathroom. They didn't ask again. Kids are so gullible!We had buffet dinner at Rio hotel. We were told it has one of the better buffets in town. We tried to walk there at first. On the map, the hotel is just two blocks from ours. We later found that we had to cross a freeway to get there. We gave up and hailed a taxicab instead.
After dinner, we hailed a taxi again and went downtown to the Fremont Street Experience. We watched the light show before getting back. I guess it is a must-see attraction for tourists. However, once is enough, we don't plan to spend the $20 round trip taxi fare again next time.
Thursday, Jan 27, 2000 (29m+21d)
We pampered ourselves in the spa at Paris Hotel. We had the massage package with body skin treatment. The skin treatment was kind of unnecessary, especially for me. The hour-long massage was good.Mommy checked on the twins again. Great-grandma said the twins didn't even ask about us.
We had dinner at the Eiffel Tower Restaurant. It was expensive, but the food was good and the view to the Ballagio fountains was excellent.
After dinner we stayed by the lakeside to watch the Ballagio fountains, the water show came on every 15 minutes. Without knowing it, we spent an hour there. When we watched the fountains from the restaurant window, we could not hear the music. And we found that the show is much different when accompanied by music. We then walked to the Treasure Island Hotel for the late night show of Mystere. We got a front row seat, it turned out that it was a neck-stiffening spot to see the circus performance. It was an excellent show, but I'd prefer to watch it perhaps 20 rows further back. It was past midnight when we came out.
Friday, Jan 28, 2000 (29m+22d)
We checked out from the hotel in the morning and headed to the airport right away. We arrived home at around 2:30pm. We checked on the twins. Great-grandma said Jasmine missed mommy in the morning and cried a little bit. We beat the afternoon commute traffic and picked up the twins at around 4pm. The twins both gave us a big smile when they saw us, but no dramatic reunion scene.
Saturday, Jan 29, 2000 (29m+23d)
We had lunch with Lucy and Hing. The twins requested to see some toys after lunch. We took them to Target's toy department and they played happily there. The twins played with some hula hoops and kept calling them circles. I demonstrated how to gyrate the loop around the waist. The twins got a good laugh at daddy's jiggly belly dance. It was quite sunny outside, we bought them each a pair of sunglasses.The sunglasses have flipped up tinted lens. The twins flipped up the lens and commented "��Minnie" (like Minnie mouse) with two big dark ears sticking up. They call both Mickey and Minnie mouse Minnie. I guess they find Mickey difficult to say.
Sunday, Jan 30, 2000 (29m+24d)
It is Super Bowl Sunday. We stayed home all day. Daddy watched the football game alone while mommy and twins took their afternoon nap.After the game, we went out to Kioku for dinner.
Jasmine has a runny nose. Mommy suspected that she caught the bug when trying on the sunglasses in the store yesterday. Those glasses on the shelves had passed through many hands and might be full of germs.
Monday, Jan 31, 2000 (29m+25d)
Daddy returns to work after one-week vacation. I worked only half day today because of the extra hours I put in last Monday.
Tuesday, Feb 1, 2000 (29m+26d)
Jasmine almost recovered from her runny nose. It was not too bad, it only lasted two days. But it was two miserable days for her. Her upper lip and nose were red from excessive wiping and she cried a lot probably due to pain on the sensitive skin. And the crying sent out more mucus from her nose, it was a vicious cycle.
Wednesday, Feb 2, 2000 (29m+27d)
Jasmine's nose runs again in the morning, but it stopped later in the day.The twins are making longer sentences with a lot of phrases put together. And what they say makes logical sense too. For example, Joanne nagged to "ť�q�q" (turn on the music) while we were watching TV, Jasmine told her "�q�����q�q" that there was music on TV. In another instance, Joanne told mommy that "�j�j�ĨġB�h���", i.e. she had been nice, she wanted to go out (as a reward). Joanne also told "�R�a���ӤU������", i.e. daddy, come downstairs, have dinner.
Today is a special date. The date 2000/2/2 contains all even digits. The last time this happened was over a thousand year ago on 888/8/28. But this is not odd compared to the odd day last year.
Friday, Feb 4, 2000 (29m+28d)
It is New Year Eve. Daddy is taking today and Monday off from work.
Saturday, Feb 5, 2000 (29m+29d)
���ߵo�] Gung Hay Fat Choy! Welcome to the year of Dragon.We had lunch with Elizabeth's family. We knew the restaurant would be packed with people today because the New Year day falls on the weekend. We arrived at the restaurant at 11am and we still had to wait for over 50 minutes to get a table.
I noticed today that Joanne has a tiny speck of freckle under her right eye. Jasmine has a similar freckle on her right cheek at about the height of her mouth. Mommy said they were there for months but I only started to notice them today. I guess since I can tell them apart without close inspection, I have not paid attention to those minor changes on their skin. In fact, Joanne gets a lot more freckles on her skin than Jasmine, some on her back, some on her shoulder.
We went to the Milpitas Square shopping center after lunch. We expected to see some Chinese lion dancers visiting the stores there. We didn't see any Chinese Lions, but instead we saw the lion dancers from a Japanese TaKuDo team. The Japanese lion came over and sniffed Jasmine. Jasmine was sitting on my shoulder at the time, I could feel her trembling. Though I could not see her face, I could tell that she was really scared. The lion dancer definitely felt her fear too because she pulled away immediately before Jasmine had the chance to cry.
Debbie invited us to have the New Year dinner at her house. I got to meet Kendrick's father Chris for the first time. Over conversation, we found that Chris is a friend of Yulin. One of Chris' guests from Japan knows a coworker of mine too. The Silicon Valley is really a small circle, we bump into mutual friends all the time.
Kendrick's has a set of wooden train set with a circular track. Joanne put the track around her waist and tried to play it as hula hoop. She brought laughter to the dinner guests.
Sunday, Feb 6, 2000 (30m)
The twins are two and a half year old today.
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started on Feb 15, 2000