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This journal is about raising identical twins.Forty Sixth Month
Previous entriesNote: This page may contain Chinese text in Big5 encoding.
Sunday, May 6, 2001 (3y+9m)
The twins are 45 months old today.Grandma Chui's left eye went blind again last night. The doctor said the scar tissue from last surgery pulled the retina off again. So the surgery failed again. She decided not to try again after three failed surgeries.
Monday, May 7, 2001 (3y+9m+1d)
At the first moment we saw the twins after missing them for two weeks, they appeared much taller than we remembered them. However, I measured them and found that it was just an illusion. They didn't change much. Joanne still measures 37 1/4" tall. Jasmine still measures 37 3/8" tall. Joanne weighs 28.5 lb., Jasmine weighs 28 lb.At the two times when we called the twins from our vacation, they didn't say much. They just responded to us with one or two words. After not hearing the twins' voice for two weeks, we found them very talkative. That might be an illusion too but it is hard to prove without some objective measurements.
Joanne wears her smiles at usual. Jasmine looks much more serious with her eyeglasses on. She cries easily too. Mommy mockingly named her "the faucet". She easily turned on the tears and let them run down her face. However, when mommy called her the faucet, Jasmine laughed and stopped crying.
Tuesday, May 8, 2001 (3y+9m+2d)
The twins returned to school after a three-week break. The school broke for one week in Easter. And we went on vacation for two weeks. Since Grandma Ling could not take the twins to school, the twins had skipped school for two extra weeks.The teacher asked mommy to join the twins in class next Tuesday. The twins are not saying much at all in class. More so after the long break from school.
Wednesday, May 9, 2001 (3y+9m+3d)
Daddy combed Jasmine hair in the morning before going to work. When it was Joanne's turn, she ran away. She said she only let mommy comb her hair. But she gladly kissed daddy goodbye.When I asked for Jasmine's goodbye kiss, she refused and cried. She was really unhappy and said she did not like daddy. Upon hearing the comment, Joanne added that she likes daddy. On further pursue, I found out the reason why Jasmine was unhappy. After listening to Joanne, Jasmine regretted that she let daddy comb her hair. This proves that peer pressure can change one's liking for no valid reason.
We took Jasmine to her eye doctor for a check up. The doctor verified that Jasmine's eyeglasses were correctly made to her prescription. She examined Jasmine's eyes again. She said Jasmine's cross-eyes were at 18 to 20 a few weeks ago, and now it was at 8. Though I don't know what scale she referred to, but she added Jasmine was about 50% corrected. Even though her problem has not been totally corrected, Jasmine uses both eyes equally well; i.e. there is no sign of Amblyopia (lazy eye). She wanted Jasmine to continue to wear her eyeglasses and have another examination nine weeks later.
Both twins complained that they were tired when in the doctor's office. However, after we had a quick dinner, they both demanded to go to the park. We stopped at a park near the doctor's office and let them play awhile before returning home. Mommy bathed the twins as soon as she reached home. She sent them to bed really early. The twins slept all the way till next morning.
Thursday, May 10, 2001 (3y+9m+4d)
The twins got more than enough sleep last night. They woke up early in the morning and made a lot of noise before going to school.The twins have demanded for ice cream for the past few days. They went shopping in Costco after school to replenish the supply. They played with bubbles for awhile in front of the house before taking their afternoon nap.
Friday, May 11, 2001 (3y+9m+5d)
Because of the incident this Monday, I posted the question to Jasmine again, "Do you like daddy?" Jasmine replied No, decisively. I asked why. She said "Joanne likes daddy, I like mommy". I checked with Joanne, she said, "I like daddy, Jasmine likes mommy." Apparently, the twins have made a deal between themselves to split the responsibility cleanly. Each has their own turf. No interference with each other.Joanne asked daddy to leave for work early, so that they can play bubbles outside the house. They took a bicycle ride to the park too. I didn't know my presence interfered with their play! :-(
Hing and Lucy invited us to dinner at their place. We stayed for TV and heard an audio demo of Hing's ribbon speakers. The twins were so tired that they clung to our shoulders as we put them in the car. They went straight to bed when we got home.
Saturday, May 12, 2001 (3y+9m+6d)
We drove up to Grandma Ling's place. We left the car there and took the BART to San Francisco. We went to the semi-annual San Francisco Mart Furniture Sample sale. We didn't buy anything, but the twins had a great time riding the subway and the furniture in the stores.It was windy and cold when we came out of the BART station. Joanne caught a slight cough from school. The wind made her condition worse.
Jasmine attached to daddy all day. I asked her why she stuck with daddy when she said she didn't like daddy yesterday. She changed her mind, she said she liked daddy now.
We went back to grandma's place for their afternoon nap. We returned home after dinner.
In the car, we let them play with the rubber stamps we bought for them in Japan. Somehow, the cartoon characters on the rubber stamps reminded them of the temporary tattoos we used to put on their skins over ten months ago. They asked for the tattoos as soon as they arrived home. Daddy put one Pokemon character on each twin's arm.
Sunday, May 13, 2001 (3y+9m+7d)
It is mother's day. Mommy bought enough gifts for herself during the Far East trip. There was no special celebration today.Mommy took the twins to Fremont's Central Park. The twins joined their classmate Rachel's family there. Aunt Tina, Uncle Ivan and Cousin Natalie joined them too. The kids brought their bicycles and tricycle to ride around the park. Jasmine was okay on her tricycle. The twins fought for the tricycle and neither one liked the bicycle. Joanne was slow on her bike and fell behind from the group all the time. Mommy had to bend down to give her a push from time to time. Joanne over-exerted herself. She fell from the bike and got a minor abrasion on her knee.
Joanne continued to cough but only when she ate or drank.
Daddy went out with Grandma Chui and Aunt Elaine for the mother's day dinner.
Monday, May 14, 2001 (3y+9m+8d)
The twins didn't take their afternoon nap yesterday. So mommy let them sleep in. Joanne got up at regular time. Jasmine didn't get up until 10:30am.Mommy took the twins to shop for some knee and elbow pads. They need better protection for their bike rides.
Recently, Joanne's teeth got more black stains than Jasmine's. It was a reversal from nine months ago. Jasmine's teeth used to be dirtier than Joanne's teeth are.
Due to the extra sleep in the morning, Jasmine didn't take her afternoon until two hours after Joanne did.
When daddy got home in the evening, the twins showed off their shins covered with many temporary tattoos. Apparently the shins are the most accessible spot to work with. In the past, daddy would give them one tattoo at a time only after the previous one wore off. Now they have figured out how to do it themselves, they used up all the quota from the past ten months all at once.
Tuesday, May 15, 2001 (3y+9m+9d)
Looks like Jasmine's sleep cycle had been totally messed up. She woke up at 5am and stayed up until mommy got them ready for school. Between 5am and 7am, daddy and mommy couldn't get a good sleep because of the noise coming from their room.Per the teachers' request, mommy sat in the class with the twins today. The twins kept their mouths shut in the teachers' presence. With mommy's encouragement, they started to speak when the teachers came back ten minutes later. Once the first word was spoken, they broke the ice, and started speaking. Mommy left the classroom and observed them from outside. They spoke up to the class in the show-and-tell session too.
Mommy took them to Toys'R'Us as a reward for speaking to the teacher. Jasmine took a ride around the aisles on the bicycles there. She preferred the old tricycle to the bike we bought her. It is a leap forward for her to switch to a bike.
In the evening, the twins were eager to report to daddy that they spoke to the teacher and Jasmine rode the bike. They didn't know that daddy already received similar report from mommy via the phone.
The twins not only enjoyed putting on the temporary tattoos, they enjoyed taking it off too. After daddy showed them that the tattoos can be rubbed off after soaking with baby lotion for a while, they started applying lotion on their tattoos, and rubbed their skin till it turned red.
Wednesday, May 16, 2001 (3y+9m+10d)
During the rush hour, we hurried to the twins' school to see a performance. We were stuck in traffic for a while. When we arrived, the kids were taking bows to the audience. We were late for half an hour and we missed the performance at school. The twins asked why they didn't get to sing. We all blamed it on traffic. The other parents said they took over an hour through the traffic too.Rachel was kind of upset for some reason and she left with her mom early. Michael, Daisy and Sebastian hung around a little. We had dinner with them before going home.
Thursday, May 17, 2001 (3y+9m+11d)
The twins went to school as usual. They were willing to speak to teacher now. The teacher gave them some stickers as rewards. The twins were eager to show me their prizes when I came home.
Friday, May 18, 2001 (3y+9m+12d)
Rachel's other school went on a field trip to the Oakland zoo. Grace invited our twins and mommy to join them at the zoo. The zoo was packed with kids today. Apparently, many schools were having a field trip on the same day. The twins said they liked the giraffe the most.The twins also played in the amusement park next to the zoo. They took a ride in a small-scale roller coaster disguised as tigers. They loved it and asked for more. Rachel tried once, but was scared of the ride.
The twins took a short nap in the car on the way home. When mommy put the twins in bed to continue their nap, Jasmine slept well. However, Joanne tossed and turned and didn't sleep. She got up and turned on the music. She messed with the volume control so loud that she woke up Jasmine. That ended their afternoon nap.
I had an off-site outing at work, so I got to leave work early afterwards. We took the twins to the pool before sunset. The water was very cold and daddy caught a sore throat. The twins refused to leave even when they started to quiver from the cold.
Saturday, May 19, 2001 (3y+9m+13d)
Daddy got a slight fever in the morning. We had lunch with Winnie, Simon and Samantha. We paid a visit to Grandma Ling before we visit Samantha again at her home. The twins had a great time playing with Samantha. Daddy lied on the sofa like a sick puppy. My sore throat turned into coughing by the end of the day.
Sunday, May 20, 2001 (3y+9m+14d)
We originally planned to take the twins to do some people watching at the annual Bay to Breakers foot race in San Francisco. It is also known as the "city on the loose" where tens of thousands of people participate in a 12 km run/walk. Every year, many runners wear costumes like in a wild Halloween party, and some choose not to wear anything at all. We had to cancel the plan because daddy was really sick. Daddy stayed in bed most of the day.Before sunset, we let the twins ride the bikes to the park while we took a stroll along with them. Jasmine finally graduated from her tricycle after her last trip to Toys'R'Us. She now loves to ride her bicycle.
Monday, May 21, 2001 (3y+9m+15d)
The twins took their bike ride to the park after dinner. They started at dusk. It was totally dark when we returned home. We were prepared and brought a flashlight with us.The delay was caused by Joanne, she took extra long time to finish her dinner. Joanne was disobedient recently. When mommy said it was time to bed, Jasmine would brush her teeth and went to the bathroom before going to her bed. Joanne pretended she didn't hear anything. It would take multiple orders from mommy before Joanne moved her butts.
Tuesday, May 22, 2001 (3y+9m+16d)
The twins went to school as usual.Mommy taught them how to string together colorful beads to make a necklace. Joanne threw all the remaining unused strings in the trash can. Daddy had to explain to her that she could make many more necklaces with those strings.
They became creative that they wore the necklace as a headband. Joanne even wrapped it around her ankle.
Thursday, May 24, 2001 (3y+9m+18d)
The twins went to school as usual.
Friday, May 25, 2001 (3y+9m+19d)
The twins took their bike ride to the park almost every evening this week despite the weather turned quite cold in these few days. Joanne fell from the bike a few days ago. She became very nervous whenever the bike gained speed on a slightly downward grade. Jasmine tried to tell Joanne that there was nothing to fear because she knew how to apply the brake.Because of the sudden change in weather, the twins complained to us that their beds were not warm enough at night. Mommy changed their bedding for the summer two weeks ago. That was proven to be a premature action.
Saturday, May 26, 2001 (3y+9m+20d)
We went to EXPO, the Home Depot's design center in East Palo Alto. Mommy had been dreaming about how to remodel our home in the future. The store gave her a lot of new ideas and a wide range of choices in materials and designs. The twins enjoyed playing with the various designs of faucets and kitchens appliances. We went shopping at Costco afterwards.In the evening, we had dinner with Kwai Lam W. and his wife Noella. They visited from Tennessee. They brought the twins some clothes as gifts.
Frank L., Donald T. and his wife and son also joined us at dinner. Kwai Lam, Frank, Donald were daddy's high school classmates. Kwai Lam's visit gave us an excuse to have a reunion dinner. The wives also got along quite well in talking about raising children.
After dinner, Frank, Kwai Lam and Noella went back to our home to chat more. Kwai Lam and Noella visited us before when the twins were about three months old. They had some pictures taken with the babies then. Kwai Lam also visited again when the twins were thirteen months old. I showed the twins their pictures before the guests arrived. The twins didn't take long to familiarize themselves with the Kwai Lam and Noella. The picture preview helped, but I thought the gifts helped even more.
Sunday, May 27, 2001 (3y+9m+21d)
Kwai Lam and Noella had a tight schedule to do some sightseeing in San Francisco. We cancelled our plan to accompany them because the kids would slow them down too much.Joanne got up at 7am to play with her computer and watch cartoons on TV. Jasmine got up two hours later.
We took the twins to see the animated movie "Shrek" in the afternoon. Joanne watched the movie quite patiently in mommy's lap with occasional complaints about mommy's arms not being soft enough. Jasmine was impatient and she asked several times if the movie would end soon. It was a surprise to us because we expected Joanne would get tired sooner than Jasmine because Joanne got two hours less sleep than Jasmine this morning. I believe Jasmine's eyeglasses were making her eyes tired.
Joanne took a nap in the car right after the movie. Jasmine followed mommy to visit a bedding store. Mommy bought two new comforters for the twins. The comforters that grandpa brought back from China were fine for the winter but they were too warm for this weather. We had dinner before returning home. Everyone went to bed early today.
Monday, May 28, 2001 (3y+9m+22d)
It is Memorial Day holiday.In the morning, Joanne came to daddy and wanted her bead necklace undone. She wanted to do it over again. Daddy tried to show her to use alternating color beads to create a pattern. Joanne was too impatient. She just wanted to string up whatever she picked up. She didn't let daddy help in the beginning, but she wanted daddy to finish up the second half. Jasmine also wanted to redo her necklace. She was willing to put in some beads in alternating color pattern.
When mommy was preparing lunch, Joanne asked mommy to teach her how to cook. Mommy said she was too young to learn cooking, then she asked mommy to teach her how to cut the fruits instead. Mommy said she was too young for that too, then she asked mommy to teach her how to make buns with clay. She said that Grandma Ling made sweet buns out of the clay. I guess the flour dough that grandma used looked the same as the modeling clay they played with.
After the twins went to bed for their afternoon nap, daddy went to the office to work overtime.
Tuesday, May 29, 2001 (3y+9m+23d)
The twins went to school as usual. Grace told mommy that Rachel's younger brother had diarrhea over the Memorial Day weekend. The doctor advised her to wait till the fifth day before going to the clinic. Looked like there is a serious virus running around. I hope the twins wouldn't catch it from their classmates.Debbie got a high fever over the weekend. Chris had to take care of two babies and a sick mom. That wore him out. Knock on wood that we were not affected by all those illnesses over the holiday weekend.
The twins bathed early today, so we cancelled the bike ride to the park.
Joanne again ignored mommy's order to brush her teeth before bedtime. After Jasmine finished and went to bed, Joanne got a spanking she deserved. She finished brushing and went to bed in tears.
Wednesday, May 30, 2001 (3y+9m+24d)
A heat wave hit the area. The temperature rose above 100°F in inland areas. Even San Francisco reached 101°F breaking the May 30 record of 91 degree in 1978. The air conditioner at home broke down. It was still working few weeks ago, perhaps the weather today was too hot that it overworked and broke the compressor. Mommy took the twins to the pool in the late afternoon.During the afternoon nap, mommy stayed in Jasmine's bed. Joanne was jealous and demanded mommy to move over to her bed instead. Mommy refused because it was Jasmine's turn today. To calm Joanne down, mommy threw her hand towards Joanne and said, "Poof! Now you have another mommy on your bed." Joanne thought for awhile and complained, "That mommy only has the head!" Jasmine got up, grabbed the air around mommy's body, arms and legs, then she threw her hand towards Joanne and said, "Now you have the rest of mommy!" They all laughed. I was amazed that the twins responded spontaneously with so much imagination.
I knew Joanne got the "head only" idea from the Fox animated movie "Anastasia". The twins had a big laugh when they saw the villain Rasputin fell apart with his head rolled around on the ground.
Jasmine jumped on her bed in the evening. She twisted her right leg when it fell between the beds. She cried tearfully for a long time. And she cried again whenever I asked if the pain had gone away yet. We could tell it was quite serious. I worried that she pulled a knee ligament or something.
Without the air conditioner, the house didn't cool down until 2am in the morning. Ventilation fans and ceiling fans didn't help much. Despite the heat, Jasmine insisted to cover herself with the comforter. I managed to convince her to cover only her legs.
Thursday, May 31, 2001 (3y+9m+25d)
Jasmine still complained about the pain in her leg in the morning. That worried us. The twins went to school as usual. When mommy asked Jasmine after school if her leg was still painful, she said yes. When mommy asked her to point to the pain, she pointed to her left leg. We were relieved. If Jasmine hurt the ligament in her right leg, the pain would not have switched side.The heat wave continued. According to the news, the temperature was cooler than yesterday in the Bay Area, but hotter in the inland. The temperature in Sacramento broke the record for May 31 since 1877 at 106 degree. Their last record for May 31 was set in 1910 at 100 degree. Stockton also broke their record today at 107 and Modesto at 104.
We called the air conditioner company. They were fully booked due to the hot weather. The earliest time for the service is Monday. The forecast said the weather should cool down starting tomorrow.
Mommy bought an inflatable pool. She let the twins play in water in the backyard. She complained about sore arms after inflating the pool with a bicycle pump.
The twins took their afternoon nap in the family room downstairs because the bedrooms upstairs were way too hot.
Mommy put on some nail polish in the evening. The twins were quite interested when mommy asked if they wanted to try. After mommy painted two nails on Jasmine's hand, she said she did like it. Daddy helped to wash the polish off. Joanne had all ten of her fingernails painted. She was quite proud of them. She checked herself many times in front of the mirror. Joanne liked to groom herself. Jasmine didn't care much about her look.
Friday, Jun 1, 2001 (3y+9m+26d)
We were in luck. The temperature returned to around 70 degree. I would not imagine how we could abide the heat until Monday without the air conditioner if the temperature stayed around 100 degree.Mommy took the twins shopping at Stanford Shopping Center for gifts. Jasmine told daddy on the phone that Mickey's store was gone. We were aware of the closing of the Disney's and Warner Brothers' store in the Stanford Shopping Center when they had their store closing sales back in January. However, the twins didn't realize that until today. They were quite disappointed. Mommy also took them to Zany Brainy and Costco.
Daddy worked overtime after dining out with the family.
Saturday, Jun 2, 2001 (3y+9m+27d)
Jasmine got up at 7am in the morning. Mommy got up a little later to visit the head dresser. We left the house at 9am and went to Alameda. We attended Cindy K. and Ray Y.'s wedding. They had a traditional Cantonese style wedding since neither of them was churchgoer.We arrived at Cindy's home at 10am. Betsy and Kenny arrived there shortly after. The bridegroom was late and didn't arrive until 10:45am. The maid of honor and bridesmaids blocked the entrance demanding some rewards for letting the groom in. The best man and groomsmen negotiated their "admission fee" into the house. They played torturous games on the groom and groomsmen. For example, in one of the games, the groom and groomsmen were forced to eat sushi packed with a big ball of washabi. Those tortures were supposed to test the groom's love and determination for the bride. They had fun until the bride's mother asked them to hurry up and not to waste too much time.
After the groom entered the house, he joined with the bride to pray and offer respects to the heaven and the ancestors. Then they served tea to the bride's parents and elder relatives in exchange of blessings and jewelry gifts. The photographers took pictures of the newlywed with the bride's family. Then the newlywed left for the groom's home in a big limousine.
The twins had been to church wedding several times. This was the first time they saw a Chinese wedding. They were quite impatient and kept asking what was going on. Joanne commented that she did not like this wedding. She asked when would we go to the other wedding place. She meant the church. I had to hush her up before she ruined the atmosphere of the wedding.
At around noon, we left the house. By this time, Jasmine was tired because she got up earlier than all of us this morning. She became very cranky and she went in a tantrum and cried loudly in tears as we took them back to the car.
Mommy knew the twins would not last any longer. We dropped them off at Grandma Ling's place. We crossed the bridge to the groom's home in San Francisco. The newlywed repeated the same ritual with the groom's family. Lunch was served after the ceremony. The newlywed and the photographers went on to more photo sessions at various locations in the city.
Mommy and I went window shopping in San Francisco to kill time before the banquet in the evening. We went to the restaurant at around 6pm. We killed time by chatting with Jean, Edwin, Betsy, Kenny, Jane and Denis et al. at our table. The banquet started around 7:30pm when three Cantonese dancing lions from the San Francisco Police Department opened the show for the newlywed. I was told that the groom is a surgeon at SF general hospital and he is a volunteered policeman at SFPD. There were many policemen and doctors among the guests. The dinner started at around 8pm and ended after 10pm.
When we returned to Grandma Ling's place, the twins were already asleep. We stayed overnight.
Sunday, Jun 3, 2001 (3y+9m+28d)
The twins woke us up early in the morning. After Grandma Ling fed them breakfast, we headed home.The twins rode their bikes on the sidewalks in the neighborhood. Jasmine went into a big tantrum because Joanne chased after her. Mommy said Jasmine was just playing psychological games to get daddy's attentions. Mommy said the twins chased after each other all the time. This situation never occurred when daddy was not around because such tactics would never work with mommy. The twins knew from experience that a tantrum could only result in punishment from mommy. Nagging, whining and crying never gets sympathy from mommy.
We had lunch with Lucy and Hing. Mommy bought gifts for Terrance's first birthday coming up in couple of days. Lucy brought our twins even more gifts from their recent Vancouver trip. We had a big trade deficit in terms of gifts. After lunch, they headed to their parents' place to celebrate Terrance's birthday.
Kenny is a realtor, so he knows a lot about houses and appliances. On his advice from yesterday, I checked the fuse box for our air conditioner. The ohmmeter confirmed a blown fuse. I bought a new fuse and the air conditioner ran normally again.
Daddy worked overtime at the office.
Monday, Jun 4, 2001 (3y+9m+29d)
Today is the 12th anniversary of the massacre at Tien-an-mon square in Beijing.Mommy took the twins to visit Melinda and Alan.
Daddy worked overtime. Mommy called to complain that the twins were extremely noisy at home. Mommy had too much of their laughters and screams. But daddy was missing all that in the office.
Tuesday, Jun 5, 2001 (3y+9m+30d)
The twins went to school as usual.After school, they went to Daisy's place for a swim. Their community pool was heated, so the water was not as cold as ours was. The twins enjoyed their swim with their classmate Sebastian and Rachel. The twins later told daddy that Rachel had to be accompanied by her mother Grace when she swam. They tried to imply that they were braver than Rachel was by swimming on their own.
Daddy bought a Graphire mouse/pen/tablet combo set for the twins' iMac computer. I thought that they would prefer to use a pen when drawing pictures on the computer. The first response from Joanne was that the mouse was too big for her hand. She said she liked the original Apple Pro Mouse better. I agreed with her. The look and feel of the Pro Mouse is superb. It is still the best and prettiest computer mouse I have ever used. If it weren't for the pen, I wouldn't have bought the Graphire.
Wednesday, Jun 6, 2001 (3y+10m)
The twins are forty-six month old today.
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started on Jun 6, 2001