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This journal is about raising identical twins.Fifty Third Month
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Thursday, Dec 6, 2001 (4y+4m)
The twins are 52 months old today. The twins went to school as usual.In the past few weeks, Jasmine followed Joanne to perform the ritual of tucking in their Barbie dolls and their "babies" (我D仔) at bedtime. They put the dolls on a pillow or cushion and then covered them with a small towel. Jasmine had gone one step beyond. She used her own pillow as the bed for the dolls. As a result, the dolls took her spot in the bed while she herself slept in the crack between her bed and Joanne's. Mommy was not too happy about her habit. Mommy threatened to throw her dolls away as garbage if she didn't sleep properly in the middle of the bed. Jasmine came up with a compromise. She still puts the dolls on the pillow at the head of the bed. However, she now moves down two feet towards the end of the bed and sleeps at the center of the bed with the dolls next to the top of her head.
Friday, Dec 7, 2001 (4y+4m+1d)
The twins went to school as usual. After school, they went to visit their ex-classmate Rachel and her mom Grace. Grace baked some homemade pizza. Mommy brought a can of clam chowder soup. They had dinner with them before returning home.Mommy said the twins are very socialized and popular in school. Other kids would call out their names aloud while running to them when they showed up.
Saturday, Dec 8, 2001 (4y+4m+2d)
The twins woke up at 7am in the morning. To us, the weekend is for sleep-in. So we let the twins play on their own until 9am.We had lunch with great grandma in Oakland. Then we went the visit Michelle (Chong) at her work place. Her company wholesales some framed arts and imitation antique vases. They were open to the public for a factory sale event just for a few days. Today was the last day, but we still managed to find a vase that we liked. We bought several large framed arts at $10 apiece. We were buying the picture frames and didn't care too much about the poster inside. Nevertheless, Joanne made her choice and picked a nice picture of flowers. I believe she picked that because the picture had a rose that looked like the one in "Beauty and the Beast". Jasmine picked a picture of a horse, but we didn't like the frame so we didn't buy it. The company was selling some scooters at $10 apiece. Some models with imbedded flashing lights inside the wheels were sold at two for $25. I couldn't resist buying two for the twins even though they were still too young to ride a scooter. The twins both picked the red color. They said they would learn to ride the scooters when they become five years old.
We returned to Grandma Ling's place. Mommy forced the twins to take a nap in the afternoon because they got up too early this morning.
In the evening, we had dinner with Jim, Kioko, Miki and JR in a Chinese restaurant. We have not seen them for almost a year. After dinner, the adults chatted while Miki (almost 9) played with the twins. Miki later told us that the twins said they loved her. JR (almost 6) was bored because all the girls played together without him. At one instance, Jasmine yelled at JR saying, "Don't push me!" Though we didn't see what happened but at least we knew Jasmine stood up for herself in a dispute. Since the restaurant was not full, we didn't feel bad to stay at the table after we paid our bills. We spent over three hours there. If it weren't JR complaining about his boredom, we would have stayed till the restaurant closure. The twins didn't fall asleep on our way home. The afternoon nap allowed them to stay awake for the whole evening. It was credited to mommy's good planning and foresight.
Mommy assembled the wooden easel we bought them. The twins stayed up late to do some drawings on it. Jasmine read the name on the box and said it was a weasel because it spells with a W.
Sunday, Dec 9, 2001 (4y+4m+3d)
All of us slept in including the twins. It was a cold night, and the twins slept tight. During dinner last night, the twins overheard our conversation about Jim's dog MohMoh (an Akita). The twins remembered the video footage we took at their home last Christmas. They demanded daddy to show them the video footage this morning.We went to Hing's place for lunch. Terence was happy to see the twins. He kept hugging the twins. But the twins tried to avoid him because they didn't like to play with younger kids yet. The situation may change if Terence learned to speak. We stayed till 3pm before leaving.
We went to Jenny's home with Lillian. Mommy needed to talk to Jenny about remodeling the kitchen. We plan to do that next year and Jenny just finished hers. While the adults were talking, the twins ran around the house. There was a wall covered with mirrors. The twins treated it like the dance studio and spent a lot of time dancing in front of it. We spent over two hours there talking about Jenny's remodeling project. The twins were self-entertained and didn't bother us except occasionally came to us for a sip of water.
We went out to dinner with Lillian and William. The twins didn't fall asleep on our way home.
Monday, Dec 10, 2001 (4y+4m+4d)
The twins were 4 year, 4 month and 4 day old. The twins went to school as usual.The twins demanded to play several games of UNO before going to bed. After daddy and mommy quitted, Joanne insisted that we picked out all the wildcards from the deck. The twins each held 4 wildcards and they played several straightforward games with each other. I told them that when they had all wildcards in their hands, whoever started the game would always win. They fought for the starting position.
Tuesday, Dec 11, 2001 (4y+4m+5d)
The twins went to school as usual.The twins still weighed 30 lb. each. They were still around 39 inches tall.
Wednesday, Dec 12, 2001 (4y+4m+6d)
The twins went to school as usual. The twins received the progress report from school today. They were doing quite well. Almost all the objectives were achieved.They went to the ballet class after school. It was the last class until we sign them up of another class again. Actually the past two classes were makeups for the cancelled classes on Halloween and Thanksgiving.
Joanne's sty reoccurred. The ointment that the eye doctor prescribed before didn't help much. We resumed the warm compression treatment recommended by the pediatric doctor.
The twins played some games of UNO and "Connect Four" with daddy before going to bed.
Jasmine complained that urination hurt. She might have an infection. She wetted her bed tonight probably because she was trying to avoid the bathroom trip.
Thursday, Dec 13, 2001 (4y+4m+7d)
It was a special day at school. The class performed a Christmas presentation to the parents. They sang the songs they learned in class and of course some Christmas songs for the holiday seasons. They also had something like a square dance where each kid danced with a partner. Daddy and mommy were very disappointed at the twins because both of them just stood there while all other kids sang aloud. They used to sing those songs aloud in the car and at home. But in front of an audience, they were totally withdrawn probably due to stage fright. The twins promised mommy in the morning that they would sang aloud, but they didn't keep their words. When mommy told them how disappointed she was, the twins tried to change the subject. We told them that we would not attend school presentations again if they don't participate. School finished early. Mommy took the twins home for a nap.
Friday, Dec 14, 2001 (4y+4m+8d)
Mommy and the twins attended the semi-regular gathering with their ex-classmates. On most Fridays, they would either gather at Chuck E. Cheese restaurant or in a park if weather permitted. The meeting was cancelled for the past couple of weeks due to sickness of some kids.The twins went to school as usual after the lunch gathering.
Mommy left around dinnertime for a "princess" party for Tupple wares. She left the twins with daddy. Daddy and Grandma Chui took the twins out to dinner. After dinner, we played some games of UNO before tucking the twins in.
Saturday, Dec 15, 2001 (4y+4m+9d)
We had lunch in Fremont. We went to Tricity Sports Goods afterwards. We bought some snow chains and after-ski boots for the upcoming trip to the High Sierra. Mommy bought some ski bibs for the twins. They are too big for the kids now, but mommy wanted to buy them while they are on sales.We stopped by Aunt Tina's new house. They have not moved in yet. They were still cleaning up after some remodeling and painting. Mommy helped Aunt Tina in cleaning work. The twins watched TV with Cousin Natalie. Daddy took a nap in the car.
We had dinner at a Malaysian restaurant. After dinner we went to Vasona park for a Christmas lights tour. The park was decorated with beautiful Christmas lights. We paid a fee to enter the park and drove around the designated path to view the light exhibits. The twins sat on daddy's lap because all cars were moving at 5-mph speed. It took about 25 minutes to complete the circuit. After we went home, the twins spent sometimes at their easel drawing pictures.
Sunday, Dec 16, 2001 (4y+4m+10d)
We went to Bamboola for Valerie's fourth birthday party. Valerie L. is 4 month younger than our twins are. She is about an inch taller, and she weighs 38 lb.The twins went up and down the climbing structures and the slides. At the time for birthday cake, Jasmine sat on the right side of Valerie. For untold reasons, Joanne refused to sit next to Valerie. Jasmine said she loved Valerie's ice cream birthday cake. The twins played very hard and towards the end they were bumping their heads and falling down. We could tell their bodies were not in control due to the exhaustion from the exercise. We called it a quit and moved the twins to the toddler play area so that the adults could chat while the kids played. Some other parents scolded our group because our kids were too old for the toddler playground. That was about time for us to leave the party.
We shopped for grocery before returning home. After dinner, Jasmine ran to the toilet and bang on the door. Mommy was inside. Jasmine yelled that she had to go. Before mommy could come out, Jasmine said she already pooped on her pants. Mommy was not too happy about the stinky cleanup because Jasmine could have gone to the other two bathrooms upstairs. Jasmine explained that she didn't get enough time to run upstairs.
Monday, Dec 17, 2001 (4y+4m+11d)
The twins went to school as usual. Joanne told daddy that she was a super nice girl because she didn't talk during her afternoon nap. She said she would be a super nice girl tonight too.After dinner, Joanne peed right in front of the toilet. She said it was an accident, but we suspected she probably mimicked Jasmine's accident from yesterday. We played some UNO before going to bed.
At bedtime, Joanne broke her promise and talked for a long time with Jasmine after we tucked her in. Daddy had to knock on their door to ask them to shut up.
Tuesday, Dec 18, 2001 (4y+4m+12d)
The twins went to school as usual.
Wednesday, Dec 19, 2001 (4y+4m+13d)
The twins went to school as usual. No more ballet class.
Thursday, Dec 20, 2001 (4y+4m+14d)
The twins went to school as usual. It was a rainy day, no playground session for the kids.The PhotoPoint site went dark since December 14, 2001. I read from the news that even the company's contact phone numbers were disconnected. The last communication from the company was an email saying the site will be down due to technical difficulties. Our twins' photo albums were hosted by PhotoPoint. It is hard to tell when our albums will be up again. [The website never came back up, the photo album was set up elsewhere after many months of downtime.]
Friday, Dec 21, 2001 (4y+4m+15d)
The twins went to school as usual. It is the last day of school before the winter break. Mommy and twins went to visit Aunt Tina after school. Daddy, Aunt Elaine and Grandma Chui went out to dinner.
Saturday, Dec 22, 2001 (4y+4m+16d)
We departed for the High Sierra Mountains at 8:45am. We stopped for lunch at KFC shortly before noon. When we got to Applegate at 12:15pm, the highway was closed due to multiple spinout accidents caused by heavy snow at Donner Summit. We pulled off into the town of Applegate and waited on the roadside monitoring the radio for traffic reports. While we were waiting, we read storybooks to the twins. The road reopened shortly after 2pm. We were right there when the road reopened, so we didn't get much traffic ahead of us.When we reached around 4000 feet elevation, we were required to put on snow chains on the wheels. With the chains on, no car could exceed 30 to 35 mph due to the vibration to the wheels caused by the chains. Since we were ahead of the traffic, we pretty much could drive at the 30 mph limit until we reached Truckee. After we passed Truckee, the road was quite clear of snow, so we took off the snow chains and resumed highway speed. We arrived at Reno at around 6:45pm.
Our trip to Reno took 10 hours while usually it only takes about 4.5 hours from the Bay Area. But that included time delays when we were stuck at Applegate for two hours; we took lunch for half an hour; I spent about half an hour installing and 15 minute uninstalling the snow chains; the slow speed limit while the chains were on etc. All the factors contributed to the long delays.
We were lucky that our twins behaved very well on the trip. They sang Christmas songs on the way. And near the end of the trip, they took their afternoon nap. We had a pleasant trip despite the long driving.
We had dinner at the Trader Dick's restaurant in the Nugget Hotel. After dinner, we checked out the indoor pool at the hotel. It was 9:40pm and the pool closes at 10pm. The twins said they'd love to swim. We hurried up and get changed. We swam at the pool for 10 minutes before it closed. It was a rare opportunity to swim during the winter months. The twins loved it a lot.
Denis and his family took the same trip. They departed about an hour after we did. They arrived after we all went to bed. They spent 13 hours on the trip because they were stuck at the back of the traffic and the cars were moving at 5 mph for a long time. With two small crying kids in their car, the long trip must have been an ordeal for them. We jokingly said they could have reached Hong Kong on a flight in 13 hours.
Sunday, Dec 23, 2001 (4y+4m+17d)
We got up rather late and had Sunday brunch with Denis and family in a restaurant in the hotel. We went to Mount Rose after lunch. It was past 2pm when we got there. We let the kids play in the snow at the parking lot. They built a snowman and did some sledding on the slope. We left when Joanne complained she was cold. The twins took their afternoon nap while we drove back to Reno. We waited in the parking garage while they slept.We had dinner at Roxy Bistro in Eldorado Hotel with Denis' family later in the evening. After dinner, we walked over to the midway of the Circus Circus Hotel. We watched the circus performance for a short while. We decided to leave because the place was packed with people and very hot even after we took off our jackets. Before returning to our hotel, we bought some pastry for tomorrow's breakfast.
Monday, Dec 24, 2001 (4y+4m+18d)
We had breakfast in our car eating the pastry we bought last night. We arrived at Soda Spring for snow tubing at around noon. The line for the tickets was long with only one person selling ticket and I waited almost an hour to get the tickets. The twins' classmate Rachel and her family were also at Soda Spring. They were there early and were already enjoying their first snow tubing activity. Grace had heard so much about our snow tubing trips with Daisy and Sebastian last year. They couldn't come last year because little randy was too small for the trip. They decided to try it this year. Rachel said she loved it very much.We did the snow tube and snow disc rides. Joanne insisted she wanted to wait for the double tube so that she could ride with one of us. She said she was scared to ride on her own. That slowed us down because there weren't many double tubes in supply. Jasmine liked to ride on her own. Last year, Joanne was the brave and fearless girl; this year was Jasmine's turn.
Two-year-old Jonathan initially refused to try the snow tubing. He later had couple of runs with Denis and Jane. Jonathan was not too enthusiastic about the thrill rides.
We had a late lunch a little before 3pm. It was so comfortable and warm at the lodge that we gave up the sledding and just sat there and chatted. We left early shortly before 4pm. The twins took their nap while we returned to Reno. We waited in the car and woke them up at 6pm. We went swimming again at the pool. The twins bumped into their classmate Jason at the pool. We didn't know they were also staying at the Nugget Hotel. The twins spent about an hour in the pool. We left when they were shivering with purple lips. The twins refused to leave at first saying that the skin on their fingers had not wrinkled yet.
After we'd cleaned up the twins, it was almost 8pm. We had some trouble finding a table for dinner because most restaurants in the hotel were packed with customers for the Christmas Eve dinner. We managed to get a table in a private party room in the General Store Restaurant after about a 20 minutes wait. We enjoyed a nice dinner with Denis' family. Towards the end of dinner, Jonathan and Benjamin needed a diaper change so we gave up the party room early.
Mommy went to the casino and asked Jane to join her after she changed the kids' diapers. Daddy and twins went to the game room because Jasmine won some tickets the day before and she had been talking about exchanging the tickets for prizes all day long. On the way there, Jasmine said her palm hurt. I asked her to show me. I saw a small cut about 1/8 of an inch long in the middle of her right palm. Then she held her fist very tight. She didn't know when and how she got the wound. I told her it was nothing and proceeded to the game room. Jasmine said she wanted a Band-Aid. I asked her to choose between returning to our room for the Band-Aid and getting her prizes in the game room. She chose the Band-Aid. When I got the Band-Aid and Neosporin ready, I asked her to open her palm again. She had been holding a fist with white knuckles all along. She asked me to just tape the Band-Aid on the fingers. She said it would be too painful to open her palm. As soon as she talked about the pain, her tears poured down her cheeks. Though the poor girl was shedding genuine tears, I wondered if the pain was from the tiny wound or from holding her fist too tight. I told her I could not put on the Band-Aid if she wouldn't open her palm. She said she didn't want the Band-Aid anymore. She then said she wanted to play some games of UNO. I asked her how she would play UNO while holding her fist. She said she would play with her left hand. We played UNO for about fifteen minutes. Jasmine held her fist all the time.
When mommy returned, Jasmine would have held her fist for more than half an hour. Mommy cut short her gambling because she won 1000 quarters from a slot machine. She told Jane not to find her in the casino because she retired for the night after the $250 winning. I told mommy about Jasmine's wound. Jasmine still didn't want to open her palm for mommy. I tried to trick her to open her palm unknowingly. So I asked Jasmine to play rock, scissors and paper with me. I told her that I would keep playing rock, so if she wanted to win, she needed to play paper. We played about twenty rounds of rock vs. rock before I gave up. Jasmine got a big laugh when we were trapped in an endless cycle of ties. With some kissing and convincing from mommy, Jasmine eventually opened her palm. Her palm was all white and sweaty after holding a fist for too long. Mommy put the Band-Aid on the wound and Jasmine didn't complain about the pain anymore. I guessed the pain was gone at the moment she released her fist.
When we told the twins it would be Christmas tomorrow, the twins were very excited. They have been talking about opening the gifts for weeks now.
Tuesday, Dec 25, 2001 (4y+4m+19d)
It was Christmas day. We took our time to get up in the morning. Denis' family decided not to do any more snow tubing today because Jonathan was not as crazy about the activity as our twins were. We checked out from the hotel and returned to the General Store Restaurant for a late brunch. While we were still eating, Rachel's mommy called and said they already arrived at Kingvale but they could not find the snow tubing place. They decided to go home early instead of going back up the mountain. Since we knew we were going Kingvale by ourselves, we took our time and enjoyed our brunch.We arrived at Kingvale at around 2pm. There were not many people on the slope. Perhaps because the tickets were at $15 for 3 hours. Since the place was about to close in two hours and the operators refused to prorate the ticket price, it was rather expensive. There was no line at all for the snow tubing. We went up and down the slope many times. At around 3:30pm, the twins started to ask for something else. Joanne wanted to rest in the car. Jasmine wanted to build a snowman again. Mommy decided it was time to head down the mountain early despite we didn't get our money worth.
The twins took their afternoon nap on the return trip. We stopped at Amy's restaurant for dinner. We have not visited her since last January. Their restaurant business had picked up and they are doing very well now. They have reinvested their profit in remodeling the place.
We went home and still have time to open the Christmas gifts. We played back the videotape from the trip while the twins played UNO with daddy.
Wednesday, Dec 26, 2001 (4y+4m+20d)
The twins are still enjoying their winter break until Jan 7, 2002. Daddy's two-day holiday for Christmas was over. Daddy took another day off from work today. I spent the morning washing the minivan for it was coated with a film of mud.We went out for lunch. In the restaurant, we bumped into mommy's second aunt. Joanne ran to her grand aunt and said merry Christmas to her. Jasmine had her butt glued to the seat and refused to move.
After lunch, mommy showed them the way to Valleyfair mall for after Christmas shopping. We went to the picture studio in the mall for some family pictures. Since we didn't make an appointment, we sat there for almost an hour to wait for our turn. The twins played with each other happily with no complaint at all. Only mommy was complaining about the wait. After we got the processed pictures, we went out to dinner with Grandma Chui.
We played some UNO games before going to bed.
Thursday, Dec 27, 2001 (4y+4m+21d)
Daddy returned to work after a five-day weekend. Mommy originally planned to visit Debbie with Melinda, but she cancelled the visit because Melinda was sick. They stayed home all day. Mommy read the twins some stories and played some games with them, and in the afternoon, asked them to a take a nap. Since there were nothing much to do, they complied and took a long nap. Mommy wanted them to have enough rest after the long trip. Daddy worked overtime in the office.
Friday, Dec 28, 2001 (4y+4m+22d)
It was a rainy day. Mommy couldn't bear the boredom. She took the twins to FAO Schwarz in San Francisco despite the bad weather and traffic. They had dinner at the Cheesecake Factory Restaurant before returning home. Daddy worked overtime in the office and received the delivery of a slice of cheesecake.
Saturday, Dec 29, 2001 (4y+4m+23d)
Daddy worked overtime at the office to meet some deadlines.
Sunday, Dec 30, 2001 (4y+4m+24d)
We took the twins to REI to shop for some better gloves for the twins. We looked at the ski goggles too but decided it was too early to buy them before the twins start skiing. We then went to Fry's Electronics to check out the latest Audio and Video gadgets. Mommy was interested in replacing our old bulky camcorder with the newer miniature version.
Monday, Dec 31, 2001 (4y+4m+25d)
It was New Year eve, but it was still a workday for daddy. Daddy returned to work. Mommy and the twins realized how important school was. They were bored at home.The twins' nightly ritual of putting their dolls on the pillow is bothering mommy. Firstly, the dolls took up space on the pillow so the twins could not sleep properly on their beds. Secondly, they used one towel as doll blanket every night, that added up to a lot of laundry. Mommy found a solution for it. Mommy bought a doll basket that comes with a tiny doll sleeping bag. Now the twins put their dolls in the basket and put it next to the pillow.
Jasmine still had trouble writing 7, 2 and 3, L, etc. She often wrote the mirror image. The worst was that she didn't like to be corrected.
The twins learned counting at school, they could count to 49 all on their own. With some help, they could count to 100. We have not taught the twins the analog clock with hands yet. They could read the digital clock. Jasmine often read the 2 as 5 probably because the 8-segment digit doesn't show the curves of the regular numeral. Despite the fact that they knew their teens very well, Jasmine read 12 as one-ty five on some occasions. No one ever taught them one-ty for the teens. So it was evidence that the kid was extrapolating from thirty and twenty into one-ty.
The twins went to bed at regular time. Mommy and daddy stayed up late to watch the New Year countdown on TV.
Tuesday, Jan 1, 2002 (4y+4m+26d)
It was New Year day. We stayed home to watch some the annual Rose Parade on TV until about 3pm. We went to San Francisco in the afternoon.On the highway, when we passed the general area of the twins' school, Jasmine asked why she could not go to school. She missed school. We told her that her school was closed till next Monday. The twins already learned from school how to count day of the week, they knew it was still a long way off.
We were in Metreon at around a quarter to four. We tried to catch the 5:30 show of the large format special edition of Disney's "Beauty and the Beast" on the IMAX big screen. To our disappointment, the show was sold out, and we had to buy the 7:50 tickets. That threw off our plan totally, we had to find things to do for the 4 hours before the show. We spent some time in the "SONY style" showroom. We took a stroll in the rain in the Buena Vista Garden. We let the twins ride the carousel. We had dinner, and then we sat around in Metreon before we went into the theatre. We found ourselves at the end of a long line of people waiting to get in. After seating started, we found the seats were 80% taken when we entered. We managed to find the seats on the side of the theater. I would have preferred the seats at the center, but we were lucky we didn't have to split our group like other people who came after us.
The twins were familiar with the movie since they watched that many many times on video at home. However, it was the first time they watched it in a big screen theater. The IMAX screen is 100 feet by 80 feet. It is the largest screen in the USA, though not in the world. The sound system is superb. The twins watched the movie intensely. They were so familiar with the movie that they knew when to cover their ears before the beast roared. It is a good thing that they were prepared, because the sound system was so good that the roar shook the seats. The twins stayed up throughout the movie despite that they didn't take a nap in the afternoon. The twins said they liked the movie because the screen was so huge. They also liked the new segment added to the movie. As an adult, I could see much more details of the animation that I didn't pay attention to while I watched it on video.
Mommy was well prepared. She changed the twins into sleepwear before we left San Francisco. We also asked the twins to rinse their mouths because we knew they would not brush tonight. The twins fell asleep on the way home. We transferred them from car to bed without waking them when we got home.
Wednesday, Jan 2, 2002 (4y+4m+27d)
Daddy returned to work. Mommy packed for the Reno/Snow tubing trip for the weekend.
Thursday, Jan 3, 2002 (4y+4m+28d)
Since school starts next week, it would be a while before next holiday. Daddy took two days off from work to take the twins to the snow. We originally planned to start the trip yesterday, but the weather forecast predicted a storm. We rather postpone the trip than to get stuck in traffic for 10+ hours like two weeks ago.We took off at around 9:45am. The twins took longer to get ready than we expected. We arrived at Kingvale at around 1:15pm. We bumped into Ken C. and his family on the slope. They had done some skiing in the week. They stopped at Kingvale for some snow mobile rides before they returned home.
Rachel and her family were already playing on the snow tube for over an hour. We bought only three tickets this time. The twins chose mommy to accompany them. Daddy waited at the bottom of the slope to make sure the twins get out of the way before the next snow tube came downhill. The tickets were for 3 hours, but the twins said that they had enough at around 3:30pm.
We headed for Reno, Nevada. We stayed at Silver Legacy Hotel this time. The room was a little smaller than the Nugget Hotel we stayed in two weeks ago. Unlike the Nugget, the swimming pool was outdoors and it was closed for winter. After dinner, the twins stayed in the room to play UNO with Rachel.
Mommy went to the casino to play the slot machines. She was about $30 ahead but she got greedy and continued. She quitted when she was about break even. The twins were already tucked in when mommy returned from the casino. The twins jumped out of bed to greet mommy.
Friday, Jan 4, 2002 (4y+4m+29d)
Rachel and family only planned a two-day trip. They checked out from the hotel early in the morning.We took our time and didn't leave the hotel until in the afternoon. We went to Squaw Valley back in California. The weather was quite nice. It was neither too warm nor too cold. On an overcast day, we didn't need to worry about sunburn neither. We did some shopping for ski goggles in the small mall there. The twins kept calling them gobbles. I guess they still remembered the turkeys in thanksgiving.
We then went to the children center and watched the small kids taking ski lessons. We asked if the twins wanted to learn skiing from the teachers. The twins said no. We later found that they didn't want to go to the ski school because they didn't know English. They didn't know they have been learning English in school for more than a year now.
The twins found a slope near the ski school. They just slid down the slope on their butts. Daddy suggested them to slide on a plastic bag. With reduced friction, they could slide all the way to the bottom of the slope. We then went indoors to warm up a bit. Of course, we played several games of UNO while mommy ran around to buy some hot drinks for us.
We then took the cable car to go up to High Camp at the top of the mountain. When the cable car passed over the cliff, I asked the twins to look down at the base two thousand feet below us. They were not scared of the height at all. Whenever the cable car passed the support towers, it swung to-and-fro for awhile. The twins loved the swing and giggled.
When we were at the High Camp, we toured around and checked out the ice-skating rink and the swimming pool. Joanne said she wanted to skate, but mommy said the twins were tired and acting fussy. When they could not even walk straight without the skates, mommy worried that they would fall too much and get hurt. The verdict was to skip skating. We had dinner with a view of Lake Tahoe. The meal itself was not very palatable. Mommy's half chicken tasted like wood fiber. And daddy's beefsteak tasted like rubber in vinegar. It was dark when we finished. We took the cable car back to the parking lot. It was a different and beautiful sight to descend into the village at night.
We returned to the hotel in Reno. Of course the twins refused to sleep without a few games of UNO. After the twins went to sleep, it was daddy's turn to visit the casino. After emptying the pockets, I also spent some time watching some magic tricks on the casino aisle and a caricature artist drawing a group of young customers. It was around midnight when I returned to the room. The kids and mommy were asleep.
Saturday, Jan 5, 2002 (4y+4m+30d)
When we checked out from the hotel in the morning, mommy had to argue with the clerk to revert a charge on our bill for a movie that we didn't see. Mommy and twins were soundly asleep when the movie was allegedly watched. I guess that is how the hotel keeps in business by advertising the room at a low rate and then they charge the customers for other things. Many customers probably don't bother to argue because it is almost impossible to prove the case. Mommy succeeded only after a prolong fight. We would think twice before staying at Silver Legacy again. Or at least we would check our bills very carefully each time.We left Reno and headed back to California. It started snowing when we reached 6000 feet elevation. We stopped at Soda Spring. It was snowing steadily, so the twins got to use their new goggles. Mommy decided not to do the snow tubing because of the long lines and the low visibility due to the snowfall. We saw other kids building snow fortresses. The twins called them igloos, one of the word they learned well in school. The twins were busy picking chunks of snow from around the area. They also helped mommy to build an "igloo" for themselves. Before we left, we built inside the "igloo" a small snowman that shaped like Mickey Mouse.
Since the weather was not cold, the snowflakes melted as soon as they touched our clothes. When we got back to the car, we found ourselves wet all over. But since our clothes were waterproof, it didn't bother us too much. We changed the twins into dry clothes and had some snacks in the car before taking off at around 3:30pm. We were back in the Bay Area before 7pm. We had dinner at the Great Mall. After dinner, the twins still had time to visit a few stores at the mall before it closed.
Sunday, Jan 6, 2002 (4y+5m)
The twins are 53 months old today.
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started on Jan 7, 2002