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This journal is about raising identical twins.Fifty Fifth Month
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Wednesday, Feb 6, 2002 (4y+6m)
The twins are four and a half year old today. The twins went to school as usual.
Thursday, Feb 7, 2002 (4y+6m+1d)
The twins went to school as usual.
Friday, Feb 8, 2002 (4y+6m+2d)
The twins went to school as usual.
Saturday, Feb 9, 2002 (4y+6m+3d)
Mommy planned to take a one-day trip to the snow with Grace's family. However Grace cancelled the trip because of her back problem.
Sunday, Feb 10, 2002 (4y+6m+4d)
We went to lunch in the afternoon. We bumped into Lucy and Hing, it turned out that we were heading to the same restaurant at the same time. We decided to have an unplanned lunch together. We also bumped into mommy's Cousin Jennifer at the restaurant. It was a small world.We went to Aden's 2-year-old birthday party at the Bamboola. The twins were more interested in going back to the play area than Aden's ice-cream birthday cake. We left the party at around 6pm.
We drove to Alameda for mommy's year-end family reunion dinner. The twins took their nap on the way. We woke them up when we arrived at the restaurant. Jasmine woke up a happy baby and adjusted to the surrounding immediately. Joanne became a cranky baby. She hid from other people for over half an hour. It was two days before Chinese New Year. It is Chinese tradition to get together with family members.
Monday, Feb 11, 2002 (4y+6m+5d)
We went to the twins' future school for a tour in the morning. Sharleen and her kid Claire were interested in the program too. When we got there, the kids were turned away because children would cause too much disruption to the school classes we would visit. At last minute, we took shift babysitting the kids so that the parents could go to the school tour. When it was Sharleen's turn to take the tour, it was recess time. We took the kids to join other school children in the playground. Our twins played on their own because they were familiar with school routines. Mommy had to pay special attention to Claire because she felt uneasy among hundred of kids. The kids all had fun despite the playground was packed with older kids.The Chinese coworkers in daddy's office threw a potluck party to celebrate the Chinese New Year. We invited everyone in the company to join us for lunch. Daddy picked an easy "dish" -- I supplied some of the drinks.
The twins went to school as usual in the afternoon. Today was show and tell day. But the twins said everyone were supposed to show their right hand today. That was easy, they needed not to pick any item from home.
The twins went to ballet class after school. The twins ran to mommy and the drinking fountain several times. The teacher scolded them for disrupting the class by running around. Joanne was scared by the teacher's harsh tone of voice. She cried and refused to rejoin the class. Joanne didn't like this teacher from the very beginning because this was not as nice a person as the previous teacher was. Mommy is not satisfied with this teacher either because she lacks any sign of professionalism, e.g. improper dancing attire, impatient with children etc.
It was Chinese New Year eve. We went out for a nice dinner with Grandma Chui and Aunt Elaine.
Joanne's wart under her toe was not getting better. The bandage that covers the wart caused the skin of her toe to turn white due to the excessive moisture from her sweat. Mommy let Joanne's foot aired out a little before treating the wart with medication again.
Tuesday, Feb 12, 2002 (4y+6m+6d)
Today is Chinese New Year, the year of the horse. Daddy went to work as usual. The twins went to school as usual. If we were in China, it would be a long holiday in these few days.
Wednesday, Feb 13, 2002 (4y+6m+7d)
The twins went to school as usual.
Thursday, Feb 14, 2002 (4y+6m+8d)
The twins went to school as usual. Today was Valentines Day. The twins collected a bagful of valentines from their classmates. Of course, mommy prepared valentines for them to hand out too. In my opinion, the valentine should be given only to someone special only. The twins gave them to each and every classmate; i.e. the valentines were not special anymore.For the past week or so, the twins spent very much time with the Mickey Mouse Christmas Magic DVD. They replayed over and over again the chapter in which Minnie was wrapping gifts. It was amazing how many times they want to watch the same footage without getting bored. Besides, it was kind of strange to listen to Christmas songs repeatedly in February.
Friday, Feb 15, 2002 (4y+6m+9d)
The twins went to their usual Friday ex-classmate gathering at the park before school. The twins went to school as usual.In the evening, Jasmine pointed daddy to Joanne's pants and they laughed hysterically. Daddy found nothing funny with the pants. Mommy later said it was an insider joke. The pants belonged to Jasmine and she let Joanne wear them. They laughed because Joanne was in the wrong pants. It wasn't funny to me, but I guessed it was kid's humor that I didn't understand. The older they grew, the stronger they claimed ownership to their belongings. However, they were willing to share from time to time. Usually Jasmine is more generous than Joanne is.
Saturday, Feb 16, 2002 (4y+6m+10d)
It was the fifth day of the New Year. It was the first weekend after the Chinese New Year. We paid visits to mommy's relatives as a Chinese New Year tradition. Daddy doesn't have many relatives in the area or else we would be really busy. The twins remembered the New Year from last years and they asked for the Hello Kitty purses to hold their collection of "Lei See" (lucky money in red envelopes).After a round of visits, we returned to the South Bay. On the way back, Joanne pointed to a hotel we passed and said we can stay in the hotel because she had a lot of money in her purse. Mommy asked her to save the money for LEGOLAND. We visited Hing and Lucy and dined out with them.
Sunday, Feb 17, 2002 (4y+6m+11d)
We dressed the twins in Chinese clothing yesterday. The pants were a bit too long and loose. The twins hated the pants because they dropped down and caught their heels often. Despite the beautiful clothes, the twins refused to wear them again today.We went out to have dim sum lunch with Grandma Chui around noon. We tried out a new restaurant in Union City. While we were waiting for table, a team of Chinese lion dancers visited the restaurant. The "lions" danced among the tables and let the customers to "feed" the lions with "Lei See". The twins enjoyed watching the lions, but they had their ears tightly covered to avoid the loud drums. I asked Joanne if she wanted to feed the lions with "Lei See", she said she was too scared.
After lunch, Cousin Natalie joined us to see the new Disney movie, Peter Pan in "Return to Neverland". The twins were familiar with the original Peter Pan movie and they enjoyed the new one very much too. They were a little scared when the pirates came to kidnap Wendy's daughter. We couldn't understand that because even 10 years old Natalie said she was scared of that part too. Aunt Tina and Uncle Ivan joined us for dinner at Outback steakhouse.
Monday, Feb 18, 2002 (4y+6m+12d)
It was the President's day holiday. Daddy didn't go to work or the twins went to school.Mommy's old friends Jenny and Sara (with her two-year-old son Kingsley) visited us. We went out for lunch. After lunch, we returned home. The kids played together while the adults chatted. They stayed till 4:30pm. They went out to get some French fries because Kingsley refused to eat anything during lunch because he was shy of us. Kingsley got his favorite French fries at In-n-Out burger while our twins requested the happy meal from McDonald's. They each got the Captain Hook toys from the Peter Pan movie. They called him the bad guy. Mommy let the twins take a nap in the car on the way back. We left them in the car while we got ready to go out again.
We took off again at 6pm. We had dinner with Denis', Alan's, Poon's families. We got a big table for 14 people including the kids. Claire, Valerie and our twins are around the same age within a year. Claire is the youngest among the girls and she preferred to stick with her mommy. Jonathan and Benjamin are much younger, but Jonathan was able to mingle with the older girls.
We cleaned up the twins before bedtime. Joanne's wart on her toe was getting better and under control. Mommy used paper tissues and a sock to dress the wart after applying the medication instead of using Band-Aid, which caused moisture problems.
Tuesday, Feb 19, 2002 (4y+6m+13d)
The twins returned to school as usual after the holidays.
Wednesday, Feb 20, 2002 (4y+6m+14d)
The twins went to school as usual.It would be a very special time at 8:02pm tonight. The date and time would read symmetrically "20:02 20/02 2002" in countries where 20th of February is represented as 20/02.
Thursday, Feb 21, 2002 (4y+6m+15d)
The twins went to their ex-classmate gathering at the park. For some reasons, it was moved to Thursday this week. The twins went to school as usual.
Friday, Feb 22, 2002 (4y+6m+16d)
Today is George Washington's 270th birthday. It is not a holiday though because we already had a day off for the President's day this Monday. I heard that some stories about the founding father of the USA were not true. For example, he didn't chop down a cherry tree; he never threw a dollar across the river. At the time, dollar did not exceed. American used pound as currency.The twins went to their ex-classmate gathering at the park again today. The weather was so good that the moms wanted to repeat the gathering. Mommy was mad at Joanne because she had become a whiner. Joanne was sitting under the sun and the sun bothered her. She demanded mommy to fetch a hat for her from the car. Mommy said they were leaving in 15 minutes, so if Joanne simply moved to a shady shot, she would save an unnecessary trip. Even Jasmine thought it was a reasonable solution, but Joanne insisted and kept nagging. She thought mommy would yield to her in front of other moms. She was wrong. She only got a scold from mommy for the disruption.
The twins went to school as usual.
Saturday, Feb 23, 2002 (4y+6m+17d)
We went to the mall after lunch. On the way, we stopped at a red light next to a store sign. So daddy took the opportunity to test their reading skill. I asked them to read the writings on the sign. Jasmine was really trying. However, as soon as the traffic light turned green, Joanne said "Ooop! It's gone!" She didn't even wait for the car to move before her attempt to evade the test. Daddy and mommy looked at each other and shook our heads. We don't know if we should smile or frown at such "cunning" personality. Jasmine is very obedient to rules and instructions. But that is not a good thing either because she cannot match Joanne's creativity and smart wits. Joanne often bullies Jasmine and makes her cry, but not vice versa. Between them two, Jasmine is always at a submissive position. We tried not to intervene except asking Jasmine to be more assertive and resist any unfair treatment from Joanne. We would tell Joanne that it was not right to make her sister cry. But we never forcefully reverted Joanne's actions. We believe she needs to learn to control her own actions instead of having an adult to take care of the consequences. We might have already intervened too much because Jasmine always came to us asking for a judgment. We rather let them resolve the conflicts between themselves.We were at Macy's department store. There was a Swarovski crystal membership drive. As a promotion, the sales clerks were giving free crystal tattoos to anyone who asked. These were tiny Swarovski crystals glued to the skin using medical adhesive that can last up to two weeks if not rubbed off by force. The twins got sparkling crystals on their wrists. And they went back for the second time to get some more on their necks. The sales clerks found the twins so cute that they were giving them more than their shares. They also put some on their faces and earlobes. The twins loved the sparkling tattoos so much that they showed them off to everyone by twisting their wrists and bodies.
We had dinner with CW's family. Deanna invited the twins to play at their house afterwards. CW was leaving the next morning on a business trip. We accepted the invitation after we made sure our presence wouldn't interfere with CW's packing for his trip. The twins had a great time playing with Deanna and Addison.
Sunday, Feb 24, 2002 (4y+6m+18d)
We went to the Monterey Bay Aquarium with Foti's family. Foti, the twins' Greek classmate, is a few months older than the twins are. He took charge on leading the twins for the tour. He led Joanne by her hand, but Jasmine was more reluctant to take his hand. We let the kids decide what to see and we just followed along and occasionally made some suggestions. They spent extra time at the huge outer bay tank, the jelly fishes, the octopi, the seahorses, the stingrays, touching the starfishes and sea cucumbers, and getting wet at the splash zone.After the kids had enough of the aquarium, we went to Carmel. The kids ran around on the beach. It was low tide at the time and there was plenty of firm sand for them to run on. Joanne ran so far away that none of us could catch up on her. We were worried because the ocean waves in Monterey were quite unpredictable at times, besides, there were many big dogs running around. We had to yell at her to make her stop before she was totally out of our reach.
We later let them play in the dry sand for a while. Mommy didn't like the smelly kelps that were washed to shore because they were infested with some unknown insects. Mommy decided to take a stroll around town. It was around 5pm and more than half of the stores was closed, so we just did some window-shopping. The kids had fun throwing coins into the fountain in Carmel Plaza. Foti was tall enough to retrieve the coins on the bottom of the fountains after all our coins were already thrown in. We joked that he was taking away somebody's wishes when he provided an endless supply of coins for the twins to throw.
We went back to the fisherman's wharf for dinner. Hing, Lucy and Terence also came to Monterey in the afternoon, and they joined us for dinner. The twins fell asleep on our way back. We had to clean them up because they played in the sand earlier. It was funny to see them standing in the tub half-asleep with eyes closed while mommy gave them a shower. They went straight to the bed after the shower because they weren't awake enough to brush their teeth.
Monday, Feb 25, 2002 (4y+6m+19d)
The twins went to school as usual. They said they showed their crystal tattoos to their teachers. They went to their dance class after school.
Tuesday, Feb 26, 2002 (4y+6m+20d)
The twins went to school as usual.Disney released Cinderella II on video today. Mommy bought a copy of the DVD and the twins were indulged in it right away.
Wednesday, Feb 27, 2002 (4y+6m+21d)
The twins went to school as usual.
Thursday, Feb 28, 2002 (4y+6m+22d)
The twins went to school as usual. They went to a Gymnastic class after school. They said they "loved" the class. They were only doing rolling around on the mats in the class. They said they wanted to learn how to do cartwheel.
Friday, Mar 1, 2002 (4y+6m+23d)
The twins went to school as usual.
Saturday, Mar 2, 2002 (4y+6m+24d)
We had lunch with William and Lillian.In the late afternoon, we went to San Francisco for Samantha's 7th birthday party. The party was held at AcroSports near UCSF. The kids were led by an instructor to do exercise and play games. The twins also got a ride on the "bungee bounce" device. It was a harness attached to two bungee cords. The device was designed for gymnasts to practice acrobatic moves with the help of the bungee. Since the harness was too small for the twins, they were not allowed to do flips and bounce. They just rode it as a big swing. The twins enjoyed the "Tarzan swing" more than the bungee bounce.
There were also games that played with a colorful parachute. It was similar to that at Gymboree, hence the twins were familiar with most of the games. The twins especially enjoyed two new games the "mouse trap" and the "tidal wave". In the "mouse trap", some kids went under the parachute while another kid tried to catch them from above. The parachute was shaken by the people on the outside to make the "mice" hard to spot. In the "tidal wave" game, the parachute was waved and shaken to look like the tidal waves and at the last moment, a big wave came and covered all the kids. The kids didn't just sit there to be swallowed by the "wave". They ran like crazy while screaming in joy.
After an hour of fun, we retreated to the party room and we had pizza, pasta and Samantha's birthday cake. The twins took a nap before the party. They were able to stay awake throughout the party and on our way home. We cleaned them up in the shower before putting them in bed.
Sunday, Mar 3, 2002 (4y+6m+25d)
After lunch, we went to the hardware store to buy some material to do some repairs at home. Mommy forced the twins to take an afternoon nap while daddy repaired the home and garden. It took over an hour before the twins fell asleep. Not long after they fell asleep, we had to wake them to get ready for Maddie's 2nd birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese. This Chuck E. Cheese was much bigger than the one they went to every week. The twins had great fun at this venue. When Chuckie came out, the twins hid under the table. I told Jasmine that if she sat on my shoulder, she would be taller than Chuckie and she needn't scare of him. Jasmine and I approached Chuckie to get a handshake. She also touched his big nose and teeth. When I tried the same trick with Joanne, she cried in fear. After pizza and cake, we stayed awhile to play the arcade games until 9pm. The twins' objective was to get as much tickets as possible so that they could exchange some gifts on the way out. We spent over $20 in tokens, but we only managed to get two tiny watercolor sets and two small jar of body glitter.
Monday, Mar 4, 2002 (4y+6m+26d)
The twins went to school as usual. They went to dance class after school.The twins switched between the "Cinderella II" and "Fantasia 2000" DVDs. They particular enjoyed the story about the ballerina and the one-legged toy soldier. They watched that chapter over and over again. I showed them that they could also select chapters on a DVD player using the remote control. However, they still preferred to play the DVDs on their iMac computer using the mouse to click their selections.
Tuesday, Mar 5, 2002 (4y+6m+27d)
The twins went to school as usual.
Wednesday, Mar 6, 2002 (4y+7m)
The twins are 55 months old.
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started on Mar 7, 2002