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This journal is about raising identical twins.Fifty Sixth Month
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Wednesday, Mar 6, 2002 (4y+7m)
The twins are 55 months old.Daddy took a day off to take care of the home-remodeling plan. The twins went to school as usual.
Jasmine still sleeps in the gap between Joanne's and her bed. We are getting tired of pulling her out every night after she had fallen asleep. However, she is stubborn because she said she could sleep closer to Joanne that way. Joanne refuses to let Jasmine sleep on her bed and the gap is the closest she can get.
Thursday, Mar 7, 2002 (4y+7m+1d)
The twins went to school as usual. They went to the gym class after school.
Friday, Mar 8, 2002 (4y+7m+2d)
The twins went to school as usual.Daddy and Mommy are not happy with Joanne. She totally ignores our commands. We are quite sure she is not deaf. She just listens selectively.
Daddy worked overtime till early in the morning.
Saturday, Mar 9, 2002 (4y+7m+3d)
Daddy worked overtime till early in the morning. Daddy slept in until noon despite the twins made a lot of noise in our bedroom. Mommy took the twins to visit grandma Ling and left daddy alone to recuperate after the long hour work.Daddy returned to the office again to resolve a crisis at work. The twins were already in bed when I came home.
Sunday, Mar 10, 2002 (4y+7m+4d)
We had a mini-hotpot for lunch. We went to a park nearby. The twins had a great time climbing up and down. We went to Fry's electronics to check out some appliances. We went to Palo Altos for dinner.Daddy was swinging Jasmine around for fun. Joanne suddenly got in the way and the two girls got a head collision with a loud bang. Both cried for awhile despite daddy's apology because their heads must be hurt very much.
Monday, Mar 11, 2002 (4y+7m+5d)
Joanne got a nosebleed at 4am in the morning. Mommy said it must be the red bean soup she had for dessert at last night dinner that triggered it. Red beans are known to Chinese as a Yang type of food. It promotes blood circulation and dryness of mouth and nose. Since Joanne's nose bleeds easily, the red beans just pushed the limit. Mommy said another possible cause would be the head-on collision last night. Due to the commotion, the twins slept in our bed for the rest of the morning.Mommy woke up the twins at 8am in the morning. They had to go to the airport. Rachel's family was returning from Taiwan. Mommy promised to give them a ride. When mommy said they must get ready to pick up Rachel, they said they didn't want to go. When mommy bribed them with gummy bear candies, Joanne jumped up from bed. Mommy had to bribe Jasmine with other things. The twins valued gummy bears over the friendship with their classmate Rachel.
The twins went to school as usual. They went to the dance class after school. They demonstrated to daddy the new moves they learned today.
Tuesday, Mar 12, 2002 (4y+7m+6d)
Jasmine sneaked into our bed this morning. She slept between daddy and mommy for awhile just like yesterday morning. She later went back to her room to check on Joanne. Joanne went into a tantrum crying and screaming, she complained that Jasmine woke her up. Jasmine said she didn't make any noise, she just took a peek at her by moving her comforter. Mommy ordered Joanne to stop the madness because it was time to get up anyway.They got dressed and went to visit Aden and his mom before going to school as usual. They had been looking forward to see Aden's dog.
Joanne came to me and told me proudly that she climbed the stairs outside of the railing to the second floor. I dropped my jaw. I explained to her that she could die if she slipped and fell. She ran to mommy crying because of my disapproval of her proud achievement. They did a lot of climbing in playgrounds, so they might think it was the same thing. I had to explain to her that the playground is covered with sand, which is safer than the stairs.
Wednesday, Mar 13, 2002 (4y+7m+7d)
In the morning, mommy wants the twins to wear their thick bathrobes to keep warm when they get out of bed. Joanne didn't wear her robe this morning. When mommy yelled at her, she said she didn't want to because the robe would cover her pretty painting apron. Mommy told her that she was supposed to wear the robe, not the apron. They reached a compromise that Joanne could leave the robe open so that her apron could show through the front.They went to school as usual.
Thursday, Mar 14, 2002 (4y+7m+8d)
They went to school as usual. They went to gym class after school.
Friday, Mar 15, 2002 (4y+7m+9d)
They went to their weekly gathering at Chuck E. Cheese. The twins always want to exchanges their game tickets with the toys on the top shelves. However, they refuse to save up their tickets to accumulate points. They spend all the points on the junk toys instead. If spending tickets is an indication on how they would spend their money in the future, then they are hopeless.They went to school as usual.
Peter and his family invited us to join them for the weekend at their vacation home in Truckee. We headed towards Lake Tahoe after daddy returned home from work. We departed at 6:30pm. We took a half-hour dinner break at Roseville, north of Sacramento. Snow chains were required on I-80 after we passed Nyack. I forgot to bring a pair of pliers. With bare fingers in extreme cold, I couldn't tie down the loose ends of the snow chains quite properly. I later found out that the loose ends were swung around and hit the fender of the car. A part of the car was stripped of paint as a result. When we were about half mile from our destination, a snow chain broke. Under inspection, I found the cable chain wrapped around the axle behind the wheel. The chain was tangled with the hydraulic lines of the brake. I was able to get the broken chain out without damaging the brake. Fortunately, I took with me a spare chain. Without it, we would be stranded on the snow-covered slope. It was almost 1pm when we got to Peter's house. The trip took 6+ hours. Provided that we stopped for dinner, and repaired a snow chain, it was not too bad.
The twins were asleep most of the trip. They continued to sleep after we placed them in bed.
Peter's friends, Kevin, Amelia and their kids Sebastian and Ian arrived about 15 minutes after us.
Saturday, Mar 16, 2002 (4y+7m+10d)
The twins were up and making noise at 8am in the morning. They had fun playing with Peter's dogs, Al and Huhu. According to Peter, Maddie got up even earlier. So we didn't feel too bad for the twins waking up everyone.After breakfast, we went to the backyard for some sledding. The slope in the backyard was covered with fresh powdery snow. The snow was so soft that the twins kept sinking into it. The kids took a long nap after lunch.
We sat in front of a fireplace in the living room watching falling snow outside the windows. It was the most relaxing trip I ever had at Lake Tahoe.
Peter's friend, John, Sunnie and Tom were also at Lake Tahoe. They dropped by to visit and stayed for dinner.
Sunday, Mar 17, 2002 (4y+7m+11d)
After breakfast, we went to the snow play area at Donner Tahoe ski area. The twins had fun sledding down the slope. It was a longer run than Peter's backyard. The trouble was that we had to pull the sleds and twins up the longer slope. Two-year-old Maddie enjoyed sledding so much that she kept asking for more. Sebastian didn't take many runs. Perhaps he was still too young for such excitement.We returned to Peter's house for lunch afterwards. At around 3pm, we packed up and left, hoping that we could get home earlier because Jasmine would have a doctor appointment in the next morning. When we got to highway I-80, we noticed a traffic jam. We found out from the radio that there was a multiple spinouts about 3 to 4 miles ahead of us. We called Peter to ask him to check traffic condition before heading out. He offered to provide us shelter if we decided to turn back. Based on past experience, we didn't expect the cleanup of the car accident would take too long, so we decided to wait it out. We had drinks, food, warm clothes and many plastic bags. The bags came in handy when the twins wanted to pee and poop. We had enough fuel. We could survive on the highway. With hundreds of cars around us, I was not a bit worried. Although mommy was quite impatient, the kids were behaving quite well.
During the wait on the highway, we let loose the twins inside the car. The twins enjoyed drawing and writing on the fogged up windows. We also played some UNO card games. The twins lost interest quite quickly. Joanne was the first one to quit after just a couple games. Jasmine quitted as soon as I played a Draw Four penalty card to her.
We were wrong about the length of the wait, the traffic didn't move again until 7:15pm. It was 7:45pm when we passed the snow chain checkpoint. Traffic went smoothly past the bottleneck. With the snow chains on the tires, I kept our speed below 30mph. If the chain broke again like on Friday, we would be really stranded this time. It took us 90 minutes before we reached Baxter. I took off the snow chains and we resumed normal highway speed. We stopped for a hamburger after we were out of the mountains. It was 12:30am when we arrived home.
We all got in bed before 1 am. The trip took 9.5 hours. We needed less time on our trip to LEGOLAND in San Diego. Our last record was 10 hours on a longer trip to Reno. Given the shorter distance, this trip broke a new record for us.
Despite the long driving, the weekend was very enjoyable otherwise.
Monday, Mar 18, 2002 (4y+7m+12d)
We took Jasmine to see her eye doctor. We discussed with the doctor the surgical option to fix Jasmine's cross-eyes. The doctors said the condition would get worse as Jasmine grows older. Her depth perception is not very good now, and she may eventually lose vision in one eye when the brain tries to ignore the mis-aligned images. The operation would detach one of her eye muscles and suture it at a different location to achieve a different alignment. She said the operation has a success rate of about 85%. But for young kids like Jasmine, the success rate is over 90%. There is a 5% chance that the surgery over-corrects the alignment, so her eyes may diverge outwards. She mentioned that in such situation, there is always an option for a second surgery. We asked about other risks. She said loss of vision or loss of life is possible, but unlikely, in this type of operation. We need to do some research on this surgery and talk among ourselves before deciding.The doctor didn't keep her appointment time. When we came out, the twins were already late for school. Mommy decided to let the twins skip school, so that she can pick up the paperwork from the twins' future kindergarten. The twins had been admitted for the fall term.
The twins took a nap in the car before mommy took them to the dance class.
Tuesday, Mar 19, 2002 (4y+7m+13d)
The twins returned to school as usual.Aunt Jun visited mommy after work. They went out with the twins and returned with takeout dinner. Daddy worked overtime and came home after everyone was already in bed.
Wednesday, Mar 20, 2002 (4y+7m+14d)
Mommy set up the bread machine for the first time. We bought one on sales for $79 last Sunday, we thought it was a good deal at less than half price. We were waken up by the smell of fresh bread in the morning. The twins said they like the hot breads. The result was quite decent given that everything was automatic.The twins went to school as usual.
Joanne woke up in the middle of the night because of nosebleed again.
Thursday, Mar 21, 2002 (4y+7m+15d)
The twins went to the park for their weekly gathering before going to school. They went to gymnastic class after school. Joanne corrected me that they went to gymnastic class, not "gym class".
Friday, Mar 22, 2002 (4y+7m+16d)
It was a rainy day. The twins went to Chuck E. Cheese for their weekly gathering before going to school. Mommy also invited Sherry to bring 2-year-old Aden to join the fun. Though the gathering was initially started out for the twins' ex-classmates, but there are younger siblings of the classmates that are at Aden's age.
Saturday, Mar 23, 2002 (4y+7m+17d)
We paid visit to grandma Ling.We learned from last snow trip that we could save a lot of trouble if we had snow tires and 4-wheel-drive like Peter did. Peter waited after the traffic cleared and came down the mountains in 4 hours instead of 9.5 hours like we did. We are thinking about replacing our minivan with a SUV with 4-wheel-drive and all-season tires.
After lunch, we went to a car dealership to check out a 4-wheel-drive SUV. The SUV was so popular that the dealer didn't have any to show the customers.
In mid afternoon, we went to Sara's house-warming party. Their son Kingsley (not yet 3) was very generous to let our twins play with his toys. When other guests arrived, Connie's 3 year old Cynthia also played in the toy room. However, all four kids played independently with no interaction with each other. Our twins like to play with older kids. But they don't play with younger kids. Apparently they don't know how to communicate with kids that don't speak. It needs leadership to take control of the play with other kids. The twins have not developed such skill yet.
In the evening, the twins fell asleep on the way home. They woke up and played some computer games before we washed them and put them in bed.
Sunday, Mar 24, 2002 (4y+7m+18d)
We stayed home in the morning. Daddy did some repair work at home. We went out for lunch and then we took a second attempt to see the SUV. Mommy promised the twins some bubble gum hoping they would behave while we do our business.This dealer put aside a car in the show room (not for sale nor test drive), so customers got to check out the features of the car. They don't have the car in stock and there is a long waiting list for this model. The expected wait is about 4 months. We left our names and would make a decision later when the car is available.
We joined Bonnie's family and William & Lillian for a snack break. Joanne asked for the gum that mommy promised. We were in a hurry to join Hing and Lucy's family for dinner, so we couldn't buy the gum. Lucy brought the twins each a bag of Easter treats with chocolate eggs and Easter bunny toys. Hing insisted that he would treat us the nice dinner. After dinner, Joanne asked for the gum again. We told her that all the stores were closed; she had to wait till tomorrow. The twins fell asleep on the way home. Mommy wiped them clean and changed them without waking them before putting them in bed.
Monday, Mar 25, 2002 (4y+7m+19d)
Joanne came to our bedroom asking for the gum at 7am. Mommy sent her back to bed and promised to buy her the gum before school today.The twins went to school as usual. The twins like the bubble gum, but they were frustrated when they fail to make bubble.
Today was supposed to be the last dance class until we sign up the twins for the next. They have to skip class because we had an appointment with the remodeling company to talk about our new home improvement project.
A set of identical quadruplet girls was born to a couple in Sacramento area today. Identical twins may be common, but according to the news, birth of identical quadruplets is a 1 in 11 million event.
Tuesday, Mar 26, 2002 (4y+7m+20d)
The twins came to our bedroom at 6am. Mommy sent them back to play in their own room after turning on the heat in the house. We predicted the twins would need a long nap this afternoon.In early morning, the twins learned to play among themselves. Mommy and daddy will not get up until we get enough sleep. I guess parents of single child may not have such luxury to stay in bed under such situation.
The twins went to school as usual.
Wednesday, Mar 27, 2002 (4y+7m+21d)
The twins went to school as usual.
Thursday, Mar 28, 2002 (4y+7m+22d)
The twins went to school as usual. They went to gymnastic class after school.
Friday, Mar 29, 2002 (4y+7m+23d)
We had an appointment with the remodeling company early in the morning. We took the twins along with us. They played in the waiting room and watch some cartoon on video. After the meeting, mommy dropped daddy off at work.The twins went to school as usual in the afternoon.
Mommy and twins came to pick up daddy in the evening. We bought 5 Burger King Big fish sandwiches as dinner on our way home. Burger King has been running a 99 cent daily special for some time. The 99 cents special for Friday is the fish burger. The twins loved it and we loved the price.
Saturday, Mar 30, 2002 (4y+7m+24d)
It is the Easter weekend. We went to an Easter egg hunt event at a nearby church. After a short religious service, an Easter bunny led the way with hundreds of children followed him to the park. Candies and Easter goodies were sprinkled randomly on the lawn. As the gate opened, the kids rushed in to pickup as much goodies as possible. It is more like Easter egg pickup than a hunt. Jasmine got a basket full of candies. Joanne only filled a quarter of the basket.Henry and Sherry brought 2-year-old Aden to the event too. There were other costumed characters at the event. The twins were scared of Easter bunny, Tigger, Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse. Jasmine reluctantly took a picture with Winnie the Pooh only when accompanied by Daddy. The Pooh costume was the most decent looking among the other characters. Jasmine specifically rejected Minnie because she said the costume was ugly and the character didn't look like Minnie. Joanne ran across the field and stayed 50 yards away from the characters. Aden was not picky. He took picture with almost all the characters.
We later had lunch together and we chatted for more than 2 hours over lunch. Near the end of the lunch, the kids were let loose. The twins were willing to play with Aden. It is kind of unusually given the twins didn't like to play with younger kids.
After we went on our separate way, we took a trip to San Francisco where mommy wanted to pick up something that she ordered weeks ago. The twins specially requested to visit the Disney store and FAO. Due to difficulty in finding parking, daddy stayed with the car while the twins visited the Disney store with mommy. It was a windy and foggy day, and the twins needed to take a rain check for FAO. We then took the twins to the Zeum near Metreon. We found out that the Zeum closes at 4pm. We only had 10 minutes left. Since we have a membership with the Exploratorium, our admission was free. The twins seemed to enjoy the play area very much in the 10 minutes. We planned to come back for more. The twins had couple of rides on the Carousel outside of the Zeum.
We went to Japantown for dinner. The twins shared a big bowl of Udon. We then went to a Japanese bookstore to browse around. The twins each picked a Hello Kitty storybook. Their choices of books were more expensive than daddy's. We wandered around and found people lined up outside a crepe store. The twins wanted one loaded with mixed fruits and ice cream. They really had good appetite to have a big dessert right after dinner.
We noticed that crepes were popular on the streets of Paris and Tokyo when we visited last time. I believe the Japanese copied from the French. Now, the fad has just spread to San Francisco Japantown. We watched the crepes were going at one minute apiece. Given the price at $5 each, we estimated the tiny store could easily make half a million dollar revenue annually. Of course, the selling rate would slow down once competition arises.
Sunday, Mar 31, 2002 (4y+7m+25d)
We had lunch with Uncle Ivan, Aunt Tina and Cousin Natalie. After lunch, we went to the park with the bicycles. Mommy and Aunt Tina set up a picnic area under a shady tree. Cousin Natalie joined us on her scooter. Daddy was on in-line skates. Jasmine went full speed on her bike. Joanne basically crawled slowly. She said she was scared of the downward grades. Joanne quitted after the first round. Jasmine later went for two more rounds with daddy and Cousin Natalie.Despite the exercise, the twins refused to take a nap in the afternoon. Daddy spent sometime preparing the tax return. Mommy cleaned up the garage while the twins played with water pistols on the driveway in front of the house.
Monday, Apr 1, 2002 (4y+7m+26d)
It is April fool's day.It is a weeklong spring break for the twins. They followed mommy around while she managed the home-remodeling project, house cleaning tasks and the move. The twins said they like the new house better than our existing house. I bet they wouldn't miss it when we eventually sell our home.
Tuesday, Apr 2, 2002 (4y+7m+27d)
The twins still enjoy their spring break.Joanne was standing on top of the toy chest and she leaked. No, she not only leaked. She unloaded all she got into the chestful of stuffed animals. All the toys and the carpet were soaked in pee. Mommy was so angry that she wanted to throw away all the pee-soaked toys. Some of them are not washable because some of them had electronic sound makers inside. Washing them would damage the electronics. Jasmine gave Joanne an angry look and told her that she was unhappy about losing the toys. Joanne didn't say much probably because she really felt bad about the accident.
Daddy cut open some of the toys to remove the unwashable parts before dumping them all in the washing machine. There will be a lot of sewing to do after the "animal" took a bath.
Wednesday, Apr 3, 2002 (4y+7m+28d)
The twins still enjoy their spring break.Mommy took Jasmine to the doctor. She needs a full physical check up in preparation for the eye surgery we are considering. The doctor said Jasmine's height (40") is at 98 percentile for her age; her weight (32 lb.) is at 20 percentile. She also took her shots for school admission in the fall. Jasmine only cried a little. Joanne's visit is scheduled for later on Friday because the doctor said there was not enough time for Joanne due to Jasmine's full checkup.
As a reward for behaving well in the doctor office, mommy took the twins to Toy R Us. Jasmine got to choose a toy. She picked a hula hoop. She said they have that in the gymnastic class and she wants one at home.
Mommy then took Jasmine to the eye doctor for another checkup.
Jasmine was proud to show off to daddy the Band-Aids that cover the puncture from the shots.
Daddy bought them the "Hunchback of Notre Dame II" video. The twins jumped on it right away. They were quite familiar with the characters from storybooks, though they have not seen the original movie yet.
Thursday, Apr 4, 2002 (4y+7m+29d)
The twins still enjoy their spring break. They went to the gymnastic class in the afternoon.Joanne tried to grab Jasmine's hula hoop. They got into a tug of war. Joanne's hands slipped and she shot herself toward a dresser in our room. She got bruise and skin abrasion on her back. The situation could be worse if she landed headfirst. We used it as a lesson to teach them not to fight for toys.
Friday, Apr 5, 2002 (4y+7m+30d)
The twins still enjoy their spring break.It was Joanne's turn to get her shots. On the way to the doctor's office, she told mommy that she would be very brave. She said she would want a hula hoop also as the reward. She saw how Jasmine took the shots and she knew it only hurt a little (according to Jasmine). However, as soon as she saw the needle, she panicked and screamed and struggled like a wild animal. During the struggle, she got a nosebleed. Mommy spent half an hour to calm her down and took care of the bleeding. The doctor suggested to reschedule the visit. Mommy thought that the next visit would be the same because Joanne was already well prepared for this visit. What possibly could change the situation for next time if this was already her best? Mommy decided to continue with Joanne's shots by holding her down by force. The twins were getting another dose of polio immunization, a TB test and another shot.
As promised, the twins visited Toy R Us and Joanne got to choose a toy. She chose a pair bunny ears (a head band).
Saturday, Apr 6, 2002 (4y+8m)
The twins are now four and a third year old today.
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started on Apr 8, 2002