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This journal is about raising identical twins.Sixtieth Month
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Saturday, Jul 6, 2002 (4y+11m)
The twins are 59 months old today.We attended mommy's cousin Kevin's wedding around noon. The twins were excited to wear their new pretty dresses. The wedding took place behind Fairyland on Lake Merrit in Oakland. The twins wanted to go to Fairyland afterwards. But when asked if they wanted to soil their pretty dresses in the playground, they gave up the idea.
We had a late lunch and then went to Aunt Tina's place. The twins took a nap in the car inside Tina's garage.
We went to Kevin's wedding banquet in the evening. Jasmine stayed with us while Joanne went to play with her cousin Matthew at the next table. They went to catch the bridal bouquet, but were disappointed when someone else got it. The bride gave out teddy bears as favors to all female guests. The twins collected more than their fair share when Aunt Tina, Aunt Jun, mommy and Grandma Ling all gave up theirs. The teddy bears hold a red heart with the words "I love you" on it. Some hearts were made of velvet and others were made of satin material. The twins called them soft and smooth bears respectively.
When they got home, the twins didn't want to take off their pretty dresses. They sang and danced in front of the mirror. They also wanted me to show them the video I taped in the banquet and they wanted me to see their swim lesson tape too. They stayed up later than mommy did. Mommy went to bed early because of the busy day.
While the twins were quietly watching the video, I noticed Jasmine taking a deep breath every 20 seconds or so. I asked her why she breathed like that, she said she could not breathe. I worried that it was a sign of asthma. Mommy said Jasmine might be subconsciously holding her breath like in the swim lesson. Since she hurt her nose a week ago in LEGOLAND, the breathing problem may be caused by her injury too. We would watch for other symptoms.
Sunday, Jul 7, 2002 (4y+11m+1d)
We had an appointment with a remodeling contractor at a job site. Mommy got a traffic citation on the way for making a turn when she failed to see the "No turn on red" sign. She was distracted because we were in an unfamiliar neighborhood and the twins were making too much noise at the back. The twins ran around the vacant house in circle while we talked to the contractor for 90 minutes.We had lunch with Grandma Chui. We returned home after some grocery shopping. The twins were sent to bed to avoid the afternoon heat. But they refused to take their nap. They got up to see the movie Shrek instead. They were sent to bed early after dinner.
Monday, Jul 8, 2002 (4y+11m+2d)
The twins went to school as usual. They had their swim class after school. They had been doing doggy paddle until today. They learned free style crawl stroke in their third swim lesson. They proudly told daddy that they could hold their breach and swam a distance in crawl strokes to the teacher or to the wall of the pool.Mommy took Joanne to see her doctor for the progress on her INH treatment. Mommy also asked the doctor about Jasmine breathing problem. The doctor found nothing wrong with Jasmine.
Tuesday, Jul 9, 2002 (4y+11m+3d)
The twins went to school as usual. There was no swim class today. Matt was busy at school.It was a hot day. The temperature went above 100°F.
Wednesday, Jul 10, 2002 (4y+11m+4d)
The twins went to school as usual. They went to swim lesson after school.It was a hot day, even hotter than yesterday. Some inland areas in Monterey Bay county expected to exceed 115°F.
The twins took a nap in the afternoon. The twins were almost five-year-old; an afternoon nap was often unnecessary. However, after a lot of exercise such as the swim lessons, the twins were more willing to take an afternoon nap. Otherwise, they'd rather spend the time playing than sleeping. Due to the hot weather, mommy set up the air mattress downstairs in the family room. The rooms upstairs became very hot in the afternoon because our new home have no air conditioning.
Thursday, Jul 11, 2002 (4y+11m+5d)
The twins went to school as usual. They went to swim lesson after school. Mommy said the teacher had already taught them how to turn the head to breathe while doing the crawl stroke. Joanne could do very well. She could swim across the width of the small pool. Jasmine was very nervous. She often held her breath too early and hence ran out of air too soon. They had tried opening the eyes underwater, but they didn't like to do it. Both were making good progress and they enjoyed the lessons. They had already been taught what they needed to know. They just needed a lot of practice to refine their skill.The weather was not as hot as yesterday. Mommy sent the twins for an afternoon nap. As an incentive, she promised to take them to shopping at Macys. As soon as they woke up, they asked for Macys.
They went shopping after an early dinner. Mommy finished her shopping elsewhere but the twins insisted on going to Macys. To mommy, shopping is shopping regardless which store. When asked what was special about Macys, the twins said the candies. I didn't even know Macys was famous for candies!
The twins stopped by Lillian and William's place before returning home. Daddy worked late and arrived home just a bit before the twins did.
Friday, Jul 12, 2002 (4y+11m+6d)
No school on Friday. No swim class neither.Debbie and Melinda visited in the morning. Each brought their two kids.
We invited Peter and Yulin's family and Hing and Lucy's family over for dinner. Hing's Terence was about two-month younger than Peter's Maddie. Both were around the same size.
Peter's Maddie was 27 months old. She already spoke in complete sentences. She went to preschool since two-year-old. Her school only had twenty some students from two-years-old to pre-K age. All the students played and learned together. Maddie picked up her English from the older kids in her class. It was quite obvious that kids pick up language from their peers much faster than from adults.
After dinner, we played some children's songs and let the kids sing along on a karaoke machine. Our twins became so shy that they didn't make a sound. They sang some of those songs before when we were alone. Maddie was reluctant to sing to the microphone at first. But after she was warmed up, she hummed along with some of the songs.
Saturday, Jul 13, 2002 (4y+11m+7d)
Today, we signed a contract with a contractor for our home-remodeling work. The work would start next month when the kitchen cabinets were expected to arrive. After months of planning and numerous changes of plan, we finally settled with what we could afford to do.I was impressed yesterday with Maddie's ability to speak at such young age. Out of curiosity as comparison, I dug up the videotape that was recorded when the twins were around 27 months old. We spent two hours in the morning watching the entire tape. Throughout the recording, the twins occasionally made some noises, but absolutely no speech at that age. The twins laughed loudly at their younger selves. They said they were funny when they were young.
We went to Expo in the afternoon to select some remodeling material. We were given some small sample tiles of kitchen counter material. The twins collected them like treasure.
The twins and daddy rode their bikes to the park. Jasmine enjoyed fast acceleration and quick braking action. Joanne was unhappy because Jasmine rode too fast and she couldn't catch up. Joanne preferred riding her bike slowly because she was not very confident in using the brake.
We stayed home all evening.
Sunday, Jul 14, 2002 (4y+11m+8d)
We went to lunch with Denis' family. We invited Evon & Ronald and Cindy & Ray too. SiuLing was busy and didn't come at the last minute. We spent almost three hours in the restaurant chatting and eating dim sum. Towards the end, Jonathan, Benjamin became impatient and ran around the table. The twins started to climb all over daddy. That was when we decided to leave. Before we parted, we demanded to get a ride on Ronald's F355 Spider sport car. Since it was a two-seater, some of us had to take turn. We jokingly said it was like getting on rides in an amusement park.Cindy & Ray and Denis' family came to our home for the first time. After they left, we went to Lillian's place. Lillian invited the twins over for a swim in her pool. The twins were very enthusiastic in showing daddy what they learned in swim classes. Joanne was fearless in water. We needed to keep a watchful eye on Joanne because she thought she could swim, but she obviously still needed help. Jasmine couldn't swim too well. She moved vigorously in water, but she sank when she curled up too much due to nervousness. The water was not too cold. We stayed in water for over an hour. The twins got plenty of exercise because they were non-stop during the whole hour.
Lillian prepared dinner for us after we dried ourselves. After dinner, we chatted a bit and then Lillian pulled out some old photo albums to show us. We asked the twins to find daddy in some 25+ years old photos from the high school days. Surprisingly, they recognized the younger daddy despite the different hairline and at least 40-pound difference in weight. The twins demanded Lillian to play hide-n-seek with them before we left. It was not too difficult to locate the twins because they screamed in excitement as they ran.
After a full day of exercise, the twins were exhausted. Despite the short distance, Jasmine fell asleep on the five-minute trip home. We woke her up to make sure she brushed her teeth before bed.
Monday, Jul 15, 2002 (4y+11m+9d)
The twins went to school as usual. It was chilly this morning. It was quite a change compared to the record-breaking heat wave last week. They went to swim lesson after school. It was warmer when they started their swim lesson. Mommy said Joanne swam in free style. Joanne said Jasmine didn't swim, instead she just splashed the water. Of course, Jasmine disagreed.
Tuesday, Jul 16, 2002 (4y+11m+10d)
It was chilly this morning. The twins went to school as usual. Matt was busy with tests at school. No swim lesson for the rest of the week.
Wednesday, Jul 17, 2002 (4y+11m+11d)
The twins used to go to afternoon school before. For summer school, mommy signed them up for morning class. They needed to arrive at school between 8:45 to 9am. The twins needed to get out of bed between 7:45 to 8am. One hour is barely enough for getting dressed and a quick breakfast. It has been a struggle to get the twins out of bed. They were used to sleeping as much as they needed in the morning. Now, when they had to get up at a fixed time, they took at least 10 to 15 minutes after the alarm clock went off. Daddy and mommy had to do all kind of tricks to wake them, like pulling off their blankets, opening the window shade, physically removing them from bed etc.The twins went to school as usual. They went to Stanford shopping center after school with their ex-classmate Foti. The twins had changed school campus since summer. This was the first get-together with Foti after our San Diego trip. Foti's mom said she was worried about Foti being over weight but at the same time she bought him two scoops of ice cream. Foti likes to play rough with the twins with Power Ranger style fighting moves. The twins have not seen the Power Ranger TV show, so they just mimicked Foti's action to play along. The twins are at a disadvantage because Foti is a big boy. Joanne weighed 34.5 pound today; Jasmine was a pound less.
Mommy took the twins for a haircut. Their hairs were almost at hip length and were tough to deal with especially after swim lessons. Joanne went first because Jasmine didn't want a haircut. Joanne's hair was cut to shoulder length. Jasmine liked it and wanted the same cut. When they returned home, Joanne said her hair was still too long. Mommy said Joanne could have a shorter cut if she said so in the barbershop. The twins like to wear ponytail, pigtails or braids. I doubted if they would regret if their hair were cut short.
Thursday, Jul 18, 2002 (4y+11m+12d)
The twins went to school as usual.Joanne took a long afternoon nap well past dinnertime. She had her dinner after everyone was done.
At bedtime, the twins were talking in bed. Mommy worried that they would talk into the night. To separate them, mommy ordered Joanne to sleep on the air mattress in a different room. I said mommy might have been manipulated because Joanne loved the air mattress. She might be making all the noise just for that. For the benefit of the doubt, Joanne was not that cunning. :-)
Friday, Jul 19, 2002 (4y+11m+13d)
Due to the extra sleep yesterday and the lack of dark window shades in her room, Joanne got up at 6:30am in the morning. She was making so much noise in our bedroom that drove mommy nut. Mommy ran away to the air mattress and let Joanne disturb daddy for the next hour and a half. I asked Joanne why she got up so early. She said she heard someone using the shower in the bathroom and she was scared. It was the plumbing noise when the sprinklers in the garden turned on.No school on Friday. Mommy predicted the twins would need a nap in the afternoon because they woke up too early this morning.
Saturday, Jul 20, 2002 (4y+11m+14d)
We brought some of the twins' old toys to great grandma's house. They were hand-me-downs for Megan, the daughter of mommy's cousin. We went out for lunch with great grandma, Aunt Jun, Aunt Tina's family. But the twins said they rather stay with Grandma Ling than follow us to lunch. They said they wanted to watch the Barbie's nutcracker movie on tape. Without the twins with us, we could spend some time grocery shopping at Oakland Chinatown after lunch. We bought two bags of LeeChee (a Chinese fruit), some white peaches, some Fuji apples and other vegetables.Before we left home in the morning, we told the twins that they would stay with grandma so that we could watch a movie. When we returned from lunch, the twins asked if we were done with our movie, they said they had not done theirs yet. We dropped off the fruits and went to see Tom Cruise's "Minority Report". Thought the movie had been released for a month now, the theater was almost full. It was 6pm when we returned. The twins didn't take their afternoon nap. They finished a full bag of LeeChee.
We told the twins that daddy and mommy were going to dinner with friends. We asked them to decide if they wanted to come along. Jasmine decided to stay with Grandma Ling. Joanne decided to come with us.
We had dinner with Sunny and Michelle's family. It was the first time we saw Sunny's 7-week-old baby boy. Michelle and Simon also brought their two-year-old son Aaron. We had a long dinner and Joanne became impatient near the end. We decided to meet again at Michelle's place. We picked up Jasmine on the way and went to Michelle's to continue the chat.
The twins had fun playing with Aaron's toys, but they were not interested in playing with the two-year-old boy. They particularly fought for the air pump to inflate various inflatable toys. At one point, we needed to deflate some toys so that they got a turn to do the pumping. It was a lot of hard work to pump, but the twins fought for it. We left when the twins started to complain about being tired. The twins were asleep when we got home, we transferred them to bed after we changed them and wiped their feet clean.
Sunday, Jul 21, 2002 (4y+11m+15d)
We went to Bonfante Gardens theme park in Gilroy with Hing, Lucy and Terence. The twins had been talking about this trip for a few days. They were excited about riding the roller coasters. The park is designed for younger kids. The theme of the park is gardens and produces, appropriate for Gilroy, an agricultural town.The twins were disappointed when they found that they were too short to ride the roller coasters. They were also too short to ride the Mushroom Swing. Some of the thrill rides required at least 42 inches in height. The twins were only 41 inch tall.
When we were riding the Garlic ride (similar to "coffee-cup" ride in most amusement parks), we were spinning the "garlic" too fast, Jasmine lost her grip and was tossed around a little. She cried and was mad at everyone who helped to spin the ride.
As in most theme parks, there were costumed characters walking around to greet the kids. The twins dread to meet them. On the contrary, Terence kept going back to the character to hug its big soft tummy. Jasmine wanted to ride on daddy shoulders for protection. Since Jasmine could not run away, I approached one of the characters and asked Jasmine to give it a high-five and touch its nose. It wasn't too scary but Jasmine still didn't want to approach the characters on her own. Joanne ran away and observed from at least 15 yards away. Mommy probably used Jasmine as an example to challenge Joanne to approach the characters. Joanne reluctantly gave the bear a big hug. She realized it was not scary after all. Once Joanne had done it, Jasmine wanted to do it too. I guessed it was the peer pressure and competition that made them try to out-do each other. So within a matter of 15 minutes, the twins conquered their costumed-character-phobia. The once dreadful encounters turned into passionate hugs all of a sudden. The twins' fear of the costumed characters dated back a few years ago when they were 33 months old. We took them to Disneyland and the costumed cartoon characters made them tremble in fear. They have not liked those live characters since then; despite they loved to watch the characters in cartoon.
We left the park before 7:30pm and returned to the south bay at around 8:30pm due to traffic jam on the way. We had dinner with Hing's family as a belated celebration of Hing's birthday. The twins were so tired that they slept on the chairs through the entire dinner. We packed some food to take home in case they wanted to eat later. The twins were half-awake when we got home. We changed them and asked if they wanted to eat dinner. They said they just wanted to go to bed. I asked them if they liked Bonfante Gardens. Joanne said yes. Jasmine said no because she couldn't ride the roller coasters.
Monday, Jul 22, 2002 (4y+11m+16d)
The twins went to school as usual. No swim lesson today. The lesson would resume tomorrow.Mommy and twins went to our contractor's plumbing supply company near San Francisco to select some remodeling parts. The twins were used to running errands with mommy. They had no choice.
Tuesday, Jul 23, 2002 (4y+11m+17d)
The twins went to school as usual. They went to swim lesson after class.
Wednesday, Jul 24, 2002 (4y+11m+18d)
The twins went to school as usual. They went to swim lesson after class.Mommy said the twins were not swimming as well as last week. Perhaps they took too long a break.
Thursday, Jul 25, 2002 (4y+11m+19d)
The twins went to school as usual. They went to swim lesson after class.Sharleen's neighbor Sonja opened her pool for the kids. Our twins joined Sharleen's nephews and nieces in the pool.
The twins took an afternoon nap. Since they didn't have school the next day and they were well rested, they stayed up late in the evening. I replayed some of the videotapes we recorded when the twins were 30 months old. They were speaking a lot in Cantonese back then. Compared to the tape we watched last week, they changed from speechless to talkative in just 3 months. The twins laughed at their younger selves for their funny actions and speech.
Jasmine requested to sleep on the air mattress in a separate room. Ten minutes after she went to bed, she came to us and said she heard strange noises. Mommy told her she must stay there for the rest of the night because she must be responsible for her own decision. Jasmine looked to daddy for help. I told her to return to her own bed because I worried that it would be a traumatic experience for her to be alone in an unfamiliar room for the whole night. Joanne never complained about noises when she slept alone.
Friday, Jul 26, 2002 (4y+11m+20d)
No school on Friday. The twins and mommy went to San Francisco with Lillian. They had a dessert break at the Cheesecake factory restaurant. Mommy said the restaurant was always crowded. Perhaps we should invest in their stock.
Saturday, Jul 27, 2002 (4y+11m+21d)
We went to Costco with Grandma Chui. I bought the Tarzan and Jane DVD because the twins had been asking for it for days. The twins also wanted the Walt Disney's Classic Storybook. We already had a similar book at home. But the old one we had was meant for reading to the kids by adults. The twins wanted to read on their own. The new book was appropriate for age 4 to 8. Since the twins learned phonics in preschool, they were able to read many of the words without our help. Though the book is a little bit above their level, they can grow into it.We had a late lunch at Banana leaf restaurant. Then the twins attended Mira's 5th birthday party at a gymnastic school in Fremont. I took grandma back to her home while the twins were in the party. The kids spent one hour in the gym before moving to the party room. The twins wanted to go back inside the gym so bad that they didn't participate when everyone sang the birthday song; they didn't even finish their cake; they didn't believe mommy when they were told the party was over.
The twins watched Tarzan and Jane before going to bed. Daddy was so tired that I slept through most of the movie.
Sunday, Jul 28, 2002 (4y+11m+22d)
We had an appointment with a contractor, so we stayed home in the morning. The twins watched the Tarzan and Jane movie once more.In the afternoon, we went to Yulin's 29th birthday party. We wouldn't miss the party because we all wanted to learn how to stay 29 forever. She held the party in a park next to a playground and it was designed for kids. She hired a clown and rented a jumper house for the kids. It was quite a big party with many kids. Daddy got to meet some ex-coworkers and mutual friends that I haven't seen for years.
The twins had great fun in the park. We brought the twins' bicycles. The twins rode their bikes around the park with Daddy following on rollerblades. They particularly enjoyed playing in the sandbox with the pulley and scoop system that transport the sand up and down the play structure. They liked it more than jumping in the jumper house. After Yulin cut the birthday cake, Joanne asked how old was Yulin. We felt it was inappropriate to ask by ourselves, so we took the opportunity to let Joanne find out for us. Joanne was not able to get a real answer. :-) Towards the end of the party, Joanne ran and tripped on concrete pavement and hurt her knees. She lost some skin on 3 spots. She stopped crying after we dressed her with band-aids. Jasmine said it must be painful because Joanne got 3 band-aids compared to one band-aid she got when she hurt her knee last time. The twins fell asleep on the way home. Since they played in the sandbox, we had to wake them up to bathe them before putting them in bed. They were so tired that they fell asleep again right away.
Monday, Jul 29, 2002 (4y+11m+23d)
The twins went to school as usual. They went to swim lesson after school. I worried that Joanne's wound on her knees might bother her swimming, but she said it was not painful unless she touched the wound.When we were kids, we dreaded taking medicine. But Joanne did not complain about taking the medication everyday at all. She actually liked chewing the pills. She often reminded mommy if she forgot to give her the medicine.
Tuesday, Jul 30, 2002 (4y+11m+24d)
The twins went to school as usual.Sharleen and Claire came to visit in the afternoon. She bought some lunch boxes so mommy didn't have to cook.
The twins went to swim lesson in the late afternoon.
Daddy worked overtime and didn't see the twins before they went to bed.
Wednesday, Jul 31, 2002 (4y+11m+25d)
The twins went to school as usual. They went to swim lesson after school.The twins didn't take their afternoon nap, so they went to bed early. The twins were already asleep before daddy came home.
Thursday, Aug 1, 2002 (4y+11m+26d)
Due to the early bedtime last night, the twins were up at 6am. We sent them downstairs. They could do whatever they wanted to do as long as they didn't disturb our sleep. The twins went to school as usual. They went to swim lesson after school.
Friday, Aug 2, 2002 (4y+11m+27d)
No school on Friday. Sherry brought Aden to visit us. Mommy prepared homemade bread and soymilk for them as late breakfast. She said our bread machine (Panasonic) made better bread than theirs (Breadman?). Mommy asked her to take our machine home because we will have no use of it when we start to remodel the kitchen next week.
Saturday, Aug 3, 2002 (4y+11m+28d)
We went to Christine Kwong's wedding in Castro Valley. The twins were well behaved during the ceremony. Anyway, there were some screaming kids at the back of the church. We were glad that our twins were so used to wedding that they would never cause a disruption.We then went to mommy's cousin Ken's house warming party. After the party, we dropped the twins off with Grandma Ling. Grandma took them to see a Japanese cultural show at a Japanese Buddhist church near by. They watched Taiko and Japanese dances. We went to Christine's wedding banquet in the evening without bringing the twins. The twins ran down the stairs to greet us when we returned. It was scary because grandma had very steep stairs. They fell asleep before we arrived home. We just transferred them directly to bed because grandma washed them all up earlier.
Sunday, Aug 4, 2002 (4y+11m+29d)
We threw a party for the twins fifth birthday at home. The twins invited their friends and ex-classmates. Including the kids of daddy and mommy's friends, there were over 23 kids. There were may be another 30+ adults (we didn't really count), the house was packed. Fortunately, most of the party took place in the backyard. The kitchen was crowded only with adults who sought the shade and food. Most of the kids were in the backyard. We rented a Blue's Clues jumper house to keep the kids busy. We hired a clown to entertain the kids. The clown was actually the twins' gymnastic teacher Miss Diana. The twins said they recognized her even with her clown makeup. The clown stayed for three hours even though we hired her for two hours only. The only complaint she had was that the jumper house distracted and thinned out her audience.When the rental jumper house arrived in the morning, the twins were confused because they know it was still two days before their birthday. We had to explain to them why we did the party on a weekend instead of on Tuesday. The twins were very well aware that they were the center of attention today. They sat at the front when the clown gave her performance. They stood in front of the cake when we brought it out. Even though we didn't throw a party for their fourth and second birthday, They have attended enough birthday parties to know the routine.
Lucy and Terence stayed behind after the party. Terence was busy helping the twins to unwrap the presents. Hing joined us for dinner before they returned home.
Monday, Aug 5, 2002 (4y+11m+30d)
The twins went to school as usual. Their swim lesson was cancelled.The contractors arrived at around 10am. They started tearing down the kitchen and bathrooms. Our remodeling project formally started today. When the twins came home from school, the whole house was totally changed. Mommy took them to our neighbor Jenny's house. They watched TV and had lunch there to avoid the dust. When they returned home, the twins asked why the workers left so many tools in our garage. They thought that the remodeling was just for one day. They will grow used to this for the next three months.
Since we lost our kitchen to remodeling, Hing and Lucy invited us over for dinner.
Tuesday, Aug 6, 2002 (5y)
The twins are five year old today!!! Happy birthday, Joanne and Jasmine!
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started on Aug 6, 2002