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This journal is about raising identical twins.Sixty Eighth Month
Previous entriesNote: This page may contain Chinese text in Unicode encoding. Some web browsers (e.g. Internet Explorer 5) can display the text without any user intervention if the fonts are available. Some web browsers (e.g. Netscape) will display the Chinese text only if you switch Character Set under the View menu to Big5 traditional Chinese.
Thursday, Mar 6, 2003 (5y+7m)
The twins are 67 months old today.I checked the kids' temperature in the morning. Their fevers were gone. The twins' immune systems were able to fight off the infection. We believe getting minor illness occasionally actually help to build up their immune system.
They went to school as usual. They had piano class after school. Usually for the first few classes, the parents would stay with the kids in class to make sure the kids are able to follow the lesson. The piano teacher told mommy that she did not need to accompany the twins in the class anymore. Among the five students in class, the twins were doing very well and they wouldn't need mommy's presence.
Friday, Mar 7, 2003 (5y+7m+1d)
The twins went to school as usual. They went swimming at YMCA again after school. Katherine and Michael's family didn't swim this time.Daddy had to work overtime at work. The twins were already in bed when I came home. They were not asleep yet. They jumped up when they saw daddy. Both were excited to tell daddy about the swim today.
Saturday, Mar 8, 2003 (5y+7m+2d)
We went shopping at Costco. We made some large prints from our digital photographs, the results were quite good and we liked the price too. The 4x6 prints only cost $0.19 a piece. The 12x18 large prints only cost $2.99 a piece. Of course the twins wanted it when they saw the new "Beauty and the Beast" DVD.We went out to dinner with Grandma Chui and Aunt Elaine. Due to Grandma's health trouble, the twins had not seen her for a few weeks.
Sunday, Mar 9, 2003 (5y+7m+3d)
Daddy took Grandma Chui to see a Chinese herbal doctor. The western doctor said he could only use medication to suppress symptoms of her liver cirrhosis problem. The doctor suggested other options such as some kind of artery bypass surgery. He said the Stanford Hospital nearby is the best around the country on liver surgery. Since Grandma is 81 years old, she doesn't want the surgery. Even the doctor didn't think the surgery is appropriate for her age. Chinese herbal medicine is good for healing certain type of chronic aliments. She wanted to try that before taking the other options.I had good experience with this herbal doctor. My gout problem was healed within a week of the herbal treatment. It had not come back since then. In contrary, the anti-inflammatory pain killer the western doctor prescribed me only suppressed the symptoms. The gout came back again and again as soon as the medication stopped.
Another major difference is the cost. Medical insurance only covers western medicine. We had to pay out of our own pockets for the herbal treatment.
The twins stayed home all day. They were so active that we didn't suspect any problem. But when I check their temperature in the afternoon, I noticed they all including mommy had a slight fever at around 100°F.
Monday, Mar 10, 2003 (5y+7m+4d)
The twins went to school as usual.We I checked the twins' temperature in the evening. Joanne was at 101 and Jasmine was at close to 100. They were very active with no sign of sickness. Their fevers come and gone. Since there were germs and virus at school, we needed to monitor them closely.
Tuesday, Mar 11, 2003 (5y+7m+5d)
The twins went to school as usual.Their classmates, Nicholas and Ashley came to our house after school. Together with the usual guests (Annette and Katherine) and ourselves, there were five families in the house. Mommy locked some of the rooms to restrict the activities of the kids. It is a lot of work to clean up after the kids whose swept through the house like tornados. Locking some of the rooms reduce the clean up work. The kids had very good appetite today.
We checked the twins' temperature in the evening. They had no fever. I guess they won the battle again despite all the bugs spreading at school.
Wednesday, Mar 12, 2003 (5y+7m+6d)
The twins went to school as usual.
Thursday, Mar 13, 2003 (5y+7m+7d)
The twins went to school as usual. They had piano lesson after school.Mommy said the twins ate more than she did today. We probably should measure the twins for growth. Kids grow a lot when they have good appetite.
A few minutes after we'd asked the twins to brush and get ready to bed, I found Joanne lying on the stairs. I asked what was going on. She said she became a turtle and she could only crawl upstairs very slowly. Yes, indeed she was moving her arms and legs inch by inch. She didn't climbed half the way in the past few minutes. I warned her that mommy would get mad if she found out she has not brushed her teeth yet. Joanne suggested that if daddy wanted the turtle to move faster, then he had to carry it upstairs.
Friday, Mar 14, 2003 (5y+7m+8d)
The twins went to school as usual.
Saturday, Mar 15, 2003 (5y+7m+9d)
We invited Henry and Hing's family to our home for lunch. Aden and Terence are about the same age. Aden just had his 3rd birth day recently. Terence will have his 3rd birthday soon. The two younger kids looked up to our kids as role models. They watched our twins play computer games and they followed them around. Our twins went on their own activities as usual.Henry's family left at around 6pm for a prior engagement with another friend. Hing's family stayed for dinner. Wil'n'Lil stopped by after dinner for dessert. They didn't stay long because William would go on another business trip to Europe the next day.
Sunday, Mar 16, 2003 (5y+7m+10d)
Daddy took Grandma Chui to the herbal doctor again. We had lunch together before returning home.Mommy invited Annette and Katherine's family to our home for lunch. They stayed till past 4pm. The kids played together as usual.
Aunt Jun came in the afternoon. She stayed past 10:30pm.
After dinner, the twins found a "pick" and asked daddy what it was. Daddy showed them how to use the pick to play the guitar. They loved it so much that they wanted to play too. While daddy held the chords, the twins strummed the guitar with the pick. They particularly liked the Chinese songs in the tune of "Twinkle, Twinkle little star" and "Clementine." They played the songs over and over again taking turns. In each turn, they wanted to repeat the song twice. After a while, daddy's finger tips were numb. They didn't want to stop until daddy showed them the callus on the finger tips,
Monday, Mar 17, 2003 (5y+7m+11d)
The twins went to school as usual.Mommy took the twins to see the doctors. She was concerned about Grandma's liver cirrhosis may affect the twins. The doctor said she got nothing to do unless any symptoms show up. According to the medical study in Stanford University Hospital, Asian people have liver problems such as cirrhosis or cancer 15 times more than the general white population in the US. One possible reason is the exposure to hepatitis at early age. Most doctors in the US don't know what to look for. When symptoms start to show, it is usually too late because the liver is already damage. We are very disappointed to learn that the twins' doctor didn't know what to do.
After Joanne went poop-poop today, she used several big lumps of toilet paper to wipe her butt. The paper slowed down the drainage. When she saw the toilet was not flushed properly, she flushed a few more times. The toilet overflew. She left a mess for mommy to clean up.
Tuesday, Mar 18, 2003 (5y+7m+12d)
The twins went to school as usual.Mommy took the twins to the medical lab to do the blood test ordered by the doctor yesterday. Joanne told daddy that Jasmine didn't cry, but she cried just a little when the blood was drawn. They also visited an art teacher for a painting class. Mommy didn't like the neighborhood and didn't sign them up for the class. However, she signed up the twins for the gym class with Miss Diana who is also a part-time clown.
Wednesday, Mar 19, 2003 (5y+7m+13d)
The twins went to school as usual.The blood test results were back. All tests the doctor looked for were negative. Everyone is healthy.
Joanne showed off her new denim dress to daddy. She said she picked it herself. Jasmine later changed into her dress to show off too. Jasmine went with Joanne's choice to get an identical dress.
Thursday, Mar 20, 2003 (5y+7m+14d)
The twins went to school as usual.It would be a very special time at 8:03pm tonight. The date and time would read symmetrically "20:03 20/03 2003" in countries where 20th of March is represented as 20/03. Not only the date and time are in symmetry. Today is vernal equinox which means day and night are equal length everywhere on earth.
Friday, Mar 21, 2003 (5y+7m+15d)
The twins went to school as usual. The twins' classes have a singing performance in an International Night event after school. They were asked to dress in ethnic clothes. Mommy dug up the Chinese outfits they had for Chinese New Year.
Saturday, Mar 22, 2003 (5y+7m+16d)
Sunday, Mar 23, 2003 (5y+7m+17d)
Daddy took Grandma Chui to the doctor. Mommy and twins went to visit Annette.
Monday, Mar 24, 2003 (5y+7m+18d)
The twins went to school as usual.Joanne told Jasmine that she would wrap up mommy, cook her and eat her like a dumpling. Jasmine thought the idea was funny and they both laughed hysterically. Of course, the twins didn't know what cannibalism was.
Tuesday, Mar 25, 2003 (5y+7m+19d)
The twins went to school early on Tuesday.Mommy locked the computer room because the twins spent too much time printing out pictures they found on the internet. The twins also spent a lot of time creating pictures on the computer. Disney's Magical Artists software is a heavy ink spender. The Freddy fish one stop print shop is the other software that exercise the printer a lot. Color ink cartridges are very expensive but the twins do not understand that. Locking them out is the only way to cut down the cost. It is probably equally effective to promote creativity using crayon and paper instead of using the computer.
Wednesday, Mar 26, 2003 (5y+7m+20d)
The twins went to school as usual.In the evening when daddy asked the twins to practice the scores from their piano class, Daddy sang the note out when they played the keys.
Mi Re Do -, Fa Mi Re -, So So So Fa, Mi Re Do -.Jasmine didn't like to be prompted when she played. She looked at daddy with her angry eyes. She wanted daddy to leave. When I kissed them goodnight at bedtime, Jasmine didn't let me because she was mad at me.
Thursday, Mar 27, 2003 (5y+7m+21d)
I kissed the twins at the breakfast table before leaving for work. I asked Jasmine if she was still mad at daddy, she nodded.The twins went to school as usual. They went to Children's Discovery Museum in their school field trip. We took them there when they were small. They said they didn't recognize the place. Before they went to school, the twins had very good memory of the past. They remembered events that happened 2 to 3 years back when they were still 2 years old. However, those memories were gone since they went to school. It is possible that the intensified learning at school has pushed some memory out of their brain.
They had piano class after school.
Mommy locked the computer room door to reduce the twins' playtime on the computer. Jasmine told mommy that Joanne told her a secret. Joanne climbed on top of the counter top to fetch the door key hidden above the door. She opened the door into the computer room. Jasmine spilled everything to mommy including the part about it being a secret. We have to hide the keys elsewhere.
Friday, Mar 28, 2003 (5y+7m+22d)
The twins had good appetite, the asked for seconds in breakfast. The twins went to school as usual.
Saturday, Mar 29, 2003 (5y+7m+23d)
Joanne had a runny nose in the morning.Mommy and twins went to Grandma Ling's. Daddy stayed home to work on the tax return.
Joanne had a slight fever.
Sunday, Mar 30, 2003 (5y+7m+24d)
Joanne's runny nose continued.Sharleen left Claire with us in the afternoon. We told her that Joanne was sick and Claire might catch the bug from Joanne. She said it was okay. Claire's daddy needed to work overtime. Sharleen had other things to do. She probably couldn't find a babysitter and she was willing to take the risk with us.
Jasmine was busy playing her 150-piece jigsaw puzzle. Joanne played with Claire. Jasmine was mad when Joanne and Claire didn't let her play with them. At one point, Jasmine and Claire fought for Joanne's company. They did tug of war with Joanne in the middle. Claire cried when Jasmine won Joanne by force. Joanne ran to Claire and gave her a big hug. Then Jasmine cried.
Grandma Chui and Aunt Elaine came to visit. They brought us some take out food as lunch. We played some old video tapes of the twins. We picked the tape from the twins 2 year old birthday and 1 year old birthday. The twins loved to see the tapes.
At the end of the day, Jasmine caught Joanne's runny nose. Claire seemed to be okay.
Monday, Mar 31, 2003 (5y+7m+25d)
Joanne woke up with a nose bleed. Both twins had their runny noses. Joanne still had a slight fever at 99.6°F.The twins went to school as usual. The twins were having lunch at school. A jumping spider landed on Joanne's pants. She was scared. Kailyn helped her to get rid of the spider with a piece of napkin. They found another spider on Joanne's princess jacket. Kailyn helped her to clean up too.
Today's journal entry is very special. The twins were sitting next to me feeding information to me and reading it out loud as I typed.
Jasmine's saying of the day: "I love Ashley."
Joanne's saying of the day: "I love Seline."
Tuesday, Apr 1, 2003 (5y+7m+26d)
Today is April fool's day. I suggested the twins to swap identity at school today. Joanne said it was not a good idea because Annette would recognize her right away if she went to Jasmine's classroom. Jasmine said the teacher had taught her some tricky Mandarin phrases to say, so they didn't need to trick with the classrooms.The twins went to school as usual.
The twins played "roller coaster" with Claire at school after lunch. The twins said she was the 8 year old Claire, not the 4 year old Claire they played with a few days ago. It was a game they invented in which the kids run around in the playground by joining hands in a line like a roller coaster train.
They went to Katherine's house to make a journal. Jasmine said everyone in her class made a journal by stapling some color pages together. They made the journals and started writing stories on them. Joanne decorated the cover with flowers, bunny and horse. Jasmine decorated hers with a valentine heart.
Joanne's journal entry said: (including mistakes and misspellings)
"I like hamtaro. I like hello kitty. I love Jasmine Jasmine and me are twins and we love are mom and dad Jasmine and Joanne go to school. together and they have fun and we like to play rollercoaster with Claire. I like to color Ze-Nings princess coloring book."
Jasmine's journal entry said: (complete with illustrations)
"I love valentines. I love princess. Poeme I love my mom Butterfly thinks flowers are juicy. I love apples".Before bedtime, the twins bowed down on the floor on their hands and knees and giggled "Your Majesty, can you kiss me?" It was a creative way to get their goodnight kiss. They said they learned that from Disney's Mulan where the citizens bowed to the emperor. I was really flattered that they promoted me to the rank of emperor. Sometime ago, the twins asked if Mulan was a princess. I told them that Mulan was not a princess because she was not the daughter of a king. The twins said they wanted to be princesses. I told them the alternative was to marry a prince. They probably figured that calling me an emperor would be a shortcut to princess-hood faster than marrying a prince. ☺
Wednesday, Apr 2, 2003 (5y+7m+27d)
The twins went to school as usual.One of the moms from Jasmine's class took a trip to Hong Kong. When she came back today, other moms feared that she would bring back the deadly SARS from Hong Kong and passed it to her kids and then to the school. One of the moms suggested putting some vinegar in the classroom as disinfectant. Jasmine said it stunk. According to the World Health Organization, the researchers have not found a cure yet. People panicked and tried everything they could think of. The researchers said vinegar could not kill the virus, but people still used it as a desperate attempt to protect themselves.
Jasmine typed the following all by herself:
"today Joanne play in her class and I play cards and I play and play"Despite the bad grammar and missing punctuation, she spelled every word correctly. Due to the occasional showers today, Jasmine's class played in the playground, but Joanne's didn't.
Thursday, Apr 3, 2003 (5y+7m+28d)
The twins went to school as usual.The piano lesson after school was cancelled. The teacher's brother just returned from Singapore. Due to the deadly SARS spreading in Asia, The teacher didn't want to take any chance. The incubation period of the deadly disease is between 2 to 10 days. No one knows if oneself is safe until at least a week after returning from travel.
It is not uncommon that people impose self quarantine on themselves after returning from the infected region. Lillian already told everyone that she would not make contact with her friends for a while after William returns from China this weekend.
Annette and Katherine's family came to our house after school. They stayed for dinner and didn't leave until 8:30pm.
Friday, Apr 4, 2003 (5y+7m+29d)
Jasmine said in the morning that she has recovered from her cold. Joanne still has congestion. I overheard the twins talking during breakfast. Jasmine asked Joanne if she hated school or loved school. Joanne said she loved school because she could play with Claire (the 8 years old). I was curious why the twins would have a 8 years old friend. I asked if Claire was a 3rd grader in their school. Joanne said Claire was her classmate. She couldn't answer why an eight year old stayed in kindergarten.The twins went to school as usual.
Sharleen left Claire (the 4 years old) with us after school. Poon came to pick her up at around 7:30pm. Lillian came to visit us and we went out to dinner together afterwards.
Saturday, Apr 5, 2003 (5y+7m+30d)
The twins woke up early and kept coming into our room to get our attention. We sent them to the computer so that we could sleep in a bit late.After we washed up, we went to lunch in Palo Alto. Unfortunately the restaurant we wanted to try was closed for lunch due to some construction on the sidewalk. We had lunch at another restaurant nearby.
We returned home after lunch so daddy could work on the tax return. We stayed home the rest of the day. The twins played on their computer and printed many color pictures.
Sunday, Apr 6, 2003 (5y+8m)
The twins are 68 month old today.
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started on Apr 5, 2003