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This journal is about raising identical twins.Sixty Ninth Month
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Sunday, Apr 6, 2003 (5y+8m)
The twins are 68 month old today.Daylight saving time started today. We all got one hour less of sleep. We stayed home all day. Mommy suggested to dine out in the evening. Joanne said she didn't want to go. Mommy went with jasmine and daddy stayed home with Joanne. Mommy bought takeout for us.
Monday, Apr 7, 2003 (5y+8m+1d)
The twins went to school as usual. A rumor ran in school saying that the mom who just returned from Hong Kong had fallen sick. She didn't go to see the doctor because she had no medical insurance. SARS has an incubation period of 2 to 10 days. So she could have contracted SARS. Instead of staying home, she sent her son to school. Several of the moms worried that her son would bring the virus back to school. Some moms withdrew their kids from the class. Some moms went to the principal to protest. The principal said if the kid did not show any symptom, the school cannot send him home. We just worried that when symptoms started to show, all the kids would have been infected already. All the moms thought the other mom was very irresponsible to put the whole school at risk.Daddy went to a parent/teacher meeting in the evening. The school was planning to implement a change to the bilingual program. According to research, the language immersion program works the best if the kids focus on the foreign language first. The school planned to run the classes in 70% Mandarin and 30% English. Some parents strongly objected the plan. We believed the school would make an objective decision based on the research. The other parents were too subjective and emotional.
Tuesday, Apr 8, 2003 (5y+8m+2d)
The twins went to school as usual. The other kid still went to school. Everyone just wished he didn't get sick. No news about his mom. It would be a big relief to everyone if she recovered soon.
Wednesday, Apr 9, 2003 (5y+8m+3d)
The twins went to school as usual.Daddy went to a presentation at the twins' school in the evening. A professor from San Jose State University gave a talk on how to apply Howard Gardner's "Theory on Multiple Intelligence" in education. She emphasized that IQ test only tests linguistic and logical/mathematical abilities and it is very biased to cultural background, it does not really measure a child's intelligence. Gardner suggested that multiple intelligences (linguistic, musical, logical-mathematical, spatial, bodily-kinesthetic, interpersonal, intra-personal, naturalist) should be developed. It is nice to know that the twins school is doing more that what traditional schools do.
Thursday, Apr 10, 2003 (5y+8m+4d)
The twins went to school as usual.I asked the twins what they learned in music class today. Jasmine said they didn't have music class. "Piano class is not music class", Jasmine said sternly They said they joined hands with other students to dance with the music.
There was a commercial on TV showing a new James Bond look-alike movie starred by Mr. Bean. I didn't know the name of the of movie, but the slogan of the movie said "He knows no fear, he knows no danger, he knows nothing". The footage showed some very silly/funny acts. I laughed at how stupid the movie character was. Jasmine scolded daddy that it was not nice to call someone stupid. I tried to defend my action by arguing that Mr. Bean would not hear what I said, so I would not hurt his feeling. Joanne told daddy that there was a very big person who could hear everything everyone said. His name is Jehovah. Her classmate told her that. Apparently they got a very young evangelist at school.
I asked the twins what they wanted to add to this journal. Jasmine said she spilled milk over the jacket.
Friday, Apr 11, 2003 (5y+8m+5d)
The twins told daddy that they were very excited because there would be a Easter eggs hunt at school today. They also showed me the paper baskets they made for collecting the eggs. The twins went to school as usual.Mommy took the twins back to school in the evening. One of the small group organized a free Chinese calligraphy/painting class. Daddy joined them after work.
Saturday, Apr 12, 2003 (5y+8m+6d)
The twins got up early to play on the computer. We slept in late.Daddy and grandma Chui went to SF to see a herbal doctor in the afternoon. Mommy and twins went to Alan's 5th birthday party.
In the evening, Jasmine demanded daddy to help her print a picture from the computer. Daddy said I wasn't in the mood to do it because mommy made me mad. Jasmine said daddy had to do it when she counted to three or she wouldn't love daddy.
Joanne said she did not want to be Barbie. She did not want her head twisted off, or thrown around, or her dress torn apart etc.
Sunday, Apr 13, 2003 (5y+8m+7d)
We stayed home all day. Daddy needed to work on the tax return.When we played UNO, Jasmine threw her card as soon as Joanne called UNO. I saw that she had only two card and one of them was a wildcard, i.e. she could have won the game if she played the wildcard and call a color that Joanne didn't have. Jasmine gave up when she was behind. That was not good sportsmanship. Then she shuffled card, and she pulled out all the wildcard for herself. Joanne had her eyes on the TV and she didn't know Jasmine was cheating. Jasmine didn't take losing well. If she lost too many times, she would cry or quit.
Monday, Apr 14, 2003 (5y+8m+8d)
The twins went to school as usual.The twins told daddy last night that there would be no school today. They wanted daddy to let them stay up later than usual. Daddy believed them only to found out this morning that the school break won't start until next week.
Tuesday, Apr 15, 2003 (5y+8m+9d)
The twins went to school as usual.Joanne started to cough today. She did not have a fever.
Wednesday, Apr 16, 2003 (5y+8m+10d)
The twins went to school as usual.I guessed Joanne recovered already.
Thursday, Apr 17, 2003 (5y+8m+11d)
The twins went to school as usual.They went to piano class after school.
Friday, Apr 18, 2003 (5y+8m+12d)
The twins went to school as usual.Sunnie and her son Ryan, Michelle and her son Huan-huan, and Jenny visited us. They didn't need to work on good Friday. Sharleen dropped off Claire with us in late afternoon.
Poon also joined us at dinner time. We made noodles for the kids and rib eye steaks for adults. Sharleen joined us later too but she missed the steak part.
The twins played their new movie Kiki's delivery service couple of times today. They have watched the Chinese version on VCD many times since they were small kids. Recently Disney's released the movie on DVD which has far superior quality than the copy we had. Besides, the twins liked the English dubbing better than the Cantonese version. Poon and Claire also enjoyed the superb work of Hayao Miyazaki. Poon decided to buy a copy for Claire too.
I also bought Miyazaki's Spirited Away. However, we wanted the twins to watch it with us because the movie was rated PG for some scary scenes.
Saturday, Apr 19, 2003 (5y+8m+13d)
Mommy and the twins went shopping at Macy's. They went with Katherine and Michael et. al. Daddy took grandma Chui to see the herbal doctor in San Francisco. It was past 5pm when we came back.In the evening, we dined out with Aunt Elaine. She took grandma home after dinner.
Sunday, Apr 20, 2003 (5y+8m+14d)
We went to Japan town to see the annual Cherry Blossom Festival. We arrived at San Francisco at around noon. All the parking lots were full. We circled around the area for more than an hour before finding a parking spot a few blocks away. We were lucky to spot someone leaving.We bought some BBQ from the food stalls at the festival. The twins were very hungry because of the unplanned delay in finding a parking. They ate a lot.
We spent some time watching the parade. Jasmine lost interest after awhile and demanded to leave. Of course the Japan town parade could not match with the parade in Disneyland.
We had dinner before leaving for home. It was too early for dinner and the twins didn't eat much. We packed the left over and return home. I thought they would fall asleep on the way. They didn't. Joanne pretended to be asleep when we arrived home. Daddy squeezed into the car to take her out of the car seat. Before daddy carried her to her bed, she giggled and said "I want my beddie." (The twins often make up words by themselves, beddie means the bed.) Everyone took a nap. We got up again at around 8pm to reheat the dinner for the twins.
Jasmine was enthusiastic about her piano lesson. She practiced often without mommy asking her to do so. She could read simple score and play short passages without our help. This week she played a short piece with a simple two finger C chord (C+G), the harmony sounded really good. Only after a few weeks of lesson, she played better than daddy and mommy already. Joanne was behind Jasmine because she did not practice as diligently as Jasmine.
Joanne said "The twins like divastarz.com" (I typed this per Joanne's request when she looked over my shoulder.)
Monday, Apr 21, 2003 (5y+8m+15d)
The twins were on spring break this week. They spent the day visiting their classmate Ashley.
Tuesday, Apr 22, 2003 (5y+8m+16d)
Mommy took the twins to the Jelly Belly for a factory tour. Lillian and a few families joined them too. Katherine's family car-pooled with the twins. They went on 3 cars. They had 16 people in the group.They were done with the tour in the morning. They went to Emeryville for a late lunch. Mommy said the kids were so noisy that she got a headache from them. Our twins usually respond quite well to our request to keep quiet, but the other kids in the group would not. Mommy said the restaurant might have kicked them out if the restaurant was busier.
After they returned in the afternoon, mommy took the twins to visit Sunnie. They stayed for dinner before returning home. The twins were asleep in the car when they came home after 10pm.
Wednesday, Apr 23, 2003 (5y+8m+17d)
The twins were still on their spring break. They slept in late. They were still in bed after daddy went to work.Joanne popped the balloon when she tried to inflate it. Joanne said to the balloon, "Sorry, I popped you, I cannot blow you anymore. Bye bye balloon!"
They went to gymnastics class in the afternoon. Jasmine said she wished the teacher could be the clown again. The gym teacher Diana was a part-time clown. We hired her to entertain the kids in the twins' birthday party last year.
Thursday, Apr 24, 2003 (5y+8m+18d)
The twins got up early on their own. They didn't bother us. They just played with each other in their room.They were excited because mommy planned to take them to swim today. Sunnie's apartment complex has an indoor community swimming pool. She invited the twins to take a swim there. The pool was vacant because it was not summer yet. The twins enjoyed the swim very much. They also spent some time in the hot tub. They went into the sauna to dry themselves before taking a shower at Sunnie's home.
The twins went to piano class in the afternoon. After the class, they played in the teacher's house when mommy talked to the teacher about the twins' progress. The teacher said the twins were very good students. They came home and ate angel hair and jelly beans for dinner. And then they went upstairs to play on their computer.
Friday, Apr 25, 2003 (5y+8m+19d)
The twins visited their cousin Natalie. They played with Natalie when mommy sneaked out to do some shopping. Aunt Tina said the twins each ate 10 dumplings. They fell asleep on the way home. Mommy let them sleep in their car seats past dinner time. They woke up late and had something to eat, watched the movie Spy Kids and then went to bed.
Saturday, Apr 26, 2003 (5y+8m+20d)
The twins woke up before we did. When daddy checked on them in the morning, Jasmine was reading a book to Joanne. It turned out that Joanne had a dream about Peter Pan last night. Jasmine went downstairs to fetch the Disney's storybook to read "Peter Pan" to Joanne. Jasmine commented that she always dreamt of Peter Pan when she was four year old.After lunch, Joanne wanted to watch Peter Pan on DVD. Jasmine wanted to watch Spy Kids again. They had a fight. After daddy told them that the Spy Kids movie is a rental and must be returned in a couple of days. Joanne was willing to yield to Jasmine.
We went shopping for a lamp in the afternoon. We didn't buy one, but we already had one in mind. We will decide if we couldn't find a better one. The twins enjoyed going out with daddy because they could climb on daddy like little monkeys. We had dinner after shopping. Joanne drew some flowers at the dinner table. She said she was making a map of "Flowerland". She put in a rose and a tulip. When she asked for other suggestions, daddy showed her a daisy on a separate piece of paper. She tried to draw the daisy on her map. She cried and said the daisy she drew was ugly. Mommy said there was no need to cry even when the drawing was not pretty. Joanne said she could not draw ugly pictures because she wants to be an artist when she grows up. I think it is too much pressure to set an ambition at such early age. We didn't encourage the twins to choose a career, but Joanne seemed to have made a choice on her own.
Sunday, Apr 27, 2003 (5y+8m+21d)
Katherine's family invited us to their home for BBQ lunch. They prepared Xin Jiang style BBQ beef in skewers. The beef was sprinkled with cumin and red hot chilly powder over an open flame. The kids ate those prepared with no chilly powder.We took the twins to Pei-ling's 6th birthday party at 2:30pm. Pei-ling is in the morning class which shares the same classroom as Jasmine's afternoon class. The students from the two classes have a short period of overlapped time in the classroom everyday. But strictly speaking, Jasmine is not Pei-ling's classmate though they made friend with each other due to the overlap. Jasmine was the only one from the afternoon class invited to Pei-ling's party. Jasmine asked Pei-ling if Joanne could come along. Of course, twins were always welcome as a pair.
As we arrived at the party, we met Pei-ling's parents for the first time. Her mother is Caucasian and her father is Chinese. They rented a jumper house in the center of the backyard which became the center of attraction to the kids. Pei-ling's mother told us we didn't have to stay because there were plenty of adults looking after the kids. The twins didn't mind if we left. So we returned to Katherine's home.
The weather was gorgeous for the birthday party. Pei-ling's mother said she prayed for good weather because it rained for a few days last week. Her prayer was obviously answered because it started to rain again shortly after the party was over.
The moms started a game of mahjong which lasted till the evening except for a break to pick up the twins from the party and a quick dinner break with takeout food. Jasmine came to the mahjong table to report that Annette's little brother pooped in his diaper because she could smell the stench. The moms laughed and said he probably just farted because he would have come to them if the diaper was really soiled. Minutes later, we found Jasmine crying emotionally inside one of the bedrooms. Jasmine cried because she thought the adults laughed at her. Each of us had to declare it was Jasmine's own misunderstanding before she would stop crying. Jasmine was quite vulnerable emotionally. In comparison, Joanne probably would laugh in the same situation. She would cry only when she was physically injured.
After we washed the twins at home, the twins asked if they could watch Spy Kids one more time. Permission was denied because the twins would return to school tomorrow after a week long spring break.
Monday, Apr 28, 2003 (5y+8m+22d)
The twins returned to school after the spring break. Jasmine said she liked school because she could played with her friends. Joanne said she could stay home to wait for her friends' visit. Annette's mom dropped off her son to mommy so that she could volunteer at school. Julia also dropped off Michelle at our place.The twins watched Spy Kids one more time after dinner. The rental would be due on Wednesday. I let them watch as much as they want before the due day.
Tuesday, Apr 29, 2003 (5y+8m+23d)
The twins went to school as usual. Joanne had a nose bleed in the evening.
Wednesday, Apr 30, 2003 (5y+8m+24d)
The twins went to school as usual. They went to gym class after school.
Thursday, May 1, 2003 (5y+8m+25d)
It is May Day around the world. In the US, it is not even a holiday.The twins went to school as usual. They went to piano class after school.
After dinner, Joanne wanted daddy and Jasmine to play school with her. She sat on chair and ordered Jasmine and daddy to sit on the floor as students. Joanne flipped through the flash cards and ordered her students to read along.
Friday, May 2, 2003 (5y+8m+26d)
The twins went to school as usual. They went to Nicolas' house after school. It was Nicolas' birthday party. They took a nap in the car on the way home.
Saturday, May 3, 2003 (5y+8m+27d)
We went to Sacramento to Ken & Betsy's baby party. It was a two hour drive. We arrived at the restaurant past noon. The twins were hungry when we arrived. They ate a lot at the buffet. The twins loved to see tiny baby Cornell who was born in February. They requested to see the baby couple of times.Many old acquaintances were in the party. While the adults chatted, Jonathan and Benjamin chased after the twins. But the twins ran away to avoid the smaller boys. At one point Jasmine cried because she didn't like two year old Benjamin to grab her too enthusiastically. The younger boys had not seen the twins for months, but they remembered the twins by name.
We left before 4pm and arrived home by 6pm. The twins were not bored despite the long drive. They played with each other and sang along with the songs on the CD player. They fought occasionally, but they were happy again after they resolved their conflicts quickly. Recently, Jasmine became an abuser and Joanne a victim of violence. Jasmine often hit Joanne physically, and Joanne ran away from Jasmine screaming for help. When daddy asked Jasmine why she hit Joanne, she said Joanne often hit her when she was younger.
The twins had been recording their piano practices on the piano. Today they wanted daddy to name the music files for them. Instead of spending time to do the hard work for them, I taught Jasmine how to do it herself. Joanne fought to do it too. Competition is a great motivation even for chores.
Sunday, May 4, 2003 (5y+8m+28d)
Daddy went out to lunch with Grandma Chui. Jasmine came along. Joanne didn't want to go. Mommy stayed home to look after Joanne.After lunch, we went to Costco. We bought a DVD/VCR combo player for grandma. Her 20 year old JVC VCR broke down finally. We also bought Disney's Treasure Planet and Mr. Bean's DVDs.
Jasmine didn't speak to grandma. It was a sad realization that Jasmine had not spoken Cantonese at home for quite sometime. When we spoke to the kids in Cantonese, they replied in English. Since we are bilingual, we didn't notice how serious the condition became until grandma pointed out Jasmine did not talk to her at all. When I asked Jasmine to talk to grandma, she said she couldn't. I asked the twins if they knew Mandarin, they said they knew a little. I asked them if they knew Cantonese, they said it was too hard. English was easy, so they liked to speak in English.
When we came home, Jasmine could not find mommy and Joanne. The car and Joanne's car seat were still in the garage. I said mommy might have taken Joanne to the park. Jasmine said Joanne's and mommy's shoes were still in the house. The bicycles and scooters were still in the garage. Her detective mind concluded that they didn't go to the park or went out with other moms. Daddy agreed. I suggested her to look into the backyard because mommy may be gardening. I suggested her to check every room and closet because they might be playing hide and seek with us. Jasmine later found mommy and Joanne hiding in mommy's bed covered with the comforter. Mommy and Joanne laughed that it took us so long to find them. They had great fun in fooling us. Jasmine didn't found that funny. A minute later, daddy found Jasmine sobbing in her room because of this incident. Jasmine was unhappy because she initially wanted to show Joanne the rental Spy Kids 2 DVD as a surprise. When she could not find Joanne, it stole her thunder and she was very disappointed. In addition, Jasmine couldn't tolerate anyone laughing at her nor losing a game. Both daddy and mommy embraced her and ensured her that there was no reason to cry.
We played the rental movie Spy Kids 2. The twins were not as interested in this sequel as the original movie. They walked away to play in the middle of the movie. On contrary, they glued to the TV when watching the original Spy Kids movie.
Joanne spilled a drink on the floor at dinner. Daddy cleaned up the mess. Mommy sent Joanne to the thinking chair. Joanne showed no remorse. She was giggling even when sitting in isolation. Daddy made her an offer. If she would apologize to mommy in front of the camera, she would be excused from the chair. She gladly took the offer. She was holding another drink and act out her apology to mommy in front of the camcorder. She was so playful that she had another minor spill right in front of mommy. She returned to her thinking chair voluntarily before mommy said anything. Daddy followed her with the camcorder and noticed tears in her eyes. Joanne seldom took her punishment seriously, she often dealt with it with a lovely smile. She often gained her forgiveness via her cuteness and cheerful personality. If it were Jasmine, she would be crying loudly already. Jasmine is more vulnerable emotionally.
After dinner, we played the Mr. Bean DVD. The twins laughed loudly at Mr. Bean. The twins recognized that Mr. Bean was the guy from "He knows nothing" (Johnny English).
Monday, May 5, 2003 (5y+8m+29d)
Today is Cinco De Mayo (Fifth of May in Spanish), it is Mexican Independence Day. Due to the large population of Mexican immigrants in California, it is an important day. Daddy's company had a small celebration for the day.The twins' classmate Seline and her bigger brother Kevin visited our home. Jasmine said Kevin was strong when he pushed her around in some kung fu moves. I asked the twins if they liked Kevin. They said yes. I asked Joanne if Kevin was her boy friend. She said Kevin was their boy friend.
Mommy told the twins she would go on vacation soon and daddy would take care of the twins in her absence. The twins said they would tell daddy "Give me milk! Give me food!" because daddy didn't know what to do.
Tuesday, May 6, 2003 (5y+9m)
The twins are 69 month old today.
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started on May 6, 2003