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This journal is about raising identical twins.Seventy Fifth 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.
Monday, Oct 6, 2003 (6y+2m)
The twins are 74 months old. The twins went to school as usual. They finished their homework and piano practice early. They were allowed to spend the evening playing.
Tuesday, Oct 7, 2003 (6y+2m+1d)
The twins went to school as usual. The usual playgroup came to our home for lunch. They helped us finish the leftover food from last weekend. Jasmine fell from the swing and scuffed her elbow.Jasmine said that it took too long to wait for Halloween. She made a page full of Halloween related words yesterday, but mommy threw it away when cleaning up the tables. She made another list. She also added pictures to all the Halloween symbols. In addition to the usual words like skeleton, skull, witch etc., she didn't forget candy and Treat or Cheat.
Joanne made some questionnaires.
When a ghost scares you, what should you do? 1. Say go away. 2. Call daddy and mommy for help. 3. Turn on the light to make it go away. When a mummy puts you in a box (she meant coffin), what should you do? Jasmine suggested: "Use your Joanne power to punch the box open."
Wednesday, Oct 8, 2003 (6y+2m+2d)
The twins woke up daddy at 6am in the morning. It was barely before twilight. The sky was still dark. They told daddy the ghost was in their room. Joanne said she was not scared because the ghost was not doing "Wooooo Woooo Wooooo!" The half asleep exorcist went into action.The first step was to identify what the twins saw. The twins said the ghost disappeared when daddy turned on the light. But after the light was off again, the ghost didn't come back. I closed the door trying to make the room darker. We looked around in total darkness for a while, the ghost was not there. I told the twins to get back to sleep thinking that the twins were just dreaming. Just as I opened the door, the twins cried that the ghost was back. The investigation resumed.
First, I asked the twins to point to the ghost. It took me awhile to see an extremely faint light dancing left and right to a random rhythm. The light was so faint that it faded ghostly in and out of my vision. I could see it only when I tried very hard to concentrate and focus. Depth perception was practically nonexistent in such dark condition. All we could see was a moving object somewhere in the room. I closed the door again to make the room darker. The ghost disappeared.
When I looked outside the door, the mystery was solved right away. Over 30 feet outside the twins' room at the other end of the house was an Airport wireless router with three white flashing LED status indicators. The random activities on the Internet caused the LED to flash in random frequency. The light of the LED projected a faint ghostly image on the window shade in the twins' room. As the three LEDs came on and off, the projection appeared to shift left and right at random. The tiny LEDs were so far away that the projected light was visible only marginally after the eyes had been adjusted to darkness. That explained why the ghost left when the light was turned on and it returned after we stayed in darkness for awhile. I draped a wash cloth over the device and the ghost was exorcised successfully. I told the twins that this was exactly like the stories in "Scooby Doo" cartoon, the ghosts were not real. They returned to sleep for couple more hours.
The twins went to school as usual. They had abacus and piano class in the afternoon. We went out for dinner because it was late when the twins came out from class. They did some homework when we returned home.
When the twins were taking a shower, Jasmine asked daddy to reach for the handheld shower-head. When I did, the water sprayed over her elbow. She got mad at daddy for getting her bandaid wet. She threw a tantrum and cried. She demanded daddy be replaced with mommy. When mommy arrived, Jasmine received a serious scolding for being unreasonable. She sobbed emotionally until we started reading bedtime story. When daddy kissed her goodnight, she said she didn't want to kiss mommy. When mommy came to kiss them goodnight, Jasmine tried to resist. But she finally changed her mind.
Thursday, Oct 9, 2003 (6y+2m+3d)
The twins went to school as usual. The twins intercepted daddy as I walked in the house. They each held a bag and said "Trick or Treat"? Daddy said "Trick!" The twins didn't know how to respond because they thought they would always get the "treat". When daddy asked the twins what they did today, Jasmine said, "Went to school, you little silly boy!"They practiced piano and worked on abacus homework.
Jasmine said she was still afraid of the ghost. She said even though she knew the ghost was just the lights from the electronic device, it still looked like a ghost.
Friday, Oct 10, 2003 (6y+2m+4d)
The twins went to school as usual. Daddy showed the twins a ballet video of the Swan Lake. They asked why the characters in this Swan Lake did not talk. Daddy explained that the ballerinas in ballet were not movie actors, they just dance, they don't talk. The twins watched the first act and then they went to play.
Saturday, Oct 11, 2003 (6y+2m+5d)
We went to lunch with grandma Chui and aunt Elaine. Aunt Elaine bought the twins a Kaleidoscope.We went to Aunt Tina's place in the afternoon. The twins wanted to show cousin Natalie the "Barbie of Swan Lake". We all watched the movie together. The twins had watched the movie many times by now. They were adding commentary when we watched the movie.
We went to great grandma's birthday dinner at a restaurant. We were back home by 9pm. The twins fell asleep in the car. Mommy put them in bed and changed their underwear without waking them.
Sunday, Oct 12, 2003 (6y+2m+6d)
We went to the Fleet week in San Francisco with Nicholas' family. We had breakfast in Daly City before going to San Francisco. After we parked the car, we walked over to the waterfront at the Fisherman's Wharf. We found a spot in a parking lot where we sat on a curb as bench. We were separated from the San Francisco Bay by just a chain-linked fence. We sat down a little before 1pm. The airshow has already started. There were some solo aircrafts demonstrations include helicopter, transport plane, biplane and some high power fighter jets such as F15, F16, F18 and a Mig 17 (or is it a saber?) jet. The Canadian Snow Birds gave a very fine performance too. The kids enjoyed the first half of the airshow, but they were all wore out when the Blue Angels showed up at last. The twins had their faces on their knees. Nicholas was leaning on Patricia. They didn't really watch the Blue Angels.In my opinion, other than the expensive hardware, the Blue Angels' performance was so so compared to the Snow Birds'. The Snow Birds used nine planes while the Blue Angels only used six. The Blue Angels' program was almost the same as the Snow Birds if not less sophisticated. When the Blue Angels came out after the Snow Birds, the Blue Angels' routines became relative boring. The Blue Angels still got more patriotic support from the audience, but the kids didn't care who was flying the planes.
I asked the twins if they liked the airshow. They said it was okay. Jasmine said she didn't like to be blocked. She could only see somebody's head, somebody's shoulder, somebody's back ... Daddy added, "Somebody's butt?" Jasmine nodded with a smile. Daddy asked who that somebody was because we were all sitting at the front row in front of the sea. Jasmine said with a grin, "Mommy."
We had something to eat at RainForest Cafe at the Fisherman's Wharf. We then went to Pier 39. We bought some seashells and did some window shopping. We also took a look at the stinky sea-lions who had taken over a marina for many years. Since the sea-lions were just about 20 feet from the pier, they had become one of San Francisco's tourist attractions.
It just turned dark when we got back to our car. It took us a while to go through local traffic. The trip was quite smooth once we got on the freeway. Initially the kids were leaning against the door trying to take a nap. But when Debbie started a word game, all kids participated enthusiastically. One starts with a word, and the next player has to use the last letter of the word to start a new word and so on. They played the game until we reached home.
The twins took a shower and washed from head to toes. They went to bed after we blow-dried their hair. They read 3 pages of Pinocchio each and daddy read 2 pages for their bedtime story.
Monday, Oct 13, 2003 (6y+2m+7d)
The twins went to school as usual. They came out from school early this week. The school had the teacher-parent conference all week. We will see the teacher this Friday. We don't expect to hear too much bad news about the twins. Annette's parents saw the teacher today. Annette got in trouble many times when she talked too much. The teacher warned her that if she received three warnings in a day, she would be sent to the principle's office. She uses up her two quota everyday and then she will keep quiet to avoid punishment. Jasmine commented that "It is nice to be shy. I don't get any warning."The moms of the twins' classmates dropped off the kids with mommy after school today. Mommy baby-sat seven kids in our house including our twins. They were sent into the backyard to play. Annette refused to leave the TV. She went to the backyard only after mommy turned off the TV. Annette later had a physical fight with Sean. Her mom worried that Annette would grow up as a problem child because she didn't listen to adults. And she always asked why whenever she didn't get what she wanted. Somehow she needed to accept the bitter truth that life isn't always fair.
I found Jasmine holding a dictionary after dinner. She read the dictionary one page at a time. Jasmine also read Disney's "Pocahontas" tonight. Joanne read her Mandarin book instead. She could read the book by their Zhuyin symbols. But occasionally she recognized the easier Chinese characters they learned in school. When we were kids, we learned Chinese characters in Cantonese. We learned each character by memory, there were no phonic symbols for Cantonese. It took us several years to start reading a Chinese book. Our twins could read a book in just a few months.
Tuesday, Oct 14, 2003 (6y+2m+8d)
After the twins got up, they just wandered around in the bathroom. Mommy ordered them to brush their teeth and change their clothes. They didn't listen. That made mommy very angry because the twins were wasting their time. Mommy said if they didn't hurry up, they would have to get a late pass from the principle office. The twins were excited and they started discussing how to get the late pass. They asked mommy what they should say to the office clerk. The more they found it fun, the more it made mommy mad. They wasted so much time that mommy had to skip breakfast to make up the lost time. Jasmine told daddy later at night that she was the third in line. Joanne proudly announced that she was the second in line. Of course, daddy had to remind them that they were early because they didn't have breakfast.The twins went to school as usual. The school ran a fund raising event all week. Jasmine used her lunch money to buy lollipop and a key chain attached to a broken toy scooter. We commented that this was the first time she made purchasing decision in our absence. Jasmine corrected us that she bought 4 pencil-head eraser yesterday. She gave two erasers to Annette and they kept one each for themselves. The twins were upset when Annette gave one of the erasers to another person without asking their approval. Daddy told them they should not have given too many to Annette.
Mommy said the twins were so noisy and hyperactive today that she got a headache from their noise. The twins finished piano practice and their homework in the afternoon. They were allowed to play after dinner. Jasmine ran back and forth between their playroom and the family room. She ran so fast that she slipped and fell. She cried tearfully. When we asked why she ran back and forth in the first place, she blamed Joanne for sending her to fetch stuff. Mommy gave Jasmine a nickname. She tumbled around like a potato. Mommy gave Joanne a nickname. She was as slow as a turtle in doing everything. Jasmine said she'd rather be a horse.
Wednesday, Oct 15, 2003 (6y+2m+9d)
The twins went to school as usual. They went to abacus class and piano class in the afternoon.Jasmine told daddy that she didn't like mommy. Mommy must have forced her to do something that upset her. Daddy told her that she only got one mommy like it or not. Jasmine was moody and quite mean at times. Daddy wanted to show Jasmine how to write her Chinese name better. She frowned and didn't talk to daddy for half an hour. She thought there was no room for improvement, the idea of correcting her writing offended her. On the contrary, I often told Joanne that her "t" and "h" were too short, she would immediately erase it and do it better. Joanne was nicer to people in general, though she would hit Jasmine when they fought.
Joanne reported to daddy that she also spent her lunch money to buy some lollipop. She must be envy of what Jasmine did yesterday.
Thursday, Oct 16, 2003 (6y+2m+10d)
The twins went to school as usual.Jasmine got a scratch across her cheek. Daddy asked how she got hurt. She explained that she had a drumstick for lunch. When she wiped her face with a napkin, it scratch her face. She said that it was not painful.
Hing and Lucy came to our place for dinner. They were fixing their hardwood floor this week. They would spend several night out of their home. Lucy bought our twins several toys. They got a Finding Nemo board game. They have unpacked the game, but they haven't figured out how to play it yet. And their attention switched to the other toys. Jasmine got a Hello Kitty painting set. Joanne got a Hello Kitty dress up set.
Joanne loose tooth came off. She was excited that she finally joined the rank of big girls. She probably was the last girl in her class to have a full set of baby teeth. She wanted to save her tooth in the tooth saver treasure box. Daddy asked her to leave the tooth on the counter first. Daddy could help her to wash it after dinner. She couldn't wait. She rinsed it under the faucet and lost it in the sink in less than a minute. She was upset to lose her first tooth. Jasmine reminded her that she lost her tooth too. Daddy reminded her she had many more teeth coming off. She didn't feel too bad because her second loose tooth was coming off very soon.
Friday, Oct 17, 2003 (6y+2m+11d)
Joanne woke up with a bloody nose in the morning. Her nose bled easily if she wasn't hydrated enough. The twins went to school as usual. The school ends early this whole week. The teachers were meeting parents to talk about the kids' progress. It was our turn today. Both twins got very high score in their English test. The benchmark for this time was level 5/16. The kids were expected to reach level 16 before they finished first grade. They have already met the exiting criteria of the first grade. Both twins have achieved level 16+ already. They just knew the twins were well beyond first grade. They might be at second or even third grade level. But the teachers couldn't tell because they didn't test the kids beyond level 16. Both of them did very well on Mandarin. They could read the phonic symbols fluently and accurately. The teacher said Joanne used much of her spare time in looking up the Chinese dictionary. She seemed to be very interested in finding the Chinese characters that she knew. While we were seeing the teachers, Hing took the twins to the Happy Hallow Park.Hing and Lucy came to our place for dinner. Terence leaked on the carpet. He was already toilet trained, hence he wasn't wearing a diaper. He probably was too excited when he lost control.
Joanne lost her second tooth during dinner. This time she gave it to daddy to save for her. Daddy told Jasmine that she was still a big girl despite Joanne becoming a "bigger" girl now. Jasmine frowned because she always want to win over Joanne. Mommy told her it was the way it should be because Jasmine is always the little sister to Joanne. Mommy made Jasmine feel better by telling her she didn't lose.
Daddy vaguely remembered being too self conscious about losing teeth in childhood. I still remembered covering my mouth to smile and even refraining from smiling completely. It was not a pleasant experience. We tried our best to make the twins look forward to losing teeth. We wanted the twins to be proud of their toothless smile.
Saturday, Oct 18, 2003 (6y+2m+12d)
Hing, Lucy and Terence joined us for breakfast at home. We went to Half Moon Bay in mid afternoon. The road to Half Moon Bay was packed with traffic. It took forever to drive a distance that usually took only half an hour. We arrived at Lemos pumpkin farm around noon. The twins took a train ride and couple rounds of pony rides. They even went to the "Scare Zone", a haunted house where they picked the non-scary kid version. We also went across the road to another pumpkin patch where the kids rode another train ride and several rounds of bouncing slides. The twins asked mommy to buy them some small plastic pumpkin baskets at the store.We continued on to the main street in Half Moon Bay, where an Art & Pumpkin Festival was the cause of the major traffic slow down. We parked the car and walked couple miles to the festival. We saw only about one block worth of the art and craft vendors. There was a magic show on the road side. We stopped there to watch the entire show. At the end of the show, the magician turned a stuffed animal into a puppy. The twins went to the front to touch the puppy after the show. Jasmine later commented that the puppy felt like a real one. She thought that the magician had made a stuffed animal come alive. She didn't know that the magician could have switched the toy with a real dog. After the magic show, the twins were not willing to walk on their own, so we decided that we should walk towards the car instead of going deeper into the festival.
After we got back to the car, we started planning for dinner. Our first choice was all booked and the first available table was at 8:30pm. We changed our mind and went to Miramar beach restaurant again. This time mommy called in advance to book a table and we specifically requested a table by the windows so that we could see the sunset and the ocean. The hostess told us that we were next in line as soon as the large table by the window was cleared. It turned out that the customer who were sitting by the window finished their dinner already but stayed to watch the sunset. We waited for almost an hour and we got our table after sunset. The ocean at twilight was also very beautiful, though the sunset over the ocean would have been a nice view. We were not too impatient while waiting because both Terence and Joanne were asleep. They both woke up just in time when our table was ready. We had a nice dinner and Hing insisted he would treat us. We returned home a little after 9pm. Jasmine fell asleep on the way home. Mommy woke her up for a quick shower because it was dusty at the pumpkin patch, besides the ponies stunk. Jasmine was put in bed after shower. Since Joanne took a nap in the afternoon, she wanted to stay up to play the "Finding Nemo Game" with daddy. After just one game, she quitted. She did some painting and then watched some Elmo's video before going to bed. She saw daddy writing the journal. She asked daddy to read this journal entry to her as tonight's bedtime story.
Sunday, Oct 19, 2003 (6y+2m+13d)
The twins got up early and they played with each other noisily. Daddy and mommy continued to sleep in until 10:30am. When daddy got up, the twins wanted to hang the pumpkin baskets they bought yesterday. Jasmine hung the first few baskets on a tree in front of the house by sitting on daddy's shoulder. Then daddy set up a ladder to let the twins climb up to the higher branches. Daddy grabbed them by their bath robe like a well wrapped parcel. They were safely secured and could reach high from the top of the ladder. After Jasmine had hung five out of her six baskets, she wanted to hang the rest of the baskets at the backyard. I explained to her that the remaining six baskets were Joanne's, she could not decide for Joanne where to hang the baskets. Joanne said she wanted to hang her baskets in the front yard too because more people could see them. Only friends could see those in the backyard. Joanne's decision made Jasmine very upset. She broke out in tears. She cried in desperation when she found out she had no control on getting what she wanted. I told her that it was not my choice either and she must talk to Joanne. Daddy asked Joanne if she still wanted to hang her baskets in the front yard and made Jasmine cry or changed her mind and made her sister happy. Joanne agreed to hang her baskets in the backyard. Jasmine stopped her tears immediately and helped us hang the rest of the baskets on a tree in the backyard.We bought lunch at McDonald's drive through. Jasmine ordered Chicken McNuggets happy meal; Joanne ordered Cheese Burger. They got a Flower girl and a Ring carrier doll from the happy meal. They had attended so many weddings before that they knew what these dolls were. They started right away to play wedding with the dolls at the back of the car.
We went to Paramount's Great America for "Nick or Treat". Joanne wore her Belle costume; Jasmine wore her Ariel costume. They got a bagful of candies from the Nickelodean characters. The twins took some of the rides too. They liked "Triple Play" the most. They heard about the costume parade and contest from the public announcement. Jasmine wanted to take part, Joanne didn't. We later find out from the workers there that the parade would not start until 5pm. Mommy had a headache from the strong sun and unexpected heat in the afternoon. We decided to leave the park early. Jasmine was disappointed but she was happy again when mommy said we were going to Target to shop for Halloween decorations. We bought some candies to give out in Halloween. We also bought some peanuts characters and some window clings for decoration.
We had dinner with grandma Chui and aunt Elaine before we returned home. The twins played a game of "Finding Nemo" with daddy. When Joanne found herself too far behind in the game, she messed up the game pieces. Jasmine didn't mind the premature ending of the game because daddy was ahead. They ran to help mommy put up the Halloween decoration we just bought today. Mommy went to bed early because of her headache. The twins went to bed after reading their bedtime story.
Monday, Oct 20, 2003 (6y+2m+14d)
The twins went to school as usual. The teacher parent conference still went on. The twins came off school early at 1:30pm. The twins played in the backyard in the afternoon.When daddy came home, Joanne was lying on the sofa like a dead log. Mommy said she must be tired from her play in the backyard earlier. I checked her forehead, she was burning. She had a 101°F fever. She also had a sore throat. Mommy said it was as expected. Joanne lost two teeth recently and the new ones were coming out. The twins always had fever every time they grew teeth. Jasmine also had a fever when her new tooth came out last month. I guess it is called the growing pain, though most doctors insist fever is caused by infection. By the way, Jasmine's new tooth was as tall as her old teeth, though the new tooth was almost twice as wide.
Joanne still could had dinner normally. After dinner she wanted to play the 'Finding Nemo' game with daddy and Jasmine. The twins were blocking daddy but paving way for each others. Joanne reached the "ocean" first, daddy coming as a close second. When Joanne reached home, Jasmine cried because she didn't win. Daddy challenge her for the second place. When I rolled the dice, I got enough points to get home and win the game. I decided to let Nemo swim around in the ocean for a while. Joanne asked daddy why I moved the wrong way. Jasmine snickered knowing quite well that she still has time to caught up. She was happy when her Nemo reached home.
We sent the twins to bed early because of Joanne's fever. Joanne took some Tynanol before going to bed. Jasmine read the bedtime story to daddy and Joanne. Joanne fell asleep before the reading was done.
Hing's family stayed over at our home because they were refinishing their hardwood floor at home. We stayed away to avoid the chemical fume.
Tuesday, Oct 21, 2003 (6y+2m+15d)
Joanne still had a fever in the morning. Mommy decided to let her stay home. Jasmine went to school as usual. Hing babysat Joanne for us when mommy took Jasmine to school. The teacher parent conference still went on. Jasmine came off school early at 1:30pm.Joanne had recovered from her fever in the afternoon. However, she still had phlegm in her throat. Hing's family stayed for dinner then they returned home.
Wednesday, Oct 22, 2003 (6y+2m+16d)
The twins went to school as usual. They went to abacus class and piano class in the afternoon.When they came back home, Joanne's fever returned at 99°F. She also lost her voice. Mommy sent them to bed early.
Thursday, Oct 23, 2003 (6y+2m+17d)
The twins went to school as usual. Joanne still has a slight fever in the afternoon.
Friday, Oct 24, 2003 (6y+2m+18d)
The twins went to school as usual. Joanne still has a slight fever in the evening. She coughed with phlegm in her throat. She managed to cough out the phlegm one time, and her coughing stopped for a while.Jasmine took out her 150 piece Pokemon puzzle. She asked daddy to sort the color for her, but she completed the puzzle on her own.
Saturday, Oct 25, 2003 (6y+2m+19d)
Daddy took Joanne to see the doctor for her coughing and fever. The doctor ordered several blood tests for Joanne because of her frequent nose bleeds. I told Joanne that she could turn her head away or watch the needle going in. She chose to watch the lab technician draw her blood. She didn't even blink. The technician said she was his best patient of the day. The doctor said all the tests came out normal. There was no sign of infection, hence pneumonia was ruled out.We went to EXPO design center, and Home Depot. We had an idea what to buy but will shop more before deciding. It was a hot day. We all had a headache before coming home.
Jasmine did her 150 piece jigsaw puzzle again on the floor. She wanted daddy to help her sort the pieces by color. While daddy was on the floor, Joanne took advantage of the position. The twins ended up playing horsy on the back of daddy.
Sunday, Oct 26, 2003 (6y+2m+20d)
The clock was rolled back to standard time today. We were supposed to get an extra hour of sleep last night. The twins woke up at regular time, they were so noisy that we couldn't take advantage of the extra hour of sleep. Mommy went shopping after breakfast. Joanne went along. Jasmine wanted to stay home with daddy.It was a hot day. Mommy bought couple of exterior lights from Home Depot. Daddy's assignment was to install the lights outside the garage in a hot afternoon. The twins helped daddy fetch tools while daddy was up on the ladder.
After an afternoon of hard work, the twins requested to soak in the bathtub. Joanne sat on the sofa after the bath and she fell asleep. The hot bath must have been very soothing or the cough medicine she took was very potent. Jasmine had a fever 99.6°F before going to bed.
Monday, Oct 27, 2003 (6y+2m+21d)
Jasmine still had her fever on and off. Her fever was up to 100°F at one point. She was a week behind from Joanne in catching the flu. This time their fever was not because of their new teeth.The twins went to school as usual. Joanne's class went to the pumpkin patch today. They walked a long way to the patch in a hot afternoon. They needed to carry the heavy pumpkin back to school too. Mommy gave her $3, she brought a pumpkin plus spare some change to buy some snack.
We sent Jasmine to bed early. Joanne stayed up for another hour.
Tuesday, Oct 28, 2003 (6y+2m+22d)
Jasmine still had a fever in the morning. Mommy gave her some Tynanol before school. The twins went to school as usual. Mommy visited them during lunch time. Jasmine was active and well.Mommy let the twins take a long nap in the afternoon. Daddy worked overtime in the evening. The twins just woke up when daddy came home. They had a late dinner. They practiced some piano before going back in bed again.
Wednesday, Oct 29, 2003 (6y+2m+23d)
The twins went to school as usual. It was Jasmine's turn to visit the pumpkin patch with their class. They had piano and abacus class after school. Mommy took them to a Japanese restaurant for dinner. The twins had good appetite. Joanne finished her dinner and had mommy's share too. The return of the appetite indicated their recovery from the flu.The twins did their home work after dinner. Mommy let them practice some Chinese characters too. Jasmine was sloppy in her writing. Her excuse was being too tired. Joanne took her time to write her Chinese very nicely. For some reason, Joanne was very motivated to learn her Chinese, but Jasmine was not. I guessed the teacher made a big difference.
Thursday, Oct 30, 2003 (6y+2m+24d)
The twins went to school as usual. When the school field trip visited the pumpkin patch, the teachers only took them there to buy pumpkin. The kids were not allowed to play in the slides and jumper house. Mommy took the twins to there again after school to let them play.The weather turned very cold. It was really hot in the 90°F range the past few days because of the Indian summer. It turned from summer heat to winter cold within a day.
The twins called daddy at work to remind daddy to come home early for pumpkin carving. The twins were too young to handle knife. They gave daddy instruction on what they wanted. Daddy carved the pumpkin for them. They were in charge of cleaning the inside of the pumpkins. Daddy put candles into the pumpkins to make them Jack-o-lanterns. We took some pictures and video of the process and results.
Daddy was going to dress up as Marlin finding Nemo for Halloween. The twins made two fins for daddy with two orange color paper.
Friday, Oct 31, 2003 (6y+2m+25d)
It was a very cold day and it drizzled on and off through the day. The news reported snow on the ground in the Marin county this morning. It was very uncommon to snow in the Bay Area. Given it was in the 90°F just a few days ago, some people were caught unprepared for the chill.The twins had a costume parade at school. The kids all gathered at the playground to show off their costume to each other. Joanne dressed up as Belle; Jasmine dressed up as Ariel. They were in the same costume for the past three year now. They wanted a new costume, but mommy promised them new costume next year because the costume still fit for another year.
Mommy took the twins to Valleyfair mall for trick or treat. They collected a large bag of candies. The twins loved the stickers more than candies, though only a couple of stores gave out stickers. They rushed through only the downstairs stores before they told mommy they didn't want to do it anymore. They returned home after about one hour of trick or treating. They fell asleep in the car on the way home. (pictures)
We invited Annette, Nicholas, Claire's family to our home for hotpot dinner. The twins kept on sleeping way after all the guests had arrived. We fed the kids first so that they could play while the adults enjoyed the dinner. The twins was waken by the noise of the other kids' playing. Since mommy fed them at the mall before the trick or treat, we didn't mind letting them have dinner later than everyone else.
Like last year, we let the twins trick or treat at the shopping mall and then let them host the trick or treat at home. We felt that this arrangement was safer than letting the kids wander around the neighborhood in the dark. The kids got their candies plus they enjoyed seeing who came up to our door. We had seven kids in our house tonight because of the party. All the kids rushed to the door every time the door bell rang. They fought for the privilege to give out the candies to the trick or treaters. The twins emptied their candy collection into the bowl too. They saved the stickers for themselves, but they recycled their candies. The trick or treaters kept on coming till 9:30pm. The twins went to bed after all the guests had left. Since they took a nap in the car, we let them stay up late.
Joanne said that every time mommy bought presents for other kids, she felt sad because she did get the same present. It was just her way to say she was jealous.
Saturday, Nov 1, 2003 (6y+2m+26d)
The twins woke up at around 8pm. They played and talked in their room. They didn't bother us until 10am or so. Mommy prepared them some hot breakfast. We got ready to go out. We had lunch with Terence's family.We then went to San Jose HP Pavilion to see Disney on Ice. We were early. We spent some time playing in the playground and riding the merry-go-round across the street before the gate opened. (pictures) The Disney on Ice show consisted of four stories, Peter Pan, 101 Dalmatians, Little Mermaid and Lilo & Stitch. The kids enjoyed the show very much. We bought them the colorful program guide and two Disney coloring books.
After the show, we went to Valleyfair mall to do some window shopping. The kids found a set of UNO playing cards with Hello Kitty characters on them. Of course, they wanted the cards because of the pictures. We had Japanese dinner. As soon as we sat down, Jasmine asked for Tempura Udon; Joanne asked for Tamago sushi and California roll. Mommy commented that it was a good thing that she didn't need to choose for the kids anymore.
We went home after dinner. The twins said they were tired on the way. But when they reached home, they immediately started doing their new coloring books. There was no sign of tiredness anymore. We stopped them after three pages of coloring. They were sent to take a shower and to bed afterwards.
We finished Winnie the Pooh's book of manners yesterday. We just started another book today. The twins picked the Ugly Duckling for the first story.
Sunday, Nov 2, 2003 (6y+2m+27d)
The twins got up early by themselves. They went downstairs to work on their coloring books. The house was cold in the morning. The twins wore enough warm clothes when they got out of bed. We always wanted to catch up on our sleep in the weekends. We no longer forced ourselves to get up before the kids. They were old enough to take care of themselves inside the house.We went to lunch with grandma Chui. After lunch, we stopped by Aunt Tina's place. We played some UNO with cousin Natalie before we let her return to her homework. We then went to Fry's Electronics just to look around. The twins spotted the Cartoon DVD section. They picked a Hello Kitty video. Daddy didn't want to buy it at first. The twins explained that they didn't just want any video, this one was about caring and sharing. Daddy was convinced when they pointed to the title on the box. Daddy also bought an old movie Oliver!. Daddy remembered it as a great musical based on Charles Dicken's novel Oliver Twist. Daddy still vaguely remembered the scene where Mark Lester sang "Who will buy this wonderful morning" after 35 years, though other scenes were wiped from memory. Daddy thought the twins might like it because they liked The Sound of Music.
We then went to Costco to buy some Christmas decorations. We even bought a Christmas tree.
We went to Sweet Tomato restaurant for a salad buffet. The twins asked daddy to pick different kind of vegetables onto their plate. But those were also what they left on the plate at the end. They only touched a little of the salad, but they had plenty of soup, pasta, cookies and of course ice cream (it was frozen yogurt, but the twins wouldn't care about the difference.)
The twins did their home work when we got home. They played some piano, and did some coloring and drawing before going to bed.
Monday, Nov 3, 2003 (6y+2m+28d)
The twins went to school as usual. They did their homework after school as usual. When daddy arrived home, Jasmine ran downstairs in the buff. She just stepped into the shower when she heard daddy. She came out of the shower to greet daddy. Joanne just finished taking her shower before jasmine went in. They usually take shower together. Mommy decided to separate them because the weather had turned very cold recently. The twins fought fiercely for the hot water. Someday one of them may caught cold when they shared the shower.Jasmine showed her coloring book to daddy. She added dialog to the characters in the picture. Daddy show her how to use a dialog bubble instead of just the arrows. Joanne said she wanted to keep the book with pictures only. Joanne wanted daddy to show her how to do coloring better. I demonstrated how to color evenly and how use darker color to add shadows. Jasmine liked the result, she wanted daddy to do one of her pages too. Joanne complained that why daddy did a full page for Jasmine, but only one character for her. Since Joanne wanted to be an artist, she didn't need much help from daddy.
We finished the Ugly Duckling and the Pied Piper for the bedtime story. Fifteen minutes after they were tucked in, Joanne came downstairs to daddy. She said daddy didn't flip the calendar for them, it was the 3rd day for November already. Fifteen minute after I flipped the calendar, Joanne came downstairs again. She said she forgot to tell daddy it was her classmate's birthday today. Mommy told her that if she came downstairs with another excuse, she would be in trouble.
Tuesday, Nov 4, 2003 (6y+2m+29d)
Daddy said goodbye to the twins in the morning. They were surprised that daddy left the house earlier than they did. Daddy told them that daddy was going to a class today. The twins asked, "Did you sign up for the class?" They also asked, "What language is it in?" Since they went to bilingual school, they were quite aware of different languages. Daddy replied, "Computer language." They looked puzzled.The twins went to school as usual. They did their homework and practiced piano as usual. Both of them read much longer than the assignment required. Joanne wrote down the rhymes they learned from their classmates on a notepad.
[complete with misspelling, typo errors and misplaced punctuations] first1game Mail man Game Play with hand talk no game bords ------ Mail man Mail man Do your Dudie I am going to hang out. with an American Beauty chicken on a pom pom a chicken on the steetx all I can do is. to kis kis kis k i s s i n g. | [an arrow pointing backward] with a big red lips.Chinese checkers play with hands no game bords. secan2game -------- chinese checkers I can cut my ragers chinese checkers I can call my mother. chinese checkers oops! Im sorry Im. not sorry Bugi bugi.bugi (I love you) (Y O U)third3game Cinderella Play with hands no game bords ---------- Cinderella dressted yellow she went up stairs to kis her fellow by mastacke she kis a snake how many docters did it take row sham bo.
Joanne was better in writing Chinese characters. Her English spelling was usually not as good as Jasmine's. But Jasmine didn't do too good in a different version of the mailman rhyme on a separate piece of paper.
mail man Mail Man Doyour. DuDie Im gona hang out with a Marican beuty. Chiken in the pom Pom.Chiken on the street all I can do is. to kisskisskiss. With a big red lips. kissing. Now Make a split.
Daddy and mommy grew up outside of the US. This kind of rhymes was new to us.Daddy bought them the Disney's "Finding Nemo" DVD today. They wanted to see the movie, but mommy didn't let them because it would be too late. The DVD came with a story book. They wanted daddy to read it for bedtime story.
Wednesday, Nov 5, 2003 (6y+2m+30d)
The twins went to school as usual. They had abacus and piano class in the afternoon. They had dinner before returning home.Jasmine did her reading assignment for 45 minutes. Joanne read for ten minutes and walked away. When mommy asked Joanne to read more, she said she read a long time last night.
Instead of reading, Joanne wrote on a writing pad in front of the piano. I later found that she wrote about the piano.
{verbatim} this is all about music are Piano has 52 white keys 36 Black keys 7 fa sharps 8 ti flats What is a piano? ================ Piano means it makes music and you have to Press the keys. the keys are rectangles and some are white and some are Black. some Pianos are midium and some are Black and Big. and some Black keys sound good. and some keys are high and some are low and some are midium sound. and now im going to tell you | were the sounds are the Hi keys. are in the rite side the low keys are on the Left side and the midium sound is in the Middle.
It is not too bad for a first grader to start her own research and wrote a report on the result. The report demonstrated her counting, music and writing skills.
Thursday, Nov 6, 2003 (6y+3m)
The twins are 75 months old.
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started on Nov 6, 2003