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This journal is about raising identical twins.Eighty Second 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, May 6, 2004 (6y+9m)
The twins are 6 and 3/4 year old today. The twins went to school as usual. Joanne brought the puppet to school the next day, but she said she couldn't use it because the string tangled with her classmate's insect.
Friday, May 7, 2004 (6y+9m+1d)
The twins went to school as usual. They went to art class in the afternoon. Each of them painted a horse. They took a nap before dinner.
Saturday, May 8, 2004 (6y+9m+2d)
Daddy bought the twins a battery powered toy Honda Minimoto Sport Racer motorcycle from Toys R Us yesterday. The battery was all charged up overnight. The twins were eager to ride it this morning. Daddy was kind of worry the bike would go too fast for the twins to handle. I wrapped something around the throttle lever and tape the block securely to make sure the twins could not open full throttle by accident.I let the twins take turns to practice riding the bike at low speed at the cul-de-sac nearby. After they got used to the control, I removed the block to the throttle. The twins rode the motorbike at full speed which was about 10 mph depending on the level of charge in the battery. The twins didn't think it was too fast for them because they could control it quite well. Beside they could pedal their regular bicycles to the comparable speed. The only potential danger I could think of was the weight of the bike during a crash. A full charge provided an hour of ride. Joanne rode the bike back home when the battery still had some charge, because I didn't want to push a 50 lb bike home. The twins continued to ride the bike in the backyard.
In the evening, we went out to dinner with grandma Chui to celebrate Mother's day early. It was usually hard to book a restaurant on Mother's day. We did it early to beat the crowd. Grandma Chui and aunt Elaine came to our house to see the photos from our East Coast trip. The twins also repeated their piano recital for grandma and aunt Elaine.
The plumeria plant cuttings that we brought back in February from Hawaii finally started to sprout. It has been months since I put them in the pots. I added some rooting agent a few weeks ago which made a difference. One of them stopped growing after a few days.
Sunday, May 9, 2004 (6y+9m+3d)
It was mother's day. The twins greeted mommy in the morning with a card they made for mommy.Mommy stayed in bed. Daddy fed the twins a fast breakfast and took the twins to the Exploratorium so that mommy could take a vacation from the kids. Daddy was well prepared by asking the twins to each fetch their favorite toy along. They played happily at the back during the hour trip to San Francisco. In the car, they said they didn't remember what Exploratorium was. Jasmine even made a story to go with the occasion. She said:
Once upon a time there was a daddy and a mommy. They got married and two years later they had two children. The first one is Joanne and the second one is Jasmine. Seven years later, daddy thought he had taken the twins to Exploratorium. But he had not. The End.But as we walked through the gate, they both said they remembered they have visited before. We spent about 4 hours there. We bumped into Rachel's family there. The twins had not had enough. They had not visited the upstairs yet. However, daddy promised mommy that we would start our return trip after lunch.On the way back, we passed by Lombard Street, the crookedest street in San Francisco. The twins were screaming in joy like they were riding a roller coaster. Daddy asked them to take a nap on the way back. Joanne fell asleep first, but Jasmine woke her up couple of times before she fell asleep herself. Jasmine woke up as soon as daddy parked the car in the garage at home. Joanne slept in the car for another two hours before dinner.
Mommy's entire family were all here for dinner. Great grandma, grandpa, grandma Ling, aunt Tina, uncle Ivan, cousin Natalie, and even aunt Jun were all waiting when we stepped in the house. Jasmine was excited to show cousin Natalie her new motorcycle. She wanted daddy to take her and Natalie to the usual cul-de-sac so that she could show Natalie how she rode her motorcycle. She let Natalie try the bike too. The fun was cut short when Jasmine crashed into the curb and as she tried to catch her balance, her hip hit the handlebar. She didn't want to ride anymore. Grandma Ling carried Jasmine home. Daddy rode the bike back home.
Joanne wanted to ride the motorcycle when she woke up before dinner. We used that as an incentive to have her finished her dinner fast. After dinner, daddy took Joanne to ride the motorcycle. Jasmine came along on her regular bike. Natalie came along on a scooter. They both got several turns to ride the motorcycle. Jasmine was able to pedal her bicycle so fast that she made circles around Joanne and her motorcycle. It was nice to know that the motorcycle was as fast as, if not slower than, their bicycle. I was worried that the speed of the motorcycle might put them in danger. All three kids loved the motorcycle and they took turns to ride it. We returned home when it got colder as the sun started to set.
The relatives left after watching some TV. The twins played in their own room before bedtime. They have picked out the "Everything that your first grader should know" book for bedtime reading. We had not read that book for quite few weeks when we had many other story book that took higher priority. The topics we returned to today were Egyptian civilization and drama.
Monday, May 10, 2004 (6y+9m+4d)
The twins didn't have school today. The school had the teacher learning day again.Mommy took Jasmine to see her eye doctor. She said Jasmine's eyes were better than before. When they came home, the twins said they wanted to take a nap. They chatted in bed and didn't fall asleep. They did their homework, practice piano. When they finished everything, mommy played some Cantonese drama on TV to expose them to more of their mother tongue. They had a good laugh at the humorous story.
Daddy came home a little early to do some car washing. The twins wanted to help. Since it was a cold day outside, the twins changed into warming clothes before coming outside. They helped daddy to spray and brush the car. After daddy took over to do the real work, they went to the plum trees in the front yard to pick some unripe fruits. They took turns and carried each other up to reach for the low hanging branches. Instead of picking only the fruits, they pulled down a branch or two each time. They even showed daddy the branches as trophies. They were chasing each other and Jasmine fell on the driveway. She almost cried but didn't. Daddy didn't see what happened, but Jasmine said she tripped on the garden hose. Daddy sent her in the house to let mommy check her for injury (there was none).
Joanne felt bored after Jasmine got inside. She asked for daddy's permission to ride the motorcycle on the driveway. After dinner, they played on the computer before going to bed. For bedtime story, we read the script of a play "The boy who cried wolf". They have read the story before, but reading a drama script showed them different style of writing and literature.
Tuesday, May 11, 2004 (6y+9m+5d)
The twins went to school as usual. Mommy took a tennis lesson with Nicholas' mom when the twins were in school. The twins made mommy to take them to the cul-de-sac to practiced their motorcycle after school.At 6pm, we all went to the twins school for an open house event. The students were supposed to shown their parents what they learned in school. They needed to show us their class projects and learning material in their classroom. After the open house, we went out to dinner with Annette's, Nicholas and Sean's family.
The twins fought when they were in shower. Joanne hogged over the shower head so that Jasmine couldn't get any warm water. Jasmine was exhausted and irritated after a long day and she took the excuse to have a good cry. Jasmine took the opportunity to spend the night with mommy. Daddy need to sleep in her bed instead. The twins looked very tired, so we cancel bedtime reading tonight.
The twins learned many nursery rhymes from their friends. One of them is as follows:
Happy birthday to you. One hundred and two. You look like a monkey living in a zoo.
Wednesday, May 12, 2004 (6y+9m+6d)
The twins went to school as usual. They went to piano and abacus class in the afternoon. The teacher gave them some sheet music sometimes ago. She didn't expect the kids to play them until they were taught in class. Mommy didn't know that and asked the twins to practice them many times. When the teacher taught the song today, the twins were able to play the song right away due to their practice. The teacher awarded them some prizes for their ability to play the song.Joanne requested to sleep with mommy at night because Jasmine did so last night. Jasmine protested because she got her privilege after Joanne made her cry. After they took shower, Joanne cried emotionally because mommy didn't blow dry her hair. Somehow, she found an excuse to cry hence a ticket to sleep with mommy at night. Daddy, once again, was displayed from his own sleeping spot.
Thursday, May 13, 2004 (6y+9m+7d)
The twins went to school as usual. Daddy was supposed to come home early to watch the kids while mommy went to the school meeting in the evening. Mommy was delayed by the Maytag repairman who arrived late. Daddy went to the school meeting instead. The most actively debated topic in the meeting was about mixing students two adjacent grades to form combination class. The school district had to divide 70 students into 3.5 classes when the class size was limited to 20. They wanted to mix the half class with another half class from a different grade. Many parents argued that mixing two languages was challenging enough and adding two grades to the mix will be very stressful for the kids and teachers.Mommy borrowed the video tape of the student science oral reports on insects. The kids did the oral report some time ago. The teacher taped their "on stage" presentations. The audio was poorly recorded, the voice of the students were barely audible with a loud static background noise. Jasmine's presentation was near the beginning of the tape. She presented her research finding about mosquitoes in Mandarin. Only 4 to 5 students in her class presented their reports in English, the rest did theirs in Mandarin. The audio was so hard to hear that we stopped the tape after Jasmine finished hers. We signed up for Joanne's class tape, we are still waiting for our turn to view it.
Friday, May 14, 2004 (6y+9m+8d)
The twins went to school as usual.After school, mommy took the twins to the park where she played tennis with other moms and the kids rode their bikes.
The twins taught daddy some more nursery rhymes.
(boy's name) and (girl's name) sitting in a tree. k-i-s-s-i-n-g first comes love second comes marriage third comes baby in a baby carriage that's not all, that's not all, I saw babies playing basketball that's not all that's not all I saw babies drinking alcohol. Roses are red violets are blue sugar is sweet and so are you.
Saturday, May 15, 2004 (6y+9m+9d)
The twins woke up early themselves. The practiced piano while daddy and mommy slept in late for the weekend.We went to lunch with grandma Chui. We had a car wash and shopped for grocery before returning home. In the late afternoon, Nicholas' family came to our house. Daddy took all the kids to the park. Each kid took a different kind of transportation. Joanne rode the motorcycle. Jasmine rode her bike. Patricia and Nicholas rode their scooters. Daddy was on rollerblades. We went around the park several times.
Nicholas got his turn to ride the motorcycle after Jasmine. He refused to wear the twins knee pads and elbow pads probably because they were pink with Barbie's logos on them. He was unfamiliar with the motorcycle and he fell down once and crashed into the fence twice. He got scratches on one of his knees and one of his forearms. He was tough and said it didn't hurt. I've never known of any injury that does not hurt.
We returned home. Annette's family had arrived. She had her eyes on the motorcycle right away. So we went out to the cul-de-sac. All the kids circled around the end of the street on their choice of bikes or scooters. And they took turns on riding the motorcycle. Each kids had a share of their falls. I insisted that no pads no motorcycle this time, so no one was hurt. We returned home when the kids were tired.
The kids played in the backyard and then later inside the house when it got dark. We had salmon salad, ox-tail soup, coral reef shrimps, Dungeness crabs, steamed fish, Korean beef on rice etc. The adults had a game of Mahjong after dinner before the guests left for the night.
Sunday, May 16, 2004 (6y+9m+10d)
It was a Bay to Breakers Sunday. Daddy wanted to bring the twins to see the famous foot race/daytime Halloween Party in San Francisco. Because we stayed up too late last night, we changed our mind and stayed in bed instead.We went to the park with Terence and Hing. Joanne brought the motorcycle and Jasmine brought a scooter. Terence brought his Radio Flyer bicycle with training wheels. His legs were barely long enough for the pedals, but not long enough to touch the ground. He rode a little bit and refused to continue. The twins rode around the parks several times with daddy chasing on rollerblades. In the park, the motorcycle attracted many attentions. Several people asked about it including the parent of a set of identical twins boys. We later saw another kid riding a similar motorcycle but of different brand. I found out that the other motorcycle was bought from Kragan, it could go up to 12 mph with a load capacity of 220 lb. I also noticed that the brake handle was smaller and more suitable for kids' hands, but it lacks a kick stand. The kid wore a helmet with a face protection around the jaw.
I decided to buy the twins a motorcycle helmet for better protection. We stopped by Toys R Us to get the helmet. We also picked up a net for badminton. When we got to the book section, Joanne told mommy that we said we came here to buy a book. Mommy was mad at Joanne for making up stories in order to get what she wanted. She got a scold and no book.
On the way home, both twins collapsed in the car. We asked them to stay awake so that they could get in bed as soon as we got home. They did get in bed, but they didn't fall asleep. They got out of bed a little later to do homework and play on computer.
Monday, May 17, 2004 (6y+9m+11d)
The twins went to school as usual. The took a nap after school.Daddy's kidney stone symptoms returned. I went to see a doctor before returning home.
They were allowed to stay up late because of their long nap in the afternoon. We had a very short bedtime reading because it was late. We read the Aesop's fable about the fox and the sour grapes.
Tuesday, May 18, 2004 (6y+9m+12d)
The twins went to school as usual. Daddy took a day off to recover from the kidney stone problem. I went to the doctor office to take a CT scan. The scan found that there was no more stone in the kidney. After the last occurrence in Oct 2002, the doctor said the X-ray showed a few more tiny stones in the kidney. It was good news that those stones were all out over a year later.Jasmine lost one of her lower front tooth at school. She wrapped it up in a napkin and brought it home. She transferred it to a tooth treasure box and tucked it under the pillow. She told daddy that she wanted to stay up to wait for the tooth fairy. Daddy told her that the tooth fairy would not come if she was awake.
Wednesday, May 19, 2004 (6y+9m+13d)
Jasmine was very disappointed. The tooth fairy didn't come last night. Mommy told her that the fairy might be too busy.The twins went to school as usual. They went to abacus and piano class after school. They learned a new song today and they practiced it as soon as they came home. They also play some video pinball on the computer. Jasmine used to play that game when she was younger.
Thursday, May 20, 2004 (6y+9m+14d)
The twins went to school as usual.The twins' school is turning into a middle school next fall. The students have been reassigned to various schools nearby. The twins' future school held an open house for the families of their current students. We were also invited to see the school and the work of the students. The twins went to the playground and had a great time.
One of the moms asked mommy how the twins were doing. Mommy said they were okay. Ansel cut in and said Jasmine knew everything in class and the teachers loved her. When the comment came from a fellow classmate, it carried some weight. Nicholas commented that Joanne was always the fastest in spelling in class. We had to thank Challenger School for building them a good foundation in pre-school.
Friday, May 21, 2004 (6y+9m+15d)
The twins went to school as usual. It was a cold day. The twins said the jackets kept them warm in school.In the evening, the twins fought for the computer to play the video pinball game. During the grabbing and pushing, Joanne hit Jasmine's nose by accident. Jasmine cried after she found blood coming out her nose. The bloodshed ended the video game for the night. Both were sent up to their room. Only a few minutes later, laughters came from upstairs. Apparently the wrong deed was forgiven.
Saturday, May 22, 2004 (6y+9m+16d)
We waited at home for the repairman to fix our garage door opener. The motor didn't start unless I pushed start it by hand. It turned out that the capacitor which kicks start the motor was shot, hence the motor would continue to turn once it went in motion, but the circuit lost the extra juice to start it turning in the first place.After the machine was fixed, we called grandma Chui for lunch, but she was not home. We went to a restaurant and we saw grandma Chui and aunt Elaine there having lunch with friends. We said hi and we had lunch separately. We stopped by the video rental store to rent some DVD movies. We got the Tomb Raider Cradle of life, the Medallion and for the twins a Care Bears movie.
We came home then we went to the park. Daddy and mommy played tennis for an hour. The twins rode their scooters. They also ran around to pick up tennis balls for us. They did more exercise than daddy and mommy did. When we came home again, we took turns in the hot tub. After dinner, we spent the evening watching movie separately. The twins took over the TV in the living room. Daddy and mommy watched the movie in the family room.
For bedtime reading, we were done with ancient civilizations. We started to read about various major religions in the world tonight. Joanne told daddy that we should not talk about God because he would be mad at us. Since US laws disallow public schools to be religious, the twins learned their share of religious knowledge from their classmates. They asked daddy if there was a God. I told them that they have to find that out when they grow up because daddy didn't know the answer.
We called the twins various teasing nicknames at home. Mommy often called Joanne Momojojo as in one of Powerpuff Girls characters. Daddy modified the name to 污污漕漕 (wuwujojo meaning dirty). Mommy sometimes just called Joanne Jojo and called Jasmine Jaja. She also called them 臭豬豬 (meaning stinky piglets). Today when mommy bought a cup of Pearl Tea, the twins asked for some Tapioca pearls by saying 豬豬食珠珠 (piglets eat pearls) where piglets and pearls are homophones in Chinese.
Sunday, May 23, 2004 (6y+9m+17d)
The twins' piano practice woke us up in the morning. We stayed home in the morning. We went out for lunch. Jasmine lost her fifth teeth during lunch. It was hanging loose over her lips. Mommy wanted to pulled it off but Jasmine didn't want anyone to touch it. Mommy gave her a mirror and Jasmine pulled the tooth off with a slight tug. Now Jasmine had lost 5 teeth and Joanne lost only 2. Their first two lost teeth had grown back awhile ago. So Joanne has a full month of teeth and Jasmine has 3 holes in her mouth. Mommy said Jasmine became a big girl while Joanne remained a baby. We called Joanne the little big-sister and Jasmine the big little-sister. Jasmine was quite happy with the new title. Joanne shrugged with a smile.We then went to Gilroy outlet mall to shop of shoes. Daddy got a pair of new tennis shoes. The twins also got couple of pairs of replacement shoes for those they had outgrown. They also picked up some Hello Kitty stationary for the Sanrio store. Mommy bought a bottle of Sprite from a vending machine at the end of the shopping spree. Jasmine wanted a bottle of Powerade instead. We ran out of change and the dollar bill reader did not accept any bill. Jasmine pulled out a dollar coin from her wallet. Daddy asked her not to put in to the machine because it may jam it and the coin may not be retrieved. Jasmine pouted because she couldn't get the drink she wanted. Mommy ordered her to stop being ridiculous because that was nobody's fault when we didn't have enough change. Jasmine didn't listen to mommy and refused to talked to mommy. Mommy warned Jasmine that it was to her own disadvantage to be temperamental to mommy. Jasmine learned that the stalemate could not last past dinner time. She apologized to mommy before getting her meal.
Monday, May 24, 2004 (6y+9m+18d)
The twins went to school as usual. The twins' classes had been doing a science project this school them. They raised caterpillars and silkworms in class. The caterpillars have turned into pupae and then butterflies in a cage. They set free the butterflies today outside of their classroom. They were very excited about the event.After school, Joanne's ex-classmate Christopher and Annette's classmate Benjamin came to visit. Christopher's family moved so he is no longer Joanne's classmate. They came together because they were both from Singapore even though the boys are not in the same class. They watched some DVD and played in the backyard. Mommy was surprised that both boys don't know how to ride bicycle nor scooter. In comparison, our twin girls may be too boyish. :-)
Daddy had a sore throat and headache since yesterday in Gilroy. Daddy came home early today because the symptoms got worse when the nose also started to run.
Tuesday, May 25, 2004 (6y+9m+19d)
The twins went to school as usual. They went to the park after school.
Wednesday, May 26, 2004 (6y+9m+20d)
The twins went to school as usual. Joanne went to a field trip to day to Insect Fair. The animals that she was excited about was the big banana slug and a big walking stick (insect).The twins went to abacus and piano class after school.
Thursday, May 27, 2004 (6y+9m+21d)
The twins went to school as usual. Mommy took them to the park to ride the scooters. Mommy played tennis.
Friday, May 28, 2004 (6y+9m+22d)
The twins went to school as usual. Jasmine's class went to field trip at Insect Fair. Jasmine was particularly excited because mommy was one of the volunteers.Mommy took them to shopping after school. They took advantage of the Memorial Day sales at many stores. The kids picked couple of nice skirts.
Saturday, May 29, 2004 (6y+9m+23d)
The twins woke up early and prepare a birthday card for Terence upcoming birthday. Joanne drew Blue's Clues on a large piece of paper. Jasmine wanted to draw on it too. When Joanne refused, Jasmine cried sadly for over half an hour. Both mommy and daddy told her that crying would not change Joanne's decision because it was her personal project. Jasmine cried sadly thinking everyone was against her. She fetched a piece a bread into the microwave oven when she was still sobbing. Daddy joked that the crying must have made Jasmine very hungry. She couldn't hold back her giggle. After her self prepared breakfast, she was happy again.The twins took shower and shampooed before getting into the new dresses they bought yesterday. We went out to lunch with Terence's family. After lunch, we went to Stanford shopping mall. Joanne went with mommy and Lucy, Jasmine stayed with daddy and Terence and his daddy. Jasmine and daddy went into a bookstore. Jasmine read several children book there. We bought couple of books before leaving. We also went to the Discovery Channel store. The kids played the toys there until mommy called.
We left for Ryan's two year old birthday party. Sunnie and he son lived in an apartment complex with a large club house and swimming pool. We came well prepared with swimming gears. The twins and daddy played in the water for almost two hours. They used to jump into water feet first. Today daddy demonstrated again how to dive into the pool head first. Jasmine did it first and Joanne followed suit. But Joanne complained that she drank water three times. She might be too nervous and forgot to hold her breath. The twins chose between the cold water pool and the jacuzzi from time to time. They decided to leave the water only when they were hungry.
We have dinner, dessert and followed by the birthday cake. The kids whacked open a pinata to get their candies. The party was over after everyone helped cleaning up the clubhouse.
We were home by 10pm. The twins fell asleep along the way. We had to wake them up to take shower and shampoo to wash off the chlorine from the body. They went back to sleep after daddy helped them blow dry their hair.
Sunday, May 30, 2004 (6y+9m+24d)
We climbed out of bed at 8am. We went for dimsum lunch with Christopher and Benjamin's family. The restaurant opened at 9am and the crowd already waiting for table outside. We arrived a few minutes late and was able to get a table without waiting. All tables were filled before we started eating. Benjamin was in Annette's class, but he shared the same piano class with the twins. Christoper used to be in the same school with the twins, but his family moved to a different school district recently. Parents of both family came from Singapore. We ate and chatted for 2 hours before returning home.We got home before noon. The twins practiced piano and did homework.
We went to Annette's Birthday party. She held the party in a pottery workshop. The kids got to learn to do a fish shaped tea pot. After the workshop, we had birthday cake and watched Annette opened her presents. Annette and guests continued their party at home. We left for San Leandro as soon as the party ended.
We were invited to dinner at mommy's cousin's home. The twins played with their cousins Matthew and Alisa. Matthew is almost five and Alisa is two. During dinner, Joanne lost a tooth. Joanne was quite excited because she was way behind Jasmine in the teeth replacement. After dinner, we played some ping pong. Jasmine liked the game so much that she insisted on playing even though the table was too tall for her. We left for home at 10pm.
Mommy got from Emily a recipe of the flan that was served after dinner.
Ingredients: 3 eggs, 3 egg yolks, 2 cups of half and half, 1 cup milk, 1/4 teaspoon salt, 1.5 teaspoon of vanilla extracts 1/3 cup sugar Preparation: blend the ingredients until smooth Use medium flame to caramelize a cup of sugar in a pan put the melted sugar on the bottom of a baking container. pour the blended egg/milk mixture into the baking container. sit the container inside another container filled with water. Set the oven at 350°F and bake for 80 minutes. flip the container over and empty the flan onto a plate.
Monday, May 31, 2004 (6y+9m+25d)
We slept in a little in the morning because we had an extra long day yesterday. We left at 11:30am and headed to Half Moon Bay with Annette's Kevin's and Nicholas' family. It was past noon when we arrived. We had lunch at McDonald's before going to the beach. The kids from four families spent the afternoon on the beach. They built sand castles, dug big hole in the sand and ran into and away from the ice cold ocean waves. Jasmine later asked why daddy liked to stand in the ice cold water. She didn't know daddy stood there to make sure no kid got washed away by the waves and strong rip tides. The safeguard was proven effective when Jasmine lost her slippers in the water. When the riptide sucked the slippers out to the ocean, Jasmine chased after them. Daddy yelled and signaled Jasmine to run back to shore. Just a few seconds later, a wave slammed on top of the slippers. Since the slippers were made of rubber, they were washed back ashore a few waves later. Poor little Jasmine would have become shark food if she got hit by the same wave. We packed up at 4pm.We got home before 5pm. The twins took a bath to make sure all sand came off from their bodies. They said they loved going to the beach because they could bathe afterward. Apparently they enjoy bathing much more than taking a shower. We went out to dinner with grandma Chui and aunt Elaine. We sent the twins to bed early.
Tuesday, Jun 1, 2004 (6y+9m+26d)
The twins returned to school after the Memorial Day long weekend. The school is over academically for the school year. The kids have taken all the tests and they won't have any more homework from school. We really wonder what the kids will do in class when there is nothing new to learn. The twins worked on their abacus exercise and practiced piano after school.During dinner, Jasmine complained that she had stomachache and couldn't finish her meal. Minutes later, she asked for ice cream. Mommy said ice cream and stomachache did not mix. Jasmine returned to the dinner table, finished the meal and asked for ice cream again. Both twins got their ice cream as a reward.
In bedtime reading, we read about the world's religions. Today's story was about Islam and how it started. When we read about Mohammad having a vision of Angel Gabriel, the twins asked what a vision was. The book said it was like a dream but when you were not asleep. Both twins said "Aha!", they have visions all the time. Daddy asked what their visions were. Jasmine said like when she was in class, she heard someone called her name. She replied "What?" aloud, then the teacher asked her why she said "what?" to interrupt the class. Joanne said sometimes she heard mommy called her, when she went to mommy, mommy didn't know what happened. Daddy said they were just daydreaming, a vision was more than just hearing a voice. The twins said it was like watching the television.
Wednesday, Jun 2, 2004 (6y+9m+27d)
The twins went to school as usual. They went to abacus class and piano class after school. Jasmine cheated on the first few problems in the abacus exercise, she used a calculator to do them. Jasmine told the secret to Annette. Annette told the secret to her mom. Her mom told mommy not to get mad at Jasmine when she found out about that. So the secret went a full circle.We went out to dinner with Nicholas' family at Miyake. The kids picked the restaurant today, all four kids unanimously chose Miyake. They all said the udon (Japanese noodle) was yummy. We adults thought the udon taste about the same everywhere. But we trusted the kids' taste buds for what they liked.
During the bedtime reading, the twins interrupted the story several times by talking to each other. Daddy cancelled the story time as a penalty. I asked the twins to tell their own stories instead. Jasmine said she didn't like the way mommy repeated her stories to other people. For example, she told mommy that she was the first to finish her abacus exercise in class, she wanted mommy to know, but she didn't want others to know. Daddy wondered if Jasmine was trying to imply on Annette's loose lips.
When it was Joanne's turn, she told an incoherent story. It was roughly as follows after removing some repetitions:
Once upon a time, there was a bird nest in the tree. One of the eggs hatched. The little bird looked up and asked "Mommy?" The big bird said "No, I am just your baby sitter." The little bird was yellow and the big bird was blue. When the mama bird came back to inspect her eggs, she noticed the newly hatched chick. She said "Hi, baby!" The End.
Thursday, Jun 3, 2004 (6y+9m+28d)
The twins went to school as usual. Mommy took them to the park. They rode their scooters.
Friday, Jun 4, 2004 (6y+9m+29d)
It was the 15th anniversary of the Tienanmen square massacre.The twins went to school as usual. They did abacus and practiced piano after school. They spent some time on drawing pictures too.
When daddy got home, Joanne want daddy to do "feet walk" with her. She planted her feet on top of daddy's and as daddy walked she walked along. Jasmine did the same. Joanne cried because Jasmine did more steps than she did. She stopped crying only after she walked more steps than Jasmine.
We sent the twins to bed early after a bedtime story on Brer Rabbit and Brer Fox.
Saturday, Jun 5, 2004 (6y+9m+30d)
We went to Terence's fourth birthday party at 11am. Many kids were invited to the party, the twins are among the elder. Blue dropped by to entertain the kids, and sang and danced with them. Blue's assistant also performed a puppet show to the kids. The kids also played with bubbles and pinata in the backyard. We left the party at around 3pm.We thought the twins would take a nap after an afternoon of activities. They didn't want to. Mommy made them work on abacus exercise. Jasmine finished in half an hour. Joanne spent the next four hours to do the same. Mommy was quite mad at Joanne for goofing around. Jasmine got to do whatever she wanted to do after her homework. Joanne chose to sit in front of the table for four hours, it was her choice.
Mommy was so upset that she decided not to cook dinner. Daddy took the twins to get something to eat. Mommy went to bed early.
Ronald Reagan died this afternoon. The twins didn't know who he was. When they learned he was one of the greatest presidents of this country, they said "Oh!" As the news said, Ronald Reagan had great impacts to the world and everyone. Almost everyone has their own story about Ronald Reagan. For me, I would be living in the US if it weren't Reagan to loosen the immigration quota. Many of my friends were able to stay in the US after an immigration amenity.
Sunday, Jun 6, 2004 (6y+10m)
The twins are 82 month old.
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started on Jun 7, 2004