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This journal is about raising identical twins.Ninetith Month
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Thursday, Jan 6, 2005 (7y+5m)
The twins are 89 months old. The twins went to school as usual. Mommy took them to ice skating lesson in the afternoon.The twins taught daddy a new song they learned from school. It sings to the tune of "Happy Birthday to you".
Happy birthday to me. I'm hundred and three. But I still go to pre-school. And I want my mommy. My mommy's at work. She fired a jerk. She hired a monkey to do her homework.The twins had an argument with daddy that the last phrase should say "She fired a monkey to do her homework". Daddy said "hired" make more sense. Joanne said, "You're wrong. All the kids in school sang "fired", not "hired"!" Jasmine added sternly, "This is a joke song. It is not supposed to make sense. For example, Why do the chickens cross the road? The chickens are supposed to stay in the farm, not cross the road!" The twins strongly believed in their views and refused to accept daddy's correction.The twins learned about the tsunami from school. The teacher told them that with the parents' approval, they could donate money to the victims. The students asked why the victims needed money. The teacher explained that they need to bury some dead bodies. In Mandarin, bury sounds like buy. The kids asked, "Why would they want to buy the dead bodies?" The teacher had some explaining to do.
The twins wanted to donate $20 each from their own saving. Daddy commented that $20 was a lot of money from a kid. Joanne said, "The grade that collects the most donation will get an ice cream party." Jasmine said, "I want an ice cream party. Please!?" Joanne said, "The people got hit by tsunami were poor guys. On the day after Christmas, their presents were all washed out to the sea." I told her that some people lost more than their Christmas presents; some lost their houses, some lost their parents etc. Kids really didn't understand what actually happened.
We read about how the monkey king tamed the pig monster tonight at bedtime story. After they went to bed, we watched "Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle".
Friday, Jan 7, 2005 (7y+5m+1d)
The twins went to school as usual. In the afternoon, the kids had a gathering with their new playgroup. This group included the twins' other classmates, Kaliko, Rachel, Benjamin, and Tiffany. Nicholas' family was returning to Taiwan, and Annette had a destructive younger brother. It was time to form at different group to keep up the twins social activities. The group played various games including the Nicktoons Movin EyeToy game. After dinner, we watched the comedy "Intolerable Cruelty". The twins watched part of it too, they had a good laugh at some of the slapstick humor. Tonight at bedtime story, We read about how the pig monster became a following of the Tang monk.It was a stormy night, the news said the wind was up to 50 mph. It rained a lot too.
Saturday, Jan 8, 2005 (7y+5m+2d)
We slept in late in the morning. We hurried and freshened up. The twins had a quick light breakfast before we rush to Patricia's birthday party. Patricia and her family were leaving for Taiwan tomorrow. They held a birthday party in advance for her before she said farewell to all her friends. The party was held at the Artopia studio. The kids got to pick ceramic piece, paint it with color glaze. They also dripped colorful paints on a spinning frisbee to make beautiful spin-art patterns. After the art creation, we moved to a restaurant next doors for lunch and the birthday cake. When we walked out the restaurant, we saw a beautiful rainbow across the sky.We came home and the twins did their homework for writing class and practice piano. The writing assignment was on comparison. Jasmine originally wanted to write about rabbits and bunnies. She couldn't come up with any differnce. She then looked up the dictionary which said bunnies are rabbits. She then wrote about donkeys and horses. Joanne wrote a comparison between her two teachers, Ms. Shen and Ms. Ma.
Again, Jasmine finished or homework and piano practice way ahead of Joanne. She wanted to watch the rental movie, "For the love of Benji". Joanne asked her not to wait for her because she was not really interested in the movie. Jasmine asked daddy if I knew who Benji was, she was surprised that daddy knew the answer. She didn't know that the movie they picked from Blockbuster was made almost 30 years ago.
We went to dinner with Terence's family. They came to our house afterwards. They bought some desserts to share. The kids played games on the EyeToy. Terence liked the Nicktoons games right away, we were not surprised. The adults chatted and later played the "Intolerable Cruelty" movie again. The guests left around 11pm. The twins still wanted bedtime story despite the late hours, their excuse: no school tomorrow. We read about the monkey king's first encounter with the sand monster.
Sunday, Jan 9, 2005 (7y+5m+3d)
We slept in late in the morning. We went to lunch with grandma Chui. We returned home before 2:30pm. Mommy's cousin Kay, her husband Dave and the twins' own cousin Megan came to visit. We didn't know it was Megan's birthday today. But we had many presents for her from the Christmas party. They couldn't come to the party, but Megan's Christmas presents had been waiting under the tree all along. Kay chatted with mommy about her pregnancy. Megan and Dave watched the twins played the EyeToy game. Megan tried a couple games too, but she said they were too hard for her. Jasmine continued to play the game after the guests have left. Joanne didn't want to play.In the late afternoon, Nicholas' family called us to have a last supper before they went to the airport in the evening. They invited Kevin's family too. They paid for the dinner. At bedtime, we read about how the Pig Monster captured the Sand Monster in the Journey to the West. After the twins went to bed, we watched "Scary Movie".
Monday, Jan 10, 2005 (7y+5m+4d)
The twins went to school as usual. It was a rainy day. It was windy and cold in the afternoon when the twins come home from school. They did their home work and practice piano. Mommy was mad at the twins because their arithmatic was getting a lot of mistake. All the abacus skills they learned before were not in use anymore after they stopped taking the lesson. They did some optional homework after dinner too. They didn't finish until 10pm. By the time they were in bed, it was past 10:30pm. Daddy refused to read the bedtime story, but the twins had no objection.
Tuesday, Jan 11, 2005 (7y+5m+5d)
The twins went to school as usual. The twins each went to a half hour private piano lesson in the afternoon. Mommy signed them up for the extra lessons in additional to their existing group lesson. When the twins got home, they were extra enthusiastic in practicing what they learned today.For bedtime story, we read about how the sand monster became the diciple of the Tang monk. We only read one paragraph, but since the twins were tired, they didn't complain. After the twins went to bed, we watched "Scary Movie II".
Wednesday, Jan 12, 2005 (7y+5m+6d)
The twins went to school as usual. Their classes went to a field trip to watch play "Tom Sawyer". They went to their group music lesson in the afternoon.At bedtime, we read about how the prilgrims were tested by temptation. Joanne had a runny nose and she grab a box of tissue next to her pillow. Mommy said the twins were as cold as ice this morning because they didn't cover themselves properly at night. Joanne may be weaken by the cold last night and today's field trip exposed her to some virus. After the twins went to bed, we watched "Scary Movie III".
Thursday, Jan 13, 2005 (7y+5m+7d)
The twins went to school as usual. They went to writing class in the afternoon. Joanne's runny nose was almost recovered. It was a good sign that the twins were pretty healthy in recovering from common illness.They finished their homework and practiced piano in the afternoon. After the twins went to bed, we watched "Thunderbirds".
Friday, Jan 14, 2005 (7y+5m+8d)
The twins went to school as usual. They had to do their writing class homework. They took so long that Joanne didn't had time to practice her piano nor abacus. They went to their room while daddy and mommy were watching TV. They fell asleep with the lights on. They must be very tired.
Saturday, Jan 15, 2005 (7y+5m+9d)
Mommy's friend Jennifer from Sacramento visited around noon time. They stayed for lunch. Later in the afternoon, Benjamin's family visited. The adults played Mahjong while the kids ran upstairs and played. They had to leave for a dinner engagement. Deanna's family came over for dinner. We continued to play Mahjong with a new set of players. The kids played on their own. They also watched the movie "Thunderbirds". Since it is a long weekend, we let them stay up as long as they wanted. Joanne went to bed on her own early. Jasmine stayed up until the guests left at 2am in the morning.
Sunday, Jan 16, 2005 (7y+5m+10d)
We let the twins sleep as late as they like. Daddy went downstairs to watch TV at 10am. Jasmine came downstairs about half an hour later. She joined daddy in watching the pre-Golden Globe Award. We left the house at noon. We went to San Mateo with Deanna's family for lunch. We also spent the afternoon walking around town and window shopping afterwards. Their family continued on to San Francisco. We returned home before 5pm. Everyone were kind of tired because of last night's party. We all took a nap. We woke up about 3 hours later. After dinner, the twins played backgammon and Chinese checkers in their room. We watched the Golden Globe Award and then the movie "The Butterfly Effect". The twins stayed up past midnight. We had to ordered them to clean up a mess they made in their room before they went to bed.
Monday, Jan 17, 2005 (7y+5m+11d)
Mommy got up early to her tennis class. We let the twins slept in because they didn't have school on Martin Luther King Holiday. Daddy left for work when mommy came back from tennis. The twins turned on the music and brought out the backgammon. The twins were busy the rest of the day. They did homework, abacus and piano practice. Mommy even gave them a dictation test in English and Chinese. When daddy came home in the evening, the twins were surfing the Internet because they have already finished all their work for today.The twins went through mommy's dresser and found two tiny T-shirts. They were the twins' first shirt out of the hospital after their birth. The twins put the shirts on their Fluffy and Bearemy. The shirts fit the stuffed bears snuggly. The twins were actually smaller at birth than the bears are now.
After several late nights during the long weekend, we sent the twins to bed early in preparation for school tomorrow. At bedtime, we read about the pig monster accepting a marriage proposal.
Tuesday, Jan 18, 2005 (7y+5m+12d)
The twins went to school after a long weekend. They each had their half hour piano lesson in the afternoon. They also have a writing class. They were busy doing their homework and piano practice when they got home.They continue their homework after dinner. They worked till 10pm. We cancelled bedtime story. After the twins went to bed, we watched "Maid in Manhattan".
Wednesday, Jan 19, 2005 (7y+5m+13d)
The twins went to school as usual. They had their piano group lesson in the afternoon. Again the twins did their homework till 10pm because they spent some time playing Internet games on the computer. No bedtime story for the night. After they went to bed, we watched "Zhou Yu's Train".
Thursday, Jan 20, 2005 (7y+5m+14d)
The twins went to school as usual. They had writing class in the afternoon. The twins questioned mommy why they didn't have ice skating class today. Actually their 13 week session had already ended and mommy didn't sign them up for the next one. Since the twins were taking two sessions of piano, they had doubled their piano homework and practice. Mommy put their skating on hold to give them more piano time. The twins exchanged email with Nicholas and Patricia in Taiwan today. The twins had their email accounts for some time now. They had been using the accounts to exchange artwork, greeting cards they created through some websites such as Disney.com and MyScene.com etc. Today was the first time they really exchange news and status through email. They went to bed before 10pm tonight. They didn't ask for bedtime story. After they went to bed, we watched "The Forgotten".
Friday, Jan 21, 2005 (7y+5m+15d)
The twins went to school as usual. Mommy was a helper in the classroom. She learned about the family tree project they were asked to do for the weekend.Mommy invited Terence's family and Evon and Ronald to dinner. After dinner, we started a game of Tien Gow. Lucy played some boardgame with the twins. The twins liked to play Chinese Checker and Backgammon, but Terence was too young to know the rules, so he was playing anyway he liked to. Joanne got in bed on her own. Jasmine stayed up until the guests left at 1am. Terence stayed up too. No bedtime story because it was late.
Saturday, Jan 22, 2005 (7y+5m+16d)
We got up at around 11am. After we washed up, we went to Terence's home for lunch. At 3pm, we all went to the park to play. We threw football, kicked soccer and played in the playground. Terence's family came to our house in late afternoon. Daddy helped the twins to create a family tree for their school project. The kids and moms made some paper lanterns and decorated them with pictures of dragons. The project was in preparation of the upcoming Chinese New Year for Terence's preschool class. We also watched some cartoon on DVD while busy doing the projects.We went out to dinner with them and Evon and Ronald. After dinner, all returned to our home to play the Tien Gow game again. Lucy again played with the kids while the rest of use play the game. The twins stayed up until the guest left at midnight. The twins wanted to sleep on an air mattress in the middle of our room. They also asked for bedtime story despite the late hour. They insisted that since it was the weekend, they could have bedtime story as late as they wanted. We read about how Guan Yin tested the pilgrims by offering them marriage to beautiful women. Only the pig monster fell for the trick and he was punished for that. The monk still wanted the pig monster to continue the journey because he was strong and good for carrying the luggage.
Sunday, Jan 23, 2005 (7y+5m+17d)
We woke up at noon. I asked the twins to call grandma Chui for lunch. They refused to do so because they could not speak Cantonese. I wanted them to at least try, it turned into a struggle and daddy lost at last. Daddy even threatened that if they didn't make the call, all their bedtime stories would be presented in Cantonese from now on. The threat was not effective. The twins just commented that they would not understand the story at all.We went out to lunch with grandma Chui and Aunt Elaine. The twins wanted to go to Valleyfair mall after lunch. They wanted to visit the Build-a-Bear store. They asked if they could buy something from the store. Daddy told them they each could buy up to $15. We stopped at many stores on the way. The twins rushed us and said they could no longer wait. When they finally got to the store, Jasmine spent $10 on a pair of shoes for Fluffy and Joanne spent $3 on a pack of Valentine's cards. They spent less than half of their approved budget. Of course, we didn't remind them of that.
We went to Santana Row to have a drink and snack. We bumped into Doris and her daughters. We had not seen them for couple of years already and we couldn't recognize her daughters.
When we came home, the twins did their writing class homework. They were writing shaped poems around a shape that matched the theme. Last week's assignment was rejected because they didn't use enough alliterations. The twins asked daddy's help to add some rhymes to their writings. We looked up the Internet for a rhyming dictionary. We listed some keywords from their original stories. We matched the keywords with some interesting rhyming words. Then we started making sentences with rhyming phrases. At last we arranged the sentences to make them flow better as a story. We came up with the following poems:
Mickey's Rhymes by Joanne (written around Mickey Mouse's head) Minnie and Mickey Mouse live in the same house. Pluto is Mickey's pet who likes to jump in water to get wet. I met Mickey Mouse in Disneyland. I ran up to him to shake his hand. We also met Mickey Mouse in "Disney On Ice", we have watched that iceskating show twice. Mickey stomped on stage to talk about the ice age. Out of all the Disney's characters Mickey is the only one that matters.My pet starfish by Jasmine (written around a five point star) My family went on a fieldtrip by the ocean to see the ship in motion. I saw a whale from the beach. It was so far that it was out of reach. When I was running to have a closer look, I stepped on a star shaped object and it broke. Its skin was so slimy and bumpy that it made me jumpy. I almost fainted and fell because of its foul fishy smell. I wanted to keep it as my pet, but it was too wet. I dried it with a blow dryer. But it died, so I put it on a shelf to show it higher. I loved my pet starfish but it would be even better if it were a fallen star that let me make a wish.They practiced piano before going to bed. They didn't have bedtime story because it was too late.
After the twins went to bed, we watched "Cat Woman".
Monday, Jan 24, 2005 (7y+5m+18d)
The twins went to school as usual. They had a timeline project at school. Jasmine planned to write about daddy and Joanne planned to write about mommy.The twins took out our honeymoon photo album. They enjoyed our photo in Japan. They also saw the pictures that we took in Hong Kong. They pointed to a picture of mommy with uncle Ronnie and asked, "Is daddy jeolous of this?" They also commented that daddy had a lot more hair.
The toilet refilling valve was not working right. The water would stop. Daddy spent the night to figure how the thing work. When the twins went to bed, I asked if they wanted bedtime story. They replied, "Why don't you fix the toilet first? We don't really need bedtime story everyday."
We watched "50 First Dates". after the twins went to bed.
Tuesday, Jan 25, 2005 (7y+5m+19d)
Daddy was waken by Jasmine. She was sobbing sadly by our bed side. She found a hole at the seams of her Fluffy Bear. She cried because she sympathized for Fluffy's injury.The twins went to school as usual. They had piano lesson in the afternoon. The teacher said Joanne didn't have enough practice on her assignment. Jasmine was okay.
After dinner, they interviewed daddy and mommy. They created a timeline for our life. The twins didn't ask for the bedtime story.
We watched "Paparazzi". after the twins went to bed.
Wednesday, Jan 26, 2005 (7y+5m+20d)
The twins went to school as usual. They had their group piano lesson in the afternoon.The twins usually picked their next day clothes before going to bed in order to save time in the morning. They usually asked mommy what the weather forecast would be the next day. Joanne asked daddy tonight. Daddy went on the Internet to get the forecast. It said it would be partly sunny the next day, temperature ranging from 60 to 50°F.
Jasmine had been working on her "This is me" project for 3 weeks now. She eventually blamed it on daddy for not helping her print pictures of her for the project. Daddy didn't even know because she didn't ask. Anyway, we went through our photo albums to find pictures for her project. We picked some baby photos, some travel photos and some pictures of their activities such as skiing, skating, playing piano etc. The twins went to bed while daddy contined to get the selection printed on paper. No bedtime story because daddy was busy helping Jasmine's project.
Thursday, Jan 27, 2005 (7y+5m+21d)
The twins went to school as usual. They had the writing class in the afternoon.When daddy came home from work, Joanne complained that daddy gave her the wrong forecast. It was rainy and cold all day today.
After dinner, Jasmine started to cut the printed photos and paste them on the large sheet of paper as a collage. Daddy used the computer to touch up and enlarge some of the pictures too. Joanne offered to help with the glue stick. Jasmine fought Joanne away with physical violence. Joanne looked sad when her offer was not taken nor appreciated. Later Jasmine asked Joanne to donate some of her stickers for decorating the project. Joanne was generous and kind enough to forgive and forget the fight just half an hour earlier. The twins went to bed without asking for a bedtime story again. Come to think of it, the twins had not had bedtime story since Sunday after daddy threaten to tell the bedtime story in Cantonese from now on. They probably thought they would not understand the story anyway, so they didn't bother to ask.
Friday, Jan 28, 2005 (7y+5m+22d)
The twins had no school today. It was the teacher's learning day. They had lunch with Annette's family. They did some shopping at IKEA. No bedtime story today.
Saturday, Jan 29, 2005 (7y+5m+23d)
Daddy and mommy had a wedding banquet to attend. Mommy arranged with aunt Tina to drop off the twins to play with cousin Natalie. At the last minute, mommy offered an option to drop off the twins at Claire's home. But the twins turned down the option. When Claire found out the twins would not come to her home, she cried for half an hour. We picked up the twins at 10:30pm after the banquet. No bedtime story today.
Sunday, Jan 30, 2005 (7y+5m+24d)
We had lunch with Claire's family at the Great Mall of the Bay Area. There was a pre-Chinese New Year street fair at the parking lot. Jonathan's family joined us at the fair. We strolled around after lunch. Mommy bought some Chinese qipao for the twins. We then went inside the Great Mall for some window shopping. We then had dinner with the two other families. When we got home, the twins tried on the new qipao right away. They looked like two little Chinese ladies. No bedtime story again.
Monday, Jan 31, 2005 (7y+5m+25d)
The twins went to school as usual. Mommy dug out a couple of pendants we bought for the twins when they were born. We believe they were now old enough to wear a necklace. Daddy made a decorative knot to tie the pendants with jade pieces Lillian gave them couple years ago. No bedtime story again.
Tuesday, Feb 1, 2005 (7y+5m+26d)
The twins went to school as usual. They had writing class and piano lesson in the afternoon.The twins wore their new necklaces for the first time. They loved the decorative knots daddy made for time. No bedtime story again.
Wednesday, Feb 2, 2005 (7y+5m+27d)
The twins went to school as usual. They had piano class in the afternoon.
Thursday, Feb 3, 2005 (7y+5m+28d)
The twins went to school as usual. The twins had writing class in the afternoon.I reminded the twins that we had not had bedtime story for over a week. Joanne commented that it was all mommy's fault. She said, "Mommy always said do this and do that and don't go to bed until you finish. Then by the time we finished, it was always too late." I told her that she need to learn how to speed up her work so that she could have more spare time for bedtime story.
Friday, Feb 4, 2005 (7y+5m+29d)
The twins went to school as usual. Their classes had a fieldtrip today. Both their teachers were out sick. Two substitute teachers were going to take the classes out. Since the field trip is optional and it was the fourth one this school term, the twins said they didn't want to go. The twins skipped the field trip and came off school early today and they went shopping with mommy.In the afternoon, Benjamin came visit the twins. They played the EyeToy for awhile. He and his mommy left at 7pm to return home for dinner. After dinner, the twins played games on the Internet. Jasmine did some coloring with a box of pastel colors.
Before bedtime, we showed them how to play mahjong. We had a demo round of the game. Joanne won. Jasmine cried. Jasmine could never understand that in every round there were three losers and only one winner. Losing a round is no big deal as long as winning the overall game. Losing a game is no big deal as long as winning on something else in life. Joanne understood it was no big deal. She even tried to talk Jasmine out of her tears.
Daddy asked the twins if they wanted to go skiing. Jasmine said yes. Joanne said no. When asked why, she said it was too cold on the chairlift. The cold wind burned her face. Due to the unenthusiastic response from the kids, we decided to stay home this week to watch Superbowl.
Saturday, Feb 5, 2005 (7y+5m+30d)
We went out to lunch with grandma Chui and aunt Elaine. Mommy went grocery shopping in the afternoon. Daddy took the twins to the Hakone Gardens in Saratoga. The twins practiced piano after they returned home.
Sunday, Feb 6, 2005 (7y+6m)
The twins were 7.5 year old today.
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started on Mar 1, 2004