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This journal is about raising identical twins.Ninety Fourth 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.
Friday, May 6, 2005 (7y+9m)
The twins were 7 and 3/4 years old today.The twins went to school as usual. They followed mommy to her tennis practice in the late afternoon. Daddy came to pick up the twins at the tennis court after work. They were playing with Itaka in the park. I asked if they like to eat KFC again, they both cheered. In fact, they liked mashed potato with gravy and some popcorn chicken. We came home and the twins jumped on the computer immediately to take care of their Neopets.
Saturday, May 7, 2005 (7y+9m+1d)
Mommy dropped oof the twins to the local high school in the morning. It was a field trip arranged by their music teacher M.s Shwu to attending the 2005 CMEA Bay Section Orchestra Festivals. The teacher took them to the some of the performances, and then explained to them what they had seen. Daddy picked up the twins at noon. The twins wanted to go to see mommy play tennis. When we arrived at the tennis court, the tennis lesson was just over and we all went home together.At 2pm, we visited Christopher's home. The twins played with Christopher and his little sister Joie. They later watched "Spy Kid III" on DVD (they watched to 2-D version).
At 4pm, we all went to a BBQ party at Ms. Shwu's brother's home. The party was only planned at Christopher's home. But Ms. Shwu suggested to move it to her brother's home so that Christopher's parents didn't need to buy a BBQ grill for the event. Her brother had a large custom built home. We had BBQ in the backyard and then the adults chatted in the house and the kids went upstairs to play video games.
It was late when we got home and the twins went to straight to bed.
Sunday, May 8, 2005 (7y+9m+2d)
It was mother's day. We all slept in late. Joanne came into our bedroom and wished mommy a happy mother's day. She told mommy that breakfast was waiting downstairs. She said she could only found three slices of bread. She had spreaded peanut butter on them. She wanted to pour the milk too, but she worried about spilling so she didn't do it. She also said Jasmine didn't help because she was busy playing on the Internet. The good gesture made mommy very happy.With mommy's permission, she brought the bread upstairs so mommy could have breakfast in bed. Mommy usually disallowed any food upstairs at all. The twins took advantage of the exception. They pulled their play table into our bedroom and set up their own breakfast there. Jasmine ran downstairs to pour mommy a cup of orange juice. She wanted daddy to supervise her. Since the bottle was not very full nor heavy, she could do that all by herself. Jasmine was quite proud of her own contribution to mommy's breakfast in bed.
Mommy asked daddy to shampoo the twins because the twins lost hair during brushing. She worried that the twins might not be rinsing all the shampoo off their heads when they washed their own hair. We collected a bunch of hair at the drain after shampooing. The twins' hair looked okay, but dropping hair everyday may be a sign of other health problem.
Mommy spent the morning doing laundry. She washed all the beddings. After the laundry'd gone into the drying machine, we went out to had a quick late lunch. We returned home and the twins spent the rest of the afternoon playing on the computer. Joanne decided to abandon her neopet because the pet scary whenever it got sick. The pet she gave up was a unicorn, she adopted a boy ox that was abandoned by someone else. Jasmine told Joanne that when she abandoned her unicorn, all the battling abilities and equipment were gone with the pet so she must start from scratch again with her ox. Joanne said she didn't mind. They both practiced piano for a short while only when mommy asked them to.
We went out to the mother's day dinner with grandma Chui and aunt Elaine at 6:30pm. We were glad that we made a reservation yesterday because there was a long line outside the restaurant. When we got home after dinner, the twins helped daddy fix all the beddings. Mommy wanted us to do it because she deserved a rest on the mother's day. Joanne helped daddy put the freshly washed cover back on the comforters. Jasmine was downstairs playing with her Neopets again on the Internet. Joanne did all the pillow cases on her own. She had great fun playing on the bed. We played catching the fish with the comforter cover. Joanne enjoyed being the captured fish so much that she asked Jasmine to play too.
The twins' bang was getting over their eyes. Mommy asked daddy to cut their bangs. The twins said they didn't trust daddy's skill. Mommy told them that daddy must do it because today was mother's day. Joanne was the first guenea pig. The bang was nicely cut thought it was about half an inch too short. Joanne was laughing hard because she thought she looked funny. When daddy told Jasmine it was her turn, Joanne screamed "No!" and she ran in front of Jasmine and threaten her "Do you want to look like this?" while pointing at her own head. Both twins laughed so hard at Joanne's comment that they both rolled on the floor with tears in her eyes. Mommy came to check on her and gave Joanne an comforting hug to reassure her that the bang looked okay. I cound see Joanne had a dazed look in mommy's ambrace. I could sense that Joanne was actually quite upset by the bad hair cut, but she covered her emotion with hysterical laughs. Joanne was very easy going. She was over it within minutes. If it were Jasmine, she would have been crying or frowning at daddy for a long time.
With so much laughing and playing on bed, the twins were quite hyperactive. They were still talking and laughing in bed past 10pm. We had to order them to shut up.
Monday, May 9, 2005 (7y+9m+3d)
The twins went to school as usual. Jasmine went to her eye doctor for regular checkup. She had semiannual checkup ever since her eye surgery a few years ago. The doctor said everything was perfect. Though I knew Jasmine vision was not perfect judging from the way she tilted her head when reading. Mommy took them to her tennis practice in the afternoon. The twins still didn't have any homework because they were still in the two week long STAR test period.I asked Joanne in the evening if anyone noticed her new haircut. She said Rachael did. I also asked Joanne if she was upset by the bad haircut. She said she was mad at Mr. See-how. Mr. See-how was a nickname Jasmine made for daddy a few months ago after daddy forced them to see how they should write their Chinese characters dictation. She very tactfully avoided saying she was mad at daddy.
The twins dug up couple of Teletubbies video tapes in one of the bookshelves yesterday. They have already outgrown Teletubbies for like 5 years by now. However, they made arrangement with mommy to allow them to watch the tapes today.
We read more about the taoist monks in the story of Monkey King for bedtime story.
Tuesday, May 10, 2005 (7y+9m+4d)
The twins went to school as usual. They continued to have their STAR tests this week. Jasmine said she had stomach ache when she took the test. Mommy told her that she must relax when she took the test. Jasmine said she was not nervous. Despite her denial, obviously stomach ache was a sign of stress.Mommy disallowed them to play with the Neopets in weekdays. However, their neopets were well fed each day. They played at school during breaks. They also asked daddy to check their pets everyday.
They went to piano lesson after school.
We read more about the taoist monks in the story of Monkey King for bedtime story.
Wednesday, May 11, 2005 (7y+9m+5d)
The twins went to school as usual. The had piano group lesson in the afternoon. Ben rode with the twins after the class. His mom was busy taking care of the new born baby girl.Mommy said the twins were too indulged in the Neopets and they didn't hear anyone talking to them any more. Mommy banned them from playing Neopets until further notice. The twins begged daddy to feed the pets for them. They still had no homework from school this week because of the STAR test. The twins was busy doing the piano class homework tonight. They went to bed late with no bedtime story.
Thursday, May 12, 2005 (7y+9m+6d)
The twins went to school as usual. The kids talked about Cyrus' birthday party tomorrow among themselves, they were excited. Some of the girls said they would hide from Cyrus when they arrived at the party. Joanne said she and Jasmine would not do that because it would not be nice to the birthday boy.The twins went to tennis lesson in the afternoon. Mommy said they have improved a lot since last time.
Joanne sat in front of her dinner an hour after everyone finished. She knew mommy's rule, she could not leave the table until she finished. At bedtime, Jasmine disappeared in the middle of the reading. She ran into daddy's bed silently. When we found Jasmine was missing, the story was cut short.
Friday, May 13, 2005 (7y+9m+7d)
The twins went to school as usual. In the afternoon, they went to Cyrus' birthday party at Jungle Adventure. Only five girls were invited among all other guests. When mommy picked them up, they were all soaked in sweat. That was an indication on how hard they played.After the party, mommy dropped them off at Ben's house. The kids were well fed with pizza in the party. Before they went in mommy asked them if they wanted to bring the party balloon into the house. Joanne said it was not a good idea because if the balloons popped, they would scare Ben's baby sister. She was quite considerate. The twins played Neopets with Ben. They also observed quite a lot on how to take care of baby. They said Ben's daddy padded the baby's back until she burped. They also said the baby's poop has the same color as the dungs they found in the Neopets website.
Since they already had dinner, daddy and mommy went out to dinner with Bonnie & Jenny's family at a Japanese restaurant. After dinner, we continued our gathering at our home. The adults played mahjong and watched TV. The twins, Deanna and Addison entertained and played among themselves. They played the EyeToy games on the PS2. They have not played the games for months. The party ended at almost 1am.
Saturday, May 14, 2005 (7y+9m+8d)
We got up at 8:30am in the morning. After we all freshened up and had breakfast, we went to" the International Russian Piano Music competition. Daddy learned about the competition from the news. The news talked about a 6 years old girl who could play very complicated advanced pieces Daddy thought watching how other kids at the same age play difficult music would motive the twins to spend more time in their practice. We were there about 15 minute after the event started. We missed two performance. When it was almost half way through, Jasmine complained she was tired. Daddy asked her to take a nap, but she threw a tantrum and frowned at daddy. During the half time break, we left before seeing the 6 year old perform. Mommy said the twins went to bed too late last night, and got up too early this morning. Jasmine was grumpy because she didn't get enough sleep last night. We had lunch at daddy's favorite Pho restaurant in San Jose.We went to cousin Natalie's home in the afternoon. The twins took a nap in the car on the way. They woke up when we arrived. They played with their cousin, and neopets and watched TV. Daddy, mommy, aunt Tina and uncle Ivan played mahjong. When great grandma, grandpa and grandma Ling arrived, great grandma replaced daddy in the game. They played until dinner time. We went out to a makeup mother's day dinner. When we came back from dinner, we played some more mahjong until after 9pm.
When we got home, it as past 10pm. The twins asked if they should take a shower before bed. Due to the late hour, mommy said it was up to them. If they had not sweated today, they only need to wash their butts and change their underwear. Joanne said she knows why she needed to change underwear everyday because sometimes there were poop-poop stains on the underwear. They started to talk about poop-poop stains and Joanne declared that it was a word she made up and no one else could say that word. When daddy went into their room to give them good night kisses, the twins were giggling and laughing like crazy. Daddy asked why, Jasmine asked Joanne not to tell. The twins were wrapped tightly in their comforters. Daddy guessed there was something going on under cover. Daddy was right, the twins were not in their pajama, they were almost naked with just their underpants. No bedtime story in late hour, it was the new rule.
Sunday, May 15, 2005 (7y+9m+9d)
Mommy went to tennis in the morning. The twins played on the computer while daddy slept in for the weekend. Joanne changed her neopet again. She abandoned her ox and adopted a tiger. She changed her password too and she did not want daddy to know her new password. They practiced a little piano in the morning. We went out to lunch with grandma Chui and aunt Elaine. When we came home, they continued to played on the computer. In the later afternoon, mommy ordered them to stop playing on computer. Daddy suggested them to watch the Star Wars movie. The twins were reluctant to watch it. They said it was a boys' movie. Daddy said they should watch it at least once so that they knew what their classmates talked about. We spent 2 hours watching episode I of Star Wars on DVD. Jasmine complained that it was too long. Joanne reminded her that there would be 6 episodes. Mommy asked them what they wanted for dinner, they both wanted mommy to cook udon noodle for them. In the evening, Jasmine announced she reached 51 lb. Joanne asked daddy to take care of her neopet and realized that she couldn't do that if she want to keep the password a secret. The twins stayed up past 10pm again. They have no school tomorrow, so we didn't force them to bed. It was a hot day today, the house was still at 76°F when the twins went to bed. Daddy opened the windows and blow in some cold air from outside to cool the house.
Monday, May 16, 2005 (7y+9m+10d)
It is a teacher learning day and the kids didn't need to go to school today. In the morning, mommy thought it would be a hot day like yesterday. She asked the twins to wear their 3 quarter length jeans. Jasmine refused and changed back to long jeans. Joanne went with mommy's suggestion. The twins followed mommy to tennis practice. Mommy also let them played in the playground for awhile. It turned out that it was a windy and cool day today.They came home for lunch. Then they went to Gilroy's outlet mall with mommy's tennis partners Kioko and Azuka. The Japanese boy Itaka kept the twins company during the shopping trip. Mommy bought some sport clothings for the twins. Joanne picked a pair of sweat pants that looked exactly like mommy's. In their visit to the Sanrio store, Jasmine spent the most for some dolls. Joanne only bought a couple of candies. Joanne closed the car door carelessly and hit Jasmine on her cheek. Jasmine cried in pain for awhile. Joanne was stunned by the accident. She didn't say sorry until the subject came up again during dinner. Jasmine took a nap at the back of the car on the way home.
When the twins went to bed, I asked Jasmine if they wanted bedtime story. She murmered "I don't know. Ask Joanne." Fifteen minutes later, Joanne came downstairs asking for bedtime story. I told her it already past story time. She argued that Jasmine said yes after she went upstairs. It was not their fault if I didn't hear the answer. Well, they got a short reading tonight.
Tuesday, May 17, 2005 (7y+9m+11d)
The twins went back to school after a long weekend. It rained a little in the afternoon, mommy's tennis practice was cut short. They went to piano lesson in the afternoon. They practiced piano before dinner. When daddy came home, the twins were perching on top of the kitchen counter overlooking the stove. They were watching mommy prepare dinner. They appreciated dinner better when they watched how it was cooked.They were in bed early tonight, and they ask for a longer reading for bedtime story.
Wednesday, May 18, 2005 (7y+9m+12d)
The twins went to school as usual. They had piano class in the afternoon.The twins said that Cyrus has been behaving badly. He changed the password of every Neopets account of his classmates. The kids were helping each others to take care of the pets. So Cyrus knew everybody's password. Jasmine said she wanted to call the police because Cyrus' plan was to become the best player by blocking everyone from getting to their account. The twins requested Neopets to email their the password so that they could take control of the account again. The twins got a taste of identity theft. I told them not to trust others with their passwords.
Thursday, May 19, 2005 (7y+9m+13d)
The twins went to school as usual. When the twins saw mommy used Lysol to clean the toilet, they challenged mommy if she knew daddy was allergic to Lysol. They asked if she wanted to make daddy sick. Mommy was glad that the twins were so protective of daddy.Mommy took the twins to her tennis match in the evening. Daddy went to the tennis court to pick up the twins. We then went to the school Open house ice cream social event. Surprisingly the twins said they didn't want ice cream. They just want to played with their classmates. The ice cream social started at 6:30pm, but the classrooms opened for visitor at 7pm. Daddy visited their classroom and the twins showed daddy their work portfolio and their joint projects with other classmates.
After the event, daddy took the twins to dinner at Miyake. I asked them what they wanted to order. They replied, "You didn't know? Udon, of course." They shared one order of udon and they also fetched a few dishes from the sushi boats.
Jasmine said her classmate have seen daddy's drawings of the neopets. They would like to have some of those drawings too. Jasmine took orders from them. Including what the twins also wanted, there were 6 requests in total. Daddy asked Jasmine to sell the drawings for neopoints.
Friday, May 20, 2005 (7y+9m+14d)
The twins went to school as usual. Jasmine took the drawings to her classmates, but no one was willing to pay her any neopoints for them. They took the drawing anyway. Jasmine would not be good merchant because she had given away all her merchandises.In the afternoon, mommy's tennis partner came to visit. They spent two hours chatting in the backyard. Itaka and Benjamin played with the twins. The guest left before daddy came home.
Mommy cooked udon for dinner. They twins said mommy's udon tasted different from those in restaurants, but it tasted good nonetheless.
The twins wanted to watch how daddy draw an Air Faerie by following the instructions from the Neopets website. We planned to watch Star Wars, Episode II in the evening. But when Muppet's Wizard of Oz was shown, the planned changed.
Saturday, May 21, 2005 (7y+9m+15d)
We got up at a quarter to eight. We were out of the door at 8:30am. We went to the Racho ... State Park with Jenny and Bonnie's family. Deanna came with her parents, but Addison did not. We hiked on several trails and took a brief stop at the .. Hallow Farm. The kids were excited to see two pigs, a cow, a few lambs and a lot of hens and a very vocal rooster. Near the end of the hike, the twins wanted daddy to carry them on the back. They took turn to torture daddy. But as soon as daddy was tired, they walked on their own again. It was 10:30pm when we got back to the car.We went looking for a restaurant for early lunch. Our first choice was not open, we had brunch at the Original Pencake house. Joanne had good appetite and she finished her meal really quick. Jasmine was slow, but yet still finished hers over time. The families parted their ways after lunch because everyone had different plan for the day.
We went to Villa Montalvo to see Sleeping Beauty on stage. Terence and Claire's family were there too. The play was pretty humorous and got a lot of laughters from the audience. The families parted our ways after the show.
Mommy went to a tennis match in the afternoon. Daddy was drowsy from the early hike this morning. Daddy set the two little human alarm clocks and went to bed for an hour. The twins woke daddy up at 4:30pm. After we dressed up, we went to Claire's daddy's birthday party in a restaurant. We were told to arrive early so that we could use the karaoke in the party room. We were not given the room with the equipment. The waiters couldn't do anything because the host had not arived. We sat in the room for an hour until the hosts arrived. The twins were okay because they brought their drawing pads and pens. There was a 600 people banquet in progress in the adjacent hall. A harpist played heavenly tunes at the entrance to the banquet which was just outside our party room. The twins had seen harps played in an orchastra on TV. They have not seen a live solo performance of harp until today. The adults were rather bored other than listening to the live music. We were not the earliest guests. Another family was there half an hour before us. Terence's family arrived half an hour after us. When the host eventually arrived, we were moved to a different room with the karaoke equipment. Mommy arrived at 6:30pm around the same time as Edwin and Vicky did.
The dinner started soon after we all settled in a different room. All 5 kids in the party were seated on a separate table. The adults enjoyed a great meal. We had the birthday cake after dinner. Karaoke started after the dinner. We all took turns singing songs. We interlaced the selections with some children songs and the kids fought for the microphones. We sang until the waiter camein to kick us out. It was around 11:30pm when we got home. We sent the twins to bed after they brushed their teeth. The twins asked daddy if they could wake me up in the morning to draw their neapets. I answered no.
Sunday, May 22, 2005 (7y+9m+16d)
We all slept in late. The twins didn't get up until 11:30am. We layed on the bed until noon. After we all freshened up, we went to lunch with grandma Chui. After we dropped off grandma at her home. We came home to rest. Daddy originally had a date with the twins to see Star Wars: Episode II on DVD. After the twins watched the first two episode, we would watch Episode III in the theater next week when the crowd thins out a bit. We cancelled the plan because Joanne didn't do her piano practice.In the evening, we went to Ben's baby sister's one month old celebration dinner party. Many of the twins' classmates and their families were among the guests. Their piano teacher Ms. Shwu and her family was there too. Ben, Ashley, Brandon, Christoper, et al. and the twins had great time at their separate table. Ms. Shwu's two teenager kids entertained the kids and laughters and screams came from their table. The kids didn't eat half the dishes in the banquet. Ben's baby sister Serenity slept very quietly throughout the party except for two feedings. Her mommy said she could be easily pacified by white noise. The noisier the room is, the better she sleeps. The banquet ended a little after 9pm.
When we came home, the twins wanted daddy to draw them couple of neopets. They were sent to bed when mommy remind them of the time. No bedtime story because it was too late.
Monday, May 23, 2005 (7y+9m+17d)
The twins went to school after the weekend. They accepted several more requests of Neopets drawings from their classmate. Daddy told them that it took time to draw the pictures, and they must get something in return. Jasmine said Taylor told her that she had to bring him the neopets drawings by tomorrow. She said she did not like the way he spoke to her but she did not know how to response to him. Daddy told Jasmine not to give him any pictures because daddy did not want to draw pictures for a bully. Joanne said she could bring the pictures to school, but she would tell Taylor to say sorry to Jasmine before he could have it.The twins wrote about their favorite fairytale villian in their homework. Mommy was mad at them when their writings were a mess. Daddy helped them refine the writings after dinner. Daddy also drew some neopets per their requests. They went to bed with no story telling.
Tuesday, May 24, 2005 (7y+9m+18d)
The twins went to school as usual. They brought the Neopets drawings to school. When Jasmine told Cyrus the drawing would cost him 2000 neopoints, he ripped the picture. The other classmate agreed to give Jasmine some Neo items in exchange. The twins were not good salespersons, they had bad relationship with Taylor and Cyrus already.They went to piano lesson in the afternoon. When they were home, mommy let them play in the backyard while waiting for dinner.
Mommy was mad at them when they took too long to finish their homework after dinner.
Wednesday, May 25, 2005 (7y+9m+19d)
The twins went to school as usual. Jasmine continued to accept drawing requests from her classmates. She said she didn't know what to say when people asked her. Daddy told her to simply say "No!" Daddy also suggested to her the reason why their classmates needed to pay neopoints for the drawings. It was because when daddy was busy drawing pictures, I couldn't help them gain neopoints via the games. The twins had piano class in the afternoon. After the class, Christopher's family had dinner with us in a Shanghainese restaurant.We all watched the final episode of American Idol on TV. Joanne went on the Internet and saw the result on a news website before we were half way through the show. Carrie Underwood won more votes from the audience than Bo Bice among the 500 million votes received.
Thursday, May 26, 2005 (7y+9m+20d)
The twins went to school as usual. Mommy and twins went shopping at Costco. Jasmine lost mommy's favorite hat that she bought from Japan. They backtraced everywhere they had been in the warehouse, but couldn't find it. Jasmine promised she would take care of it. But mommy trusted the wrong person. Mommy scolded and lectured Jasmine about responibility and keeping promises. The twins were absolutely silent in the car with the furious mom. They were so quiet that they fell asleep on the way home. Mommy let them continue their nap in the garage. When Jasmine woke up, she pouted throughout dinner. Mommy gave her another warning about showing an attitude after making a bad mistake.After dinner, we watched French Open on ESPN. Acasuso eliminated Roddick (No. 2 seed player) after a 3 hour 21 minute match in the second round.
Friday, May 27, 2005 (7y+9m+21d)
The twins went to school as usual. Jasmine still failed to collect any neopoints from her classmates. Annette said Jasmine was mean to make her pay for the drawings.The twins went to Ben's swimming pool. The twins made friends with two older girls in the pool. They had so much fun that they left Ben alone on the poolside. The twins kept themselves warm by playing in the water actively. The twins said they heard Ben's teeth chattering. He was wrapped in a bath towel, but he was cold when he didn't move.
Since it was the beginning of a long weekend, the twins were allowed to play on the Internet as much as they wanted.
Saturday, May 28, 2005 (7y+9m+22d)
After we got up and had a quick breakfast in the morning, we went to an aikido dojo to see how kids take lesson. The twins had expressed interest in doing karate or kung fu. I wanted them to see other kind of martial arts besides watching their classmate Jimmy's demonstration in school. We watched from 10:30am for an hour, then talked to the instructor for a few minutes.We returned home, grabbed some stuff and then headed to Pow's home. Pow held a reunion party for some ex-coworkers from like 20 years ago. Only about 5 families accepted the invitation. The twins had great fun with the zipline across the backyard. They also spent some time on the playground in the backyard too. Pow installed a couple of garden spray tank on his kid's tricycle and go-kart. The twins had a water squirting contest with the other kids in the party. After their clothes were totally soaked, they changed into swimsuits. We were forewarned about getting wet, so we came prepared with swimsuits and an extra change of clothings. Pow said his kids consumed a few set of super soaker toys every season. He found that a garden spray bottle is the best and longest lasting squirt gun. The continuous jet of water is less powerful than the burst from a supersoaker gun, hence safer for smaller kids. Mommy left early for her tennis practice at around 3pm. Daddy and twins stayed till after 6:30pm.
When we got home, Joanne requested instant ramen as dinner. With ham, egg and Jasmine's favorite nappa cabbage, we each had a bowl of filling ramen. Daddy fell asleep on the sofa after dinner. Everyone was in bed when daddy woke up. Nothing to write about during my nap.
Sunday, May 29, 2005 (7y+9m+23d)
The twins woke up on their own, mommy got up later and daddy stayed in bed until 11am. Mommy's tennis teammate dropped off Itaka at our home. Mommy car-pooled with her teammates to Redwood City for a tennis match. We played the movie Star Wars: Episode II on DVD. The kids enjoyed the movie. Itaka was so immersed that at the exciting moments he stood up and danced around nervously. After a two+ hour movie, the kids returned to the computer to play on Neopets.com. Mommy returned before 3pm. She won another match. She had been undefeated after 4 matches. She worried that she may be forced into a more advanced level in next season.After Itaka and his mom departed, we left for a BBQ party hosted by Christopher's family. Everyone had a great meal. The adults chatted while the kids had great time playing with other kids. Joanne got tired and took a nap on daddy's lap at around 8:30pm. Most guests departed at 9:30pm and we went along with the exodus. Daddy carried Joanne to the car and then into her bed. Jasmine got in bed all by herself.
Monday, May 30, 2005 (7y+9m+24d)
It was Memorial Day holiday. No school for the twins; no work for daddy; no difference for mommy. Joanne woke up early and she told mommy she was bored because Jasmine didn't want to get up. Joanne went to sleep last night before the party ended, so she was revived before everyone else. Mommy didn't want to wake up either. She sent Joanne downstairs to watch TV or play on the Internet. She fetched some cookies as breakfast. Mommy got up later and prepared breakfast for the twins when Jasmine got up too. Daddy slept till almost noon.We went out to lunch in the afternoon. Joanne said she wanted to order the spicy soup. Daddy made a wild guess and it turned out Borscht was what she wanted. The chef used a lot of pepper in it and it was very spicy even to daddy's taste. Joanne said she liked it and she took a sip of soup followed by a sip of water. After she finished her own glass of water, she asked if she could have daddy's glass too. She also took Jasmine's glass of water and announced that she would finish all the water on the table. She made the whole family laugh. Mommy had iced milk tea, otherwise Joanne would have took hers too. Actually the soup was too spicy for her to finish. She could only finish one quarter of the bowl and each of us shared some of our food with her.
After lunch, we went shopping for bigger bicycles for the twins in order to take advantage of the Memorial Day sale. The twins had outgrown their 10" wheel bicycles for quite a long time already. We were shopping for 20" or 24" wheel bikes. After some comparisons, we could find some 24" wheel with a low seat. They were low enough for the twins, but the handle bars were too far out for them. After we have decided on the size, we asked the twins to pick the style and color they wanted. Joanne picked a purple mountain bike by Raleigh. Jasmine picked a turquois color Hawaiian styled bike with beautiful Hibiscus patterns. That was daddy's preference too. We continued to visit a few more bike shops before we decided Based on the twins preference, we then compared the features. The mountain bike uses hand brakes and the Hawaiian bike uses back-pedalling brakes. The mountain bike has 6 gears and the Hawaiian bike has splash guard over the wheels. The mountain bike costs $40 more. We asked Jasmine whether she liked the purple mountain bike. She was okay with it. We bought two.
The twins were excited to try out their new bikes. We stopped by home to pick up the helmets. Mommy stayed home to prepare dinner. Daddy brought the rollerblades and we went biking in the park at 6:30pm. We circled around the parks several times and the twins wanted to stop at the playground for a while. The twins learned how to use the hand brakes and the gears. They picked up quickly. They said they liked the gear shifting because it makes the pedalling easier. We were home before 8pm for dinner. The sky was still bright. We would enjoy long summer days for a couple more months since summer solstice was almost a month away.
The twins took shower after dinner. They practiced writing their Chinese characters before going to bed.
Tuesday, May 31, 2005 (7y+9m+25d)
The twins went to school as usual. They had piano lesson in the afternoon. Mommy went to watch her tennis teammates play in the tournment. She brought the twins along because no one baby sat the twins. Daddy met them at the court after work. The twins wanted to come home to ride their new bikes instead. The twins rode their bikes for an hour. When they came home, they watched cartoon on TV.When mommy came home, she was mad at the twins because they didn't practice writing the Chinese characters. Mommy ordered them to finish their practice before going to bed. The twins already finished their school homework, they just forgot mommy's assignment. Daddy was blamed for letting them watch TV. Mommy warned the twins that she was tired of waking them up every morning. They need to set their own alarm clock in the morning.
Wednesday, Jun 1, 2005 (7y+9m+26d)
Mommy was still mad at the twins. Mommy didn't wake the twins. The twins' alarm clock rang for half an hour. Finally Joanne got up and turned off the alarm. She tried to wake up Jasmine. Jasmine refused to get up. Both of them returned to sleep. Daddy woke up later and found that the twins were still in bed. I woke them up and sent them to wash up and dress for school. They got a glass of milk as breakfast in a hurry. Daddy took them to school and was stuck in traffic. The twins were 2 minutes late for school. They were excited to run to the office to get a late pass. They didn't get to do that everyday.They had piano class in the afternoon.
Thursday, Jun 2, 2005 (7y+9m+27d)
They went to school as usual. They were almost late again today. But the teacher didn't send them for the late pass. They walked into the classroom before the teacher finished her roll call.They did their homework in the afternoon. Before bedtime, the twins picked their clothes for the next day. It would be the Hawaiian theme tomorrow. Joanne ran downstairs crying. Jasmine didn't let her use the lei. Jasmine told Joanne to find her own. With mommy's suggestion, the twins settled with their choice of clothes.
Friday, Jun 3, 2005 (7y+9m+28d)
They went to school as usual. The twins rode their new bicycle in the afternoon. They finished homework early. Mommy let them play Neopets the rest of the day.
Saturday, Jun 4, 2005 (7y+9m+29d)
It is the 16th anniversary of the Tienanman massacre.The twins had two birthday parties today. We went to Terence's birthday party at the Jungle. We left at around 2pm. Then we went to Ashley's birthday party at Michael's. The twins painted some craftwork. Jasmine did a tray and Joanne did a small bird house.
We had dinner with Terence's family in the evening. We had Korean food in San Jose's Japan town. We returned home after dinner. Terence picked the "Finding Nemo" DVD. He was scared at various moments of the movie and he hid behind the sofa. The twins were okay with the movie. The adults played Tien Gow game.
Sunday, Jun 5, 2005 (7y+9m+30d)
Mommy and Joanne played tennis with Terence's family in the morning. Jasmine refused to get up. When she got up, daddy took her to the park to join the tennis game. We arrived an hour late. It was just the right time to add fresh players to the game. After a while, the twins and Terence went to play in the playground instead.After we finished tennis, we returned home to take shower. Then we went to lunch with grandma Chui and aunt Elaine. After lunch, we went to see the movie "Madagascar." We went to Costco When we returned home the twins want to have an art class before dinner. Joanne requested to painting. We photocopied some of the Neopet drawings. The twins practiced using the paint brushes, mixing colors and did shading and highlight. Jasmine suggested we all did the backgrounds too.
The twins practiced piano after dinner. They went to bed after that.
Monday, Jun 6, 2005 (7y+10m)
The twins are two months before their eighth birthday.
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started on Jun 6, 2005