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This journal is about raising identical twins.Ninety Eighth Month
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Tuesday, Sep 6, 2005 (8y+1m)
The twins are 97 months old today.The twins went to school as usual. They had piano lessons in the afternoon. Finally, they had the first home work assignment since the school year started more than a week ago. They worked on the homework before and after dinner. Daddy worked late. When daddy came home, Joanne said they had dinner already and didn't wait for daddy. They were sent to bed after they finished their homework.
Wednesday, Sep 7, 2005 (8y+1m+1d)
The twins went to school as usual.They have music class in the afternoon. They did their homework before and after dinner. They wanted to watch US Open on TV. It was the match between Andre Agassi and James Blake. Mommy didn't let them watch before they finished their homework. The twins managed to finish before the match ended and watched the incredible tie breaker. Agassi came back from a 2-set down match with score 3-6, 3-6, 6-3, 6-3, 6-6, and tie breaker at 8-6. The news called it the Match of the Ages in Tennis. The twins were lucky to watch the ending of such a once in a lifetime match.
Thursday, Sep 8, 2005 (8y+1m+2d)
The twins went to school as usual.
Friday, Sep 9, 2005 (8y+1m+3d)
The twins went to school as usual. Mommy went out with Evon in the morning. They couldn't come back in time to pick up the twins from school. She called Christine to pick up the twins. Christine lives just across from the school. Her second daughter is in the same school as the twins. The twins went with Christine and stayed at their home until mommy came back. The twins complained that mommy returned too early because they wanted more playtime in Christine's house.Daddy got off work early. We went to SiuLing's home for a lobster dinner. She used to be in supermarket business and she still has connect to get lobster at extremely low price. We ordered 3 two-pounders from her. She prepared each one of them per our order. We had one cooked with Spring Onion and Ginger (Chinese style), one with Basil (Vietnamese style) and one with Chili and Lemon grass (Singapore style). She cooked almost a dozen lobsters in total for the night. Hing, Lucy, Ronald, Evon, Dwight, SiuLing and her friend each ordered one. After dinner, we sat around the dinner table for tea ans we chatted till 11pm. The twins and Terence spent the night watching cartoon on SiuLing's plasma TV.
Saturday, Sep 10, 2005 (8y+1m+4d)
Daddy left the house at 10am to help grandma Chui with her moving. She and aunt Elaine moved to a new apartment today. The twins and mommy stayed home. Mommy spent the day watching US Open on TV. The twins watched TV and practiced piano. Daddy came home at around 4pm.Christine's husband went to Taiwan. She and her children came to our house. We later went to dinner at a Japanese restaurant. We realized that all the kids at the table had J as first initial: Joanne, Jasmine, Jocelyn, Jessica and Jonathan.
Sunday, Sep 11, 2005 (8y+1m+5d)
We got up at 10am. We went to Milpitas for lunch. We met with Christopher's family at the restaurant. They returned from a one day camp with Christoper's cub scout troop. We returned home after lunch. They returned home to take a hot shower after a day in the camp.Daddy spent the afternoon replacing a dead car battery. Mommy watched the US Open final match. Daddy joined her towards the end to see Andre Agassi defeated by Roger Federer. Despite the loss, we both thought Agassi played well in the past two weeks.
We went to dinner with Christopher's family at 6pm. We returned home by 7:30pm. The twins practiced piano before going to bed. They requested a bedtime story because they went to bed early today. We have not done bedtime story for a long long time. They wanted to listen to the Monkey King story again. Surprisingly they still remembered where we left off. As soon as daddy started reading again from the bookmarked paragraph, they recalled what happened right before that part of the story.
Monday, Sep 12, 2005 (8y+1m+6d)
The twins went to school as usual. Daddy is on Jury duty.Mommy diced up some papaya after dinner. While the twins were eating the fruit, the twins said their friends at school told them that papaya would make their boobs big. We had a great laugh at what the eight year old kids talked about in school. At bedtime, the twins asked for more Monkey King story again.
Tuesday, Sep 13, 2005 (8y+1m+7d)
The twins went to school as usual. Daddy was on Jury duty again. The case was a civil case between a woman and her ex-boyfriend. The woman said the father of her child promised her many things during their relationship. She wanted him to pay for the unfilled promises after they broke up. It was not about child support, the man supports his daughter. It was not a divorce case because they never got married. It was just the woman wanting money for breaking up. I voiced my opinion about marriage and commitment. If the couple were committed to each other, they would have been married. Since they never got married, all the agreement among themselves were contingent to the upkeeping of their relationship. When they broke up, all promises and agreements are void. It is like tearing up an unsigned contract. In my opinion, it is just a waste of time to hear the case. I told the judge that due to my opinion, I won't be able to serve as an impartial juror for the case. I was excused from the case. The jury duty was completed until next year.The twins had their piano lesson after school. They did their homework before and after dinner. Mommy said they were just goofing around all afternoon in front of their homework. As a result, mommy told them they could not go to bed until they made up the lost time and finished the work. They finished their homework a little after 10:30pm. Of course, they could not have bedtime story.
Wednesday, Sep 14, 2005 (8y+1m+8d)
The twins went to school as usual. They were hungry when they got home. Mommy heated up some left over fried rice for them. They went to their piano class in the afternoon. They were hungry again when they came home. Mommy let them each have a Taiwanese style marble egg. They are in third grade this year with a lot of home work. They were busy with homework before dinner.Daddy worked late till 9pm. The twins were already in bed. They went to bed late last night and they were exhausted today. By the time daddy checked on them after dinner, they were already sound asleep.
Thursday, Sep 15, 2005 (8y+1m+9d)
The twins went to school as usual. They studied for a test after school. The twins worked on their homework till late. They didn't get bedtime story until they changed their schedule.
Friday, Sep 16, 2005 (8y+1m+10d)
The twins went to school as usual. Mommy asked them to go through their bookshelves to take out all the childrens books that they had outgrown. Mommy took them to Borders to buy some books that were more suitable for their age. When they got home, they were busy reading. We just hoped the enthusiasm would last.
Saturday, Sep 17, 2005 (8y+1m+11d)
The twins got up early and read their books in bed. Mommy went to play tennis. The twins came downstairs to watch cartoon.When mommy returned from tennis, we went to a noodle restaurant nearby for lunch. The twins took over the DVR (digital video recorder) in the afternoon. Ever since we subscribed to the Comcast DVR service a few days ago, the twins have recorded all the Kim Possible episodes in the past week. It must be a very popular show because Toon Disney ran like 20+ episodes each week.
Benjamin and Christoper's family came to our house in the late afternoon. We set up a tent, so that the kids can play camping in the backyard. We had a mid-autumn festival gathering. We had shabu shabu for dinner. We then had mooncakes in the backyard. The kids played with lanterns in the dark. The kids returned indoors to watch TV, played games on computers and Playstation2. Though the sky was covered with thin clouds, the moon was occasionally visible. The moonlight was bright enough that we could turn off all the lights. The adults sat in the backyard to chat under the moon light. The gathering ended around midnight.
Sunday, Sep 18, 2005 (8y+1m+12d)
The twins were up early, They read their books in bed. We had lunch with Terence's and Christopher's family.Full moon.
Monday, Sep 19, 2005 (8y+1m+13d)
The twins returned to school as usual.Daddy went to dentist after work. He went shopping for some dental flossing tool and returned home late. Alisa's dad come to town for a job interview. His prospective employer must like his resume very much to pay for his trip from Hong Kong. He had jet lag and needed to rest well before the job interview. We let him alone for today.
Tuesday, Sep 20, 2005 (8y+1m+14d)
The twins went to school as usual.The twins had their piano lesson in the afternoon. We went out to dinner with Alisa's dad in the evening. Grandma Chui joined us too. He told us that Amili shed her tears sadly many times when she got back to Hong Kong, she missed the US. We all returned to our home to have some fruits after dinner. We chatted till 10pm before he returned to the hotel. He would have a last round of interview at breakfast tomorrow and then he would take the 1pm flight back to Hong Kong. Before he left, he left us many gifts including some stationary from Alisa to the twins, a box of moon cake for the autumn festival, some current magazines from Hong Kong, and several other items.
Wednesday, Sep 21, 2005 (8y+1m+15d)
The twins went to school as usual. They had piano class in the afternoon. Daddy came home late after work. The twins were all done with their homework. Jasmine was reading and Joanne was drawing some art when daddy came home.
Thursday, Sep 22, 2005 (8y+1m+16d)
The twins went to school as usual. Mommy took the MDX to the shop to repair the windshield. She took daddy's car for the afternoon. William returned from Hong Kong on a business trip. Lillian came back with him for a visit. Mommy went out with her for lunch. She went along to pick up the twins after school. We went together to pick up mommy's car. But the windshield was not properly sealed. We requested the shop to do it over again. The twins took a nap before dinner. We went out to dinner celebrating grandma Chui's 83rd birthday. Joanne played with her food and she spilled the dessert all over her lap. Mommy punished her to write her Chinese homework over 20 times before she could go to bed. We returned home to cut the birthday cake. After aunt Elaine and grandma Chui went home. Mommy read the dictation to Jasmine in preparation for tomorrow's test at school while Joanne worked on her punishment. Then later Jasmine gave Joanne the same test when mommy was busy. Joanne stayed up for her punishment after Jasmine went to bed.
Friday, Sep 23, 2005 (8y+1m+17d)
Mommy's car was not ready until Monday. She took daddy to work after sending the twins to school. The twins took a nap in the afternoon. The twins were kind of dazed when they came to pick up daddy from work.We went to Costco and had hot dogs for dinner. The twins asked daddy to buy the new Barbie and the Magic of Pegasus for them. Mommy went to play mahjong with SiuLing and friends after she dropped us off at home. The twins watched the movie in 3D as soon as they finished their music homework and piano practice. The twins tried to stay up to wait for mommy's return, but daddy sent them to bed.
Saturday, Sep 24, 2005 (8y+1m+18d)
Mommy went to play tennis in the morning. Daddy and the twin stayed home until mommy returned with daddy's car. We went out to lunch at a ramen place. At 4pm, we went to Jessica's birthday party at her home just across from the twins' school. At 6:30pm, the kids all went to Artopia to do some ceramic painting. We left the twins at the party. We went to a dinner at CW's home. Many friends, including Jackie's, Albert's and Simon's family, gathered to welcome Wil 'n Lil from Hong Kong. They would only stay a week before returning to Hong Kong. We also had a bath room tour because CW remodeled all the bathrooms in the house.Mommy went back to Artopia to pick up the twins at 9pm. After the twins arrived, all the kids played "Capture the Flag" outside the house in the dark. The darkness was perfect for sneak attack. It was quite a rare occasion that all the kids ranged from 14 year old boy to 6 year old girl all played in the same game. The kids seem to have great fun. I was kind of worried that the kids might trip on something in the dark. Everyone returned safe and sound. The adults sat around the dining table and chatted till midnight.
Sunday, Sep 25, 2005 (8y+1m+19d)
We went to have dim sum with SiuLing's, Agnus's, Cindy's, Hing's family. We were lucky that we managed to get a huge table for 14 people. We went to Costco after lunch to buy a portable DVD player for the twins.Wil 'n Lil joined us in the afternoon. The twins did a mini piano recital for our guests. We went to Menlo Park to play badminton at around 5pm. One of the reasons we did that was to see Sally Yip (a Hong Kong celebrity) in the badminton club. She was sitting there at the reception desk when we arrived.
Mommy unpacked the new DVD player for the twins so that they could watch a movie while we played badminton. It turned out that mommy didn't take the battery out of the box. The twins couldn't get the DVD working with no power. The twins did origami on the side line instead. There was also a kids' playroom in the badminton club. We played almost non-stop until 7:30pm. The twins joined us in the game occasionally. We needed to take a break once in a while anyway, so the twins helped us to slow down.
We quitted when Joanne said she was hungry. We went to the Left Bank restaurant in downtown Menlo Park for dinner. After we returned home, we sent the kids to bed. Wil 'n Lil stayed for awhile to watch some TV. They didn't have HDTV in Hong Kong yet, so they wanted to experience HDTV before leaving the US next week. The guests left at around 11pm.
Monday, Sep 26, 2005 (8y+1m+20d)
The twins went to school as usual. Joanne was not feeling well today. She had a runny nose. Mommy said she might have caught a bug from the other kids when they played outdoors in the dark on Saturday. They were sent to bed for a long nap in the afternoon until dinner time. The sleep helped her recover, she was feeling okay when daddy came home from work. Daddy worked late, but the twins were allowed to stay up a little late for daddy because of their long nap in the afternoon.
Tuesday, Sep 27, 2005 (8y+1m+21d)
The twins went to school as usual. Joanne seemed to have recovered totally. As mommy said, the sleep helped her build up her immune system.The twins went to the dentist for cleaning and semi-annual check up. No problem found in their mouth. They also have piano lesson in the afternoon. While the twins were in class, mommy waited in the car and watched her Korean drama series on the newly bought portable DVD player.
Daddy worked overtime again and returned home at around 9pm. The twins were still up. But they were sent to bed soon after.
Wednesday, Sep 28, 2005 (8y+1m+22d)
The twins went to school as usual.Lillian returned to Hong Kong today. Daddy worked late, till almost 2am into the next morning. There were couple of deers on our front yard. Daddy tried to fetch a camera to take some pictures, but the deers fled at the slightest movement.
Thursday, Sep 29, 2005 (8y+1m+23d)
The twins went to school as usual. We went to Hing's house for dinner. SiuLing, Agnus, Ronald, Evon were guests too. SiuLing's brother manages a supermarket and occasionally, she could get good meat at low price. We had fillet mignon for dinner at $3.50 per pound. They cut a cake to celebrate mommy's birthday. When Joanne was tired, she slept on the sofa. Daddy had to carry her into the car when it was time to go home. Jasmine was nice to pick up Joanne's stuffs, carried her shoes for her etc. Joanne was not sound asleep. When I put her in the car, she was awake enough to buckle up the seatbelt on her own.According to mommy's observation, Joanne was usually lazy and tried to take advantage of other people. She would pretend to be asleep so that daddy would carry her. Jasmine was a much more considerate and caring person. She would try her best to walk on her own and in most cases, helped others to carry things. Jasmine was a care-taker while Joanne was an advantage-taker. Joanne was not maliciously bad, she just lacked the caring nature.
Friday, Sep 30, 2005 (8y+1m+24d)
The twins went to school as usual. It was a hot day today. Mommy and Evon went to play badminton in the afternoon. The twins went swimming in Evon's pool. Mommy took Benjamin's family along to the swim. The kids had fun in the water. The moms sat on the poolside to chat.
Saturday, Oct 1, 2005 (8y+1m+25d)
The twins went to Jungle Adventure to attend Clair's cousin's birthday party. She and her mom returned to the east coast at night.
Sunday, Oct 2, 2005 (8y+1m+26d)
Mommy got many friends together to play badminton. Deanna's and Claire's family, Ronald, Evon and her brother, Agnus and her husband were there too. After two hours of badminton, Ronald, Evon and Claire's family went with us to have an Italian dinner in Palo Alto.
Monday, Oct 3, 2005 (8y+1m+27d)
The twins went to school as usual. Didn't take note. Forgot what we did.
Tuesday, Oct 4, 2005 (8y+1m+28d)
The twins went to school as usual. They had piano lesson in the afternoon. Daddy worked late. When daddy checked on Jasmine's homework, daddy complained that Jasmine wrote all the letter t like a +. Mommy wanted Jasmine to copy her homework over again to correct all the bad handwriting. She had to go be bed later than Joanne.
Wednesday, Oct 5, 2005 (8y+1m+29d)
The twins got up late in the morning and had to rush through breakfast. They still made it before the school bell went off. It had been awhile now that mommy put the responsibility on the twins. The twins must set their own alarm clock at night. They must get up on time in the morning and wake up mommy too. Though mommy would stay in bed until the twins called her, she would keep an eye on the clock just in case the twins' alarm clock didn't go off. The twins took the responsibility well and they could get up on their own in the morning. Actually this training started when mommy was fed up about yelling at the twins every morning to get them off their beds. Mommy simply went to the opposite extreme. She announced that mommy was not going to school, the kids were. If the kids who went to school didn't care about being tardy, they could stay in bed all morning. Mommy would no longer wake them up. The reversed psychology worked very well. The twins no longer depend on mommy for the morning call, simply because they couldn't. That proves one thing, kids can pick up responsibility if the parents let go. When the kids fail to be independent, it was because of the parent's over-caring.The twins had their piano class in the afternoon. The parents were invited to the class for a meeting to go through what the kids will go through in the upcoming test. The teacher also commented on how each student did in the class. Joanne was very good in playing off beat music such as jazz. Jasmine was good in following the beats. Christopher was good in playing loud and forceful notes. Ben was very good in playing his assigned song that he could practice a lot, but he had trouble with anything new.
When they came home from piano class, they got mommy's permission to play their new playground ball in the garage. Out of their own initiative, they set a timer for 10 minutes and they stopped the play on their own without mommy's intervention.
Thursday, Oct 6, 2005 (8y+2m)
The twins are 98 months old today.
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started on Oct 18, 2005