Raising identical twin girls (70th month)

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This journal is about raising identical twins.
Seventieth month
Previous entries
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Tuesday, May 6, 2003 (5y+9m)
The twins are 69 month old today.
They went to school early on Tuesday. After school, they went to pickup Cousin Natalie. Uncle Ivan and Aunt Tina were busy today. Mommy picked up Natalie from school.

Wednesday, May 7, 2003 (5y+9m+1d)
They went to school as usual. They went to gymnastic class after school.
When daddy came home, the twins ran to daddy in their bathrobes. They were giggling and laughing uncontrollably. At first I couldn't figure out what was so funny. Then the twins opened and closed their bathrobes in a flash. They were topless inside the robes. I hope these two little flashers will not developed into exhibitionists in the future.

Thursday, May 8, 2003 (5y+9m+2d)
The twins went to school as usual. They went to piano class after school. The twins had a piano recital in front of the class today. Each student played two short pieces of their own choice from their practices. Mommy videotaped the performance so that daddy could watch later.

Friday, May 9, 2003 (5y+9m+3d)
They went to school as usual. Mommy and twins took an afternoon nap. Mommy needed the extra sleep in preparation of a trip.
Sharleen dropped off Claire with us in late afternoon. Poon came to pick up Claire after work. They stayed for dinner too. The twins showed Claire how to play their new Barbie as Rapunsel computer game. Claire enjoyed playing with the twins very much.
Mommy and three other moms from school took off at midnight on a trip to Las Vegas. The four moms wanted a vacation away from the kids as their mother days present. The kids had been vocal at school about having their mothers day without the moms. News traveled fast, even the teachers knew about the moms' Las Vegas trip. The twins practiced the phrase "Feed me! Feed me!" just in case daddy didn't know what to do.

Saturday, May 10, 2003 (5y+9m+4d)
Daddy and twins went to Rachel's 6th birthday party. The party took place in a gymnastic school. All the kids got very good exercise by jumping, tumbling etc. The twins especially enjoyed the Tarzan swing where they swung out to a pit of sponge foam blocks. One of the games in the party was hide and seek in the sponge pit. All the kids dug into the spongy blocks until they disappeared from view. Then the birthday girl sought the hidden kids one by one. In one game, the twins hid so well that they were not found. Joanne came out of hiding complaining some sponge debris got into her eyes. Jasmine came out only after the game was over, however she said it was very hot in the pit. She was sweating when she was totally covered by the blocks. I told her that she must come out when she didn't feel well. The game was fun, but I kinda worried the kids might faint if they stayed in the heat for too long.
We only knew the host family in the party. All other guests were Rachel's current classmates. The twins were the only ex-classmates she invited.
We went to Aunt Tina's for an early Mothers Day dinner. The twins and Cousin Natalie watched some Mr. Beans video while waiting for dinner. Cousin Natalie laughed very hard at his physical comedy. Great grandma, Grandma Ling, and Aunt Tina were the representatives for the moms. Grandpa, Uncle Ivan, Daddy, Aunt Jun, Cousin Natalie and the twins benefitted from the Mothers Day dinner. The twins didn't eat much at dinner complaining about being too tired. It was understandable, for the twins had an hour of physically exhausting activities earlier. The twins fell asleep on the way home. I let them sleep in the car. They missed mommy's phone call.
Mommy called home reporting that they arrived at Primm, NV at 7am this morning. They traveled 500 miles in less than 7 hours, that was pretty fast assuming they didn't take breaks. Otherwise, if they stopped many times, then they must be driving extremely fast. They had to kill time in a McDonald's restaurant to wait for the Fashion Outlet Mall to open. They spent the morning shopping before going into Las Vegas. After they checked into the hotel, three moms pampered themselves in the hotel spas, one mom decided to take a nap in the room. They did some gambling and retired early skipping the Las Vegas night life to catch up on their sleep. They planned the night activities for tomorrow night.
Lillian and William came to visit us in the evening. William just got off the plane from Germany an hour earlier. Lillian said the twins looked taller since she saw them two weeks ago. I measured the twins on their growth chart. They had grown less than half an inch since last month.
The twins had switched to use Colgate toothpaste for quite sometime now. They liked the regular flavor because it was mommy's favorite too. The twins still had their Oral-B Princesses and Nicholean toothpaste in the drawer, the other toothpaste were out of fad when the twins became true Colgate fans. When I put the twins in bed, they said they missed mommy.

Sunday, May 11, 2003 (5y+9m+5d)
We went to Pow's party around noon. The twins didn't eat much at lunch. They spent the whole afternoon playing on the playground in Pow's backyard. The twins liked the sky-shuttle that zoomed between two trees in the backyard. The twins wanted to draw on the sidewalk because they got some chubby chalks as goodies from Rachel's birthday party yesterday. Pow's house was on an almost 2 acre lot, there was a lot of space around the house. There were ample pavements to draw on. They wanted daddy to draw Hello Kitty and Pikachu for them to color. Joanne later also drew a My Melody and Pocchaco on her own.
Joanne complained that she was tired and wanted to go home. I asked them to take a nap when we got home, but they'd rather watch TV. That indicated how tired she actually was.
We went out for dinner with grandma Chui and Aunt Elaine. They came to our house after dinner to watch some video footage of the twins. The twins screamed and laughed when they played like crazy with Aunt Elaine. They ran all over the house, jumped over furniture and beds. Jasmine giggled so hard that she hardly caught her breath. When Jasmine threw up on daddy's pillow, it was the time to stop the madness. She was okay. She just played too hard right after dinner.

Monday, May 12, 2003 (5y+9m+6d)
Daddy took a day off from work. The twins had no school today. It was a "teacher learning day" at school, the kids needed to stay home.
We stayed home in the morning to wait for the housekeepers to clean up the house. After they finished, we went out for a late lunch. Then we went to the park with a bike and a scooter. Jasmine didn't want to ride the scooter in the park. She asked daddy if I still remembered she fell and hurt her knees last time. They spent sometime playing on the playground. Joanne loved to do the monkey bars, but she couldn't do it well today because her palms hurt. They got all red from too much rough playing yesterday.
There was a group of art students at the pond in the park drawing the scenery and ducks. The students were just a year or two older than the twins. Joanne was attracted to them. The twins stood behind them to watch how they drew. Jasmine wanted to move on to play on the swings. Joanne was reluctant to move. I had to go back couple of times to drag Joanne away because Jasmine became impatient and just took off. It was impossible for me to watch two kids at two ends of the park, so only one kid could win.
The twins loved being pushed very high on the swings. They didn't want to come off. They had no choice when several other kids waited in line for the swings. They came back to the swings later when they were available. Then they were forced off again when other kids waited for their turns. Jasmine wanted to ride her bike around the park. But Joanne complained that her legs were tired after riding on her scooter. It was hard to keep the twins on the same pace when they each chose a different type of vehicle. Jasmine was willing to give up her ambitious plan to circle the park when daddy agreed with her next destination, Baskin Robbins ice cream store. Both twins chose Mint Chocolate Chip favor. Neither of them could finish one scope of ice cream. They wanted daddy to bite off the leftover ice cream so that they could eat the sugar cone.
The day got longer such that I didn't pay attention to the time when the sky stayed so bright. We arrived home a little before 8pm. We were surprised to find mommy waiting for us. She didn't bring her keys and she had waited for half an hour. Their trip from Las Vegas took 8 hours of driving. I only knew she would come home before 10pm, so I told the twins they would see mommy in the morning. Because of that the twins were very happy to see mommy tonight.
The twins loved the toy mommy bought them. The twins didn't have good appetite, probably due to the ice cream cone less than an hour ago. Towards the end of dinner, mommy set a 5 minute limit for the twins to finish dinner or the new toy will be taken back. Jasmine finished in 2 minutes and walked away happily with the new toy. Joanne on the other hand just sat there asking how possibly Jasmine could do it so fast. Jasmine returned and reported to Joanne that the time limit was up. Mommy took away the leftover food and the toy from Joanne as promised. Joanne cried because she knew mommy was serious about her rules. Daddy tried to help by suggesting Joanne to get back the food and quickly finish it. In addition, she needed to do more than that to get back the toy. I suggested her to eat her fruits and brush her teeth after dinner. She did all that to win back the toy from mommy. They went to bed early for early school tomorrow.
Mommy complained that daddy didn't do a good job taking care of the twins. Joanne had two nose bleeds over the weekend. Jasmine started coughing on Sunday, her voice was hoarse on Monday with a sore throat. Jasmine's rash behind her ears got worse.

Tuesday, May 13, 2003 (5y+9m+7d)
The twins went to school early on Tuesday. It was a nice day. The twins played in the backyard before doing their homework.

Wednesday, May 14, 2003 (5y+9m+8d)
The twins went to school as usual. The twins went to gymnastic class after school.
Daddy didn't feel well at the stomach when returned from work. The twins left daddy alone on the sofa. The twins went to bed early before daddy was relieved by couple of Tums (antacid) tablets.

Thursday, May 15, 2003 (5y+9m+9d)
The twins woke up at the same time as daddy did. They went to bed early, it was just natural that they woke up early. They went to school as usual. The school had an open house in the evening. The parents got a chance to observe how their kids have their lessons. Mommy was a volunteer in class for many times, so she already knew how the class was run. They had dinner before returning home. Daddy had to work overtime today. When I arrived home, the twins just came out of the shower. Joanne was crying sadly. She said Jasmine said something bad to her.
There was a total lunar eclipse at 9:06pm tonight. I was a few minutes late when I could show the twins the eclipse. The moon light had already started to return. The Chinese for lunar eclipse is "月蝕" (moon eaten). Jasmine asked with concern who ate the moon. Daddy explained to her with some drawing how the moon went into the shadow of the earth. Though Joanne spent sometime watching to moon getting brighter and brighter over a course of 20 minutes, she wasn't too interested to know about how and why it happened. The news said there would be another lunar eclipse later this year in mid November.

Friday, May 16, 2003 (5y+9m+10d)
The twins went to school as usual. The twins brought a tube of candies to school. Many of their classmates asked for one. The twins gave away all their candies. Joanne said she didn't want to bring candies to school anymore. Jasmine said she only got to eat a few.
There was a book fair at daddy's company during lunch time. Daddy bought some card games and picture books for the twins.
The twins' classes had a singing performance. The four kindergarten classes joined together to sing for the parents. Jasmine said she sang "zippy do da, zippy dee aye, miyo miyo what a wonderful day..."
Katherine's mom treated mommy and the twins for dinner. Daddy went to Fry's Electronics store after work to buy a video cable. It happened to be their anniversary one-day sales special. Daddy couldn't resist the temptation and spent several hours in the store looking for bargains. When daddy got home, the twins were already in bed. They heard daddy came home. They ran downstairs to greet daddy. Mommy gave them special permission to play a bit longer. Daddy opened the card games and played with the twins for a while.

Saturday, May 17, 2003 (5y+9m+11d)
A few months ago, we went shopping for a car. Back then the dealer said the car was so hot that they wouldn't bargain with us. This week, they called us back and were willing to sell the car at a discount as we demanded. We told the car dealer that the economy was not very good. In addition, the interest rate was very low. It was a time that many home owners would consider refinancing their home mortgage. In order to better qualify for the refinancing, everyone held on to their cash and refrained from borrowing a car loan. Car buyers were hard to find these days under these economic conditions.
We went to the car dealership in the morning to complete the deal. We came home with a new SUV today. Now we had to think about selling the minivan. The twins immediately abandoned the old car and demanded to ride on the new car home.
We went out for lunch. When we came home, our neighbor's girl Taya came to play with our twins. Daddy and mommy were busy cleaning up the garage. Jasmine acted as the host to our little guest. They played in the twins' bedroom for a while. Then they played in the backyard for a while. Jasmine later showed Taya how to play the "Barbie as Rapunsel" computer game. Joanne said she wanted to stay with daddy and mommy in the garage instead. Daddy went out to run some errand in the afternoon. When I came back, Taya already returned home. Mommy said Taya said she could have played in our house whole day long. The twins wanted daddy to take them to the playground. Jasmine and daddy rode the bikes. Joanne said she wanted to run instead.
After dinner, we let the twins soak in the bathtub. They used it as a tiny swimming pool. Mommy also wanted to soak in the whirlpool tub after a day's work in the garage. Daddy got his turn after the twins went to bed.

Sunday, May 18, 2003 (5y+9m+12d)
We went to visit grandma Ling. Daddy, mommy, Aunt Jun and Jasmine went out for lunch. Joanne said she didn't want to go out, she would stay with grandma. While we were having lunch, we saw Joanne and grandma walking by the restaurant. We summoned them in and asked Joanne to stay with us because she was already out of the house. We tried to ask Joanne to eat more, but she was already well fed by grandma.
After lunch, we went to the Sanrio store per the twins' request. In the store, the twins purchased something with their own money for the first time.
The twins has started to learn how to count money at school this week. Jasmine has been diligent in hunting for loose changes. She has been saving her money in a wallet mommy bought for the twins a long time ago. She asked daddy to print her a wallet size photo for her wallet. She also ask daddy to give her some dollar bills so her wallet would look like daddy's. She hit a jackpot when she found mommy's old puppy bank with some money inside. Joanne on the other hand did not work too hard in the treasure hunt. This morning we counted their findings. Jasmine has over $12 and Joanne has around $5. Mommy told Jasmine that she had enough money to buy the Mermaid Barbie doll she have been nagging for. Mommy promised the twins that if they brushed their teeth promptly, they would receive a quarter everyday. Mommy wanted them to learn how to earn and save money.
We went for a walk along a lagoon in Bay Farm. The twins were glad to find a playground there. They spent sometime there playing on the swing and monkey bars. Jasmine said monkey bars were Joanne's favorite. We also did some racing on the sidewalk. Joanne didn't want to race with Jasmine because she cheated by starting too soon.
We returned home after dinner. I asked the twins to use their electric toothbrushes. They said they didn't want to. Daddy bribed them with an extra quarter. Jasmine finished right away and earned her quarter. Joanne cheated by turning off the toothbrush prematurely. Daddy told her that she was not getting her reward. Joanne told daddy that it was not nice to break a promise. It was not nice to give a quarter to one kid and not to the other. She was going to write down in her journal everyday that daddy didn't give her the quarter. She was quite calm and acted as if she didn't care. However, when she went to mommy for her goodnight kiss, she couldn't hold her tears. Daddy told her she could still earn her quarter if she finished the brushing without interrupting the timer. She quickly resumed her brushing. Jasmine volunteered to supervise the brushing. Joanne was happy again after receiving her reward.

Monday, May 19, 2003 (5y+9m+13d)
Mommy was awaken by noises in the twins' room at 5am in the morning. It turned out that Joanne had a nose bleed. When she got up to get the paper tissue, she woke up Jasmine. They both sat on the bed to chat. Mommy broke up their chat by ordering Joanne to sleep with us. After awhile, Jasmine wanted to come into our bed too. The bed was too crowded, so Mommy sent Joanne back to her bed. Jasmine stayed in our bed till the morning.
The twins went to school as usual. Mommy babysat Annette's little brother and Claire in the afternoon. Daddy returned from work before sunset. The twins already had dinner and they told daddy they wanted to ride their bikes. We rode the bikes to the park. We returned when it was getting dark. Daddy had a late dinner afterwards. The twins practiced some piano before bedtime. Jasmine really made an effort practicing. Joanne was not very enthusiastic. She wasted her time fooling around.

Tuesday, May 20, 2003 (5y+9m+14d)
Joanne was up and about the house before 6am in the morning. She stood in front of the bathroom mirror and sneezed. She wiped her nose with tissue paper. Then she threw the tissue into the toilet and flushed. She flushed repeatedly so many times that she woke mommy. She didn't return to bed. She ran in and out of our bedroom all morning.
Recently, Joanne sneezed with a runny nose almost every morning. We worried that she had allergy.
The twins went to school as usual. It was a hot day today. Mommy had the twins take a shower after they returned from school. Mommy fed them dinner early too. Joanne fell asleep at the dining table. Mommy put her in bed early and Joanne slept till the morning. Jasmine was also sent to bed early before daddy came home.
Jasmine got up in the evening. She said her pillow and her hair was wet because she sweated. She wanted to watch TV with daddy because she was not sleepy. Unlike Joanne, Jasmine had enough sleep this morning.

Wednesday, May 21, 2003 (5y+9m+15d)
The twins went to school as usual. They went to gymnastic class after school. They did their homework before they practiced some piano.
Daddy needed to beat a deadline and worked in the office till dawn.

Thursday, May 22, 2003 (5y+9m+16d)
The twins went to school as usual. The school left us a voice mail about Joanne's nose bleed at school and she needed a change of clothing. From the message, I thought Joanne was soaked in blood. However, mommy said Joanne only got a drop of blood on her clothes. Joanne was prone to nose bleed especially on a hot day. Jasmine had no such problem. They had piano class after school.

Friday, May 23, 2003 (5y+9m+17d)
The twins went to school as usual. After school, their play group came to our house to have a picnic in the backyard. The twins liked the change of venue for their afternoon snacks.
After dinner, we went to Target to buy the dolls the twins wanted. Ever since they had saved enough money for the dolls, they had been nagging mommy to visit Target. Joanne purchased the Mermaid Barbie doll at $8.89. Jasmine had more money than Joanne. She picked a glow-in-the-dark Miranda Diva Starz doll at $14.89. The twins had been visiting the Diva Starz website for months now. The Diva Starz dolls had huge heads which were way out of proportion to their bodies. Mommy never paid attention to what the twins had been playing on the Internet. When mommy saw Miranda for the first time, she asked why Jasmine would pick such an ugly doll. I could see the smile on Jasmine's face disappeared instantly. Mommy also saw her reaction and changed her comment to bring back Jasmine's smile. Jasmine only had $15 in her purse. Mommy had to chip in to cover the sales tax. I asked Jasmine why she didn't buy the Mermaid Barbie doll because she nagged daddy to buy one in last visit. She said that if Joanne had it, then she wanted something different. Back at home, I heard her telling Joanne that she wanted an Alexa doll, but Alexa didn't speak. I told her that she could have looked for another Alexa, the one she picked up might just have run out of battery.

Saturday, May 24, 2003 (5y+9m+18d)
We took off at 8:30am to the Santa Cruz mountains. We traveled with Annette's and Nicholas' family. The Roaring Camp in Felton presents the annual Civil War Enactment in the Memorial Day weekend. We attempted to go to the same event three years ago. We gave up and turned around after we were stuck in traffic for a long time. This year, we planned the trip to start early in order to beat the traffic. We were able to get there in less than a hour and we could park our cars very close to the entrance. The reenacted battle was scheduled to start at 1:30pm and 4:30pm. We had ample time to take a steam train ride into the redwood forest. The round-trip train ride took almost an hour and a half. We had lunch on a picnic table in front of the battlefield after the train ride. When the battle started with a cannon shot, the twins already decided it was not a show for them. The cannon shots were way too loud for kids. Both twins covered their ears and buried their heads. Annette's two year old little brother was not bothered by the noise and he was the only kid in our group who watched the battle. The battle was over in less than half an hour. The Confederate Army won over the Union Army in this battle. After the battle, there was a ceremony to retire a United State flag. The worn flag was burnt in a respectful manner in front of saluting soldiers and the audience. Definitely it would be disrespectful to throw a country's emblem into a garbage can. Usually flags are retired by burning in private. Burning flags with respect in public is quite uncommon.
The kids were impatient for the trip to the beach. As soon as the kids took their bathroom visit, we departed and continued our way to Santa Cruz Beach. We took a short ice-cream stop along the way. The traffic to Santa Cruz Boardwalk was terrible. We were stuck in traffic for quite some time before we could get to the parking lot. After we parked the cars, we walked to the beach. When the twins saw the fun rides on the boardwalk, they wanted to take those rides too. Mommy told them that they could ride to their hearts' content in the Great America Amusement Park this season. They were willing to play on the beach instead. We spent a couple of hour on the beach. The kids built sand castles and ran into the cold ocean water to play with the wave. The water was freezing, we tried very hard to keep the ocean waves below the twins' knee level. However, occasional big waves lapped onto the sand and got our pants wet. Jasmine was bent down picking up some sea shells from the sand when a big wave came in and swept her off her feet. The unexpected wave reached my knee level, but it was at the twins' hip level. Jasmine fell into the wave face-down and got herself soaked from head to toes. Daddy was standing next to the kids so they were never in danger. Jasmine didn't like getting soaked in freezing sea water. She cried for a while until mommy told her it was okay to get wet on a beach.
We left Santa Cruz after 5pm. We got back to the Bay Area before 6pm. All the kids fell asleep on the way. We woke the kids when we arrived at the restaurant. Annette's father joined us for dinner, though he was not free for the trip to the beach.
Jasmine agreed with mommy that the Diva Starz doll was scary because of its big head. She said that Miranda looked good on the website, but she looked scary as a doll. She still liked the doll regardless.
After dinner, we let the twins soaked in the whirlpool bathtub at home. Mommy and daddy got a turn after the twins finished. In the afternoon, daddy put on the sun block lotion on the face, but the sun got through the thinning hair and gave daddy a sunburn at the receding hairline. The sunburnt pain started to set in in the evening. Mommy put on a lot of sun block lotion on the twins this afternoon. They were okay with no sunburn.

Sunday, May 25, 2003 (5y+9m+19d)
We had lunch with grandma Chui. In the afternoon, we invited several families and their kids to play at our home.
Denis and his kids Jonathon & Benjamin arrived first. They wanted to play with the twins. However Jasmine complained that Jonathan played too rough. She kept running away from him. Denis picked up Jane after she was off work. Jean & Edwin arrived later. Andrew, Sara and their kid Nathan came next. The kids played in the backyard while the adults chatted over a fruit plate and tea. Poon, Sharleen and Claire came last. Mommy prepared pasta and soup for the kids. The adults had pre-mixed salad, pre-cooked ribs, and baked salmon from Costco. Sharleen brought cheesecake for dessert.
After dinner, we watched some Mr. Bean's video and everyone had a good laugh. The party was over when Nathan started to nag for attention. It was a signal that the kids needed to go home to rest.

Monday, May 26, 2003 (5y+9m+20d)
It was the Memorial Day holiday. The twins had no school. Daddy didn't go to work.
We went out to lunch with Bonnie and her children Addison and Deanna. CW was out of the country on business trip as usual. They came over to our house after lunch. The kids watched Ice Age on DVD. Then mommy prepared some flour dough for them to played with in the backyard. As the kids played, mommy and Bonnie chatted in the backyard for hours. Bonnie said it was the most relaxing afternoon she had for a long time. They left at around 5pm because Addison and Deanna still have homework to finish. Daddy took an afternoon nap and didn't wake up until the guests had left.
Mommy went out to purchase a replacement ceiling lamp to take advantage of the Memorial Day sales. Since the ceiling light hang 10 feet over the stairs, it was totally over 20 feet above the living room floor. It was quite scary to replace the ceiling light over the stairs at such height. However, mommy found out the installation cost more than the light itself. She convinced daddy to try the installation ourselves, we would spend the $200 installation fee only if we couldn't manage. The junction box on the ceiling could be reached by regular ladder placed on the stairs landing. So it was still doable without professional help. The twins initially wanted to help by threading the wire and handing daddy the tools when we assembled the light fixture. But as soon as daddy and mommy started climbing the ladders, the twins were sent away to avoid the danger of dropping tools and human bodies. We started before 6pm and we were done before dark. We saved $200 in a few hours. I bet a professional installer could finish the same job in less than an hour.
Mommy bathed the twins after dinner while daddy did some more repairs around the house. We sent the twins to bed early because they would have early school tomorrow. That ended the 3 days Memorial Day weekend.

Tuesday, May 27, 2003 (5y+9m+21d)
The twins insisted that it was Monday today. They said it was holiday today. They didn't believe daddy when I told them they already had their holiday. Mommy ordered them to wash up and change or she would take away their dolls as punishment. Joanne responded to the threat but Jasmine said "I don't care!" I asked Jasmine if she regret buying a scary doll so that she didn't care losing it. She said she still like the doll.
The twins went to school as usual. Joanne said "My Eric sat next to me at the lunch table today. He likes to sit close to me." Mommy babysat Annette's little brother today. The twins did their homework, practiced piano and played in the backyard. It was hot day today. The twins room was still quite warm when they went to bed. We had to turn on a ventilation fan to blow away the hot air.

Wednesday, May 28, 2003 (5y+9m+22d)
The twins went to school as usual. There was no more gymnastic class. It was a very hot day. The twins asked mommy to let them soak in the bathtub. We turned on the ventilation fans after sunset to get rid of the hot air in the house. The house was cooled by the time the twins went to bed.

Thursday, May 29, 2003 (5y+9m+23d)
The twins went to school as usual. They went to piano class after school. It was a cooler day today. At least we didn't need to turn on the ventilation fans. After dinner, Joanne said she felt cold. We let them take a hot shower before sending them to bed. Compared to yesterday, it was relatively cold today.

Friday, May 30, 2003 (5y+9m+24d)
The twins went to school as usual. They handed in their last homework assignment of the school year. They still have 3 weeks of end-of-year activities at school. But the academic part of school has ended.
After school, they went to Annette's 6th birthday party. The host rented a jumper house, the twins stayed back and waited for other kids to go in for food before they took their turn. They found the place too crowded with kids.
Mommy took the kids to a second birthday party in late afternoon. Sunnie, mommy's high school friend, threw a birthday party for her son Ryan in the club house in her apartment complex. The twins loved it because they got to swim in the swimming pool. Daddy was invited too, but I ended up working overtime at the office.
After a full day of activities, the twins were exhausted on the way home. They took a short nap in the car. They took a shower and then went to bed early.

Saturday, May 31, 2003 (5y+9m+25d)
The twins got up early in the morning. They came in and out of our bedroom all morning. But we still managed o sleep in until a quarter to ten.
We went to Hing's home for lunch. After lunch, some contractors came to his house to fix some water-damaged hardwood floor boards. The contractors were making very loud noises with their machines. We decided to take Terence with us for the afternoon. We went to Costco because the twins said they saw on the TV that Jungle Book 2 was out on DVD. They failed to find the movie in Costco. The twins later copied down the release date on the TV commercial, that was June 10. We settled with some grocery shopping for tonight's dinner. We took Terence to our home and let the kids played in the backyard. We invited Hing and Lucy to dinner. And they took Terence home afterwards.

Sunday, Jun 1, 2003 (5y+9m+26d)
Daddy took grandma Chui to see the herbal doctor again. She had not done that for many weeks.
Mommy took the twins to Terence's 3rd birthday party in the afternoon. Daddy arrived late after taking grandma to the doctor. When daddy arrived, the entertainer already finished his magic performance in the backyard. He did some juggling, led the kids to sing some songs, then he did the balloon sculptures. Joanne received a large flamingo assembled with a number of lame balloon sculptures he made earlier. Jasmine requested a horse, but she said the sculpture she received did not look like a horse. The kids lost interest of the entertainer after they received their balloons. The crowd got thinner as the kids went back inside the house one by one. All of Terence's guests were at his age except our twins who were out of place. Nevertheless, our twins were his favorite and he chased after them. At one point of time, Terence and Joanne were on the sofa. Terence had both arms around Joanne's neck pulling her down onto him. The adults found that very funny. The scene looked like a R-rated movie with two teenagers making out on the couch. We had the whole thing recorded on video tape.
Mommy and the twins were among the first to arrive to help Lucy to set up the party. We were the last guests to leave after mommy helped them clean up a little. The twins received two goodie bags containing many toys. We jokingly told the twins that they received more presents from Terence than they gave him for his birthday.
On our way home, we passed the park closed to our home. Some girl teams were playing a softball match. I asked mommy to drop off the twins to watch the game. She continued her way home. Daddy and twins sat down to watch the softball game. We saw a few pitches, the hitter got a strike, a foul ball and then two more strike. It turned out she was the last hitter of the game. When she got struck out, the game was over. The twins had not seen any baseball or softball game before. They were asking what was going on. But with only 4 plays left in the game, there was no way that the twins would understand what happened. All they learned was that the girl failed to hit the ball and she lost the game. We then walked back home. When we reached the last block, they raced the rest of the way for the privilege to ring the door bell.
Before sunset, mommy and daddy cleaned up the mess in daddy's car. We picked up all the trash and vacuumed the interior. Daddy found a frisbee in the truck. The twins wanted to learn how to play it. Daddy and twins played the frisbee in the front yard while mommy continued washing the exterior of daddy's car. We went inside after dusk. We sent the twins to take a shower. After daddy dried them with towels, they went in their room to change on their own, as usual. Daddy went downstairs, and later Jasmine came down and said "Daddy, I'll show you something and you'll get mad." I asked what it was, Jasmine said the drawers fell down. When I entered their room, I was shocked. Their 5 drawer dresser toppled and lying on the floor at an angle. Apparently, they opened all the drawers at the same time and shifted the center of gravity to tip over the dresser. The dresser was not very heavy, but if it fell on the kids, it might have crushed some bones. Jasmine hid in another bedroom fearing punishment. Instead of getting mad, we explained to the twins the danger and showed them how to use the dresser properly. They are old enough to understand our instructions. We are not sure if we should install an tether to attach the dresser to the wall.
We had a very late dinner because we all ate a lot in Terence's party. The twins played with the new toys they got today before they were sent to bed.

Monday, Jun 2, 2003 (5y+9m+27d)
In the morning, I had a chat with the twins about the accident yesterday. After the dust settled, and in a non-interrogative setting, the twins spilled everything and confessed what actually happened. Joanne wanted to un-pin the Hello Kitty calendar on the wall so that she could flip the calendar to the month of June. She opened the middle drawer of the dresser and climbed into it as a stepping platform. She asked Jasmine to push the dresser with both hands so it would not fall down. As she put it, "Jasmine is just a little girl, you know, she is not strong enough." Now they learned a lesson that they could have used their stepping stool or asked daddy to help.
The twins went to school as usual. They went to Annette's home after school. Jasmine's classmate Nicholas and his bigger sister Patricia and his mom Debbie were the guests too. Daddy joined them for dinner after work. The kids played in the backyard after dinner until it got totally dark. The twins told daddy that they took a bath with Annette earlier. When they got home, they were almost ready for bed.

Tuesday, Jun 3, 2003 (5y+9m+28d)
The twins went to school as usual. Jill and Debbie brought their children to our home. Mommy bought a water slide for the kids to play in the backyard. It was a plastic chute with water spraying to the middle where the kids can run and slide on a film of water. They stayed for dinner, Annette's father joined us for dinner too. Annette bore her weight on the twins' computer desk's keyboard tray. The whole thing just broke off. Her father spent couple of hours repairing it.

Wednesday, Jun 4, 2003 (5y+9m+29d)
The twins went to school as usual. They went to gymnastic class after school.
It was the Chinese Dragon Boat Festival on the fifth day in the fifth lunar month. We lived it just like a regular day. It was a holiday in other countries.

Thursday, Jun 5, 2003 (5y+9m+30d)
The twins went to school as usual. They went to piano class after school. Mommy said Joanne was far behind from Jasmine in piano skill because she didn't practice as diligently as Jasmine. The teacher said Jasmine was the best in her class because she played by reading the notes, Unlike Jasmine, Joanne played by remembering the melody, so she made mistake whenever she forgot the notes. Jasmine was allowed to play on the teacher's piano. She was quite proud of such privilege. She also received a temporary tattoo on her hand as an award. Joanne got nothing.

Friday, Jun 6, 2003 (5y+10m)
The twins are 70 months old today.

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started on Jun 6, 2003