Raising identical twin girls (72nd month)

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This journal is about raising identical twins.
Seventy Second Month
Previous entries
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Sunday, Jul 6, 2003 (5y+11m)
The twins are 71 months old. After breakfast, daddy took the kids to the park while Allen and Ivy packed up for their return trip. Jasmine wouldn't let Andric to ride her scooter, so Andric had to walk to the park. We played frisbee on the lawn and the kids also played in the playground. On the way home, Jasmine let Andric ride the scooter. And she raced with him on foot.
When we said goodbye, Aunt Ivy asked if the twins wanted to follow them home. The twins were ready to get in their car before mommy stopped them. Right after they left, Joanne cried emotionally in mommy's embrace until her eyes were swollen. She said she missed Cousin Amanda already. She didn't know when they would meet again. I told her we could visit them in a month. Joanne said she didn't how long a month was. Daddy asked mommy to let Joanne cry as much as she could. She could take this opportunity to flush her eyes with tears. Mommy took Joanne to bed for a nap. Jasmine stayed with daddy to watch TV in the family room. Daddy fell asleep on the sofa. Jasmine stayed up all afternoon.
In the late afternoon, we went to a BBQ party at Annette's house. They invited four other families to the party. Arthur set up a tent in the backyard for the kids to play. The kids also played ball in the yard until the ball dropped into the neighbor's yard. The kids played inside their room after dinner. Jasmine was tired and fell asleep on dad's shoulder. Joanne stayed up because she had her nap in the afternoon. We put the twins in bed as soon as we arrived home.

Monday, Jul 7, 2003 (5y+11m+1d)
The twins returned to summer school as usual.
Mommy got a stomach flu in the afternoon. She threw up in the toilet. Jasmine told mommy sternly that she must not eat too much. Jasmine said she threw up one, two, three times when mommy fed her too much last time.
Mommy cancelled the twins' swimming class for obvious reason. In addition, the redness of Joanne's eyes had just recovered and mommy wanted to avoid the irritation from the chlorine in the swimming pool.
The twins both measured 43 5/8 inches. They were both 38 pounds. (Annette was 46 pounds and about 3 inches taller.)

Tuesday, Jul 8, 2003 (5y+11m+2d)
The twins went to summer school as usual.

Wednesday, Jul 9, 2003 (5y+11m+3d)
The twins went to summer school as usual. At bedtime, Joanne complained that she was itchy all over her body. I told mommy that the kids might not have rinsed off all the soap when they took shower by themselves. Mommy gave Joanne a shower again and dried her with some Gold Bond Medicated powder which was supposed to stop the itching. Mommy thought Joanne was going through different phases of allergic reaction. She used to have runny nose every morning, now that was stopped. Then she had red eyes with mucus secretion, now that was stopped too. Then she complained about itchy skin.
Daddy had to return to the office at late night to beat a deadline. The twins were asleep, they didn't even know daddy was absent.

Thursday, Jul 10, 2003 (5y+11m+4d)
The twins went to summer school as usual.

Friday, Jul 11, 2003 (5y+11m+5d)
The twins went to summer school as usual. Daddy took the afternoon off from work. We went to Great America amusement park with Annette's family. The twins picked the rides they wanted. At the end of the day, Annette wanted to watch the Spongebob Squarepants 3D motion rides. The kids had all ridden that before. Jasmine chose not to ride it again, so she waited outside with mommy. Daddy rode with Joanne and Annette on the motion seats. Jill rode with Annette's little brother on the stationary seats because Alex was too young for the real ride. The ride was on seats that move in sync with the 3D movie playing on the big screen. The movie was not scary. But 3D objects flies towards the audience to startle those who were sensitive to this type of visual tricks. Annette screamed and giggled at the effects. Joanne covered her eyes throughout the movie. After the 3D ride, we left the park for dinner. The kids all took a short nap in the car on the way to the restaurant.
Both twins were scared of 3-D effects. They have seen several at Disneyland and they have developed a phobia to 3D movies. They loved both Spy Kids movies. But when I asked if they wanted to see the new movie "Spy Kids 3D - Game Over", they both said no.
When we got home after dinner, we saw our neighbor playing in their front yard. The twins wanted to join them. They played basketball with Grant and his dad Joe. Jasmine was very happy when she made a perfect shot at the basket. We later found out the basket was lowered to 7.5 feet. Joanne took her opportunity to show off her 2-wheel cycling skill to Taya. She offered Taya to ride her bike. Her offer was not too sincere because she saw Taya still rode with her training wheels. They said goodbye to each other when the sky was getting dark. We went to the other neighbor's house to retrieve our lost frisbee. The neighbor was at home today. We went into the garden, but it was too dark to find the frisbee. We had to try again in day time.
Since the twins took an afternoon nap, we let them stay up a little later. After they took a shower, daddy read them a bed time story. Jasmine picked a story about Piglet. They already knew the story. They could tell the next plot before daddy turned the page. Jasmine was a better listener. Joanne wouldn't lay still and I had to order her to pay attention several times.

Saturday, Jul 12, 2003 (5y+11m+6d)
The neighbor's kids were playing in the front yard. Grant was shooting basketball. Jasmine was enthusiastic to try again because she made a good shot the other day. This time she was not lucky, the ball fell backward flatly on her nose. She was dazed for a few seconds before she ran to daddy crying. I guessed she would be scared of basketball from now on.
We had a get-together with Hing's and Lambert's family at Vasona park. Lambert and Sandy had their first daughter Adrienne only 10 weeks ago. They took their daughter along to the park. They were outgoing type, they went white water rafting just last week when the in-laws took care of the baby. Looked like they wouldn't slow down by having a child. They were all equipped with portable picnic table, folding lawn-chairs, umbrellas, large cooler on wheels etc. They traveled to National Parks around the country all the time. They were ready and equipped to do anything outdoors. The gathering at the park was just natural for them.
Joanne brought her bike. Jasmine brought her scooter. They rode a quarter mile to the playground. The playground was scorching hot everywhere. Jasmine came off the swing in less than a minute because she said the seat burnt her butt. Joanne said her swing was okay. Both swings were under the sun the same way. Somehow Joanne's butt was made of iron. Jasmine said her legs were tired and refused to ride the scooter back to the picnic site. She was not gliding on the scooter, but kicking each step along the way. I kept asking her to keep her balance on the scooter so that she didn't need to kick as much. She said she couldn't do it because she didn't practice. Daddy was on roller skates. Jasmine rode along while I pushed her scooter.
We had sandwiches for lunch. The moms chatted under the shade of the trees while the kids played frisbee on the lawn. The moms later took the kids to ride the carousel and the mini-train around the park. We left the park before 3pm.
Hing's and our family went to Henry's home. We were invited to swim in their pool. The twins had a great time swimming and then soaked in the hot tub. Henry was sick and too weak to join us because he ate something bad the night before. However, his son Aden swam with us. Terence and Aden were at the same age, they had great time playing together. After the swim, we left our hosts and went out for dinner. After dinner, Hing's family stopped by our home. Terence chased Jasmine around the house. She didn't like it. She ran to us for help several times because Terence played too rough to her.

Sunday, Jul 13, 2003 (5y+11m+7d)
In the morning, Jasmine asked daddy to read her a story. When daddy was reading the story of King Midas, Joanne made a lot of noise to disrupt. She dropped in the last straw when she started reading another book aloud to interrupt daddy's reading. Jasmine thought it was funny too. Both of them laughed when daddy was forced to stop reading. The twins were only interested in Disney's story.
We went to the neighbor's house to look for the lost frisbee, but he was not home again. We went to Hing's home for lunch. We then went to Los Altos Wine and Art festival. We have gone to many other Wine and Art events before, but this was the biggest I'd ever seen. We didn't cover all grounds and we didn't buy anything either.
We went home. The twins rode their bike and scooter. We stopped by the neighbor's to look for the lost frisbee again, but he was not home yet. We have attempted to fetch the frisbee at least a dozen times. We managed to talk to the neighbor once, but it was too dark to look in the garden then. Our neighbor Taya and Grant came over to play with the twins when they returned from their trip to the Raging Water park. They played with the twins in the backyard until 7pm when their parents came to fetch them.
At bedtime, they wanted daddy to read them a story. They didn't want me to continue the story of King Midas. They picked Little Mermaid. It was a long story. So I told them I could only read half and continue the second half tomorrow. They wanted the whole thing, but they didn't get what they wanted. Again Joanne was disrupting by making noises, giggling and laughing. I told her to stop. She jokingly said I could put a tape on her mouth to stop the noise. Jasmine paid attention to the story. We just ignored Joanne's silliness.
Jasmine got the same kind of mucus secretion in her left like Joanne did exactly one week ago. Her eyes were redder though. We put eye drops in her eyes to see if it cleared up like Joanne's did. We suspected their eyes were infected after swimming.

Monday, Jul 14, 2003 (5y+11m+8d)
The twins returned to summer school as usual. Jasmine's left eye was swollen in the morning. She got better when she was in school.
Daddy suggested Jasmine to shed some tears to flush her tear ducts. She said Joanne hit her and made her cry in the afternoon. I commented that it was probably good for her eyes. Jasmine said thanks to Joanne for hitting her. :-)
When daddy came home from work, the twins wanted to pick the plums from the tree in the front yard. The twins rode on daddy's shoulders to reach for the low hanging fruits. They picked about a dozen plums. The twins ate all of them after dinner.
The twins asked when our neighbor would be home because they still want to look for the frisbee in his backyard. Daddy suggested them to write him a letter and leave a phone number so that he could call us. The twins were enthusiastic. After daddy made several suggestions, they finished their own sentences. They took turns to write one line each. They have written short notes to their friends before. But I guessed this one was their first letter with a purpose.
The twins asked daddy to finish the Little Mermaid book for their bedtime story. Mommy didn't open the windows early enough after sunset. The twins' room was still quite warm when the twins went to bed. When I checked on them later at night, I found both of them topless.

Tuesday, Jul 15, 2003 (5y+11m+9d)
The twins went to summer school as usual. When the twins came home, Joanne changed into pajama and went to bed. She didn't even tell mommy that she was tired. On the contrary, Jasmine refused to take a nap despite the problem with her eyes. Her eyes were still a little red. Mommy gave her eye drops to make them better. Taya next-doors came over to play. But mommy told her that Joanne was taking a nap and Jasmine was doing homework. She asked her to come back in another day.
When daddy came home, Jasmine and daddy went to the neighbor to fetch the lost frisbee. Joanne just woke up from her nap and mommy wouldn't let her go out until she was fully awake. Jasmine and daddy looked around the tree which stopped the frisbee's flight. The frisbee has been lost over 10 days ago. We searched under the shrubs also, figuring some vegetation might have grown over the frisbee by now. We were unable to find it. I told Jasmine that we had to give up and accept the loss.
After dinner, Jasmine played with a pencil on her belly. Mommy scolded her big time for the sharp pencil might poke a hole into her tummy. Jasmine went upstairs avoiding mommy.
Jasmine practiced piano when Joanne did her homework. At bedtime, Jasmine asked daddy to read her bedtime story again. Daddy suggested to finish the story of King Midas that I started few days ago. Jasmine wanted Aladdin from Disney's Princess Treasury instead. When I stepped into their bedroom, I found a mess on the floor. Jasmine confessed that she threw the stuff on the floor because she was mad at mommy for scolding her earlier. She picked up everything without daddy saying anything. Aladdin was a long story, we stopped after two chapters. Joanne didn't want to go to bed because she took a long nap in the afternoon. Mommy let her stay up for half an hour later than Jasmine went to bed. She was bored and went to bed before the time was up.

Wednesday, Jul 16, 2003 (5y+11m+10d)
The twins went to summer school as usual. The twins called daddy at work, they need bubble solution. The twins went next door to play with Taya after school. Jasmine's eyes still needed eye drops, she was better today. Mommy sent Jasmine to bed after dinner. She was asleep before daddy came home.
Joanne needed to finish her abacus homework first. The homework has 60 grids per page, each grid was addition and/or subtraction of 3 numbers, i.e two operations per grid or 120 calculations per page. Joanne struggled with two pages (240 calculations) of arithmetics over 3 hours. That averaged to 45 seconds per calculation. In fact, she spent most of the time just staring at the paper. That made mommy very mad because Jasmine did the same homework yesterday in a fraction of the time. Mommy insisted that Joanne could not quit until she finished. She started at 6pm and finished at 9pm. She was tired and unhappy because she couldn't avoid the chore. When daddy came home with the bubble solution, Joanne said the bottles were the wrong size. She had bottled up for three hours and she took the bottles as an excuse to cry her heart out. Daddy put her in bed while tears still pour out from her eyes.

Thursday, Jul 17, 2003 (5y+11m+11d)
The twins went to summer school as usual. Taya came over to our yard to play with the twins in the afternoon. It was a hot day, mommy turned on the sprinkler to let the kids get wet. Daddy took the car to the shop for maintenance. Daddy needed a ride home from work when the car was still in the shop. Mommy let the twins took a shower, fed them dinner before picking up daddy. The twins had to ride along because we didn't have a baby sitter. The twins fell asleep in their car seats before reaching daddy's office. The twins were so tired that they didn't wake up when we pulled them out from the car and put them in bed.

Friday, Jul 18, 2003 (5y+11m+12d)
The twins went to summer school as usual. Daddy's car was still in the shop. The twins was glad to have daddy ride along when mommy dropped them at school. It was the last day of summer school. The twins looked forward to it because they could get up anytime they wanted. They didn't like getting up early for school.
The twins went to Annette's house to play with the sprinkler in the yard. Annette's, Nicholas' and our family went out for dinner. They played in front of the restaurant after we finished dinner. We sent the twins to bed early.

Saturday, Jul 19, 2003 (5y+11m+13d)
The twins woke up in the morning and went into our bed. The twins said they could get up anytime they wanted because summer school was over. But it was still too early for daddy and mommy. Mommy sent daddy to prepare breakfast so that she could sleep a little bit more.
We had lunch with grandma Chui and Aunt Elaine. The twins did some abacus homework in the afternoon.
In the late afternoon, we went to Ms. Mao's home. The twins' kindergarten teacher invited three families to her home for a house warming party. She bought a condo recently. She said the school don't prefer the teachers to have social activities with the families of their students. Since our kids already graduated from kindergarten, she didn't think it would be a problem.
The kids played with Ms. Mao's son Jason and had a great time. They played may rounds of treasure hunt around the house. The adults had great time enjoying Ms. Mao's mother's culinary creation. She visited from China and we were fortunate because she was a great cook. After dinner, we chatted about many things. We learned a lot about Jasmine and Annette in Ms. Mao's point of view. Joanne was not in Ms. Mao's class so she didn't comment on Joanne. Ms Mao's mother also showed us a video about the West Lake in China. It was a famous scenery spot in China. There were countless ancient literature and poems describing the beauty of West Lake. Ms Mao grew up the city of Hang Zhou just 15 minutes away from the lake. We stayed quite late though the kids were still quite energetic when we left.

Sunday, Jul 20, 2003 (5y+11m+14d)
Daddy spent the morning washing and waxing the old car. In the afternoon, we went to cousin Natalie's home. It was her 11th birthday couple days ago. We had a birthday cake for her just for the family. After the cake, the twins and Natalie dunked into the hot spa in the backyard. It was a hot day, the kids treated the spa like a swimming pool. They spent over an hour in the spa. We watched some video before dinner. When we got home the twins wanted to watch Cinderella II again before they went to bed.

Monday, Jul 21, 2003 (5y+11m+15d)
Daddy went to work on a morning shift and left home before 5am. The twins were asleep when daddy left. The twins had no more school for the rest of summer.
Daddy had dinner at grandma Chui's home. Daddy passed the old car to aunt Elaine after dinner. When daddy came home, it was 9pm. I was surprised to see our neighbor's kids Taya and Grant playing in our house. Taya went to bed at 8pm normally. It turned out that since summer school has ended, her parents let her stay up late. Our neighbor Joe came to fetch their kids a little later.
Jasmine requested daddy to continue the story of Aladdin. They went to sleep after daddy finished Chapter 3. As usual, Joanne disrupted the story from time to time.

Tuesday, Jul 22, 2003 (5y+11m+16d)
Sunnie came visit with her mom and kid. The twins said the baby smiled at them. They went out for lunch with Debbie's family too.
In the evening, mommy was too lazy to prepare dinner. Daddy joined the family at a Japanese restaurant for dinner.
Jasmine requested daddy to continue the story of Aladdin. As usual, Joanne disrupted the story from time to time. They went to sleep after daddy finished Chapter 4. Daddy asked if I should read Chapter 5 too. Jasmine said yes, Joanne, as expected, said no.

Wednesday, Jul 23, 2003 (5y+11m+17d)
The twins went to abacus class in the afternoon.
Daddy read Chapter 5 of Aladdin for bed time story. Jasmine wanted chapter 6 too, but Joanne didn't want to.

Thursday, Jul 24, 2003 (5y+11m+18d)
Daddy got up before dawn for the morning shift. The twins were already up chatting in bed. Mommy ordered Jasmine to sleep in daddy's spot, so that they could get a few more hours of sleep. Joanne was sad because she was left alone in her room. She promised not to talk if Jasmine could return to the room. Mommy won't believe her. Mommy said the twins were awake since 4am.
The neighbor has decided to move away because Gwnette had allergy and she was really sick ever since she moved in. While the adults were packing for the move, Taya came over in the afternoon to play with the twins in our house. The twins returned to their piano class after the teacher took a long summer break.

Friday, Jul 25, 2003 (5y+11m+19d)
Daddy took a day off from work. Annette's and Nicholas' family went on vacation with us. We had 6 adults and 6 kids in 3 cars. Annette's little brother Alex and Nicholas bigger sister Patricia were among the kids. We took off at 9am towards the mountains. We had an early lunch in Sacramento. We arrived in Squaw valley in mid afternoon. We rented two condo style hotel rooms. Once we settled down, we all went to the swimming pool in the hotel. We had pizza and pasta for dinner. The kids played some Monopoly before going to bed.

Saturday, Jul 26, 2003 (5y+11m+20d)
The kids got up in the morning first. The moms prepared breakfast when the adults took turns with the bathrooms. It was past 10am when everyone was ready to leave the hotel.
We drove along highway 89 to South Lake Tahoe. We stopped at the vista point of Emerald Bay to take some pictures. We then headed to South Lake Tahoe. We let the kids play on the beach on the lake shore. We regretted we didn't bring the swimsuits in the cars. The kids only played with the sand and got their feet wet.
We had lunch and then returned to the hotel before 4pm. The kids wanted to swim in the pool. It was almost 6pm when we were all dried. We took the Cable Car to the top of the mountain. We walked around High Camp. We tried to get a table for dinner at the restaurants there. But the wait was over an hour. We decided to returned to the base of Squaw Valley and had dinner there. Jasmine fell asleep before the meal arrived. Mommy decided to let her sleep instead of waking her. It was almost 10pm when we finished dinner. We put Jasmine directly in bed. Joanne stayed up with the other kids for a while.

Sunday, Jul 27, 2003 (5y+11m+21d)
We checked out from the hotel. We said goodbye to Nicholas' family. They needed to go home early because they needed to pickup visitors from Taiwan at the airport later in the day. Annette's family and ours went back to the same beach we went to yesterday at South Lake Tahoe. We swam in the lake and we waded some hundred yards from shore, but the water was only at waist level. Joanne could swim with the confidence that she could stand on the lake bottom if she wanted to. Jasmine had a stomach ache and she only spent little time in the water when she shivered in the water. The kids built sand castle on the beach. We started to pack up when the clouds hovered over the beach. A thunder storm started at the same time we started our cars. It was perfect timing to miss the rain. We stopped at a restaurant for lunch before we continued our way home at 2:30pm.
We made a stop before Sacramento for gasoline. The temperature was 106°F. It was a sharp difference from the weather in Tahoe. We asked the twins to take a nap after daddy told them several stories. We were home a little after 7pm.
Mommy spent the next two hours unpacking, doing laundry plus cleaning up an ant invasion into our home. Daddy helped the kids clean up before dinner. Daddy helped them with their abacus homework.

Monday, Jul 28, 2003 (5y+11m+22d)
The ants returned in the morning. Mommy spent the morning destroying the ant trails. The twins were still in their summer break. They went to their abacus class in the afternoon. Daddy resumed the twins' bedtime story. We didn't bring the storybook to the Tahoe trip, so the twins missed their story time for the last couple of days. They asked for two chapters instead of one.

Tuesday, Jul 29, 2003 (5y+11m+23d)
The Geomag kit that daddy ordered has arrived. The kit was sold at 30% discount with free shipping. It seemed to be a good deal. The twins enjoyed putting the magnets and steel balls into different shapes and sculptures.
The twins said they were happy because their birthday was coming soon.

Wednesday, Jul 30, 2003 (5y+11m+24d)
Daddy joined the family for dinner at the restaurant. The twins practiced piano after dinner. They played with the Geomag kit again. Joanne played by hiding the pieces when Jasmine desperately needed the pieces to build her sculpture. Daddy finished the 15 chapter Aladdin story today. Joanne wanted to start Cinderella from Disney's Princess Treasury next, but Jasmine wanted Sleeping Beauty. I asked them to decide by doing 'paper rock scissors'. Joanne won and we started by reading the prolog to the story. The ten chapter story would start tomorrow.

Thursday, Jul 31, 2003 (5y+11m+25d)
Mommy missed the appointment with Cheryl. They planned to meet in the park for a reunion of the twins' preschool ex-classmate. Mommy over slept and she gave up instead of rushing the kids.
The twins went to piano class in the afternoon. Mommy invited Annette's family over for a hot-pot dinner. The twins finished first and went to play with Annette. They stayed till 9:30pm before going home. We started two chapters of Cinderella at bedtime.

Friday, Aug 1, 2003 (5y+11m+26d)
Our neighbor moved out today. Taya came over to say goodbye. Mommy asked the twins to take a picture with Taya. Both of them were reluctant to do so. Jasmine took the picture with resistence. Joanne actually ran away and hid under the table. When mommy tried to pulled her out, she struggled and bumped her head at the underside of the table. Of course, she went on with her fit and blamed mommy for hurting her. She didn't take the picture with Taya.
When daddy came home and asked them about how they felt about Taya moving away. Both of them said it was okay to them because Taya always made them mad. Taya didn't listen to them so they didn't like Taya too much. Regardless of the hospitality the adults presented, we couldn't change the kids' genuine feeling about each other. They just lacked the chemistry.
The twins filled out the questionnaire pages of the picture book which summarized their kindergarten experience. Joanne wrote (including all misspellings)
(I'm big enough for kindergarten because I'm) 5 (years old.) (My teacher's name is) Mr. Montgomey (I am) 43 (inches tall and weigh) 38 (lbs.) (I'm) shorter (compared with others in my class.) (I like to) X (play on the playground.) X (cut and paste.) X (draw pictures.) X (listen to stories.) X (dig in the sandbox.) (I made new friends at school.) (Some of their names are) Annette, Karassa, Chap-kay, Claire, Kaitlyn, Ze-Ning, Lyanna, Ansel, Kimberly, Seline, Jeffrey, Allison. (My favorites) ------------ (lunch food) corn dog (game at school) Puzzle (story) Cinderella (TV show) SpongeBob Squarepants (game to play on the playground) Fire Pole (My kindergarten class went on some field trips and we saw) zoo, fire station, childrens museum (Once for show-and-tell I brought) Mermaid Barbie
Jasmine wrote (including all misspellings)
(I'm big enough for kindergarten because I'm) 5 (years old.) (My teacher's name is) Miss Moa. (I am) 43 (inches tall and weigh) 37.5 (lbs.) (I'm) shorter (compared with others in my class.) (I like to) X (play on the playground.) X (cut and paste.) X (draw pictures.) X (listen to stories.) (I made new friends at school.) (Some of their names are) Jimmy, Annette, Nicholas, Sahrah, Seline, Chris, Camreoh (My favorites) ------------ (lunch food) Pissa (game at school) Shapes (story) Cinderrella (TV show) The Lamd before time (game to play on the playground) Pole (My kindergarten class went on some field trips and we saw) fire station, childrens museum, zoo (Once for show-and-tell I brought) [none, Jasmine said she never had show and tell in kindergarten]
Daddy read chapter 3, 4 and 5 of Cinderella for bedtime story. The twins said that the book had too many pictures which made the chapter too short. They wanted more.

Saturday, Aug 2, 2003 (5y+11m+27d)
Hing and Lucy invited us to lunch at their home. They just returned from vacation. They went to Yosemite National Park, Disneyland, Universal Studio etc. They spent over a week on the road. It was not an easy task to bring along a three years old in an extended trip.
After lunch, we shopped at Target. Then we shopped for some furniture. Jasmine finished both her music and abacus homework. Joanne was only halfway done. We couldn't wait for her, we let her postpone her work. We went out to order a cake for the twins' birthday party. We went to dinner with Grandma Chui and Aunt Elaine. It was Aunt Elaine's treat to celebrate the twins' upcoming birthday.
They came to our home after dinner. We showed them the video we taped from our Lake Tahoe trip. We also picked an old video tape to show the twins. The video footage was from Oct, 1998. The twins were only 14 months old. Joanne just started to walk. The twins thought their younger selves were funny.
Daddy read them chapter 6 of Cinderella. Since they stayed up late because of grandma visit, they were willing to settle for less tonight.

Sunday, Aug 3, 2003 (5y+11m+28d)
We all slept in this morning. After lunch, the twins went to Ansel's 6th birthday party. Daddy stayed home to lubricate the garage door opener. The opener failed to open the door reliably due to too much friction in the parts and hinges.
Daddy didn't go to the party. There was not much to write about, but the twins said they were happy. Mommy said Ansel played the piano very well, he was at couple levels above our twins. Daddy asked the twins if they heard Ansel's performance. The twins replied no. Mommy said the twins were there when Ansel performed, they were just in denial because Ansel was better. We used it as the reason for the twins to be more diligent in their piano practice. Ansel played duet with his grandpa. Since Ansel's mother was a piano teacher, it didn't come as a surprise.
Mommy picked up Annette from the party so that their parents could picked her up from our home later. Annette left around 6:30pm. We then went out for dinner. The twins played in front of the restaurant while we were waiting for the table. Jasmine ran to mommy for help. She said Joanne hit her. Mommy suggested Jasmine to exercise her "mean" power to keep Joanne away. Joanne was scared of Jasmine just a few weeks ago when Jasmine was "Jas-mean".
While daddy was reading bedtime story to the twins, Joanne played on the railing of Jasmine's bed. She lost balance and fell on top of an electric fan left at the foot of the bed. She got an abrasion on her back. Jasmine ran to fetch the Neosporin and Band-aid. She lectured Joanne not to play on her bed again. They knew the Band-aid routine so well that we didn't need to give them instructions when they got hurt. The twins helped each other out in different occasions. They put on Band-aid for the other when they got hurt. When they took shower together, they rubbed each other's back. We didn't need to help them at bath or shower time for quite sometime now. They were quite good at doing certain routine tasks.

Monday, Aug 4, 2003 (5y+11m+29d)
We went to a financial consultant in the morning. We brought the twins along. Mommy was well prepared with the coloring books and crayons. The twins behaved very well for over two hours.
The twins followed mommy to shop for the birthday party in the afternoon.

Tuesday, Aug 5, 2003 (5y+11m+30d)
Mommy took the twins to Great America in the morning. They have not been there for a while. Mommy wanted to make sure she got the money worth for the season tickets.
Jasmine finished her coloring book.
They went shopping at Costco to prepare for the birthday party. When they got home, they decorated the house, wrapped the dinnerware and napkins into bundles. They also helped mommy filled a pinata with candies.
After dinner, daddy helped Jasmine do her abacus homework. She wanted daddy to read the numbers to her in Chinese. Then she read the answers from the abacus in Chinese too. From time to time, she had to pause a few seconds to think how to say the numbers in Chinese. The twins spoke little Chinese nowadays because English was much easier to say. We were glad that Jasmine at least tried. Joanne laughed at her Chinese but she herself didn't even try. Mommy and daddy knew Joanne wouldn't do the same because she couldn't.
We finished the twelve chapter story for Cinderella today at bedtime. The twins picked Sleeping Beauty next.

Wednesday, Aug 6, 2003 (6y)
Happy Birthday, twins. They are 6 year old today.

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started on Aug 7, 2003