Just before the twins were born, I had written a blog post title, “25 random things about Alissa.” Now that the twins themselves have been around for more than a little while, Bonnie thought I should repeat the exercise for them. The dynamic is a bit different now since a lot of my observations are about their relationships with each other and their sister as opposed to Alissa who had the benefit of being the only child. So, as it goes with most second (and third) children, Ashley and Amanda are going to get the short end of the stick and will have to share a post with not only each other, but also with Alissa to some extent. Without further ado, here is the list.

1-10. It would be difficult to pick two girls who are more different from each other. From physical characteristics to personalities, there is so little that they have in common. I’m not sure if I feel this way because it’s easier to see differences sometimes than similarities, but here’s just a short list to demonstrate my point.
1. Amanda likes to spin to the left when she dances. Ashley, of course, spins to the right.
2. Ashley has a mullet with lots of hair in the back and not as much in the front. Amanda has super long bangs that go down past her nose but her hair barely covers the back of her neck.
3. Amanda likes veggies isn’t as big a fan of meats. Ashley is the other way around.
4. Ashley has huge eyes (for a Chinese girl) and Amanda has relatively small eyes.
5. Amanda has skinny little legs and Ashley has chunky monkey legs.
6. Amanda seems to like things in order and will make an effort to clean up and organize. Ashley has zero interest in anything resembling cleaning up.
7. Ashley is a mommy’s girl. Amanda is a daddy’s girl.
8. Ashley took just fine to breastfeeding. Amanda would only take a bottle. (Not sure if this is a cause or an effect of #7)
9. Ashley likes to shove her food in her mouth by the fistful. Amanda is more dainty about putting bite size pieces in her mouth with her thumb and forefinger.
10. Ashley is a morning person. Amanda is most certainly not a morning person.

11. Amanda has fine, brown hair. For now. My mom says that her hair was quite brown as a small child so I guess this comes from her.
12. Amanda is very nurturing. She likes to wrap up her animals in a blanket and shush and rock them to sleep.
13. Ashley has this strange thing where she likes to put fuzzy stuff under her nose. We first noticed it with her elephant. She used to hold it up with the trunk under her own nose. And then it was the elephant’s tail. Then we started noticing she would find dust bunnies and put them between under her nose behind her pacifier. It’s very strange. And kinda yucky. Hopefully she outgrows it soon.
14. Ashley get frustrated fairly easily. If she can’t figure out a toy in the first few seconds, she throws it away and cries.
15. Ashley likes to sing. I think. She kinda hums the melody to various songs that she’s heard us sing.
16. Amanda may be an engineer. She’s very curious and analytical. A few months ago, she examined the cooktop of the play kitchen very closely until she figure out what was triggering the boiling water noise that started whenever a certain pot was placed over the burner.
17. Amanda also pays close attention to what’s going around her and likes to emulate. She goes “shopping” with her stroller and finds a bag to hook on the handle just like we do when we go out.
18. Amanda seems to get bloody noses fairly easily. Not sure if it’s from having delicate arteries in her nose because she had a feeding tube in there for several weeks or if she just falls down a lot.
19. Ashley likes to watch TV. More so than Amanda anyway.
20. Ashley and Amanda both like bath time. But if you mention the word poop, they start frantically looking around for a floater and want to come out immediately.
21. Ashley is pretty easy going. Will go with the flow.
22. Amanda likes to stick to a routine.
23. Until recently, Ashley would wake up in the middle of the night and end up sleeping in our bed.
24. Amanda has had a number of sleep items. First it was a little yellow duck. Then a small blanket with a satin trim. The latest is a monkey. Not the same as Alissa’s monkey though.
25. Ashley has only had her elephant as her sleep item.

And there you have it.

To mark the occasion, here’s an annotated three-picture collage that Bonnie put together:

So what does step #1 entail? Well, it’s basically just sitting in a room with a Urologist (Dr. Edward Collins in my case) and listening to him explain the procedure itself, what the risks are, and what to expect post-op. We also talked briefly about the possibility of reversal (in case Bonnie leaves me for Brad Pitt and my new 24 year old supermodel bride wants kids) as well as what the next steps are to get the ball(s) rolling so to speak. Finally, Dr. Collins did a cursory “inspection” to make sure everything was where it was supposed to be and wrapped up with the classic, “turn your head and cough” hernia check routine. (Incidentally, the turning your head part is just so you don’t cough on the doc.)

So what is the procedure? It’s pretty simple. You can read all about it in the link above, but in short, after some local anesthetic, they just make a couple small incisions in your sac, cut the tubes that shuttle your boys up from your balls, and tie them off and tuck them away. By the time they’ve sewed you back up, about 30 minutes will have gone by.

As for potential risks and complications, they’re all rare and not particularly serious. The interesting one happens in about 1 in 10,000 when the cut tubes spontaneously rejoin. Then you’d be back in business without really knowing. Now that’s a scary one!

To mitigate this particular risk, they actually make you provide samples after you’ve had a chance to “flush out the pipes” in order to do a sperm count to confirm you’re actually “shooting blanks.”

I’m expecting to do the deed sometime before the end of the month so rest assured there will be follow up posts. Don’t worry, I won’t be posting any pictures.

First, in the looks department, Ashley is more substantial in almost every way. More hair, she’s longer and heavier, has bigger cheeks, fuller lips, chunkier thighs, etc. Amanda is catching up as her leg folds are becoming quite deep in their own right. But even so, there’s no denying that they look very different. I think in general, Amanda has more features from my side of the family whereas Ashley has more features from Bonnie’s side of the family.

As for personality and preferences, I don’t even know where to begin. It seems like there’s nothing they can agree on here. Ashley really likes to breast feed. Amanda never really breast fed and is just ok with bottle feeding. You would think that would translate to solid food as well, but it turns out that Ashley doesn’t really like solids whereas Amanda sits waiting with her mouth open. Ashley likes to crawl, but Amanda likes to roll.

(Here’s some video of Ashley sort of breast stroking her way toward some yummy Cheezits.)

2009 09 29 Ashley crawling from Jason Wang on Vimeo.

Ashley likes to sleep on her stomach, Amanda likes to sleep on her back. Ashley hates her high chair, Amanda loves her high chair.

When you put something over Amanda’s face, she immediately pulls it down. Ashley waits for you to pull it off.

They are both sort of adequate at sitting up but still need help maintaining. Here’s a short clip of what they’re capable of:

And an even shorter clip of what happens when they weeble, wobble a bit:

Hmm, what else… Amanda likes silicone pacifiers, Ashley likes latex ones. Amanda likes to pick things up with her hands and seems to have more dexterity at the moment. Amanda used to be more vocal experimenting with sounds but now they’ve kinda swapped. Amanda sleeps through the night consistently, Ashley gets away with an extra full feeding most nights.

You get the point. It will be interesting to see how things change as they get older. As it is, it may be hard to tell they’re sisters much less twins!

Some of you know that I volunteer my photography services with the non-profit group, Moment by Moment (click logo above for details.). It’s little more than a some time and a few dollars for me. However, the organization is managed by a few very dedicated people who really put their blood, sweat, and tears into this endeavor. Unfortunately, blood, sweat, and tears aren’t enough to keep the lights on so to speak. So if you happen to be looking for a great group to invest your charitable contributions with, please consider Moment by Moment. As it turns out, they are actually having a fundraising event September 12 if you’re interested in attending (contact me for details.) Otherwise, you can simply contribute by check or credit card. For checks, please make payable to Moment by Moment (Tax ID 55-0896956) and mail to Moment by Moment 1499 Sunnybrook Road Alamo, CA 94507. For credit card, you can submit via fax (925-407-2737) with the following info:

Card Number __________________________Exp. Date ______Code_____

Signature __________________________Total Amount Charged $_______

As a semi-unfair tug at your heart strings, here’s a picture of Amanda when she was in the hospital a few months ago.

Why the sentiment you ask? Well, the main trigger is actually the final (I think) insurance claim from Amanda’s hospital stay. Although we’ve been outside our out of pocket maximum for quite a while now (pre-natal care is really expensive for high risk twin pregnancies), I still pay attention to the claims to make sure everything seems appropriate. And just last week, I saw a single claim that was in the hundreds of thousands. That’s right… hundreds of thousands. At first, I thought it was a typo as I had already seen tens of thousands worth of claims get processed for that two and a half week period. I even emailed the insurance company about it. But they assured me that it was correct and it had been paid for. Yay health insurance! All of a sudden, I don’t feel so bad about my premiums. Especially considering the additional prenatal care, delivery and hospital stay for the twins, all the other doctor visits we’ve had, and who knows what other medical services we’ll be using before the end of the year. But I digress. Ultimately, the reminder of Amanda’s dire circumstances from just a few months ago has put me in the frame of mind to try to take it all in for a little while. Also, Bonnie and I are realizing that we will probably not (99.999% sure) go through this stage of parenthood again so that’s contributed a bit to the sentiment as well.

Well, I’m way over my normal text to picture ratio for this post so I’ll end with a couple pictures from yesterday:

And one from when Alissa was about the same age:

Despite the plague, stress, sleep deprivation, and other “life stuff” going on, I figure it was time to post to the blog. I told myself that I would not be any less prolific with the arrival of the twins, but now I realize that was an unrealistic expectation. At least in the short term, while they are feeding every three hours 24 hours a day, it seems that my camera and my computer will have a bit of a respite.

That being said, I do have a few pictures to share today. As many of you with kids know, when the house is quiet for more than a few minutes at a time, you can be sure that nothing good is happening. Well, this afternoon, after one of said quiet times, I went hunting for Alissa, the #1 trouble maker and discovered this:

She had gotten into Bonnie’s purse and helped herself to some Burt’s Bee’s lip something or other. I guess she was feeling a bit chapped.

They say that if you write a goal down, your chances of meeting it increase dramatically. I also learned that goals should be S.M.A.R.T. Specific, Measurable, Actionable, Realistic, and Time constrained. So, this is me, writing down my goal.

Get to 160lbs by September 1, 2008 by managing portions, eating healthy, exercising 5 times a week.

That’s pretty smart I think.

I’ll be posting updates here so check back to monitor progress if you’re curious.

6/11: Ran 4 miles
6/15: Played 3 hours of tennis

WEIGH IN: 171LBS
6/16: Worked on the yard for 2 hours
6/17: Worked on the yard for 1 hour
6/18: Ran 3 miles
6/19: Walked 1 mile, ran 3 miles
6/20: Ran 3 miles
6/21: 2.5 hours of tennis

WEIGH IN: 169LBS
6/23: Walked 1.5 miles, ran 2 miles
6/24: Ran 3 miles
6/25: Ran 3 miles
6/26: Walked 5 miles
6/27: Walked 5 miles
6/29: 2 hours tennis

6/30: Walked 4 miles
7/1: Walked 4 miles
7/2: Walked 5 miles
7/3: Walked 3 miles
7/4: Walked 2 miles
7/5: Rode bike 10 miles, Tennis 3 hours

WEIGH IN: 168LBS
7/6: Walked about 2 miles
7/7: Rode bike to BART for work
7/9: Rode bike to BART for work, walked 3 miles
7/10: Rode bike to BART for work, walked 3 miles
WEIGH IN: 166LBS WOOT! ABOUT HALF WAY THERE!!!
7/11: Rode bike to BART for work, walked 3 miles

So it’s been a month and I’ve lost about 5 lbs. My pants are starting to fit a bit better again but I still have a ways to go. The last 6 lbs will likely be a bit more difficult than the first 5 lbs. That being said, I think the biking to work thing will be a nice surge in activity and I’ve been pretty disciplined in not overeating. It’s not like I’m starving, I just haven’t been doing any of the random opportunistic eating that I have had a bad habit of doing. Anyway, time to kick it up a notch and make sure I can get to 160 by Sept 1 per my goal. That’s about a pound a week… doable, but I’ll have to stay focused. No lapses!

7/12: Ran 4 miles with Alissa
7/13: Rode 16.6 miles

7/14-7-17: Just been riding my bike to and from BART for work.
WEIGH IN: 164LBS
7/18: Ran 4 miles with Alissa
7/19: Rode 9 miles (to Ranch 99 and back)
7/20-7/24: Just been riding my bike to and from BART for work. A couple walks to the store and back.
WEIGH IN: 162LBS
7/26: Walked 1.5 miles, ran 3.5 miles with Alissa
7/27: Biked 37 miles

WEIGH IN: 160LBS!!!
So I officially reached my goal today a month ahead of schedule! The biggest difference I think has been not eating to extremes. I eat when I’m hungry, BUT STOP when I’m not. That’s a simple but not so easy thing to do I guess. I’ve been pretty good about exercise as well but it’s not like I’m hard core about it. Ultimately, it’s not so much that I’m on a diet, but more so that I’ve made a lifestyle decision to not overeat. I think I can keep it up although I may cheat a bit more now that I feel like I have some buffer. It’s not that I haven’t been cheating already. Pizza and dessert at the Chiang’s last weekend didn’t help. But even then, I could have eaten an extra slice of pizza or had a few more brownies.
Anyway, with a month left to go to the official “deadline” I think I may try to get down to 155. I’m pretty happy at 160 given my pants are fitting nice and loosely now. But I might try doing some more weight lifting in addition to the cardio to try to get a little stronger. Maybe I can get my gut to go away entirely at that point… although I think I’ve had this gut since elementary school. We’ll see. I’ll likely maintain this for at least the next month and then re-evaluate at that point.

7/28-8/1: Nothing serious, just biked to work and did some walking to the store.
8/2: Played three hours of mixed doubles (but then ate too much BBQ.)

WEIGH IN: 160LBS
I seem to have plateaued… slacking off after reaching the initial goal.
8/6: Ran 3 miles with Alissa
8/9: Mountain biking at Skeggs Point: 5.5 miles, 3000 ft of climbing, 1600 calories burned

WEIGH IN: 159LBS
8/15: I’ve been reverting back to some old habits but seem to be maintaining the weight. Time to inject some new vigor into my motivation!

9/17: Hmm… still slacking a bit on the exercise front but weighed in at 157 the other day. Eating habits are doing ok I guess. Went for a 25 mile ride today though, so that should help. Still think I can get to 150 if I just try a little harder. I’ll try to make that happen by the end of the year.

11/10: Well, I weighed myself yesterday and came in at 154.5. So I guess I’ve reached my goal. In all, I’ve lost almost 20 lbs which seems like a lot although I think I can probably get to 150. Not that I feel like I need to lose more, but it’s such a nice round number. Plus, I feel like I need a little “holiday buffer.”

11/27: 153.0 today! But that’s probably back up to 154.5 after today’s Thanksgiving dinner.