Today was Logan’s classmate Bar birthday party, and it was held at a full-on gymnasium where Bar takes her gymnastic classes.  We decided to attend all together as we know their family quite well and Bar’s sister Raz is Connor’s classmate too.  If we knew the venue ahead of time, we might not have brought Connor as he was too young for the activities.  We got there on time, but it took a long while for the place to get their act together to start the party.  All of Bar’s classmates (at least 15 of them) immediately followed the instruction to go down to the platform to begin.  I guess we did not prepare Logan ahead of time, he did not want to part from us to participate.  Stuart and I took turns trying to convince him, but we both failed.  We were frustrated at Logan’s unwillingness to try new things and to warm up in social situation.  It must have been at least 10 minutes later before Logan agreed to join in at the parachute play.  Then Connor wanted to come down to play too.  He had a blast walking around some of the obstacles with his friend Raz and checking out what the big kids were doing.  I had to make sure he stayed out of their way.  Logan participated somewhat at the parachute play, but he totally did not want to do the next set of activities which was an obstacle course with some jumping, climbing, tumbling and swinging.  Logan was messing around on the sideline that Stuart finally told him if he did not participate, he should just sit out; therefore, Logan was sadly sitting there for awhile. Finally when the kids were moved to the other half of the gymnasium, Logan seemed to warm up.  They did some jumping on trampolines, walking on balance beams, running on a course and playing with some foam cubes.  Logan’s movement were more reserved than other kids, but he participated in all of the obstacles which we were happy to see.  During this second half, I tried hard to keep Connor in place as he really wanted to go back out to play with the big kids.  Fortunately I found a corner with kid toys that Connor spent some enjoyable time.  After over an hour of the gym activities and group pictures, it was pizza time.  Connor was so hungry that he started to whine just right before eating time.  All the kids was loving the pizza after all those exercises.  Logan had almost 2 slices of pizza and some cantaloupe while Connor had 1/2 slice with some veggies and fruits.  Then they both had few bites of cakes before we wrapped up our conversation with other parents and headed home.  We all were tired after the outing.

     Somehow I accidentally turned on the movie digest feature on my camera again and found this clip of today.  The beginning part was at the mall in the morning.

    Yesterday one of the teachers told me how Connor and his classmate Eli are the two kids who have to make sure all the things return to their original places after they are used.  As she was telling us that, Connor was trying to put away some toys and was having difficulty fitting everything back up on the shelf.  Then the other teacher chimed in to share that Connor directs her what to do in the morning sometimes, i.e. telling her to bring the kid over to the room and bring his food too.  Connor definitely does that at home too.  If he watches me making coffee in the mornings, he will point out my steps, first where the filters are, then the ground coffee, and later get water with the pot.  He will insist on holding the lid of the pot and will return to me after I get enough water.  I am amazed sometimes how much he can communicate with us by just gesturing and saying “ah” for yes or shaking for no. 

    Connor is also very persistent with what he wants to do.  He is now into being independent.  He still insists in carrying both lunch bags while we walk out of school.  He insists in putting them in the front passenger seat, then attempts to crawl into the seat.  I have to remind him that his seat is the one behind; then he will crawl up into the car all by himself.  Now he even insists on climbing up into his car seat.  Most of the time he can do it all by himself, or sometimes we just give him a slight butt lift.  If we try to interrupt him during this process, he will get very mad.  If we let him take it all the way, he looks so proud of his accomplishment.  Connor is so much stronger than Logan was at his age.  Logan did not start climbing up into his seat until only a few months ago.  Connor’s new thing now is trying to buckle himself. 

    Funny thing today.  Julie told me how out of the blue this morning Ashlyn said “Logan”.  They were not talking about Logan, and Ashlyn did not say anything else other than his name.  Julie and I had a good laugh about it, wondering if Ashlyn just misses Logan.  Shortly later, Michelle shared that when she dropped off Mckayla at school in the morning, one of her older friends came up to tell her that her brother Marcus cannot be her prince as he is her brother.  Mckayla’s immediate response was that “No, Logan is my prince”.  How lucky was Logan to have two little girls remembering him today!  I guess his strategy of not talking to them “playing hard to get” is working out!

     Logan went on his second field trip today.  As today was my off day, I volunteered to be a parent chaperone.  This field trip was to watch a musical “Alexander, Who’s Not Not Not Not Not Not Going to Move” at the Sunnyvale Community Center.  We got to school by 8:30am.  The four parents hung out quietly in the room while the teacher filled the kids in with today’s activity and did a group reading.  I was assigned to take care of Logan, Ryan C and Ryan S.  This field trip started smoothly as the bus arrived at school not too late this time.  Everyone held hands (four people per group), and walked toward the bus.  The kids were called to enter by class and by alphabetical order.  Kira was called right before Logan, and Logan and I went up together after her.  I was helping Kira up the bus; as she realized that it was me holding her hand, she decided to hold on to me.  So the three of us found a seat together.  Both Logan and Kira were very excited; Logan looked outside the entire drive while Kira sat on me and talked to me.  We even sang a song together; she was very cute.  She wanted to continue staying with me when we were about to get off the bus, but she listened as I told her to return to her group. 

     Logan and I regrouped with both Ryans, and we entered the theater and were directed to our seats.  The show started quickly and captured the kids’ attention right away.  The show was one hour in duration.  I didn’t find the show exciting, but of course it was aimed to entertain the children.  The older kids in the theater seemed to enjoy it a lot and interacted with the show when appropriate.  I spent my times watching the reactions of Logan and his classmates; they seemed to enjoy it but did not laugh as much as the older ones.  The show however was a bit long.  The last 15 minutes of it, the kids started to be somewhat restless.  Ryan C moved a lot in his seat and touched his feet to the seat in front of him, so I had to signal him to sit still.  He was good and listened, and became more content when I held his hand.  Then Logan started moving back and forth from his seat to my lap; I also had to remind him to sit still.  Once when he returned to his seat, the handle bar hit his back that he almost wanted to cry; I did not think that he was hurt, but maybe was just whiny as he started losing interest with the show. Fortunately, he calmed down and did not cause any commotion.  The show finally ended and everyone clapped.  The return ride was quick and smooth.  All the kids behaved very well the entire morning.  I brought the boys back to their classroom, and I left the school after Logan gave me a big hug.

     Michelle told me about the walk Mckayla and her girlfriends were doing today, so I signed Logan up too.  The run was for a charity; they had 5K and 10K runs, and also this 1K family run.  Yesterday, we started telling Logan about the race that he and Mckayla would be doing and he seemed excited about it.  We got to Vasona Park in good timing this morning; the Kaos came shortly after.  Logan did not mind letting me put on the race bib for him, and he seemed to be proud wearing it, even allowing me to take a few smiley pictures of him.  Mckayla and her girlfriends were even more excited; they were lined up toward the front of the starting line.  By then, Logan got a bit shy, and preferred to be further back within the crowd.  Connor was in stroller being pushed by Stuart.  Once the race started, Logan got excited.  He held my hands the entire race; Logan enjoyed directing our pace, running fast sometimes and alternating with walking slow.  As I have a long stride, Logan basically was walking fast almost the entire way.  He did tell me twice that he wanted to be held as he was tired, but he did not complain when I denied him.  Toward the end, Stuart was able to pass through the crowd with the stroller, and caught up with us.  So we all ran together the last stretch of the race.  With more people cheering by the finish line, Logan was happy to continue running the remaining of the race.  I think we finished in 11 minutes.  As soon as we were done, Logan told me that we should do this again.

    We all went to play at the playground for a long while.  Both Logan and Connor really enjoyed themselves there.  At one point, Logan, Connor and Marcus were taking turns climbing up the structure and going down the slide.  Michelle, Stuart and I had to position ourselves in different areas to spot them; we finally had to call off their drills to move them onto another area.  We took a quick snack there, then said goodbye to Mckayla’s friends.  The Kaos and us went for a quick lunch before heading home.  We all were tired after this morning outing.  Connor took an almost 3 hours nap while Logan surprisingly woke up after only 45 minutes. 

    Even though the run was only 1K, I was happy to have the exercise as we had an incredible dinner at the Kaos the previous night.  Ted and Michelle had prepared some delicious ribs and grilled vegetables, and I made the chocolate mousse cake again.  The kids had a great time playing at the Kaos, and we all ate so much that I was still full this morning when I woke up.

     When I picked up Logan from his classroom, I saw this paper posted on the wall.  My first reaction was a big laugh.  All the other kids talked about playing, yet Logan mentioned about sleeping.  Then I got a bit confused as I don’t sleep with Logan.  So I talked with the teacher, and she asked if Logan and I have any routine before bed, then it dawned on me that Logan was being thoughtful.  He was probably referring to when I read stories to him at bedtime.  Oh!  How cute!  So I read to Logan last night as a reward for such a nice statement.

     Speaking of bedtime, each night after story time, Logan tries to fall sleep, but often, he calls daddy to come back in.  Stuart then gives him a quick talk or a toy to hold on to before Logan falls asleep for good.  Lately, Connor has been a bit tougher at bedtime.  I read books with him, sing a few lullabies, a brief cuddle, then I put him in the crib when Connor says and gestures night-night by pointing.  But the past few nights, he stood back up shortly after I left the room, and he kept calling “ma-ma-ma-ma” until we returned to see him.  Stuart has mostly been the one going in there, picking Connor up to hug for few minutes before Connor would go to sleep for good as well.  Tonight for the first time, Connor actually called for “da-da-da-da” instead.  Connor has also been waking up overnight the last five nights, usually once around 2-4am.  We don’t hear any crying, but just a loud cry of “ma-ma-ma-ma”.  Stuart has been responding to his calls; fortunately, Connor would return to sleep after Stuart gave him just a few minutes of holding.