Both Dora and Gloria each have a dog, and this was the first experience the boys had with doggies.  Dora’s dog, Abby, is 20+ pound three year old friendly girl, and Gloria’s Arvin is a 70+ lbs 7 year old loyal boy.  When we first arrived at Dora’s house, Abby was so excited to see us and jumped up to see all of us.  As she jumped up to Connor, he freaked out; since then, he was scared of her.  Every time when Abby or Arvin walked by Connor, he would cry and tense up.  He was so scared that he was slightly shaking when we picked him up.  Even though Arvin is so much larger, Connor appeared slightly less afraid of him compared to Abby.  It could be that Abby is super friendly and often wanted to get near us, especially to Connor.  Logan, on the other hand, was content with the doggies.  He was smiley to them, and did not mind being brushed by, sat next to or licked by them.  He followed the auntie’s leads to give treats to the doggies too.  Day by day, Connor finally was warming up to them.  The last day, he sometimes would not even notice when the doggies walked by him.  Today, Connor even wanted to give treats to the doggies too.  They both said yes when we asked them if we should bring the doggies home with us.

    We arrived at Dora’s house at around 4pm on Friday.  She had prepared some food upon our arrival which was just perfect as we were all hungry.  After eating, Gloria arrived to meet us too.  It has been a few months since we last saw Dora, and this was the second time for Logan to see Gloria and finally the first time for Connor to meet this auntie.  We sat and caught up for awhile, then we took a walk in the neighborhood and let the boys play at the playground.  After bath, Stuart went to bed with the boys so that I could hang out with my sisters.  According to Stuart, it was tough initially as the boys were quite hyper; it took at least 30 minutes for them to fall asleep.  When I went to the room later, Stuart let me sleep on the bed with the boys while he moved to the bedding on the ground.  It was a tough night as the boys kept waking each other up.  We finally had to move Logan down to the ground to sleep with Stuart, so we all could rest the remaining of the night.

    It was a hot day on Day 2, 90s F, so we decided to go swimming at Dora’s community pool which was only two short blocks from her house.  We were packed with lunches and spent some time at the beautiful pool.  Both boys enjoyed being carried by us in the water.  Logan had so much fun attempting to swim (kicking legs) while being carried.  Connor had a good time hanging out in the water too.  We played some more after eating lunch, then packed up to walk home for nap.  After naptime, I wanted to go check out the famous Casa Bonita.  It is known for it’s activities rather than the food.  The restaurant was huge, and it had an indoor cliff-diving show.  The boys were so intrigued by the actions that they were distracted during dinner.  After eating, we walked around the many different rooms inside the restaurant, watched the mini show and played briefly at the arcade.  It was an interesting experience; Logan kept asking to go back there.  That night, we decided to have the boys sleeping separately and we all had a good restful night.

    On day 3, Gloria hung out with us in the morning while Dora went to her soccer game.  There were many nice local parks in the neighborhood, so we walked to another one of them to play.  It was still a beautiful day, but the temperature dropped 20 degrees compared to the day before.  The community pool was so nice that we decided to go there in the afternoon despite the temperature change.  Both boys were excited to go into the water once we arrived.  As long as we were inside the water, we were ok, but it was chilly when we came out.  Connor enjoyed it but told me that he was done after 20 minutes.  Logan stayed and played with Stuart for a little bit longer.  After we dried off and changed, we hung out at the poolside to enjoy the sunshine while having a snack.  Gloria had prepared dinner for us when we returned, so it was a nice and relaxing evening.  That night, Logan wanted to sleep with Connor on the bed, so we had another rough night until we separated the two boys sleeping together.

   On Monday, day 4, we had planned to go to the Denver Zoo all together.  We had purchased the tickets online and booked a timed entry to the new elephant passage exhibit.  It was another beautiful 70s sunny day, so it was perfect for the visit.  The zoo was very nice as it was packed with many different animals and nice exhibits all over the park.  The boys, along with us, all enjoyed seeing everything.  After three hours of visit, we all took a nice nap at home.  In the afternoon, we all went to a park to play for awhile before heading out to dinner.  That night we slept well as the boys were not sleeping together on the bed.

     Logan really enjoyed his visit with the aunties.  He was not shy with them; he talked to them and would hold hands with them.  He even told Auntie Dora that he wanted to stay there with her forever.  Connor, on the other hand, was shy as usual; he preferred staying with me majority of the time.  He finally did warm up more and would run to give hugs to Dora and Gloria upon demands on the last day.

    This was a nice trip to see the aunties and to visit part of Denver.  We really enjoy the nice and quiet neighborhood that Dora lives in.  Hopefully the boys will see the aunties again soon.

   We flew out to Denver on Friday; we booked the flight around the boys’ naptime in hope for some sleep inside the plane.  Both boys were very excited and cooperative the entire adventure to and from the airport.  They enjoyed the shuttle ride to the airport, and loved running around inside the airport.  They watched the airplanes taking off and landing; Connor kept running to me to say and gesture “Big!”.  We bought Logan a small rolling luggage for this trip; both boys loved rolling it around at the airport, at times even fought for it.  On the way to Denver, we were in a small plane; Stuart sat with Logan in the adjoining two seats while I sat across the aisle holding Connor.  Connor was very good the entire two hours 15 minutes; he did not move much at all on my lap.  We played with some toys and drew for a little bit, then he napped for 50 minutes.  After he woke up, he just cuddled with me until we landed.  Stuart and Logan had so much fun together; Logan was entertained by all the toys prepared by Stuart that he did not even nap.  Toward the end, Stuart let him watched a video on the Tablet.  Right when the plane was descending, Logan suddenly told Stuart that he needed to go No.2, but since we were strapped in, so Stuart told him to wait.  Logan waited patiently even during the minor turbulence.  Unfortunately, right when the plane hit the ground, Logan said he wanted to “choke”.  Stuart immediately grabbed the paper bag, and Logan threw up inside it.  Once we debarked, Stuart took Logan to the bathroom to do his business, and he was a happy boy again.  We had to walk a long way inside the Denver airport, and took a tram before reaching the baggage claim.  Then we took another shuttle to get to the rental car facility.  The boys continued to behave very well and helped staying together while we carried the luggage and the car seats.

    Today the boys did as well during our trip back home.  They loved the shuttle ride again after we dropped off the rental.  The airport was busier today and fortunately we gave ourselves plenty of time as we realized our flight was moved up 45 minutes.  For this flight, we were able to all sit together, and Connor sat with me again.  Connor passed out only 10 minutes into the flight and slept for an hour and a half.  There were some minor turbulence at the beginning and the end of the flight.  Logan complained about not feeling well initially, but fell asleep with his head on Stuart’s lap shortly after.  When the plane landed, Logan once again warned Stuart about wanting to choke, and so Stuart was able to prepare for Logan to throw up inside the bag.  Right after that, Logan was content again.

     Probably one of the reasons that the trip seemed so easy was how smooth each aspect of the transition went.   Great parking facility, quick shuttle pickup, no line at gate counter, easy car rental, and no flight delays.  Even with all that working for us, we are not completely sure if we are ready for international travel any time soon.

      Connor is not talking that much yet, just some one syllable words.  Previously when we asked him to copy words from us, his pronunciation was very off and it was funny to hear.  And now he is finally repeating words much better.  He even attempts some two syllable words too.  This morning, he copied every word in “Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes” when I sang it slowly while changing his diaper.  He was so excited with his accomplishment.

     Even though Connor is not talking that much, he sure seems to know a lot.  He recognizes many types of the vehicles and most of the animals when we are reading.  He can make some of the common animal sounds.   Sometimes he even says the correct letter of one of Logan’s alphabet flash cards…but we are pretty sure he’s just a lucky guesser.

    Logan has been going to the Little Gym for possibly 6-7 Fridays now.  He really liked going as he often asked to go to the gym even before Friday arrived, or it could also that he really enjoyed eating the bar before the class.  Still after all these weeks, Logan messes around during the class a lot.  According to Stuart, Logan basically spends only half of the class time following the instructor or the group, and the other times he just played on his own on the side.  The only improvement was that Logan would now walk into the gym room all by himself without clinging to Stuart anymore. 

    Also according to Stuart, the class has not been very structured and the activities take awhile to get going.  Stuart and I finally decided that these classes were not productive and wasting our time, so we wanted to end the classes early.  However it turned out that this Friday class would be the last class of the season, and it would actually be a performance for the parents.  As we are not available on that day, we decided to go tonight for Logan to have a closure.

    After shopping briefly at a nearby store with Connor, we stopped by to watch Logan.  But it turned out that they were still getting ready to start.  All the parents and siblings were invited inside the gym room to watch on the sideline, so Connor and I went inside to sit down too.  Connor was very excited to sit down.  As the kids finally made their entrance with announcement to the room, Logan already started to walk away from the crowd and ended up missing the first tumbling activity.  The next 10 minutes were hard for me to watch as half of kids were following instruction and others not so much; it was a bit chaotic.  Having the parents there was definitely more distracting to the kids, especially for Logan.  I had to also keep Connor in place to stop him wanting to go play with Logan, so I finally decided to leave.  It turned out that after Connor and I left, Logan kept saying to Stuart that he wanted to leave too, so they were home shortly after Connor and I arrived.

    The rest of the evening, Stuart and I let Logan know that we were upset with his performance and gave him a bit of a cold shoulder.  Logan spent the rest of the evening on his best behavior, finishing his dinner fast and well, and went to bath and bedtime as instructed.   We will redouble our efforts in getting Logan to follow a structured play environment.

    The cement guy was behind schedule and needed to finish hauling the cement away on Saturday, so we just did short excursions to stay around.  In the morning we decided to make a run to the mall which we had not done with the kids for a long time.  Stuart watched the kids for awhile so I could do a little bit of shopping too. For lunch, Logan actually picked to have pizza, so both Stuart and Logan enjoyed their pizza while Connor and I shared a Japanese lunch.  When we got home the cement guy was just about to take a break for lunch, so when he left we all managed to have a nap before the noise resumed.

    To celebrate for Kathy, Robyn, Michelle and I went out with her after the kids went to sleep at night.  We went to an Italian wine bar/restaurant.  We enjoyed a toast with a nice platter of cheeses and cured meats, and ended with two delicious desserts.  It was very nice to chat and catch up with each other without any distractions by the kids; we finally left when the restaurant was closing down.

    While Stuart and I were still tired from a late night last night, Connor decided to wake up around 5am.  Stuart went in and spent an hour with him before giving up hope that he was going to go back to nap.   Logan, however, ended up sleeping until 7am, but it did not really help me as I was already up with Connor.  Today we planned to finally go to Gilroy Gardens for the first time this season.  We wanted to take the lake paddle ride first as soon as we arrived the park to beat the crowds.  This was the first time for Connor and I.  I was holding his hand in the boat the entire time for security.  He seemed cautious, did not smile much, but answered me that he enjoyed the ride.  He did point out where daddy and Logan were, and pointed to the waterfall and the real ducks in the pond.  After the boat ride, Logan wanted to ride the train, but we stopped for the motorized car ride as we passed by it.  For some reasons, once we got into a car, Connor refused to sit on his own, and he was not allowed to sit on me, so finally Stuart had to take him away.  Logan and I had fun riding together instead.  We then went on the train as Logan requested; Connor was still preferred sitting on my lap for that ride.  We walked around for awhile, and decided to break for lunch as the boys kept asking for snacks.  Afterward, we let the boys climb around at the structures for awhile, and Logan and I went back on the motorized car rides two more times.  It was about this time that Stuart realized that he may have lost his phone….if he had brought it which he wasn’t a 100% positive that he had.

   We played one game at the carnival booths; I was with Connor while Stuart helped Logan.  Logan was slightly upset as I beat him at the game.  A couple times he had to remind me that “you are not my friend”.  The boys rode a couple more rides, then we decided to get soft serve ice cream as it was quite a warm day.  This was the first time Logan had soft serve, so he needed Stuart to assist him in eating the top of the ice cream part.  Once it was down to close to the cone, which was his favorite part, he wanted to take over and enjoy the rest on his own.  Connor was just licking the ice cream gently for awhile; he was loving it but basically not really eating much.  He declared “done” after a little bit, and he never cares for the cone part like Logan does.  By the time we made it out to the parking lot, it had been almost 5 hours in the park, both kids passed out in the car right away and I followed shortly after while Stuart drove us home.

    This afternoon and the evening, Logan and Connor played quite well together by themselves, so I was able to clean up a bit and prepare for dinner while Stuart worked on finding his lost phone, he was unsuccessful.