Connor was fine yesterday, but this morning he woke up earlier than usual, and started to have a runny nose and a minor cough.  As a result, we decided against going to Monterey as we initially planned, and just did something local and low key.  Connor did not eat as much for lunch but had a good nap.  When he woke up, he felt warm; he was having a low grade fever (99.8).  However he was happy as usual.  We went to play at the quiet playground in a local school as the weather was nice.  Connor seemed less energized, so I carried him between different structures.  He had fun playing at the toddler structure by himself, then later with Logan.  We then took a break for snack; Connor enjoyed eating cranberries and ate quite a bit.  Afterward, Connor became more tired.  He preferred sitting with me instead of going to play.  He was quite comfortable cuddling with me while watching Logan playing at the structures.  When I asked if he was not well, he nodded, but he declined when I asked if he wanted to go home.  So we stayed sitting under the sun for a bit longer. 

    Connor continued to get worse by the time we returned home.  He was warmer (temp up to 101.9), having teary eyes and a wet nose.  He was fatigued and did not really want to talk.  After the ibuprofen finally kicked in, Connor smiled again, and started talking and singing at the dinner table.  I bathed him and he went down to sleep without much issue.  We will see what happens tonight when the medicine wears off.

   For Valentine’s Day, the boys each wrote some valentine’s cards for their classmates.  We wrote them over the weekend, and it was tiring to keep encouraging Logan to write them all.  He ended up doing everything as told, writing “Logan” on each of the cards.  I guided Connor’s hand to write his.  He kept asking after each card too if we were done.  In return, the boys received many valentine’s card or little gifts from their classmates too.  Connor also had a potluck with his classmates at school that he brought a big bowl of fruits to share.  Both boys also brought home their own beautiful artwork for us.  After dinner, we enjoyed a heart shaped brownie that I made the night before.  Logan kept asking what it was, but at the same time, kept eating it.  He ate half of the heart while Connor ate 1/3 before leaving the table feeling very full.

     I am losing my “mommy boy” to daddy.  Every night after the boys put on their PJ, they have been doing a book exchange.  They both will grab a book from their room and bring it to the other room to trade with each other.  After the book exchange, we will say goodnight, then Connor and I will go back to his room to read.  But tonight, Connor’s hand reached out and grabbed daddy’s hand to go with him.  He then turned to me, said “Night-night” with a big smile and no regret.  As they walked away, Logan said “I want daddy too”.  I pretended to be sad (and I was), then Logan gave in and said “I want mommy”.  I did suggest that daddy will come in to say goodnight again after we finished reading.  Hopefully tomorrow someone will pick me.

   Logan came home with his first homework assignment.  He brought home a book with the instructions to read it to us tonight.  When he returns the book to school tomorrow, he will receive an accomplishment magnet.  He was also given a “I Can Read” chart for him to place the magnets on it as he earns them.  Logan also brought home his first magnet which was from the ten little books that Logan had already learned to read the past few months. 

    The first homework assignment today was a book called “Pam”.  He read that to me after dinner; he did quite well needing only a couple of reminders for certain words.  We’ll just have to remember to return the little pamphlet book to school or receive a $25 fine for it’s replacement.   

     We joined the Kaos for a hike to the Stanford Dish this morning.  We met up with them there at 8:30am and managed to finally find a parking.  We were worried about the cold weather, so the four of us were all bundled up.  But the weather turned out very nice that we slowly stripped a few layers.  As soon as we began the hike, Connor wanted to get lazy in the stroller.  Logan and Mckayla both started very strong as they were excited; they both were walking fast and running at times, even while going uphill too.  The hike was very hilly but we were making good time toward our 1/2 way point, the Dish.  The big kids were energized, giggling with each other while they walked.  Marcus was very good walking at least half of the time holding his parent’s hand.  Connor continued to prefer staying in the stroller eating cranberries.  We finally made it to the Dish; the kids felt accomplished and were rewarded with a bar each. 

     We continued onto the 2nd half of the loop, and we started hearing some whining from various participants.  Connor did come out to walk here and there; Logan also took advantage of the stroller for a short stretch.  The last 30 minutes was hardest; it took more encouragement to get Logan to walk.  He did not care to play games or to walk anymore.  Stuart finally had to carry him for the last stretch, and we think that Logan actually fell asleep on Stuart’s shoulder.  It was tough to push the stroller through the hills too, and so we all definitely had a great exercise today.  After two hours of hiking, we made it back to the starting point.  Mckayla walked the entire way; both Logan and Marcus did well too walking a lot of it.  Connor spent majority of the time in stroller, and by then, he wanted to return up the hill for more hiking.  We decided not to join the Kaos for lunch as we wanted to go home to recover.  This was a tough but great hike, and it was a definitely a great start for a new year.  Hopefully we can keep up doing more exercise with the kids.

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