We were invited to Alex’s house for an egg hunt and a potluck today.  When we were getting ready to leave this morning, Connor somehow fell into the planter area with rocks and scraped the side of his head.  Neither Stuart and I witnessed what happened, we just saw poor Connor laying in there.  He calmed down before it was time to leave.  While driving, the boys were looking for the egg hunt; Logan was talking about how tricky egg hunting could be.  Shorty after everyone arrived, the host took out a bunch of art and craft materials for the kids to make either bunny ears to wear or a bag for the eggs.  Logan was not interested to do craft work but did agree to draw on a bag.  Connor was intrigued by the scissor and just wanted to cut.  I managed to assist him while had him made a bag too.  The egg hunt then began.  The host decided to do a hunt for the little ones first.  They had prepared eggs with some food item and scattered them basically just on the grass.  Connor was included in this age group and he was excited to use his bucket to collect eggs.  He was not too aggressive; he slowly picked up the eggs and he liked opening them to see what they had inside.  He was so proud to show off his findings to Logan and daddy afterward.  Then the big kids (Connor came along too) were escorted outside the yard to wait while the parents scattered the big kids’ eggs.  Josh also gave the kids instruction on this structure egg hunts.  They were to find numbered eggs (from one to ten) along with a golden egg.  When they were let back into the yard, the kids were excited to search and read each of the eggs.  The hunt turned out quite fun as the kids ended up helping out each other or calling out numbers on eggs that they found.  When the hunt was over and the kids all got their assignment done, we all sat down to look through their findings.  Connor shared his little crackers with Logan while Logan reciprocated with his little toys. 

    We then had the potluck and pizza for lunch.  The kids played around in the yard after they ate.  The big boys were able to trade in their golden eggs for a prize.  Logan received an Uno card game, and Stuart played a few games with him there.  Connor also received a “cow” hand puppet that he really liked.  Connor finally became a bit naughty, so we knew it was time to go home for his late nap. 

    Bar’s 5th birthday party was held at a gymnasium late Saturday afternoon.  This was the same gym we visited for Marcus’s birthday a month ago.  Logan was excited to do the activities while we were driving to the gym.  When we arrived, there was another party finishing up, so we had to wait for awhile.  Some of the the kids were getting restless, but fortunately I was able to contain both boys with me.  Connor was so excited to see Raz and kept looking around for her.  Apparently Raz had been looking forward to seeing Connor all day before they arrived to the party too.  The party finally started; our group was huge, almost thirty 4-5 years old kids plus the two little ones Raz and Connor.   Both Logan and Connor were happy to follow the instruction to go line up.  After orientation, Connor signaled me to come join him, and I agreed quickly as I didn’t want him to be crushed by the big kids.  When Logan saw me, he almost wanted me to hold his hand too, but he agreed to participate on this own with just a little convincing.  He did quite well the rest of the hour, following the leader and participating in everything.  Connor wanted in and out of the group activity a couple of times, so I finally gave him an ultimatum and he chose to opt out. 

     Connor just hung out at the party table while we had a chance to chat with our friends and catch up with some parents.  When the kids finished with the exercise, they took a group picture, then the pizza party began.  With the large group and small space, it was quite hectic but eventually everyone sat down and enjoyed the food.  The kids were happy when the cake was served.  Logan declared done after eating 1/3 of his piece while Connor ate his entire share and even attempted to ask for Logan’s leftover.  Logan played with Rohan while they ate and afterward too.  Then it was the end of the party.  The boys were happy to receive the “big egg” as a party favor, and they said thanks and goodbyes.

      It was a beautiful warm day, so we tried to spend more time outdoors.  We had soccer practice this morning.  We arrived early for the kids to play at the structures.  After trying it the past two Sundays, Connor was able to climb up the small rock climbing wall all on his own.  Once the practice began, Connor was doing better with balancing and was able to do the soccer stance sometimes.  However Connor was a bit silly, goofing around and not following instructions well, so Connor and I did not stay in the drills too long.  He and I returned to the mat to watch Logan and the rest of the gang.  But Connor kept wanting to break into our picnic lunch, so I decided to take him to play basketball.  He had fun trying something new.  He tried to dribble with me, then tried to guard me.  He giggled so much when I dribbled quickly around him.  Later when I made one basket, he was nice and cheered me on.  We went back to join the crowd when the practice was over.  Connor stayed in line to get his stamp too even though he maybe did not deserve it.

    We had a nice long picnic today; it actually got quite warm sitting under the sun.  We then all migrated to the playgrounds to play for awhile.  Stuart and I even tossed a football around while the kids played. 

    This afternoon after naptime, we initially planned to go to a store to buy something, but we decided to hang out with the neighbors as the weather was so nice.  Logan is really interested in playing with Caleb and Joaquin these days.  The three boys love running around between the yards.  The smaller ones, Connor and Joaquin’s brother, Antonio, try to keep up with the big boys.  Our neighbor was nice and let all the boys jump up and down in the back of his pickup truck.  Connor thought this was exciting and a special treat.

     I attended an all day diabetes conference with Robyn and Michelle yesterday, so Stuart had to take care of the boys on his own.  The plan was to attend Ashlyn’s 3rd birthday party at Chuck E Cheese in the morning.  According to Stuart, once they arrived at the party, the boys said hello and happy birthday to Ashlyn, then immediately they wanted to go play.  It was a bit tough for Stuart to stay with both boys as they were interested in different games, so Stuart stayed with Connor and just remotely kept an eye on Logan at times.  Logan told me that he enjoyed playing with the shooting games, and Connor just played with a variety.  They all got back together to have pizza, and sang birthday song to Ashlyln.  Logan apparently did not care to eat the cake as he wanted to return to the game area.  Connor, on the other hand, was standing right next to the cake, watching it being served to everyone and was happy when he finally had a piece.  Connor also told me that he cried when he saw the “Chuck E Cheese” mascot when he came out to say hello to everyone; he told me “Me scared!”. 

     The conference I attended was good, and it was even better when we realized that we could leave earlier at 3:15pm instead of 5pm.  When I returned home, the boys were just coming out of the house to play in the yard.  We were happy to see each other.  They both were excited to show me their party favors from Ashlyn; Logan received a stuffed Pluto and Connor got a stuffed Minnie.  We took a short walk around the neighborhood, then returned home to get ready for the next birthday party.

    We arrived at the Japanese restaurant for a dinner party to celebrate Kasey’s 3rd birthday.  The boys were happy to see the girls, Hailey, Ashley and Kasey.  Once everyone arrived, we all settled down at the tables.  When the starters arrived, Logan enjoyed eating most of the gyoza on our end of the table and Connor tried one of the sushi too.  We then ordered our meals and everyone had a great dinner.  Since the party was in a private room, the kids were allowed to run around.  Our boys and the three girls were playing Nimbo together while little Hunter just walked around them and observed.  Then it was time to sing to Kasey and time for ice cream cake.  Logan and Connor enjoyed every bit of the cake on their plates.  Connor even tried to ask Auntie DeeDee for more too.  They then ran around the room to burn off the sugar high before we said our thanks and goodnights.

     On our way home, Connor was reminiscing the day by singing the Happy Birthday song over and over again.  He sang it to Ashlyn and Kasey initially, then at the end, he changed to “Happy Birthday Chuck E Cheese”.  He was giggling at his own silliness.

    Connor continues to have several “happy faces” (successful pee pee) each day on the school daily report.  At home, Connor gets excited to use his little potty before bath time.  He gets quite giggly while he sits on it, and he likes holding both of my hands while he sits, and getting help to get up and down from the potty.

    Tonight he pushed a bit, then got up to take a look.  There was a little bit of pee pee.  He sat back down and pushed some more.  He got up and I was so surprised to see a small poo.  He was so proud and especially when I cheered him for it.  He wanted to sit back down and try some more; he did this several more times.  I was so surprised to finally see in the potty one of the biggest bowel movement he ever had.  He was so excited and pleased that he wanted to tell Logan and daddy what he did.  Even at bedtime he was still thinking about it, he suddenly said “Me big poo poo!  BIGGGGGG poo poo!”  He really exaggerated the word “Big” which he was indeed correct.

    When Stuart picked Connor up today, the teacher was so excited to share that Connor used the potty many times today and his diaper stayed dry until he did a bowel movement at 4pm.  The daily report showed 5 happy faces.  Connor was very proud with what he did too.  While the teacher was sharing the news with Daddy, Connor stood next to him with a big smile.

    Tonight right before going into the bath, I asked if Connor wanted to use the potty, and he said yes.  He was surprised to see the little potty that I took out for him.  He happily sat down on it and immediately tried to do his business.  His face turned a little red; he sat there for about a minute, then he stood up.  He left a small amount of pee pee in the potty.  He was so pleased that he told Daddy what he did later.  For bedtime reading, he also chose a “Potty” book as one of the four books.  I used “Connor” as the boy in the book while reading to Connor.  He kept giving me big smiles.  He was proud to say “Me Big Boy” many times today too.