Kathy had told me that Ian was playing baseball at our nearby park on Saturday, so we went over to watch him after naptime.  The boys always love “Big Ian”, and therefore, they were excited to look for him.  We walked around and watched the two ongoing games at the park; we finally found Kathy and the family.  Just then, Ian was at bat and we got to watch a controversial play at home plate.  We chatted with the family for a little bit and watched the game a little bit more, then the boys wanted to play at the structures, and I took Kira with us too.  Kira is always a sweet little girl; she was independently playing around Logan and Connor.  We talked with her some too.  Later, her grandma and Kaia came joined us.  All four kids played at the playground for quite awhile and we finally returned to the baseball game.  Logan and Connor joined the family up on the stands and shared snacks with the girls.  When the game ended, Ian came over to say hi.  He was a big celebrity among the kids; Logan and Connor were very happy to see him.  They had a big group hug for a long time that I had to separate them so we could all head home in our separate ways.

   After watching the game, it motivated the boys to play T-ball at home too while I made dinner.  According to Stuart, Connor picked up batting quite fast.  After just a few initial misses, he was able to swing the bat and made some nice hits.  The boys took turns batting and catching for awhile before coming in for dinner.

    This morning Stuart wanted to take Logan out for tennis again.  So I took Connor to the field to kick the soccer ball initially.  We went up and down the field a couple times while he dribbled the soccer.  Then we decided to go inside the courts to let Connor try tennis too.  To my surprise, Connor was quite interested in hitting tennis balls.  I tossed the balls to him in close distance and he was able to make some contacts.  He was so excited about it that he did not really want to take breaks.  We wanted the boys to take breaks together so Stuart and I could play together for a little bit too.  After snacks, we resumed our drills with the boys separately.  Logan was doing good dropping the ball and hitting it.  But he was kinda silly wanting to make up some game to play.  Connor was quite content with the drill and continued to make some contacts. 

     When we got home, we had lunch in the backyard.  Logan also played with the basketball hoop for a little bit while Connor wanted to hit some T-balls again.  We all got some exercise this weekend.

    3/23 is a special day for a couple of little girls, Ashlyn and Kasey.  Ashlyn had her birthday party at Chuck E Cheese yesterday morning.  The boys were excited to attend, and Connor was more than happy to write Ashlyn a birthday card too.  Once we arrived, the boys were off to play after saying hello to Julie and received some tokens from her.  Logan was looking for driving and shooting games, and Connor was just following him along.  They played some games together and some separately.  Logan was hungry first and joined the group for pizza.  Connor and Stuart eventually came over.  As soon as Connor sat down, he was quite nervous anticipating the arrival of Chucky, not really able to eat.  When Chucky came out, Connor burst out crying, so Stuart immediately took him to the farthest table where he could finally eat.  We sang song to Ashlyn and Logan joined the kids for a group photo, then he wanted to return to the games.  Stuart and I switched places; I accompanied Connor where he was still keeping an eye on Chucky and saying “I don’t want him to see me”.  Later Logan ran out of the tokens; he worked up the courage to ask auntie Julie for more and he was so happy to show us what he received.  Logan did not want any cake and Connor loved it as usual.  We went back to play some more, and at the end the boys got a small toy each from the tickets.  We said our thanks to the Changs, and went home for nap.

    Today we attended the dinner party for Kasey at a Japanese restaurant.  We arrived along with the Hashiguchis.  We helped setting up the decoration they brought.  Connor really wanted to help too, so he handed us the tape to put up the banner and he felt happy with that.  We sat down at the table, and the boys started drawing on the dry eraser boards.  Kasey and Hunter wanted to join them.  We had a nice dinner; both Logan and Connor had a good portions of edamame, gyozas, salmon, tempuras and udon.  Logan had some cake and Connor finished the entire piece.  With my suggestion, Connor drew a drawing of Kasey, then Kasey drew Connor, then herself and added Logan at the end too  They had a fun laugh about them.  By 8pm, we finally had to say thanks and went home for a late night.

      A while ago we were informed that Logan would have a speech contest this week.  We were advised to help Logan pick one of the poems that he would learn to recite for the contest.  After reading a couple of them with Logan, he chose the one called “Read to Me”.  Later, the teacher told me that the contest was an informal one where the students would recite just in front of the class, then three students would be chosen to compete with the other kindergarten class.  Since then, we felt less pressure for Logan.  But we still want Logan to do his best, so we had Logan rehearse the poem to us almost once a day.  Today Logan finally told us that they had chosen two of his classmates; they would go up on the stage and compete with the other class soon.  Logan had the biggest grin while he was telling us about the two winners.  He must be so relieved that he did not have to compete.  Regardless of being picked or not, we are quite proud of how well Logan did.

     Connor was already in uniform and even had a green undershirt on for Saint Patrick’s Day this morning.  However Connor was coughing quite a bit (his cough is usually worse after sleeping) and was stuffy, so at the last minute we decided to keep him home.  I took Connor with me when I dropped Logan off at school.  On our way out, we passed by Connor’s teacher and class while they were marching to their classroom.  We told the teacher that Connor was staying home with me and Connor gave a little smirk to the teacher.  He was too happy with this day at home so I had to set some ground rules including no television.  I tried to do some home projects while hanging out with Connor, so I had him do some drawings.  Connor drew a very nice drawing with a house with a lawn, some birds and three suns.  Then he practiced all the alphabets; he was copying them from the placemat.  At the end he wrote a letter to his teachers and friends telling them he missed them.  During the day Connor kept wanting to stop by Stuart’s office to say hi.  He often gave daddy a goofy smile when he walked by.  Connor was being a smarty pant today too.  Yesterday when I got upset with Connor, he would say “I love you Mommy” and I had said “I love you too when you listen”.  Today out of the blue, Connor said to me “Mommy, I love you even when you don’t listen”.  After nap, Connor wanted to play Uno again.  After he set up for a couple of games, the third game Connor told me “Mommy, you set up now.  I am tired from setting up”. 

     Connor’s cough was still quite frequent and his nose was leaking in the afternoon.  So we skipped his swimming class too.  I was worried if Logan would mind going to swimming lesson without Connor but fortunately he seemed indifferent about it.  He was quite cheerful to go with me.  Connor also did not mind not going to class, but he did tell Stuart that he missed Logan.  During dinner, it was funny that Connor asked Logan if he put his head in the water.

      Connor suddenly became congested while we were reading at bedtime on Friday night.  Next morning, Connor woke up with the barking cough again.  He was stuffy with the slight cough, and the cough sounded loud and barky.  Other than that, he was ok, just a little bit more mellow than usual.  His appetite was still very good.  Connor knew that he was sick as he told us “I am not feeling well, let’s take it easy today, ok mommy?”.  He catches on what we say very well these days. 

    So we had an easy day on Saturday.  I took Connor to Costco for a quick run while Stuart took Logan to the library to get some books.  Afterward they stopped by the park next door to play as we usually do.  However Logan told Stuart that he wished Connor was there and that he missed him.  So they only stayed there for a few minutes before they picked up lunch for all of us.  After nap, Connor felt warmer; he had a low grade fever (axillary 99.6).  But otherwise, Connor was still in good mood.  Stuart and Logan went out for a long walk around our neighborhood while Connor and I played games in the house.  Connor is quite good with Uno now.  He can set up the game for us, knowing each of us should have 7 cards.  He understands the game quite well and knows some strategies too.  Later, we all played in the bonus room and then in the backyard together.  Logan and Connor seemed to have missed each other’s company. 

     Today, Connor was not coughing much and had no more fever.  But he seemed to be more congested.  He even complained that he could not smell anything.  He seemed more energized today though and ate well as usual.  So this morning we drove to the local school to get some fresh air.  Logan and I played with the Trac ball while Stuart taught Connor how to play catch.  Connor had fun; he had to learn how to focus on the ball rather than looking at Stuart.  We then switched; Connor learned the basics with Trac balls.  Then the boys wanted to play at the structures, so Stuart and I had a chance to play with Speedminton and later with the Trac ball too.  We walked around the park some more before we went home for lunch.  In the afternoon, I played board games with the boys, then we all hung out in the backyard while we had our first barbeque at this house.  Logan even wanted us to eat in the backyard but we were not prepared so we had to take a rain check. 

    It was a relaxing weekend despite Connor not feeling well.  Hope he will wake up feeling even better tomorrow.

     There are many things we need to improve in the house, but we have to slowly implement them due to time and financial reasons.  Stuart has been the handyman putting all our new purchases together.

     We bought these boxes to help store the boys’ toys while adding some sitting area to our bolus (game) room.  They made the room less messy, and they are quite comfortable to sit on too.
     We wanted some lighting under the kitchen cabinets as it was quite dark while we used the counter.  So Stuart bought some LED strips to see if he could install them himself.  They came out quite well and serve their purpose.  Stuart just has to clean up and hide the wires.

     Our house currently has some cheap blinds everywhere; they are old and some are close to be broken.  Window treatments was a tough decision to make as there are many choices and they are expensive.  We decided to go with vertical fabric blinds in the family room and kitchenette to match the blinds over the sliding door.  The blinds are soft and quiet.  We are quite happy with them even though we are not totally sure with the color.  One set of blinds might be just a couple of millimeters too long which also bugs Stuart a little bit when he opens/closes them.
     It was even a tougher decision to make for the living room set of windows.  We wanted blinds that give us privacy while able to open up completely to let light in and to have a good view of outside.  We finally decided to try a fabric silhouette shading.  When we placed the order for these expensive shade, we were worried how accurate our measurement were.  Fortunately they came out perfectly.  So far we are quite happy with how these treatment looks on the windows.  We enjoy staying in the living room now just to look at them.  They are however more delicate and we will have to take good care of them.  Stuart is getting quite good with window treatment installment now.  He will get more practice down the road as we will have to slowly replace the rest of the windows at some point.

    Our next projects will be removing some cabinets in the garage to allow Stuart’s SUV to finally drive into the garage and then to get Connor a long overdue bigger bed.