While I was at work yesterday, Stuart, the boys and Dora went out to the park to play.  Dora did a short run on her own, then played soccer with the boys.  I think the boys tried their best to keep up with auntie Dora.  I was able to leave work earlier which was very nice.  By Connor’s request, Stuart and I put up the Christmas lights on the house.  Then we went out for a nice dinner.

    Today Dora and I decided to go have dim sum, and only Connor chose to come with us.  Connor wanted to be festive and wore a Christmas hat for our outing.  Connor was very adventurous trying different food.  He actually enjoyed “chicken feet” when I offered him some small pieces.  He even copied us using chopsticks and was successful eating the dumplings with them.  Afterward, he was helping us buying grocery.  Connor was very good opening up those produce bags for us that he had asked to stop doing it at some point.

   Tonight we had hot pot for dinner which was delicious.  The boys enjoyed it with some noodles on the side.  After cleaning up, four of us played Chutes and Ladders.  We laughed and had fun.  Logan was not a good loser; he wanted to quit once but held it together until the end.  Connor enjoyed the game very much and he was so happy that he won the second game.  He even said to me later “Mommy, I never won and I am so happy that I won.  Can we play again tomorrow?”

    We were home to celebrate Thanksgiving this year and Dora came to spend time with us.  Connor had been making many Thanksgiving drawings to decorate the house, and I decided to make our holiday meal too.  I made a pumpkin pie and some mini pecan chocolate pies last night.  Today I put the turkey in the oven before picking Dora up from the airport.  The boys were happy to see auntie Dora, and they bundled up with her to watch a Charlie Brown Thanksgiving show too.  We had dinner very early at 4pm.  The boys were not a huge fan or not too hunger then, but the rest of us enjoyed the meal.  After some relaxation, we decided to go for a walk around the block.  Somehow Logan got into a bad mood before we headed out and he maintained it throughout the walk and the rest of the evening.  Later Logan told Stuart that he was hungry, but he was too stubborn to tell me.  Dora, Connor and I enjoyed small slivers of the two pies, and Logan passed on that along with the bread and milk that I offered him.  We cleaned up and got ready to read at bedtime.  Logan was still too grumpy to sit with us, so he did not sit with Dora for the first book or with me for the other two. By then Logan finally started crying when it was time to sleep.  He calmed down later with Stuart and had some bread and milk before he went to sleep.  It was a good day today but was slightly dampened by how Logan wrapped it up.

     We got ready early this morning and walked over to the high school for the race.  There were lots of people there; we ran into one of Logan’s classmate family and chatted with them briefly.  Then it was time for the 10K racers to start and we cheered them on.  Afterward, it was time to line up for our 5K.  While we waited, Connor was excited and he kept telling us that he wanted to win to earn a trophy.  Logan on the other hand seemed nervous, not knowing what to expect.  It was finally time and we all jogged and fast walked for the initial stretch.  Logan was quite bubbly then and had a hop on his walk.  Connor saw one of his classmates which was motivating him to run past her several times.  By the first mile mark, Connor and I had lost track of Logan and Stuart.  Connor asked about how much longer and reduced to a slow pace occasionally, but he cooperated well with hand holding and some motivation.  Once we passed the mid point, I felt more relieved.  Connor and I talked about Christmas decorations and what he wishes to get for Christmas, and it was working to distract him.  When we arrived to the 2 mile mark, I received a call from Stuart to inform that they had passed the finish line.  Apparently Logan ran the entire way, and did not really complain about the distance.  Stuart had to jog to keep up with him.  Connor and I continued to keep up our pace; we talked and we jogged at times.  By then Connor complained that he was quite tired but we finally saw the end of the race.  We started hearing people cheering us on, and before we got to the cheerleaders, Connor agreed that we should run all the way to the finish line.  He was so excited to see Stuart and other people cheering us while we crossed the line.  Connor was so proud and so were we!  He had walked 3.5 miles by then and I did not have to pick him up even once.  We picked up a snack bar and chatted briefly with Logan’s classmate family.  The mother told me that Logan did a great job and was trying to run past her to cross the finish line.

   Then we were on our way to walk home.  We finally picked up Connor part of the 1/2 mile walk home as he had earned to take a break.  Surprisingly Logan was still energized and asked me to run a short stretch too.  Once we were home, instead of being tired, Connor wanted to make a feast.  He helped me preparing lunch and getting lots of fruits ready.  He chose to sit on the ground to eat the feast and asked Logan to join him too.

    We finished dinner a bit earlier this evening and we were just hanging out in the bonus room.  We heard a loud siren, then shortly after we saw some flashing red lights.  We were so surprised to see a fire truck parked right across from our house.  We all hurried to bundle up and rushed outside to see the commotion.  There were four fire trucks and two smaller emergency vehicles.  We saw the firefighters at the door to the house diagonally from us.  We never met the owner of that house, and we did not see the door opened up.  There were more neighbors from the street gathering around by then and someone told us that there was a circuit break but someone else said there was some ashes at the chimney.  At that point, we saw firefighters walking on the roof, and later there was even more action.  The big ladder from a huge fire truck extended all the way up to the roof, and a firefighter climbed up to the top.  It appeared that they were spraying something at the chimney, then the job was finished.  The boys were totally fascinated by watching the firefighters in full gear and in action.  At the end one of the firefighters walked across the street to say hi to them; we chatted briefly and he left with the group.  It was funny that the only response both boys told me was that “he did not give us any stickers”.  This event wrapped up our weekend.

    One of the things we did this weekend was going for a long walk.  We were still contemplating if we should sign up for the local turkey trot, so this morning we did a partial practice run.  The boys did fine, but it was not a trot and just more like a fast walk.  Logan carried himself well and followed our lead the whole way.  Connor complained quite often; however he managed to make it through with some encouragement and some distraction.  We made it to the high school at the end, and we took a break there watching some soccer practices before we walked home.  We made 2.4 miles in total which would only be 2/3 of we have to do at the Turkey Trot.  We are hoping the kids will be more motivated with the crowd during the event, so we have signed up.

    Yesterday was my second lesson with Logan’s class, and I had recruited three moms to help out again.  I dropped off the kids in the morning and went on a Target shopping run.  I came home to do some last minute prep work for the lesson, then it was almost time.  I quickly ate a lunch, then headed to school.  I gathered my materials and chatted with the moms before the teacher and the children returned from lunch.  This time I decided to have the discussion with the children at the rug, and it worked much better as I was closer to all of them and I could try to call on many of them.  I started by reviewing what we discussed last month, and I was happy that they recalled the subjects well.  Then I began discussing the topic for the day, shapes.  We talked about different types of shapes, geometric vs free-form, natural vs man-made, and we also discussed about the concepts of positive vs negative space.  I used my homemade flashcards and did a quick drawing to explain, and they all worked well.  Then I showed three famous paintings for discussion, and the kids were engaged.  They were all eager to answer questions, and I tried my best to call on different kids.  I finally learned most of the kids’ names, however I did make one mistake and the boy corrected me. 

    Then I had all the kids return to their seats so I could use the projector to demonstrate the hands-on project.  I gave the class instructions while I finished making my demo; the kids were excited to guess what I was making.  The project was to use tear-out construction papers to build an animal or a plant on paper.  This art work was actually more challenging than I expected as the children had to give us their pencils to sketch but use their imagine to build the object with shapes instead.  The other parents and I went around the room to give guidance and I had to put down a few pencils from the kids.  Most kids got the hang of it quickly, but a few needed some suggestions to get them started.  The one who gave me the most trouble was Logan.  He became grumpy as he did not know what to make.  One of the moms talked with him patiently for a long time to give suggestions, but Logan did not give way.  I was busy answering questions, but later I tried to help him out too.  He did not try to listen for suggestions and just appeared to be giving up; he was really pushing my patience there.  After the kids were happy with what they built, they started gluing the pieces onto the paper.  At last the parents and I went around helping the children to make a rubbing with crayon for an additional piece of art work.  By then, Logan sort of put together something to finish up his project.  We gathered all the pieces from the kids and I thanked the class for a great lesson before the parents and I left.  I was happy with how the lesson went except the part with Logan’s grumpiness.