It was Logan’s Spring Concert on Monday.  Logan never talked about it unless we asked if he had been practicing.  After dropping off Connor in the morning, Logan and I lined up at his school.  As we were marching to the classroom, Stuart arrived too.  After saying bye to Logan, Stuart and I headed over to the Superdome to get seated.  We waited for a little bit, then the first graders started coming in to line up on stage, and Logan was all the way in the back row.  The chaos of kids lining up and the parents moving up and down to take pictures took awhile to settle down.  Stuart and I both felt that we were not able to get a good view or a good picture from where we were seated, so we moved to the side and the back of the hall to stand instead.  The microphone was malfunctioning, therefore we could not really hear the music teacher doing introduction to each song, but the overall performance was great.  According to Stuart, despite how far back Stuart was standing, Logan was eyeing him and copying his goofy gestures with his head during breaks between each song.  The kids sang eight songs and the kids did a good job.  After the show, all the parents rushed up to take pictures of the children, like a bunch of paparazzi.  Stuart had to return to work, and I waited for an opportunity to move up.  Logan smiled for me and I took a few photos.  I gave Logan a hug and congratulated him on a good show, and I left to work as well.

    The past weekend was filled with birthday celebrations.  After Dora left us on Saturday morning, we headed over to Rohan’s birthday party at his house.  They had a large jumpy house in their backyard, and there were kids inside playing when we arrived.  Our boys were not interested in the jumpy house as usual, and they started playing with Ryan who was in Logan’s preschool class but Logan did not remember him.  The two of them along with Connor chased with each other all around the house and played hide-and-seek for a long time.  They took a break to eat pizza, then they returned playing among the three of them.  We later sang the birthday song to Rohan and we all enjoyed some cake.  Afterward Stuart convinced Logan that if he wanted to play at the jumpy house, he should go sooner than later, and Logan went for it.  Connor followed his lead.  The two of them along with few other kids all with sugar high were in the bouncy house having a blast.  They were climbing, jumping around, and laughing so much that I decided to stop being paranoid and stop watching.  Throughout the afternoon, our boys did not really play with their usual buddy Rohan but all the kids had a great time.  We ended up being one of the last guests to go home. 

    Sunday was Stuart’s birthday.  After the big outing for Dora’s marathon on Sunday, we came home and focused on Stuart’s birthday the rest of the day.  The boys and Stuart enjoyed some game time while I prepared one of Stuart’s favorite meal, tri-tips, for dinner.  The boys had made a couple of colorful birthday cards for daddy.  Connor also prepared a present by gathering a bunch of little toys in a box, and he was excited to present that to Stuart.  Afterward, we had a good dinner, then moved on to an ice cream cake.  The boys were cracking up with something silly while singing the song to daddy.  We all enjoyed our favorite cake and the relaxing evening as that’s how Stuart likes it.

Dora signed up for her first Marathon at Big Sur which was this Sunday. She and her friend Mel arrived on Friday evening after the kids went to bed. They hung out with us on Saturday morning, then their friend Julia came pick them up and they were on their way to Monterey to prepare for the race. When Sunday came, we woke up a bit later than usual. I made pancake breakfast for Stuart for his birthday. Stuart decided to come along to watch Dora finish, so after the boys played games for a bit, we got ready to leave. I did not really push everyone to leave early and so we were behind our schedule by the time we left. We were tracking Dora on the app the whole morning and she appeared doing quite well with her speed. The boys fell asleep during the ride and we arrived Carmel after an hour and half drive. By then Dora had passed the 22 mile mark, but I could not get more updates as the app was stuck loading. We could not find parking with the first round, so Stuart dropped the boys and I off at Safeway which was near the Finish Line. For some reason I did not think Dora would finish until after 11am, so I decided to take the boys to the bathroom at Safeway first. They took quite a long time, then we rushed to the finish line, and the boys were excited to look for Auntie Dora. However it took awhile to walk through the Marathon Village and find the way back out to the observation area. We finally got ourselves in a good spot just before the crossing line and someone let the boys stand close to the fence. Just then I got a call from Dora telling us that she just finished. She completed her first Marathon with this tough hilly course in an amazing 3:58 which was better than her expectation. Due to my bad on timing, we missed seeing her finished and I was very disappointed. I took the boys back to the Village to meet up with Dora and her friends. The boys and I congratulated them on their success, then the boys were immediately drawn to the snacks Dora had in her hand. Dora shared her strawberries, banana, pretzels and raisins with the boys, and they definitely did not shy away. We chatted until Stuart was able to find a parking and joined us. We took some group pictures together, then after they gathered their jackets, we headed out to get lunch. Since none of us were very familiar with the area, I just called the first restaurant nearby with good reviews and was able to make an immediate reservation. While I was calling, Stuart put out the third row in the SUV, then we had the exhausted athletes squeezed into the car. Then it dawned on me that the restaurant was only 0.08 miles away. The one block drive and chaos to get everyone into the car was funny but definitely not to the driver. We unloaded to head into the nice restaurant to have a great meal. Our athletes seemed satisfied with their yummy burgers and started looking more tired. We drove them back to their parking garage, said goodbye to them and we went separate ways. During our ride home, the boys fell asleep again.

     After we arrived home on Sunday afternoon, we kept the boys up.  They did not seem too tired and were playful as usual.  Connor had told us that he missed his Batman outfit while we were in Hong Kong, so he started wearing it on our return. I found a sleeping Batman on the couch a couple of times while I just turned my back to him, so I quickly woke him up to continue to play.  Logan did not have a chance to finish all his homework during the trip, so we could not have an earlier bedtime on Sunday.  Once we were all done, we carried on the usual routine and both boys were down at 8:30pm.  Connor woke up at 5 something but returned to sleep until we woke both boys up at 7 for school.  They did fine at school on Monday.  On Monday night, they had another good night sleep until 6 to 7am again.  Stuart and I jinxed ourselves by saying that the boys did well without jetlag.  On Tuesday night, both boys woke up at 2am and they declared that they were done sleeping.  I was too tired to think, and I offered Logan to sleep with me.  Logan did his best keeping quite still on my side.  Connor was more fidgeting trying to find his spot on our bed too.  Later Stuart had to send Connor back to his room.  Connor ended up cleaning up his room and clearing his desk.  At some point, he returned to us and asked what else he should do.  He tried to lay with us again, and by then, Stuart decided to give up his spot and moved to Logan’s bed himself.  The three of us finally slept until 7:30am.  After that night, the boys seemed to have returned to their routine and slept fine again until 6:30am or 7am. Stuart and I actually have been feeling fine during the days since we returned, but for several night by bedtime reading, I became very sleepy. I almost dozed off several times during reading to the boys. I found myself pausing or even saying random words while I was reading. The boys noticed it too, and they would try to wake me up. It was not easy but I managed to finish reading the three books each night. It was great to return to our routine again.

And this was the last piece of homework Logan did on Sunday, a journal with his choice of a topic.

     This was a wonderful and successful trip for us. Here are all the PHOTOS. I am happy that we were able to see everyone, especially Grandma, and do everything that I was hoping for. I am pleased to have finally brought the boys to meet my relatives and friends there, and had the boys see my home country. It was great that I could take Stuart and the boys to pay my parents a visit where they rest. I am also glad that we were all well there after Logan’s initial motion sickness. Stuart is also happy that everything went smoothly and that I fulfilled my wish. When I asked the boys what they liked about this trip. Logan responded “Disneyland, seeing Great-Grandma and visiting Mommy’s mom and dad”. I was very surprised and touched by Logan’s response. Connor added that he liked the dolphin show in Ocean Park and he enjoyed eating out all the time. I also enjoyed having the mall just right within walking distance; it was wonderful to be able to grab food quickly and everywhere As a result, I have gained at least a few pounds during this trip and Stuart in contrary lost 4lbs.
     The boys had adapted to the life in Hong Kong quite well.  They had learned to be on their feet for hours each day.  Even though there were days that they complained of being tired, they managed to continue to walk with us.  They loved using their Octopus cards to badge in and out of the MTR, and they have learned the basis of the train system.  Connor often would ask for our destination and he could figure out the route we would use. He would then count how many stations and keep track.  They got used to walking in a faster pace along with the crowds during train changes.  They learned to hold on and keep their balance if standing while the train was in motion.  But they always try to find seats for themselves and for each other too.  Instead of playing on the phones like everyone in Hong Kong during the rides, the boys loved playing with their Lego men with each other.  At each meal, they developed a new habit of drawing with Stuart.  The boys would take turns with daddy drawing some battle figures on the paper.  We now have a whole collection of battle scenes.  The boys had learned a few Chinese words, and they had a little bit of practice there. They could call the relatives with the proper titles and thank them with good manner.  Overall the boys were very patient with all the people we had to see and things we needed to do.  The trip was a great experience for us all.

     We all woke up before 7am to get ready.  We tried our best and packed our two luggage bags back up with all our belongings.  Both boys were excited to go back to United States.  Logan wanted to see Humphrey (his stuffed dog) and Connor said he misses school and all his stuffed animals as well.  But Connor also said he would miss Hong Kong and started to tear a little.  Charles had offered to drive us to the airport, but we decided to ride the MTR instead.  We said goodbye to the hotel and hopped on a train with our luggage.  Somehow it took longer than expected to arrive at Central station, then we changed to the airport express.  We made it to the airport two hours prior to our flight. Our luggage just barely made the weight limit and we were finally relieved.  I was prepared to medicate Logan this time to prevent motion sickness. We asked Logan to take the tablet; he hesitated but finally agreed to cooperate. As soon as we boarded on the flight, most of us became sleepy especially Logan. I took a power nap while Connor took a long nap and Logan took an even longer one. Stuart checked on Logan periodically, and he was doing well and was playful with the games. But he did not seem to have an appetite, and we did not want to push him either. The rest of us ate the lunch provided. At six hour mark, Stuart helped Logan take another dose of the medication, and shortly later, Logan was out sleeping again for another two hours. Connor entertained himself with drawings, watching videos and playing Uno with me. Later I took another nap while the rest of them watched a video. This return flight was two hours shorter and it seemed a lot more tolerable. Plus it was great that Logan did well without any issue during this flight. We were happy to take the shuttle and got back to our own car. Both boys including me later fell asleep while Stuart drove us back to our sweet home.