Marcus, Logan, Connor and Tim were playing tag in the backyard.  Suddenly Marcus came in to tell us that Connor was hurt; Logan came shortly after to report that it was bad.  As I ran out to the tennis court, I was scared when I saw Tim holding Connor on the ground.  Connor went into the gate and he ended up having a bad laceration on his cheek bone.  Stuart carried Connor back to the porch, and as we looked closer at his cut, we decided that we should take Connor in to the hospital.  We left Logan with Michelle and we quickly drove over to the ER.  On the drive, Connor was calmer and he kept reminding us to tell the doctor not to give him any stitches.  The ER was very quiet and we were taken straight inside.  The PA came to assess and suggested that it was best to have stitches.  As soon as Connor heard it, he was very sad; he started bursting out crying and wanted to leave.  The nurses came in to start preparing Connor to lay down which involved stripping his arms to his back.  Connor was cooperative while crying which was very heartbreaking.  The worst part was when the PA applied local anesthetic on his face; Connor was screaming for help.  It was too tough for us to watch; Stuart had to turn away and I only peeked periodically to make sure Connor was fine. After the anesthetic kicked in, Connor was better and he was answering the PA/nurses’ questions while the stitching took place.  Finally the procedure was done and we all complimented how great and brave Connor was.  When we returned to the Kao’s house, Connor wanted to be the one to tell everyone that he got stitches!

   I had taken a picture of Connor’s face right after the injury, but I have decided not to post it so we don’t get reminded of this bad time.

   Since we did not have visitors this year, the Kaos invited us to join their families and friends for Thanksgiving.  After resting from the turkey trot run and lunch at home, we headed over to their house early afternoon.  The boys went off to play with Marcus and Mckayla while Stuart and I said hi to grandma, Tim/Demi and cousins Juila and Lee.  Except for the unfortunate event with Connor’s injury (more on this later), the day went well.  We chatted with everyone, and after their friends, Patricia and Yifang and family, arrived, dinner was served.  Everyone brought in something to accompany the turkey and vegetables Ted and Michelle made, the table was filled with food.  Everyone at the adult’s and kid’s tables ate well, and later we all topped off with assorted pies.  I made a pecan pie for the day and I was happy how it turned out.  We were so full afterward that we just stayed at the table to chit chat some more.  We ended up staying until 9:30pm before heading home.  Time just flies when we hang at the Kaos and thanks for inviting us.

    Despite the sisters not joining us this year, we decided to do our local turkey trot again.  Connor was excited that he could use his Fitbit to keep track of the steps.  The weather was nice so we did not have to bundle up.  Our goal was to complete no worse than last year, and Logan and Stuart had a tougher record to beat (38 minutes last year).  As soon as the 5K started, Logan was off and Stuart accompanied him.  Connor and I started walking, and we came across his classmate and I started talking with the mom.  By 1 mile mark, Connor asked about the time, and after some calculation, we worried that if we could even make last year time.  So we started jogging on and off the next two miles.  Connor got tired toward the end and I had to encourage him to run toward the finish line.  As it turned out, we were much faster than last year; we beat it by 10 minutes, finished at 48 minutes.  Logan and Stuart did very well too and they finished at 36 minutes, also an improvement.

     We walked back home and we already had more than 10k steps by 10am.

     The only plan last weekend was Ethan’s birthday party that Connor was attending.  Logan was initially invited, but he decided that he did not want to be the oldest kid in the party, so we only RSVP’ed for Connor and Logan went shopping with us.  We all dropped Connor off, and Connor had fun jumping on trampoline with his classmates.

    For the rest of the weekend, we played tennis, watched the Warriors game and watched a home movie together.  We had some relaxing time.

    Connor missed his lesson last Saturday as they were at Maxim’s birthday party, and Logan had the last lesson yesterday.  We arrived early to start playing, later Logan migrated to the other court to have his lesson.  Connor stayed with us and he did very well playing.  He is now strong enough to have one handed forehand and he was consistent with each swing.  Fifteen minutes later Connor said he wanted to go say hi to Coach Bob, and he ended up staying at their court.  We kept an eye on him making sure he was not interfering, and Connor was just picking up balls for them.  At the end of the class, the coach presented Logan and his classmate a certificate and a tennis medal.  Connor was happy when Coach presented his too as he missed the last lesson.

    I was happy to have a day off with the boys on Friday.  Rohan’s parents had to work, so Nanda dropped him off in the morning.  The three boys played happily together while Stuart worked and I organized my closet, got rid of some old and baby toys, and re-decorated the guest room.  The neighbor Cole came over to ask to play so he joined the boys until lunchtime.  The four of them were fine together until a little argument between Cole and Connor, but it was time for Cole to go home anyway.  After lunch, the boys played some more with Rohan while I played Just Dance for exercise.  Rohan was picked up later; the 3 of us then went for a quick grocery shopping and the two of them danced a few songs too.  Next it was martial arts time which I enjoy watching; I like that the boys do not want to be late to the class and they were always the ones who pushed me out the door.

    When we came home, Stuart was done with work and was ready to go, and we were on our way to the Kaos’ house.  The boys went straight to play Lego as soon as we arrived, and Marcus and Mckayla joined them.  Peyton and Robyn arrived shortly after; we chatted with Michelle and Ted eventually came home from work.  We enjoyed the dinner Michelle made for us, and we later had a small celebration for Mckayla’s belated 10th birthday.  It was always a relaxing time hanging out at the Kaos, and we had to leave by 9pm as they all had early morning sport activities the next day.