August 14, 2019 marked the first day of Middle School for Logan.  He actually shared with us the day before that he was nervous; he was worried about changing into PE outfit and how to deal with the locker.  On the other hand, he did not seem to be concerned about having 6 classes or walking to each classroom which was what I was thinking about.  On this first day, I accompanied Logan and walked together to school; we walked past all of his classrooms and finally ended in front of the gym for his first period, PE.  I then said goodbye to Logan and he started his new school year.  Since then, Cole has been coming to our house every morning to walk with Logan.  Logan would either walk home on his own or with Cole.  Logan seems to adapt quite well to this new middle school life.  He has not had any negative things to share and never really complained about anything.  He does enjoy hanging out of his group of friends during lunchbreak.

   Connor’s first day as a 4th Grader went well also.  He was very excited for this day to come as he kept saying he missed his friends.  This year the school supplies were being funded by the state, thus we did not have to haul the big bag of supplies like we had every year.  As soon as we walked to school, Connor went in line and talked with his friends, then he was off to his classroom.  After school, Connor goes to Math Enrichment for the afternoon; he is comfortable there as well.  Connor told us that his new teacher is very nice, and he seems to be happy back to school.

    Tuesday night before school start, Connor was excited to go find out his class assignment.  When we arrived at school, Connor was thrilled to learn who his new teacher would be and was happy to know that he also has a few of buddies in his class.  This will definitely be a better school year for him.

     I also went to Logan’s new middle school in the evening for a meeting to learn about joining sport teams.  We will have Logan join and try out for a few sport this year.  Hope it would be an interesting fulfilling first year of middle school for Logan.

     The day before the school started, we joined our friends for a day at the beach just liked we had the past few years.  We went to Capitola this year, and we had a perfect beach weather.  The kids hung together to dig a big hole and they were proud how deep they dug.  We ordered pizza for lunch there and the boys enjoyed taking a break and eating before returned to play.  We probably stayed at the beach for hours before we wrapped up to leave.  Some of us went for hot cocoa and ice cream in town before we made the drive home.  The beach day had become another nice tradition we are doing each year.

   Due to our upcoming camping trip, we had to find Buddy a boarding place and he had to have a temperament test.  So after the boys’ doctor appt, I took Buddy to the boarding place.  It was the first time for Buddy to be in my car; I think both of us were a bit nervous.  When we arrived at the place, Buddy was excited and was majorly greeting the trainer.  Then the trainer took him into the big dog boarding room and turned on the TV for me to watch.  Inside the boarding room, the trainer slowly took other doggies out from the crates and slowly introduced Buddy to more dogs.  Buddy was totally nervous; he kept running away from other dogs and staying around the trainer.  It was nervous for me to watch Buddy as well; this experience reminded me of the first days when the boys started daycare.  Buddy was inside the room for probably 20 minutes.  When the trainer returned with Buddy, he told me that Buddy was very shy and did not know how to socialize very well yet.  He recommended Buddy spending a full day to acclimate.

   We returned the next day; I dropped Buddy at 8:30 for a full day before I took the boys to the beach.  During the day, Stuart and I could watch on a cam to see how Buddy was doing.  He started out the day pretty much similar to the testing time, shy and ran away a lot.  Later on the day, we saw slight improvement; Buddy did not seem to run away as much.  When I picked up Buddy up, the staff suggested that Buddy had another trial day.  Buddy was tired the rest of the day after all these excitement.

     The two days before school started, I took the boys for their annual doctor visits.  I also needed Logan to have a physical form filled out, so it was a good time to have this appt.  We were all in the room together and the doctor took her time with us.  The boys were giggling during the physical exam, but were engaged with her.  Everything checked out well and the doctor showed me their growth charts.  They both are growing well on the same trends as before; Logan is estimated to be 6’2” and Connor to be 6’1” when they grow up.

Logan:

Wt: 80 lbs

Ht: 5’1”

Connor:

Wt: 71 lbs

Ht: 4’8”

After the exam, it turned out that Logan needed 3 vaccines, Tdap, meningococcus and HPV.  Poor Logan, his arms were sore for days.

   Last Monday was Logan’s new school orientation, so Connor and I dropped him off in the morning before Connor went to camp.  Then Logan came home at 12noon with Cole and Lisa before I picked him up and took him to camp to join Connor.  Logan claimed that the orientation was “good”, but he did not share too much information as usual.  The one thing he did tell me was that he was super hungry as he was not given any snacks.

    The next day I had to take a long lunch to accompany Logan back to school for his school picture and to get his ID.  We then picked him up some PE outfit, paid for yearbook and finally picked up his schedule. This is really happening, Logan will be having 6 classes with 6 teachers everyday soon.