We finally bought a slightly larger bike for Logan, so he could pass on his “Golden bike” to Connor as Connor’s “Green Machine” was too small for him.  On Sunday, we had both boys try on their new bikes “Flash” and “Lightning” which they have named.  They both were still adjusting to the new height and were a bit timid riding.  They did fine overall; we just need to continue to practice some more.  We now need to buy a bike rack as these boys’ bikes are getting too big to fit into Stuart’s car.

   Lately both Logan and Connor love playing basketball.  It could be from all of us enjoying watching the Warriors during this season.  Every night after dinner, Logan would ask to go play in the backyard and Connor would love to join in.  They love to have Stuart play with them and they often ask me to join them to play 2 on 2 as well.  We are spending more time in the yard as a result.  Connor is like an Energized Bunny, running non stop.  He is assertive, and has learned to push the ball higher; he is very proud of himself making many baskets.  Logan shoots quite well from far away, and he wants to become Steph Curry making long baskets.  Stuart continues to encourage Logan to come in and get some rebounds. 

   Connor did not have a game on Saturday morning, so I had a chance to finally watch Logan’s entire basketball game.  Logan has a good team and coach this season.  The team was good about passing the ball around and the game was fun to watch.  Logan was hesitant to keep the ball too long; he passed it on almost as quickly as he got it but he made good passes.  He still preferred not to be under the basket so he did not try rebounding.  He attempted to make a basket a couple of times. 

    Right after a small lunch, Stuart and I switched kids.  I took Connor to his classmate, Sophia’s party on Saturday, and it was held at a kid place in the mall.  We had never been to this place; people were spread out everywhere, and it was definitely a popular place with lots of kids.  Connor found a couple of his classmates, and he immediately climbed up into the structures to join them.  The party invite was sent out with a very short notice, therefore the turn out from the class was low.  A couple of parents actually dropped off the kids too, so I did not see anyone I know.  I talked with the mom for a little bit, then I encouraged Connor to go try the foam guns with me and later Chris joined us.  The shooting was fun; the two boys kept climbing up and down to gather balls for us to shoot.  Next, everyone headed over to a party room for some pizza and birthday cake.  The kids were excited to return to the playground when we were all done eating.  Since we were at the mall, I decided to go buy something and Connor was more than happy with the idea.  Even the mom told me that I could go for a longer time, I ended up returning within an hour.  I let Connor continue to play as he was having such a blast with the classmates.  Finally by 3pm, I told him that Logan missed him, Connor was then willing to say bye with his friends and go home with me.

    This was the first year that the school held a Mother and Son event which was on Friday, and the theme was Star Wars.  The boys were excited to attend, and I did my best to make sure I left work on time that day.  We arrived a little early at school while the parent volunteers were finishing up the set up.  We were the first one to take a picture at the photo booth.  The boys were too embarrassed to pose for it.  Next we moved over to make a light saber.  All the kids there were engaged in this activity and wrapped the tapes on to make their own designs.  There was a Jedi training, but the boys decided to eat first.  We got ourselves a slice of pizza, and they both made themselves comfortable on the ground with one of Logan’s classmates to eat.  We did finally join in in the training.  All the boys there were having a blast fighting each other with their light sabers, some more feisty than others.  Logan seemed a bit intimidated with the action there and preferred to hang with me instead.  Connor was more willing going off to fight with others.  We stayed there for awhile, then a Jedi started to talk with the crowd and began the training.  By then, it was Connor’s turn to be not interested in following the instruction.  I had been talking with some moms here and there, but by then I was tired and the boys seemed to have enough as well.  Therefore we headed out to go home.  The boys were happy to receive some Star Wars pins throughout the different events for the night too.

     Connor has been complaining of his headache more frequently the last few days.  He also now mentions about being more sensitive to light sometimes, but going to a dark room did not help relieve the discomfort.  Stuart and I started to think about triggers.  We wonder if it could be chocolate as that can be a common headache trigger, and he had been having a bit more than usual lately for dessert.  Thus we had decided to cut out chocolate for a trial which we started on Saturday.  On Sunday, Connor was very active the whole day.  We played tennis and basketball in the morning, then while Maxim came over to play in the afternoon, the three boys spent a couple of hours chasing each other inside the house.  They even tried to play basketball out in the heat for at least 10 minutes.  That Sunday night Connor seemed more uncomfortable with the headache that he could not fall asleep.  We wondered if it was due to overexertion.  We let him come lay down with me and I had to make up this long drawn scary story to tell him before he finally fell asleep.  The next morning, Monday, I decided to reach out to the neurologist who I know and co-taught the Pediatric Headache classes years ago.  I told him the timeline of Connor’s condition, and he recommended Connor to have a CT scan to rule out any abnormality.  He placed the order, and in the afternoon, Stuart took the boys to Kaiser while I ended my day earlier to meet up with them.  When we were called to go into the imaging room, I accompanied Connor.  Connor listened to the instruction very well to lay down and be wrapped inside the protective gears.  The tech told Connor to hold his head very still in order to take a clear picture of his head, and he did just that.  It was heartbreaking for me watching Connor inside this serious apparatus and seeing how well behaving he was.  He was such a good sport and was even smiley to me.  The tech thanked Connor for making his job very easy.  He then showed Connor the pictures of his brain on the computer before we headed out.

    This morning, the neurologist called me as soon as he came to work to report that the CT result was normal, no structural abnormality.  He discussed the plan now to continue the preventive medication that Connor is on for another month.  If no improvement, we can consider switching to another preventive medication.  It is definitely a huge relief to know that there is no significant issue with Connor’s brain.  We now just hope that he will recover from this unknown cause of his constant headache one day soon.

   The spring break was winding down to an end.  On Friday, the boys wanted to hang out in the house and watch a movie at the theater on this last day.  The first half of the day, they played some video games and we finished another game of Ticket to Ride.  After lunch, we got ready to head out to the theater.  We arrived early and settled in in our seats with popcorn.  Zootopia was a great movie, and the boys paid close attention the whole time.  What I enjoyed the most was that after we finished eating the popcorn, the boys would cuddle in with me to watch and keep me warm.  We discussed about what we liked about the movie on our way home.  And when we saw Stuart at home, Connor could not wait to tell him what the story was about.  The only way Stuart could end this chatterbox was asking Connor not to spoil the story for him.