The boys’ school had a movie night on Friday.  To prepare, while Stuart took Logan to his soccer practice, Connor and I went for some grocery hopping along with buying some finger food for dinner.  Since Stuart still had a bad cough, he opted out of the movie.  After Logan got home from the practice he quickly changed out of his soccer gear and the boys and I headed out.  They were very excited; despite an hour of soccer, Logan still had energy to run most of the way to school with Connor.  When we arrived, there were many families set up on the lawn area already, and both boys greeted by a few kids they know.  We found ourselves a reasonable spot on the side to set up shop.  We started eating the food we brought, then Logan wanted pizza too.  So we walked over to the vendor, I gave Logan some money, and showed him where to line up.  I then returned to Connor who was waiting at our mat while keeping an eye at Logan from a distance.  Later Logan happily returned with two plates of pizza; he told me that he had to be careful so he would not lose the coins or the pizzas he bought.  I know this was not a big deal, but somehow I was very proud of Logan.  Then we all settled down and the movie, “Home”, began.  Perhaps this movie was not that good (in my opinion), and it seemed more people were moving around and some even carried on conversations, but the boys sat nicely and paid close attention.  They also ate quite a bit of dinner and snack too.  Later one of Connor’s classmates migrated and sat on our mat, and he brought some popcorns to share with the boys too.  When the movie was over, many people clapped and everyone packed up to go home.  Logan was being a good brother.  While I was cleaning up, he talked with Connor to make sure he stayed with us so we would not lose him.  Each of them had a flashlight, and we played game with the shadow all the way home until we found daddy waiting for us in front of our house.

     We thought it would be fun to do a movie night at home, and I picked an old classic, E.T. to start us off.  On Sunday, we had an early dinner and had the popcorn machine ready; the boys were quite excited.  We all got comfortable on the couch and enjoyed the show.  Both boys were intrigued with all the actions and laughed at the funny part.  We took an intermission to have the popcorn ready; then we returned to the movie with the munchies.  I had only seen the movie one time after I moved to the United States, therefore I have forgotten how sad it was.  When they found E.T. in the creek, we all felt sad, but the saddest one was Connor.  He was sobbing quietly, and he started crying louder as we looked over to him.  He then told me “Mommy, please take me to another room”.  He was genuinely sad and worried for E.T.; it took me a little bit of talking to him before he stopped crying.  We returned to the movie too soon; when they thought E.T. was dead, Connor cried again.  So Connor and I once again left the room.  Logan was feeling emotional too, so he went to hug Stuart while they were watching.  Stuart finally called us back to return to watch the final part.  Connor felt better seeing E.T. come back to life.  But at the very end, we all were tearing up a bit as they said final goodbye to E.T.  I really liked the movie, but I guess it was too much for the boys.  Later that night, both boys said they enjoyed Movie Night, but they both told us that we need to pick a happy movie.

     I had one of the worst coughs I ever had.  It started three weeks ago with just a very bad cough and no other symptoms.  I consulted my nurse practitioner coworker and my doctor and I was told to take antihistamines.  After two weeks of horrible sounding cough and three nights of migrating downstairs to sleep (to avoid disturbing Stuart), the cough finally resolved.  Unfortunately Stuart got my cough too approximately a week after mine started.  His sounds just as bad as mine and possibly worse.  He started doing nasal rinse and taking over the counter medications after instructed by his doctor.  However Stuart does not like the grogginess from the cough syrup, he just tries to hang in there without it.  It has been two long weeks for Stuart now, and he has moved downstairs several nights due to bad coughing spells as well.  Stuart often has lingering cough for a long time after any colds in the past; hopefully this one can end soon.

    Logan and Connor had their shares of colds too.  On Wednesday last week, Logan came to our room at 6:17am telling me that he was feeling dizzy and felt like “choking” (nauseous in his mind).  He actually sat on the rug in the bathroom for awhile and tried a few times with no output.  We then gave him a bucket to carry around just in case.  He only wanted a little breakfast which he kept down fine.  After not being himself for like 45 minutes, he suddenly became fine and told us that he felt well again.  We totally thought that we had to keep him home that day, but since he turned around completely and did not show other signs of illness, he was off to school.  He ended up having a good day at school but had started a mild runny nose for the next 24 hours.  On Friday it was Connor’s turn.  When he was playing soccer with Stuart while Logan practiced soccer with his team, Connor’s voice turned scratchy.  On Saturday, he complained of being dizzy twice, once after he was at the playground and another shortly started a Minecraft game.  This was unusual for him.  He also had a little stuffy nose.  Fortunately what they had was short lived. 

    It ended up working out perfectly that we had no plans this weekend, so we could relax and recuperate.  We just did little things at home and locally.  The boys like playing a Sonic racing game lately together; sometimes Stuart would join them and play a three way racing.  We went for a walk in the nearby trails.  We played tennis.  We had the boys get on their bikes for a little bit; we are taking little steps learning how to balance.  We reintroduced golf and both Logan and Connor did fine with their swings.  We played board games, even tried Hedbanz for the first time.  They had a good laugh with it, but quickly Logan realized how difficult to guess and not trying too hard at all afterward.  When we took walks in the evening, sometimes the boys would bring their Nerf guns and we would direct them to aim at tree trunks or posts.   Connor has quite a good aim, and our best marksman.  We did a home movie night which I will blog in a different post.  The weekend turned out quite fun and cozy.

    I could not be one of the Art Vista volunteers in Logan’s class as the teacher prefers Fridays for the lessons.  But instead I signed up to be a classroom helper on Mondays.  I will be helping the class while the teacher leads a writing workshop in the afternoon.  Mrs. Williams asked me to show up yesterday at 1pm, and I was excited to start. But as soon as I walked in to the classroom, I saw a substitute teacher running the class.  An aide told me that Mrs.Williams was out for a small emergency.  The class was quietly doing some work.  Logan looked up and gave me a smile.  After I said hi to that teacher, she asked me to grade the spelling test.  So I stayed on the side grading while watching the class.  When the kids were finished with the assignment, Logan came up to give me a hug.  I later distributed the tests and learned the kids’ names.  After the test, the sub did not need more help, so I was dismissed.  With the holiday coming up on Monday soon, my first real helping shift will be in two weeks.

    It was busy today as we had the boys’ soccer picture day along with the Kaiser family wellness festival.  Fortunately the picture schedule for the teams worked out just perfectly so we did not have to miss anything.  Early this morning, Connor put on his jersey and we met with his team at a school field.  The coach took the boys to the station and they were gone for a long time.  They waited until each family had their order forms filled out, then spent a long time with individual pictures and finally the group one.  Afterward, we said bye to his team and we were off to the Tech museum.  By the time we checked in, there were lots of people there.  First off I noticed the photo booth and the line was not too long.  So I waited while Stuart watched the boys played with some light thing.  Both boys chose to carry a sword for the photo; instead of his usual smile, Connor had a serious look the whole time.  After that, we tried the catered food which Stuart and I liked but the boys just mainly ate strawberries.  We then checked out some exhibits and Logan enjoyed the one he liked from our last visit.  He spent quite a bit of time using his shadow to move the water into the bucket.  Later we went upstairs to check out the rooftop.  There was a nice view and a photographer standing by with a very short line.  The boys did not care to take pictures again but they were willing to do it for me.  Then we took another break sitting under the umbrella and letting the boys enjoy some snacks provided there.  It was a nice day.  Logan has been interested in robots, so when we headed back down the exhibits, we waited in line to try building a robot.  We were given some instruction, but then we were left alone.  It was a bit frustrating until we discovered that we had a dead robot base, but eventually we just gave up as we could not get too far in building it.  We checked out a few more things before we headed out to watch the IMAX.  We found some good seats in the theater and the boys were excited to watch.  The film was the Human Body, and quickly after it started, Connor (sitting next to Stuart) told daddy that he was scared, and for the rest of the showing, he covered his eyes periodically and sometimes his ears too.  Overall I really liked the film and Logan enjoyed it too while Stuart would rather watch a different topic at IMAX.  Poor Connor really did not like it and fell asleep briefly at the end. 

    It was then time for Logan’s picture.  We changed Logan in the car and headed back to the local school.  Stuart and Connor dropped us off, and we met up with Logan’s team.  Logan was happy to be in his jersey and he hung out with the boys to wait for their turn.  Afterward, we said bye to his team and walked home.  It was quite a long day today.

   The boys had their first soccer games today.  We got ready with their team jerseys this morning, and we were off to Connor/s game first.  Connor was excited about the game, but he was slightly clingy when we arrived.  He wanted to hang out with us at our chairs, but with just a little encouragement, he stayed with his team under the sportbrella instead.  Their game was played 4 on 4.  Connor was a little timid initially but he ran back and forth with the team on the field.  He was the friendliest player out there as he waved and smiled to us whenever he had an opportunity.  He made contact with the ball a few times and he had a couple kicks.  Their team scored one goal while the opponent did a few.  All the kids did well.  At the end they enjoyed some snacks for the team, and Connor, as always, remembered to get something for Logan too.

    After lunch and a short break at home, we went out for Logan’s game next.  The team had a short practice before the game started.  With this age league, they have a bigger field and they play 6 plus a goalie on each side.  Logan played mid field the first half, and he is a little bit more assertive this year.  He ran up to the ball a few times and had a few good kicks.  I captured one of them on a video.  The second half, Logan played defense.  He seemed more tired by then and did not try as hard.  Overall the game was quite exciting to watch.  All the kids played well, therefore, there were many close calls but no goals.  Finally toward the end of the game, two star players from Logan’s team made two beautiful goals.  The families on the sideline had fun cheering on.  Fortunately it was cooler today, otherwise the hour on the field would had been miserable.  After the game, the players enjoyed the team snack and Connor was pleased to receive a share too.  Having these two games was enough to tire us out for the day, but it was fun.