We got a surprised report in Connor’s bag on Friday.  Connor achieves “ALL of the times” in almost every categories except two detailed items.  One was knowing geometric shapes which we thought Connor is familiar with.  The second one was “hopping” which we can imagine.  However Stuart did play hop scotch with Connor recently and he seemed to do fine.  We told Connor how proud we are that he is being a good student at school, and he just smiled about it.

      This Wednesday will mark the 120th day at Logan’s school.  For this special day, the children was given a project to find one hundred and twenty pieces of any small items in the house to create an artwork.  He was given the assignment awhile ago, and being the procrastinators, we did not start doing it until last week.  I had given Logan a few suggestions, and he decided on Q-tips.  He wanted to make a castle with them and we thought it was a good idea.  Stuart and Logan later came up with the idea of adding a flag with “120” for the celebration.  I suggested Logan to paint the Q-tips with the color he chose, and over the weekend, we finally got started on the artwork.  I assisted Logan in painting some of the Q-tips.  Then Logan created a drawing of the castle with a Minecraft cloud, some laser beams, and a magic ring inside the castle all by himself.  Finally the next day, Logan, with my assistance, glued the Q-tips onto the castle.  It was Logan’s idea to make the gate the way it looked and I think it looks awesome.  Logan was a bit shy but was proud to bring his artwork to school today.  Everyone’s art pieces will be displayed in their room for this special day.

   Just a side note, Logan did a President’s project in February.  He had to present it in class afterward too.  We just got it returned to us, and Logan did full points for his work.

     I had an appointment yesterday to enroll Connor into the Kindergarten Program for Fall.  I brought along all the verification paperwork that Stuart prepared for me, but unfortunately the registration could not proceed.  I was told that Connor needed to have a TB skin test done.  He is considered at high risk because I have a history of a positive TB skin test.  I picked Connor up from school slightly earlier than usual and arrived to Campbell before the Pedi clinic closed.  The receptionist and the nurse talked with Connor for a little bit, and he answered them nicely with short answers.  When it was time to get the injection in, I sat Connor on my lap and held his arm still as instructed.  Both Connor and I stared down at the needle while the nurse barely punctured his skin and injected the fluid.  Connor did not make any noise or even flinch; he just sat very still and waited for further instruction.  The nurse then offered him some stickers to choose and Connor was happy to do so.  Since he was so brave, he was told he could get as many as he liked, and he stopped after four stickers.  As we were walking away from Pedi, Connor kept his arm very still and told me “Mommy, it starts to hurt”.  His voice was a bit shaky and I thought he was going to cry.  I appraised him how brave he was and distracted him by suggesting to go to the bathroom, and it worked.  When we saw Stuart later, Connor was so proud to tell him that “Daddy, it did not hurt at all”.  Connor is definitely one little brave boy!

    One of the things we did over the weekend was shopping at a toy store to use part of the boys’ red envelope money, and of course, they were thrilled.  Logan was thinking about a Lego set, but he wanted to browse around the store.  Connor did not really have much in mind, but was happily looking and playing with different toys.  We finally migrated to the Lego area.  Logan is still not very good with his monetary values, so he contemplated between many different models.  He finally made a decision and was very happy with a Star War set with Stormtroopers.  Connor suddenly thought about a Transformer; with the help from Stuart, he was pleased to find one to take home.   They both went up to the cashier and paid for the toys with their own money.  They were giggly with the whole process.

    After dinner, Logan was still thinking about the Lego set and opted out of playing King of Tokyo with us to start putting it together.  For the first time, Logan was putting the entire set on his own and he was doing great.  He occasionally came check on us on the game, but otherwise, he was quite focused building the Lego.  We all joined him when our game was finished, and we were proud to see how grown up Logan is now.  In the meantime, Connor and I figured out how to transform his Transformer, and Connor had fun playing with it.  The two boys had a good time with their own purchases.

    One thing Logan brought home from the winter camp was a couple of Rainbow Loom bracelets.  Since I had learned how to put one together from one of Logan’s classmates once, we tried it on our own.  Logan learned it quickly and put together another bracelet and a long rope too.  He enjoyed wearing all of them over the weekend.

     Logan came back safe today from the longest field trip he had taken thus far.  Honestly Stuart and I were a bit nervous about this field trip.  We worried if Logan would feel motion sickness or if he needed to use the bathroom during the long bus ride up to the San Francisco Exploratorium.  The actual location visit we were not too worried as we know Logan would follow instructions there.  Logan was very excited in the morning; he quickly changed his clothes and put on the camp t-shirt when he woke up.  He then held on dearly to the ten dollars that he was going to bring with him for a possible souvenir purchase.  We arrived at the classroom on time, and he quickly said goodbye to me.

     When we picked Logan up at the end of the day, he looked tired.  The extended care teachers let us know that the kids just barely returned from the field trip.  The bus ride was very slow; it took two hours to return from San Francisco, everyone seemed tired.  After some questioning to Logan later, we found out that his favorite part of the day was buying things at the gift shop.  He showed us the pen and a puzzle stamper that he purchased and the change he brought back.  His second favorite part was the dance floor at the Exploratorium.  He said they ate their lunches outdoors and he saw three ships.  For the drive, they were able to sit anywhere in the bus, and he sat with a staff member.  He took a nap on the way home.  Everyone had a partner to stay with, and he happened to pair with a boy, named Victor, who was in Logan’s soccer team before.  There was one thing Logan made a more personal comment to; “The boy was weird.  He kept wandering off on his own, but he always comes back later”.  Logan did not show too much excitement, but we know that he had fun today.  Tomorrow will be the last day of this winter camp; this week has certainly gone by quite fast.

      I had yesterday off to do some studying but it also gave me an opportunity to clean up the house to prepare for New Year.  I also made the vegetarian dish that I put together every year for the special day.  After the chores were all done, Stuart and I picked up the boys to head out for a Chinese dinner for the New Year Eve tradition.  We decided to try a relatively local restaurant this time.  It was not that busy there as its clients were mainly non-Asian, but the food was tasty.  All of us had a good appetite and ate a lot; the boys enjoyed some chocolate coins I brought for them afterward too.  We had overheard the neighboring table was celebrating a lady’s 98th birthday there, and so on our way out, we said Happy Birthday to her.  She was so thrilled that she gave the boys both a kiss on their hands.  It was funny that the boys were giggly wondering who this lady was and why they got a kiss from her.

    When we were home, we decided to let the boys try out the Chinese outfits I purchased.  They loved wearing them as they felt like they were doing Kung Fu.  They were even happier when Stuart and I gave them each a red envelope for New Year!  Logan was glad to take part of the money for his field trip today, and Connor is keeping the money for latter use.

    This morning as I was giving new tops for the boys to wear for the day, Connor requested to wear his Chinese top again.  He said he wanted to be Kung Fu Panda.  After he changed, he became slightly worried that he would be out of place at school.  However, Connor ended up wearing the top all day and enjoyed getting attention from all the teachers.