The four of us went to Logan’s first basketball game of the season on Saturday morning.  Logan was a bit nervous before we left the house and asked me to watch other teammates to play but not him.  When we arrived at the gym, Logan seemed fine and started warming up with others.  The game started and Logan was one of the first two on the bench.  Whenever Logan was in the game, he hustled back and forth with the team.  He had possessions of the ball a few times and he would quickly passed away with some good passes.  However he was, as usual, not assertive and not trying hard to get rebound or trying to score.  We also noticed that he was on the bench several times, and appeared more often than his teammates.  The game overall was good.  Most of the kids tried their best and we noticed that some star players.

    After the game, we all gathered outside for snacks.  Stuart introduced himself to the coach and talked a bit with him.  It turned out that Logan had asked the coach to be on the bench during the game.  We will see how the rest of the season will go.

    After we took a quick lunch at home, Logan and I had to rush out for the Physics Show.  I had purchased the tickets awhile back after learning about it from Michelle.  Connor was very sad that he was not old enough to go to this big kid show and asked if we could videotape the show for him which I had to deny him.  We arrived at the Foothill College and happened to park next to Michelle while she and Mckayla were getting out of the car.  I woke Logan up as he had fallen asleep, and we all walked into the auditorium.  There were a lot of people there and we quickly found our seats.  We had to move around our seats a couple of times to ensure Mckayla and Logan could see the stage without being blocked.  We chatted a little then the show began.  Two physicists and two students ran the show and they did their best to entertain the crowd.  The topics of the show were electricity, temperature and pressure.  They showed experiments to teach the subjects and tried to show practical things to our daily living.  Michelle and I found the show quite educational, but the materials might be slightly over the head for the young kids.  Logan moved around quite a bit on his seat and often leaned against me.  He asked about how much longer the show would last and asked me to let him when the next action would be.  He did perk up for most of the experiments and found them fascinating.  The show lasted an hour and 15 minutes; we said bye to Michelle and Mckayla at the parking lot and drove home.  When we were home, I was more excited to tell Stuart about the show than Logan was and he was just excited to play the Minecraft game.

    We signed Logan up for another basketball league, and the start of the season was postponed from December to now.  Logan did not seem as interested in basketball lately as he often chose to play soccer when given choices.  But when he and I walked into the gym at school, he seemed interested and wanted to find the team and coach.  Once we said hi to the new coach, Logan happily received the ball from him and started doing warm-up.  Logan has matured a lot these days and does not mind joining into new things straight away.  He was polite with his shooting and tried not to run into others.  The practice began when all four girls and four boys arrived.  The coach talked with the kids for awhile, and somehow he really got their attention.  They warmed up then started their drills.  All the kids were in similar levels and they all tried doing their best.  Logan did fine with everything and made many baskets throughout the practice.  He must be having fun too as he occasionally made some dance moves while waiting for his turns in line.  Overall, I was surprised how well and attentive all the kids behaved with a new coach today. 

    After the practice, Logan was so happy to receive his jersey.  When I was talking to him on our drive home, Logan said the new coach was nice.  One thing he added was that the new coach did not speak as loud as his previous basketball coach and so he had to stay close to hear the instruction.  Maybe this was the secret of capturing the kids’ attention.

     Connor started back at school today, and he never found out that Logan had no school.  I was worried that Connor might be clingy when we dropped him off in the morning, but to my surprise, Connor was totally happy despite there being a little boy screaming for his parent in the classroom.  Connor said Happy New Year to his teacher, said bye to me and gave a big hug to Logan, then he was off to join his classmates. 

     Logan and I had plans for the morning.  We drove to the hospital to purchase a sports eyeglasses for him.  Logan was very excited but disappointed that the glasses would take 7-10 days before they would be available.  Afterward we hung out at Starbucks for an hour.  While there Logan wrote a few Thank You cards and worked on some math exercises, and of course he enjoyed a sweet treat with a cup of milk.  I also had the pleasure of reading a novel with some coffee while helping Logan periodically.  We then picked up some grocery and lunch before going home to eat.

    The rest of the day Logan got his wish to play some electronic games in between his quiet time and a soccer break he and I took in the backyard.  Logan initially wanted to play his recent favorite Minecraft, but after realizing that Stuart could not play with him, he resorted to a tablet game.  Later while I made dinner, Logan spent a little bit of computer time on his school’s math program.  By 5pm, Logan and I took off to go to his first basketball practice for the season.  We had a relatively relaxing and productive day together.  Logan and I will both have to return to our weekday routine tomorrow.

It has been awhile since we played tennis, so we suggested to do that this morning and Logan added his suggestion of soccer too.   We paired up in teams as us our usual way and started hitting some tennis balls.  Logan did fine starting off and had a few good returns.  Connor had some good swings when I dropped the balls nearby for him.  He also had fun running around attempting to make contact with some incoming balls.  Connor always has a smile on his face when he is playing, whether he is hitting or missing.  Stuart and I had some volleys on our own while the boys took a snack.  They came back for second round and they had fun trying their best again.  Then we moved on to soccer.  We were at the local high school, and they have a nice soccer field too.  Since the goal was available, we set up shop there.  Logan and Connor both wanted to be the goalies and had Stuart and I take shots at them.  Later we switched positions.  We ran around a lot and I could start feeling my leg ache from all the kicking and shooting.  At some point, we added throwing the American football into the mix.  Stuart and Connor were tossing the ball around while Logan and I continued shooting soccer.  We switched up, and Stuart and I tried some long tosses.  By then, we were at the school for over an hour and a half, and I was getting tired.  Connor was the first one to suggest going home, so we all packed up even though Logan still wanted to play more soccer.  My body was definitely sore all over by the afternoon, but it appears that I am the only one who is complaining about being tired. 

     With the late night, the boys slept in but just until 7:25am for Logan and 7:40am for Connor.  We had a low key day today.  Logan started with his new Minecraft XBox game in the morning while Connor played with the Tablet.  Later Connor joined Logan to play the Marvel game.  Connor is getting better with the controller and the game, and the boys giggled while they played.  For the duration, Stuart and I enjoyed our coffee and breakfast downstairs.  Once it was warmer outside, we encouraged the boys to step outside the house for a quick walk and play some basketball.  When we came back into the house, the boys asked to play our new learned board game, King of Tokyo.  This was the second time we played all together and it was a lot of fun as we finally got the hang of it. 

    In afternoon we tried more games.  I attempted to put together a puzzle with the boys that they received yesterday, but I lost them quickly later.  Stuart then joined us and moved on to Jenga.  The boys were excited and became quite jumpy.  Logan ended up knocking down the first tower with his foot.  He got nervous and forfeited toward the beginning of the second game.  Connor was happy and fidgety too, but he managed to do his best and kept in the game for a long time.  Stuart and I were surprised how long the 2nd game lasted and the tower finally fell down when it was quite tall.  Logan was in a bit of a huff as he did not participate, but he finally joined Connor and I in a Sequence game.  Today we also managed to start writing some Thank You cards for the Christmas presents.  The new year started on a nice homey way for us.

    We partied at the Merons on New Year’s Eve where they invited the usual crowd.  We arrived before 5pm with homemade dessert and snack, and we were the second family there.  We started chatting and eating with the adults while the boys just went off to play.  As the evening came, more people arrived and more champagne bottles opened for Mimosa.  We all ended up hanging out at the kitchen and the kids grabbed some snacks to eat every time they passed by us.  The kids all received a new year gift from the host and they were happy to look through them.  The rest of the evening, they spent quite a bit of time watching shows on a Tablet and later on TV together.  Logan had brought one of his Minecraft books; at some point, he was happily showing and discussing it with Rohan.  Connor spent some time using one of the girls’ iPad to play games.  All the kids did not really eat that much as they were busy playing, but when the adults took out the desserts, the kids were interested.  We enjoyed the spread of sweets we had there and we were all stuffed.  During the night, Raz and later Bar allowed me to braid their hair which was fun.  Connor thought that Raz looked like Elza. 

      We had planned to be a party pooper and not stay past midnight as we did not want the kids to stay up that late plus we liked to relax at home to ring into the new year.  So after hanging out a bit longer, we wished everyone Happy New Year and left after 10:30pm.  We drove home and quickly got the boys ready for bed.  Logan was very tired, but they still wanted to read a couple of books.  They were down by 11:30pm, and Stuart and I relaxed comfortably and rang into the new year together.