I got a call twenty minutes after end of school on Wednesday.  It was from the school office reminding me to pick up Logan; I was so surprised by the call and immediately told her that Logan should be going to CDC.  She understood and sent Logan over to CDC.  Shortly after, the teacher sent an email to inform that Logan thought he was supposed to be picked up by daddy that day and so she wanted to confirm the days Logan should go to CDC.   I also had the Art Vista training in the morning so I had dropped Logan off in the morning at line up rather than the normal CDC.  Logan must have been confused by the change of routine. 

    By the end of the day, we asked Logan about the incidence.  He really thought that Stuart was going to pick him up.  He said he waited with the teacher and helped her with some clean up in the classroom until the teacher walked him to the office.  After the office lady called me, then he was told to go to CDC.  Stuart and I are worried about this incidence, so we have to do a better job in reminding him where to go after school.

    It has been five weeks now since school began.  Logan has gotten more adjusted to the new environment, and seems to like the class better.  But we are not too sure about CDC yet.  Logan has mentioned that he prefers staying in class than going to CDC, and he definitely would choose going home instead of CDC.  The reason mainly as Logan enjoys some new game time recently.  After doing homework, Logan has learned how to play the Memoir 44 board game.  This was the game Stuart and I used to play, and it is for ages 8+.  The game takes time to set up and it requires some thinking or strategy to win.  Logan is quite patient helping set up and I was surprised how well he understands the rules.  He just needs some guidance to tell him what the cards say and how many units to order, and he often manages to take the next step.  He had had several good wins so far.  We are happy that Logan enjoys these kind of games.

    A couple of weeks ago, we decided to try something new with Logan.  We noticed that Logan was not listening too well at soccer.  He would follow the instructions to some extent, but preferred to kick around instead.  So Stuart used Logan’s current interest of the “PC tank game” and suggested that Logan can earn tokens for playtime.  It has been working quite well as Logan is now listening to the coach better and trying his best in both practices and games.  He is still a defensive player and loves defending the goal rather than making one.  He knows his teammates better now, and starts to play with them more.  At the last practice, he was goofing around and giggling with another boy a lot, and needed reminders from the coach to focus back on the scrimmage game.  But I think the idea of tokens is still helping the situation.

    At school, Logan has been sharing with us how the students are being color coded depending on their behaviors.  He has been telling us how there have been many students turning yellow, and even some blues and rarely some reds.  He has been staying green except last Friday when he told Stuart that it was a bad day as he turned yellow.  He told us that it was because he forgot to write his name on one of the school works.  We thought the reason seemed strange, but assumed Logan was just confused and misunderstood the reason.  But on the same day, Logan received a pencil as an award for being “Being a Graystone Great!”.  Since I saw the teacher after school today, I asked her briefly.  She said Logan was talking with a classmate and did not stop after some reminders, so he got a yellow.  I guess Logan is getting more comfortable in class now too.

    Doing homework has been a new routine for all of us.  Logan used to do his homework during the after school program at the previous school and we just needed to review them briefly with him.  Now the responsibility is on us and it has not been too easy.  Logan can be sloppy and inpatient at times, so Stuart or I have to be persistent with him to get all the work done.  It totally requires patience on our end.  Today I tried something different, making part of the work be a game, and it was a much better experience for both of us.

    We wanted to check out the Almaden Lake Park Art and Wine Festival on Sunday, and we tried to get out earlier as it was a hot day.  There were quite a lot of people there already when we arrived but we had no trouble parking or walking in.  Connor wanted to watch the performance so we walked through the booths to head that direction.  There was a choir singing and both boys just wanted to sit down to watch.  As it was close to 11am, we picked up some yummy skewers and settled down in a shaded area to enjoy the show while we ate.  Both boys loved the chicken so much that I had to go buy more for all of us.  While we were eating, we not only had the a rock band performing, there were some kid gymnasts practicing tumbling right in front of us.  It was a great entertainment.  Both kids, especially Connor, really did not want to leave the performance area when we were ready to walk around again.  We strolled through the rest of the booths, then we entered the children area.  The boys had considered playing at the bouncy houses but changed their minds.  They preferred watching some kids climbing the rock climbing wall instead.  Later as we were heading out, we picked up the beautiful sunflowers that they were given away.

    In the afternoon we wanted to hit to pool to cool off.  Connor was excited to go to the big pool but Logan still preferred the little kids pool.  Logan played with the water gun, then swam around a little bit.  He did not seem as engaged so he came out for a snack instead.  Afterward, we switched up; Connor returned to the big pool with me and Logan wanted to play ping pong with Stuart.  Connor liked jumping into the water while holding my hands, then he hung on my back and we walked along the pool several times.  It was some workout for me.  We stayed in the water for a long time, and it turned out that Stuart and Logan were still playing ping pong.  Logan did better this time and they actually had some good rallies.

    The girls and I had a dinner planned on Saturday night for Robyn’s upcoming birthday, and Ted invited the boys (including Stuart) to go over to hang out with them while I would be out.  All of us arrived their house shortly after 5pm.  Mckayla and Marcus were excited to show the boys and me their new play structure.   They were all playing there for awhile, and I hung out giving them pushes on the swings and chatting with them.  Mckayla and Marcus were both chatty and talked with us about many things.  Then Connor wanted to play hide and seek while Logan wanted to play tag.  Mckayla was opened to both initially but they ended up playing hide and seek.  I finally found a moment to sneak away to sit with the adults instead.  After few more minutes, Michelle and I got ready to go out.  Connor told me that he would miss me and wanted to give me a few hugs before we left.

    Michelle and I arrived at the restaurant and found Robyn and Julie at the table already.  Later Thuy and Theresa arrived too.  We had a nice evening together; we enjoyed the delicious meal and some fun conversations.  After a couple of hours of dining, we said goodbye to each other, then Michelle and I drove back to their house.  When we walked in, the boys were packing up and were so focus in looking for a toy gun that they barely remembered to say hi to us.  According to the, Stuart, Ted and the kids had a good night together; they enjoyed the homemade dinner Michelle made while watching football on TV.  Then the kids were playing nicely and quietly for awhile so the daddies could finish watching the game.  We all chatted just a little bit more. then we thanked the hosts and left to go home. During the drive home, Connor was still quite excited and wanted to share with me what they played.  He told me that they all played with Legos for awhile, and later Mckayla, Marcus and he played “family” while Logan continued to play with Legos.  Mckayla was the mommy, Marcus was the daddy, and Connor was the baby.  They also played “school” too.  They had a great time.

     We knew Logan had his first soccer game on Saturday and picture day on Sunday, but we did not find out the times until Friday (such last minute), therefore, we kept the entire weekend free for them.  The Saturday morning game was early at 9:15am, and Logan was excited for it.  We arrived at the field, then Logan joined the team.  The boys all looked so sharp with their team jerseys.  Logan’s team had fun running back and forth defending and trying to shoot.  Logan was engaged and enthusiastic, but also not too aggressive.  He did not try to get the ball too much but if the ball came close to him, he would give it a good kick.  He liked being the goalie and tried to guard the goal any opportunity he had.  It was fun watching this first game.  Some kids definitely showed some experience with soccer, and they did great. 

   Today we walked over to the local middle school for the picture day.  It was a huge event as there were so many teams in this league.  Logan hung with the boys while they waited for their turn, then they all had their individual pictures and the team picture taken.  After the picture event, we walked over the farmer market next block.  Logan sat and watched a musician singing and playing guitar while Connor came along with me to sample some nectarines.

   The rest of the weekend, we played some tennis and hockey, but the boys also wanted to play more soccer.  Both of them enjoy being the goalie, so we set up some rules so they could win their way to be the goalie.  We all had a good time playing together.

    There was a movie night at Logan’s school on Friday, and the boys were very excited about it.  Connor was especially happy as it was showing one of his favorites, Frozen.  Unfortunately Stuart had to work that night starting at 8pm, so the plan was just the three of us going to the movie.  After dinner we packed up some snacks, jackets, a blanket and flashlights, and we started our walk over to the school.  We arrived and found a spot for our blanket.  We looked around and Logan pointed out a few people he knows, one from CDC, one who he plays “Hula tag” with at recess, and Alexander from his class.  I asked if Logan would like to go say hi, but he chose not to and we settled down on our blanket.  One of Logan’s classmates passed by us; Logan cheerfully yelled out “Hi Jaime” and he got a big smile in return.  Finally the movie started and our snacking began too.  This was the first time for any of us watching an outdoor movie and we loved it.  The boys even pointed out that there were many stars in the sky.  Once it was dark, It was a little cold, but with us all bundled up and cuddled together, it was totally comfortable.  Everyone was enjoying the movie; when the “Let it Go” song came on, many people on the field started singing along which was so cool to hear.  Both Connor and I joined the fun while Logan continued watching and munching on snacks.  Some people packed up to leave before the movie ended, but we stayed until the end.  We packed up and started our walk home with a flashlight each.  Logan was so worried initially that Connor would get lost if he fell behind walking.  He ended up holding on to Connor’s hand for a little bit until we cleared the crowd.  The boys had fun shining the flashlights on our path and we played “following the leader” all the way home.