This was the third week of basketball league, and Logan is still enjoying it.  After school, at home he will practice dribbling and shooting, but is still excited for the “real basketball game”.  I saw the videos Stuart captured from the practice last night.  Logan was a bit less timid when the ball came to him.  I was quite impressed watching the guarding drill where Logan did well trying to guard the other boy.  The funny thing was seeing how goofy he was in those videos, so he must be feeling relaxed during the practice. 

  This morning’s game was early, thus Logan did not have a chance to play his Xbox game first but he was totally fine with that.  Connor and I decided not to go watch, so I had to hear the details from Stuart later.  Logan had lots of energy; he ran around the gym waiting for his team and coach to arrive.  He seemed to have fun during the game and ran a lot just like last week.  Logan did not have possession of the ball too much as he did not rebound and most of the players do not like to pass.  However, Logan attempted three shots and made two baskets.  I could tell Logan was proud of himself as Stuart informed me of his progress.

     I forgot to blog about this from last week.  I received a call from the school office letting me know that Logan had a fall.  According to the office lady, Logan hugged a friend too hard, lost balance and fell down.  He was fine after just a little icing.  Logan is a hugger these days at home; he hugs us like a monkey on a tree sometimes.  But I was a bit surprised to hear that he gives big hugs at school too.   At dinner that night when we asked Logan about the incident, he told us that Colton hugged him and he fell down after losing balance.  He sounded very sincere plus we know that Colton is a hugger too, so this version of the story sounded a bit more believable.

     We have gotten into a routine of taking the kids out for exercise at least once a week.  Today we all agreed to play basketball and tennis.  While Stuart and Logan started with basketball, Connor rode his bike around the school and I fast walked with him.  Connor rode quite well without much help from me, and he liked to lead too.  Logan was excited to do one-on-one basketball with Daddy after he learned about the term.  Logan did well according to Stuart and he did not really want to stop to move onto tennis.  After riding, Connor and I moved onto tennis as well.  We played with the boys for a little, then when they had their snack, Stuart and I played for a bit too.

     This afternoon we spent lots of time in the yard.  Stuart cleaned up some dead plants while I replaced them with the new ones we purchased.  Connor really wanted to help, so he was in charge of watering.  Logan was the one who picked the yellow annuals for the front, so he paid attention to them when I planted them.  While we worked, Logan and Connor played on their own.  Logan has become quite efficient walking around on the little slope in our backyard.  We also put Logan in charge to help Connor when they were up there; it was cute to see Logan holding Connor’s hand through the steeper parts.  We continued to stay out there until we finished barbequing and were ready to go inside to eat.  We all were exhausted from being on our feet all day.

     At the second practice on Friday, Logan learned about the “real basketball” (league games) and received a jersey.  According to Stuart, Logan was quite excited with the jersey and was proud to wear it.  When Logan woke up this morning, he was still excited as he told me that we had to arrive super early for the “real basketball”. 

     Logan was quite cheery and energized when we arrived at the gym.  He joined the team to warm up, then the game began.  Logan was on the bench initially along with two other boys.  The game was a lot more organized than I could imagine.  The kids all seemed to know the concept of the game quite well, but of course they were not being called for fouls much.  There were a few better players too.  The teams switched players every few minutes or so.  Logan looked serious when he was in and he tried to fit in as much as he could.  He was running back and forth with the teams and he was standing next to the boy that he was supposed to guard.  He had the possession of the ball several times, and every time he dribbled a few and passed it onto his teammates.  He was not assertive; he did not try to steal or rebound and he did not have the opportunity to shoot the basket.  He even ducked once when the ball was over him.  But we were proud to see him running back and forth and appeared happy to be in it.  We could not believe that the game actually lasted almost the entire hour.  I was tired just from sitting there for awhile.  Afterward, Logan enjoyed sharing snacks with his teammates, and so did Connor too.

      I was worried that we had to take Logan to the dentist to remove his other bottom incisor as it was not moving much.  However the past few days it had become more wiggly.  Logan was excited and had been trying to wiggle it whenever he could.  Today, it was finally hanging by a thread, and it came out during bathtime brushing as I expected.  We got hold of the tooth this time and the boys had fun looking at it.  Logan was happy losing this second tooth as he was probably excited for the dollar that he might get.  For the first dollar, he contemplated for a few days and finally bought a snack at school which he enjoyed greatly.  I am going to retire from being the tooth fairy and will leave it up to Stuart from now on.

    Scottie turns 19 today.  The boys suggested that we buy a cake and enjoy it on his behalf.  Dora and Gloria also made a nice picture card of Scottie and mailed over a card for him too. 

    Scottie is an old and lazy cat these days.  He sleeps a lot and he goes between the couch in the family room and his bed in the garage.  During the day, he still goes outdoors to hang out but for shorter period of times now.  He will hang out with us in the backyard if we are out there.  If we try to bring him up to the bonus room while we are there, he will migrate downstairs to return to the couch.  Nowadays, we try to give Scottie as much wet food as he wants to prevent him from losing more weight.  His taste has changed and he is very picky now.  He used to love tuna, now he does not care too much for it.  He likes canned salmon, chicken and the Vietnamese pork roll.  He loves the fish/meat only if it is right out of the fridge, so I only give him a little bit of a time.  He knows when we go to the kitchen and follows us there; he will wait until he gets his treats.  He will stand in the middle in the kitchen and totally be in the way. 

    The boys do not pay too much attention to Scottie except when they are all sitting down watching TV.  Both of them love to have Scottie sit on them.  They will ask us to put the blanket on their legs and place Scottie on them.  The boys will remain very still so Scottie will not leave.  This morning I said Happy Birthday to Scottie, then Connor reminded me that Scottie can’t hear.  Instead Stuart pantomimed a song of Happy Birthday to Scottie.