Today was Logan’s turn for the winter performance at school.  Connor has been asking us to pick him up to watch it, but unfortunately the show time was at his naptime.  Yesterday when Connor asked us again to pick him up for the show, Logan suddenly denied it.  He kept saying he did not want Connor there, and at the end, he explained that he worried Connor would go up on the stage to sing with them.

     Stuart and I both arrived at the school quite early; we just hung out in the cafeteria to wait for the performance.  The group came walking in from the back of the room right at start time and they marched up onto the stage.  Logan did not really smile; he looked so serious and concentrating throughout the entire performance.  I could tell that he occasionally glanced at us from the corner of his eyes, but the rest of the time he was focusing on his teacher who was guiding them.  They sang a few songs, did a poem and a drill.  Logan did fine and was participating but quietly.  One song got the parents all cheering as one of the boys did a funny solo dance which was quite cute.   At the end of the show, the children bowed to us several times, and they received a huge applause from the audience.

    We took a couple of group photos, then we returned to the classroom to pick up a gift from the children.  They had handmade ornaments with their school pictures for the parents.  Logan showed us around the classroom, and pointed out some of his artwork.  We chatted a little bit with other parents, and took some more photos.  Then the kids went on to recess while we said goodbyes.

     We received report cards for both boys by mail yesterday.  These report cards definitely are not as informative as a parent teacher conference, but we got a ball park idea how they are doing at school. 

     We were quite pleased to learn that Logan is doing well.  He received “excellent” and “satisfactory” in all categories, and no “need improvement”.  However I do know that it was a close call on one of the categories.  I saw Logan’s teacher recently and she asked if Logan is reading to us everyday.  She felt that Logan’s fluency in reading seemed to have declined slightly, and therefore, she encouraged Logan to read more.  She mentioned that she did eventually decide to give Logan a “satisfactory”.  Other than academic, I was happy to see that Logan “relates well with others” and “participates willingly”. 

     Connor seems to do fine too.  We definitely notice how much he has learned on letters and sounds just the past couple of months.  He often answers my question of “what is the first letter of this word?” correctly.  I think it is funny that he participates in dancing “All the time”.

     Connor has been very excited about his performance and we have been talking about it quite a bit.  He told us about how many songs the class would be singing and he was adamant that we should be clapping only once in between songs.  Logan was excited for him that he had been reminding me to pick him up to watch the show too.  Stuart and I planned our day to ensure that we had plenty of time for it, but as I mentioned previously, the leaking pipe had forced Stuart to stay home.  I gathered my cameras to get to school and I arrived quite early.  I walked in to the classroom; the teachers and the students were getting ready.  Connor was so happy and came running to me, then he asked for daddy and showed a little bit of disappointment.  But he was happy again when I told him I would pick up Logan and return to watch him. 

     The good seats were all taken, so Logan and I tried our best to find seats where he could watch and I could film.  The class finally arrived and Connor had a shy smile on his face.  He followed the group nicely and stood in his position.  Unfortunately Connor was mostly blocked by the front row from where we were seating.  Connor was holding hands with his partner Alton as he was told but he was leaning against the chalkboard the entire time (maybe for security or something).  He periodically tilted his head to look for me and gave me a smile, but he looked a little bit scared initially.  But after a couple of songs, he looked slightly more relaxed, appeared singing a little bit and smiling most of the time.  I was happy to see more of him when the front row sat down on the ground briefly later.  Logan was a bit distracted during the show.  There was so many parents filming and someone was using a Tablet which captured Logan’s attention most of the time.  The class went through 9 songs (some very short).  There were not too much movement altogether, and Connor along with half of the class was mostly standing still.  But overall the show was still very cute.

     When the performance was over, the Headmaster introduced the teachers, and they all stood together for a quick group photo.  Then the surprised guest Santa appeared.  The kids were surprised and delighted to see him.  They took turns going up and talk with him.  Connor went up when it was his turn; he remained quiet but did say “I don’t know” when he was asked what he liked for Christmas and said “yes” to the candy cane.  He then came over to us and he almost immediately became more relaxed and back to his louder self.  We took a few photos in the classroom and picked up his gift to us before going home. 

    The video was not blog-worthy as it was filmed at a bad angle and you could not see Connor most of the time.

     Things are taking turns to break or need replacement in the house.   Our clothes washer did not tolerate the multiple moves.  It took the machine guy quite awhile and he finally had it repaired when we first moved in, but it somehow gave up again and this time Stuart did not think it would worth any more investment in it.  So he researched and we have a new machine coming in another week.  In the meantime, we tried to wash clothes only as we must and I made a five-load run at a laundromat this weekend. 

     Then next we have been trying to find a new dishwasher since the one in the house is very noisy, old, missing parts, and not cleaning well.  Stuart found a good sale on a nice one, so he and I made a couple trips to Lowe’s today and got it ordered.  Then this afternoon, just before we planned to go to the school, we suddenly needed another emergency repair.  Stuart noticed a small burst pipe in the sideyard, and he had to turn off the main water source to stop the leak.  Because of that, Stuart was forced to skip out on the highly anticipated Connor’s Christmas Sing to find repair.  So far, we had to turn on the water main only for a limited time and only when we have to.  The repair guy will be out in the morning, and we hope this leak can be fixed soon.  We still have all the blinds on our priority list to be fixed next.

    It was quite cold this weekend that we preferred to stay indoors.  Other than going to dinner with my relatives for my step-mom’s farewell and some shopping, we stayed in the house.  We also needed to decorate the house for Christmas.  Stuart bought a tree during the week and we decorated it together on Saturday.  I placed the lights first, then all four of us put up the ornaments.  The boys were quite helpful this year; I hooked up the ornaments, and they placed them on the tree.  They both were excited to have a beautiful tree.  They also helped by putting up our stockings.  Beyond that, Connor took the next step and went around the house decorating with some red garlands; he was very pleased with his own work, so much so that we have not the heart to remove them.  Later Stuart spent some chilling time outside putting up lights around the house.  The boys tried out their cold weather outfits and had fun running around in the front yard for a little bit.  Its finally starting to look a lot like Christmas.

     Logan and Connor played quite well together.  They spent lots of time building tinker toys and making all kinds of things to show off to us.  They also finally wrote their letters to Santa.  Logan has been very consistent asking for Batman 2 Xbox game.  Connor had mentioned a couple of times previously that he would like to ask for ice cream and toys.  But when we were writing the letter, he did not know what to ask for.  He was fine when I suggested writing a request for toys.

     This morning I left the house earlier than usual with the boys as I had an important meeting at work.  I was happy with the timing when I left, and the boys were drawing in their spiral notebooks and chatting about their drawings with each other in the backseat.  When we were just a few blocks from school, Logan suddenly said his neck hurt.  I suggested that maybe he had slept funny and I could just massage him when we arrived at school.  Logan was fine with the suggestion.  Then the next minute, he said he needed to “choke”.  Fortunately we were at a quiet residential street and I immediately pulled over.  The only thing I found to grab was the little trash bin and Logan threw up into it.  His entire breakfast came out and some dripped out between the gaps in the bin.  I grabbed a blanket to put under the bin but it was too late as a little bit of vomit got on his sweater.  I tried to clean up as well and quickly as I could.  Logan wanted to go home as he thought he was sick.  I reassumed him that it could be just too much breakfast he had since he had been feeling ok.  I proceeded to drop them off at school after changing his outer layer as I had to make the meeting, but I called Stuart to bring a backup uniform sweater and to check on Logan.  As I was driving I did recall Logan was drawing in the car which had not agreed with his motion sickness in the past either.  Stuart later confirmed Logan being fine at school; he was working on his board work when Stuart dropped off the sweater for him.

    Tonight, just right at the start of dinner, Logan complained of a pain in his left knee.  He could not get comfortable; he complained so much that he finally sat on my laps to finish up his food.  Logan was not happy putting any weight on the leg so he just sat the rest of the evening with us reading to him.  He then had to be carried into the bath and into bed.  While we were reading, Logan even started to tear when I touched his leg.  He started to cry and wanted daddy.  Stuart spent a little time with him before Logan fell asleep. 

     We recalled Logan having leg pain another time recently which disappeared in the morning.  We truly hope that tonight was another incidence of this possible growing pain.  We will see how he is in the morning.