The forecast suggested nice weather for today, so Josh organized another soccer practice a few days ago.  However, the day did not turn out that way; it stayed foggy and cold the majority of the day.  It was even sprinkling early in the morning.  But since we had committed to attend, we packed up snacks, but not lunch, to go to the park. 

    It was cold in the open, and the grass was slightly wet, but overall it was still fine for the practice.  Logan was average self today, the usual slight clinginess but did follow the coach’s instruction.  Connor is not part of the team, but he was very excited to follow what everyone was doing.  I kept him on the side without interfering others, but allowed him to copy the activities.  He participated in warm up even better than Logan did; he was stretching while smiling the whole time.  He did “Red light, Green Light” and stopped whenever told to do so.  He wanted to hold hands with others when they did the Ring Around the Rosie drill, so Stuart and I held hands with him in between us; he managed to keep up for a little bit.  When others were doing other harder drills, Connor just went back and forth dribbling the ball to the goal.  He was doing some very nice kicks.  Funny that this boy always knows his limit; after we dribbled for awhile, he suddenly picked up the ball, walked all the way back to our basket to put it away, and said “Done” to me.  We watched the practice to the end, and all the kids went to play at the structures.  Stuart had a chance to play basketball for a bit, and Connor wanted to join in too.  Later, we switched as Logan wanted to sit and watch Stuart while Connor went back to the playground.  Afterward, we went to grab lunch at a sandwich shop with one of the families, said our goodbyes and headed home for a nap.  The practice still turned out well despite the not so nice weather.

     Logan eats very slowly all the time.  He takes tiny bites, and eats like a bird.  He often says that he will choke if he takes too big of a bite.  Logan is always the last to finish at the table every night.  This morning at breakfast, Logan took 45 minutes to eat a small square of grilled cheese/egg sandwich which definitely made the record.  While we were eating out at a Chinese restaurant tonight, Logan was totally enjoying his latest favorites, potstickers and egg rolls along with some veggies.  Even with something he loves, he still took a long time to finish, so the rest of us had to just hang out at the table waiting on him. 

     We went to Rohan’s house this morning to play.  Last night when I told the boys about the plan for today, Logan had the biggest smile. Connor asked “Raz?” and was very happy too after I confirmed that Raz would be there as well.  When we arrived, all the kids started playing together, initially at their bouncy house then later inside the house.  They played so well that all of the adults just sat and talked the majority of the time.  Stuart and I worried about their ability with stairs, so we would watch closely when Connor was using them.  The kids were able to eat their lunch in front of the TV which they all loved.  After few hours of playing, we suddenly heard Logan cry sadly; when I rushed upstairs, I saw that Logan was crying and Rohan was hugging him.  Rohan kept saying that he had already said sorry.  Logan explained that Rohan slammed the door at him and he pointed to his head where it got hurt.  Logan was fine shortly lately, but poor Rohan was teary eyed for a bit as he felt so guilty.  Logan sat out for awhile but wanted to return to play afterward.  By then, we knew it was getting late for their nap, so we had to give them a last call of playtime.

    Both boys were tired during the drive home.  I managed to tickle Connor through the drive to keep him up, so I could enjoy a late nap with him.

   My request for a day off today was denied, so I had to work and Stuart took on solo duty of the two kids.  While I was eating breakfast with the boys in the morning, I prepared them that I had to leave for work and they would have a fun day with daddy; Connor whined a bit and kept saying “No, Mommy”.  But when it was time to say goodbye, he was good and allowed me to kiss him goodbye without any fussing. 

   According to Stuart, the boys were very cooperative and did not give him any trouble.  In the morning they went to a local park to play.  Logan and Connor were playing together on the apparatus; they would take turn sliding down and chasing the other.  Logan seemed more confident in climbing different structures, and Connor tried to follow him without being too reckless.  They also did lots of walking; they walked the entire perimeter of the park.  Stuart had to pick Connor up just a few times to catch him up with Logan.  In the afternoon, they did more walking again; they walked down the neighborhood block.  When they returned, they ran into the neighbors who were just about to start a walk to look at houses with Christmas lights already up, so the boys joined them and walked some more. 

     When I came home from work, Connor was so excited to share with me that they were “outside” today.  Logan told me that they “exercised”.

     We had a lazy day today; we did not get out of the house until after 11am.  Since the weather was very nice, we took the kids to the local school playground to ride bikes.  Initially Logan was not interested to ride, but he was fine once he got started.  He seemed to enjoy having the big open area; he was making rounds and racing fast at times.  Due to some uneven grounds, Logan occasionally needed some pushes to get started.  Connor was having fun too while being pushed by one of us.  He usually rested his feet on the foot stands, but occasionally had them on the peddles.  Later on, he asked not to be pushed and used his legs to peddle himself on the ground instead.  The boys actually biked for awhile before we moved on the playground.

    After nap, we went for a walk down the street while the dinner being cooked in the oven. They brought one soldier each with them and had fun stopping periodically playing on fences or rocks.  For dinner, I made a traditional turkey Thanksgiving meal with a substitution of honey baked sweet potatoes instead of the mashed potatoes for the boys.  Logan liked the turkey with gravy and sweet potatoes; he had quite a big portion of them.  Connor is not as good of an eater lately, but he managed to have some turkey and green bean casserole.  I wanted to show them the traditional meal, so I ended the dinner with a pumpkin pie too.  I did not expect them to like it, but both Logan and Connor enjoyed the pie with some whipped cream on top. 

     Yesterday, Stuart taught Logan the meaning of Thanksgiving and we have been asking him what he was thankful for.  He copied us and said that he was thankful for our family, but he added a few more things on his own, Star Wars, “Ghostie” (his new little stuffed toy), Scottie, Auntie Dora and Grandma.  With that, we ended a very nice day.  Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!

    When I went home to New Mexico, I went through some of my family’s old albums and brought one home with me.  The album is getting very old and the pictures are fading, so I asked Stuart to scan a few of them to keep our memories.

These are a couple of pictures when my dad and my birth mom got married.

Here are a few photos of Yvonne and I. 

The following were taken at my uncle’s wedding.

This was my kindergarten picture; I was less than 5 year old when this picture was taken.  Can you find me?

These were taken at Gloria and Dora’s school birthday celebrations.  We thought it was funny that there were so many cakes for the school kids.

Lastly, these were our school pictures.

All the scanned photos are also in the photo album.