Logan did well with soccer practice today; besides a need for occasional hand holding, Logan followed the coach’s instruction well from warm up through all the drills.  His aim is definitely getting better, and he appeared more interested in practices nowadays. 

Afterward, we had a picnic lunch there as usual.  Logan was more chatty today.  Somehow we got into a conversation about what he wanted to be when he grows up.  I suggested Logan asking other kids the same question, and Logan actually asked each of them nicely with a complete sentence “What do you want to be when you grow up?”.  Nalini replied “scientist”, Sophie said “princess”, and Alex answered “doctor”.  Logan’s answer was “Ninja”, actually not just ninja, but the “black ninja”.

    We have never been to Oakland Zoo, so we decided to pay a visit today.  We heard about the sky ride, and how crowded it could get.  So as soon as we arrived the zoo, we purchased our tickets to get on it.  It was actually completely empty, so we had no lines nor wait.   Logan went with Stuart and Connor with me.  Once I hopped on the chair with Connor, I got slightly worried that maybe I did not really think it through; we were quite high up with our legs dangling.  Fortunately, Connor was very content sitting on me, looking around and pointing to different things.  Logan enjoyed the ride too; periodically looking back to Connor and I, and saying hello.  We caught a nice view of the zoo, and no one lost any shoes.  We then moved onto the main part of the zoo. Both Logan and Connor were a bit curious about seeing different animals, but really were not too passionate about it.  They seemed to enjoy playing with the children things that they had there instead.  Stuart and I did find a few of the things quite fascinating, one of them was seeing how big huge their bats were and how they were out in the bright sunlight.  After lunch, we waited in line for the train ride per the kids’ request.  It was a fun ride as we went through a different part of the zoo that we had not seen and we passed by many animals that were just right next to the track.  We had a nice visit for a few hours, and by then, the boys were ready to go home and had a good nap while driving home.

     Rohan came over to play this afternoon.  Because of the anticipation, Logan went down to nap quickly; even Connor was excited as he woke up only after an hour and a half of rest, and later kept pointing to the door waiting for our visitors.  The kids were all happy to see each other when Rohan and family arrived.  Logan just got a new Lego set today, so he wanted to share that with Rohan.  So the two big boys sat down to start playing with that.  Stuart reported that it was a bit hectic supervising two boys putting together the Lego set, but they finally did it.  Rohan moved on to another toy first, and Connor was being a good host and brought out toys to play with him.  Later on, all three boys had a lot of fun playing together including running inside the house in circles for about 15 mins.  I wonder if Logan misses seeing Rohan the past two school weeks.  According to the parents, when Rohan was asked in class what they missed the most from the past school year, Rohan answered “Logan”. 

     There was a workshop for the parents at Logan’s school tonight, so I left to attend after having dinner with the boys.  The headmaster along with the preschool and kindergarten teachers were there to welcome the parents.  The purpose of the workshop was to share with us how they teach the kids at school.  They use fun activities to incorporate materials for teaching, and they especially sing a lot of educational songs.  The teachers shared the things the kids will learn in preschool, and the things they will learn in kindergarten as well.  I guess since I was not taught English the proper way, I was a bit overwhelmed with all the phonic rules they talked about, however I did like their teaching methods.  One of the things they brought up was how they count by stacking up bears to ten, then I remembered how Logan has been asking for 10 teddy bears cookies after dinner, so he can stack them up.  I guess the learning has begun.

    When I got home, the boys had just finished the bath, so I made it just in time to say goodnight to Logan and put Connor to bed.

      After a few weeks of dealing with switching schools, we are now returning to a regular routine and I was able to attend my gym class today.  Stuart told the kids where I was after he picked them up from school.  When I returned home, Connor was so excited to see me, and he kept flopping his arms and saying a word that I did not recognize.  Then he said “Gym?”; I finally realized that he was imitating how he thinks I exercise and asking if I was at the gym.  I was surprised that he remembered what daddy told him.  During our bedtime reading, we went across a book showing some animals exercising.  Connor pointed to the page and said “Momma”, then he looked up to me and said “Gym!”.  I was again impressed how much he understands.

     Logan’s class has a show and tell on Mondays.  We were told to bring a book this week for Logan to talk about in front of his class.  So on Monday, Logan chose one of his recent favorite books, Ninjago, to bring to school.  At the end of the day, the teacher reported that Logan was happy to talk about the ninjas in the front of his class.  Logan was excited carrying the book home; when we arrived at Connor’s school to pick him up, he wanted to show the book to Connor’s teacher as well.  Later when we returned home, Logan brought the book over to our neighbor to also show them.  We tried to ask Logan specifics about what he shared in class, but all he told us was the first sentence “My name is Logi Brown”.