I seldom have to take care of the two kids by myself, and today was the longest that I was on solo duty.  Stuart had to help Scott out at the Obon Festival starting at 11am.  I decided to take the boys out at 10am when we were ready; we went to Toy R Us to look at toys and to pick up some kid clothes for presents.  The boys and I had a good time looking around for a long time; the only hectic time was keeping the boys nearby while paying for things.  We then went next door to Target for a few more things.  At the end we went for a quick lunch at the “nuggies station”.  We even had to take a family trip to the bathroom for Logan to do his business.  It was definitely a chore keeping everyone’s hands to themselves while inside the stall.  After the entire three-hour outing, we returned home and all took a nap.  When Logan woke up, he told me that he dreamed about sleeping with daddy .

    Logan was so excited to go to the festival and to meet up with daddy that he asked to wake Connor up (who was sleeping for >2 hours).  We finally arrived at the festival after a long walk from where we parked our car.  The festival seemed to have a very good turn out this year.  The taiko (Japanese druming) had started, so I decided to let the kids watch that before meeting up with Stuart.  I managed to carry the 70lbs total weight so the boys could see the show through the crowd.  We then went inside the crowded food court to find Stuart and to see hello to other people.  Stuart was able to be excused from his duties, and spent the rest of the time with us.  We sat down to have some food before going to the game booths for the boys to play.  It was so crowded and warm that we felt tired after just over an hour, so we left to wrap up the busy day.

    Connor was good today.  We played in the house in the morning while I tried to clean out some of their older toys.  Later, Stuart and I had an appointment we made with a financial advisor a long time ago that we felt obligated to keep.  The meeting unfortunately was around Connor’s naptime.  Connor felt asleep during the 10 minutes drive, then another 5 minutes on my shoulder until we walked inside the office.  He was very good sitting on my lap while Stuart talked with the advisor.  Connor is usually a loud talker, but he managed to stay relatively quiet.  We accomplished what we needed to do in 40 minutes, then it was time to go home for nap.  Both Connor and I slept for 2.5 hours which we both needed.  In the evening when I asked Logan if he missed Connor at school, he said “yes……and I cried”.  So dramatic!

      Wonder if I passed it to Connor or we both picked it up somewhere, but today was Connor’s turn to get sick.  I got a call from the daycare at noon telling me that Connor seemed more tired and not eating as well, so they tested his temperature and it was 99.7 axillary.  I immediately left work to pick him up.  All the kids were on their mats getting ready for nap; Connor was in the middle of them all laying on a pillow only.  He had to do a double take before recognizing me, then he was being goofy and slowly crawled to me with a smile.  He then happily walked out the school with me.  I tested his temperature again when we got home, and it was 100.4.  I gave him a dose of Tylenol, then put him to bed.  According to Stuart, Connor was cute and happy when he woke up after 2 hours of nap.  They took a long walk with the buggy and he had some fruits for snack.  When Logan and I returned home after work, Connor was so excited to see us.  He was acting fine, however, he was becoming warm again, 101 this time.  He ate dinner well and played afterward.  I bathed Connor first and put him down for sleep.  Connor and I will be having a day together tomorrow.

    Due to the coach’s family schedule and our own schedule, we did not make to any soccer practice for the entire June but finally made one today.  It was a smaller practice today, only 4 kids including Logan.  Logan was doing quite well; his kicks were strong and aiming was not bad.  Connor loved having his own ball and hanging out with me on the sideline.  He has good balance; he was able to do the soccer stance on his own.  He loved sitting on the ball and did that most of the times. 

    I came down with a cold out of the blue since overnight, so we did not pack a picnic lunch like we usually do.  We played briefly at the playground, then we returned home for lunch.  In the afternoon, Stuart took the boys to our neighbor’s house to play, so I had a chance to rest and catch up on the Wimbledon.  Because of not feeling well, I missed an opportunity to go see Julie and the boys at the hospital.  Congratulation to the Changs!  Can’t wait to meet Cameron and Colby!

   Another late night for us today.  The Tashiros are visiting from San Diego, and they have been staying with the Hashiguchi family since Thursday.  We spent last evening (after picking up the kids from daycare) and part of today with them.  It was very nice seeing all of them again.  The big girls, Emily, Ashley and Hailey definitely had a great time playing with each other.  Especially Hailey and Ashley, the big girls were very good in taking care of the little ones, Kasey, Logan and Connor.  While we were eating carryout on Friday night, basically I sat away from Connor as Hailey would help Connor if he needed help.  Connor was eating very well by himself too.  The big girls often included me in their games; we played tag and volleyball in their backyard.  Logan surprised me by joining in our play too.  He teamed up with me to tag the girls as they were too fast for me; we would try to get them from both sides.  Later on when I was exhausted, he continued to run with them and eventually tagged one of the girls.  I was a bit nervous watching him running so fast but proud that he was participating. 

    Today we all played at their community pool for a few hours.  The pool was very nice and it was surprisingly not crowded even on a hot day like today.  Logan enjoyed playing with the water as long as he was hanging on to one of us.  He still did not care to use any floaties on his own.  Connor was more reserved with water today; he did not want to touch the water at all for a long time, but eventually Stuart got him warmed up and came into the pool.  We took a break for a snack, then played with water again.  This time, Connor enjoyed walking along on the steps in the kiddie pool and wetting his hands with water.  Later on, Ashley got hurt somehow and was sad sitting at the table by herself.  Connor was in a playful mood and played peekaboo with Ashley for awhile which finally cheered her up.  The big girls were all very good in swimming; they even swam laps together.  I was impressed while watching them swim.

   At dinner, Connor loved sitting with the big girls and enjoyed playing with Hailey.  Hailey liked asking Connor many questions as Connor loved to answer “Me” to all.  After dinner, Logan played sword fighting with Scott for a long time, and he even talked about how they played, how he lost, fell onto the ground and got tickled during our drive home.  Everyone had a good time the past two days.  We wish the Tashiros a smooth drive home tomorrow.

    We had initially considered going somewhere this week, so both Stuart and I had previously requested days off for Tuesday.  However, we changed our mind on the trip, but decided to keep the days off to do projects.  First plan today was for both of us to go to the med lab and do the fasting lab works.  Today probably was not the best day to do it as we really wanted coffee for having less sleep last night.  With over two hours of less sleep due to the late night, the boys still woke up at 6:40 am as usual.  After dropping off the kids, we arrived to the Campbell laboratory.  Unfortunately, my lab orders had expired and the lab was not able to reach my doctors to re-instate the orders.  So after a little longer wait, Stuart had the labs drawn without me.  Now I have to find another opportunity to do the fasting again.

   We were so hungry afterward, so we went for another big breakfast today and enjoyed another meal without trying to keep kids in line.  In the afternoon, Stuart worked on our yard again; he replaced part of the old grass on Tuesday, and today he cleaned out the rose area and fertilized them.  While Stuart was doing the yard work, I did some studying again.  Since we had added more grass to the yard, our backyard has become my favorite place to study.  The weather has been very pleasant, so it was nice to sit under the umbrella, and I even dozed off for a little bit too.  Stuart also cleaned out my bike that I have not used for over 5 years.  Hopefully we can try out family biking one day when Logan is willing to ride his.

   Tomorrow we might do some gift shopping and get ready to see our friends from San Diego.