The past few days, Connor has become more naughty.  We can tell that he is purposely not following instruction to test his limits.  He continues to run when we ask him to stop.  When he does not get what he wants he may softly hit Logan or us or swings his arm at us.  He talks even louder when we ask him to be quiet.  He whines when we don’t read him books, especially his all time favorite “The Wheels on the Bus” (which we are reading that book to him at least three or four times a day via his request)  Even the teachers have noticed his naughtiness too, they said he has been saying more “no” lately before following instructions, and he has been running away when told to have his diaper changed.

    Logan brought home a spiral notebook from school yesterday.  He and his classmates have been keeping a journal at school for awhile, and now they were being sent home for the parents to see.  Every page, I mean every single page, in that notebook was full of Logan’s pencil drawn explosions.  Stuart said the journal reminded him of the pages written by the guy in “The Shining”.  (ie. when the wife found page after page of the same sentence written over and over again for hundreds of pages).   Stuart was tired of seeing only explosions from Logan, so he spent some time with him drawing tonight.  Logan does actually draw other things, like rockets, but at the end of every drawing, he tends to cover everything up with random lines to make explosions again.

     On an unrelated note:  Yesterday out of the blue, Logan said “I want two mommies”.  I asked him the reason for that, and he answered “one for cooking and one for camping”. 

      After two slightly frustrating days getting the grass in the backyard, it was finally completed by Friday.  The transaction closed out on Saturday morning after the guy dropped by.  Stuart and I still have some work to do, but for now, it is nice to have grass instead of dirt in the yard.

    After having a late start on Saturday, we decided to take a stroll at Happy Hollow.  Nowadays the boys only have a couple of interests in the park, with the huge structure being their favorite.  They played there for awhile as usual.  Connor was interested in riding the cop car this time, and he was quite patient while we waited in line.  We then went to see the puppet show per Logan’s request.  They both were focused at the show especially Connor; he did not take his eyes off the stage the entire time.  We ate lunch, then walked around the zoo and played at the sand area before returning home for a good nap.

   This morning we took our bikes out to encourage the boys to get on them.  Logan was still a bit fearful and lazy, but he managed to peddle a few rounds on his own while we pushed him down the road. We were at least making some baby steps finally.  Connor was not very adventurous either; he did push himself on the scooter a few steps, but preferred to sit on the bike or stand on the scooter while I pushed him.  We took an early nap as Logan had a party to attend at Pump It Up Jr at 2pm.  Stuart took off with Logan while Connor and I continued napping.  I decided to take Connor to the mall for a quick errand before going to the “Crab Night”.  Connor and I enjoyed walking around in the crowd; I did some shopping, returning an item, and brought the boys a water bottle each.  Connor had fun holding the water bottles for me while we were in line. 

   We showed up to Thuy’s house right at the start of the party.  Connor took a little bit of time before warming up, then started playing with the toys.  After everyone arrived, we were able to dive in to the feast.  Connor was not hungry as he had a huge banana, so he was just wandering around me.  Kimthy volunteered to take him out to the yard to let me focus on eating.  After quite a bit of yummy crabs, I switched off with Kimthy.  Connor had fun pushing around a toy wheel barrel for a long time; we also looked at the fish and played with other toys.  We finally migrated back inside the house; Connor sat at the kid table to have an egg roll while I had some more crabs that Michelle saved for me.  Connor had a good time hanging out and playing with Tina, Michelle and Christine.  Connor said goodbyes to everyone, then we went home just in time to have bath time with Logan.

    According to Stuart, Logan had fun playing at the jumpy houses, but did not participate at the group activities as usual.  He also got a bit upset when the playtime was over.  When they returned home, they spent a long time in the yard playing with Caleb and on their own too.  Logan take some golf swings which he had not done for a long time.  They seemed to have a good time together as Connor and I had together too.

      Logan turns 4 years old today, and we had a packed day of celebrations.  After dropping off the kids at school, I picked up some grocery then came home to finish making some Oreo cupcakes.  I brought the cupcakes to school at 10am for their morning snack.  When I arrived, the teacher began the birthday activity.  She had Logan came up to sit in the front of the class, but Logan would go only after I was invited to sit with him.  The teacher announced that it was Logan’s birthday and he would be the king for the day, but Logan did not want to wear the crown. She told the kids that Logan would be the first doing everything today (i.e. go outside, sit down for lunch, etc), and his friends would do his chores for him too.  They also made a birthday board together by having all the kids spelling out Logan’s name.  Afterward, we moved on to sitting down at the tables, then everyone sang the birthday song to Logan.  Logan was shy getting all the attention, and wanted to hold my hand for comfort. The kids enjoyed the cupcakes; Logan loved the Oreo cookie, licked off all the whipped cream and only ate a little of the chocolate cupcake.  After snack time, I said my goodbye to let the class returning to their routine. 

     On my drive home, I thought about how time has flied.  I got a bit emotional thinking about how I felt when the nurse placed the newborn Logan onto my chest for skin-skin bonding four years ago today, and how I got sad the first day coming home with baby Logan and discovered that most of my prepared receiving blankets were too small for him.
   At 2:30pm, I went back to school to pick up Logan for our movie date.  It was funny that most kids were up from nap by then and it was quite loud, but there were still two girls sleeping comfortably in the middle of all the happenings.  When we got to the theater Logan was so excited as we waited to get inside the movie room.  He was happy to start watching advertisement then the movie “Madagascar 3” which he enjoyed along with his special popcorn treat.  During the show, the word “stupid” was said three times in a row; Logan pointed it out to me every time (as this has been labeled a bad word at school).  After sitting down for an hour and 20mins or so, Logan suddenly had enough and wanted to leave.  He was antsy for a little bit and took some convincing before we could finish the movie.  The movie was good, but I did fall asleep briefly in the middle of it to take a break.  I asked Logan if he liked it, and he actually said “No, because they were shooting the animals and that was not nice!”.

    We then drove over to Chuck E Cheese to have our final celebration of the day.  Stuart picked up Connor and met up with us there.  A couple of Logan’s school friends, Rohan and Bar, also came to join us for the fun dinner.  The kids were excited to check out all the cool games and rides inside.  Logan wanted to play with the bigger kids games while Connor was into the electronic rides.  Logan liked checking out games on his own, but he did play with Rohan and Bar sometimes.  Bar’s sister Raz and Connor loved hanging out together, squeezing into the seat together during many rides.  Raz kept running around calling out for Connor.  In between playing, we took a break for pizza, then another one for trying some lollipops that one of the dads bought.  Rohan, Bar and Raz were loving it while Logan did not even care to try it.  Connor was excited to try it; he enjoyed licking it and holding it; fortunately he declared done shortly before making too much of a mess.  We made another break for birthday cake; Logan loved the cake as it had his favorite Mario Kart car on it.  The kids enjoyed the cupcakes while Logan once again declined them after taking just one bite.  Connor ate an entire one all on his own.  We played a little more, then it was time for everyone to head home.  The kids and I used our final tokens on a cool photo machine.

    It was a late evening by the time we got home, but Logan wanted to eat a little more pizza.  He only had a chance to open a couple of his presents.  The celebration will continue briefly tomorrow. 

     I am going to take Thursday off for Logan’s birthday festivities, so I worked today instead but only until 3:15pm as Logan had a doctor visit at 4pm.  His doctor called me during the day to let me know about the strict vaccination requirement for his new school and that Logan should receive his vaccines after he turned four.  She offered me a choice of either postponing the appointment today or keeping the appointment for check up and bringing Logan back for for vaccines later.  I chose the latter.  When I arrived the school to pick Logan up which was at a much earlier time than usual, Logan told me “Mommy, I don’t want to go home yet”.  But after I reminded him that we were going to go visit my work hospital and go see his doctor, he hurried to get his lunch bag.

    After checking in, we hung out near the waiting area.  Logan seemed very excited in the new environment.  We found a big U-shape table that Logan was happily sitting by it and kept telling me that he was a doctor.  While he was reading some books, I answered the medical questionnaire.  One of the questions was to check if the child can draw a happy face, so I asked Logan to draw me one.  He ended up drawing Mommy, Daddy and Connor all on his own which was a lot more impressive than his usual drawing of explosions.  Even the medical assistant and the doctor were happy to see his drawings on the paper.  The MA took us in to check his weight, height and blood pressure; Logan was very cooperative with all that.  She then took us into a room to do the audio test.  Logan was a bit hesitant seeing the headset, but after explanation and holding my hand, he agreed to cooperate.  He waved his hand with a smile every time when he heard the beep.  Then it was the vision test.  He followed the lead by covering one eye and calling out the shapes as she pointed to them.  Logan was whispering out the words softly but correctly.  The MA was pointing to mostly circles the rest of the exam; I did hope that Logan was truly seeing the correct shapes rather than just repeating “circles” many times in a row.

    One thing Logan did not really want to do was taking off his clothes, but after a little convincing, he allowed me helping him into the gown.  When the doctor arrived, Logan was being shy but did answer some questions.  He however looked smiley away from her when asked about his favorite vegetables.  I talked with the doctor about a couple of things.  As Logan had not required nebulizer for a long time, she considered what he had as reactive airways rather than asthma.  Yay!  Asthma off his chart!  As his growth is in good progress, she felt that we don’t have to worry about his preference for small meals and having snacks in between.

    The doctor then proceeded with the exam.  She was very good with Logan and so Logan allowed her listening to his chest, looking into his eyes, mouth and ears.  He did get nervous when he was laid down to have his tummy check, so I held his hand for comfort again.  Everything checked out well, and we said our thank you to the doctor.  Here are his stats.

Weight = 38.2lbs (69% down from 83% last year)

Height = 42inch (85% up from 79%)

BMI = 15.2 (33%)

BP = 98/57  P = 85

     After the prior weekend of traveling, we decided to take it easy this week; we even declined a birthday party.  It was a very hot day yesterday, so we spent more time inside the house.  In between, we ran an errand to Costco, and we played with water toys in the shade.  For dinner, we went out to have Japanese food instead of cooking.  Both Logan and Connor enjoyed the gyoza.  Connor seemed so excited during dinner that he kept looking around checking the environment.  We had to constantly remind him to sit still.  We also recently realized that Connor is very loud; with the limited words that he can say, Connor was still able to make lots of noise during dinner.  Toward the end of the dinner, the waitress brought the boys a scoop of strawberry ice cream each.  Logan was so excited that he hurried to finish his food before enjoying it.  Connor on the other hand did not even care to try it, so Stuart ended enjoying it on his behalf.

    The temperature today was more tolerable, so we went to our recent favorite park to play.  We decided to pack a lunch to have a picnic too; it was actually very nice in the shade.  We made some little sandwiches to encourage Logan to try them; he actually enjoyed a simple ham sandwich while Connor chose a cheese one.  They played at the structures and with the trac-balls for awhile.  We all had a great time but finally had to go home to take a nap.

    This evening we planned to barbeque.  I had marinated some beef using the inspiration from the work dinner I went to few days ago.  After nap, the neighbors down the street came down to play with the boys, and we ended up hanging out for a long time.  The party finally ended when Logan cried after his hand being squished by Connor accidentally closing the mailbox on it.  We went back inside the house to make dinner; we eventually baked the meat in the oven instead as it was late.  It wrapped out a nice relaxing weekend.  Happy Father’s Day to Stuart too.  Now we are going to enjoy some dessert too.