This was the title Stuart suggested for this blog post.  Today was the third soccer practice for Logan, and it went a lot better.  We wondered if he learned from last week’s consequence or from all the prep talks we gave Logan since yesterday, either way Logan did quite well today.  He did say a couple of times that he wanted to play at the structure and he wanted me with him sometimes, but he was able to re-focus back to the coach quickly.  Logan did the warm up and the drills as directed.  He kicked quite well and even made a couple of nice goals.  He was happy to receive his stamps at the end of the practice as he did earn them this time.

Connor and I were at the sideline watching initially, and he was happy that we brought him a ball to play with too.  He was trying out his soccer stand, and enjoyed staying at that pose for a long time when I was holding his hands.  Later on, he was just sitting on the ball too. 

     So after soccer, we all played at the structures for awhile before returning to the picnic blanket to enjoy our lunch.  We were able to play some more before it was time to go home to take our naps.

    This morning Logan and I attended Syrus’s birthday party at Pump It Up Jr.  Logan did not need any warming up at all; once the door was opened to us, he went inside, took off the shoes and ran into one of the bouncy houses.  He played inside the basketball jumpy house and the obstacle one, and agreed to do the slide one after I went with him once.  Logan seemed more social today; he played with his friends Nalini and Alex, and he was extra friendly with one of mothers, Masumi.  He asked Masumi to go with him to play and he even reached out to hold her hand.  I think he was fascinated with her tummy as she was 8 month pregnant.  Logan even asked her about why her tummy was so big.  After the jumpy house, we moved on to the eating room to have some pizza and cake before we said our thanks and goodbyes.

     The morning was not as fun for Stuart as he was called with some issues at work, so it was not easy taking care of Connor, feeding him lunch while troubleshooting.  Stuart managed to do all that and put Connor to nap just right before Logan and I returned home.  Logan and I also went to take a nap so we could get ready for the second half of the day.

     Ted and I have been talking about cioppino since we all were at the Fisherman’s Wharf a couple of weeks ago, so we decided to have a homemade one today.  Ted and Michelle graciously offered to cook while we brought over the seafood.  We packed up to arrive at the Kaos shortly after 4pm, and we first spent a long time in their backyard.  Both Logan and Connor managed to get on their bikes

while Mckayla and Marcus showed off their biking skills.  It was fun seeing all four kids riding, but that was a short lived moment as they quickly moved on to something else.  Logan and Mckayla played well together; they were running around looking for “snakes” or sometimes monsters. Connor always wanted to follow the big kids copying what they were doing while Marcus only joined them occasionally.  They all ran around for a long time before we returned inside the house to play with toys.   We finally gathered to have the delicious dinner; we must have spent a long time eating as we were so stuffed afterward and we almost finished two full pots of cioppino.  Our boys had a decent amount of fish, pasta and veggies too.  It was an incredible dinner.  After a short break, we gathered to have some desserts.  The kids were so lucky to have an drumstick ice cream each; they were all so happy and quiet while eating.  Logan, Mckayla and Marcus all finished their shares and were excused from the table yet Connor was still savoring his cone of ice cream.  I eventually had to take the remaining half away as it was all melting, and Connor was very sad about that.  We finally had to say bye to the Kaos as it was after 8pm.  The drive home was nice as the kids enjoyed chasing and looking at the full moon that we had tonight.

     Connor was sweet and went to sleep easily.  But according to Stuart, Logan got sad after saying goodnight to me; he cried/sobbed while putting on his pajama.  He did calm down shortly after Stuart started reading to him.  Logan must have been tired from the long fun day.

  Lately Logan wants me rather than daddy to read him bedtime stories, so Stuart and I have been taking turns every other night.  Of course, Connor, being the mama boy, always wants me too.  On the nights when I take Connor to bed, he is very happy, hugs me and keeps saying mama, but on the other nights, Connor cries while Stuart carries him out of bathroom to bedroom.  Tonight while the boys were playing in the bath, Logan softly talked with me to tell me that it was my turn to read him tonight, Connor apparently heard the conversation, started holding onto my arm and asking for “mama”.  He got so nervous that he stood up in the bath and wanted to be carried by me.  Poor Connor cried so sad when Stuart carried him away; but as usual, he stopped only after a minute or two when Stuart distracted him with other things.

   For years I have been keeping an online photo album along with the actual physical photo album books.  But I may have to say bye to album books soon as I am starting to slack off in organizing the pictures.  I finally sorted through the February, March and April pictures, placed them in folders and added them in our online photo album (Feb-Mar and Apr).  This was the furthest behind I have ever been.

    Since we had the first soccer coaching by Josh over a month ago, today was finally the second practice we could make it to.  There were a couple of rainy Sundays, and we had plans two Sundays in a roll afterward, then it was Josh’s family turn to have commitment the following twos.  We were looking forward to letting Logan play with soccer again today.  Unfortunately, it did not turn out well; Logan refused to participate as he wanted to play at the playground structures instead.  Stuart and I both took turns staying with him and trying to convince him to follow the coach’s instruction, and to play at the structures afterward. Logan basically spent the majority of time standing and watching; he only did a few kicks later on.  As a result, right after the practice ended, we packed up, said our goodbyes and took off to go home.  We initially planned to have a picnic lunch after the practice, but as Logan refused to follow instruction, we had to leave so he could not play at the structures as a consequence.  On the way home, Logan was making a constant whiny noise.  We were ignoring him, and had told him to use his words if he had something to say.  After awhile, out of the blue, Connor started yelling out “stop” repeatedly.  Instead of stop, he managed to pronoun “top” only, and he kept saying it with an upsetting tone.  I had to tell Logan that his whiny noise was upsetting Connor, so we then finally had some peace and quiet the remaining of the drive.  The rest of the day, Wii was also taken away from Logan as a result of his behavior in the morning.

     On Friday, the school had a day of fun celebration for the kids.  They were told to wear their school T-shirts for the day, so Connor had to wear Logan’s old T-shirt.  They had a bouncy house, face painting, and maybe other things too.  Logan told me that he jumped in the bouncy house with his friends.  He also did face painting as I saw some residual paints on his face; this was the first time he ever had it done.  According to the teacher, Connor was tempted but did not want to go inside the jumpy house initially.  But he finally agreed and had fun bouncing and sliding.