We went to Rohan’s birthday party today at their house; everyone in Logan’s class was invited, and everyone was there.  The weather was not too bad, sunny but still a bit chilly.  They had a bouncy house, and of course, they had a house full of toys.  Everyone jumped into the bouncy house as soon as they arrived, but Logan was hesitant.  Even Stuart entered it to encourage, but Logan continued to decline.  We just finally let him do whatever he wanted, so Logan went to play with trains.  Connor followed Logan wherever he went.  The order of events were a bit strange; we had some fruits, then cake and at last some pizza.  The kids took breaks in between playing to eat.  Logan finally wanted in the bouncy house when some of the kids were out eating.  Connor had some fun jumping too. 

    Stuart was so happy when he finally decided to purchase the childhood game he and his brother used to play, Subbuteo.  The remaining set finally arrived yesterday, so as soon as the kids went down for the night, Stuart was excited to set it up to play.  He taught me the basic rules, and we began to play.  The first game we stopped a lot as Stuart had to do some explanation, and he scored 1:0.  The second game I actually made a goal, but of course, Stuart caught up to 1:1 shortly after.  Toward the end, I felt that Stuart took an advantage of me being a novice, and scored on me again.  So I lost to Stuart the second game too at 1:2.  But I guess I was happy to have scored at least one goal.  It was a fun game.

   Yesterday after the rain finally stopped, we went outside to play with the water puddle.  Connor did not like the boots initially after I put them on, but he agreed to keep them on as I told him we were going to walk in the water.  Logan did not care to join us, he was just content with his umbrella.  Connor was tame, did not splash the water; we just held hands and walked through the long strips of water puddles multiple times.  We finally stopped and had to change out his pants and socks.  We then took a walk down the street, and ended up meeting up with few neighbors there.  Logan and Dylan played very well together, both holding their play guns and running around for pretend shooting.  Connor was holding either a toy gun or an umbrella, and was following the big boys’ lead.  The adults would jump in and played with them at times.  The boys played for at least over an hour; they were good, thanked and said goodbye to each other when it was finally time to go home.

     Friday was Logan’s third Little Gym class.  I gave Logan some grapes and a kid bar during the ride over; then I dropped him off with Stuart in front of the place.  Connor and I took off to Costco for some pick up and shopping.  According to Stuart, it took probably 15minutes this time before Logan joining in the activities, so Stuart watched him through the window the remaining of the class.  We wonder if Logan had too much sweets prior to the class this time, as he seemed to be too hyper to sit still.  During the sit down group time, he did not stay with the group too long and drifted to the side to play on his own.  For the remaining of the class, he followed some instruction, but most of the times, he played on his own at another area.  Even though he had fun, for the future classes, we definitely need to encourage him staying with the group and following instructions. 

    After dinner Logan got a small amount of ice cream as promised; both boys were so happy with the special treat.  They played for awhile before we started the bath, so It was a later bedtime than usual.  Wonder if it was too much sweets or the added activity and stimulation, Logan was whiny at bathtime and bedtime.  It was like that last Friday too; so we will have to think about doing some modification for the next class.

    We decided to take Logan in for another tryout class at the Little Gym yesterday.  We want to expose Logan to more new things, give him more opportunity to follow instruction, and for fitness too.  I gave him a kid protein bar during the drive to prep him.  Stuart decided to go in with Logan this time, so I just hung out with Connor at the nearby stores.  According to Stuart, Logan wanted daddy to go in the gym room with him, and they sat at the corner together to observe.  Logan seemed more energized (possibly from the snack) and enjoyed watching the other kids playing.  After 20 minutes, Logan agreed to join in the activities, and he was following the instruction just like the other kids.  Stuart left the gym room to observe through the window instead.  The class lasted an hour.  Five minutes before the end of the class, one kid started crying; by then, Logan realized that Stuart was no longer there at the corner, so he seemed very worried until he spotted daddy.  Stuart entered the room again, then Logan was relieved to finish the activities. 

     By the time they arrived home, Connor and I had already brought some dinner, and had a head start eating.  Stuart had called to give me the good report, so I was extra excited to see Logan when they came home.  First thing Logan told me was that he wanted ice cream after dinner.  Last week I had used ice cream as a bribe, and so I did keep my promise.  We had to rush through dinner and ice cream as it was past our usual dinner time and I had made plan for an outing last night.  The boys did not get to play much after eating as we had to rush them into the bath.  Neither of them liked the plan at all, so Connor started crying and kept saying “done” as soon as he got inside the bath.  Logan was also whiny about everything.  The bathtime was not pleasant, but to my advantage, it was short.  I read to Connor and got him to bed relatively quickly as he was cooperative, so I was able to leave the house while Stuart was still reading with Logan.

    Robyn, Michelle and I decided to do a girls night out after the kids had gone to bed, and we asked others to join us as well.  There were 7 of us meeting up at a restaurant at 8:45pm.  I was fortunate to find parking, but a couple of them had a very difficult time.  We all ordered a drink and started our chit-chatting.  We then ordered some appetizers, and later ended with some desserts to share.  It was very nice talking with everyone; by the time we were ready to leave, it was already past 11:30pm.  It has been a long time since I stayed out this late; it was midnight when I returned home.  Stuart and I caught up on our successful evening for awhile before we went to bed, so it was a late night for both of us.

       I was going to skip Connor’s 18th month doctor visit as he was seen twice in January, and I was hoping to avoid exposure to the hospital germs.  But the doctor told me via email that he should be seen plus he needed more vaccines.  So I finally took the 20th month old Connor in today for his Well baby visit.  We did not have to wait long at all before we were roomed.  Connor became nervous and was clinging to me, but he was cooperative during the measurement by the MA and the physical exam by the doctor.  Everything checked out well.  The doctor said he is growing very well.  Connor was due for hepatitis A and DTaP boosters, so the nurse came right in to give the two injections to his thigh.  Connor did not like that but stopped crying relatively quickly.  He was also due for routine anemia and lead level blood tests, so we headed over to the laboratory.  The blood draw was tough.  Two nurses took turns trying to find his vein.  They put a tourniquet around Connor’s little arm, dapped for awhile, then moved on to the other arm.  Connor was already crying sadly before they made any poke; he kept crying out “MaMa” while I was holding him down.  They finally made a poke, then moved the needle around without any success.  So they had to return to the first arm and repeated the whole process.  I was so relieved when they finally made contact and collected the samples.  Poor Connor continued to sob for awhile until we left the laboratory. 

Here are the big boy’s stats:

Wt: 30lb 12oz (91 percentile)

Ht: 34.75 inches (91 percentile)