Michelle and Ted graciously hosted Thanksgiving dinner this year.  After Connor woke up from the nap, we got ready and headed over to their house.  Cary, Debbie, Aiden and Sophie drove up from LA and arrived shortly after we did.  Mckayla and Marcus were being good hosts, sharing their toys with everyone.  All the kids seemed to warm up with each other quickly and started playing together.  Logan was not as shy today as usual, and played with many different things.  Connor loved walking around their huge house; he just followed everyone and participated in all the playing.  Aiden enjoyed hanging out with the big kids, Mckayla and Logan, while the little sister Sophie liked to follow and play with Connor.

     When my prepared foods finished cooking in the oven, dinner was served.  The highlight of the dinner was Ted’s 20lb smoked turkey which was very moist and delicious.  The rest of the menu tonight were homemade bread, cranberry sauce, grilled vegetables, and my scalloped potatoes and corn casserole.  The adults and little ones were assigned to the big table while the three big kids had their little bench.  Logan did not want to sit in his assigned table at first, but after some convincing, he agreed and ended up having a great time with Mckayla and Aiden. Here is a short clip of their fun dining (video).  Everyone enjoyed the dinner very much and we all stuffed ourselves with tons of foods.  We had to resume some playing before considering desserts.  Logan had been looking forward to ice cream for a few days now.  After he reminded us “what about ice cream?”, we all gathered to have desserts then.  The kids got to have some ice cream with sprinkles.  Logan enjoyed every bite of his ice cream and was the last to leave their table.  Connor also had a chance to have some vanilla ice cream; he was happy to sit with and be fed by auntie Michelle.  I made my first chocolate mousse cake for the adults.  The cake did not turn out as well as I anticipated, but still quite delicious.  It was perfectly paired with a cup of coffee.  By then, all of us were just too stuffed to consider the backup pecan pie we purchased. 

     The kids went around the house and played some more before we decided to wrap up the evening.  We said our thanks and goodnights, and packed up to go home.  The boys stayed awake during the drive even though it was much later than their usual bedtime.  They went down to sleep very well after the bath.  Stuart and I now are relaxing in front of computers and TV.  It has been at least 4-5 hours after dinner, and I am still very full.  This is definitely another great Thanksgiving.

     The other day after picking up Logan first, Logan and I then went over to Connor’s classroom.  Connor was happy to see us as usual, he grabbed his lunch bag from the cabinet and was ready to go.  Logan suddenly took Connor’s hand, and started guiding him out of the classroom.  Connor was so happy to be holding by Logan while Logan looked proud being the big brother.  They walked hand in hand all the way from the classroom to the front entrance of the daycare.  This was an unusual and very sweet incident!

     Stuart and I made the decision to wait until after the trip to wean Connor, and the time finally came.  Connor is old enough now that he will actually ask to be nursed (via gestures), thus I totally feel that it is time to wean.  But I have to say that when he asks, it is very adorable as he will rub his chest to make the sign for “please”.  Sometimes he will rub hard and vigorously, and when I agree, he gives the biggest smile and sometimes will even giggle.

     Basically I had been nursing him the past few months only at bedtime and overnight.  Unfortunately since the molar teething which occurred 3 months ago, Connor had started waking up overnight.  Now he just seems to be in a habit of waking up twice a night lately.  After dinner, we now have been giving Connor a cup of milk while Logan drinks his, and Connor has been drinking around 2-4oz.  Three nights ago, I decided to stop nursing him at bedtime.  I offered him another cup of milk after bath, but he only had a sip, and started rubbing his chest for “please”.  I denied him and he started crying, but he stopped after just a couple of minutes when I distracted him with brushing teeth.  And he was content as I told him that we were going “night night”.  I sang him his lullaby and put him down.  To my surprise, he just slowly fell asleep without any complaint.  Then the following 3 bedtimes, he only asked for nursing briefly one night, and he cried one night that Stuart had to go check on him quickly.  Otherwise, the bedtime weaning went much better than I anticipated.

    Overnight was as difficult as I expected.  Last night was the first that I quit nursing completely.  I went in initially when Connor first woke up at 2:50.  I ended up changing him since his diaper was super wet.  Connor kept rubbing his chest and was very sad that I denied him.  Stuart came in to take my place.  Connor did not want the cup of milk initially and did not want to go back to sleep in the crib when Stuart put him down.  We just decided to treat it like sleep training again, letting him cry with Stuart checking in on him every 5-10 minutes or so.  Connor did end up drinking 5-6oz of milk.  During all this commotion, Logan needed daddy attention too, so Stuart was busy going between the two kids.  Finally, Connor, after being up for 1 hour and 15mins total, laid back down and returned to sleep until this morning.  We will see how he will do tonight.

     It was a busy morning.  We started with Logan’s routine dental appointment at 8am.  When we finally got to the dental chair, Logan was hesitant, but finally was willing to sit on the chair with me.  The hygienist managed to clean with his teeth without any crying.  We decided to defer taking x-rays this time to make this visit simpler.  The dentist did not see any obvious cavities.  He did suggest that Logan’s teeth are quite tight together, and thus from now on, we have to do a better job flossing to avoid cavities.

      I then took Logan to school and met up with Stuart there for Logan’s first parent teacher conference.  Logan’s main teacher and the school director sat with us to talk.  It was a longer meeting than scheduled since the director was quite chatty, but it was a constructive meeting.  Basically Logan’s behavior is consistent with what we observe at home.  According to the teachers, Logan is not a risk taker and prefers in his safe zone.  He likes to hang out only with his friends, Rohan, Zach, Ian and Jaime.  He prefers playing with building toys, and will shy away from any other or new toys.  He prefers to be an audience for group activities, and will stay in the back to observe instead.  His preference extends to food too; when classmates are trying new tastes for some learning experience, Logan will refuse to take bites.

      Stuart and I agreed with the teachers’ observation.  We do baby Logan a lot at home which we have to stop soon.  We also now have many things to do and change to help build up Logan’s confidence and improve his social skills.

     After spending a few days with Mickey and his friends during the cruise, Connor is quite fond of them now.  Yesterday when he saw the Minnie luggage tag that we had for disembarking, he was holding it dearly and gave it a few kisses too.  This morning he kept pointing to the Mickey on my PJ when he noticed it.  When the Mickey Clubhouse was showing this morning, Connor immediately gave a standing ovation.  He stood up and gave the biggest claps that he could; he was so happy while watching the show.  I guess we now have a Mickey fan in the house.

     Connor also likes to mimic what Logan does.  When Logan takes off socks, he will try.  When Logan points to the ears, eyes or head, he will do the same.  When Logan flies a rocket around, he will walk around coping him too.  Today during our walk, Logan was walking backward for fun.  Connor immediately wanted to do the same, but he did not know how and ended up just walking around in circle, like a dog chasing his tail.  It was very funny.

     Connor is a lot more daring than Logan was.  He is more willing to try new things, and climb up and down anything on his own.  When we were playing today, all of a sudden we saw him standing on top of one of his little carts.  He was so proud of himself for standing so still.  His balance is definitely much better than Logan’s too.

     This evening after dinner, Logan, Connor and I walked into Logan’s room to play.  As soon as I saw Scottie sleeping on his bed, I said “Oh no, Scottie should not be sleeping in the bed!”.  Then Logan responded “It is ok. Scottie should stay. After bath, Scottie should sleep with me since he is MY cat.”  That was very sweet! 

     Logan has been saying some funny things lately.  Logan knows what green and red traffic lights mean.  Yesterday on the way home, I made a right turn after stopping at the red light.  Logan suddenly panicked and screamed out “Mommy, you should stop at the red light!  Stop!!”.  I tried to explain to him that I could go because it was a turn.  Then he sounded disappointed and had a lecturing tone “Mommy, you always drive the wrong way!”  Another day while driving home too, Logan suddenly said to me “Let’s stop by a store”.  I asked him the reason for that, he said “I NEED to go get a superhero!”. 

     Logan never likes to talk about things that he has done.  Even though he often says to me or Stuart “let’s talk about school”, he won’t talk much or answer our questions about his friends or teachers.  Today I tried to stimulate him to talk, I said “Let’s talk about school or let’s talk about the cruise?”  Logan answered “Let’s talk about nothing”.