It is true that we should never brag about our kids.  I was telling Robyn yesterday that Connor has been waking up once or twice each night for almost a month now due to molar teething.  However I usually just feed him and he returns to sleep nicely.  Connor must have heard what I said, and last night he showed us what he can do.  He woke up at 1:45am; I went in to feed him as usual.  Once I returned him to the crib, he stood back up and started complaining again.  Since I did my part, I just decided to leave him alone hoping he would go back to sleep.  It must have been like 15+ minutes, but he was still standing up and crying occasionally.  Stuart decided to pay him a visit, but as soon as Connor saw Stuart instead of me, he flopped down onto the crib continuing his fit.  Stuart just patted Connor on his back while he was sobbing, and he actually almost fell asleep until Stuart opened the door to leave.  So Stuart picked him up this time; Connor was initially still complaining until eventually became comforted by Stuart.  After a period of time, Stuart attempted to put him back down but it failed again.  Stuart returned to our room in defeat.  I gave in after another period of crying, I went into the room.  Connor was so happy to see me, he gave me a big smile which I don’t actually like to see in the middle of the night.  He wanted me to hold him and he just leaned on me for a long time while we were rocking on the chair.  I did enjoy our moment together.  He later gestured to be fed again, so I thought it was time to wrap up this awakening.  However, Connor still did not appear sleepy.  I had to just lay him back down in the crib after feeding and the crying resumed again.  While Stuart and I were contemplating if we should bring him to our bed, Connor finally flopped down and fell asleep.  It was like 3:15am; Stuart and I could then get some sleep too.  Connor ended up sleeping until 8:20am (record time).

     Today we were invited to join the Kaos to visit Gilroy Garden again.  We got there right before it was opened so we could get a season pass for Logan since he is now three.  The park was decorated for Halloween, and Logan enjoyed looking at the scarecrows, ghosts, cobwebs and spiders decorations.  Since we were there early, we decided to try out the Duckie paddle boat that usually has a long line.  Logan had a fun time boating in the lake while Stuart got a little bit of a workout.  Then we headed over to Logan’s latest favorite ride, the Backroads (car driving).  I was chosen to have the honorary seat next to Logan this time, and we all had a fun time just like our last visit.  We met up with the Kaos after the ride and we walked around the park together.  We then tried out a rock maze which was quite tall and turned out to be quite challenging.  Inside the maze, there were cobweb decorations and several Boo zones.  Shortly after we stepped inside, Mckayla got scared and started to whimpering.  So Michelle and I skipped all the Boo zones, just hoping to get out of the maze as fast as we could.  Connor and I were leading for awhile, and I was just happy to find the exit for Mckayla without getting lost.  Logan apparently did not enjoy their run either since Logan is not fond of cobwebs these days.

     We took a train ride (which of course Logan always enjoys immensely) and then had our favorite fish and chips.  After lunch, we let the kids play at the climbing playgrounds for awhile.  All four kids ran around a lot and had a great time.  Connor loved walking around the structures while holding my hand.  After we went down the slide once, he just wanted to keep going back to it, he even wanted to climb back up on the slide.  Connor is definitely the more daring one of the two.  Over at the playground, we also finally met up with Kristina and Josh after trying for awhile with multiple phone calls.  We ended up going separate ways from them after a quick catching up since we were heading a different direction.  We and the Kaos continued to walk around the park.  We all played at one of the carnival booths; Logan, Mckayla and Marcus were so happy holding their winning stuffed crayons, although Ted did have to be told by Michelle to let Mckayla win.  We hit a few more rides, then it was about time to wrap up another enjoyable visit to Gilroy Garden. 

     We stopped by the gift shop before heading out.  We were on the look out for a small bear for future emergency purposes so we asked Logan if Teddy wanted a friend as they had several there.  Logan was very fond of that idea, and he immediately bonded with a new bear.  He was holding one bear in each hand while sleeping on the way home.  He was holding only the new bear in the afternoon.  But after dinner and bath, Logan seemed to forgot about the new bear and was content with his old Teddy again.  Stuart decided to bring new bear to bed for Logan anyway.  Logan was happy to see him and chose to have all his bears sleeping with him.  In the end, he refers to both small bears as brothers.

     Connor finally gained enough confidence to start walking on his own.  Yesterday, he would just walk short distances from one area to another instead of crawling to find things to play.  He was even walking around in the front yard today after school.  He did not just walk, he actually walked so fast that he made me nervous, especially when he was on the concrete.  He is definitely very proud of what he is able to do now.  After dinner each night, we are still doing our walk-in-circles inside the house.  Logan has also been joining us the past few nights.  It was very cute that the three of us walking hand in hand together.  I now wonder how much longer we will be doing that since Connor may want to start doing this on his own soon.

     Also, Connor’s 3rd and 4th molars are finally surfacing.  I could see a small white spot on both sides on the bottom.  Connor seems to drool more in the evenings and his shirt is usually quite wet by bath time.  I am so happy to see these 2 last first set of molars coming out.  Maybe I will get to sleep through the night again soon.

     Today we had Julie, Robert and Ashlyn over to hang out.  Before they arrived in the morning, Logan, Connor and I decided to take a walk while Stuart worked on the yard.  Logan suggested that he pushed Connor in the stroller while I used the water gun to shoot any spiders that I would find.  I was ok with that idea, so we started our walk.  Logan was pushing the stroller quite well, I just had to occasionally remind him to stay on the track.  He kept asking me if I found any spiders as he walked and pushed.  He would stop sometimes to come forward to check on Connor, and sometimes he would use Teddy to tickle Connor to entertain him.  Once when he had to push up a slightly sloped sidewalk, I heard Logan mumbling “I am strong.  He is a big boy!”.  We walked around the blocks twice, and Logan pushed the stroller almost the entire way.  He was very good!!

     We had a nice time hanging out with the Changs.  Ashlyn warmed up to us quickly, and started playing with the boys.  She played with the cars and the blocks, and she seemed to have the most fun with the push carts, running around the house.  After playing for awhile, Stuart and Robert went out to pick up KFC for lunch.  As we were eating our lunch, Connor became very tired, his eyes were closing as he was eating his cantaloupe.  So we decided to excuse him to take his nap while the rest of us finished up.  I offered some cantaloupe to Ashlyn, and since then, she started calling me auntie in Chinese.  It was very cute!  Logan and Ashlyn resumed playing for a bit longer, then the Changs decided to take off as it was naptime for the remaining two kids.  Logan had a great time having visitors in the house.  It took a bit of time before he calmed down to go down.  Both boys slept for 2+ hours.

     Another breakthrough this weekend was Connor’s milk drinking.  He was still not drinking any whole milk with either sippy cup or straw cup at school or at home.  I had already discarded all the BornFree bottles, so basically Connor has not had any whole milk for almost a month now.  But this weekend (both Sat and Sun), he was willing to drink a little bit of cold milk with a straw cup.  He was making goofy smiley faces while sucking gently, and he did not let the milk back out like he used to.  He only drank around one ounce both days, but I was very pleased with that progress.

     Finally a big event happened at dinnertime tonight.  We were having turkey pasta and veggie for dinner.  Stuart and I had baby broccoli and Logan had carrots as that was the only veggie he would willingly eat.  Out of the blue, Logan asked Stuart to try his “tree”.  He was happily munching on it while playing with it.  Stuart and I were so surprised; we both did not dare to make any comments as we did not want to ruin the good thing.  Logan even took and ate another one that I offered to him.  This was the first broccoli that Logan ate on his own in his entire life!

     Today was the Kaiser Fall Family Festival.  It was a wellness fair for the employees and families, and we thought it was a well planned out and success fair today.  We planned to get there early to avoid the crowds and to dispose our old TV at the eWaste drop off.  We ran into Kathy and her family near the parking lot.  We all went in to register together, then headed over to get our flu shots first.  I had received mine last week at work, so it was just for the 3 boys.  We did not tell Logan anything about the shot that he would get today.  Right before I sat him down on me for the shot, I told him that the lady would give him a little poke and we would then go over to the other side to get an ice cream.  He was still trying to absorb what I said, I covered his eyes so he would not see the needle, the shot was over.  So he was fine.  Then it was Connor’s turn.  The nurse gave it to his thigh while he was sitting in the stroller.  He gave out one loud cry, then stopped as we strolled to the other side of the room to get the popsicles.  While we sat in the courtyard to enjoy the popsicles, all our friends showed up too, the Kaos, the Tsaos and the Changs.  We all headed over to the kids area next.  That is when I unfortunately became an irresponsible parent for a moment.

    Logan appeared interested in playing with the parachute, so Stuart and Logan went to join in the play.  The photographer inside me took over, so I set Connor and the stroller next to the parachute for him to watch the action, and I grabbed the parachute to participate and to take pictures.  Awhile later when Stuart asked me the whereabouts of Connor, I pointed over to where he was but Connor was not there.  My heart dropped and I frantically looked around until Kathy told me that Ted took Connor for a walk.  Ted also wanted to find out how long it would take before I realized missing a child.  After this panic, I resumed my responsibility and we continued enjoying other activities. 

     We took a break to have a soft pretzel and popcorns, then Logan and I went to make a pumpkin cutout.  We then checked out different booths to get some freebies.  Finally we decided to go out to the parking lot where they had set out a dining area for lunch.  We all happened to have our schedules in sync, we went into everyone (the Kaos, the Tsaos and the Changs), so we enjoyed the healthy portion-controlled lunch together.  After lunch, we parted our way again.  There were some obstacle jumpy houses, but this time Logan was not interested.  We checked out the carnival games and some other health booths, then decided to walk back to head home for a nap.  We were quite impressed with the festival today, and the kids seemed to have a good time too.

Forgot to mention about the family picnic we went to on Wednesday at daycare.  I had to leave work earlier in order to meet up on time with Stuart at school.  Stuart bought a large pizza for our picnic dinner.  There were many families there already when we arrived.  We set up our blanket next to Kathy and her family.  Logan was given a peanut butter jelly sandwich from the teacher, and he actually took a few bites from it.  Logan was very excited to have us around as usual.  Before Stuart was able to go get Connor, he had already spotted us through the window from his classroom.  The teacher said that he was so excited, jumping and kept pointing at us.  Once we were all together, we started eating our meal while trying to chat with some teachers and families.  Logan’s friend Alex was hanging out with us for a little bit until his mommy arrived.   Connor was content initially eating some pizza and some grapes that I brought for him.  After awhile, he just wanted to walk.  Stuart and I took turns letting Connor walked us around the school, checking out the courtyard and the people.  Logan took us to the playground and showed us how he played there.  It was nice to have this annual picnic to see how the kids are at the school and have a chance to catch up with the other families.