Eric Update

I've been posting so much about Natalie that I have to post about Eric now so his grandparents can get their fix. Eric has been enjoying having his siblings at home. With Alex at home most of the time, he can play and play in the gameroom--he doesn't have to leave the house.

I enticed him to leave the house last Friday. Natalie had already gone to the neighborhood swim practice in the morning, but she wanted to go to the afternoon practice just to see who they picked as swimmer of the week. They also distribute frozen treats at the Friday evening practice, so she wanted to participate in that as well. Eric went for the frozen treat. He thought they were going to have popsicles, since we had brought popsicles a few weeks ago when it was our turn to bring the treat. He was reluctant to accept the ice cream sandwich they offered as a substitute, but of course he changed his mind when I had him taste it.

Notice the sunglasses perched on his head, just like Papa wears it. Notice also the blue flip-flops. Those are his new Dinosaur Train flip-flops that I found at HEB last week for $2. Ever since then he's been looking for every opportunity to wear them, even to church this weekend, much to Patrick's and my chagrin.

We've been cutting down on his iPad time. I usually bring the iPad to work so he doesn't even have the option to watch it. I'm less reluctant to restrict Natalie, however, because she's been exercising so much. She deserves a little bit of down time watching Mythbusters or other documentaries (her new favorite thing to watch on Netflix).

Of course when Natalie is watching then Eric is watching too. Yesterday, they were watching Mythbusters while crouching down on the floor. I decided to make it a little more comfortable for the both of them. I had them both lie down in Natalie's bottom bunk bed and I inserted the iPad cover into the slats of the bunk bed above. It was almost like watching in the car. For some reason, Eric said it was like watching on a "bed bus".

Another reason why Eric will very willingly leave the house is to go to the pool. Patrick tries to take him at least a couple of times a week, sometimes to the neighborhood pool, and sometimes to our gym pool at Lifetime Fitness. On Monday nights from 5:45-6:15pm, he has swim lessons. Patrick switched his lessons to this time so they would coincide with when we have to be there for Natalie's swim team class. Tonight after his lesson, they updated his folder to show what swimming skills he has learned. It's all part of an organized system to make sure all the students are learning the same things. I'm sure you won't be able to read this unless you enlarge the photo, so here are the categories typed out:

Level 201
-Blow bubbles
-Float on front with assistance
-Float on back with assistance
-Kick feet
-Jump in water and get out
-Paddle with arms

Level 301
-Hold breath underwater
-Float on front unassisted
-Float on back unassisted
-Kick 15 ft. with face in water
-Paddle on back 25 ft.
-Log roll unassisted
-Swim 25 ft. on front with face in water

As you can see, he still needs to do the last three in Level 301, but he is well on his way to be a great swimmer, hopefully like his sister!