Well, we made it through the first week of summer. I thought I would detail what each child has been up to in order to update the in-laws. We're still busy in some ways and not in some others.
Anthony had to do some sort of internship this summer as a requirement to graduate. He really only started looking in May, which seemed really late to us, but apparently there were others who waited even longer. He basically did this all by himself. He looked up the name of a professor at UTSA (University of Texas at San Antonio) who did things related to Materials Science, which is what he is interested in. He was very happy when he got an email back asking him to come for a visit. That was this past Monday, June 4th, and he pretty much started right away. His first task has been to learn all about the electron microscope and he has been enjoying all of it. That means that he will be doing this every day until the end of July when he becomes the Head Counselor at the P.E. Camp at his school.
Besides the internship, he also signed up for an informal 7 vs. 7 soccer league that plays on Friday nights. He signed up with his best friend, Alejandro and some of his friends. So far he's been getting rides from his friend and it's an excuse to stay overnight at each other's houses. Anthony doesn't even know how long they'll be playing, but he scored a goal in last Friday's game and he's enjoying that too.
Anthony has decided to do a little training for Cross-Country this summer. He only started Cross-Country last Fall because his Soccer Coach wanted all of the soccer kids to start some conditioning in the off-season. He ended up enjoying it, so now he's going to try to do some running this summer. Of course, when he tried that this past week, he learned a valuable lesson. Don't eat bagels with peanut butter before running.
Alex's life has been much simpler since school ended. His main goal is to play as much on the Playstation 3 and his iPod Touch as possible. We've allowed him plenty of game time this first week, but we'll start insisting on some physical activity starting this coming week. To his credit, he did go outside a couple of times to play with the soccer ball. He and his younger siblings also did some cleaning and reorganization in the game room. He also made a "fort" made out of blankets and playhouses in his and Eric's bedroom and he's also been getting plenty of sleep. Unfortunately, late in the night on Wednesday, June 6th, the PS3 stopped working while he and Anthony were watching a movie on it. He hasn't had as much game time as he had hoped. We actually bought a new one since the other one was pretty old, but after a whole day of working with the new one and transferring the stuff on the old hard drive to the new hard drive, the new PS3 is making some loud noises and making the game discs very warm. We'll see what happens this next week with that.
Natalie has been the most physically active one. This week she went to the neighborhood swim team practice in the mornings at 10-11am, then she would go to the Lifetime Fitness swim team practice in the evenings from 5:30-6:30pm. She had the first swim meet of the summer last Saturday, June 2nd, and she had the second one today, the 9th. She actually had three swim meets today, but I'll talk about that in another blog post, probably tomorrow.
Because she has been so physically active, we've allowed her plenty of down time in the form of videos. She and Anthony went through all the available episodes of the animated show "Avatar: The Last Airbender", and now they are watching the followup series called "The Legend of Korra". She's been watching on the computer and on the iPad. She's been almost as obsessed with these shows as she has been obsessed with swimming. This morning, when Patrick went to get her up for her swim meet around 7am, he found her already in the office watching videos on the computer. She got in a lot of trouble for that one.
This past week, Natalie also went to the orthodontist to get a new retainer. She had to have a baby tooth pulled (as I mentioned in a previous blog post), so the old retainer no longer fit. She has to wear this new one all the time except for when she eats and when she swims.
Patrick has tried to plan some activities to keep Eric active. A couple of days this week he took Eric swimming. Eric loves the water and we're hoping he'll want to join the neighborhood swim team next summer, if nothing else so he can stay active since we have to be there for Natalie anyway. Also, Patrick took Eric to his swim lesson at Lifetime Fitness, which is now on Monday evenings to coincide with Natalie's swim practices.
Eric, however, has been mainly at home this past week, and especially today. Since Patrick, Natalie, and I were gone for most of the day, Eric was left in the care of his big brothers. They did play with him, but they were also preoccupied with the new PS3, transferring data from the old one, and setting up the new one. When we got home around 4pm, we asked the big boys if they had fed their little brother. Both boys were mostly silent except for some guilty looks and noises. What conscientious babysitters they were! Eric isn't a big eater and he has to be reminded to eat. We certainly don't need him to be missing meals. Hopefully he'll get more food and more fun activities this coming week.
I'll try to post again tomorrow with pictures and info about Natalie's swim meets.
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