Setback

On Saturday, July 5th, Natalie went to the birthday party of one of her swim friends, Aspen. Aspen and her brothers are triplets, and they had a pool party to celebrate their 11th birthday. Natalie participated in the games and everything. Patrick had already warned her to be careful. It's easy to turn your back a funny way when you're playing pool games. Natalie and I also did a lot of walking while shopping at La Cantera Mall on that day.

Well, on Monday, July 7th, Natalie's back was sore, but she went to swim practice, hoping to "work it out". She didn't even swim 100 meters before she had to get out because her back was hurting.

Fast forward to last weekend. Natalie went to the Lifetime Fitness pool with us and with her swim friend Ally B. She went on the water slide there, but she didn't seem to be goofing around too much in the pool. Ally spent the night here that Saturday, July 12th. The following week, Natalie's back was hurting again, so much so that she didn't go to swim practice all of last week. She had her usual physical therapy appointments on Tuesday and Thursday. During her Thursday, July 17th appointment, they also taped her back.

Natalie said that the tape helped because even though her back was still a little sore, the tape made it feel better. We're not sure exactly what she did to aggravate her back again, but we keep getting reminded that her recovery will be a long drawn-out process. My poor baby girl! She is very disappointed that it's taking so long, but she is being a trooper and doing her back exercises regularly along with going to physical therapy twice a week.

Along with the "setback" theme, Eric's piano teacher (Justin) was involved in a bicycle accident in June, right after school ended. He broke his elbow and did not teach lessons for the rest of June. I was a little worried about how Eric's desire for taking piano lessons would be affected. He was already starting to complain about practicing piano and expressing a lot of hesitance in going to piano lessons. His teacher had suggested that his students still practice piano or even just play around on the piano during his absence. We didn't push Eric to practice daily during that time.

Well, Justin recovered and started teaching again starting after the 4th of July holiday. Surprisingly, Eric didn't complain about practicing piano or going to piano lessons again. In fact, practicing piano has become part of a routine for him. Basically, he knows that he can't play on the iPad until he practices piano, so he practices even without being asked. Natalie was NEVER that good.

I had to take this picture of him practicing because of the earphones in his ears. One of his assignments was to figure out how to play a simple tune after hearing it--an ear training exercise. The tune was "Sing Hosannah" and Justin told him to use the black keys on the piano and where to put his fingers before playing the song. The sound wasn't coming through very loudly on my iPhone without the earphones, so I put my bluetooth earphones in Eric's ears and let him listen that way. The pieces that go in the ears were way too big, but they managed to stay in his ears. He also managed to pick out the right notes for the song.

We'll see how Natalie and Eric both do in the coming weeks. I can't believe that the summer break is almost over already.