Welcome to SA

My in-laws arrived in town yesterday. They are closing on their house tomorrow. They've been shopping for furniture as they got rid of some of their stuff when they sold their house in California. We met them at the Longhorn Steakhouse out by the hotel that they are staying at, a bit more north than where their house is. It took over an hour to get there, including dropping off Alex at a friend's house.

The kids seemed excited about their grandparents being in town. I know I'm excited about it. I've always wished that my kids could grow up with their grandparents around, and though it's a little late for Anthony and maybe Alex, it'll be nice for Natalie and Eric. They'll probably stay at our house on Monday night, since their furniture won't be delivered yet.

Patrick has been going to a "Packers bar" nearby, for the Packers games this football season. They had a tailgate party outside the bar today, and I brought Natalie and Eric to it. They served hotdogs, burgers, and brats, played music, and had games for everyone to enjoy.

They played this one game that involved tossing balls held together by a string. I love Natalie's face here, after she totally missed the target. Her expression is probably similar to the one I made when I totally missed the target when I first tried to play. I almost hit someone, it was so off target.

Eric was a little intense during his turns. He did at least as well as Natalie and definitely better than me. They also played some other bean bag tossing games. There was face painting and a bouncy house, and there was someone making balloon animals, but we didn't participate in those.

Grandma and Grandpa called when we had been there around an hour, saying that they were on their way. The temperatures were in the 70s and sunny, and the kids were hot and wanted to go home, so we didn't get to see Grandma and Grandpa. They got to meet some other Packers fans, though, and it was still cool that they were so close by that they could just drop by and see us. We're so glad they will be here, at least part of the year. Welcome to San Antonio, Grandma and Grandpa!

No Water

I snapped this photo last night when we went to Willie's Icehouse for the "Willie's Night" fundraiser for Eric's school. His school gets a small percentage of the profits from "Willie's Night" once a month. I saw what looked like a hug between Natalie and Eric, and I said I wanted a picture. Natalie, of course, said that she didn't want a picture, which is why it looks like she's trying to get away from Eric. Eric obliged as always--I love my Eric hugs!

It was a nice family dinner, even though we had to meet there. I brought Alex after I picked him up at school. Patrick brought Eric and Natalie after Natalie's physical therapy appointment. Natalie is now going to be fitted for a support belt for her hips. The physical therapist isn't sure if it will work, and she doesn't know what else to try, so we'll try using a loaner. We'll buy one specifically for Natalie if the loaner works for her. This is week four of Natalie not swimming after her latest injury on October 19. It was nice to see her smiling, even for a little while.

It was also nice for everyone to have a little smile, because the rest of the night was not that great. We did not have running water at our house last night. Patrick explained it to me earlier today, when the plumbers were installing the new water softener, the new water heater, and the pressure regulator. Yes, we just spent around $5000, but now we have water.

We didn't have a pressure regulator, so the water pressure was very high going into our house. The pressure wasn't so high in the past, so we didn't need the pressure regulator, but apparently it's high now. It's high enough that it basically pushed the resin that is in the water softener into our water lines and plugged them up--hence no water. Patrick suspected that our water heater was going to need to be replaced soon, so he had the plumbers inspect that also, and sure enough, it needed to be replaced, so he went ahead and told them to replace that too.

When it happened, Natalie was in the shower. She complained that the water was yellow-colored and that there was something in the water that looked like beads that got in her hair, so she stopped the water and got out. Poor thing was wrapped in a towel in her room waiting for a resolution. Thankfully, I had texted my friend Alicia, who lives around the corner, and she offered up her bathroom for showers. I took Natalie over there so she could finish up her shower. I washed my face and brushed my teeth while I was over there with her, and we used bottled water until the plumbers came this morning. I took a shower at the gym this morning.

I'm on call tonight, and I arrived at work early. I joked with some people at work that I came early since I had to go to the bathroom and since we didn't have running water at home, it was just as well that I came to work. Poor Patrick has been cleaning up since the plumbers left. It's a great start to our Thanksgiving holiday. We're just thankful that the water heater didn't explode as it did for our neighbors, especially because our water heater is in our attic. I'm thankful that our friend let us use her bathroom. We're also thankful that the plumbers were able to fix the problem today. Last but certainly not least, I'm thankful that Patrick figured out what was happening, because I had no idea about resin in the water softener until he explained all of this to me today.

Book Fair

Tonight was Family Night at Eric's school Scholastic Book Fair. He had gymnastics from 5-6pm, and we went straight to his school after that, since they were only going to be open until 7pm. As usual, he made a beeline for the non-fiction books. He asked for yet another dinosaur book, and he also asked for a book on wild animals. I told him he had to find a fiction book.

He looked at a Captain Underpants book, a series that his older siblings enjoyed and that he has also enjoyed reading. He didn't seem that keen on getting it, though. I found a couple of books about his current favorite TV show--Star Wars Rebels. He seemed very excited about those. He also found the sequel to a book he got last year at the book fair, about a Star Wars Jedi Academy. I held him to three books, and he was pretty happy with those three. They are not easy books to read, so I think he will be appropriately challenged. We're so lucky our kids love to read.

I also looked for a poster that he could hang in his room. He was interested in a dinosaur one to replace the Cars movie and Thomas the Tank Engine stickers that are currently on the wall in his room. I found it amusing that he made a sort of disgusted sound when I told him what was available. He said, "You mean they only have sports ones?" I replied, "And puppies." My youngest son is SO not going to be an athlete.

Lazy Days

This is a picture of Natalie coming home from school on Friday. She was hiding her face up and I snapped a few photos before she finally uncovered her face at the top of the stairs. She acted upset that I took the photos, but she was so tickled that I kept snapping photos that she didn't mind in the end. I love seeing her smile. She doesn't do that so much lately.

It's been chilly and drizzly here, so we didn't do too much this weekend. We didn't even want to go outside. It's just as well that Natalie had to miss another swim meet this weekend, that we originally signed up for, because of her back. Ever since she hurt her back during the 200 yard backstroke race on October 19th, she has been very sore or even hurting. She only had one physical therapy appointment last week because they wanted her to rest her back. She has only been to two swim practices since then, and in one of those she got out of the water after about 10-15 minutes. We continue to pray for her recovery. It's tough not being able to do anything to help her, except taking her to her appointments.

The only thing I can do is to try to get Natalie to focus on other things. One of those things is her growing obsession with collecting Starbucks gift cards. Her face lit up when she saw this huge display of the new ones for this holiday season. There are holiday ones, thank you ones, ones with all the letters of the alphabet, and there are some really cute ones at that. I have to admit that she is a little like me. I tend to collect things, although I've stopped just because I don't want to organize it all plus I don't have space. She spent some time putting her collection into baseball card protectors that I got a year or so ago for pictures, but that I haven't used.

Natalie also had another UIL competition. I didn't ask her what she entered, but she did tell me that she got twelfth place in Number Sense and she was in a four-way tie for sixth place in Math. She spent all of Saturday at the competition instead of going to the swim meet. It was good for her to be busy and to be able to see her friends.

Eric has been playing a lot on my iPad. I should basically consider it HIS iPad since he is the only one that uses it. We make him take breaks to do other things, but he really deserves it. Every day, when he gets home from school, he has a routine. He has a small snack first, then he immediately goes to the piano to practice. After that he will do his homework. He only has one packet that he often finishes in one or two sittings, so when he finishes he won't have any more homework for the rest of the week. We don't have to say anything--he'll just do his piano and his homework on his own. Besides that, he has gymnastics on Monday afternoons from 5-6pm, and piano on Thursdays from 7-7:30pm. If we ask him to unload the dishwasher, he does that right away, unlike his siblings. If we ask him to fold some laundry, he'll do that right away too. How can I say "no" to the iPad when he asks for it?

Eric had a piano recital on Saturday. He memorized two pieces for the recital. I didn't have to help him at all, since I'm usually not home yet when he practices anyway. His teacher keeps saying that he is progressing quickly despite being so self-driven. During the recital, he forgot his second piece. He had to pause and try to figure it out, but he did it all by himself. He was composed and didn't look alarmed or anything. We were so proud. When he finished, he came back to where we were sitting and had a little smile on his face. Patrick and I took him out to eat at a place of his choosing (CPK). His siblings didn't want to come, so they got to eat at home.

Patrick and Alex have both been distracted with Patrick's new toy. Patrick bought himself a Playstation 4 (PS4) on Friday and spent the rest of the day setting it up. He and Alex have been spending time playing it. Officially, it's Patrick's birthday present, but I'll have to get him something else to open on his actual birthday. He and Alex are currently "fighting" over who gets to play right now. I love that they get to do something together.

By the way, Alex doesn't usually go around the house with his hoodie on his head. He saw me trying to take a picture so he put the hoodie on so his face wouldn't be on the picture. Yes, he and Natalie like to avoid pictures.

So, we mostly stayed at home this weekend, but at least we got to spend some time together.

November Art a la Carte

Today was Eric's monthly art class. I'm still a little thrown off by the fact that lunch for Eric is 11:05-11:35am, and then his art class isn't until 12:35-1:30pm--not right after like it was last year. He still wants me to bring him lunch from Wendy's, so I have to go home for an hour then come back. I came back a little late this time, and class had already started. Besides my not paying attention to the time, the school clock must also be faster than mine.

I totally missed the art teacher's talk on Eric Carle and how he painted pieces of paper then pieced them together to make his art. When I came in, they were already painting. They were using two colors of paint per table and painting white pieces of paper. They then added texture with sponges and forks. We then took those painted papers away to dry and be used for another second grade art class. We pulled out papers that another class had painted and that were already dry and cut up into pieces for Eric's class to use.

Half the class made caterpillars and half the class made butterflies. There were only a couple of kids that were particular on which they wanted to make, but the teacher had the mostly girl side of the class do the butterflies and the mostly boy side of the class do the caterpillars. The other volunteer and I passed out "kits" with the appropriate amount of pieces of paper, some templates for the bodies, heads, and tail, and a larger piece of white paper for a background.

The kids didn't get to choose the colors of papers they got to use, but Eric's happened to be the right colors to mirror the "Very Hungry Caterpillar" from the book. He decided he didn't want his caterpillar to have legs. Another girl wanted to draw her butterfly's eyes on instead of using paper piecing. The kids all find a way to express themselves in their art projects.

Eric was all ready for me to take a picture of him with his art work, even before I was. I love spending time volunteering at school with my child who still wants me around at his school.

Natalie had an Honors Band performance this morning at a nearby assisted living home. In the end she decided it would have been okay for Patrick and me to attend, but she had said earlier that she really didn't want us there, and so we didn't make plans to go. I'm glad that Eric still wants me around--for now.

Gymnastics M'Kay

This is not a great photo of Eric at his gymnastics class today, but it's really hard to get a good photo there. The lighting isn't great, and he spends most of the class on the far side of the room. Before one of the teacher/helpers started helping him get up to that bar, he was able to pull himself up on his own a couple of times. He started looking pretty tired after that and couldn't lift himself up anymore, so she helped him. Before this, he was on the rings and able to easily flip over repeatedly. I wish I could have gotten video of that, but again, he was too far away.

We've been trying to find a sport that Eric loves. He enjoys all the sports that he has been in, but he doesn't really LOVE any of them. Anthony and Alex both loved soccer and stuck with it. Natalie loves swimming and has so far stuck with it despite her injury. Eric enjoys being active, and he enjoys meeting other kids and having fun, but besides that, he doesn't really care which sport he gets to participate in. We're probably going to try martial arts next.

When we ask him if he wants to do a particular thing (not just sports), he will often answer "M'Kay", which is probably a cross between "Uh-hum" and "Okay". Most of the time, he just says "M'Kay" in a sort of nonchalant tone, and he seems to be saying "Yes, I have nothing else better I want to do, so let's do that". If he is more excited about the proposition, he'll bounce a bit more, but still often say "M'Kay", but more excitedly. When we asked him if he wanted to do gymnastics again, he replied in his nonchalant "M'Kay" tone. Oh, and by the way, if he doesn't want to do something, he'll say "No, thanks."

I told him that one day, he will not say "M'Kay" anymore, and I'll miss it. Until then, we'll let him try this and that, and hopefully we'll find some activity where he will respond with an excited "M'Kay!"