Happy 10th Birthday, Eric!

Today is Eric's 10th birthday! My youngest baby is now in double digits! I wanted to start this blog post with the big group photo of everyone that was able to go to Eric's birthday dinner tonight, including (left to right) Uncle Geoff, Patrick, Alex, Alex's girlfriend Coral, Natalie, Alejandro, Me, Eric, Grandma, and Grandpa.

The day started with a trip to Krispy Kreme. Eric wanted to go there for his birthday breakfast. He had lots of sugar with the free glazed donut they give to everyone, then two chocolate iced donuts, and apple juice. Natalie went with us and had three glazed donuts (including the free one). I had my usual chocolate iced custard filled donut.

When we got home, we woke up Alex so he could watch an episode of The Flash with us (Season 2 episode 19). We don't usually wake him up so early (around 9am), but he had said that he wanted to watch The Flash with us whenever we got to the next episode, so we did. In the middle of the episode, Anthony called to wish Eric a happy birthday. After they chatted for a bit, I got to talk to him. I miss him so much! He filled me in on why he's been so busy this week (Greek Week at his fraternity). He hurt is wrist during one of the activities (something similar to Dancing With the Stars), and promised to send me a video explaining how he got hurt. He was also excited that their Spring Formal was going to be a dinner cruise on a yacht. I'm looking forward to pictures.

At around 11am, Natalie and I went to the gym. Even on the weekend she has been trying to get some swimming in, to work on her technique in a more relaxed time frame than during swim team practice during the week. Patrick met us there about an hour later with Eric so I could take him rock climbing while Patrick got some cardio exercise in. Patrick then took Eric to the pool at the gym while Natalie and I left to go have lunch at McAlister's Deli.

During lunch, Natalie and I watched the next episode of The Magicians, a show we started watching together during Spring Break. We've both been so busy since then that this is the first time we have watched since we got back. We finished up the episode when we got home.

By the way, the picture above is of the dessert we had after dinner at El Mirasol. The manager came by our table to say "hi". He knows us from when we used to go to the other location on Blanco where he used to be a waiter. I mentioned that we were raising our kids on El Mirasol because Eric had specifically requested to go to El Mirasol for dinner for his birthday. I think that this was the reason why we got this huge (free) dessert complete with a candle for Eric to blow out. It's pretty much a combination of all the different desserts that they serve there. Even with so many people, each person had plenty of dessert.

This is a picture of Patrick with his youngest sibling, Geoff. Geoff is visiting his parents for maybe a month or so. They recently sold their house in Colorado (it sold in one day for the asking price!), and Geoff is going to help them empty the house, probably among other things.

When Patrick and Eric got home from the gym, Alex presented Eric with his birthday gift. Alex had bought a small trash can with a lid for Eric's room on which Alex had written "NOT A TOILET". On Friday night, when Patrick went into Eric's room to sing goodnight to him, there was a bad smell. That smell happened to be some old urine in Eric's trash can. Apparently he decided one night to pee in his trash can instead of going to the bathroom down the hall. Alex and Natalie were as horrified as we were. Alex wanted to give Eric a little reminder.

It was about 2:30pm by this time, and Eric and I took a walk to nearby Hardberger Park. I needed some more "steps" and he always enjoys climbing and swinging at the park playground. The temperatures got up into the 80s, and it was humid, but at least there was a breeze. It still felt pretty hot by the time we got back to the house around 3:30pm. Grandma, Grandpa, and Geoff had just arrived.

This is a yearly picture I take of Eric with his "other brother" Alejandro, or at least I try to take one every time Alejandro is able to join us for Eric's birthday. Alejandro recently got engaged, so we got to congratulate him in person. Anthony will be his best man, so at least I know that we get to see Anthony at least once in December of this year (December 2nd is the wedding date). Unfortunately we didn't get to meet Alejandro's fiancé Maggie. I'm sure we will have other opportunities.

This is a picture of Eric and his presents from today (minus the trash can). Grandma and Grandpa got him the Under Armour hoodie. We got him the other three presents, a stomp rocket set, a Munchkin Deluxe game, and a Star Wars Bladebuilders light saber that he picked out himself at Target yesterday.

We were updating his wish list at Target yesterday. I told him that I could buy him something yesterday, and we would give it to him today. This toy must have been the one that he absolutely had to have, because this was the only one he wanted to buy yesterday. Normally, I would have had to go back to Target later, like today, to buy him something else, but we ordered the other items from Amazon instead for next day delivery. The Amazon package arrived shortly before this picture was taken. Thank goodness for next day delivery and large gift bags.

I told Eric tonight that I wanted to make him feel special on his birthday, and I asked him if he felt special. He replied, "Yes." That's all this mother wants. Happy Birthday to my sweet baby boy.