AB's First Communion

My niece AB's First Communion mass was at 10AM last Saturday. We met everyone at the church at 9:30AM and the church was already almost full. I think there were something like 160 kids having their First Communion. My sister C got there first and saved a couple of rows for our family of 16 (our immediate family plus her in-laws) and she said that she felt like she was at a rock concert with people coming up and asking her if all of those seats were saved.

It was freezing in the church, despite all of the people there. Natalie was wearing a dress with spaghetti straps and she jumped at the chance to wear my BIL's suit coat jacket when he offered it to her. She sat next to my niece E who just had her First Communion last week. Unfortunately, we missed that one because I was working last weekend.

AB's paternal grandparents drove down from Oklahoma for this event. They're wonderful people and it was great to see them again. I have to giggle at this photo, though, because of Natalie thrusting her head into the shot from the row behind. Anthony is also peeking from that other row. This must show that I trained those two to look at the camera whenever it's pointed somewhere in their vicinity.

The boys (including my nephew N) are all in soccer, so for once, none of them had a game. Patrick and I feel like we have to pull Alex's teeth sometimes to get him to "dress up". It's also like pulling teeth to get him to cooperate with photos sometimes. At least my nephew N smiled this time. That must be a ten-year-old thing.

As an aside, near the beginning of mass, Anthony's nose started spontaneously bleeding. I started walking with him towards the foyer of the church when one of the ladies that was helping with the mass saw that he had blood running down his hands and took us to the sacristy where there was a sink and some towels. She apparently was an emergency room nurse for many years and she was a huge help.

My parents were there, of course, as well as my other sister M. We had so many packed in our pews that when they talked about making room for others that had arrived later, we couldn't fit anymore, without putting a child on a lap, that is. We had nine people in our row (including kids) and there were six adults sitting in the row in front of us.

AB wore the dress she wore as a flower girl for my cousin's wedding almost two years ago, minus the red sash. She looked beautiful in that dress and she also looked very excited, even after mass when we were taking photos of her in front of the altar.

I love this picture of AB with both sets of grandparents. I wish I had taken a picture of Natalie with both sets of her grandparents when they were all here for her First Communion. Oh well, maybe one of these days...

Tomorrow I'll share some pictures I took at my Mom and Dad's house. My mom loves to spoil the kids, mostly with food. It's wonderful to see that interaction.

Happy Mother's Day 2010

I took a lot of pictures this weekend, so I'll be posting a few a day in the next few days so as to not overload my MIL's dial-up internet service. I had a nice Mother's Day today overall. We had brunch at America's Restaurant in Houston this morning. They had lamb, beef, chicken, crab legs, calamari, etc. They had pasta with two different sauces and your choice of items to add to it. The kids' favorite seemed to be the crepes, fruit or chocolate. They had creme brulee, tres leches cake, and even ice cream. It was ALL delicious.

I tried to take a few group shots. I don't know what Anthony was trying to do here, but he definitely looks like he's enjoying himself. He got up around 9:30AM and had breakfast before getting ready for the brunch. The brunch reservation was at 10:45AM and he was still able to eat at least two plates full (mostly seafood) and had ice cream for dessert. Alex had a chocolate crepe and some of the pasta with alfredo sauce. He also had fruit and ended up with ice cream for dessert.

I love this picture of my mom with her granddaughters--all beautiful. Natalie had fruit and salmon. Her cousins ate quite a bit too, but of course nothing compared to the boys. They all sat together and had a blast.

What kind of picture do you get when you tell your parents that they should try to smile for the picture? :) Still, I take every opportunity to take pictures of them because I am never sure how much longer they'll be around. I hope I look as good as my mom when I get to be her age. (Love you, Mom!)


The food was fantastic, but the service was a bit lagging. We had to wait quite a while to get the bill, even after we asked for it. The kids got a bit restless, but at least there was a little area that they could play in. Here, the girls are picking each other up for some reason. The girls all loved playing with Eric this weekend, and the feeling seemed to be mutual. The girls like to sing and dance and so does Eric. My nieces especially, seemed to enjoy having a "younger sibling" to play with.

Here, Eric is running back and forth from where I was standing to the wall. The girls were following him and doing what he was doing. What else could a three-year-old want?

This evening, Patrick and the older boys went to a Spurs basketball game. Patrick was hesitant since it was Mother's Day, but it was actually my idea. Some women look forward to being spoiled by their families for Mother's Day. I told Patrick that he spoils me all the time, so I don't have anything left to ask for on Mother's Day. I hope all the other mothers out there had a wonderful day today too!

Tomorrow, I'll post some pictures from my niece's First Communion this weekend.

Comp Day

Today was a "comp day" for me for working last Saturday. Usually I just hang out with the family, but today we're also traveling to Houston to visit my family, so much of the day was spent with preparations. This little guy was a bit needy, however, so I didn't get as much done as I had hoped. Instead I tried to just enjoy spending time with him. In this picture I asked him to show me his Iron Man car that he got from his godfather for his birthday. I guess he's now trained to put his face in the picture too. :)

I managed to get a little time to get things done by letting him watch some Thomas videos. Here he is, watching some streaming video from Netflix again. If I haven't yet made it clear how cool this Netflix application is for the iPad, then I'll make it clear now. It's awesome! Patrick has been watching some Dresden Files shows on it too. He thinks it's cool, too. I haven't watched any Netflix videos on it, only shows from ABC.com and some high-definition scrapbooking videos. The resolution is fantastic!

For lunch we went to Panera Bread for the first time. I'd heard good things about it and the Philly sandwich place we were intending to go to had gone out of business. I really enjoyed their Asian Sesame Chicken Salad. Patrick was equivocal on his Caesar Salad and Turkey Sandwich. Eric ate some of Patrick's turkey and my apple--not the greatest dinner, but at least he ate a hard-boiled egg when we got home.

So, I spent the day packing, getting the electronics ready, and folding the loads of laundry that Patrick washed last night. Not a very exciting day off, but hey, a day off is still a day off! We'll be in Houston for the weekend for my niece A's First Communion.

Eating Lunch With The Kids At School

This is a picture of Eric eating noodles with "ticks" last Friday. We were at PF Chang's and he insisted on using the chopsticks to eat his noodles. Patrick took a video but I'm sure that the video would only be interesting to his parents. :)

I'm on call tonight so I'm "off" until 6PM tonight. Whenever I'm off during the day, Natalie always requests that I bring her lunch at school. She usually requests McDonald's, but today she requested Sonic. Alex's lunchtime overlaps Natalie's by about five minutes, and I always ask him if he wants me to bring something too. He usually doesn't want anything, but of course when I mentioned shakes (he likes the shakes at Sonic) he requested a chocolate banana shake.

Eric loves to visit his siblings at school. He usually shares the Jumbo Popcorn Chicken with Natalie when we eat Sonic, but he requested a cheeseburger today instead. Of course when we were eating with Natalie he decided he'd rather eat some of his sister's chicken. *SIGH* Luckily, he did end up eating some of his cheeseburger too so Natalie could have a full lunch.

After Natalie's lunch, we moved over to sit with Alex and his group of friends. His friends seemed fascinated with Eric. I think at least a couple of them were the youngest and therefore didn't have any younger siblings. They kept wanting him to talk or sing. All Eric would do was make silly noises. I think he was a little embarrassed and like his sister, he reacts by being silly. The boys at one point even covered their eyes so that Eric might sing (without being stared at), but that didn't work either. I kept wishing that I could take a picture, but I really didn't want to embarrass my easily embarrassed son in front of his friends.

I myself don't usually eat the food that I bring them for lunch, but I did today. I don't find it very appealing to watch other second graders eat, but I know Natalie really enjoys it when I bring her lunch. Alex seemed to enjoy showing his little brother off to his friends. Eric enjoyed being the center of attention, as usual.

Eric's Bad Weekend

This poor little man has had a bad weekend. I was on call yesterday and when the family came to visit and have lunch with me, he threw up on me. Luckily, there are always extra scrubs for me to change into. He also had lots of stuff coming out of the other end, so he's had plenty of baths this weekend. He was feeling a little better today and here he is singing "Row, Row, Row Your Boat".

Row, row, row yer boat,
Gently by the dweam,
Merlee, merlee, merlee, merlee,
Life is bout a dweam."

Notice the scratch on his forehead that makes him look like he has a unibrow? Apparently, he did that with a stick at Anthony's soccer game yesterday afternoon. When I got home this morning, he voluntarily told me, "Mama, I cried at
Anthony's soccer game." Poor little guy!

Patrick decided to grill steaks tonight, and we made some crescent rolls to go with the steaks. Anthony used to help me roll up the crescent rolls at this age, but after the first one, Eric wasn't interested. I'm not sure if it was the texture he didn't like, or the fact that I told him we needed to wash his hands after he touched the uncooked (and greasy) crescent rolls. He seemed excited enough to want to watch them bake in the oven.

He only ate crescent rolls for dinner, but at least he kept that down. I felt sorry for him and his bad weekend, so I set him up to watch a streaming video of Thomas the Tank Engine from Netflix. There's a cool Netflix app for my new iPad that makes it really easy to watch Instant Play Netflix videos. We're all going to enjoy this new toy, especially when we're travelling. I hope the little guy has a better day tomorrow.

Natalie and Soccer

For some reason, the date cutoff for soccer is August 1st instead of September 1st, like it is for school. That means that Natalie misses the cutoff and instead of being the youngest in her group, she is the oldest. She is technically in the U7 group which means that she was "under 7 years old" as of August 1st of last year. In the Fall season, she "played up" one year, meaning that she played with girls who were also in the second grade at school. That team was U8 or under 8 years old as of August 1st. They did away with that team and those girls were split up and moved to the next group up (U9 or under 9 years old). Natalie wanted to "play with the big girls" and not the girls her own age. This meant that during this Spring soccer season, she "played up" two years. Because of the rules they play under, she couldn't play in games, except for when she played games in her own club. Despite this, she still wanted to play with the "big girls" and we only had three of her games to go to for this Spring season.

Tonight was the last game. Natalie's coach has a U9 and a U10 girls' team. Tonight, her U9 team (Natalie's team) played her U10 team. This meant that Natalie was as much as three years younger than some of those girls on the opposing tram. Patrick wanted me to take this picture of the size discrepancy. Notice also that Natalie is pushing that much larger girl. Natalie wasn't very aggressive during most of this game, except for this instance and another time when she managed to kick the ball despite being almost on her knees.

I had to post this picture too because she was caught "in the act" of scratching herself. She has eczema, and often gets dry skin patches, especially on the back side of her legs. She's obviously itchy on her head too. Scratching herself is such a routine act that she doesn't even realize she's doing it anymore. When I showed her this picture, she just gave me her embarrassed face.

In other news, we got an iPad today!!! I typed this blog entry on it. Anthony thinks it's cool and keeps asking to touch it. :)

Pigtails

I haven't been very good at blogging this year, at least compared to last year, so I might try to throw in a couple of extra posts today or in the next week or so. I'm off from work today, part of the perks from having 12 hour shifts instead of the previously typical 9 hours with the recent renovations of our operating rooms.

Whenever I'm home in the morning, Natalie usually requests that I put her hair into pigtails. She decided a couple of months ago that she was going to start growing out her hair again and it's not quite long enough for a ponytail, but it is long enough for pigtails. I'm never happy with the lighting in my house for taking pictures, but I do love this picture of my Princess Natalie. Her front upper right incisor is growing in and she doesn't have the cheesy smile that she sometimes gets.

Of course when Eric saw that I was taking a picture of Natalie, he had to get in there too. I took this picture with the flash, and I'm never happy with how flat everything looks when I use the flash, but until I figure out my camera settings better or get better lighting in my house, this will have to do.

This little boy has hit the "Terrible 3's" now. Patrick and I have always thought that the "3's" were worse than the "2's". He knows more of what's going on and he can communicate a lot better, but he still doesn't understand why he can't watch just "one more" show when it's already bedtime. Luckily, thanks to his new Thomas "banket" and sheets, I was able to distract him into getting into bed last night with just a few tears and thankfully, no screaming.

Shopping With Kids

I had to work late tonight, so I only had time to give Natalie and Eric baths and then put them to bed. No time to take pictures, so I'm going to recount something that happened on Sunday.

After our morning outside on Sunday, I took all the kids shopping at Old Navy and the Gap. I ended up spending $200 total. I think the list of items is telling as far as what the kids are into, so I'm going to list them here:

There was a basket of different types of balls and Eric kept taking out balls and handing them to me. In the end, Eric settled on a red football with a snake design on it. Alex helped him choose when he said how cool it was. Eric liked the football, but I think Alex liked it even more. I also bought Eric a soccer T-shirt.

Natalie got two pairs of shorts. I was so frustrated with her because she said she needed new shorts but almost all of the shorts were either a color or a design she didn't like. Sigh! When did she get so picky with clothes? She also got a pair of flip-flops. She was picky about which flip-flops to get too.

Alex got the most clothes. He got four T-shirts (all with soccer designs except for maybe one) and one swimsuit (Black and white with snakes) plus a pair of sunglasses and a pair of flip-flops. He picked all of that out himself.

Anthony tried to buy more shorts, but he only ended up with two pairs. Either the other available shorts were a color he didn't like or they were too big. Still, I was happy that we were able to at least get a couple of pairs because last year's shorts are now too small or too short (for his liking).

After shopping we went to Brindle's for ice cream, of course. Anthony got the Raspberry Truffle in a small waffle cone. Alex wanted a shake but he settled for Dreamsicle in a kid's cone. Natalie and Eric both got the kid's cups, Chocolate and Dreamsicle respectively. Eric still picks his ice cream by color with Dreamsicle being "owange". :)

A Beautiful Day In The Neighborhood

The weather was beautiful this past weekend--70s, sunny, and breezy. I don't go outside very much except this time of year, and Sunday morning was a great day for the whole family to go outside. Natalie and Eric love these bubble guns that they got from my sister at Easter. I love the pure enjoyment in Natalie's face in this picture so much that I cropped it for my blog header above.

This picture is so fun! Natalie is chasing after Patrick and he's pretending to run away. He was trying to be funny by running backwards. She apparently "shot" him in the back because after this I noticed a wet spot in the middle of his back. Notice that she is again wearing skirts (skorts) to play outside. On Saturday she was going to wear a dress to play and Patrick convinced her to change into shorts.

Eric often mimics his beloved sister. Look at those happy, happy faces! I enjoyed just watching Eric loading up his bubble gun. He dipped it into the bubble solution for what seemed like a very long time, then he would watch the bubbles just floating up and away. They went through that bubble solution pretty quickly.

Alex loves to play outside more than any of my other kids. He was absolutely loving the fact that his father and brother were both playing basketball with him. The three of them played "HORSE" with the kid (TD) across the street. I got a lot of great action photos of Alex jumping, but not Patrick and Anthony because they don't jump up nearly as high as Alex. Anthony, however, tried to kick/handle the ball like he would kick a soccer ball. Patrick thought TD was going to win because he practices playing basketball a lot more, but Patrick ended up winning.

I had to request that Patrick, Anthony, and Alex stand together for a picture, otherwise the only other pictures I have were of them standing apart on different sides of the basketball goal. I can't believe how tall my boys are! I don't get nearly enough photos of them, so I was glad I was able to get this one. I think Patrick looks pretty proud of them here.

There were other kids out playing too. One of them was AP, who was riding on various motorized vehicles. Another one was MD from across the street, who is only four months older than Natalie and a whole head taller. They were in the backyard when we saw this rabbit hopping through. Natalie insisted that I put a picture of the rabbit on my blog, so here it is. Eric was there too and they got him to say that it was the "Easter Bunny".

I have to work next weekend so I really enjoyed being able to "play" with my family this weekend.

"I Spillt My Name"

Eric and I were playing with some magnetic letters on our refrigerator this afternoon. I asked him if he could spell his name. He nodded, but had trouble figuring out which letter his name started with, so I showed him the "E" and told him his name started with "E". I was surprised when he then said the next letter was "r", which I found and put next to the "E". I asked him what the next letter was and he pointed to the "c" and said "c". I helped him with the "i".

When I told Patrick about this, he said that they had been working together on spelling Eric's name. I didn't know that they had been working on it. Eric is also starting to recognize the different letters. He found the "R" and put it next to the "r" and then we found the "I" and "C". He was so proud of himself and I was proud of him too (and Patrick for teaching him)!

Last Games

Today was the last game for Alex's team. We got to travel to Fort Sam Houston for this one. Thankfully, even with all the construction on post, all the parents were able to find their way to the field. The boys didn't play too well and they lost 6-0. Last night, Alex started complaining of a stomachache and when Patrick told him to eat a light breakfast this morning, he decided that Pop Tarts were "light". So, he started not feeling too well during the game and he sat out for longer than he usually does, but he still played a good portion of the game. He was able to take a nap during Anthony's afternoon game, and he felt better after that.

We only had about an hour at home before heading off to Anthony's game. Eric loves to play on the floor with his various vehicles. Here he is playing with his Lego trains. Just when you think you have all the Thomas trains, they go and make new ones. I got down on the floor to take this shot as well as some others. I love hearing him make train sounds and I love seeing how much he is concentrating on his beloved trains.

Anthony's game was at Brooks City Base on the south side of town. This was the location of Alex's mud bowl games last year. Can you imagine this little guy daring to push my big guy around? Unfortunately, our team still lost 2-5. Most of their goals were after corner kicks. Our boys held their own for most of the game, but they had problems scoring and they let some bad calls affect their play. They had a substitute coach since their regular coach was out of town. At least this one didn't yell at them for losing. Anthony's team actually has one more game next Saturday, but that was one that was rescheduled from last Saturday when it was raining very hard. I'm working next Saturday, so I'll miss that one, so this one was the last soccer game of the season for ME.

School Holiday

The kids were off from school today so besides the monthly haircuts this morning, we mostly hung out at home. There was also a little "parade" in our neighborhood in honor of the Battle of Flowers Parade that was going on in town today. Patrick, Natalie, and Eric did a lot of walking during the parade. In the afternoon, Alex arranged for a couple of school friends to come over, while Natalie played with her usual neighborhood friends.

Anthony went to a movie with his friends in the late afternoon, while the rest of us headed to the mall for dinner and ice cream. Eric was in a silly mood and started making faces at himself in the mirror at the Haagen-Dazs shop. He was also dancing to the music. Then he very dramatically took the next spoonful of ice cream.

I've had some days off this week. I didn't have to go in on Wednesday until 2PM then I got Thursday off because I got called back in on Wednesday night. Today was a planned day off. I wanted to do "more" but the kids were happy mostly just hanging out at home. With the weird schedule at work, I'll get more days off like this with the kids, and that's a good thing.

The Boy In the Pink Jacket

Today we played Alex's game that was cancelled from last Saturday. The temperature was nice in the low 70s but because of the strong breeze, it felt a little chilly. I grabbed Natalie's jacket on the way out, but I couldn't find Eric's jacket. He decided that he was going to wear Natalie's jacket. At first Patrick tried to talk him out of it, but Eric insisted. He also insisted on zipping it up. Most of the parents at the soccer field just smiled and laughed. One father actually thought he was a girl, at first, when he was pulling the hood over his eyes, but quickly found out he was wrong when he saw Eric's buzz cut. This boy makes me smile. :)

Why Trips To Target Take So Long

I was in one of the aisles at Target and when I turned around to face my cart, I saw this. If Eric only did this once, it would have been fine, but he kept doing this and also trying to sit on that bottom tier while I was trying to push the cart. Alex and Natalie also wanted to shop for themselves, so with all three of them with me, this shopping trip took almost two hours.

Soccer Cancellations

It's been raining all week, so the kids' home soccer fields were already soggy. In fact, Natalie's game last night (Friday) was cancelled because of rain. Alex had a game scheduled for 8:30AM. When we left the house at around 7:30AM, it was raining pretty hard. We still had to go because if our team didn't show up and the other team did, we would have to forfeit the game. So, long story made short, the referee ended up cancelling the game by around game time because the rain was still heavy and the puddles on the field just kept getting bigger and bigger. By the time we left, the thunder and lightning were starting. Most of Alex's teammates still went out there and played in the rain. He was soaked but happy.

Natalie and Eric had stayed home with Anthony while we were at the soccer fields. Some time after we got home, Natalie was reading to Eric. It was so cute that I had to take a picture. Of course, Eric saw me and had to ham it up for the camera.

I love seeing my kids reading to each other. Now I'll have to dig out a picture of Anthony reading to Alex. I don't think I have any other photos of different combinations of kids reading to each other, but that would make a fantastic scrapbook page. :)

Since Anthony's game at 4PM was also cancelled, he made alternate plans to spend the night at his good friend A's house. He had already made plans to go to a semi-formal dance at the school our kids used to go to, which is also the school that his good friend A still goes to. When Patrick went to drop Anthony off, I took Natalie and Eric to the mall. I had two Gymbucks to redeem at Gymboree. I was surprised that Natalie actually wanted to buy a dress, and I was even more surprised that she wanted to buy this hat and boots. I'm not sure the ensemble all goes together, but she looks pretty darned cute in it. She hasn't been wearing dresses lately, and she has always refused to wear boots--until today.

Here's Natalie's new dress. She is also wearing her Hannah Montana sunglasses, even though it was still cloudy outside. I'm not sure if she was trying to be fashionable or what because we were indoors for this picture and it was definitely not bright in there. We went to Pei Wei for dinner after church and I thought the three of them looked cute sitting on the chairs waiting for our turn to order.

The weather had cleared up this afternoon, as you can see from this picture. When we were walking to Brindles for ice cream after dinner, I noticed how well the kids' outfits matched each other. As usual, even though our plans changed today because of the weather, we still found a lot of things to do today.

Three Year Old Stats

Eric had his three-year-old checkup today. He was 29 pounds and 36 3/4 inches tall (3rd and 25th percentile, respectively), so he's a little guy but at least he's growing and developing normally. He was so good at the doctor's office that Patrick "rewarded" him with lunch at Fuddrucker's. He ate most of his meat and a little bit of the bun--pretty typical. I didn't take a picture today, but this was a picture from a week or two ago. The little stinker was climbing on the outside of the stairs and giving me a little attitude. He's a cutie, isn't he?

In other news, Natalie had her "Achievement Auditions" today. She memorized 2 two-page pieces for this. Up until yesterday we were still working on maintaining the same tempo throughout, especially during an eight-measure section in one of the pieces. She would suddenly slow down to half the tempo for that section. I know that I'm probably her worst critic, but she must have fixed it, because she got a "Superior Plus", which is apparently the highest rating. Interestingly, she didn't want her piano teacher to be in the room when she warmed up. Maybe she does get a little nervous after all. I'm so proud of her!

Weekend Fun

I wanted to show some pictures of what else we did this weekend. This first one is of Alex stuffing himself in my niece E's old car. My sister M gave E's old car to Eric since E has now outgrown it. My nephew N also stuffed himself into the car when we visited them the weekend before. It must be a ten-year-old thing.

Ahh, iPhones are wonderful for keeping the kids busy and quiet. I love that they're so easy to use that even a three-year-old can use them. Natalie had so much fun with my niece A this weekend. Eric had fun too, especially since A was always trying to help him. He's the little brother she's never going to have.

I took Natalie and Eric to Lakeshore Learning for the free Crafts for Kids this past Saturday. My sister C took my niece A to Lowe's for crafts there but Natalie wasn't interested. They later also tried to go to Lakeshore but we ended up missing each other. Surprisingly, Eric didn't want to do crafts nor did he want to play with the kitchen and other toys there. Luckily we found this puzzle. What I love about Lakeshore is that they have some really great (and durable) educational products like this. We also spent some time on the number/letter rug that can be seen in the background. Eric knows his numbers very well, but we still need to work on letters.

The kids got these cool battery-operated bubble guns from my sister for Easter. This is why Natalie and Eric get along so well--they like the same things. They both like playing school and playing with Play-Doh, and they both like to blow bubbles. It doesn't seem to matter if it's a squirt gun, Nerf gun, or bubble gun. Eric has been taught to point it at someone. Older siblings are useful that way.

This was taken Sunday night after almost everyone left our house, except for G, Natalie's godfather. As I mentioned in the previous post, Natalie stuck pretty close to him. She kept hugging him and sitting on his lap. Eric just does what his sister does. He also knows that he's supposed to smile when I take a picture. Natalie, however, is oblivious and has this habit of putting her hands up to her face and mouth. I love this picture though, because it shows us just hanging around with G. Thanks for coming to visit, G! Miss you!