Bubble-Razzi

I wasn't particularly inspired to take any photos today. I didn't get out of bed until 9:30am when I had to get up in order to make it to the 10:30am Cardio Kickboxing fitness class at the gym. Anthony went with me. I got home, took a shower, ate lunch and generally just lounged around reading the paper and my email. I took Natalie to her Theory Test at 2:30pm. She had been playing with neighborhood friends all day. As we were driving out of the neighborhood, we passed Patrick and Eric going the opposite direction after going to a birthday party. I took a short nap after the Theory Test, then we went to church. After church we dropped off Anthony at Laser Quest with his friends and we proceeded to El Mirasol to have dinner. It wasn't until after we got home and Natalie and Eric were in the bathtub that I was inspired to take pictures.

Eric started singing, "Bubble-bubble-razzi" over and over again. Natalie and I figured out that he was singing part of the chorus of the song "Paparazzi" by Lady Gaga. Hilarious! He was in a silly mood and I went to grab my camera to take pictures. I didn't have much time to change my camera settings, resulting in some blurry photos. He stood up a couple of times, tried to balance a cup of water on his head, and then flopped back down into the bathtub. I was afraid he was going to hurt himself flopping around in the bathtub, but also I was afraid that the water was going to go everywhere outside of the tub. The picture is blurry, but boy does he look like he's having a blast! We were having fun watching and listening to him too. :)

Spicy Crispy Chicken Nuggets

Natalie loves Wendy's Spicy Crispy Chicken Nuggets. She got all excited when we talked about going to the mall tonight when she realized that there is now a Wendy's at the mall. She always wants the same thing, the aforementioned chicken nuggets and a Chocolate Frosty. She loves them so much that she ate two orders of the nuggets (five pieces each). Eric ate one order by himself, plus some orange soda.

I wasn't going to let Natalie have ice cream for dessert, because she had already had the Frosty. She ate two orders, though, and that's a lot for a little eight-year-old like that. Plus, I needed someone to help me with my Haagen-Dazs ice cream (Coffee and Belgian Chocolate Chocolate) and she's been eating my Coffee ice cream at home, so I shared my ice cream with her. Eric had his usual Mango Sorbet.

We all went to the bathroom after dinner. After tonight, Patrick and I decided that we have to put Eric in a pull-up when we go out. Invariably he will decide to "go potty" when we're out and about (when he won't at home) and it's a pain to have to put that diaper back on when he's standing.

Later, as we were about to leave, Natalie suddenly decided she had to go to the bathroom again. As Eric and I were waiting for her, he started spinning around with his backpack in his hands. He fell after a couple of turns, sometimes right in front of people walking around the mall. I cautioned him to get out of the way, but I let him go on spinning because he was so cute and because it kept him busy while we were waiting.

We were at the mall because Patrick and his mom were at Anthony's game. Anthony got to play most of the first half but his team lost 0-2. Alex stayed at home to play Call of Duty: Black Ops. That is how we spend a typical Friday night--separated and doing different things.

At Home With Grandma

The little man was out of sorts today. He was constipated and didn't know what he wanted. Sometimes he wanted to be held, but other times he didn't want anything to do with Papa and Grandma. He was intermittently sobbing and must have been exhausted because he took a handful of short 15 minute naps. Needless to say, they stayed home for the day. Shortly before Natalie came home, Eric had a big poop. Apparently he came downstairs all smiles and full of energy. That's the way I saw him when I got home.

Grandma read books, did puzzles, and played with Eric's toys today. In this picture, they are putting together Eric's Thomas glow-in-the-dark puzzle. After they finished, we turned out all the lights and oohed and aahed over the glowing puzzle.

Eric was again refusing to get ready for bed and brush his teeth. Tonight he said, "Big boys don't brush their teeth." Of course we told him that is completely untrue. Then he said, "Anthony doesn't brush his teeth." That isn't true either. If anything, Anthony takes care of his teeth better than anyone else in the family. He did such a great job of taking care of his teeth while he had braces, after all.

Speaking of Anthony, his Junior Varsity team won their game tonight 7-0. Anthony got some play time, which always makes him happy. They were dominating enough that apparently, their coach told them to just pass the ball around at the end so they wouldn't run up the score anymore. His next game is on Friday.

Hopefully Grandma will get to go outside of the house tomorrow.

Grandma Is Here!

I didn't get any pictures of Grandma, but she made it here safe and sound. She spent a little time with Eric tonight while Patrick and I did our usual shuttling around of children to and from their various activities. Luckily this week, our neighbor was able to take her son and Alex to soccer (so we didn't have to) and Patrick picked them up.

Apparently, Eric looked like he was going to fall asleep. He had been constipated, and that usually wears him out, so he was lying on the sofa with Grandma. By the time I got home, however, he was very active. At one point, he pulled out one of the bins from our new room divider and started hiding inside the cubby. It's a good thing he's small, with all of the small spaces he wedges himself into!

Eric refused to eat. He kept saying he wasn't hungry. I offered him lots of choices, but his reply was the same. I told him that time was running out for me to get him food (it was almost 7pm). I didn't want him to be ready for bed and suddenly say that he was ready to eat. It wasn't until Natalie got home from swim practice (around 7pm) and wanted some chicken flautas that Eric finally decided to eat.

It also took some time to convince him that it was time to get ready for bed, and then time to brush his teeth. Patrick had to threaten to throw away his trains before he ran to the bathroom to brush his teeth. Our routine is that I brush his teeth first with toothpaste and then he brushes his teeth with water. We have to watch him when he does this or he will often get water everywhere. He likes being independent but he also loves to play with water.

Tomorrow I don't know what Patrick has planned for the day with Eric and Grandma, but in the afternoon, I finally get to come home directly after work and interact with my family. Patrick will be driving to Anthony's away game and then picking up Anthony from school after his team goes back there on the bus.

Packers Sunday

Today revolved around the Packers vs. Bears NFC Championship game. I'm not a big football fan, but Patrick grew up in Milwaukee, so he is definitely a Packers fan. As a result, Alex is a Packers fan, and even Eric was saying, "Go Packers!"

We went to the 9am mass so we could get home in time for Patrick to make chili. He even got Anthony to help "cook". This is not something that happens very often, if at all, so I made a big deal of it and took a picture of Anthony adding ingredients.

Anthony needed new cleats and the Soccer Locker that Patrick likes to go to didn't open until noon. Anthony needed the cleats by 1pm for his first club soccer practice of the year. Patrick had to get the chili made and take Anthony to do those things in time for the game at 2pm.

There was other stuff going on. The big boys got their usual weekend electronics reward. I took this picture of the three big boys watching videos on Anthony's laptop, just because I love that they are interested in a lot of the same things. I was supposed to be cleaning up my scrap area and continuing my reorganization project, but I ended up helping Natalie with her project that is due on Friday and then picking Anthony up from soccer practice (since the game started at 2pm and Anthony's practice didn't end until 3:30pm). The rest of the time I got sucked into watching the game too, since everyone else was watching and I wanted to spend time with the family. Natalie played with some neighborhood friends while she waited for Patrick to help her on her project.

Natalie's project was about the planet Mercury. She's been excited about doing this project since it was assigned, about a week and a half ago. She did the research with a book she borrowed from the school library. She did a lot of the typing of the information for her poster. She made a diagram of how she wanted the elements laid out on her poster board. Of course she preferred a red-colored background, but we only had white. She said one of her classmates painted her background, so I agreed to do that for her too.

I also cut the title letters with my Cricut electronic die-cutting machine and adhered them to her page. Patrick typed out the resources she used (a requirement) as well as a few other things. He helped her find the images on the Internet and printed those out for her also. Natalie did all the glueing herself. I think she did a great job on it. Doesn't she look proud of herself? She finally got the project done after that Packers game. After the game we got to watch something else on TV. Our day truly revolved around that game!

Asian Hair

Anthony had four friends over last Saturday. Since today was mainly relaxing day at home and therefore boring to blog about, I'll talk about last Saturday. Anthony's friends A and Z arrived in time to go to church with us. I felt very short since A and Z are well over six feet tall. They also spent the night and most of Sunday here at our house. Anthony's friends C and K arrived later.

I was already resting in bed when Patrick came upstairs to tell me that C and K were styling Anthony's hair with a curling iron--it was actually a flat iron for straightening hair. He said that I might want to take pictures. I thought that Anthony might be embarrassed by my taking pictures but he wasn't, or at least he didn't seem to be. None of the kids really said anything about my taking pictures.

Anthony made a comment about how straightening his hair made him look Asian. They laughed and said, "Maybe that's because you ARE Asian." As I went around them taking pictures, I noticed how straight his hair was and I remarked, "I know what you're talking about. You DO look more Asian." His hair was actually straight and not curly like it usually is. I told Patrick that I was surprised that Anthony let them straighten his hair like that, but then I realized that he didn't care since girls were touching his hair. ;)

So, today wasn't totally boring. Patrick and I went to the gym this morning. Natalie and Eric played in the child care center. Anthony came along to lift weights. Since Alex is less than 12, he would have had to go to the child care center too, and he didn't want to go there, so he stayed home. This evening, Patrick and I went to see the musical "Legally Blonde". We've been able to see some really great musicals with our season tickets to the Majestic this year.

Tomorrow--church, chili, Anthony's soccer practice, and the Packers game.

Report Card Time

Patrick and I are so lucky that our children do well in school with relatively little effort. This is a photo of the three report cards together. It may be a little small for all to appreciate, but the lowest grade is 94, and Anthony and Alex have several semester averages of 100. We're so proud of them!

Our usual routine is to go out to eat to celebrate good report cards and then out for ice cream. The kids get to pick the restaurant. Anthony and Alex did not feel strongly about any restaurant. Patrick wanted El Mirasol and I wanted P.F. Chang's but both of us didn't want to go the other restaurant. Natalie really wanted Chili's so she and I could share their Grilled Salmon. Interestingly, the only one who didn't get a report card, Eric, was the one who felt the strongest about going to Chili's! It was a little funny actually, because he got very excited about going to Chili's. That's probably because we used to visit Chili's fairly regularly (usually on Saturday evenings after church) but we haven't been there for a long time. He ate well for dinner and we all went to Baskin-Robbins for dessert.

I also wanted to share a picture of our new room divider for behind our living room sofa. Patrick found it at Costco for $129. This thing seems very sturdy and goes well with our entertainment center. Now we can store all the stuff that was on and under the sofa table inside the bins. These were going fast but luckily Patrick got the last one. This is how it looked when I got home, and Patrick hadn't finished moving everything to the bins yet, so it was still a little messy. We should be able to find things easier in the separate bins, too. Great purchase!

Best Laid Plans

Patrick and I had a game plan for tonight. I was going to hang out at work and then pick up Anthony from his after school soccer practice at 6pm and head straight home. Patrick was going to take Natalie and Eric to Natalie's swim practice at 5pm so he could also exercise at the gym. A neighbor was going to take her son and Alex to soccer practice at 5:30pm and Patrick was going to pick him up at 7:30pm after dropping Natalie and Eric home by around 7pm. No, our lives couldn't be that easy. Patrick sent me a message while I was at work about how our neighbor's son was sick, so she wasn't going to be taking him (or Alex) to soccer practice. How were we going to do it all?

I even made a little chart on a piece of paper when I was at work, and it meant some back and forth, but we were going to be able to handle it all. I went home after work after picking Eric up from school. Patrick waited for Natalie to get off the bus, then he took her to pick up Alex from the bus stop at the nearby middle school. We got home around the same time--around 4:15pm-ish. Our plan was for Patrick to do the same thing as our original plan--take Natalie to swim practice and then pick up Alex after his practice. The change was that I was going to take Alex to soccer practice a little early (his coach was going to be there by 5:30pm for the 6pm practice) and then drive back to pick up Anthony. It was going to work.

Soon after we got home, though, Patrick got a text message from Anthony saying that his practice was cancelled. WHAT?!!! His high school soccer coaches have a habit of not telling the kids ahead of time when practice will be and now they cancelled a practice at the last minute. I could have just waited there and picked him up after I got off of work! Based on our reworked plan, he would still have to wait there until 6pm--an hour and a half longer. He was planning to play soccer with some of the other soccer kids, so he was fine with waiting, but Patrick and I were upset at this sudden change in plans.

I decided to go ahead and pick Anthony up before taking Alex to practice instead of after. Again, it was a lot of driving, but Anthony got home by 5:30pm instead of 6:30pm and I could go home and stay there earlier after taking Alex to practice. The plus side of this plan was that Eric went with me to pick up Anthony and so I got to spend a little more time with the little man than I've been spending with him the last couple of days. It all worked out eventually--thank goodness! I've been told by others with grown children that one day I'll miss this chaos when the kids are all grown and gone, so I wanted to document the chaos here.

After that boring rambling above, I have to at least finish with a cute photo. First of all, Eric is wearing pajamas that say "What Santa Didn't Give Me Grandma Will" (a gift to one of his siblings from Grandma). When I read the shirt to him, he got excited about wearing it. :)

Natalie was doing her math homework. Eric had a worksheet from his school that he hadn't finished and he wanted to work on it too. He started "coloring" the worksheet with a regular pencil. He said he was a "big boy" because he was using a pencil. Notice the way he is holding his pencil and notice how both of them look like they're concentrating so hard on what they're doing. I have such beautiful children. :)

Needing Some Cuteness

Isn't this the cutest thing you've ever seen? This is a picture of Eric's Lightning McQueen slippers and Cars Duplos. Notice the little Lego men "driving" the car slippers. Patrick noticed the little men this evening and showed them to me. That little boy earned a lot of cuteness points tonight and I loved it.

I really needed to see that cuteness because I only saw Eric and Natalie for about an hour before they went to bed. Patrick picked Natalie up from school so he could pick up Alex from school and take him to the second night of his debate competition. He didn't advance any further, but he got a medal for being in the quarterfinals (Top 8). He lost to the same guy he lost to yesterday. Patrick took the little ones to Chick-Fil-A while Alex was competing.

I worked late today and got to Anthony's school just after his Junior Varsity game ended. He was a little disappointed that he didn't get much play time. He did admit that he made some errors when he did play. He wanted to pick up some Chick-Fil-A on the way home. Is it sad that I was glad he wanted to go to Chick-Fil-A for the reason that even if we couldn't be together as a family, at least we ate similar food?

Anthony and I got home first and I was just sitting down to eat some leftovers when Patrick and the rest of the kids got home. We have one more day like this one then we get to see more of each other for a few days. I'm still tired from being on call Sunday night.

Another Busy Night (Do We Ever Not Have A Busy Night?)

Wow, I didn't realize that I haven't blogged since Saturday. I took some pics of Anthony and his friends after that post. I'll have to share those another time.

This is going to be a short but hectic week. Luckily I was off today because I worked on Sunday. Patrick had to leave the house before Natalie got home because he had to pick up Alex at school. He took Alex home briefly so he could drop off the other carpool kids, then he took him to a different middle school where they were having a debate competition at 5pm. He left Alex there so he could pick up Anthony from after school soccer practice at 6pm--a practice we only found out about this morning. Alex had to wait until the results were announced because if he won two out of three debates, he was going to compete tomorrow too. Patrick and I had mixed feelings about him winning or not.

Where was I and why wasn't I helping with the driving? Well, I picked Eric up from school just before Patrick left the house to pick up Alex. Then Eric and I waited for Natalie to come home. I made some dinner while Natalie had a snack and then practiced her piano. At 5pm we left the house for Natalie's swim practice at the gym. Eric is usually pretty happy about going to the gym because he loves the child care center there.

As for these first two photos, Eric automatically started playing inside the lockers as soon as we get into the locker room. He has that look on his face in the first one because he asked me to take a picture of him IN the locker with the door CLOSED and I made Natalie open the locker so I could take a picture of him. No, he wanted that door closed! Natalie got into the locker because I thought it would make a cute picture if I got the two of them in adjoining lockers. Nope, Eric wanted the locker door closed.

Today was Dollar Scoop Tuesday, so we stopped by Baskin-Robbins before going home. When we got home around 7pm, Patrick and Anthony were there and Patrick left to pick up Alex just after we got home. I gave the kiddos a bath then got them off to bed. Natalie still enjoys playing in the tub with Eric instead of taking her own showers. It's probably just as well, because she takes really long, hot showers like Alex and Patrick jokes about the wallpaper in their bathroom peeling off.

Tonight they got to use the Thomas the Tank Engine bubble bath that Eric got from Grandma. They also used the bath crayons that I got them a while back. Natalie wrote Eric's name, which he got excited about. He really loves seeing his name, writing his name, and even just talking about writing his name. Too cute!

Alex got home by around 8:30pm. He reached the quarterfinals so he'll be at the debate competition again tomorrow. Patrick tried to tell him how proud we are of how well he did, but in typical Alex fashion, he merely brushed off the compliment. The better he does tomorrow, the longer he has to stay at the competition and the later he gets home. Anthony has a home game after school tomorrow and I have to work late. It'll all work out somehow!

Paper Organization

I've been busy re-organizing my paper stash. My desk is too small and too messy already, so I took everything upstairs to my bedroom floor. Basically I broke down my kits into parts (patterned paper, cardstock, embellishments) so I would be able to use the kits up more completely. Some of the patterned paper was already cleared away into vertical storage by the time I took this picture. It's almost all cleared away at this time. Yes, I have a lot of paper and I've had most of this for 3-6 years. The Priority Mail boxes shown will whisk away some of the paper to new homes.

I think Eric got a little jealous of all the pictures I was taking and wanted me to take a picture of his bear. As you can see, he didn't want to be in the picture. That's okay since I took so many photos of him yesterday.

I have some room next to this picture to go more in depth about this morning. Patrick was trying to make it easy on me this morning, so we went out to IHOP instead of me making the usual banana chocolate chip pancakes and turkey bacon. We didn't even leave the house, though, until 10:30am. We thought about it too late but we should have gone to someplace like The Cheesecake Factory for an early lunch instead. It was too late because Eric already decided he wanted to go to IHOP and it would have been more painful to our ears if we changed our minds. At least he was more compliant about diaper changes today.

This is Miss Natalie helping me by sorting the cardstock into color piles. Yes, I have a lot of cardstock. I needed to make more space in my cabinet next to my other cardstock to fit all of this. Some of the newer kits I've left intact for now. I'm hoping for a much more productive year for paper crafting this year.

Also, notice Natalie's curly hairdo. She had her hair trimmed yesterday and she got it styled too. She loves her hair. She's been showing it off to everyone by swinging her hair--so funny and cute at the same time. It's too bad she can't do this herself.

Mama's Big Boy

Today was a "training holiday" at work which means a day off for me. When I was tucking Eric into bed last night, I told him that I would be able to play with him today. I also asked him if he wanted to go somewhere. He said, "I want to go to 'Starbox' (Starbucks)." I think it's so funny that he loves going there so much. I've described our visits there in other blog posts--usually Patrick meets me there when I'm post-call after he drops Anthony off at school and after I get off from work. We only do this on days when Eric isn't in school.

Because the temps were in the 30s this morning, Patrick drove Natalie to school instead of making her wait outside at the bus stop. He went directly to the gym to exercise. Alex was picked up by the carpool. I took Anthony to school and then Eric and I went to Starbucks. He wanted his usual Blueberry Scone and Strawberries and Cream Frappucino. It was a good thing that I got my own scone, because he finished his entire scone.

We met Patrick at home. Eric usually plays quietly by himself in the gameroom or living room, but he didn't do that today. Most of the time he wanted to be in the same room as I was. This meant that I couldn't get too much done, but how could I refuse? Instead of finishing up my December Daily album or doing some other scrapbooking, I compromised and surfed the Internet instead.

I have a magnetic mat at my desk with these small cylindrical magnets to hold my pages down. These are Eric's favorite things to play with at my desk. I also had some binder rings still on my mat from when I removed them from my album last night. Eric created this creature "that is shooting" from the binder clips and magnets. I thought it was pretty creative, even if it did involve shooting and a make-believe gun.

We went to North Star Mall or "the inside mall" for lunch. After lunch we walked around for a bit, stopping at this fountain. For pretty much the whole time at the mall Eric wanted me to hold his hand. He had wanted to "go home" as soon as we finished eating but we convinced him to walk around for a bit. He didn't even want to go see this fountain, but when we got there he sat down on my lap and he liked just watching the fountain. I don't often allow pictures to be taken of me, but I wanted a picture of this moment cuddling with my "big boy".

Eric was even saying that he didn't want ice cream, he just wanted to go home. Of course when we got there, he remembered that he liked the Haagen-Dazs Mango Sorbet and then he was excited about getting some. After that, Patrick drove me home then took Eric to pick up Anthony from his early dismissal. The older three kids and I all got haircuts today while Patrick went home with Eric.

One recurring argument between Eric and me (and Patrick) involves his insistence that he is a "big boy". He tells me that he is a "big boy" and that big boys "don't wear diapers". Usually he says this when he either needs a diaper change or I am changing his diaper. When I mention that he is wearing a diaper that I need to change, he tells me that he isn't wearing a diaper--he's wearing "underwear". Well obviously that isn't the case. There's no point to arguing with a three-year-old about something that isn't true but that he insists is true, which can be frustrating at times.

Despite the frustrations, I love spending time with my "big boy", even when I can't get anything done.

Things That Make Me Smile

I will never get tired of seeing this! I was post-call yesterday and Patrick had met Natalie at the bus stop. They were walking up to our house when Natalie saw me standing in the front doorway. She immediately yelled, "Mama!" and ran across the driveway and up the stairs to give me a hug. Even when I'm tired and grouchy, I still love this. Thanks for the warm homecoming, Sweetie!

This is Eric hiding in the locker at the gym yesterday. He has played in the lockers since he discovered that he could fit in one and close the door. This time he stayed inside for a minute or two. I knocked on the door and he opened it with a smile. The next time he wouldn't open the door even when I knocked. I had to remind him that if he wanted to go with Natalie and me to Dollar Scoop Tuesday at Baskin-Robbins, he needed to come out of the locker. That worked, of course. Even though his closing himself up in a locker was inconvenient for me, he was enjoying himself. That always makes me smile!

Lunch At The Lodge

Doesn't this just look yummy? I know I have a long way to go before I'm any good at food photography, but this dessert is so delicious! Patrick and I have gone to a local restaurant (five minutes from our house) called The Lodge for our anniversary dinner in the past and I've described those meals on this blog. For the past three months, once a month, we've gone to The Lodge for lunch. I'm usually post-call and coincidentally it's always been on a Tuesday. We usually order the three course meal with a salad, main course, and we both always order the above dessert.

The dessert is called "Dark Chocolate and Nutella Souffle with Candied Hazelnuts, Salted Caramel, and Peanut Butter Mousse". I usually order the salmon, but this time I ordered the "Grilled Texas Bobwhite Quail with Point Reyes Blue Cheese Farrotto, Butter Baked Apple and Grilled Pear Salsa". I don't have the most adventuresome palate, but this one has an interesting and unique flavor that I love.

Patrick had the "Cast Iron Petit Beef Tenderloin with Brussels Sprout Hash, Pearl Onions and Sweet Black Currant Sauce"--big surprise, I know. I barely even got to see that one. He ate it up so quickly while I was concentrating on trying to cut my quail.

This post is making me SO hungry. We'll have to go back there again soon.

Why Trips To Target Take So Long

I know I've posted about this before, but this was the most interesting thing about my day so I'm posting about it again. Eric and Natalie will almost always go with me when I say I'm going to Target. Eric was still in his jammies when I said I was going and when he thought I left without him he got very upset. Sometimes he'll ride in the cart which keeps him contained. Today he wanted to "help" push the cart which means that he rides on the cart right where I need to stand to push the cart. That slows me down and makes me have to bend my back to reach over him. He got bored with that and started getting underneath the cart. I had to take a picture of course, and I gave my iPhone to Natalie to take a picture too.

Eric decided to ride in the cart after a bit, at least until he saw Natalie laying on this futon bed. He insisted on getting out of the cart so he could lie down on the bed too. I have to say that it was pretty cute, which is the only reason I let them do it. Luckily they both stayed with me during the trip instead of running off to where they want to go. I did have to rein in Natalie and her need to spend her recent windfall of being paid her back allowance. Patrick hadn't paid them their allowance since the beginning of the school year. She mostly spent the money on erasers, more silly bands and gum. It can be a little stressful to corral these two, but I have to admit that I like spending time with them, even if it's a little stressful.

I haven't gotten my photo printer to work again, so I'll post a preview of my first scrapbook page of the year. For the past few years I've made a page on the first or second day of the year where I use a picture of the kids standing in front of the Christmas tree. I get them all to put their handprints on the page and for the post two years I've added their heights and weights. I thought I had posted last year's (2010) page on my blog, but I can't seem to find it so I posted it below. This is the photo I'll be using for this year's page and their vital stats are as follows: Anthony 139.5 lbs/ 5'11", Alex 98.5 lbs/5' 2 3/4", Natalie 55.5 lbs/50", Eric ? lbs/38 in. I don't have an official weight on Eric because when I put him on the scale this morning, it said "Lo" and since it requires a special battery that we don't have around the house, we'll have to replace the battery later. Eric usually weighs himself before baths, so I'm sure he weighs right around 30 lbs. I'm quite a bit later this year with this page since it was SO hectic this past week.

Still The Same

Yes, Eric still lines up his vehicles when he plays with them, although not as many as he used to. I tried to take a picture of this with his face included, but when he saw me, he said, "No pictures!" as he usually does nowadays.

No, this is not our garage. Natalie has been playing with more of the neighborhood girls, but she still plays a lot with the neighborhood boys. She is in the garage of our neighbors across the street and she's wearing a pair of borrowed roller blades. I wondered about this at the time, but I forgot to ask her later--why is she also wearing one of their hockey jerseys?

This is the girl who asked for a bike for Christmas one year and a motorized scooter the next year but she hasn't used either one. Patrick was surprised to hear that she actually skated on the roller blades instead of just wearing them. I really don't understand my daughter sometimes.

This is why it's hard for me to scrapbook my kids. Look at that color combo! Natalie's favorite color right now is red. She also likes turquoise blue, which is the color of her pants (and her shirt which is underneath that red jersey. Of course those roller blades are purple. I don't think I'll be able to find patterned paper to match this color combo.

In other news, our van wouldn't start today when Patrick was going to pick up Anthony from the movie theatre. He had to take it into the dealership on a busy Saturday afternoon. Luckily they found out what was wrong with the van and luckily it seems to be covered under our extended warranty. Unfortunately, they couldn't get it fixed today, so we'll have to take it in on Monday morning. Luckily I'm on call on Monday, so I'll be around, or more importantly, my car will be around just in case. It could get complicated if the car isn't fixed on Monday like they think it will, since Patrick has to get Natalie to piano lessons then try to go to Anthony's JV soccer game then pick up Anthony from school after the game, etc. We're so glad we got that extended warranty.

Go to Bed Please

Natalie and Eric were playing outside when I got home with Anthony. They only came in when we asked them to come in for dinner. Eric was definitely acting tired today, but he was still napless.

After dinner, I saw Natalie and Eric laying on the stairs, so I asked them why they were laying on the stairs. Natalie replied, "We're sleeping on the stairs." I'm not sure if they were playing some sort of game or what, but they certainly were being silly. Natalie kept getting in the most uncomfortable-looking positions. Eric just laid across one step, but she laid over several steps. No, they didn't actually sleep on the stairs.

After I took these pictures, I sent them upstairs to get ready for bed. Natalie has been volunteering to get into bed early this week, but Eric still fights going to bed. He didn't want to go upstairs, but he did only because I said he could watch a little TV after I washed him up for bed. When Natalie went to bed and left him by himself to watch TV, he got upset about being left alone in the room. It's too bad he fought taking a nap today.

Getting Reacquainted

Eric got into trouble at school again today. Apparently he pushed one of his friends. When his teacher was telling me this, I could see his eyes well up a little and he started to wipe his eyes. Usually inconsiderate things like this happen when the little man is tired. He's usually a very sweet boy.

He wasn't acting tired at the gym tonight. This is a picture of him jumping off the benches in the family locker room. He would jump onto the bench and then jump off, then go to the next bench and so on. I went to work out and got called back early because the little man had pooped in his diaper (so I had to change it). I hadn't eaten dinner yet so I went to the gym cafe. Eric had eaten already, so he just shared my water. He asked for a smoothie, which Patrick usually gets him whenever they go to the cafe. I told him "no" because we had already planned on going out for ice cream after the gym. He didn't have a fit because I said "no", which I was a little surprised at. Later, after he spilled some of the water on himself, he asked for a lid ("top") for the water cup. We were already a few minutes late getting Natalie, so I refused. He didn't get upset at all. I totally expected him to get upset.

We missed Dollar Scoop Tuesday at Baskin-Robbins, so we went out for ice cream tonight. Coldstone Creamery is near our gym, so Natalie wanted to go there. As you can see from this picture, Eric savored his Cotton Candy ice cream to the very last drop. Surprisingly, I actually didn't have any ice cream tonight. We go out for ice cream a lot partly because I really enjoy taking the kids out for treats and of course partly because I enjoy the treats myself. I've been overindulging lately so I'm trying to be better.

I took a lot of pictures tonight trying to work on getting well focused pictures, but I only had the chance to take one photo here. We usually brush his teeth and then he wants to "brush" his own teeth. What he does is brush with water and sort of sucks the water out of the toothbrush more than he actually does any teeth cleaning. That means that he has to keep adding water to the toothbrush. Sometimes he'll take a while doing this, but meanwhile there is more and more water on the counter. After he is done, he'll sort of balance himself on the counter on his chest and tummy so he can reach the faucet with his mouth so he can rinse out his mouth. That's what he was doing here.

I've really missed spending time with the kids this week. I almost feel like I was getting reacquainted with Eric tonight. Hopefully we'll have lots of fun this weekend.

No Pictures!

I had to use this "old photo from last Thursday because I haven't taken any photos since January 1st! My mom is kissing on Alex and he is resisting, which is typical for him. I think the kissing can't possibly bother him that much since he is smiling and isn't getting mad. He's gotten mad at me before when I tried to kiss him at church. The other kids let me kiss them whenever, even Anthony. Alex just wants to show that he's different from his siblings.

One reason why I haven't taken any photos is that I haven't been home and I don't usually feel right about taking photos at work. Anthony has had after school soccer practice every day this week so far, and that doesn't end until around 6pm, so I haven't been getting home until around 6:30pm. I'm just brain dead when I get home, so all I do is eat dinner, then sit and play games on my iPhone or interact with Natalie and Eric until it's time to give Eric a bath and put him in bed. After that I sift through my email or play on the computer until it's time for me to get ready for bed. Pretty boring!

I'm actually going to get home earlier tomorrow--yay! Anthony has a JV game at another high school at 4:30pm, so I'm going to go straight home after work. I don't like to drive to new, strange places (that's a trait that I got from my mom *WINK*), so Patrick will go to the game and I will take Natalie to her swim practice at the gym. That means I get to exercise tomorrow--yay! That means I get to spend more than an hour with Natalie and Eric before they go to bed. Hopefully that will be a good thing.

Before I sign off on this very boring post, I'm going to share a couple of stories about Eric from this week:

--On Tuesday, when he was at daycare, he got in trouble with his teacher because he was waving his blanket around and awakened at least one of the other kids. When his teacher told Patrick about this, Eric broke into tears because he knew he was in trouble.

--Earlier this week, Patrick told Eric to go to bed. Eric was upstairs and he called down to Patrick, "Papa, I can't hear you!"

--I was on the phone with the resident that I was going to be working with the following day. I had left Eric in the gameroom as he was trying to button his pajama top. He insists on doing this himself. Well, he came into my bedroom crying his little heart out. I got off the phone quickly to find out what was wrong. When he calmed down just enough to be able to speak, he told me, "I'm missing two buttons." I realized that he meant that he couldn't button the first two buttons because he couldn't find those buttons/buttonholes. Poor baby! I helped him find the buttons/buttonholes and he felt much better and went on his way.

Hopefully I'll have some new pictures tomorrow.

Happy New Year!

Warning! Lots of pictures in this post! I wanted to add a few more, but I selected these since they tell a story.

This first one is of Eric with his three new trains--Patchwork Hiro, Old Slow Coach, and Neville. He has so many trains, but he really does love each one. I was discussing with my mom about how Anthony used to love trains and Alex used to love cars. Eric loves them both.

The kids got their Christmas presents from Lolo and Lola on Thursday, and Aunt Melissa yesterday. I was organized this year and brought along thank-you notes for them to fill out. We were able to give out the thank-you notes within an hour of receiving the gifts. Yay me!

One of the reasons why we went to Houston for the New Year is that setting off fireworks isn't illegal where my sister lives, whereas it is where we live. This is one of the first fireworks we set off. It was loud and very cool. It was only 7:30pm, but unfortunately, the loud sounds sent a very tired Eric back inside the house. That's from a boy who usually loves loud noises. He did come back outside for a little bit and watched some of the other fireworks go off, but then he was back in side with Lola.

It was dark and very hard to get good pictures. I'm determined to master this before the next New Year's celebration. Everyone gathered in the street, at first. My brother-in-law lit all of the fireworks so there wasn't much participation, mostly just watching.

The boys stayed in the street for almost the whole time. Patrick bought a dozen of these "tanks" that were supposed to be propelled forward when they were lit. They ended up being mostly noise and smoke. Nick and Alex are holding some of the few sparklers that we had bought.

Anthony and Nick decided to fall down in the street as if the fireworks exploding had shot them. If I had some chalk, I would have tried to draw around them. I'm sure they would have loved that. There were some other fireworks that we didn't end up lighting because the wind had picked up and it wouldn't have been safe for the surrounding houses.

The girls mostly sat on the sidewalk in the chairs that were set up. It was interesting to see the division by sexes.This is where Eric was sitting for a short while. Aunt Melissa loves to cuddle with Eric and she was more than willing to have him on her lap. Mom was outside for even less than Eric. Dad stayed indoors.


Later, after the girls and Eric had their baths, the girls gave us a little concert of Christmas songs. They started upstairs, but that was too hard to photograph, so they moved downstairs in front of the fireplace. We were hoping that Eric would sing too, but that was asking too much from that tired boy. He did seem to enjoy the concert.

He looks pretty relaxed, doesn't he? This is Eric watching the girls sing. He is wearing one of his many new Thomas clothes. He went to bed shortly after the "concert". Mom and Dad went to bed early too. The rest of us stayed up to watch "Despicable Me" and then some of us played Apples to Apples. It was nice to spend a relaxing evening with family.

Today, John took Aly and Natalie to Home Depot to build battery organizers. They have this activity on the first Saturday of each month and Aly is obsessed with this activity and the ones that are at Lowe's every other week. The rest of us just hung out at the house until it was time to go home. As soon as we got home, Alex wanted to go meet his friends at the local ice skating rink. The timing was a little inconvenient, but we're glad that he can be social in person instead of just texting (and playing video games at home). Hopefully tomorrow will be another relaxing day before all of us resume our normal hectic routine of school and work and other activities on Monday.

Happy New Year!