Dinosaur Play

I've been posting a lot about dinosaurs lately. This was one of the scenes I saw played out in the game room on Sunday morning. Eric had arranged his dinosaurs and other animals. I thought at first that they were all randomly scattered all over the floor, but in reality, he had carefully arranged them and they were eating each other! He even had "herbivores eating other herbivores" which isn't really supposed to happen. I thought it was interesting how he was using his knowledge of dinosaurs and using his imagination.

Natalie had a birthday party to go to on Sunday evening and I took that opportunity to go shopping at the nearby Kohl's and Target. I bought Eric another dinosaur shirt, some dinosaur pajamas, and dinosaur bedsheets. I bought Natalie another shark shirt. When we were at the mall early last week, I got him a dinosaur shirt from the Disney Store showing the "toy" dinosaur from the Toy Story movies, as well as a Cars shirt--yes, he is still interested in Cars. Yes, I'm enabling my dinosaur-crazy boy!

Preparations

We haven't given a big birthday party for any of the kids in about four years. The kids didn't ask for it and we didn't offer it. The boys, in fact, barely wanted any sort of celebration for their birthdays--maybe a handful of friends at Laser Quest, but that's about it. I guess it's about time.

Natalie wants a swim party, of course, and I found these shark-themed birthday party products at Amazon. We're having the party at our local gym with some of her neighborhood friends, school friends, and swim team friends.

Yesterday, she had an extra practice at the other Lifetime Fitness in town. They have diving blocks installed next to their outdoor pool whereas ours doesn't have them. Four of the girls on Natalie's swim team are going to a big regional swim meet next week and Natalie's coach wanted to show them how to dive off diving blocks correctly. They were only allowed to do this after Family Swim time at that gym, which ends at 8pm. They ended up practicing for about an hour. There were adults that were going to be swimming at another big meet, and they were there too. It was pretty dark by the time they finished. By the time Natalie finished her shower there and I took her by Sonic for a little snack, it was already close to 10pm by the time we got home.

This morning, I made some banana chocolate pancakes instead of the usual waffles, and turkey bacon. Natalie and Eric really wanted to help, so I had them mash the bananas for me. It's been a while since I made them, and it was a nice change of pace.

The rest of the day was pretty relaxed, maybe even too relaxed. Since Natalie and I were at the swim practice last night, we didn't get to watch the Opening Ceremony of the Olympics, so we watched the tape this morning after Alex got out of bed and had breakfast--after 10:30. That was quite the spectacle, although Alex was talking about how he enjoyed the Opening Ceremony of the Beijing Olympic Games more. That was a few hours right there. We watched more of the Olympics after that. We went to church this evening and then came home for dinner just so we could watch some more of the Olympic Games plus a couple of other things we had taped on the DVR. I think it's interesting that the Olympics celebrates athleticism, but it's going to make us into couch potatoes for the next two weeks while we watch as much of it as we can.

I had to throw in this picture, even though it's not in the same theme as the rest if this post. Patrick took the kids to the Witte Museum yesterday afternoon. If I could ever get Patrick to post on my blog again, he could tell more of what they did. He even took some pictures for me. He does try to take them out to do fun things, especially fun indoor things since it gets so hot here in the summers.

I love this picture just because it shows Alex (who usually runs away from pictures) and because it shows Alex helping his baby brother. I always love seeing them getting along, and Alex can be especially sweet to his baby brother.

We'll be watching more Olympics tomorrow, and then Natalie has a birthday party in the evening.

Grocery Shopping Fun

I posted on Facebook this morning that I obviously don't have to go grocery shopping with the kiddos on a regular basis. I almost had fun with them along. I would feel differently if I had to do that all the time. After breakfast at Starbucks, of course, I took them the local HEB.

As soon as we walked in, there was a bin filled with kids' cups with different themed designs. Almost immediately, Natalie saw a Cars cup that she thought Eric would like, but it was way near the bottom. As she was trying to get it out for him, she found a cup with pictures of sharks on it. She got so excited that I was excited along with her. She said, "Mama, this cup has sharks on it!!!" :)

As Eric was looking around in the bin, he found a cup with dinosaurs on it--near the bottom, of course. He was desperate to get it out. He kept pulling on it and even tried to get it out from the small opening in the big bin, but there were hundreds of cups on top of it. He was able to pull the top part of the cheap plastic cup through but there was no way the bottom would bend in the same way. Luckily, we found another one that wasn't yet misshapen by having an eager five-year-old trying to pull it out.

The rest of the trip went similarly. When we got near the Fruit Roll-ups, they both yelled, "Fruit Roll-ups!!!" When we got near the ice cream, Natalie excitedly pointed out the Ben and Jerry's Red Velvet Cake ice cream. When we got near the Lunchables, Eric insisted on getting one, and so on. We didn't get everything that they asked for, but we got a few things. The trip took more time than it would have if they hadn't been along, but I enjoyed their company.

Look at their excited faces in this picture! We also got Eric some Dinosaur Train toothbrushes. He doesn't currently brush his teeth more than once a day, so this will help make that more frequent. Natalie even volunteered to help him in the mornings after breakfast. Also, look at how they're both wearing shark shirts. Aren't they the cutest? :)

Working Hard

In previous years, swim meets have ended in June, but not this year. Since Natalie's Lifetime Fitness swim team started having these meets against other Lifetime Fitness teams, we've had that extra time commitment. We think it's a good experience for her and she seems to enjoy it, so we encourage her participation.

This first photo is of Natalie warming up before the meet with two of her team buddies, Kate and Mia. Natalie was goofing off for the camera. She would not stay still for me when I tried to take pictures of her today.

First, I have to mention a few things about Eric. We took the family out for breakfast at IHOP at about 9am this morning. Even Alex got up just so he could have his beloved Danish Fruit Crepes (strawberry). Eric ate A LOT. He shares with me, so I put one blueberry pancake, a small dollop of scrambled eggs, and two sausage links on his plate. There is usually some pancake and eggs left but this time he ate it all plus another sausage link and all of his chocolate milk. He was looking pretty tired at breakfast.

He went with me to the other Lifetime Fitness in town for Natalie's swim meet. Patrick had already taken Anthony to a pool party across town, and he stayed behind so he could take Alex over to a friend's house right around the time the meet was supposed to start (2pm). He arrived later, just before Natalie's first race, but in the meantime, Eric ate half a grilled cheese sandwich and almost all of a 16 oz. pineapple mango smoothie. I was worried the poor boy would burst from everything he had eaten. We didn't leave IHOP until close to 11am and here it was, not even 2pm yet and he was eating again.

Natalie swam in four races time--50m freestyle, 100m IM, 50m butterfly, and 200m freestyle relay. She usually swims in a couple more, but her coach wanted good times from her today because of another upcoming swim meet in a couple of weeks. All of the kids that were older than about 9 were swimming in 50m races instead of 25m. They were grouped according to age, so Natalie easily won her races. I'll get the times later when they give Natalie her ribbons with the final times written on them. For the 200m freestyle relay, her team swam against only one other team from another Lifetime Fitness--a team of boys that were in the 11-12 age group. Her team won by a length and a half of the pool.

It's funny that for all of the arguing and teasing between Alex and Natalie, Alex and Anthony both said later that they didn't even ask how Natalie did at the meet because they expected her to win all of her races. They really believe in her and encourage her. It's subtle, but there's a lot of love there, which warms my heart, of course. :)

We went to church tonight (instead of our usual Sunday evening mass), and then went out to El Mirasol. Eric ate his usual tortillas with queso dip and borracho beans. He hasn't burst yet, thank goodness, but I hope he sleeps well tonight. I know his sister will. She worked hard swimming today! Eric worked hard eating (and hopefully growing)!

Playing with the Fan

Our upstairs air conditioner has been on the fritz for about a month. Because both of our air conditioner units are the original units (so they are about 18 years old) we decided to go ahead and replace both. The good news is that my uncle works for Trane, and he was able to get us a really great discount. The bad news is that everything is moving slower than it would if we had gone the conventional and more expensive route. First we had trouble finding someone who would install AC units that they didn't order themselves. Since my uncle works on the commercial side of the company, he put us in touch with someone who dealt with the residential units. We had trouble contacting the guy because of his vacation. Now, one of the AC parts is on backorder until August, so it'll be a bit longer before we get our new air conditioners.

Meanwhile, the upstairs unit stops working in the afternoon when it is the hottest outside. We have to turn the AC off. Patrick goes outside to hose down the unit, to help it cool down, then we turn the AC back on. At least this still works, but we're worried that one day it will suddenly not work anymore. Today, Patrick bought a couple of big fans to help circulate the cool air coming from downstairs to help the upstairs stay cool.

We don't usually have fans around the house, so Eric got a kick out of playing with this one. He found out that you can change your voice by talking into it. He also found out (in the picture above), that having the fan blow up your shirt feels and looks kind of cool. He also made a comment that the fan is spinning so fast that you can't see it. Patrick kept trying to remind him not to get too close. Hopefully he'll play at a safe distance. In the meantime, my nose is getting runny, as it does when air blows in my face. It's a small price to pay for keeping it cool in here.

Dinosaur Obsession

Eric has been obsessed with dinosaurs for a few months now. That was sort of the theme for the end of this past week. On Thursday I took a photo of one of the dinosaur scenes he set up on the landing at the top of the stairs. It was a large dinosaur figure looking like it was chasing after some small dinosaur figures. Patrick said that he often sets up scenes like that one. Sometimes he mixes together his cars and dinosaurs. Sometimes they have "parties" together. This weekend I found them all (the cars and the dinosaurs) laying down as if someone toppled them over. I asked him if they were sleeping, and he said they were.

On Friday, we were talking about puzzles and Eric got excited to hear that we had a dinosaur puzzle that used to be Alex's. Alex got it out and helped him put it together. There was a piece missing, but Eric still had fun putting it together. I ended up taking a picture of him with his head positioned where the missing piece should be. He wasn't smiling for the picture, and when I mentioned that to him, he said that he "thought about smiling", but of course he didn't.

On Saturday, the local Hallmark shop was having their Ornament Preview weekend. I love Hallmark ornaments, so I took Natalie and Eric with me. We happened to also have Natalie's friend Maya with us for a short play date. Eric and I found a T. Rex ornament--we both couldn't believe it. This is the perfect ornament for him for this year because of this dinosaur obsession of his! We bought it, and I put it away when we got home. This morning, he asked if he could see the ornament. He played with it a few minutes. When I mentioned that we would take it out when it was Christmas time, he suddenly said, "I don't like the Elf." Oh my goodness--he still remembers the Elf on the Shelf and how he didn't want the Elf around to watch him!

Also on Saturday, we went to the toy store next to the Hallmark and there were dinosaur magnets, stencils, and even a dinosaur sticker book. There were also lots of dinosaur figures. I agreed to get him one thing. I know it's not his birthday or anything, but he is so passionate about dinosaurs that I couldn't help but want to get him something. After looking at the dinosaur figures for quite a bit (while still holding onto the magnets), he settled on the magnets. Now our refrigerator door is chock full of dinosaurs.

Today, after a trip to the Lifetime Fitness pool with the whole family, we stopped off at Target. They were having a backpack sale along with some other school supplies. They had the same dinosaur backpack that was shown in the Target ad in the paper, and Eric got excited when he saw it. He knows that he gets to use it for school and the whole idea of school excites him. The backpack will just show everyone else what this little boy is obsessed with. They'll ask him about it, and Eric will go on and on about dinosaurs. They'll all know right away that Eric is obsessed with dinosaurs.

They're Growing!

The youngest three kiddos had their yearly doctor's checkups today. Below are their vital stats:

Alex--67 1/2 inches, 137 pounds
Natalie--54 1/2 inches, 76 pounds
Eric--41 1/2 inches, 36 1/2 pounds

Compare that to this POST from January 2nd where I show the title page for my 2012 album. The vital stats I detailed there are as follows:

Alex 66 1/4 in. 121 lbs.
Natalie 53 1/4 in., 65 lbs.
Eric 40 1/2 in. 33.5 lbs.

It looks like Natalie and Alex have grown similar amounts (in height). Alex and Anthony are about the same weight but still about four inches apart. I could tell that Natalie had grown taller this past week when she wanted me to do her hair. I had to lift my hands almost up to my face to do her hair. Since my eyes are starting to "age", her head is getting too close to my eyes for me to focus. :)

Almost every time Eric takes a bath, he likes to first step on the electronic scale next to the bathtub. He likes to read the numbers out loud when they come up on the screen. It seems like he has been "thirty-five point five" for forever. I'm glad that at least he seems to have grown some.

Natalie also had to have her second varicella shot today. Tomorrow, Alex has to go back to the dentist because he might have a cavity. These are the not-so-fun summer activities that Patrick has to take the kids to. At least we know that they're healthy.

Hodgepodge Post

I don't have much to report, but I'm going to try to post more often this month. My parents left yesterday for the Philippines. They're there primarily to visit my paternal uncle who is hospitalized, but also my maternal grandmother, who now lives there. I won't be able to talk to them on the phone and I don't think they'll be able to check my blog, so I'll have to store all the stories for them for when they get back.

The rest of our Fourth of July was pretty low key. When it got dark, Patrick and the kids went outside with the poppers. It wasn't too loud and certainly not dangerous at all, but it was something all of them enjoyed doing together. Isn't that what family time is all about?

Thursday was just another day at work for me, but Patrick and I decided to go out to eat (just the two of us) for dinner. Our lives have really changed since Anthony became our instant babysitter! :) We went to Bin 555, which is owned and operated by the same chef as our last favorite place, The Lodge, that closed last December 31st.

For an appetizer we had the "Grilled Cheese Sandwiches with Cherve Goat Cheese and Chef’s Daily Jam" and then we shared a Caesar Salad. Patrick then had the 72 hour Brisket, which was slow cooked with Guinness. The rest of the description was "House Pickles, Blue Cheese Spoonbread, Caramelized Onion Puree, Mustard Jus and Baby Arugula". I had the Black Pepper Meatballs with "Yukon Gold Agnolotti, Bronzed Fennel, San Marzano Jam and Parmigiano Cream." (See above photo.) For dessert we had the "Nutella Torte with Raspberry, Hazelnut and Smoked Pistachio Anglaise". Doesn't that all sound yummy?

I was on call Friday, so I got to have lunch with the little ones and Patrick. Anthony was at "work" and Alex had just gotten up (at 11am) and eaten breakfast, so he wasn't interested in lunch. We ended up going to Panera Bread, another favorite of ours. Natalie got the chicken noodle soup in a bread bowl. She was fascinated with the bread bowl. :) She also had to have one of the smoothies. That girl loves smoothies.

They left to go to the pool in the afternoon as I was going in to work. Patrick rented "Wrath of the Titans" from Redbox, which they all watched. Patrick and the boys then saw "Buckaroo Bonzai" on Netflix after that. We try to take advantage of the fact that we don't have a lot of activities in the summer to catch up on movies. We didn't do much on Saturday, but we did go to church then instead of Sunday so we would be able to have a clear schedule on Sunday to see the new movie "Brave" at the theatre.

As you can see from the picture above, Eric helped fold the laundry on Sunday before we left to see the movie. He seemed to really enjoy folding. He started out by shaking out the shirt. He then laid it down on the sofa and folded it in half and then in half again. Sometimes he kept folding and the shirt got a bit small. He would get a mischievous smile when he did that.

I have one other piece of news. Anthony got his scores from the four Advanced Placement (AP) exams that he took in May. He got 5's (the highest score) in US History, English, and Calculus AB. He got a 3 in Physics. He had expected a low score in Physics because he lost track of time and didn't finish the exam. We're still pretty proud of him. Sometimes I'm amazed that he is my son--he is way smarter than I am. Of course, that intelligence could be coming from his father... He told us that one of the topics for the AP English exam was "Would you rather be 100% certain or would you rather have a little doubt?" He answered that it would be better to have a little doubt, or else you get things like the Crusades, 9/11, and Hitler--people that were sure of themselves without reservation, and caused a lot of destruction as a result. I loved his examples. I'm so proud of him. :)

Sorry for the long post--I need to write more often so I don't have to drone on and on.

Waffles, Walking, and Water

Natalie was invited to her friend Anna's house at 8am this morning for strawberry waffles. You see, we had some extra red velvet waffles one morning a couple of weeks ago, and I sent a couple of waffles to their house with Natalie. They loved them. Now they were sharing with Natalie. She said she ended up having chocolate waffles. What a lucky girl!

I had the day off, so I made some waffles for the rest of the family. Alex chose pound cake waffles because he said they "taste better after they've been left out." That's because Alex usually doesn't eat breakfast with the rest of the family. Patrick woke him up around 11am this morning or he would have slept longer. The waffles had been out for a good two hours by then. He was lucky to get his one waffle. Anthony ate two of them.

Every Fourth of July, our neighborhood has a little parade. They also invite at least one fire truck along to lead the parade. Today they had two. Patrick, Eric, and I didn't actually get there until the parade was over. Eric complained the whole way about how long the walk was. We only walked for about 10-15 minutes!

Natalie went with Anna and her family. During the parade, she got to carry the banner we won at last weekend's championship swim meet. Our girls aged 9-10 and girls aged 11-12 won their divisions, so we got banners. Natalie carried the 9-10 girls' banner along with the official tigershark "mascot". That is a stuffed shark toy with stripes drawn on it and mounted on a long black stick. Anna's mom, Alicia, was kind enough to take a picture for me of Natalie carrying the banner. Natalie was very happy to wear her medals again to show off.

After the parade, the kids could check out the fire trucks and get treats. Natalie was busy eating a ring pop (candy) while Eric went for the popsicles. By the time he decided he wanted a ring pop also, they were gone, so he had a second popsicle. There was a woman there representing a local candidate for office. She gave Eric the flag and "USA" necklace.

Anna's dad, Al, made a comment about how in the three years he has known us, Eric has never talked to him. Patrick and I told him to ask Eric what his favorite dinosaur was. Eric answered, "T. Rex." That opened the flood gates. A couple of minutes later, Al asked us how to make Eric stop talking. ;)

About mid-afternoon, we went to Lifetime Fitness to go to the pool and we took Anna along. The Fourth of July isn't the same without some pool time. The weather was actually a little drier today, almost cool when we were wet in the pool. Eric got plenty of exercise at the pool. He doesn't complain about swimming for exercise like he does walking. Anthony was also there with us and he played with Eric for most of the time. Alex stayed home the whole day playing Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 on PS3. I guess it was a double points day on the Playstation Network. He did manage to do some cleaning for us and he said he also went out for a short run.

We came home and Patrick grilled steaks for dinner. Yum! The rest of the family is currently watching the movie Jumanji (with Robin Williams) while I'm writing this post. Patrick bought some poppers at Costco, so they might play with those outside later. The kids are jaded from seeing nightly fireworks when we were at Disney, so they're not interested in going somewhere tonight to watch fireworks. In the past, Patrick has taken them nearby to watch the fireworks over Fiesta Texas. It's just as well, with the day's activities, most of us will sleep well tonight.

Comp Day Off

Today was my "comp" day for being on call this coming Friday, meaning that I got the day off. I'll describe my day later, but first I wanted to share this photo of Anthony and Natalie that I took with my phone at Chili's yesterday after church. The two of them were poking each other in church. Although they stayed quiet, I had to give them a few stern motherly looks. Of course that didn't make them stop. Still, I enjoyed seeing the two of them enjoying each other's company, even if they were misbehaving. At dinner, Natalie wanted to sit next to Anthony. Since we were going out to eat to celebrate her performance at the swim meet on Saturday, she got her choice. She keeps saying how much she'll miss him when he goes off to college next year. Yes, we will all miss him.

I posted this photo to Facebook with the caption, "A day off isn't the same without these two smiling faces." I took them to Starbucks for breakfast. Patrick had gone to bring Anthony to "work", i.e., his internship or he might have come with us. We had our usual orders and the two of them goofed off as they usually do. I cherish these times and these young faces that are getting older and older every day.

After breakfast, we hung out at home for a bit. Patrick had to wake up Alex around 10:30am, so he could wake up enough for us to leave the house by noon. We planned on going to the Fiesta Texas water park. The day was overcast at the time, with skies that threatened rain, but we were hoping for the best. If nothing else, we have season passes so we could always go back another day. It actually rained on the way to Fiesta Texas, but it stopped before we got there.

Because of the rain, the temperatures were actually milder than usual. Alex actually went with us without Patrick or I having to threaten him much at all. He said this was his first trip to the pool this year. I was so happy to be able to spend time with him too, and happy that he was actually outside. He's been a homebody so far this summer and we're not sure what to do about it. He is, after all, hard to force to do anything, plus he's bigger than Patrick.

Natalie and Alex went on a couple of the tube rides with Patrick. I went on the lazy river "ride" with them another time. Patrick and I took turns watching Eric. Eric wanted to stay in the same pool area we always go to, made for smaller kiddos. He had no interest in going on the slides there, something he's done in the past. He did a lot of swimming, mostly on his back.

We all kid about how he would be really good at the backstroke right now. He spends most of his time on his back. That way he can breather whenever he wants. When he is doing the freestyle, he lifts his head way out of the water to breathe and sinks a lot when he does it. When he's on his back, if he gets tired, he can just float. He also started doing this "butterfly" where he basically throws both arms up in the air and swings them out of the water and back into the water while wiggling his body. He's pretty cute when he does that but he uses a lot of energy when he does that.

This is the picture I took of Eric when we were leaving. I couldn't really take any other photos with all of that water around, so I wanted one photo of him all wrapped up in his towel. He was so upset about being made to leave that he wouldn't look at me. He also looks tired, but he didn't fall asleep in the car at all.

We picked up Anthony on the way home along with Schlotzky's for a late lunch. The day went by very fast. Natalie had swim practice at Lifetime Fitness. She was happy to be back in the water. At night we watched the Olympic Trials and Patrick and the boys are presently watching a movie. Tomorrow I go back to work and then I'm off again for the Fourth. I'll definitely be thinking of today when I'm plugging away at work tomorrow.

Championship Meet 2012

Today was our last swim meet of the neighborhood swim season. The other meets were "dual meets" or one neighborhood team against another. Today we swam against four of the other teams in our division. One of them was Canyon Springs, who we did not swim against in a dual meet this season. We did, however, swim against them in a dual meet last season.

We woke up at 5:30am so we could be at the Josh Davis Natatorium by 6:15am for warmups at 6:30am. During the school year, Natalie would wake up a little after 6am for school every day and even earlier on the weekend. Today, Natalie was not really awake yet, even at 6:30am. Patrick and I think this is partly because she is going through a growth spurt, but that's another subject entirely.

This is the way Natalie looks when she's not really awake yet--grumpy and quiet, sort of like her mother. ;) They are marking her events on her arm so she won't forget as they do with all the kids, but she is just going through the motions. She did wake up more when they started warmups. She complained about the water being cold and how she would have rather raced in the afternoon when the cold water would have felt good. The parents and other spectators were all glad the meet was in the morning. It got a bit more stifling by noon-ish when the meet ended.

Her first race was event #3, the Girls 9-10 100 yard Freestyle Relay. Natalie was the first leg and they won pretty handily with a time of 1:10.49. Second place was Hunter's Creek with a time of 1:12.15. Notice that the distances are in yards for this meet as this was a 25 yard pool as opposed to the other meets where the pools were 25 meters. This makes it difficult to compare the times with the previous meets' times.

Natalie's next event was the Girls 9-10 25 yard Freestyle. She didn't swim this race for the first two meets, but she did in the last two. The first time she swam it this year (versus Hunter's Creek), she got third place with her teammate Riley getting second. Last week (Knight's Cross) she swam the freestyle and got second place after Riley. This time she tied with Riley for second place with a time of 15.82 seconds. First place this time and at Hunter's Creek was the same girl that beat Natalie in the IM at Hunter's Creek and again today.

Natalie's third event was #35, the Girls 9-10 100 yard IM. Natalie was third with a time of 1:37.85. The girl who came in second was from Canyon Springs, so Natalie had not been in a race with her this year. Both girls are 10 years old, so Natalie is still doing very well for her age.

This is one of the photos I took during warmups of Anna R., Natalie, Maya E., and Rylee O. (left to right). Anna refused to have her picture taken until Rylee convinced her to get in the group photo. I took a similar picture of Maya and Rylee with Natalie last year at the Championship Meet (see HERE). They have grown so much in one year!

Natalie's next event was #55, the Girls 25 yard Butterfly. We were all having flashbacks to last year when Natalie's goggles fell down off of her face when she first dove into the water, resulting in a delay from her and a third place finish. We would have been happy if that didn't happen again, but she did much better than that. She won first place by over 2 seconds with a time of 18.17 seconds.

Natalie's last event was #65, the Girls 9-10 100 yard Medley Relay. She had the first leg, which was backstroke, and she won that one pretty easily. The other girls built upon that lead (Riley for breaststroke, Maya for butterfly, and Anna for freestyle), and they won with a time of 1:23.92. The second place team finished over four seconds behind them.

This picture is a picture of the cupcake treat that one of the team moms made for the party after the meet. She had strawberry, vanilla, and chocolate-flavored cupcakes with gummi sharks on top of the blue icing. Eric loved the shark so much that he ate his AND mine. Patrick went home to pick him up while a friend gave Natalie and me a ride to the party site.

The restaurant was pretty dimly lit, so I took this photo when we got home. They awarded medals to the first three places and ribbons for the rest of the places up to sixteenth place. Natalie again told me, "Mama, I only got medals." She got three gold, one silver, and one bronze. She also got the third highest point total of everyone on our team, and she got the third highest point total of all of the 9-10 year old girls at the meet. They haven't published all of the results yet, but she thinks the other two girls were the two 10-year-olds that finished ahead of her in the 100 yard IM.

We didn't expect much this year because we knew she would be at the bottom of her age bracket, but she keeps getting better and better. Meanwhile, she wants to continue swimming four days a week at Lifetime Fitness for now. We're so proud of our little swimmer!

Last Neighborhood Practice

This has been the longest week culminating in Natalie's last swim meet of the season tomorrow. She had already gone to the morning neighborhood swim practice but she wanted to go to the evening practice (she said just to play and not to practice) to find out who was selected the swimmer of the week. She says that she doesn't expect to win swimmer of the week because she is usually at Lifetime Fitness swimming instead of the neighborhood, but Patrick and I know that she would be over the moon excited if she got it.

She keeps talking about how she hasn't gotten it in the four summers she has been on this swim team and some people have gotten it two or three times. Alex said that she doesn't get it because the swimmer of the week award is for people that have improved and Natalie doesn't need to improve--she's already good. We all went "Awww"--Alex actually said something sweet about his sister. He couldn't just compliment his sister, of course. He had to add, "And she lets everyone know it too."

We got to the pool about halfway through practice so Eric and Natalie could play a little. Natalie was so sweet to Eric, helping him swim and getting him to dive to the bottom of the pool. She also held him up on his back and lifted him out of the water a couple of times. We were only there for about half an hour. After they distributed snacks to the kids, we left for home. Natalie seemed a little sad that this was the last neighborhood swim practice.

Natalie has also been watching the Olympic Trials (swimming) all week. It's her routine to come home from swim practice and eat dessert (usually ice cream) while watching the DVR tape. She'll be glued to the TV come July 27th when the Olympics start.

One more meet to go then we can rest--until August at least!

Gearing Up

This is what we bought Natalie today. She got a new set of goggles, because these are red and she wanted red goggles. For those of you that don't know--Natalie loves the color red. The swimsuit is the chosen team swimsuit for the Lifetime Fitness team. They have so far been swimming in whatever swimsuit they want, but her coach (Coach Kris) felt that having the same swimsuit would make them seem more unified. Luckily, because it's for a team, we got a discount because these types of swimsuits cost $70+. This one cost $74 but the discount brought it down to $50. The swim fins are required for her Lifetime Fitness swim team class. She outgrew her other ones. The lycra cap is something to wear under the swim cap. Natalie heard about it from one of the 12-year-old girls on our neighborhood swim team who wears one. She wears the lycra cap then her goggles, then her silicone swim cap over all of it. Supposedly it keeps her head from itching. Natalie was all for that. The total was $100. Ouch!

Here is Natalie goofing off in her new gear. She was excited and when Natalie is excited, she lets everyone know about it! :) She has the championship swim meet this upcoming Saturday against the other four teams in our division (neighborhood swim team). That means she'll have to face that 10-year-old girl again that beat her in the IM. She's been gearing up for that meet. Coach Kris helped her (at Natalie's request) with her breaststroke and with the transitions between the different strokes in the IM. We stayed after class a little extra for this, and it made me happy that Coach Kris cared enough to help Natalie for this swim meet that her coach wouldn't even be at.

Patrick and I hope that all of this gives Natalie the confidence to do well in the championship meet. That would make her very happy and when Natalie is happy, she lets everyone know it!

Eric Update

I've been posting so much about Natalie that I have to post about Eric now so his grandparents can get their fix. Eric has been enjoying having his siblings at home. With Alex at home most of the time, he can play and play in the gameroom--he doesn't have to leave the house.

I enticed him to leave the house last Friday. Natalie had already gone to the neighborhood swim practice in the morning, but she wanted to go to the afternoon practice just to see who they picked as swimmer of the week. They also distribute frozen treats at the Friday evening practice, so she wanted to participate in that as well. Eric went for the frozen treat. He thought they were going to have popsicles, since we had brought popsicles a few weeks ago when it was our turn to bring the treat. He was reluctant to accept the ice cream sandwich they offered as a substitute, but of course he changed his mind when I had him taste it.

Notice the sunglasses perched on his head, just like Papa wears it. Notice also the blue flip-flops. Those are his new Dinosaur Train flip-flops that I found at HEB last week for $2. Ever since then he's been looking for every opportunity to wear them, even to church this weekend, much to Patrick's and my chagrin.

We've been cutting down on his iPad time. I usually bring the iPad to work so he doesn't even have the option to watch it. I'm less reluctant to restrict Natalie, however, because she's been exercising so much. She deserves a little bit of down time watching Mythbusters or other documentaries (her new favorite thing to watch on Netflix).

Of course when Natalie is watching then Eric is watching too. Yesterday, they were watching Mythbusters while crouching down on the floor. I decided to make it a little more comfortable for the both of them. I had them both lie down in Natalie's bottom bunk bed and I inserted the iPad cover into the slats of the bunk bed above. It was almost like watching in the car. For some reason, Eric said it was like watching on a "bed bus".

Another reason why Eric will very willingly leave the house is to go to the pool. Patrick tries to take him at least a couple of times a week, sometimes to the neighborhood pool, and sometimes to our gym pool at Lifetime Fitness. On Monday nights from 5:45-6:15pm, he has swim lessons. Patrick switched his lessons to this time so they would coincide with when we have to be there for Natalie's swim team class. Tonight after his lesson, they updated his folder to show what swimming skills he has learned. It's all part of an organized system to make sure all the students are learning the same things. I'm sure you won't be able to read this unless you enlarge the photo, so here are the categories typed out:

Level 201
-Blow bubbles
-Float on front with assistance
-Float on back with assistance
-Kick feet
-Jump in water and get out
-Paddle with arms

Level 301
-Hold breath underwater
-Float on front unassisted
-Float on back unassisted
-Kick 15 ft. with face in water
-Paddle on back 25 ft.
-Log roll unassisted
-Swim 25 ft. on front with face in water

As you can see, he still needs to do the last three in Level 301, but he is well on his way to be a great swimmer, hopefully like his sister!

Two Meet Report

I never posted about Natalie's swim meet this past Monday, June 18th, so I'll just lump it with info about today's swim meet. Monday's meet was against Hunter's Creek and it was an evening meet. I really dislike evening meets. I was exhausted from being on call the night before and it was hotter than the morning meets. It's not great for the kids either, because the meet didn't end until about 9pm when it was already dark. We did managed to video Natalie's last event, but I had put away my camera already. Natalie's results are as follows:

--Girls 11-12 100m Freestyle Relay (1st leg)--Second--1:15.37
--Girls 9-10 25m Freestyle--Third--17.78
--Girls 9-10 100m IM--Second--1:45.43
--Girls 9-10 25m Butterfly--First--20.53
--Girls 11-12 100m Medley Relay (3rd leg--butterfly)--Second--1:29.62

Some additional notes are as follows:

--Natalie swam in the freestyle for the first time this summer, because the coach said he needed her to be timed in an official meet. Her seed time was still 20 sec from last year, so she was placed in the next to the last heat. She won that heat pretty easily, but the girl (Riley from our team--see below) who got second place only beat her by 0.09 sec, well within human timer error. Had she been able to swim in the last (and fastest) heat, who knows what would have happened. The girl who got first place won with a time of 16.15 sec, a time which Natalie oohed and aahed over, since she hasn't broken the 17 second barrier for the 25m freestyle yet.

When I texted Anthony the results and how Natalie had gotten third place, he sent back a reply that he was surprised that she got third place. She has had remarkable success this summer and she's been placing first and second in everything, until that race.

--The girl who won the IM over Natalie is the same girl who won first place in that freestyle race I mentioned above. Natalie lost a lot of ground in the breaststroke and she never recovered. Natalie lost by five seconds but she was still very happy because she shaved off four and a half seconds off of her previous best time.

--Natalie didn't have to swim in the breaststroke race on Monday, something she rejoiced about.

--The butterfly race was a close one and confusing. Patrick and I were sure that she had touched the wall first, but the timers gave her the second place ribbon. When they got the official time, Natalie had beaten the other girl (who had beaten her in the IM) by 0.65 sec. She was a little unhappy just because she hadn't improved on her personal best time.

I took this picture today. Natalie was grouped with her own age group in the Freestyle and Medley relays today. These are two of her teammates in the Medley Relay (Riley and Kelsey). More on that later, but first her results are as follows:

--Girls 9-10 100m Freestyle Relay (1st leg)--First--1:18.00
--Girls 9-10 25m Freestyle--Second--17.71
--Girls 9-10 100m IM--Second--1:50.91
--Girls 9-10 25m Butterfly--First--19.79
--Girls 9-10 100m Medley Relay (1st leg--backstroke)--First--1:37.90

Some additional notes are as follows:

--Natalie lost the Freestyle race to Riley (picture above). It seemed close, but Riley's official time was 16.80 sec. Natalie oohed at that one because again, she hasn't been able to swim that in less than 17 seconds yet.

--Natalie was visibly upset after placing second in the IM today. It was probably a combination of things. She was tired--every bad mood of hers is almost always related to being tired. Next, Riley has not been in an IM race this year and she herself seemed nervous beforehand, but I think that because Natalie had not raced against Riley in the IM this year, this caught her a little off guard. Last but not least, Natalie was upset that she had backtracked in her time. Riley had won with a time of 1:46.31, which isn't even as fast as Natalie swam on Monday. On the up side, Natalie good friend Maya swam the IM for the first time ever in the same race and she ended up being in fourth place. Natalie was happy for her.

--Natalie went under 20 seconds for the first time in the 25m Butterfly. She won that race handily with her friend Maya coming in second with a time of 25.37 sec. She didn't ask her time when she finished, but I noticed it because I was taking pictures of the next race (I'm the designated team photographer--more on that another time). I told Patrick and Patrick went and told Natalie that she had broken 20 seconds. This was one of her goals and she was very excited. Riley was also around at that time since they were lining up for their Medley race (see photo above) and Riley gave Natalie a congratulatory hug. How sweet was that?

--Natalie was lamenting over having to swim the 25m backstroke in the Medley relay since she hasn't done 25m backstroke in a swim meet this summer. She even tried to trade with her teammate Anna who was swimming freestyle on the same relay team. The coach wouldn't let her do it and it all worked out since they got first place.

I have to tell one more story about the picture above. Natalie and Riley were together on the same side of the pool at the end of the Medley relay and I asked them if I could get a picture of the two of them. Natalie started complaining about her blue ribbon getting wet. Riley started wiping her own blue ribbon on herself, getting it more wet. Natalie started doing the same thing. Meanwhile Kelsey comes along and does the same thing too. Riley and Kelsey start sticking their ribbons on their swimsuits for the picture. Natalie, of course, decides to stick her ribbon on her face. Viola! Big silly smiles for the picture!

Happy 13th Birthday, Alex!

I haven't posted about Alex's birthday yet, because it was on Monday--I was post-call and almost comatose for most of the day and Natalie had a swim meet in the evening. We didn't even get a big present for him. He only asked for one thing, and that was a wireless headset that he could use when playing on the PS3. My sister Melissa called dibs on that one. My sister Cynthia, my parents, and Patrick's parents all gave him money. What else could I do but focus on the things he likes to eat. He specifically requested orange soda and Chester's Flamin'Hot Fries. I also got him some Pepperidge Farm Milano Cookies, specifically the orange flavored ones, and some "5" gum (his favorite).

On Monday, Alex had gotten up, probably before 5am (we're not sure) so he could start playing on the PS3. He knew that we would let him play as much as he wanted on his birthday and he wanted to maximize his play time. As soon as I got home from work that morning, we went out to IHOP so he could get his favorite, the Danish Fruit Crepes. He played on the PS3 for the rest of the day, taking breaks to have the snacks I bought for him. For lunch he requested a Chipotle steak burrito, which Patrick brought home for him. For dinner, he had HEB Extra Thin Crust Pepperoni Pizza, which is his favorite pizza. We didn't even get to take him out to eat since we were at Natalie's swim meet from about 5-9pm.

I took some iPhone photos of what he ate, but I didn't take any photos of him--his request, of course. I happened to mention to our waitress at IHOP that Alex had chosen to go there because it was his birthday and she took it upon herself to come with the other waitstaff to sing "Happy Birthday" to him while presenting him with vanilla ice cream with hot fudge on top. I wasn't expecting that so I wasn't ready with the camera. I was able to take a small snippet of video, which Alex asked me to delete, but this was one birthday request I had to refuse.

I wanted to dig out some old photos of Alex as a baby to post on this blog, but I haven't had a chance yet. Those were the days of non-digital photos, after all. Alex has grown to be an intelligent, sweet boy, who frustrates his parents at times. He loves his siblings and shows it in subtle ways, except for Eric. For Eric he openly shows his sweet side on a daily basis. We know he cares for Natalie even though he seems to be constantly insulting her. He gives Anthony a tough time, verbally, but anyone can easily tell how much he looks up to him. He has certainly always made our lives interesting and we love him so much. Happy Birthday, Alex!

Happy 20th!

Today is my 20th wedding anniversary. Patrick and I were dating for five years before that, so we've been together for a long time. We've been through a lot together, but thankfully, mostly good times. Patrick is my best friend and he can still make me laugh after all of these years. Here's to many, many more years together!

By the way, Anthony took this photo. I dialed in the camera settings and I made him take a total of 14 photos. He kept moving the camera and making things blurry plus I wasn't happy with the lighting. Notice the folded laundry in the background--not something I would choose to have in the background, but certainly something that exemplifies married life. :)

I'm going to keep it short tonight. I still have to do a post on Alex's birthday and Natalie's swim meet, both this past Monday. I'm still recovering from being on call on Sunday (Father's Day), so I'll try to catch up in the next couple of days.

A Night at the Museum

This is just a quick post by Patrick to add to Melanie's post below. I will try to keep it short because I am sure that Melanie will post again tonight or tomorrow about Natalie's swim meet and Alex' Birthday. I also have to find a few pictures that are different from those Melanie picked.

Melissa's company provided her with tickets for ALL of us to get into the museum after hours and enjoy food and drinks while walking through all of the exhibits and we had tickets to see a movie about "Flying Monsters" in 3D. Yes, Eric is in dinosaur loving mode lately so you know he was excited, I would say I was almost excited as he was. The big boys might not admit it, but they all had a great time too.

Alex, as per usual, did his best to dodge pictures but even he got distracted enough by the various sights that once in a while I was able to snag a picture of him too.


The new Paleontology exhibit was the major hit, though we did take the time to visit the "Warriors, Tombs, and Temples" and the "Titanic: The Artifact Exhibition" which were wonderful exhibits. I enjoy walking through museums and looking at various exhibits, but I particularly enjoy seeing the reaction of the kids as they go through. It is difficult for even jaded teenagers to cover the awe inspired by the large skeletons and pictures of dinosaurs. Nothing matches the wide-eyed awe of younger children like Eric. I enjoyed the displays as much as I enjoyed watching the kids enjoy themselves. It was a wonderful evening.


When we lived in Houston we were members at the Museum and would visit with Anthony fairly often. The Museum has vastly expanded since then and I look forward to visiting again one of the next times we go to Houston. I think our Night at the Museum was easily worth the drive back and forth. It was a shame that Melanie couldn't come with us, but maybe next year. Melissa, thank you again for the tickets!

Houston Trip Minus Me

One of the perks of working for a big corporation is that they have company functions you can participate in. The next best thing is to have a relative working for a big corporation. My sister Melissa got tickets for us to the Museum of Natural Science in Houston through her company. The tickets included food, entrance to the museum and a documentary movie called Flying Monsters 3D, about flying dinosaurs. As soon as she told me about the dinosaurs, I knew Eric would be thrilled. I also knew that since this was on a Friday night, I wouldn't be able to go, so the rest of the family went without me.

This first picture shows where their table was, in the big hallway under the dinosaur bones--pretty cool. Both of my sisters and their kids went, as well as my brother-in-law. He seemed more interested in the museum than the other kids. They split up into two groups because Melissa wasn't able to get tickets to the same movie showing for all of them. Patrick took our boys and my nephew Nick. Natalie went with the girls and the rest of the family. My parents weren't interested in going, so they stayed home. My family stayed with them, so they got to see them before and after the museum and then this morning before they left for home.

My sisters and Patrick also texted me various photos through the night, so at least I felt like I was a little bit involved. Cynthia texted me a couple of photos of the girls in front of a shark mouth, and then this one of Natalie in front of a prehistoric shark, a megalodon. Natalie still loves sharks.

I'm not going to post all of those photos, but another one showed the girls with their glasses up as if they were giving a toast. Melissa said they were "raising a cup to Aunt Melanie." Awww, that was nice. Natalie said they were "trying to act all official". There was another photo of Anthony and Nick getting on a spinning ride. My sisters and I are prone to motion sickness and my sister Cynthia texted me, "Our boys are crazy!" Patrick also sent me a photo of Eric eating cotton candy with a caption that said, "Hi Mama! I am eating pure sugar at 9:45!" They left the museum at about 10pm, and Eric was clearly tired but still going. He had a blast!

Patrick was really good about taking photos for me. I'm going to have to teach him a few things about changing my camera settings, but he still got plenty of good photos. Even though many of the photos were blurry because he couldn't use a flash in the exhibits, I got to see a little of what they were seeing.

I turned this photo black and white because of the funky red lighting in the exhibit, but I love how he captured Eric's facial expression while Nick put his hand in the dinosaur's mouth. He looks a little scared but fascinated at the same time. Apparently, Patrick couldn't get Eric to put his own hand in the dinosaur's mouth.

I definitely had to share this photo. Patrick got the idea for the boys to pretend they were running away from the dinosaur that was chasing them. What a cool idea! I bet the boys were all over that one. They look like they're really getting into it. :)

Alex wasn't in many of the photos. He and Nick were constantly trying to hide behind Anthony when Patrick was taking photos. Patrick had to resort to quickly snapping photos when Alex was there, and as a result, many of them were blurry. I appreciate his effort, though, and I feel like I was almost there with them. I'm hoping that Patrick will post here on the blog with a few more details about the actual exhibits and how the kids enjoyed them.

Perpetual Wedgie

Just a quick post today. Patrick has been bringing Eric to Lifetime Fitness during Natalie's swim team class. On Monday it was because Eric's swim lesson is on Mondays. Yesterday (Wednesday) it was so he can get some active, outside time. On the way there, Eric saw Patrick's hat in the van and decided to put it on himself. He insisted that it was HIS hat since it fit on his head. Yes, the hat did sit on top of his head--but then it would flop forward into his face. Patrick figured it was all good because at least Eric was willing to put a hat on.

I snapped this picture on our way from the car to the gym. I wanted to get a photo of Eric in Patrick's hat and I happened to also catch some wedgie action. Eric is always pulling his underwear out of his crack. Today I asked him, "You seem to have a wedgie all of the time." He replied that he has a wedgie "all of these days". It just cracks me up that pretty much all of the time his hand is right there fixing things.

My family is leaving tomorrow for Houston. I have to work tomorrow so I couldn't go, but they'll be back on Saturday just so they can see me before I'm on call on Sunday. I'll post some photos from their trip when they get back.

Swim Meet Week #2

Natalie had her second swim meet of the summer season yesterday, June 9th vs. Inwood. This was an away meet, so we got to get up slightly later since our warmup time was later. This first picture is of Natalie with her friend Anna and Anna's little sister Sophia. They are posing with a "tigershark" toy owned by their neighborhood swim coach from last year. Natalie coveted that shark, of course.

The following list is of the five events that Natalie was in and the results:

--Girls 11-12 100m Freestyle Relay (1st leg)--First--1:17.11
--Girls 9-10 100m IM--First--1:49.95
--Girls 9-10 25m Breaststroke--Third--28.16
--Girls 9-10 25m Butterfly--First--20.27
--Girls 11-12 100m Medley Relay (3rd leg--butterfly)--Second--1:27.03

Some additional notes:
--She was with the Girls 9-10 category for the 100m IM this time. She would have placed fifth in the Girls 11-12 category this week, behind three of her own teammates, but at least she had her friend Anna swimming with her this time with two girls from the other team.
--She was upset after placing third in the breaststroke. She came out of the pool and said she didn't like swimming breaststroke. Patrick had a talk with her and told her the same thing I had told her earlier, before the race when she talked about how nervous she was about swimming the breaststroke. She really wants to be good at the IM, and in order for her to improve there, she has to improve in the breaststroke. I think she wasn't upset about the third place finish as she was frustrated that she still has a lot of work to do on that stroke. She improved her time last week by about 1 second, which is wonderful, of course. She just needs to be reminded about these things. She is, after all, only nine. The two girls who placed ahead of her are two strong 10-year-olds, one of which is her teammate. She made up for it by beating her teammate in their next race, the 25m butterfly, by two seconds.
--Natalie's Medley Relay team placed a close second to the other relay team from our neighborhood. She was the only 9 year-old in a bunch of 11 and 12 year olds that were much bigger than her, so she has plenty to be proud of.

The Inwood meet finished a little earlier than we had anticipated, which was great because we had to go to another swim meet at our Lifetime Fitness (LTF) gym against the other LTF gym in town. That was great because we had a chance to stop off at home briefly.

I don't have any of the times from the LTF swim meet, but Natalie lost pretty decisively to the 12-year-old dressed in the pink swimsuit shown in this picture. Those races were the 50m Freestyle, Backstroke, and Butterfly, and the 100m IM. (Notice the absence of the Breaststroke event.) That still meant four second places in four tough races after she had already been in five races. My daughter is a glutton for punishment, at least when it comes to swimming.

That last sentence was further proven by the fact that there was "another" swim meet (adults) after the kids' swim meet at LTF. Natalie really wanted to swim the 200 meter IM and the 200 meter freestyle, but none of the kids were swimming that race. There is a swim class made out of adults called the "Masters" class. They were supposed to swim after the kids' swim meet in their own races. Apparently, a lot of people didn't show up, and this swim meet was much more informal, so some of the swim coaches just swam for fun. Natalie also convinced Patrick to swim.

At first he was only going to swim the 50m Freestyle, but because one of the young guys, a high school senior, wanted to swim the 50m Butterfly but he didn't want to swim by himself, Patrick swam that race too. Another woman actually ended up joining them and Patrick had to point out that the last time he swam that race for a time, neither of those two had been born yet.

They only had one adult each swimming the 200m IM and the 200m Freestyle, so they swam those races at the same time. That meant that Natalie couldn't do both races, she had to choose one. Of course she chose the IM. The girl she "swam against" had gone to college on a four-year swimming scholarship. Natalie didn't beat her, of course, but she was so excited that she had the chance to swim. After nine other races, she swam the 200m IM in about four minutes. Like I said, Natalie is a glutton for punishment.

Patrick and Natalie were having so much fun that I couldn't complain that I wanted to go home. They swam in one more relay for fun. All the swimmers (eight of them) swam in a relay style, 25m each. They were both pretty pumped up after this, and we finally went home. No swim meet next weekend. The next swim meet will be on a Monday, a week from tomorrow.

First Week of Summer 2012 Update

Well, we made it through the first week of summer. I thought I would detail what each child has been up to in order to update the in-laws. We're still busy in some ways and not in some others.

Anthony had to do some sort of internship this summer as a requirement to graduate. He really only started looking in May, which seemed really late to us, but apparently there were others who waited even longer. He basically did this all by himself. He looked up the name of a professor at UTSA (University of Texas at San Antonio) who did things related to Materials Science, which is what he is interested in. He was very happy when he got an email back asking him to come for a visit. That was this past Monday, June 4th, and he pretty much started right away. His first task has been to learn all about the electron microscope and he has been enjoying all of it. That means that he will be doing this every day until the end of July when he becomes the Head Counselor at the P.E. Camp at his school.

Besides the internship, he also signed up for an informal 7 vs. 7 soccer league that plays on Friday nights. He signed up with his best friend, Alejandro and some of his friends. So far he's been getting rides from his friend and it's an excuse to stay overnight at each other's houses. Anthony doesn't even know how long they'll be playing, but he scored a goal in last Friday's game and he's enjoying that too.

Anthony has decided to do a little training for Cross-Country this summer. He only started Cross-Country last Fall because his Soccer Coach wanted all of the soccer kids to start some conditioning in the off-season. He ended up enjoying it, so now he's going to try to do some running this summer. Of course, when he tried that this past week, he learned a valuable lesson. Don't eat bagels with peanut butter before running.

Alex's life has been much simpler since school ended. His main goal is to play as much on the Playstation 3 and his iPod Touch as possible. We've allowed him plenty of game time this first week, but we'll start insisting on some physical activity starting this coming week. To his credit, he did go outside a couple of times to play with the soccer ball. He and his younger siblings also did some cleaning and reorganization in the game room. He also made a "fort" made out of blankets and playhouses in his and Eric's bedroom and he's also been getting plenty of sleep. Unfortunately, late in the night on Wednesday, June 6th, the PS3 stopped working while he and Anthony were watching a movie on it. He hasn't had as much game time as he had hoped. We actually bought a new one since the other one was pretty old, but after a whole day of working with the new one and transferring the stuff on the old hard drive to the new hard drive, the new PS3 is making some loud noises and making the game discs very warm. We'll see what happens this next week with that.

Natalie has been the most physically active one. This week she went to the neighborhood swim team practice in the mornings at 10-11am, then she would go to the Lifetime Fitness swim team practice in the evenings from 5:30-6:30pm. She had the first swim meet of the summer last Saturday, June 2nd, and she had the second one today, the 9th. She actually had three swim meets today, but I'll talk about that in another blog post, probably tomorrow.

Because she has been so physically active, we've allowed her plenty of down time in the form of videos. She and Anthony went through all the available episodes of the animated show "Avatar: The Last Airbender", and now they are watching the followup series called "The Legend of Korra". She's been watching on the computer and on the iPad. She's been almost as obsessed with these shows as she has been obsessed with swimming. This morning, when Patrick went to get her up for her swim meet around 7am, he found her already in the office watching videos on the computer. She got in a lot of trouble for that one.

This past week, Natalie also went to the orthodontist to get a new retainer. She had to have a baby tooth pulled (as I mentioned in a previous blog post), so the old retainer no longer fit. She has to wear this new one all the time except for when she eats and when she swims.

Patrick has tried to plan some activities to keep Eric active. A couple of days this week he took Eric swimming. Eric loves the water and we're hoping he'll want to join the neighborhood swim team next summer, if nothing else so he can stay active since we have to be there for Natalie anyway. Also, Patrick took Eric to his swim lesson at Lifetime Fitness, which is now on Monday evenings to coincide with Natalie's swim practices.

Eric, however, has been mainly at home this past week, and especially today. Since Patrick, Natalie, and I were gone for most of the day, Eric was left in the care of his big brothers. They did play with him, but they were also preoccupied with the new PS3, transferring data from the old one, and setting up the new one. When we got home around 4pm, we asked the big boys if they had fed their little brother. Both boys were mostly silent except for some guilty looks and noises. What conscientious babysitters they were! Eric isn't a big eater and he has to be reminded to eat. We certainly don't need him to be missing meals. Hopefully he'll get more food and more fun activities this coming week.

I'll try to post again tomorrow with pictures and info about Natalie's swim meets.

Just A Swimsuit Trip

I'm on call tonight and I'm trying to post this while standing up in the hallway, so please excuse any errors.

While Patrick and Natalie were at her orthodontist appointment (to get her new retainer), Alex, Eric, and I went to Academy Sports and Outdoors to get Alex a swimsuit. As we were looking for the men's swimsuits, we saw these kids' portable chairs for $5.99 and one of them had Lightning McQueen for $12.99. Eric had to have it, of course. Since the kids' current portable chairs are not so easy to carry around, and Eric is able to sling this one on his own shoulder, I went ahead and splurged.

Alex was still picking out a swimsuit when I saw this hat. Since I volunteered to take photos at the swim meets, sometimes I have to stand out in the sun. I wear sunscreen but it would be nice if I could keep the sun off of me too. I have a large head, and this hat was an extra large and didn't squish my head like some other hats do, plus it was on sale for $12.99--bonus!

I also bought Patrick a new white long-sleeved rash guard and I looked around for one from me with no success. Alex finally found a swimsuit that he liked that fit him for around $30. He didn't like the cheaper suits, of course. The both of us also got sunglasses for $9.99. By the time we checked out, we had almost $140 worth of stuff! That one trip to buy one swimsuit cost us a lot of money!

Found Toys Are New

The kids were cleaning the game room today (and apparently they were getting along while doing that) when they discovered this dinosaur stuffed toy. I must have bought this for Alex from Kohl's a long time ago and as frequently happens when you have so much stuff, we had forgotten about it. Now it's Eric that loves dinosaurs, and he was excited about this toy. His favorite toys now are the Dinosaur Train toys he got from his godfather for his birthday and his Cars cars that he's received from different people over the past year or so. He often plays with them at the same time--the cars and dinosaurs have parties together. :) FYI, for those of you on Facebook, I put a video up on my wall of Eric singing a song from Dinosaur Train about T. Rexes.