Eric's First Soccer Game

Today was Eric's first soccer game--ever! He was pretty excited, as you can see, still able to smile even after his Mama kept asking him to stand in different places so she could get a good picture of him in his uniform. His Uncle John would be happy to see that Eric's uniform is mainly maroon in color, the color of Uncle John's alma mater. For some reason, when I was changing him into his uniform, he took off his other clothes and then asked if he could leave his underwear on. Yes, silly boy.

Before talking about the game, I'm going to talk about our morning. I took Anthony to school at 6:30 for his cross country meet this morning. I had been torn whether or not to go to Anthony's meet or to go to Eric's game. Anthony, the sweet boy that he is, told me that he had lots of cross country meets, there was only one "first game", so of course I went to Eric's game.

I brought home Benny's Tacos for Alex and Starbucks for Patrick. When I got home I took the little ones to Starbucks--Eric's choice. We came home from breakfast and got him dressed for soccer. His uniform was a bit big. In fact, all the uniforms were big for all the kids.

The game started at 9am. We had an inexperienced referee. Instead of 10 minute quarters, which is the standard at this age, the first quarter ended up being about 20 minutes. The kids who were playing that first quarter were exhausted and asking for water. There were also a few tears from different children during the game, from colliding with each other, or from getting hit with the ball.

Eric did okay during the game. He was totally not paying attention, so he didn't get to play in the first quarter. He did a lot of standing around staring off into space. He got distracted during the opening prayer and started picking up something off the grass. In this picture, he is playing with his huge shorts while he is playing on defense with another boy. He started crying at one point because he had bonked heads with one of his teammates. Natalie was there to help calm him down.

He did play like he was supposed to for part of the game. He ran after the ball and moved it down the field. There were two players on his team that were particularly aggressive, both were girls. One of them basically mowed him down at one point, in order to get to the ball. Patrick had to remind them that they were all on the same team. Eric himself shoved a few kids because they were shoving him.

Eric also got his first taste of the post-game snacks. Each kid got two tokens to spend at the concession stand on whatever they wanted. Eric chose a ring pop and a bag of Doritos. Natalie and Patrick shared some of their snow cones with him too. He dropped his ring pop on the ground, so he didn't really get any of that--not a big disappointment for me and he didn't seem that disappointed either. He really enjoyed that bag of Doritos.

Eric has a total of 12 games scheduled, most on Saturday and a few on Sunday. I hope he still enjoys playing throughout the season.

Starting Soccer

On top of starting kindergarten, Eric started soccer also. The other kids got a chance to try out every sport when they when they were in kindergarten, so we want Eric to have the same experience. Patrick signed him up at our local CYO and also signed himself up to be his coach. The first practice was the Tuesday before school started, but Patrick didn't get any photos then. He took these photos this past Tuesday, the Tuesday after school started.

I love this first photo because Anthony is trying to get his little brother's cleats on, but Eric seems to be insisting on "helping". Anthony helped out at the first soccer practice, but he wasn't there for the second one because he was resting his leg. Apparently, some of the kids asked where "the other coach" (meaning Anthony) was. That is so cute! Eric also noticed at the second practice that one of the girls on his team is also in his kindergarten class. Alex says maybe another one or two are also in Eric's class.

Eric was apparently thrilled with all of the pictures that his Papa was taking. He told Patrick that this was the last picture. That was my fault since I'm always with Natalie at her swim team practice and I haven't been able to see Eric playing soccer yet. Patrick was only trying to do what I asked.

Patrick is a great coach and wants the kids to basically play during practice to get used to moving the ball around and get comfortable with the ball. At least one of the parents seems to be a bit competitive, but hopefully all of the kids will still be able to enjoy themselves. That's what it's all about at this age.

Eric's first game will supposedly be this coming Saturday. We'll see how that will work with Anthony's cross country meet also this coming Saturday. I know Natalie is looking forward to seeing Eric play soccer, because she says "He's so small and cute!"

First Day of School 2012

Today is the first day of school--finally. It seems like forever ago that we bought school supplies. Natalie was all over getting supplies and putting them all in her backpack, and Eric's. She offered to do the same for her big brothers, but they didn't want her to. Last night, they decided that it would be a good idea to at least get some paper and some writing utensils for their first day at school. The supply lists are different for the middle and high schools.

Eric used his brand-new dinosaur backpack, and he picked out a sleeveless dinosaur shirt. We realized this morning that he might get cold in the over-airconditioned classrooms, so we also packed a jacket in his backpack for him. The sun wasn't quite up when I was trying to take photos of Natalie and Eric, but I had to get those out of the way in plenty of time to catch the bus at a little after 7am.

I got up at 5am to make the requested first day of school breakfast--red velvet waffles and turkey bacon. I don't know if the boys cared that much, but Natalie was the vocal one, as usual, so we went with her choice. I was a little ahead of schedule and I had five plates of waffles out with chocolate chips on them already by the time Eric came downstairs already dressed. Patrick got Natalie and Eric up at around 6:10am. Alex was already up and getting dressed, although he was obviously not really awake. Anthony has been sleeping in Natalie's bottom bunk with my parents here visiting, and he got up at around 6:45ish. He's used to getting up earlier for cross-country practice, but he didn't have practice this morning.

This is one of my favorite pictures from today. I love how my parents came for a visit and stayed just to see Eric off on his first day of school. Patrick grabbed Eric's hand to cross the street and Eric automatically grabbed Lola's hand. She loved it. Natalie went ahead of them--she was rushing to make sure they made it to the bus stop in time. She's always afraid of missing the bus, maybe because she and Alex missed the bus a couple of times when they were both taking the bus--because of her.

We were only at the bus stop for a couple of minutes before we saw the bus driving down the street towards us. We think the bus driver was actually a little ahead of schedule (7:03 instead of the scheduled 7:04am). Natalie dutifully grabbed her brother's hand and helped him onto the school bus for the first time, then sat with him in the front seat behind the bus driver. I heard someone call her from farther back in the bus. I hope she doesn't mind sitting with her brother instead of her friends.

I took some photos of the big boys as well and posted them elsewhere on Facebook. I had to do a little bit of begging for Alex, but they both cooperated pretty well. Alex's carpool is breaking down a bit, since the other boy in the carpool has after school football practice. Still, it will be nice for Patrick to get a break some mornings when they take Alex to school, since Anthony will have to be at school by 6:30am for cross-country practice. That means a potential two trips out that way for Patrick every morning.

This afternoon, I'll be picking up the little ones from school so Natalie can go to piano. I'll have to get pictures of Eric getting off the bus in the afternoon on another day. I hope everyone has a wonderful Monday!

First Cross Country Meet

I still remember this time last year when school had just started and Anthony was training with the cross-country team because his soccer coach wanted them to get some conditioning in the off-season. Soon he was running with the cross-country team and invited to come with them to the meets. The best part, though, was that Anthony actually seemed to enjoy the running.

Patrick and I had a lot to learn as far as where we had to go to see him run, and when. They were never very specific as to the exact locations. That seemed to be something we had to learn with each new location. Sometimes they started in the parking lot and finished up in the stadium. Sometimes the whole meet was over dirt and natural areas with no stadium. We also never knew if he was running with varsity or JV. Because he had to juggle club soccer games with the high school cross-country meets, he was downgraded to JV just for lack of attendance at one point.

Well, we still don't really know if he is "varsity" or "JV". He chose not to sign up for club soccer this year so he wouldn't have to juggle both. He started training with the cross-country team about 2-3 weeks ago, but he injured his knee. The team trainers have been applying heat and ice and have told him that it is one of his muscles. So today he didn't know if he would run with JV just because he was injured. Apparently, because there were only four of them participating for various reasons, he ran with varsity. All of them ran with varsity.

He ran the 5K in 23:17. We're not sure what his fastest time has been, but it's definitely closer to 20 minutes. We knew he would be upset with his time. When we saw him right after, he ran and he was definitely upset. He said that was his worst time ever. Patrick told him, "Remember that you're hurt." Anthony replied that the fact that he was hurt was only an excuse. I love how Anthony just puts his head down and works hard, whether it's school work or athletics. I just wish his knee would stop hurting. I want him to still enjoy running, and that can't happen if he's hurting.

Oh the up side, my parents arrived yesterday for a visit. This is a picture I took with my iPhone at P.F. Chang's last night. Mom has a conference here in town every year at this time, so we went out to eat then drove her to her hotel. She is sharing a room with one of her co-workers at the conference hotel, the Westin Riverwalk. We're going now to get some Haagen-Dazs (their only stores here in town are near the Riverwalk), and then pick up Mom from the hotel.

Mom and Dad are staying until Tuesday morning after the kids go off to school. Mom wants to see Eric on his first day of kindergarten. He'll be so cute getting on the bus with his sister. One more day until school starts--or as Alex put it today, "one more day of summer"!

A Night At The Hospital

I was on call this past Wednesday, covering the OB area. Because Alex has soccer practice on Wednesdays, Natalie would not have been able to go to swim team practice. Patrick can only be at one place at one time. Instead she wanted to come to work with me. If I had been on Trauma call, I wouldn't have agreed. I wanted to be able to spend some time with her and not just leave her in my office or a little room somewhere, all by herself. OB tends to be less busy.

This is the picture I took of Natalie before we left home. She was all decked out in her "cool" sunglasses that Alex had given her. She is clutching her sleeping bag and carrying her overnight bag (red with a shark on it, of course--last year's birthday present from her Aunt Melissa). She looked so enthusiastic and so laden with packages that I had to preserve this moment in time with a photo.

We picked up some food from Olive Garden for a late lunch and for our dinner. Even though she had eaten a sandwich for lunch already (I didn't have lunch yet), she managed to eat most of her kids' Fettucine Alfredo when we ate at about 3pm. She barely ate anything at dinner, but I figured that she had eaten plenty already. She did almost finish off the breadsticks, though.

We watched a little TV when we ate. The rest of the time she watched movies or read a book on the iPad. Here in this picture, she is eating the popcorn I popped for her while watching a movie. She was cold so I grabbed a blanket and placed it around her. Basically, I was spoiling her.

I was on the computer when she was doing all of this, either reading articles or email, or surfing the internet. She kept asking me if I had done any work yet. Later, when we went to my call room, she set up her sleeping bag on the floor and grabbed one of the pillows. I usually don't go to bed until after 10pm when I'm on call because I don't sleep well there unless I'm exhausted. Because her bedtime for school is 8pm and we're transitioning to that this week, lights were out at 8pm for both of us.

My resident awakened me with a phone call at 10pm, after which I had a really hard time going back to sleep. Thankfully, Natalie didn't wake up. I woke up again at 3am for a twin delivery in the OR. Natalie did wake up then, but went back to sleep. When I awakened her just after 6am (again, because we're transitioning to school sleep and wake times), she could have slept more.

She went to morning conference with me, and then I took her to Starbucks for breakfast. We waited there until Anthony texted me just after 8am to pick him up from Cross-Country practice (Patrick had dropped him off around 6:30am), then we went home. Natalie told me that she really enjoyed being at work with me. My first response was that of course she enjoyed herself, I spoiled her! I was thrilled that she enjoyed spending time with me. It is only a matter of time before she grows up even more and doesn't want anything to do with her Mama. Let's just say that both of us are enjoying our time together while we can.

Howdy Night

Since we do live in Texas, instead of a "Meet the Teachers Night, we had "Howdy Night" tonight. We were a little worried about how disorganized it seemed, since we only got a generic email announcing the event. We didn't receive the usual postcards with the kids' teachers names on them nor did we receive the postcard announcing our school bus number and pickup time. Still, we were able to go up to the school and volunteers helped guide everyone to the appropriate classroom.

Eric met his new teacher, Mrs. S. She has lots of experience, and the GT teacher, Mrs. A, who all of our other kids have loved and respected, told us that Mrs. S is a wonderful teacher. Eric was very quiet and barely said "hello" to anyone. Still, we think he is so excited that he just shut down and got quiet. He did show a bit more activity in the hallway on our way to Natalie's classroom. In this picture, he started running back and forth stepping on the various colored squares on the floor. I could barely keep him in focus, but I love this snapshot of a boy containing his excitement for the start of school.

Natalie was excited that a couple of her good friends are in her class. Her teacher is Mr. G, who won me over with his love of photography. Natalie is usually drawn to female teachers, but we'll see what the year will bring with this teacher.

So, all of their school supplies were tucked into the appropriate cubbies, they met their teachers, and we seem to have everything else ready for Monday. Let the fun begin.

Seasonal Changes/Transitions

This week I think I was suffering from post-Olympics fatigue--from staying up until 11pm every night to watch the primetime tape delayed events. That meant that I was in bed by about 9pm every night, about an hour or more earlier than the rest of the year.

One important thing that happened this week--our new air conditioners arrived and were installed. Yay, no more box fans and no more of Patrick watering down the air conditioner outside to get it to cool the upstairs. The installation took two full days--one for each air conditioner. After Wednesday, though, we were happy because the upstairs air conditioner is the one that was giving us so many problems for the last two months. They still have to install the furnace, but we won't need that one for several months.

Also on Thursday, Patrick took the kids to Costco. This is not such an unusual event, but he was using our yearly Costco credit or "cash back" that we get from shopping there the rest of the year. We had to spend it by the end of the month. Among other things, he got a new kitchen trash can, one of the fancy ones where you can just step on the pedal and it will open without you having to touch the lid. Eric didn't realize it and was still using his hands--and leaving his little fingerprints on the lid. When I showed him how to use the pedal, he had a little trouble opening it at first, but then he "practiced" and was able to do it easily. I documented the event with a photo.

We also had a taste of our fall schedule this week. Alex began soccer practice at the usual time he'll be practicing this fall--Mondays and Wednesdays from 6-7:30pm. Unfortunately, our potential carpool families in our neighborhood have changed their practice times and we still won't be able to carpool this year again. Natalie is still swimming Mondays through Thursdays from 5:30-6:30pm, and that will switch to 6-7pm in September.

This time of year, there are a lot of people coming and going at work. The military tend to move on to other assignments during the summer. We had a work get-together called a "Hail and Farewell" to say "hello" to all of the new folks and "goodbye" to the outgoing folks. This was held at a local burger place called Bigz. There's a big yard area for the kids to play.

We only took Alex and Eric there because Anthony was at a soccer game and then he spent the night at Alejandro's. Natalie was at her friend Lucas' house for a pool party, an all-boy pool party--more on that later. Alex and Eric spent a few minutes playing with a soccer ball but then they basically just sat around. It was pretty hot outside and they didn't feel like being active.

When we got the food, I made a comment to Eric about how that burger bun was as big as his head. At that point he held it up to his face, and sure enough, it WAS as big as his head! He ended up finishing most of that burger! He had to take a couple of breaks where he said his tummy hurt and he sat in my lap so I could rub his tummy, but he surprised us by eating some more each time.

This morning, Natalie asked to go to Starbucks for breakfast. I'd been teasing Patrick because he went to Starbucks on his own a couple of times this week. He went right after bringing Anthony to cross-country practice around 7am. He likes the Bacon and Gouda "Artisan" breakfast sandwich there. He used to never go to Starbucks unless he was with me. Today he wanted to go too. Since I didn't really feel like making waffles, it was a good idea.

We sat outside because the inside was cold from over-airconditioning. Eric looked so relaxed after finishing his scone that he started putting his arms up behind his head. I had to take a picture, of course. He actually wore a shirt with no sleeves today, along with shorts. He has been wearing short-sleeve T-shirts with jeans for much of the summer. We think he might be following after Alex who will wear jeans even in the heat of summer.

All the kids will be going through transitions this school year. Eric is starting kindergarten. Natalie will be in fifth grade and in her final year of elementary school. Alex will be in eighth grade and in his final year of middle school. Anthony will be a senior and graduating from high school (eek!). I'm trying to enjoy this little bit of rest before the school year starts a week from Monday.

Natalie's 10th Birthday

Natalie's birthday started out harmless enough. I made her favorite breakfast--red velvet waffles and turkey bacon. She decided to squirt some double chocolate sauce on top of the strawberries over her waffles. She is of course drinking milk out of her shark cup.

I made the same amount of waffles I usually do, but we had eight more people here. My sisters and my mom were asking if there would be enough for the boys. Natalie, Patrick, and I had the same answer, "In our house, you snooze, you lose!" Luckily for the boys, most of the extra people only had small pieces, if any at all. Emily is apparently a big fan of red velvet cake too, so she probably enjoyed hers the most, next to Natalie.

Patrick picked up the cake from HEB at 10am. We thought they did a great job. They didn't have any shark-themed cakes, but we gave them a picture of a shark and someone hand-drew the shark on there. Natalie was excited about the cake, especially since it was red velvet cake. We also had shark paper plates and napkins, shark favor bags, and red cups (that we didn't end up needing). Of course Natalie had her red swimsuit and red swim goggles. Notice a theme here of "red" and "sharks"?

My niece Aly loves to go to the kids' weekly workshops that they have at Loew's and Home Depot, so her father John made some plans to do that here in town yesterday. My sister Melissa and her daughter Emily went too, and so did Eric. Natalie would have gone, but one of her friends was going to be dropped off at our house so we could take her to the party.

They had a Shrek theme and they made the dragon from the Shrek movies. John put his fingers in danger when he helped Eric put his together, hammering included. With Uncle John's help, Eric also named his dragon "Brother Carnivore". With a name so bizarre, I figured that John had a hand in it, although Eric is quite fascinated with the terms "carnivore", "herbivore", and "omnivore".

The party itself was scheduled at 11am. Luckily, I had made up extra party favor bags, because there were two extra kids that showed up that hadn't RSVP'd. I was happy they were there, though, because there had only been three that said they were coming. Natalie was very happy to see the others.

This was a swimming party at the Lifetime Fitness pool. As with many of these hosted parties, they gave us two "hostesses" or whatever they're called. We thought that maybe they would be giving the kids games and things to do, but they really didn't do anything. Luckily, the kids were good about finding their own fun. Of course, when the water slides opened up at 12:15pm, they kids were all about going down the slides repeatedly, even Eric. Look at that smile!

By the time the pizza got there at about 1pm, the kids were all famished. In fact, we had heard that the pizza was there about 20 minutes or so earlier, but for whatever reason, they didn't bring them all out until closer to 1pm. We hadn't ordered any extras because kids generally don't eat that much pizza at these parties. This time they ate a lot. With Alex and Anthony only eating two pieces apiece, the three large pizzas were gone. Those girls were hungry.

Some of my family went and got some Pei Wei later, mostly because they felt like having Chinese food. (My family "feeling like" having Chinese food is pretty typical.) Mom and Dad ate at the gym cafe. They wanted to come to the party, which I worried about because they whole party was outside and it was really hot outside. They ended up staying inside watching the Olympics on the big TV area in the front of the gym. They even fell asleep! Alex had wanted to stay home, but we made him go so he could at least help them out if they needed.

Despite thinking that I had taken care of everything, apparently there were two gas lighters and I brought the empty one. That meant that we couldn't light the red candles for the cake and that meant that Natalie didn't get to blow out candles. She isn't unhappy in this picture because she couldn't blow out candles. She is unhappy in this picture because I briefly suggested that she "pretend" to blow out candles. The two of us need to learn how to communicate better. I was actually fine with her not being able to blow out candles. I really wanted to take a picture of her with the cake! I could not get her to look up at me at all. :(

My consolation was that when we went out for dinner at El Mirasol (Natalie's choice, made completely independently of her father), Patrick asked them to bring a Tres Leches cake with a candle. I didn't bring my good camera, of course, but I did take this one blurry picture along with a video of her blowing out her candle.

Natalie had been playing all day with her cousins and after the party, she got to play with two of her other party guests at our house for another three hours. Surrounded by great friends and great family, her day ended up happily and so did mine. :)

Shark Girl and Dinosaur Boy and the Cavern Letter

It was going to be another hot day in San Antonio, but Shark Girl knew that this would mean some relaxing times inside before heading out to the swimming pool, one of her favorite places. She sat with reading a book while Dinosaur Boy played with his usual toys when the message came through on her secret phone. Central needed her to pick up a special message hidden in some caverns nearby. Apparently one of their scientists picked up some important information about some jellyfish-like aliens planning to invade earth. When she hung up she glanced up to find Dinosaur Boy staring intently, it was clear that he heard every word and was planning to come along on the mission.

"First," she told him, "We need to get our driver to take us to the Natural Bridge Caverns north of San Antonio. Then we need to take the Discovery Tour where we will find the letter right inside the entrance."

Strangely, they learned that their driver seemed to have some secret information of his own, as he was already preparing to take them on their mission. After a short trip, a trip that seemed a bit longer to Dinosaur Boy than everyone else, they arrived at their destination. After getting tickets and joining the tour, Shark Girl realized she forgot her camera (which secretly doubled as her communicator) so if anything went wrong on their mission they would be on their own.

The tour into the beautiful caverns began and shortly inside they were able to recover the letter. Of course, finding light to read the letter without anyone noticing was somewhat difficult. Once Shark Girl managed to peruse the message she learned that "Jellians," flying jellyfish-like aliens, were coming to invade earth. Fortunately, the scientist also learned that "Medusa Gaze" could turn them to stone and this was a technique that Shark Girl was taught only weeks before. They knew they had to get the information to Central as quickly as they could, but without their communicator they had no choice but to follow along with the tour.

As Shark girl thought about the implications of the Jellians coming to earth her contemplations were interrupted by a rude elbow to the ribs. Her anger, and the complaints coming to her lips, died when she noticed the same movement in the cavern that prompted Dinosaur Boy's elbow. She nodded, and they both stayed alert as the tour continued.

Soon she had her chance, she whispered "Medusa Gaze" to Shark Boy who promptly closed his eyes allowing her to practice her new magic skill to turn the Jellian spy to stone. Fortunately, the new stone matched the cavern formations so well the tour guide didn't even notice, although she pause for a moment during her narration.

Immediately after the tour ended Shark Girl and Dinosaur Boy recovered the camera-communicator and made a full report to Central. The Jellians would never chance earth now that all of the agents could turn them to stone. Shark Girl and Dinosaur Boy smiled at the success of their first mission and relaxed on the car ride home, their driver oblivious to the fact that they just saved the world from an alien invasion.

First "Big" Swim Meet

Yesterday and today was Natalie's first "big" swim meet. This meet had swimmers from a very large area and the events spanned two days. We saw one swim cap that said Del Rio, which is six hours away from here. The reason why there were so many people was that this was a "C" meet, or challenge meet, where swimmers try to get their best times to see if they qualify for the other meets. The other meets group swimmers according to their times. They can only swim in that meet if they meet a minimum time standard. Natalie doesn't have any official times, so now that she has "official times" this is the start of competitive swimming for her.

I love these types of pictures from behind. This is my girl before her first and only race yesterday, the 100 yard freestyle. She is wearing her team suit for Lifetime Fitness--or at least the suit that her coach picked out. She seems to be the only one with that suit, but it looks good on her, if I can say so myself. I bought her the flag swim cap yesterday too. She has been so excited about the Olympics and this one was almost like the caps worn by the US Olympic Swim Team. She made a comment that this one didn't have her name on it (like the ones the US Olympic swimmers wore). Of course her coach's (and Patrick's) response to this was that she will have to earn having her name on her cap. :)

This is Natalie with two of her Lifetime Fitness teammates, Maddie (also 9 years old) and Kate (11 years old). They had to swim as "unattached" swimmers without a swim team because the Lifetime Fitness team didn't jump through the hoops they needed to jump in order to be registered as a team. That meant that Natalie's coach could only watch from the bleachers like the rest of us. Hopefully one day soon the team will be "official".

Isn't technology wonderful? This is a screenshot from a phone app called Meet Mobile. A lot of swim meets are using this software to give "almost live" results. We had this for our neighborhood home meets and the championship meet in June. This meet didn't get the results out as quickly (but then there were a lot more heats for each event with mixed ages for each heat and event), but at least I can capture all of Natalie's results from this weekend on one page. The places that are listed are Natalie's ranks amongst the 9-year-olds. She also did well when compared to many of the 10-year-olds. Still, there were some really fast 9-year-olds there. It was good for Natalie to see that and to see that she still has some work to do.

One note--I had to miss her last race today because I had to go home, pick up Anthony, and take him to a Model UN meeting. I was sad that I couldn't be there, but at least Patrick taped the race so I was able to watch it later. She might have been able to do better, but her goggles apparently filled with water and she had trouble seeing. Still, her time and the rest of her times qualified her to go to a "B" meet. Her 50 yard freestyle was actually fast enough to take her a level up to a "BB" meet. I'm sure I'll become more familiar with all of these meets and levels and such in the coming months. For now, I have to say how proud I am of my little swimmer. She'll earn that name on her cap one day.

Chores for Eric

Eric has been helping with the chores lately. Here he is helping Natalie unload the dishwasher. He has also been helping to "fold" the laundry. I used the term "fold" very loosely, as he usually just makes the item of clothing smaller rather than actually making it neat. Alex has been encouraging him to help because Eric wants to earn an allowance, although he prefers getting toys like cars and dinosaurs because he doesn't really know what money is for anyway.

Tonight Alex tried to convince him that all the dinosaur shirts and sheets I got him recently count as his "allowance". That might take some convincing. One of these days, he'll know what money is for and maybe appreciate it. Until then, he'll keep asking for another car or dinosaur or other toy just because he doesn't already have that exact toy, even if he has thirty that are almost like it. Still, it's nice that he is getting used to the idea of doing chores.

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.