Random Cruise Photos

I've only done two cruise posts and I'm already losing steam! I've been fighting a cold/allergies that hit me as soon as we got back to Texas and I need more sleep! Because of that, I'm going to share just a few random photos and call it a blog post.

This first photos is of Natalie on the "Sky Course" with her Uncle John behind her. This was a rope course high above the rest of the ship. Shortly after I took this photo, they closed the course because of high winds. Actually, they stopped allowing more people to line up for the course before I took this picture because of high winds. Yes, even with that wind blowing right through her, she still carefully but fearlessly did the entire course. That trait definitely did not come from her mother.

When we docked at Nassau, The Bahamas, we went on a shore excursion to a beach called the Blue Lagoon. Everyone stayed on one side of the beach. This was the other side where people weren't allowed to go in the water because of the winds and waves. It was still gorgeous over there. The big boys discovered it when they were exploring and they wanted to show it to me because they thought I would want to take pictures. My boys know me!

This is a picture of Eric near the Sky Course I mentioned above. All he wanted to do was play on the iPad in the cabin. I wanted to watch Natalie and the others climb on the Sky Course, so I made him come outside with me. He was unhappy at first because he couldn't see the screen because it was so bright outside. Where there's a will there's a way, however.

That's another thing--Eric became obsessed with an app on the iPad called Scribblenauts Remix. Alex used to have that game on the Nintendo DS and now we have it on the iPad. One of the features of the game is that you can type an item in, complete with adjectives, and the game would create that item. So, what did Eric type? He typed items like "flying rainbow T Rex" and "gigantic triceratops". The amazing thing about that was that he learned how to spell all of those words all by himself. Those dinosaurs would have nothing to do with the game, but he liked playing with them once they were inserted into the game. Sometimes they would eat each other and end up as a piece of meat. I thought that was hilarious!

I did use some filters on this photo, but this was also from Nassau, The Bahamas as we were leaving the port. The water was amazingly beautiful. I think that was one of the best things about going on this cruise, seeing cool places we hadn't seen before and doing cool things we hadn't done before. More photos to follow this week!

Towel Animals

This is my very favorite photo from the whole vacation. One of the fun things that the cruise staff did for us was leave a different towel animal on our bed every night during the turn-down service. On this particular night, Eric made a comment about the towel dog and I asked him to pose like the dog. He has the most adorable expression on his face, doesn't he?

Eric and I tended to get up before everyone else, mostly because we went to bed before everyone else. We would go ahead and go to breakfast so we didn't wake anyone else up. One morning, we saw this sight at the pool area. Every lounge chair had a towel animal on it! They even had a towel animal floating in the middle of one of the pools.

Eric loved seeing this towel dinosaur, and of course, he had to pose with it! Yes, the smile is a bit cheesy, but I think he's adorable anyway.

We even went to a class on how to fold a towel animal. We made a dog first and then an elephant. This is a picture of Cynthia and John folding towels side-by-side. Patrick had to help Eric out. Melissa helped Emily. Natalie and Aly were able to fold the towels all by themselves. There were some extra staff on hand to help out once in a while. It was a really fun class. They were even selling a book on folding towel animals, with the proceeds going to charity.

We didn't save all of the towel animals, just the last few. On the last evening, they left a heart with chocolates inside. Eric wanted to get a picture with all of them. The elephant to his right is missing an eye. There is a different type of dog (than the one in the photo above) right in front of him. To his left is a stingray, and then of course, the heart. It's these little touches that made our week that much more fun.

Spring Break 2013

We just got back home today from our Spring Break cruise on the Carnival Magic. I will try to post at least one story a day on this blog. Today I want to talk about our first day, which was last Sunday, March 10th. We left San Antonio last Saturday and stayed at my Mom and Dad's house in Houston. We went to Galveston, Texas on Sunday morning. As you can see from this photo, it was an icky, cloudy, rainy day. We left earlier than we needed to, just in case the weather affected our driving time. We got to Galveston too early to try to get on the ship, so we drove around to the Seawall. Eric was fascinated with seeing the "ocean", but he was worried that he didn't see the ship that we were supposed to go on.

We're still not sure why it happened, but we were on our way back to the cruise terminal where we were supposed to check in for our cruise, when Eric suddenly started complaining about not feeling well. Luckily, I had plastic bags with me, because he started throwing up. A couple of drops fell on the carpet of the new van, but we were able to clean it fairly easily. We were already going to stop by Starbucks for my last fix before the trip, so we stopped there to let Eric's stomach calm down for a bit before proceeding to the cruise terminal. He got sick again in the evening during dinner, but thankfully, he was better after that.

There was a super long line of cars to drop off people and luggage. My sisters left after we did and we were closer, but they got to the cruise terminal before we did. We were all very happy to see each other. We were waiting around for John, Melissa, and Patrick to park the cars and get dropped off by the shuttle buses.

We were all looking forward to spending a lot of time together in the coming week. My sisters and I also applied our scopolamine patches (medication for seasickness). We were especially worried because of the windy, rainy weather. My niece Emily is also prone to motion sickness, so her mother put a half patch on her too. We were glad we had those patches, because even people who had been on a cruise before said that this one was pretty rough. The boat rocked quite a bit for most of the trip, and everyone had to be careful when going up and down the stairs especially, but luckily, none of us got sick.

This is a glimpse of our cabin on the ship. Eric got the top bunk and Anthony got the bottom bunk. Eric is so used to sleeping on the top bunk anyway. Alex slept next door with my sister Cynthia, her husband John, and their son Nick. We got to have the dividing barrier opened on our balcony so we could be free to go from one cabin to the other. All the girls were in my sister Melissa's room which was two cabins away from Cynthia's cabin. It wasn't as easy to go over there because of the cabin in between that belonged to someone else we didn't know. The big boys tended to hang out with each other, at least during the day.

My sister Melissa took this photo of the girls. They had two twin beds plus two bunks whereas Cynthia's and my rooms had a queen bed and two bunk beds. The girls were supposed to rotate beds so they would all have a chance to sleep in the twin bed and the bunk beds. They did have a few disagreements, but for the most part, they really enjoy each other's company. The cruise wouldn't have been as much fun without all our family around us.

The weather was mostly windy and in the low 70s, so it was a little too chilly for pool time. The kids took full advantage of the hot tubs, however, since those were warmer. I'll describe more of the rest of the trip this week.

Alamo Cup

Another three-day swim meet has come and go. I'm sure all of you are getting tired of reading about these as I am of documenting all of the results. I still would like to keep these results for the future, however, so here's a recap:

Friday
50 yard Freestyle personal best was 33.14 seconds--got 34.23 (+1.09)

Saturday
100 IM was 1:28.26--got 1:27.37 (-0.89)
100 yard Freestyle was 1:16.54--got 1:18.25 (+1.71)
100 yard Breaststroke was 1:48.01--got 1:46.01 (-2.24)

Sunday
200 yard Freestyle never swam before--got 2:48.44 (BB standard time)
50 yard Butterfly was 35.91--got disqualified but would have been 36.45 (more on this below)
50 yard Breaststroke was 47.19--got 49.51 (+2.32)

So, lots of ups and down this weekend. She started on a new team this week, Team Athens, with a new coach (Coach A.). Patrick saw him coach this week and remarked on how he was impressed with him. He was really looking at each swimmer individually and giving them individual attention and feedback. That's usually tough to do with a team of over 30 swimmers. Her previous coach, Coach Kris told her that it was like teaching a puppy to be good and then giving it away.

For the 200 yard Freestyle, Coach Kris was the one that signed her up for this event, so it was neat to see two coaches verbally rooting for her during her race. Natalie was very nervous about this because it was so long and she wasn't sure she could do it. Her friend Renzi came up to her before the race. Renzi gave her a shocked look when she said she hadn't yet competed in the 200 yard Freestyle. Renzi said that she first swam the 200 yard Freestyle when she was eight years old. I hope that gave Natalie and example that she could definitely swim this race at the ripe old age of ten.

For the 50 yard Butterfly, one of the officials said that she touched the wall with only one hand, and you're supposed to touch with two hands at the same time. Patrick said that she sometimes touches with two hands and then one hand. Since the officials look at more than one lane at a time, he may have only seen her touch with the one hand. She was crushed because she really thought she had a chance to get a better time in the Butterfly. That's also her favorite stroke and she gets more emotional when she does really well or really badly. Her friend Aspen was swimming in the lane next to her and did well. Natalie was also hoping to do well. Oh well, there's always the next meet.

For the 50 yard Breaststroke, she had improved so much in her time yesterday with the 100 yard Breaststroke, so she was expecting a lot today. Pretty much any time she adds time to her personal best now, she is reduced to tears. With this one today, she told Patrick that she felt like she was going so fast but she still didn't do as well as she did before. She really wants to do well in this stroke, but she feels frustrated when her times don't improve. She is in such a hurry to improve, but everything takes time.

She was asked to be in a relay in the TAGS swim meet to be held in the Woodlands (near Houston) this coming week/weekend even though she doesn't have any times as fast as the TAGS standards. We had to turn it down because we couldn't go to the meet. One of the main coaches that assigns the relays asked Patrick when Natalie turns 11. When Patrick told him Natalie would turn 11 in August, the coach said to put the Summer TAGS meet on our schedule, because he felt that Natalie would qualify by then. He knows that good things will come with time. Hopefully Natalie will remember that.

Dress-Up

Natalie has another swim meet this weekend. I'll recap that tomorrow. Because we were at the swim meet all morning, I didn't get to see much of Eric. When I got home, I found Eric in the game room watching a dinosaur show on the iPad, of course. I asked him if his big brothers had ignored him all morning. He told me that he didn't say anything to them (probably because he was playing on the iPad). Poor thing! He's happy enough on the iPad, but his big brothers are usually doing their own thing and leaving him to fend for himself.

Later in the afternoon, he was wearing one of the foam dinosaur masks that I had bought for him a few months ago. He also showed me another dinosaur mask, a plastic one that used to belong to Alex. He then put the second mask over the first one. Alex walked over to us wearing a bunch of different parts of costumes and other dress-up stuff. Of course I wanted to take a picture and at first Alex didn't want to let me, but then he decided it was okay and I took this wonderful picture of Alex and Eric.

Eric then wanted to put on all of the stuff that Alex had on, especially the Hulk Hand. He took everything off Alex and started putting a few things on. Then, Alex decided to help him put on pretty much all of the stuff that he had been wearing. I love this picture because it shows Alex interacting with his little brother. Dare I say that he was "playing" with his little brother?

This is the final result. I'm not sure what the story is behind the peace sign that Eric keeps doing in these pictures, but it's cute, just like many of the things Eric does.

We went to the mall shortly after these photos were taken. Eric continued to wear the Triceratops mask in the mall while he was walking around. Being a five-year-old can be fun. You get to get dressed up in costumes whenever you want and no one cares. In this case, he got his big brother to play with him instead of leaving him to fend for himself. As their mom, I think that's cool!

New Situations

I was trying to post more to this blog, but we've had some new schedules to get adjusted to. Last week, on Wednesday, February 20th, Alex started Track and Field practice after school. It's nice that he is involved in something active once again. He himself admitted that he is out of shape. He was so sore for the first couple of days that he could barely go up the stairs. He turned down our offer of ibuprofen, but he must have been worse off on Friday, because he gladly accepted the ibuprofen. It's also nice that his coach told him that with some training, he could be really good at running the 400 meters. Alex needs encouragement and I liked that he actually accepted someone's compliment.

Also scheduled for last Wednesday was a meeting in the evening for Alex to choose his classes next year. He'll be going to the same magnet school that Anthony goes to now. One of the teachers actually told Alex that he didn't look as "nerdy" as his older brother. That was something that Alex enjoyed hearing. Anthony himself admitted that was the case. Again, it was nice that Alex was able to accept a compliment.

Patrick and I spent a few hours on Friday looking at cars at a local Toyota dealership. I was on call for 24 hours on Saturday, so that took up a lot of my weekend. Finally with lots of problems on the part of the dealership in obtaining the colors that Patrick and I both wanted, I finally got my new red Toyota Highlander Limited on Tuesday. Patrick got his new green Toyota Sienna XLE yesterday. He had to be the one to get all of the paperwork filled out and signed, since I was at work. Excuse the mess in our garage, but I had to take a picture of the cars side-by-side. I took a similar picture last week of our "old" cars side-by-side in the garage. We traded in Patrick's Honda Odyssey because it had over 120,000 miles on it, despite being just under 6 years old. We would have had to have a lot of work done if we had kept it. We kept my Lexus RX 330, because even at over 100,000 miles and being over 9 years old, we haven't had any problems with it at all. The Blue Book value was about what we would have spent for a car for Anthony to drive, and at least we knew the history of this well-loved, well-used car.

This week, the younger three kids have had early dismissal from school for parent-teacher conferences. Alex still had after school track practice but then he waited at a friend's house until Anthony could pick him up. On Monday, Anthony drove Alex to school for the first time without his parents in the car. We were at home nervously awaiting Anthony's text that he had parked in the school parking lot, safe and sound. That evening, Anthony and Alex texted that they were on their way home, but that they were going to drop by HEB first. This is what they came home with--junk food. I had to laugh because that was so typical of my boys to get junk food. They hadn't eaten dinner yet, of course, so of course they were hungry. We have a lot of new situations to get used to this past week, thankfully they're mostly good!

Our New Driver

This post is a bit late in coming (sorry Melanie) but my dear wife wanted me to post a bit about Anthony's driver's test which was almost 2 weeks ago.

Anthony was not in much of a hurry to get his driver's license at first, but after a bit, he really wanted it. I made the mistake of trying to put the personal responsibility for signing up for driver's education on him. I learned from other parents that this was not the way to go, but by then it was a bit too late and we ended up doing "parent taught" driver's education. This was in part due to all of his activities keeping him from being able to take any sort of regular driver's education class.
It took us a long time to get his driving hours in. This was largely because of the large number of activities he participates in. Then there is the fact that he goes to a magnet high school and the trip to school takes us over a very busy stretch of freeway at some of the worst times of day. Once we found the time to get some driving in, he quickly got to the point that we were confident enough to have him drive back and forth to school. After we felt he was safe enough on the freeway, it was time to go ahead and take the test.

After some snafus, Anthony didn't get a piece of paperwork from his school so he could take the test over Christmas Break, we finally got a test scheduled and I simply picked him up from school to take his test. It is incredibly inconvenient that testing times are only during school hours. I was pleasantly surprised that we really didn't have to wait long, Anthony even started his test shortly before his appointed time. After doing some paperwork we went out and Anthony parked the van along a chain-link fence behind another driver to wait for someone to give him the test. The woman that came out to give the test ahead of him, was pleasant, good humored, and seemed to be in a good mood--not really certain what she was doing working for the DMV. I was surprised at this and had high hopes that Anthony would also have a pleasant tester, this was NOT to be the case. The woman that came out for Anthony looked angry and unpleasant. Then the father of the boy she just failed came out to speak to her. We could hear her tell him that the boy was speeding in a school zone (automatic failure). Then after she spent some time talking to them, and getting in an even worse mood, it was time for Anthony's test. I could tell Anthony was nervous before she even got into the van.

I watched Anthony pull away to the area where they do the parallel parking, an activity used so often that they have to set up their own special area to test it because there is no where nearby. He clearly had problems with the parallel parking. My thought while watching was, "oh, well, looks like we come back and test again." Time went by as I waited for their return, and finally I saw him pulling the van in and parking. I walked out to the parking lot to greet him, and saw a very animated dialogue from his tester so I held back, quite certain that he failed at this point. Then they got out of the car and she said, "He did a good job, but was clearly nervous." --He passed! Honestly, I was surprised, and very happy for him. Later I told him that I was very impressed he could pass with a tester that was so ... "happy."

It took us little time to take advantage of having a new driver. Letting him take his brother to a movie and pick him up afterwards, and this week he has even driven his brother and another boy to school. Yesterday when the boys came home they stopped at HEB to buy themselves some junk food and relish in their new-found freedom. I am still nervous every time he drives off, but I suppose that will fade with time. Today, I brought home a new car for my lovely wife, something I am sure she will post about on her own. This means that now we have 3 cars, so I suppose we will have to loosen the chains even more and let him start driving himself back and forth to school.

"A" Championships Days 2 and 3

Natalie is starting to have little routines before she swims in a race. She usually cracks all her joints, including her neck. Today she started stretching and jumping up and down as well as shaking her arms and legs individually. That's all well and good, but what has also developed as a routine, at least for the meet this weekend, has been the tears and disappointment after almost each race. Frankly, this behavior stresses me out.

Yesterday she swam in the 100 yard backstroke and the 50 yard butterfly. She added time to her previous personal best in both. This meet has so many really fast swimmers, so swimming slower than her personal best didn't make the cut. At least she was able to qualify for the consolation final for the 100 yard backstroke--14th place out of 25 swimmers. She was still not happy and was still pouting before her next race. For the 50 yard butterfly, she already started 27th out of 27 before the race, but after the race, she dropped to 35th place. She was inconsolable. Finally, Patrick and I had to be completely straight with her. It was okay to be disappointed, but it was not okay to let it affect your other races. She agreed, but it will take time.

We had a little break before coming back to swim in the 100 yard backstroke final. She got to rest at home and play on her Kindle. For the final, she came in second in the consolation final, for a 10th place overall. With a time of 1:19.32, she dropped almost one second off her previous best (1:20.18). At least she was not unhappy. She felt much better--still disappointed that she didn't do "better", but at least satisfied that she had a new personal best.

Today, Natalie's only individual event was the 100 yard butterfly. She was seeded 20th out of 21 with a time of 1:24.98, so I warned her not to expect too much. Her time was barely an "A" time, and all of the other swimmers had "AA" and "AAA" standard times. Of course, even if she knew that, she didn't feel that way when she came in dead last, over six seconds over her personal best (1:31.74). She placed 20th out of 20, just because one of the swimmers was sick and didn't swim.

The saving grace today was her friend Devin. Devin came to visit partly to support Natalie, but also to sell girl scout cookies. Natalie hung out with her after the race. She chatted and she got to laugh with her friend. In the meantime, four of the swimmers dropped out, probably because this was the last day of the meet and they were from out of town and wanted to go ahead and head home. That meant that Natalie would again get to come back in the evening for the third day and swim in a consolation final. She had another chance to improve her time.

She also swam in the 200 yard Medley relay, with three girls that she already knew and could chat with while they awaited their turn. During her leg, doing the 50 yard butterfly, she did very well. It wasn't her personal best, but at least she showed that she could swim an "A" standard time in the 50 yard butterfly again. Her mood was lifted again, and so was mine.

For the 100 yard butterfly consolation final, she came in last again, but she had a slightly better time than her previous personal best (1:24.95). She was in better spirits, thank goodness. We got to go on our now traditional post-meet dinner at Panera Bread followed by a trip for ice cream at Brindles. She's looking forward to a day off tomorrow, and so am I. Patrick and I logged in about 18 hours of volunteer time during this meet, but even the long hours were less tiring than our daughter's emotional roller coaster. We ALL get a day off tomorrow from that.

"A" Championships Day 1

How do you teach your child how to balance a drive to succeed with having realistic expectations? Patrick and I struggled with this today, the first day of the "A" Championships. Natalie only had one race today, the 50 yard backstroke. She hasn't competed in this event since December and she went in seeded 24th out of 32 with a time of 37.54 seconds. Most of the swimmers that were seeded in front of her had much faster times. We told her not to expect too much. They expected 744 swimmers at this meet, including many teams from out of town. That's a lot of swimmers, and many would be much faster than her.

After she swam in the third heat this morning, she didn't know what her time was. The touchpad had failed or she did not touch it in the right place, because the scoreboard didn't display a time or a placement for her. When the results came out online, we found out that her time was 37.15 seconds and that she was 16th out of 32. That meant that she qualified to swim in the consolation final held this evening. She was not happy, even though she improved her time by 0.39 seconds. In fact, she was disappointed and on the verge of tears.

I kept trying to reassure her that at least she qualified to swim this evening and that she would have another chance to improve her time. She pessimistically replied that she would also have another chance to add time. Patrick tried to tell her that she is getting so fast that she shouldn't expect to drop seconds off her time anymore. She should expect improvement only in small increments. We think she set out to prove him wrong.

Swimming in the consolation final means that no matter how fast you are, you aren't going to place in the top 8 and therefore not get a ribbon or medal. She finished first in the consolation final with a time of 35.34 seconds. She had dropped 2.2 seconds off her seeded time. You'd better bet she was happy with that. Never mind that she had the third best time in the 10 and under category. If she had qualified in the top 8 and been able to swim in the final, she would have gotten third place and a bronze medal. She didn't seem to mind. She had an "A" Standard time coming into this meet and now she has a "AA" Standard time. Now she has set her goal for the 50 yard backstroke at 34.59 seconds, which is a TAGS Standard time. That's less than one second away, after all.

So, how do you teach your child how to balance a drive to succeed with having realistic expectations? Patrick and I still don't know the answer to that question.

Smart Kids

I've been writing a lot about Natalie and Anthony's achievements lately. I want to give some time to Eric and Alex. We got a letter today telling us that Eric qualified for the Gifted and Talented (GT) program. I know that even if he hadn't made it, we would still be proud of him. After all, GT is only one class, a couple of hours a week. We already know he is a smart kid. What makes this cool is that his GT teacher has also taught his other three siblings. It's amazing to think that Anthony was in her class back in 2002. She still remembers him, too. When Alex found out, he gave Eric a high five, and he told Eric to tell the GT teacher that "Alex and Anthony said 'Hi'." Eric had the biggest smile on his face and he was giggling. He thinks it's cool too that he'll have the same teacher as the rest of his siblings!

Alex also applied to a several of magnet high schools, and he got accepted to both. He has decided to accept the position at the same magnet school that Anthony currently attends. We're excited for him because this magnet school has been very good for Anthony and we're sure it will also be good for Alex. Most importantly, Alex seems to be excited about attending that school.

We always want the kids to be excited about school. It is much easier to learn when they are excited, and it is much easier for us to get them to do their homework.

Valentine's Prep

The younger two kids get a Valentine's Day party tomorrow. I never like to give kids too much candy, and those parties always end up giving the kids too much candy. This year, when Natalie and I were shopping, we decided to get these Skittles boxes where you could put a label on the Skittles bag and use that for your Valentines. That way they get just a little bit of candy plus the Valentine. Eric started writing his name on his labels this past weekend. He finished up today then started applying all the stickers. I let him do that all by himself. I've let go of perfection--his labels were not applied neatly or even straight, but he enjoyed doing them himself. That's what counts.

This is what they looked like. His teacher requested that he only put his name on the "To" portion of his Valentines. That way they could distribute the Valentines more quickly, not worrying about which one went to which kid.

Natalie has the same Skittles bags, but she didn't label hers at all. Her teacher said that he wasn't allowed to give out a list of all the kids' names? I've never heard of that before. I have a picture of the list that was posted on his door during the Meet the Teachers night in August. Natalie's been too busy to use that list. She's fine with just giving out the candy anyway, but I probably could have spent less money on regular Skittles bags.

Tonight I've also been making Red Velvet Cupcakes for the kiddos to eat tomorrow. I even made some Cream Cheese Frosting, although I think I should have just bought some. Frosting is not my forte. I hope the kids enjoy them. Happy Valentine's Day!

Oh, and two more things. Anthony got a letter yesterday saying that he qualified to be a National Merit Scholarship Finalist. As to whether or not he actually gets some scholarship money from that is still to be decided. Today, he finally tested for his driver's license. Patrick will have to do a blog post on more details, but Anthony passed. We added him to our insurance tonight. The next bill will be scary--as will the first time we let him go driving completely on his own.

Build It

There was a special activity today at the local Witte Museum with "hands-on science and techy fun". The flyer said "Delve into wondrous inventions, engaging engineering, and exciting technologies. Join us to discover these and other exciting hands-on activities brought to you by local engineers and scientists." This also included students from local technological high schools. Alex wasn't interested, so Patrick and I only took Natalie and Eric. The first table that they spent a lot of time at was of course, the Lego table. Natalie built a bus and Eric built a house with a garden. If that seems unusual for Eric, it was mostly because there were some plant-type Legos already on a baseplate and he just continued with it. We don't have anything like that, only regular Legos and Dinosaur Legos, so this was different for him.

It was a drizzly, misty day, but we went ahead and checked out some of the outdoor activities. There was a table where they had pieces of egg cartons with each egg holder cut apart. You could put together a "boat" with however many egg holders you chose, taped and wrapped up with tin foil. There was a kiddie pool nearby where you could see if your boat floated. They then had marbles that you could put in your boat to see how much it could hold. It was a simple exercise, but the hands-on part of it was something the kids really enjoyed.

Eric's favorite part was building a rocket out of construction paper, including the fins and the cone part at the top, and launching it using an air compressor. This is Eric with his safety goggles on, about to hit the button to launch his rocket. His rocket flew up pretty high--hopefully Patrick was able to capture it on video. Natalie also built a rocket, but for some reason, she wasn't interested in launching it. One of the guys that had put this event together was there and seemed disappointed that we couldn't see how high her rocket could fly.

Natalie and Eric each also took a turn steering this robot. Natalie had a heavy hand at times and the robot's "handlers" had to stand in front of it to keep it from going too far too fast. Eric was a bit more controlled, maybe because he was more hesitant.

This is probably as good a time as any to mention the "geek classes" that Natalie and Eric are wearing in the different pictures. They were giving out "geek glasses" along with stickers that said "Geeks Rule". They were basically regular plastic rimmed glasses (with plastic lenses) with tape applied to the nose bridge. Natalie liked the glasses so much that she wore them the whole time plus she asked for and received three more pairs that she planned on giving to three of her friends tonight. She is currently at a sleepover and presumably having fun (with or without the glasses).

The Witte Museum will be unveiling a new special exhibit in two weeks called "Dinosaurs Unearthed". Because they are in the process of putting together the displays, there were these walled off areas in the museum with teaser signs about the upcoming exhibit. My dinosaur-crazy five-year-old had to pose in front of one of the signs. He also got a little excited when one of the men helping with the rocket launching said that he was a "dinosaur paleontologist" by trade. This was a fun day for Eric and Natalie but they will both be even more excited two weeks from now when the dinosaur exhibit opens!

Ubiquitous

Last night, Patrick took Natalie to swim practice, and that left Eric with me. We picked up Anthony from school at a little after 7pm. He didn't have after school soccer practice, but he stayed after school anyway to work on his Model UN stuff with his partner delegate. Alex had also stayed after school to watch the Girls' Basketball games, so we picked him up after picking up Anthony.

Eric was getting tired, so he did his usual complaining that his back was hot, so Alex tried to distract him with a game looking for the letters of the alphabet on signs and on license plates during the drive home. At first Eric didn't want to participate, but then eventually he did. They got stuck on "Q" so they started saying everything with a "Q" in front of it, like "Queric", "Qualex", and "Qanthony". It was actually Anthony's idea to do this, and it was wonderful to hear the boys all getting along so well, laughing together. We arrived home and suddenly, I heard Eric say "ubiquitous". He was across the room, and I couldn't hear him very well. I thought I must have misheard, so I asked him what he had said. He said "ubiquitous" again. Alex looked bewildered and said "I don't even know what that means." I think (I hope) Alex was half kidding. I posted this to Facebook saying that I didn't even know where Eric might have heard that word. Dawn, one of our neighbors who is active in the PTA, replied that "ubiquitous" was from the "Seven Habits" that they learn , as in be a leader "everywhere all the time." I guess Eric has been paying attention at school!

Eric's Last Basketball Game

I mentioned in a previous post that I still have to post about Eric's last basketball game of the season, which took place on January 26th. He actually touched the ball in that game. Woohoo! He isn't very aggressive in basketball, and in fact, he seems to just watch all the other kids handle the ball. This time, though, he saw an opportunity when a kid from the other team didn't have control over the ball and Eric was the closest one. He didn't seem to hesitate at all. He grabbed the ball and started dribbling down the court. As you can probably tell from this picture, he doesn't dribble very well, and eventually lost control of the ball himself.

I had not taken a photo of Eric in his basketball uniform, so I took one after his last game was finished. He wears his soccer shirt underneath, as do many of his teammates. The basketball is labeled for the local team, the San Antonio Spurs. I quickly took this photo and he was off running again, eager to get his post-game treat. One of the mom's also brought an extra treat bag for all the kids in honor of their last game. They're at that age where they love those post-game treats. Oh, and they won this game 6-2.

There was a sign-up for track recently, but we decided to skip that sport. We're going to take a little "break" and start back up again when baseball starts.

Shopping With Anthony

Alex wanted to go to the mall again today, to meet up with his friends. Anthony is going to Chicago this coming week for a Model UN Meeting. He'll be gone from Thursday until Sunday. Patrick suggested that he go with me to get some dress shirts and such that he can wear on his trip, so I took Anthony shopping. Never mind that it would have been more convenient if I could have taken them both at the same time.

We went to JCPenney first, and all he got was a tie and a belt. I didn't remember until after we went to Macy's that we had bought his black dress shirt (that Alex liked so much and wore last week) at Macy's instead of JCPenney, or we would have gone to Macy's first. He didn't like the fit of any of the shirts at JCPenney. I don't really like going to Macy's because you never know when their sale is really a sale. They have so many "sales" and they change their regular prices all the time. They had another one of those "sales" today, with an additional 20% discount if you're wearing red. I was, of course, wearing red. Anthony settled on a particular brand of shirt that happened to be on sale for $24 after all the discounts, so he bought three of them. He also bought three more ties, one to match each new shirt. We happened to see the exact shirt that we bought for him last time, so I went ahead and bought Alex one so they didn't have to fight over who would get to wear it. That was on "sale" for $39, which was cheaper than when I bought it for Anthony.

Next, we went to the Gap because Anthony liked some of their T-shirts there that he liked to wear as undershirts. Whenever he wants to go to the Gap, there's never a sale, and there is always a sale at the Gap. I usually have no choice but to go ahead and buy him the stuff he wants because I know that when there's a sale, we won't be able to go for some reason or other. We bought him three T-shirts and dress socks. He should be all set for his trip. I thought Alex was a super shopper. I bought way more stuff for Anthony during this trip. When Alex heard how much stuff we bought, he said, "Whoa, I didn't buy that much when we went shopping. Mama, will you take me shopping again?" Sigh. I'm sure I'll have to take Alex shopping again soon.

Shopping with Alex and Eric

We actually had a "free" day this weekend--Saturday. Eric had his last basketball game, which I'll do a blog post on later, and we had nothing else planned. Of course, we always find something to fill up our "free" days.

Natalie got invited to see a play with some friends. Her friend's mom picked her up and everything. Alex wanted to go to the mall to go shopping, so I went back to the scene of the crime--North Star Mall. I haven't been back there since that fateful night of December 1st. Lastly, we attended the Quinceanera in the evening--more on that later.

First, I'm going to describe our shopping trip. Eric wanted to go with Alex and me, of course. Anthony had homework and Patrick stayed home until Natalie could be picked up for the play. Alex specifically wanted to buy shoes for himself (i.e., with his own money). This time I was able to convince him to start comparison shopping before going out to buy shoes. He looked at a couple of places online the day before, so when he found the white Sperry Topsiders he wanted, he bought them for what he thought was a good price. He also wanted "dressier" jeans or khaki-colored type jeans that he could wear instead of the conventional khakis as part of his uniform for school. Lastly, we looked for a dressy-type button down shirt that he could wear to the Quinceanera that evening. This last part was quite painful because Alex took forever just to try one the four shirts that he brought into the dressing room, but I really only got to see him in one of the shirts before he decided he was done trying on shirts.

Eric got to go to his favorite store, the Disney Store, and eat at one of his favorite places to eat, Wendy's. After that, he didn't mind walking around and he even carried Alex's bag for a bit. He enjoys  hanging out with his big brothers and he loves to go shopping. He started to get tired, though, even lying down on some chairs at the mall and complaining that his feet hurt. In the end, I had to break down and allow him to play Angry Birds Rio on my iPhone. He was sprawled on the carpet in the men's department at JCPenney, comfortable and happy.

This is the only photo I took of the Quinceanera. It was held at the downtown area that used to be Pearl Brewery. Estelle was part of the carpool to Alex's school for the last two years with her younger brother, who is in Alex's grade. She is now a freshman in high school and turning fifteen. The "Quinceanera" is a special celebration of the fifteenth birthday for girls with Hispanic backgrounds, like a "Sweet Sixteen" party. There were mostly adults at the party, but I could see Estelle's touch in the decorations, food choices, and entertainment. This was the candy table. They had a selection of candies with a sign that told you to fill a little bag. They also had fresh-popped popcorn and cotton candy. We brought a bunch of this home for the kiddos. Eric and Natalie really enjoyed these treats.

I know that Alex's eyes are closed in this picture, but I didn't realize it at the time and I didn't think he would want multiple photos taken. Only Patrick, Alex, and I went to this party. Alex ended up wearing Anthony's shirt. I described that shopping trip in a previous post. It figures that he would like the same $45 shirt that his brother wanted, instead of the $20 shirts that he had tried on. Patrick and I thought he looked really good dressed up like that and we were happy that he wanted a dressy shirt like that for his own. I really wanted a picture with my good-looking son, but next time, hopefully he won't have his eyes closed. :)

Midweek Updates

I haven't been so good about updating during the week. First, I have to talk about this picture of Eric. Alex does this same little "trick" about putting tissue in his nose so he won't have to keep blowing his nose. Eric used the "trick" here so he wouldn't have to use his hands. His hands are busy playing on the iPad. He's been obsessed with Angry Birds game lately. Angry Birds Rio was free in the App Store last week and when I told him that I got the game for him, he was all atwitter with excitement until I allowed him to play it. I've missed Eric's basketball games the last couple of weekends because I've been with Natalie at her swim meets. His last basketball game is this coming Saturday. After that, we're not sure yet if we'll sign him up for track or baseball.

I also have to put this picture in here. I posted photos on Facebook of the dinosaur egg that Grandma gave Eric for Christmas, but I didn't post them here on the blog. The dinosaur hatched out of the egg, but when we took him out of the water, he shrank back down again (see "before" or left-hand photo). We put him in a glass of water overnight and he got bigger again (see "after" or right-hand photo). The dinosaur is still in the glass right now because Eric wants him to be bigger.

I've been talking a lot about Natalie but not so much about the other kids. Anthony has been playing in high school soccer games at least twice during the week (Tues/Wed and Fri) and then at least a couple on the weekend. The first week of school back from Christmas Break, he also had a Model UN Conference in town, so he missed a couple days of school because of that. He had a ton of homework that first weekend, and he had a lot of homework this past weekend too. His hard work has been paying off, though. Last week we found out that he has moved up from the #3 spot in his class to the #2 spot! That's out of a class of 591!

Alex has been doing well also. He did well on the last report card, just like the other three. He doesn't have soccer this season, so he's had more time to do his homework, as well as plenty of game time on the PS3. Notice the shoes in the photo above. He takes care of his shoes, cleaning them and changing out the laces. We might not like the way he dresses, but he has a definite sense of style.

He has spent the night at a friend's house a couple of days on the weekend, so much so that we're feeling guilty that his friend's parents have to keep feeding him. They don't seem to mind, thank goodness. He's much better about doing chores and accepting our restrictions than he used to be. I've been picking him up from the bus stop almost every afternoon and I like that he is a little more chatty with me when it's just the two of us in the car together.

BB Championships Part 2

This picture is our "setup" at the meet today. The Palo Alto Natatorium is large with plenty of seating, so we took the opportunity to spread out. Notice Natalie hiding behind her Starbucks cup. It has become our pre-swim meet ritual to get her a Double Chocolaty Chip Frappucino and an Old-Fashioned Doughnut from Starbucks. Notice the lunch bag with drinks and snacks, including the new Dole Fruit Smoothie Shakers. Natalie loves smoothies, and this one we can bring along. There were also sandwiches, one turkey, salami, and cheese one for me and one peanut butter and jelly sandwich for her. That used to be her favorite, but she didn't end up eating it. She strongly preferred picking up something on the way home--Popeye's spicy chicken tenders. Also notice the red bag which contained her Kindle Fire HD and my iPad, along with a few other snacks. Those didn't really get eaten today either because we went home between the morning session and the evening session. That worked out better for Natalie. Even the girl who gave up naps when she was two years old took a nap today.

The big news for us today was that Natalie not only beat her previous time (37.00 sec) on the 50 yard butterfly, she got an "A" standard time to boot. In the prelims she had a time of 36.19 seconds for a first place finish in her heat and a second place finish overall. In the finals, she brought her time down even farther, to 35.91 seconds and a first place finish. She out-touched second place by 0.08 seconds, followed by third place by 0.04 seconds, and followed by fourth place by 0.02 seconds. I realize just now as I'm looking this stuff up for this blog post that it was a tight finish. Good thing they used electronic touch pads. Needless to say, it was an exciting but definitely satisfying finish. She came from behind as she usually does. Patrick and her coach have both told her that if her starts were better, she would do even better. For today, she is definitely satisfied with the results. She gets a gold medal!

I'll just recap the rest of the day. She swam in the 100 yard freestyle and brought her time down from 1:18.20 to 1:16.81 in the prelims  (15th place) and down to 1:16.54 in the finals (13th place) for a total drop of 1.66 seconds. She swam in the 200 yard IM and brought her time down from 3:16.61 to 3:11.23 in the prelims for a total drop of 5.38 seconds. She placed 13th and made the finals but we decided to "scratch" that race so we could go home earlier plus it was unlikely that she was going to get much lower than that without some additional work. She was actually disappointed with that time because she really wanted to get a better time. She is much harder on herself that we are.

One more piece of good news, though, is that she was in the 200 yard Medley relay swimming the butterfly and her team placed first. The second place team's butterfly person was quickly catching up to her, but she managed to hold her off and the person who swam the last leg (freestyle) won the race. Lots of excitement, and lots of time spent at the Palo Alto Natatorium. We plan on relaxing tomorrow. Thank goodness we've got a holiday from school and work.

BB Championships Part 1

We had our longest swim meet day ever! The format of this swim meet included preliminary races AND finals. That meant that if you were in the top 18 (two heats of 8 swimmers plus two alternates), you came back in the evening to swim the finals. The only other experience I can compare this too was with watching the Olympics. The swimmers then would swim in preliminary heats and then they would come back and swim the finals for medals. So, we had mixed feelings about this. Natalie doing well meant that we had to stay longer.

This picture is Natalie's first relay team while swimming for AAAA. She was put in the 200 yard freestyle relay. It's always a great experience to swim a relay, and Natalie makes friends so easily that as soon as she met these girls she was chatting away with them. They won first place amongst the four relay teams for girls 10 and under. They were supposed to be the "B" team because their times going into this meet were slower than the "A" team. Well, they beat the "A" team by 0.14 seconds (2:08.70).

Natalie swam in two individual events today, the 50 yard freestyle and the 100 yard butterfly. She about equaled her previous best 50 yard freestyle time (33.14) with a time of 33.15 sec. That was good enough to 9th place but because someone dropped out of the finals, she got to move up to the 8th spot in the finals, meaning she got to swim in the fastest heat. She got 7th place in the Girls' 10 and under 50 yard freestyle with a time of 33.30. She was disappointed that she added time to her personal best, but that's all part of the learning process.

The exciting part of the day was when she swam in the preliminary heats for the Girls' 10 and under 100 yard Butterfly. She shattered her previous time of 1:33.48 by swimming 8.5 seconds faster with a time of 1:24.98! She was so happy that she was crying when I saw her. I've never seen her cry from being happy before, so I was a bit tentative. I had to ask her if she was crying because she was happy, just to make sure. That time gives her an "A" time (up from "BB") so she can swim that event in the upcoming A Championships next month. She was a little disappointed that she got third place in the finals with a little time added back on (1:25.31), but once again, she is much harder on herself that we can ever be.

So, that meant two events that occurred very early in the day. Patrick missed both because he was taking Anthony to school for a soccer tournament, taking Alex to spend the night over at a friend's house, and then taking Eric to his basketball game. We could have left at that time (just after 10 am), but we had to wait to swim the relay, which was one of the last three events and didn't occur until after 12:30. The afternoon warmups were at 4pm with the finals starting at 5pm. We ended up just staying there because we wouldn't have had more than two hours at home with the 30-minute plus drive one way.

Thank goodness they had free Wifi there! Patrick dropped Eric off so he could go to Anthony's two games (at 11am and 3pm). Eric was on the iPad pretty much the whole time, either playing Angry Birds Rio or watching an animated show called Dino Squad. Natalie played with her Kindle Fire and one of the iPads. This long day really wore all of us out, especially all that waiting in between events. We'll be back again tomorrow.

B Championships

We had yet another swim meet this weekend. Swimmers in this one had "B" standard times for all of the events. There were three sessions, one on Saturday morning, one on Saturday evening, and one on Sunday morning. Natalie only had one event per session, with her events occurring early on, so we didn't have to stay too long each time. This is a picture from Saturday evening. Eric came with us and he was busy with the iPad for most of the time. Patrick had gone to Anthony's soccer game (tournament) and had to meet us at the pool.

Eric is sitting with the brother of one of Natalie's friends. Lucas was also busy with his iPad. At one point Eric was just too tired and he started crying when the iPad turned off, its battery totally drained. That signaled that it was time to go. Luckily, Natalie was done swimming. We had only stayed to watch one of her friends swim.

This is Natalie with one of her friends on her team (Team Sidney). Devin is also 10 and sat with us for much of the meet. They swam together in adjacent lanes for the 50 yard Breaststroke. As they were swimming, we could all see that Natalie kept checking out where Devin was in the lane next to her. Devin's dad (who helps run the whole swim program) gave Natalie some advice after the race, "Don't check out your competition, let your competition check you out." Natalie had started out ahead but Devin caught up and both tied for first place in their heat and second place overall. Both knocked off over two seconds from their seeded times. The parents and coaches all agreed that they both pushed each other, and that was a good thing.

This is Natalie showing one of the two second place medals that she received this weekend. She got second place for her 100 yard IM (1:28.26) and 50 yard Breaststroke (47.19 sec). The last time she swam in the 100 yard IM was in August, and she dropped 12 seconds from that time! She now has "BB" standard times in both of those events. She also swam in the 100 yard Breaststroke and got a time of 1:48.25 for a sixth place finish amongst 10 year old girls. She was upset after that race, despite dropping two seconds from her previous time. She was hoping for another "BB" standard time, but she still has another three seconds to go. She really is harder on herself than we could ever be. We talked about how it's okay to push yourself, but you also put it all in perspective. She dropped all of her times this weekend by at least two seconds.

We have another swim meet next weekend, the "BB Championships". Patrick and I are continuously amazed with how well Natalie is doing in swimming. We just hope that she can be as proud of herself as we are of her.

2013 Title Page

I don't scrapbook at all anymore. My last page was early last year. One page that I will still keep doing, however, will be my "title page" for each year. The kids fuss about it, and the photo I get in front of our Christmas tree isn't usually very good because of the lighting, but I like to have this photo and page to compare the kids' growth from year to year.

This year I can tell that my scrapbooking skills are getting rusty, but the basic info is there. The ink I chose to stamp the kids' handprints with wasn't very dark, so I embossed it. Last week I showed Anthony how to stamp a title. He was making an album for a good friend. Both he and Alex were amazed by the embossing process and how it makes the image raised, shiny, and a little more pronounced than before the embossing. I was happy to show them what I could do and I was happy to use some of my neglected supplies.

In case you want to compare the stats below to last year's stats, here's the link to my 2012 Title Page. Their current measurements, as of January 5th, 2013 are as follows:

Anthony 142 lbs., 70 3/4 in.
Alex 133.5 lbs., 69 1/2 in.
Natalie 83.5 lbs., 56 in.
Eric 38.5 lbs., 42.5 in.

Notice that Anthony was supposedly 71 inches last year. I doubt that he has started shrinking already, but that could definitely be an error in measurement. Alex and Natalie each grew about 3 inches and Eric grew 2 inches. It may not seem like it, but Eric did gain some weight, as did all of them.

So there you have it--proof in writing that my children are still growing. That's a good thing.

Eric Basketball Update

I wanted to give a little update on how Eric is doing with basketball. These photos are from today's game, the first one after the holiday hiatus. The first photo is a little blurry because my shutter speed wasn't high enough, but I wanted to show a shot of Eric almost touching the ball. He doesn't touch the ball very much. Most of the time he just runs back and forth across the court. He stands firm, raises his arms in the air, and watches the ball change hands from team to team.

You can almost see him wincing in this photo because the basketball is nearby. Notice that the basketball is in the upper part of the frame. His team, in general, seems to be getting better. His team won this game, by the way, 2-0. Yes, that means that we scored once, but the other team didn't score at all. They still have trouble getting the ball through the hoop, but a couple of them tried very hard today and got lots of attempts. Some of them actually played defense today, very encouraging.

Do we wish Eric played basketball a little better? Sure. Do we wish Eric paid a little more attention during the game instead of daydreaming? Of course. Look at this sweet face. He saw me taking pictures a couple of times and he looked right at me. I was half expecting him to wave "hi" to me, too. He is having fun playing basketball, and he doesn't realize he doesn't play it well. Having fun is what matters. We love that he loves playing basketball and that's he's having fun.

Electronic New Year

Happy New Year! We visited my family for New Year's and we got back on New Year's Day. We took this photo on New Year's Day, at the request of my parents. As usual, there is a back story. My parents had asked for a photo of them with the grandkids back on Thanksgiving, but we never got a chance to get one. We made time this time, but of course Natalie wasn't ready. When she gets in a bad mood, there's no pulling her out of it. Threatening her only makes it worse. This is probably the best photo of the bunch, but Natalie still looks very unhappy. Emily, to her left, was not looking at the camera at all in the other shots. The other kids were all pretty compliant, especially the boys.

We had a pretty relaxed visit. The kids were into their electronics. I thought this picture was great for showing the boys both using their iPhone/iPod Touch, but also relaxing and enjoying the reclining chairs at my sister Cynthia's house.

The younger kids had their electronics as well. Emily got an iPad from Santa, as did her stepsiblings. Eric is sharing with her in this picture. Aly is using my old iPad, although at other times she used her Dad's iPad and then Eric would use my old iPad. Natalie is using her new Kindle Fire HD, which she received from us for Christmas--very cool gadget.

This photo was taken at my Mom and Dad's house where we visited on Sunday, December 30th. They also invited some long-time friends (my mom's sister-in-law's sister and her husband) and we spent all afternoon eating, chatting, and playing with electronics, obviously.

I took this photo one morning. I thought Eric looked so comfortable enjoying a show on my iPad while wrapped up in a blanket. He always got up earlier than everyone else and did a pretty good job staying quiet, especially when he had electronics to help him out. One morning he was particularly excited because Aunt Cynthia found the show "Dinosaur Train" on PBS.

We had a pretty low-key New Year's Eve celebration. It had been raining all day in Houston, so we didn't even bother to buy any fireworks. There was plenty of loud sounds coming from neighbors that night, however. We had plenty of food, watched a couple of movies, watched the ball drop in New York, then watched an episode of Modern Family and celebrated the New Year in our Central Time Zone. That's when most of us went to bed. The boys stayed up some more and played on the PS3. Eric had gone to bed at 9pm, even though we told him he could stay up. He said he was tired. How could we argue with that?

I'll try to share a few more details in the next few days, but in the meantime, you can be sure all of us will be playing on our electronics.