Visit to Lolo and Lola's House

We visited my Mom and Dad's house on Friday. I would have gotten food from a local restaurant to bring, but Mom already took care of ordering food from a "new place". She doesn't do as much cooking as she used to, but she has a lot of great places to order from. When we got there, Anthony said, "And you thought there wouldn't be enough food?" Well, I should have known she would have ordered enough for us plus my sisters and their families if they had come too. Mom ordered a full styrofoam take-out container of a barbecued pork dish and another similar container of chicken. She had another container filled with a noodle dish. She also made one of the kids' favorite--arroz caldo or "rice soup" as the kids call it. On top of that, she made one of my favorite dishes (and one that I always ask her for when I visit)--hot and sour soup. For dessert, she had brownies and flan.

Cynthia and her family had a dog-training session with their new dog Lucy. Melissa was at work and actually, her daughter Emily went to lunch with her dad and he dropped her off pretty much around the time we got there, so Emily and Natalie got to pal around all afternoon. One of the things they did was that they drew pictures with their eyes closed, then they would ask us to identify what they had drawn. They had a lot of laughs about that one. Eric then decided he would get in on the action, except he just wanted to draw. One of his drawings looked like a long-necked dinosaur with a long tail. Of course we all thought it was a brachiosaurus. Eric said, "NO! It's a Shunosaurus! Can't you tell by the club-tail?" Wow, okay--uh no, I couldn't tell by the club tail. I don't remember reading about a dinosaur called Shunosaurus. He was really taking the drawing seriously. Look at that face above!

Anthony came with us on this trip specifically because he will be going back to Boston soon, a couple of weeks before school starts. This will be the last time he says his Lolo and Lola until Christmas. One of the things I really wanted to do while we were there was to get a picture of him with his grandparents. My sisters agreed that this was probably the best photo of Dad, even though he looks mad in the picture. This is pretty much his expression nowadays. I don't see him as often as my sisters do, and it's still a bit of a shock every time I see his physical and mental decline. At least now, Mom has someone come to help her few times a week, but I wish she would get more help.

I finally got the girls to somewhat willingly get in the picture. It's too bad Alex couldn't make the trip with us, and I wish Nick and Aly were there too, but it was nice to get a photo of Lolo and Lola with their grandkids during our short visit to Houston.

The Boys

Here we are near the entrance of the Museum of Natural Science in Houston. We were waiting for one of my sisters to arrive. I had not taken my big camera out of the bag since the end of June, so I used that as an excuse to the boys to pose for a picture.

My nephew Nick is on the far left. He has had a growth spurt recently, so he is now taller than me. He is eight days older than Alex who is the same height as Anthony. We think Eric is following Nick's height trajectory.

Eric and Anthony spent a lot of time in the dinosaur exhibit--most of the time we were at the museum, actually. Anthony willingly spent the time with Eric. They will both miss each other when Anthony goes back to school.

The other activity that we did at the museum was see a "Mysteries of the Unseen" 3D movie. The boys (Nick, Anthony, and Eric) saw it with Cynthia, John, and me.

It's hard to get these boys to pose for a photo. My sister Cynthia got this quick snapshot while they were in the gift shop. The boys consented to let her take one photo. They looked at it after she took it and they said, "It's blurry. Oh well" That means that they weren't going to stand still for another one. I was happy to get any photo, blurry or not.

We actually spent a bit of time in the gift shop. Museum gift shops have cool stuff that you can't find anywhere else. Cynthia got Anthony some early birthday presents since he will be back at school then. One of them is a shirt with a pirate but with the label substituting the symbol "pi" instead of the letters "p" and "i". He also got a flask with the chemical structure of ethanol--"alcohol". Technically he can't legally use that yet, but he thought it was cool. Yes, my son is a geek.

I know this is a picture of Natalie, but my photo of Anthony wasn't as good. This was a "ride" that basically spins in different directions. Natalie is here about to ride it with Aly. Anthony rode it with Nick. I took videos of both.

Eric wanted to ride it too, but this ride was restricted to individuals five feet and taller. Technically, Natalie is just under five feet tall, but they didn't measure that closely. She was 100 pounds and 58 1/2 inches tall at her doctor's appointment last Friday. Emily didn't ride it, she's like her mother and gets motion sickness very easily.

Tomorrow I'll share some photos I took of when we visited my Mom and Dad.

The Girls

This will be a photo-heavy post. I had to share all of the photos of Natalie with her cousins Emily and Aly. Ever since my sisters and I were pregnant with girls at about the same time, I had hoped that our daughters would be close. Natalie sometimes feels sad that she can't be with her cousins much, since we live in another city, but when they get together, they pick up where they left off and they are best buds.

I'm not sure why they wanted to do this pose, but they did it last year when they were all at the museum, and they wanted to do this again. I just love that they are doing it together. By the way, you can't tell from this picture because of the angle that I took it, but Emily (middle) is the tallest, followed by Aly (left) then Natalie (right), which is pretty much their age order.

Here they are again with this pose that they also always do when they're together, with the two fingers spread.

One thing you can't see here is that there was another girl with us. Melissa has been dating a man named Michael, and he has a daughter named Mason, who is 13-years old. We met Mason for the first time during this trip to the museum. She is beautiful girl and did well especially considering that she didn't know anyone else.

Last week, Melissa asked Cynthia and me (via text) whether or not it was a good idea to bring Mason. Emily had expressed some reservations because the cousins know each other so well, and none of them knew Mason. Aly expressed similar reservations. I didn't even ask Natalie. She can talk to anyone--we see it all the time at swim meets. She'll start chatting up a storm with the girls in her lane, even though she's only just met them. I just told her to include Mason in whatever she's doing. I'm not sure that worked out entirely, but maybe the next time they meet, it'll be easier to include her. Hey, Mason loves photography, so she's already tops in MY book. :)

I can't resist taking a photo of these three from the back. Here you can really see their height differences.  They all have such long pretty hair, too.

There were a lot of great exhibits at the museum. We spent a little time in their new Magna Carta exhibit as well as the ongoing butterfly exhibit (which included the area about insects). My brother-in-law John was focused on the fact that the Magna Carta was supposedly signed on his birthday, June 15th, except in the year 1215. :)

I wanted to include one more photo of the three of them being goofy in front of a screen where they were showing the shadows of a bunch of bugs in motion. It's just as well that Anthony didn't see the bug exhibit. Alex still likes to talk about the time when Anthony saw a cockroach that he thought was alive and he, according to Alex, "screamed like a girl". That's not to insult any girls, but to describe how high-pitched Anthony's scream was.

I definitely had to include this photo because of the expression on Natalie's face. That face is so "Natalie" and how expressive her face is. They were all taking a little quiz on insects. She must have been either stumped by the question or surprised at the answer. Emily is on the far left, and my sister Cynthia is in the middle. Nick and Aly were seated right in front of me when I took this picture. None of them did very well. I guess we don't know a lot about insects.

Tomorrow, I'll share some photos of the boys.

Still a Dinosaur Boy

I'm in Houston with three of the kids for a couple of days. I have enough photos already that I'm going to have to break up my photos from just today and post a few at a time in the next few days. My sister's company has a yearly party at the Museum of Natural Science in Houston, and she usually invites us all. I've never gotten to go before, because they always have it on a weekday and by the time we find out the date, my work schedule is already set. This time it worked out that I could leave work early today to drive to Houston with the kids. Patrick would have gone too, but Alex didn't want to miss PE Camp. He is volunteering at the PE Camp for his school this month.

We got to my sister Cynthia's house before 3:30pm. We hung around the house for less than two hours before we had to leave again to go to the museum. I definitely do not miss the traffic in the Houston area.

Of course, the first thing Eric sees is the dinosaur in the museum gift shop, and he has to stop and stare at it for a bit. This is a Hesperosaurus, which is apparently a type of Stegosaurus but the plates on its back were not as tall.

After that, Eric spent probably a good hour or so at the dinosaur exhibit. I never made it over to the dinosaur exhibit. He had gone there separately with Anthony when the rest of us were sitting down, having some snacks, and socializing. They served hot dogs with the fixings to include chili and cheese, tortilla chips, salsa, and queso. Cynthia fed us ahead of time, so we didn't worry too much about eating. My family hasn't been able to eat hot dogs since watching the Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest on the Fourth of July.

For some reason, Eric didn't want to go on the dinosaur ride they had there for kids, at least not at first. We were about to leave when he decided to get on the "Bronco-Saurus". Luckily by then, there wasn't much of a line any more.

We also had to exit through the gift shop where we had come in. He saw all of the dinosaur toys and we lost him for a bit. He enjoyed just looking at all of the figures, picking each one up and examining them. He wanted to get one of the T-Rex toys, but I convinced him that we didn't have to get it there. I might have to place an order at Amazon for that T-Rex soon.

Hippopotamus Rex

I just wanted to write a short little post today. I was in my bedroom upstairs when Eric rushed in with this napkin. He was so excited about showing me the "Hippopotamus Rex" that Alex had drawn on the napkin for him. The picture below shows the "Hippopotamus Rex" better.

I love Alex, but I was a little surprised that he was the one that drew this. Anthony has traditionally been the one who has shown a talent (and desire) for drawing. Alex had Art this past year and he complained about how he wasn't any good at drawing and that his teacher didn't like his work. Naturally, I took note of that and didn't think too much about it.

When I saw this, however, I was very impressed. I was equally impressed with how happy and excited Eric was about this drawing. Alex said that he didn't realize Eric would get so excited. Alex had just looked at a picture of a hippo to make the head, and a picture of a T-rex to make the body. Nice!

Tonight, Patrick was with Natalie at swim practice. She had physical therapy again today, and she felt good enough to swim at least the warmup. She still had to stop even during that short workout, but she was happy that she could at least swim (and go to practice to see her friends). They applied more tape to her back today, so we'll see how it goes.

While they were at swim practice, the boys and I went to Pei Wei for dinner. I was going to sit next to Eric because the seats were more comfortable on that side of the table (sort of a half-booth). Anthony insisted on sitting there because he wanted to sit next to Eric. He said, "I have two weeks left" implying that he wanted to spend some time with his little brother in the time he had left before going back to school. What a sweet boy.

Tonight, after I sang Eric's bedtime songs to him, we talked about how he needed to give Anthony a lot of hugs while he was still here with us. Eric said that Anthony is "funny" and that he is "a good big brother". Later he said that both of his brothers were "good big brothers". I told him that Natalie was a good big sister, too. He said, "Well, sometimes she's a good big sister." The kids don't always get along, but they do love each other and that makes me happy.

Setback

On Saturday, July 5th, Natalie went to the birthday party of one of her swim friends, Aspen. Aspen and her brothers are triplets, and they had a pool party to celebrate their 11th birthday. Natalie participated in the games and everything. Patrick had already warned her to be careful. It's easy to turn your back a funny way when you're playing pool games. Natalie and I also did a lot of walking while shopping at La Cantera Mall on that day.

Well, on Monday, July 7th, Natalie's back was sore, but she went to swim practice, hoping to "work it out". She didn't even swim 100 meters before she had to get out because her back was hurting.

Fast forward to last weekend. Natalie went to the Lifetime Fitness pool with us and with her swim friend Ally B. She went on the water slide there, but she didn't seem to be goofing around too much in the pool. Ally spent the night here that Saturday, July 12th. The following week, Natalie's back was hurting again, so much so that she didn't go to swim practice all of last week. She had her usual physical therapy appointments on Tuesday and Thursday. During her Thursday, July 17th appointment, they also taped her back.

Natalie said that the tape helped because even though her back was still a little sore, the tape made it feel better. We're not sure exactly what she did to aggravate her back again, but we keep getting reminded that her recovery will be a long drawn-out process. My poor baby girl! She is very disappointed that it's taking so long, but she is being a trooper and doing her back exercises regularly along with going to physical therapy twice a week.

Along with the "setback" theme, Eric's piano teacher (Justin) was involved in a bicycle accident in June, right after school ended. He broke his elbow and did not teach lessons for the rest of June. I was a little worried about how Eric's desire for taking piano lessons would be affected. He was already starting to complain about practicing piano and expressing a lot of hesitance in going to piano lessons. His teacher had suggested that his students still practice piano or even just play around on the piano during his absence. We didn't push Eric to practice daily during that time.

Well, Justin recovered and started teaching again starting after the 4th of July holiday. Surprisingly, Eric didn't complain about practicing piano or going to piano lessons again. In fact, practicing piano has become part of a routine for him. Basically, he knows that he can't play on the iPad until he practices piano, so he practices even without being asked. Natalie was NEVER that good.

I had to take this picture of him practicing because of the earphones in his ears. One of his assignments was to figure out how to play a simple tune after hearing it--an ear training exercise. The tune was "Sing Hosannah" and Justin told him to use the black keys on the piano and where to put his fingers before playing the song. The sound wasn't coming through very loudly on my iPhone without the earphones, so I put my bluetooth earphones in Eric's ears and let him listen that way. The pieces that go in the ears were way too big, but they managed to stay in his ears. He also managed to pick out the right notes for the song.

We'll see how Natalie and Eric both do in the coming weeks. I can't believe that the summer break is almost over already.

Shopping with Natalie

I was post-call yesterday, and I had a pretty good night, which meant that I got some sleep and therefore I had enough energy to do something on my post-call day besides sleep. I got an email saying that Ann Taylor Loft was having a 50% off sale for one day only. The last time I was at Ann Taylor Loft, I was with Natalie. Natalie saw a dress she liked there, but at $69.50, I told her that we would come back when it was on sale. She was disappointed, but I'm so glad that I made her wait. When I told her about the sale and that I would buy her that dress she wanted, she was excited and wanted to go.

Once again, Anthony was at work and Alex was at PE Camp, so it was just the four of us. We wanted to take the chance to have lunch together, so all four of us went to La Cantera Mall. Eric is really not much of a shopper. Patrick dropped us off so Natalie would not have to walk far. Her back has been bothering her this week (more on that another time). Eric was with us for a few minutes until Patrick came to get him to take him to the Apple Store. Eric found a place to rest in the dressing room.

The size 2 and extra small sizes at Ann Taylor Loft worked out the best for Natalie. Natalie not only got that dress, but she got another one in a different print. Both dresses have spaghetti straps, so she also got a dressy sweater to wear over them, plus another short-sleeved sweater. I also bought a couple of things, so Natalie and I spent a lot of money at Ann Taylor Loft--but it was a SALE!

After that, we went to The Cheesecake Factory to eat lunch. Natalie got a mango strawberry smoothie. I had to taste it myself, of course, since Mango is my favorite fruit, and it definitely had a strong mango flavor. Eric was a little disappointed that Natalie didn't share more of it with him, but at least he got to choose root beer for his drink. Natalie and I shared the Miso Salmon, and Eric had his usual Mac and Cheese. Patrick had his usual Spicy Chipotle Chicken Pasta. We got our dessert to go. I texted Anthony while we were there, and he requested his favorite--Godiva Chocolate Cheesecake.

(Note: That purple patch on Natalie's face is some sort of reflection. I did not want to have to mess with Photoshop to erase it.)

After lunch, Natalie and I made one more stop. A new H&M store just opened recently at La Cantera Mall. I was surprised, but Natalie picked out this dress to try on. Sorry for the bad fitting room photo, but I was trying to be quick--she doesn't usually like photos of herself, and I had to take this one before she changed her mind!

She tried the size 2 on first, and I had to struggle for a bit to zip it up. Even when I did get the zipper up, the skin between her shoulder blades was folding in a little. She said it wasn't uncomfortable--in fact, she liked the way it fit snugly so she didn't really need to wear a bra. We did try the size 4 and I could zip up the zipper much easier, so she decided to get that one. The dress only cost $7.50 and it's lined and everything!

I showed this picture to Anthony and he gave me a sad face that he gives me when I talk about Natalie growing up. I told my sisters a couple of weeks ago that I bought Natalie a couple of bras in size 34B. She also now wears the same size shoes as I do--size 5 1/2 to 6. My baby girl is growing up to be a beautiful young lady! She's getting more expensive to clothe, but at least she seems to have good taste in clothing.

Breakfast with Eric

I prefer selfies like this one where Eric is in most of the picture and only part of my face is showing. :) I'm on call tonight, so since I was off this morning, I took that opportunity to take my favorite 7-year-old to breakfast. I would have taken Natalie, but she did not want to get dressed. She was awake, of course, but she was on her Kindle and very comfortable in her bed.

I decided to go to the Magnolia Pancake Haus. Eric would have been fine with IHOP, but I like the coffee at the Magnolia Pancake Haus. I don't really drink coffee, but I love their coffee (with a lot of cream and sugar). He had the kids' pancake (with three small buttermilk pancakes) with sausage. I had the Bananas Foster French Toast with their Corned Beef Hash--yum!

Eric finished his food pretty quickly. His plate was already clean and I had not even eaten half of my french toast yet. Granted, I usually only finish half of my french toast when I go there (and save the rest for another yummy breakfast on another day), but he even finished his cup of chocolate milk AND his orange slice. He wanted me to take this picture to include a view of his empty plate next to my almost full plate. He also said that he was using the orange slice "for a smile". Eric really does make me smile. He is such a ray of sunshine for everyone in the family.

They gave him a "placemat" to keep him busy, along with some crayons. The printed front included an activity where they told you to circle the food items that you DON'T eat for breakfast. Well, pizza was one of the food items. I think everyone in my family has had pizza for breakfast at one time or another, so that was a confusing activity for Eric. I told him to go ahead and circle the items that he WOULD eat for breakfast. He included the pizza, of course!

He then did the maze on the front then proceeded to turn the placemat over to draw a picture on the back. He started out with some tall buildings. The "bad guy" was on top of the third building from the left (notice that he labeled him "bad guy" on the picture). Eric with his "ninja" skills started out on top of the left-hand most building and then flipped over in the air until he reached the building where the "bad guy" was so he could fight him. He included three of his school friends on the picture and labeled them so I would know who was who. Marques is suspended in the air in between the two middle buildings and for some reason has some lines extending to and from his stick-figure body. Josh looks like he's climbing on the outside of the third building from the left, and Hayden looks like he is helping Eric fight the "bad guy" from the right-hand most building. Eric has such an active imagination that's really fun to see sometimes.

It's too bad that Natalie didn't come with us, but in the end, it was nice to spend a little time with my youngest child who is growing up way too fast.

Natalie Selfies

Natalie has been missing her swim friends lately. Her back trouble is still up and down. She misses more practices than she goes to. Also, because she is still on the mend, she is taking it easy during practice, so when she does go to swim practice, she is in one of the slower lanes. Her friends, of course, are in the faster lanes.

Yesterday, Patrick and I planned on taking Eric to our gym for their "free pool party". At first, Natalie asked her friend Margot to go with her (because of course she didn't want to go with just her family), but Margot was going to the beach, so she asked her friend Ally B. instead. Ally was on her way home from Saturday morning practice, so she and her mom were here within a few minutes of the phone call.

We took them to the gym, along with Eric and Alex. Anthony had to work again. Alex was not interested in going to the pool, but because of his restrictions, we didn't want to leave him home alone, so he came along and just hung out in the lobby area with the free Wifi. I had hoped he would go exercise or something, but he didn't want to do that either.

I didn't take any pictures of Natalie and her friend at the pool, but I did take a few pictures of Eric that I might share later. While there, Natalie and Ally approached me (Ally calls me "Natalie's mom") and asked if Ally could spend the night over at our house. I had expected this because Ally lives way across town and so she rarely comes to visit. Ally's mom was fine with the idea as well.

Saturday evening, Natalie said that she wanted to take some selfies, and she asked for Patrick's phone. He refused. I, of course, agreed, hoping for some interesting photos of my baby girl with her friend. These three are but a small selection of the photos they took. She came downstairs after a few minutes and gave me my phone back, without a word of explanation or anything else that could be considered conversation.

I looked at my phone and saw large amount of blurry photos all taken in Natalie's room. Based on the time stamp on the photos, they took 109 photos in the span of five minutes. Wow.

I picked three of the photos that were at least a little bit in focus with Natalie in most of the frame. They took some photos of each other and a few didn't have either of them in the frame. It really looked like they were holding the phone and taking random photos--and they weren't trying to hold the phone still at all. They were probably giggling the whole time. Fun. It was nice to see Natalie having fun and smiling again. If she asks again to take more "selfies" with my phone, I'm going to let her.

Waterpark with Eric

I was reminded by my dear niece Emily that I haven't been posting on my blog lately, so here is a little something to tide her over until I can figure out what else to post about. :) By the way, Emily tried out for a club volleyball team and she made the team. Congratulations, Emily!Woohoo!

Patrick, Eric, and I made our first trip of the summer to our local Six Flags Fiesta Texas watermark on Thursday, July 11th. We've been too busy swimming in our neighborhood summer swim league (in June) and at our local gym to make the trek out to the water park, but I was off from work and it was a weekday and therefore less likely to be crowded, so we went.

Natalie did not come with us because she didn't want to go without taking a friend. Alex was volunteering at his school for the summer PE camp, so he was gone all day. Anthony had to work, so it was just Patrick, Eric, and me.

Eric wanted to stay in the kids' area, and he was having lots of fun, so we were fine with that. In the first picture above, he and Patrick are taking turns pushing down on their side of the water spout to make the water come out. Eric, of course, looks like he is really putting some effort into it. Besides playing with the water features, he played briefly in the climbing structure with lots of different water spouts spraying and dropping water everywhere. Mostly, he was content to play like he was engaging in Pokemon battles. I took a video of him doing the "waterwheel", which consisted of several consecutive sommersaults in the water.

Before we left, we went on the lazy river (not sure what they actually call it). Eric and I rode in a two-person inner tube (second picture above). I guided his end of the inner tube under each waterfall as we passed by them. He loved that. Patrick rode by himself.

This is the first time I've actually used my waterproof iPhone case the way it was meant to be used. I feel more confident with the case on my phone when I'm at swim meets and standing next to the swimming pool, but this is the first time I've actually taken it with me INTO the pool. It was tough to see the screen in the bright daylight, but it was worth it.

Division C Championship Swim Meet

Yesterday, we had our last swim meet of the summer swim league season. Although we're glad to get some free time back, it's been an exciting season, with Eric swimming faster and faster and beginning to start swimming breaststroke and butterfly (although not legally yet), and especially seeing Natalie swim in races again.

I took this first picture at Momak's Backyard Malts and Burgers, where we had our team party and awards after the meet. We sat outside for the first time. Usually we sit in the balcony area there, but we had more room outside, and we could keep a closer eye on the kids playing in their large play area. Luckily the weather cooperated with us and it didn't rain, but there was a nice breeze keeping the temperatures tolerable. Interestingly, Patrick went inside a few times so he could keep an eye on the World Cup Group of 16 game of Brazil vs. Chile.

Natalie didn't oblige me with a picture of her with her medals, but at least she let me take this picture of her with two of her friends who swam in the Medley Relay with her.

Everyone got a personalized team trophy. Eric got a fifth place ribbon for the 100 yard Freestyle Relay and a fifteenth place ribbon for the Backstroke. He got a third place medal for the 100 yard Medley Relay. Natalie got four medals--3 gold and 1 bronze (for 25 yard Freestyle). Natalie's teammate (who got first place in the 25 yard Freestyle ahead of Natalie) won the award for being the top point-getter, and apparently Natalie was just behind her by one point.

Now, for the boring part of the post, Eric and Natalie's meet results are as follows:

Eric--
Boys 8 and Under 100 yard Freestyle Relay (Leg 2)--They came in last out of five teams with a time of 1:41.89.

25 yard Free--Converted Seed time 29.25--Final time 30.08 (31 out of 33).
25 yard Back--Converted Seed time 34.34--Final time 31.76 (15 out of 30).

Boys 8 and Under 100 yard Medley Relay (Leg 4--Freestyle)--They came in last out of five teams, but two of the teams were disqualified, so they got third place with a time of 1:58.32.

Natalie--
Girls 11-12 100 yard Freestyle Relay (Leg 4)--They came in first (easily) with a time of 55 plus seconds, but they were disqualified because supposedly Natalie left early, but she was sure that she saw her teammate touch the wall before she took off. Two of our other girls' freestyle relays were also DQ'd, which really hurt since our team came in 4th place out of the five teams only by around 200 points, and the top 3 were within 12 points of each other. Each relay counts as 40 points for coming in first place.

25 yard Free--Converted Seed time 12.00 (not real)--Final time 14.32 (3 out of 28). They were manually timing the races and it looked pretty close. First place had a time of 13.98 seconds, and second place had a time of 14.09 seconds.
25 yard Back--Converted Seed time 16.19--Final time 15.93 (1st).
25 yard Fly--Converted Seed time 15.85--Final time 15.12 (1st).

Girls 11-12 100 yard Medley Relay (Leg 4 Freestyle)--They easily got first place out of five teams with a time of 1:10.84.

Swimmer of the Week 2014

I took Eric to the morning swim practice today. He's been going pretty much every morning, but he didn't feel like going at all yesterday. Today is the last swim practice of the summer swim meet season. They cancelled the one tonight since they have an early swim meet tomorrow morning. The swim meet starts at 7:45am!

Eric and I were leaving when we heard Coach Jesse say that he was going to announce the Swimmer of the Week awards, so Eric hurried back. I think that ever since he and Natalie got it last year, he's been hoping he would get it again. Coach Jesse started out announcing that a couple of families with multiple children on the swim team. He likes to group families together, probably because then more kids can get the award. He ended up saying that he wasn't sure if "they" (referring to Eric and Natalie) wanted to admit knowing each other, before announcing that the fourth and final Swimmer of the Week award went to Eric and Natalie. Eric was SO excited! We cam home and immediately got this picture in our front yard (with our poor parched grass).

Natalie was at home resting her back. She's been at her club swim practice three nights this week, and because of all of that swimming, she said she was a little sore. As with last year, she says that the Swimmer of the Week award is actually Eric's award, since she isn't at the neighborhood practices as much as Eric. She contributes quite a bit to the team at the swim meets, though, since she is usually at least tied for getting the biggest point total of anyone else on the team. She deserves it as much as Eric.

I'm at work right now, so I had to post this photo from my phone. I'll try to write another post tomorrow about the Championship Meet.

Happy 15th Birthday, Alex!

I'm a week late in posting this, but Alex's 15th birthday was last Wednesday. Since it's Thursday today, I thought I might as well post an old scrapbook layout of mine from when Alex was a mere three years old for "Throwback Thursday". Alex has always been a little cutie, and I've always loved these photos of him enjoying  chocolate ice cream. I used to use the photo of him with his mouth wide open for a pediatric airway lecture for work because his mouth was SO wide.

Speaking of wide mouths, Alex has always been a good eater. I discovered Sonic shakes when I was pregnant with him, and he loves Sonic shakes now. Specifically, he loves Sonic chocolate banana shakes. I took this photo of Alex with three of his good friends last Saturday, June 21st, after going to Sonic to get half-price shakes, which they offer daily after 8pm. I was so happy that he and his friends consented to having their photo taken together, just because I asked! I also love how they posed for me.

Because Patrick and I wanted to take a little trip for our anniversary which involved leaving on Alex's actual birthday, we asked Alex if it was okay to postpone his celebration until Saturday. Alex hasn't wanted a lot of fuss for his birthday for a few years, and this was just another example.

Patrick grilled steaks on Saturday, and Alex decided to invited these particular boys because he has known them the longest. He has a string of friends that spend the night over our house regularly. That means that we spend a lot of money feeding these teenage boys, and since they sleep in the game room, there are always lots of extra pillows and blankets there all the time. We like it, though, because we get to spend time with Alex and his friends and more importantly, we get to KNOW his friends. They like it because they like walking around our neighborhood, going to the pool, exploring the "woods", and using the hills to ride our wiggle racers.

Patrick bought five pounds of steak, and they finished most of it. There were other things to eat--curly fries, garlic bread, corn, and salad. We were also well stocked on extra cookies, other snacks, and sodas. In fact, Alex went with Patrick to the store to get all of these snacks. Alex gets a big smile on his face when he gets a chance to go to the store--sort of like that big smile in the scrapbook layout above. I love that smile! Happy Birthday, Alex!

First Lost Tooth

Eric's bottom front left tooth has been loose for a week or two. Earlier this week, Patrick inspected the tooth while brushing Eric's teeth and said that it was really loose, so we didn't think it would be long before it came out. Last night, Eric was brushing his teeth and I heard him say that his tooth came out. I went into the bathroom and there was blood dripping from his mouth (along with toothpaste). He didn't seem distressed at all. I asked him where the tooth was, and he pointed to the open sink drain--it had fallen down the drain. After he finished brushing his teeth, I just had him rinse his mouth out until the water was clear. No drama. No fuss.

When Anthony lost his second tooth many years ago, he accidentally swallowed it when he was eating some corn. Our friend Gary was visiting at the time and told him that the Tooth Fairy paid triple the usual amount when you swallowed your tooth. Thanks, Gary! Patrick helped him write a note to the Tooth Fairy at the time.

This time, Patrick also asked Eric to write the Tooth Fairy a note because then the Tooth Fairy would give him three times the usual amount for a lost tooth. I'm not sure why he decided we had to pay him three times for a lost tooth when Eric doesn't know anything about when Anthony lost his tooth, but whatever. Eric was tired and obviously didn't want to write that note, so he said, "I don't need money for my tooth." Patrick asked him to just write a quick, "Dear Tooth Fairy, I lost my tooth down the drain." He did it then went straight to bed. We used Natalie's pink Tooth Fairy pillow that Gary (her godfather) had given her.

As you can see in this picture, Eric already has another tooth growing in behind the one he just lost, so thankfully the tooth came out on it's own. The first teeth that Natalie lost had to be pulled because they were not out yet and there were teeth growing in then also. Natalie was always more dramatic when she lost her tooth than the boys were. So far, Eric seems unfazed by the whole experience. He was pretty excited this morning, though, when he found the dollar coins in the pillow.

Regency Swim Meet

Yes, it's another Saturday in June, which means that there was another swim meet today. This one was an away meet at a place that we have never been to before. The Regency pool is a "non-standard 23.5 yards long", which is smaller than the other pools we have been swimming in so far this summer, which were all 25 meters long. They also have only four lanes instead of at least six, so there were more heats than usual for each event, to accommodate all the swimmers. The swim meet started at 8am instead of 9am, apparently so we could be sure to be done by noon. They must have some sort of restriction on their swim meets.

This meet was also unusual in that Natalie did not swim in this meet. She has admitted to her back aching more these past two weeks. For last week's meet, we talked about pulling her out of her events if her back started hurting. She said she was fine, so she swam in all of her usual events. Well, then we find out during her physical therapy appointment this week that she was hurting during last weekend's swim meet after all, but she wanted to swim and didn't tell us. Patrick and I have reminded her over and over again about being in this for the long term. Swimming in these swim meets are short term goals. She cannot re-injure her back again and be out of swimming for several months. So, instead of seeing how she was feeling today, Patrick just told her that she wasn't swimming in the swim meet so she can rest up for the Championship meet next Saturday. She came with us to root for her teammates, however, so she at least got to enjoy their company.

Meanwhile, Eric was a happy camper today. He didn't bring one of his Pokemon books, but he was fine without that or the iPad. Instead, he socialized with some of his friends. I took this picture through some criss-crossing pieces of wood on the side of a big gazebo/cabana structure at the Regency pool. It was a big covered area that they let the visiting team sit in. Eric decided to crawl/step in between the wooden pieces instead of walking all the way around--part of his recent pattern of climbing all over everything.

As for the actual swimming, Eric continues on his quest to swim a legal butterfly stroke. Unfortunately today, his goggles fell to below his nose when he dove in, and instead of just removing them, he tried to swim that way. His strokes did not remotely resemble the butterfly stroke until maybe the last couple of strokes before the wall, so of course he was disqualified. Everyone felt bad for him though, and I could hear lots of "Aww's" and people cheering him on to finish. Luckily he didn't seem too upset when he got out of the water, although he seemed upset when he first dove in and the goggles fell. Luckily also, he did not have to swim the butterfly in the Medley Relay this week. Coach Jesse had him swim the freestyle instead, and another boy who was able to swim the butterfly legally, swam the butterfly leg of the Medley Relay. Eric just barely out-touched the other relay team to get first place. He was excited about getting his first place ribbon.

I'm still not sure where they are getting the seed times, but Eric's results for today are as follows--(seed times)/finish time from last week/finish times today(place):

#14 Boys 7-8 25 Free (29.25)/ 36.34/ 33.11 (9th out of 12)
#26 Boys 7-8 25 Back (34.34)/ 39.82/ 37.50 (7th out of 11)
#54 Boys 7-8 25 Fly (NT)/ DQ/ DQ

#64 Boys 8 and under 100 Medley Relay - 'A' Leg 4 (2:06.39)/ 2:18.49 (1st out of 2)
#2 Boys 8 and under 100 Free Relay - 'B' Leg 4 (2:09.32)/ 2:25.10 (3rd)

As you can see the seed times are misleading. Eric is still getting faster and faster. One more meet to do in this summer swim season. Go Eric Go!

Riverwalk Adventures

I'm not very good at taking selfies, but I'd like to get myself in more photos, so I keep trying. I'm usually smiling way too much, mostly because I am laughing at how bad the photo is. Here I was trying to get the Tower of the Americas in the background. Patrick and I took a nice morning walk yesterday. We are standing near the Arneson Theatre where the Spurs Celebration began last night.

We actually started our walk a little earlier, and we went looking for a place to eat breakfast. Soon after we started walking, however, a bird decided to poop on Patrick's shirt and head. He had to go back to our hotel room to take a shower and change his shirt--it was that bad. We had a good laugh about it, though.

I shared this photo on Facebook already. We decided to go to a restaurant to watch the World Cup game that started at 2pm--England vs. Uruguay. We were at Rita's on the River, and they offered a 32 ounce margarita. Patrick already had the 16 ounce version and decided he liked it enough to get the large one. We usually watch games like this at home, and it was cool to be able to order snacks during the game and have someone else refill our drinks. Patrick chatted briefly with an Englishman during the first half of the game. The guy left at the half, not happy with how his team was playing. England ended up losing 1-2.

This is the view from our hotel room balcony last night. We did a lot of walking yesterday, sometimes on the Riverwalk, and sometimes on the sidewalks next to the busy streets. We changed it up for variety. The weather was really nice for this time of year. The clouds kept the temperatures pleasant, and the light breeze felt great.

We had dinner last night for the first time at Fogo de Chao, a Brazilian steakhouse. For those who have never been to that restaurant, there were servers constantly roaming around with different types of meat--beef, lamb, chicken, and pork. They kept coming until we turned over the little cards they gave us from green to red. Patrick and I wanted to taste everything, but we couldn't do much more than taste--there was so much. We took our time walking home because we were so full.

We left the hotel this morning and came home. The kitchen sink was full of dishes, and the laundry that Patrick asked the kids to fold when we left on Wednesday afternoon, was still in the basket in the living room. They didn't seem too excited to see us, but I was happy to see them. Eric was getting smothered with kisses, but he didn't mind as long as he could still watch Pokemon on the iPad. It's back to the routine tomorrow--another swim meet, of course!

Anniversary Celebration

Patrick and I planned a small little trip for our anniversary. I have Thursday and Friday off this week, and we made reservations at the Hilton Palacio del Rio, a hotel on the Riverwalk. We've always thought it would be fun to stay on the Riverwalk and have the opportunity to walk around and explore, enjoy the restaurants and sights, etc. We didn't realize that the San Antonio Spurs would win the NBA Finals and schedule their River Parade Celebration on the same day we would be going on our little trip.

I took this picture when we were in the van on the way to the hotel. That's the hotel in front of us. To control the traffic, the police closed off the street on the way to the hotel--see the orange cones? So, instead of being able to head straight to our destination, it took us another 45 minutes or so to go around several blocks to get to the hotel from the other direction. Several streets were closed, and of course there were lots of cars and even more people walking everywhere.

This isn't the greatest photo, but I had to show how packed the Riverwalk was for the celebratory River Parade. I took this from our hotel balcony with a zoom lens plus I cropped the image to focus on all the people. Patrick was a little horrified that there were even some people putting their feet into the nasty water.

We made dinner reservations for Boudro's Texas Bistro on the Riverwalk for 7:30pm. The parade started at 6pm and ended around 7pm. Instead of walking along the Riverwalk to the restaurant, we walked on the street instead. It would have taken forever if we had to fight those crowds.

On the plus side, we inadvertently got to be there for the River Parade. This is probably the best photo of the 50+ photos I took of the parade. We were on the ninth floor, so it was tough to see who was on each float, but there was no way we wanted to be down there with that sea of humanity. There were something like 24 floats or so, and I snapped away with my camera hoping to get some good photos whenever one of the floats got near.

We only recognized this float because the Spurs logo on the front was covered up by the Argentinian flag--Manu Ginobili's home country, of course. We also got clued in to a couple of the floats, the one with Tim Duncan and the one with Kawhi Leonard, because of all of the cheering from the crowds below. The one with Kawhi Leonard was greeted with coordinated shouts of "M-V-P!" Tim Duncan's float was next to the last one. I also got a blurry photo of Tony Parker.

So, despite the hassle we went through to get to the hotel, the parade added a special touch to our anniversary trip. After all, we can always say that all of those people were there to help us celebrate our anniversary.

Swim Team Party and Team Photos

I've been the photographer for the neighborhood swim team photo in the past, so I decided that I wasn't going to volunteer this year. I did, however, take this photo of the other parents getting their own photos while the "official" photographer took her photo of the team. I thought it was hilarious that there were so many people taking pictures. It's not like they won't get a free copy, but people just like to get their own photos.

For the first time this year, they not only took a team photo, they also took a team photo with the parents included, and photos of the kids grouped into different age groups. That's partly why I didn't want to volunteer to take the "official" photo--because I didn't want to have to take all of the extra photos.

They offered hot dogs as well as pizza at the team party this year. They also usually get rid of some of their extra stuff that people donated for the concession stand--drinks and ring pops included. Natalie got one of the ring pops and I was able to catch this photo of her. She was looking through the ribbons she and Eric had received for the first three swim meets this summer.

Poor Natalie. She was so happy that she has been able to swim, but she was having some back pain again since last week. There was a chance that she wasn't going to swim at the meet last weekend, but she said that her back was feeling okay, so we let her swim. When she went to her physical therapy appointment yesterday, the physical therapist noticed that her core strength had decreased. When she and Patrick gave Natalie the third degree, Natalie admitted that she did indeed have back pain even during the swim meet last weekend. Poor Natalie--she wanted to swim so badly that she didn't tell us how she was really feeling.  That's how her back pain got so bad the last time. Patrick had another talk with her about how we wanted her to look at long term gain. She may not get to swim now, but then she won't aggravate her back and she'll be able to swim pain-free in the future. So, Patrick told her coach that she won't be swimming in next weekend's swim meet. She can still go to cheer for her team and teammates, but she won't be swimming. Maybe this way she'll be pain-free again for the Championship Meet the following weekend.

Smash Up

When he got home from college, Anthony was excited about a board game called Smash Up. According to Amazon.com, it's "The Shufflebuilding Game Of Total Awesomeness!" We bought the original game plus all three available expansion packs almost three weeks ago, and the kids (and Patrick have played it almost every day. It's cool that my kids, ages 7 to 18, can play it and have fun together. This is a picture of them playing last night while watching the USA vs. Ghana World Cup game. I have yet to play Smash Up (I'm the only one), but I should start participating--maybe this weekend.

Speaking of having fun together, Anthony was off from work yesterday, and he took Natalie to lunch at Whataburger, and then to see the movie "The Fault In Our Stars" at the Rialto Theater where he works. He's been taking advantage of being able to see movies for free, and it was sweet that he took his little sister to a movie. She says she cried, just like she did when she read the book, but Anthony says he didn't cry. I'm going to miss that boy when he goes back to college.

Hunter's Creek Swim Meet

Another Saturday in June means another neighborhood swim meet. This one was at our home pool, which we love because it takes us that much less time to get to and from the meet. The downside is that there is limited parking, so they ask that we leave our cars at home and walk to the pool. Patrick is super nice to us and drops us off then walks back by himself. This week he even got me my favorite Starbucks drink and dropped it off before going home to park.

This is Eric with his friend Sofia. Sofia's mom Alicia remarked that they were both in the same events, so I took a picture of both of them showing the numbers written on their arms. Sofia was in events #1 (100 Freestyle Relay), 13 (25 Free), 25 (25 Back), 53 (25 Fly), and 63 (100 Medley Relay doing Fly). Eric was in events #2, 14, 26, 54, and 64. It usually helps me a lot that Sofia goes first, because when I see her line up for her race, I know that Eric needs to be there too.

In case you didn't notice, Eric was on the schedule to swim the butterfly for the first time in a swim meet. Patrick and I have seen him swim the butterfly in practice. Patrick, of course, knows more about the particulars of each stroke, but it's pretty obvious even to me that Eric cannot swim the butterfly legally. Patrick did his best to give Eric a few tips, but Eric pretty much ignored him. He's just his "Papa" and not his coach, after all. Unfortunately, Eric was swimming butterfly in an individual event as well as butterfly in the Medley Relay. He got disqualified in both. Luckily, he did not take it as hard as Natalie did the first time she was disqualified. Hopefully he will either listen to Patrick before next week, or his coach will give him the same pointers.

Natalie actually posed for a picture for me--yay! She was with her friend Anna, whose father was pressuring the both of them (with me) to have their picture taken together. Natalie was in the same events as Eric, except for her age group, and the same events she has been swimming in this swim season. Her back was doing okay during this meet, so she got to swim everything she was scheduled for.

She again got a first place in every event except for the 25 Free, where she again got second place after her teammate Riley. I'll describe the particulars at the very end of this post.

This meet was unique, however, because about a half hour before the meet started, the skies opened up and it started pouring. Honestly, I wasn't concerned about getting wet myself. It was already so hot and humid that the rain really helped cool things down. I was carrying my camera on my, however, and I was very afraid of it getting wet. Luckily I was under cover already, and I stayed there.

Notice how serene Eric looks in this photo, as if he is just taking it all in. He is clutching his Pokemon book (a different one from last week) to keep it from getting wet. Notice the puddles of water in the chairs behind him. We didn't sit very much after the rain because our chairs were all soaked. Notice the two girls running in the background. Interestingly, several of the kids were saying that they didn't want to get wet--even though they were all wearing swimsuits and they had already been in the pool for warmups! Thankfully, the rain did not return, and there was never any lightning or thunder, so the meet went on as scheduled.

This is Eric with his friend Cameron. Aren't they adorable? It's great that he has friends to pal around with during these meets, because I haven't heard him say that he didn't want to go to any meets since that week before the first meet of this swim season.

We have one more neighborhood swim meet next Saturday, and then the Championship Meet the Sunday after that. Then maybe we can have a little more free time.

The rest of this is boring stats, but I need to record this for my information.

Eric's results are as follows (seed times)/finish times (place):

#14 Boys 7-8 25 Free (32.47)/ 36.34 (11th out of 11)
#26 Boys 7-8 25 Back (38.12)/ 39.82 (6th out of 9)
#54 Boys 7-8 25 Fly (NT)/ DQ
#64 Boys 8 and under 100 Medley Relay - 'B' Leg 3 (NT)/ DQ
#2 Boys 8 and under 100 Free Relay - 'B' Leg 3 (2:07.83)/ 2:19.38 (3rd out of 5)

Natalie's results are as follows (seed times)/finish times (place):

#17 Girls 11-12 25 Free (13.32)/ 16.06 (2nd out of 13)
#29 Girls 11-12 25 Back (17.97)/ 18.16 (1st out of 12)
#57 Girls 11-12 25 Fly (17.59)/ 17.22 (1st out of 10)
#67 Girls 11-12 100 Medley Relay - 'A' Leg 1 (1:15.07)/ 1:19.18 (1st out of 4)
#5 Girls 11-12 100 Free Relay - 'A' Leg 4 (1:03.33)/ 1:09.47 (1st out of 4)