Playing

Eric likes to play on the floor with his cars, and he especially loves to put his head on the floor next to his cars so he can see them better (I'm assuming). This is a picture of him playing in my parents' room. I took a few pictures of him rolling all over the floor making crashing and squealing tire sounds while playing with his cars. He plays so differently from the big boys. He's also much easier to buy stuff for than the big boys (and less expensive).

I like that I can see the little kids's foam sofa against the wall next to the bathroom door. Natalie usually sleeps on that sofa when we're over at my parent's house. She only slept there one night this past week out of three nights. The first night she spent at Melissa and Emily's house. The last night she spent at Cynthia's house. I like that I can see the plastic bag next to the dresser. My mom always likes to stash something or other in there. One of these days I'm going to want to remember all of those little things.

Alex has been saving his pennies for this cool new toy. There was a sale at Best Buy last Friday--you know, otherwise known as Black Friday. Patrick made a trip there just so Alex could get these new headphones. After that, Alex and these headphones were almost inseparable. He wore them constantly, even in the car on the five-minute ride to church on Saturday. He wore them when they came to visit me at work yesterday. I have to admit that I love seeing Alex so excited about something, at least in the subtle way Alex shows excitement, which is so different from the more overt way that Eric shows excitement. Yup, the big boys' toys are much more expensive than the little boy's toys, and they "play" in different ways too.

Visit to Rice U.

I'm on call today so I'm setting this up to post ahead of time.

We made a visit to Rice University this past Wednesday. Anthony is a junior in high school now, so he needs to start thinking of where he wants to go for college. Patrick and I are a little partial to Rice because we both went to college there, but Anthony will have to decide what's best for him.

The visit started with an information session followed by a campus tour. There were quite a few other people visiting also. Our tour guide, who is currently a sophomore there, said that it was her largest tour group ever. The campus has changed quite a bit since Patrick and I went to school there, so it was nice to see it all again.

Everyone figured out that we were Rice alums pretty early on. The tour guide started telling a story that she said happened in the "early 80s". Some students using a simple A-frame and pulley system turned around the statue of the founder of the school, William Marsh Rice. He started out facing Lovett Hall, the administration building, and ended up facing the opposite way towards the library. Patrick and I were there when this happened, so we knew it was in the late 80s. Anthony said he figured out when Patrick and started laughing and whispering to each other that we had some first-hand knowledge. The perpetrators had to pay a fine and the tour guide asked what they did to earn the money. Patrick said, "They sold T-shirts." The tour guide of course then asked, "Do you already know this story? Were you at Rice?"

After the visit we had lunch at Star Pizza where we used to go all the time to get their Spinach and Garlic deep-dish pizza. We told Anthony about how when I was pregnant with him, I had some of that pizza and I was so disappointed when it didn't taste the same.

Anthony said that he enjoyed the visit. The tuition there is considerably more now than when we went there, but Patrick and I think he would really enjoy going there and it's a great school for anything he is interested in going into. We'll see what he decides.

Helping Out

I took this photo on Monday. After a weekend of getting up early and leaving the house for Anthony's soccer tournament games, we got to "sleep in". That meant not getting up until after 7am. I'm not usually one to lounge around in bed anyway, and when I'm off of work, I love making breakfast for the kiddos.

We didn't have any bananas and Natalie specifically requested double chocolate chip pancakes, so that's what I made. Eric really wanted to help, so I let him stir the mixture a few times. Natalie wanted to help too so he told her to get on the stool (that he was standing on in order to be able to reach the counter) behind him. I thought that was so cute and so cool that they were getting along that I had to stop and take pictures. They were doing the mixing for me, after all. Of course this meant that making the pancake batter took extra long, but it was worth it.

On Monday we also made a trip to Target as well as some other stores. I wanted to get some Christmas presents but the kiddos were making it take so long that I had to take them home and go out shopping by myself. I actually got quite a bit of Christmas shopping done, in fact, I'm almost done. Yay! Anyway, when we were at Target, we saw this book that listed out all the characters from the Cars movies. At $12.99, it was a bit more pricey than the books I usually get for the kiddos "just because" but it seemed like a good one, so I bought it.

Well, ever since I bought that book, Eric (and Natalie too) have been reading that book constantly. We even brought it with us to Houston. My sister Melissa read it to Eric and on Thanksgiving, I got this picture of John reading it to Eric. Actually, Eric is telling John all about a particular car in this picture. He's almost memorized some of the stories. This book has been a big help in keeping Eric entertained this week.

This last picture isn't exactly about helping out, but it shows how sweet Anthony is to his younger siblings/cousins. This is the "kid's table" at my Mom's house. I was laughing at Anthony squeezing himself at that table. As you can see, his legs have no hope of fitting under that table. He said he was sitting there because Natalie told him to. She is seated across the table from him so she can't be seen in this photo. Anthony was also looking after Eric to make sure he wasn't going to spill his punch. Eric was drinking from a regular cup.

As an aside, Anthony is wearing his cross-country shirt. That's why the words on the back talk about not having any equipment. Cross-country is "100% pure running".

I'm on call tomorrow so I'll try to set up a post to automatically publish tomorrow while I'm gone. I'm always sad to have to be working when my family is all at home, but at least I'll have Monday and Tuesday off!

Happy Thanksgiving!

We just got back from visiting my family in Houston so I haven't been posting to my blog. We got to my Mom's house on Tuesday afternoon and we left Friday afternoon. I'll try to share pictures over the next few days so I don't load up all on one day for those of you out there on dial-up internet.

These pictures were taken on Thanksgiving day. My sister Cynthia spent the whole day on Wednesday driving back from her in-laws house in Oklahoma, so we didn't get to see them until Thanksgiving Day. They brought this funny little hat with elf-type ears attached. The tip of the hat wiggled around and made a jingling sound from the attached bell. Eric loved it, of course. This one didn't fall off him as easily as the Santa hat I bought him from Hallmark. He started really getting in the mood and dancing too. He's got a strange little dance where he'll wave his bent arms up and down, sort of like a chicken. He even did that dance to one of the songs at church a couple of weeks ago. Too cute!

This is my brother-in-law John who enjoyed wearing the hat as well. I don't get too many photos of him so here's a fun one. :)

Mom prepared everything. She is amazing! One of these days I'll have to figure out how to do this big family dinner thing. It was funny that Eric seemed most excited about the turkey. I think it's because they made a big deal out of it at the Thanksgiving celebration at his school. Turkey actually isn't a big thing in my family, except for my brother-in-law. He asked Cynthia to grab the leftovers when she came over today before we left. Mom also made sweet potatoes, stuffing, cranberries, and a broccoli, cheese, and rice casserole. There were some egg rolls in there for variety. She also had a pumpkin cheesecake that a friend gave her, chocolate cake (Natalie's favorite) and some leftover flan from a couple of nights before (one of Anthony's favorites and mine). Oh, and there was a spinach dip and a queso dip for chips. We were eating all afternoon! Thanks, Mom!

The boys were on their electronics. The girls were playing who knows what but they were quiet and in one of the bedrooms. At one point I saw Aly on the computer and Natalie reading a book she had borrowed from Aly. Eric played with the girls a little but he mostly played with his cars. John and Patrick watched the Packers vs. Lions, the Cowboys vs. Dolphins, and finally UT vs. A&M. It was getting late by then so John had to settle for listening to the A&M game on the radio on the way home.

More pics to follow tomorrow!

Thanksgiving at School

I've been waiting for Patrick to do another guest post on his sister's wedding the weekend before last. In the meantime, I'll say a little about the Thanksgiving lunch Eric had at his school last Friday. I wasn't there, but it'll take forever for Patrick to do a guest post on that. I want him to focus on writing the Christmas letter right now anyway. :)

Patrick joined Eric at school this past Friday. At first the parents stayed in the room right outside Eric's classroom, but the kids could see them through the glass door so of course they were all excited to see their parents. Next the kids lined up and walked to the gym so there would be extra space for all the parents.

They had turkey and all the trimmings for lunch. I can't really share some of the other photos because they have Eric's classmates in them, but there is one really cute picture of Eric with a couple of his friends who have their arms around him and he has the biggest smile, sort of like the one in this picture. At first all of the kids sat together to eat but later they were spread out so that the parents could sit with their kids. Eric always seems excited to see any of his family at his school, so both of them had a good time.

Even though Eric was having fun with his friends, when Patrick asked him if he wanted to go home after lunch or be picked up later, he elected to go home. That saved Patrick a trip back to pick him up. Eric would have had school today too, but he wanted to stay home with his siblings who are on vacation.

Fall Shootout Results

We had two soccer games today, one at 7:30am and one at 11:30am. We got to the first game before dawn! At least Anthony's team won the first one 2-0. We had the possibility of two more games after that so we headed home first to check on the other kiddos.

This a picture of Anthony getting shoved during his second soccer game today. I don't like to see my children getting shoved, but Anthony was playing well and he did a little shoving as well. Unfortunately, his team couldn't score and they had a scoreless tie at the end of regulation. That meant having penalty kicks (PK). Anthony's team should have dominated that game, but instead they lost 3 PKs to the other team's 4 PKs. On the plus side for us, we didn't have to entertain Natalie and Eric for longer than that one game and we could take our time before going to church at 5pm.

Natalie and Eric could have stayed home with Alex, but they came with us partly because they wanted to be able to visit the concession stand at the tournament. I got them lunch there, a hotdog for Eric and a cheeseburger for Natalie. I also got Eric a snow cone and a smoothie for Natalie. They played fairly well together, although they never go long without getting in some sort of argument.

During the last part of the game, Eric found his little friend C. C is the three-year-old little brother of one of Anthony's teammates and they both love cars and other vehicles. They first met at one of the games when Eric had brought four vehicles including an ambulance and C had brought a big 18-wheeler truck and a plane. They were so cute together.

Tomorrow, as Eric says is a "holiday". The big kids are off from school this week but Eric can actually go to PreK/daycare if he wants to. When Patrick asked him if he wanted to go to school though, he replied, "No!" I guess we'll all be hanging around at home tomorrow.

Vacation Mode

This was the sight in the game room this morning at about 7:30am. Today is the first day of their Thanksgiving break and they are all up watching Harry Potter Deathly Hallows Part 2. Actually, Alex was only up because he needed to "babysit" the other two, otherwise he would still have been asleep. Patrick and I were about to leave to take Anthony to his first soccer game of the tournament this weekend. By the way, Alex is the lump under the blue blanket that is on the sofa. He didn't want his picture taken, as usual.

Anthony had two games today. His team won the first one 2-0 and they won the second one 3-1. The other team scored on a penalty kick. They have at least two games tomorrow, and possibly a third if they reach the finals. I didn't get to go to the second one because I had to be home to take Alex to a birthday party at 2pm. Alex spent most of the day at home playing his new PS3 game Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3. I had to make him get off at 1:30pm so he could eat lunch. He said then that he had forgotten about going to the party.

While Alex was at his party, the other kiddos and I did a little Christmas shopping. I got the bulk of my shopping done already. Now I just have to worry about Santa gifts. There are some other gifts I need to get but I already know what to get. I just have to go get it. My next project will be the annual Christmas photo and making Christmas cards. It's a good thing that I'm off this next week too.

My First Digital Scrapbook Page

I just finished taking a webinar at JessicaSprague.com where we made a digital page. The background of this was already premade and all I had to do was add the title, journaling, and pictures. Very cool and very easy!

Life Is A Highway

Eric drew this on Monday, November 14th and then wanted me to take a picture so he could see it on "Papa's computer". He wrote his name with the "L." before the "Eric" and the swirly thing is a "parking lot". He's been drawing quite a few "parking lots" lately, and he started making these circular parking lots. The are corners are because his drawing area has elastic pieces in the corners to hold the paper so he colored those corners in. He is so car crazy!

When I got home with Anthony this afternoon, Eric was the one who started calling me from upstairs "Mama! Mama!" He came excitedly down the stairs to give me a big hug. What a sweetie! Of course I was only home for half an hour before leaving again. Eric prefers to stay home with Alex nowadays instead of coming with Natalie and me to the gym for Natalie's swim team practice.

When Natalie and I got home, he was singing "Life Is A Highway" by Rascal Flatts from the movie Cars, at the top of his lungs. Actually, he was singing only one line from the song over and over and over again:

"Life is a highway. I wanna ride it all night long."

He didn't sing that quite so clearly, of course, but I like that song anyway so I went ahead and bought it for him. I also looked up the lyrics and then we sang the song together a few times. He would start dancing to it and he was so adorable that I had to pick him up and put him on my lap to hug him. He looked at the computer screen at the lyrics as if he could read them and follow along. I got a little of my Eric fix before putting him to bed. :)

Thankful

Today didn't start well. Eric came to my bedroom at around 5:30am to tell me that he had peed in his bed. Sigh. He must have been exhausted though, because he fell back to sleep in my bed after I bathed and changed him. I couldn't go back to sleep and that 6am alarm felt like it rang too soon. In order to make it through my day, I decided to look for the silver lining and to be thankful instead. It wasn't too difficult.

I'm thankful that Eric did what I asked him to do in order for me to give him a bath early this morning including not fussing over what clean clothes I chose to put him in.

I'm thankful that Alex stripped Eric's bed for me while I bathed Eric.

The washing machine kept stopping and I didn't have time to mess with it before we left for Anthony's game at 6:45am. I'm thankful that the washing machine finally started and I was able to finish washing the bed linens when we got home after 10am.

I'm thankful that there wasn't much traffic and that we got to the soccer fields in plenty of time so I had time to pick up some breakfast for Alex at Benny's Tacos before taking him to his school. They were taking a school bus from there to the UIL competition at another middle school.

I'm thankful that Anthony's game started a few minutes late because I decided to stop at Starbucks to get breakfast for Eric and me and I also stopped to get gas. This way I didn't miss any of the game.

I'm thankful that the gas in that area is usually a little bit cheaper than closer to home.

I'm thankful that Anthony's game was played at a field much closer to the entrance of the soccer fields instead of me dragging Eric, two lawn chairs, my camera bag and my purse, and our Starbucks drinks all the way to the back of the fields where they were originally scheduled to play.

Before I continue listing all the things I was thankful for today, I want to tell the story of this photo. At Anthony's soccer game this morning, Eric wanted me to take pictures of him. At first he wanted pictures of his "whole body", as he put it. I had the big zoom lens on (70-300mm) so at first I could only get his head in the frame because he was too close, so he backed up. I only got a picture of his upper torso. Finally I was able to get his whole body in the frame. Then he got silly and wanted me to take a picture of the chair on top of his head. We did that. Next he wanted to take a picture of the chair in a different position on his head. I indulged him. That was the end of the photos because by that time the game was over. I'm thankful that he was such a good mood at the game. :) I'm also thankful that Anthony's team easily won their game 8-0.

I'm thankful that my kids have a good metabolism. After his game, Anthony wanted to eat some Schlotzky's for brunch. It was only 10am.

I'm thankful that there were yummy leftovers from Pei Wei in the refrigerator for me to eat for lunch.

I'm thankful that Eric played so well by himself so I could just relax at home. I'm sure Anthony was very thankful that Patrick bought/preordered the new PS3 game called "Skyrim" because Anthony played it last night and most of today. We only picked it up yesterday evening.

I'm thankful that I got to make some brownies this afternoon for my boys.

I'm thankful that Alex's bus was right on time when I picked him up at 4pm.

I'm thankful that Eric cleaned up his cars after I asked him only once, that he went to the potty before bed after I asked him only once, and that he went to bed early at 7:30am without questioning me like he usually does.

I'm thankful that Anthony's plans with friends were cancelled so I didn't have to drive him around this afternoon.

I'm thankful that Anthony's babysitting job is just across the street so I didn't have to drive him around this evening.

I'm thankful that Patrick and Natalie are having fun today/tonight. I do miss them both very much and I'm looking forward to their return tomorrow.

Eric Entertainment

I took this picture of Eric this morning when he was heading into school. He's been very excited about his new "Cars 2 backpack" since I bought it and gave it to him yesterday. I think it's cute that he has to specify that the characters are from the "Cars 2" movie instead of "Cars 1" (as he now calls the first movie). I gave it to him after school yesterday and when we picked up his brothers, he told them as they got in the car "I got a new Cars 2 backpack!"

This morning he wanted to go to school early. Patrick usually takes him around 8am after he has played for a bit at home. This morning he wanted to go even before Alex was picked up by the carpool at 7:30am. Fridays are Show and Tell days and Eric couldn't wait to show off his new backpack and his new "Cars 2 car" named "Max Schnell" and his older "Cars 1 car" named "Chick Hicks". He was almost running into the school.

I also noticed in the last few days that Eric has been singing a few "new" songs. He likes to listen to the radio, sometimes whatever station that Patrick or I listen to and sometimes to the "Silly Songs" CDs that I have in my car. What's funny is that he obviously doesn't know the words and he sort of makes them up, but he doesn't use real words. I can usually make them out based on the first letter sound or the melody. For example, he was singing "Roxanne" by Rod Stewart, but it sounded more like "Ra an Uh On the Red Light, Ra an." I don't remember what "words" he used exactly, but you get the drift. This morning he was also singing "Feliz Navidad" except that it sounded more like "Pa Lees Mari Dad" which he would sing over and over again. I tried teaching him the real words to that one, and he could do it when he was repeating after me, but he's not able to do it without prompting. We all get such a kick out of listening to him sing.

This afternoon the big boys were getting their hair cut at the hair salon. They told me that the hairdressers were all listening to Eric play with his cars. He can be very loud when he plays with cars because he makes squealing tire and crashing sounds. He was doing that and suddenly he stops and says, "I have to poop." They just thought that was cute and hilarious!

It's a good thing Eric has been entertaining me, to take my mind off how much I miss Patrick and Natalie. Patrick was so good about taking pictures today and texting them to me. They took a couple of walks today. He took pictures of the snow flurries that were in Natalie's hair. He took pictures of the beautiful fall color. We also did "Face Time" a couple of times so I could see the house where they're staying and Eric could see his aunts and grandparents. Two more days and we get to see each other again.

Single Parent Craziness

I don't like being out and about until almost 10pm, especially on a postcall day, especially when I haven't had a chance to nap, but that's what happened today. Of course some of it was my fault. I spent too long browsing at Target and at HEB. I don't like lists--they're too confining. I prefer to wander around and find stuff that I think I need. Unfortunately, my method is very inefficient. I also didn't have to make chocolate cupcakes, but look at how much Eric is enjoying his cupcake!. He had another one after dinner. Anthony had three right away. In the end I'm glad I made those cupcakes, otherwise I would have nothing to show for all of those errands/car trips I did today.

Below is a summary of my comings and goings for today, for my own record of this crazy day.

--Trip to Target mostly to pick up those $10 Harry Potter BluRay/DVD/Digital Copy movies
--Trip to the post office to pick up our new mailbox keys. They only had one clerk and one long line of 10 + people
--Wendy's to get lunch for my dear daughter to eat before heading to the airport
--Natalie's school to pick her up which took a long time because I picked her up during recess but then we had to go back to get her backpack and the classroom door was locked. We had to wait for her teacher to get back after recess.
--Trip to the airport to drop off Patrick and Natalie
--Chipotle to get lunch for myself and dinner for the boys (Alex's request)
--Attempt to make cupcakes but then I realized I didn't have any cocoa powder so I had to make a trip to HEB. Of course I couldn't JUST pick up cocoa powder. I picked some donuts for Sunday and supplies for a possible banana chocolate chip pancake/bacon breakfast and jambalaya for lunch or dinner some time this weekend.
--Pick up Eric then Alex and his carpool buddies then Anthony
--Take Anthony to the Incarnate Word soccer game with his club soccer team
--Take Alex to club soccer practice
--Take Eric home to get him ready for bed and for me to eat dinner. I rewarded him for being such a trooper on all of these car trips by giving him a "Cars car" called "Max Schnell". I heard him telling the car "I'll love you forever." LOL! He's never told his Mama or his Papa that before!
--Pick up Alex
--Pick up Anthony. Eric fell asleep in the car on the way since it was after 9pm. We had to wait for the game to finish. It's a good thing I got Eric ready for bed already.

I've always said that I admire single parents who have kids in various activities. Patrick and I have to tag team it and we still have trouble doing it all. When the kids' activities cluster together like this I try to request no call when I can because I don't want Patrick to have to be a "single parent" either. Still, there are people I know that tell me that I'll miss this when the kids are grown up. I have to admit that I probably will.

Older Boys Vs. Eric

Eric had his weekly swim lesson today. He gets so excited when it's his swim lesson day. He was practically dragging Patrick and me through the parking lot to get to the gym. It's really cool to see him so excited about something. He does so well in class too. He follows directions and he shows no fear.

I was just thinking this past week about how cool it is to compare the two older boys with Eric. The older boys tend to not say too much when they're at home. Eric can babble on about something and you have no idea what he's talking about. The older boys also usually keep to themselves at home, reading or playing on the computer (except for recently when Alex hasn't been allowed such a privilege). Even when they play video games, you only hear the sound of the video game, sometimes not even that since Alex often wears headphones while playing Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. On the other hand, you know when Eric is playing. He is usually crashing cars in his bedroom. We hear the constant sounds of squealing of tires or crashing noises that he makes himself. He does have his quiet times, though, usually when he watches something on the iPad. The best part is how excited Eric gets about stuff. The older boys have understated reactions to even stuff they enjoy. Yes, it can actually be fun to have a four-year-old in the house.

Midweek Update

Eric has been a prolific artist lately. He is constantly asking for paper to draw on. He favors markers over crayons. He usually draws lots of train tracks all over the page but today he was drawing a bunch of circles and curves. He also wrote his name (see lower left corner) but he put his last name initial before his first name. He knows what his last name and middle name are, but at this point spelling them is beyond his abilities. He wrote a "B" at the bottom for his friend "Brady", but when I asked him what the other letters were for, he basically said that he just felt like writing those letters.

This is a picture from Anthony's Sunday morning game, the reason why we couldn't sleep in to take advantage of the time change from Daylight Savings. They won pretty handily with a score of 9-2. They even had to lend the other team two of their players since the other team was short.

Anthony's schedule has changed lately. Instead of having to be at school by 6:45am for Cross Country practice, he has to be there by 7:15 for "captains' practice" which is an unofficial soccer practice. The coaches can't run a practice outside of school hours until after Thanksgiving so this is student-run. The purpose is so the boys can start playing together which should help them come together as a team when the time comes. He also has the same practice after school, sometimes with weight training. Today he got out of practice around 5:30pm.

This will make Tuesdays and Thursdays even more difficult since we usually leave the house by 5:30pm to get him to his club soccer practice. Club soccer practice was cancelled tonight because of the recent rainfall, but in the future we'll have to have his club soccer stuff with us when we pick him up so we can take him directly to club soccer practice from high school soccer practice. It just gets busier and busier!

Alex is still without privileges. He brought up his grades so he has his phone back. He still isn't allowed on the computer (except for schoolwork) nor has he played video games. Today his binder was stolen. Apparently there is only room in his gym locker for his clothes and shoes so he left his binder next to his locker. Patrick and I are wondering what sort of school our child is going to when his phone and iPod get stolen from his locker (last year) and now his binder?!!

Natalie is excited about going to see the family in the Boston area this weekend. Patrick is only taking Natalie to see his sister Lisa get married this weekend. It's just too difficult for the boys to miss any school and Patrick will have an easier time if he doesn't have to take Eric. Today Alex and I joked around about how the house would be very quiet this weekend without Patrick and Natalie around. ;)

First LTF Swim Meet

My blog posts seem to be getting less frequent. I had to post today though, because Natalie had her first swim meet. The big boys both had games at noon, and Natalie's meet was originally scheduled to start at 1pm. That wasn't late enough for me to watch any of the boys' games at all, but it was late enough that Patrick was able to watch all but two of her seven races.

This was the smallest swim meet that I've ever been to. Basically, our gym swim team raced against two of their other locations, one here in town and the other in Austin. They did the events in the usual order but all the boys in the different age groups went first and then the girls for each event, probably for simplicity since there weren't that many kids. The other teams weren't even able to field any relay races since they were so small with ages groups that were too varied. I'm going to list Natalie's times and places (for my own record) below.

25m Freestyle - 19.464 sec - 1st
50m Freestyle - 47.038 sec - 1st
25m Backstroke - 23.41 sec - 1st
50m Backstroke - 52.521 sec - 1st
25m Breaststroke - 31.391 sec - 2nd
25m Butterfly - 26.487 sec - 1st
100m IM - 2:04.58 - 1st

Some other random facts/observations:
--I may be a little biased and I don't know that much about the different strokes, but her butterfly stroke was beautiful and it looked like a lot of the other kids weren't doing theirs quite right. Patrick confirmed that he thought most of those other kids would have been disqualified in a regular swim meet.

--Natalie had to swim her IM (Individual Medley) right after she swam in the 25m Butterfly. She looked tired, but I'm still amazed at how much energy she has.

--It was hot and humid in the indoor pool and that's the part I'm not looking forward to when she starts getting into competitive swimming.

--All of those 25m times were better than her previous times except for the Butterfly which was about a second slower. She has never competed in the IM before and she was especially excited about swimming in that event.

--I loved watching her enjoy herself--during the race and in between as she was laughing and having fun talking with her teammates.

--After the Butterfly, she told us that she received a few compliments like "You have a nice stroke", "You have good arms", and "Do you swim with Quad A also, or just Lifetime Fitness?" Quad A is the local competitive team that she tried out for in August but didn't make the team. We'll see what happens next year.

That's all I can think of right now. After the meet, I got her some lunch, we went home so she could take a shower, and then she ran off to her friend's sleepover birthday party. It's still weird to me to see her bedroom door wide open with the lights out in there, but I see a lot more sleepovers in her future. I'm sure this time she will sleep very well.

Halloween 2011

Anthony is Mario as in the "Mario Bros." from video game fame. Natalie is a "goddess". Eric is of course "Lightning McQueen" from the Disney movie "Cars". They were all excited about their costumes, even Anthony.

We didn't have a block party this year, the first time in the 10 Halloweens we've been here. The main organizer moved away last summer, and the person who everyone seems to expect to organize it didn't want to do it again this year. Someone still set up some tables to hold all of our candy so we didn't have to individually hand out candy at each of our houses.

In previous years, we waited for some of the other kids on our cul-de-sac to start trick or treating, usually just before it got dark. Of course in previous years, Halloween always fell after Daylight Savings Time ended, so it got dark earlier. Since Halloween is on a school night this year, we didn't want to wait until dark. We started by 6pm.

I was a little surprised that Anthony wanted to go with us. He had even offered to take Eric for us, but of course I had to be there to watch them have fun and to take some pictures. Maybe if his friends had been able to come over tonight he would have ditched us in favor of hanging out with them, but I was glad to have the company.

As usual, Natalie sped along like she was worried about people running out of candy. As usual I reminded them to say "thank you" at almost every house. Patrick actually came with us, at first. After about two long blocks, Eric started rubbing his tummy and asked to go home, so Patrick took him home. Later Eric said that his tummy hurt because he needed to eat candy. :)

That left Anthony and Natalie and it was still fun for me to watch the two of them have fun. Anthony kept jumping up as if he were in the video game grabbing coins from the air. That boy cracks me up sometimes. He commented on how people looked at him funny. His post on Facebook (as is):

Man, all these people are staring at me like "whoa bro you're way too old to trick or treat!"
Or maybe it's "hey come on now you only half-assed your costume!"
Either way, they're giving me strange looks. :P

He didn't wear his mustache that goes with the costume because he wanted to "save it" for when he can wear it at the same time as his friend A.O., so that's why he said he wasn't wearing his whole costume.

After the third block (we really do have long blocks in our neighborhood), Natalie wanted to go home too. She had almost filled her cauldron-type trick or treat bag. Anthony was trying to convince her that they needed to keep going until his huge trick or treat bag was full. He was only half-kidding, or at least I hope so. He was at least satisfied that we had plenty of candy left at home. We really only gave away half of what I bought, and I only buy what we'll eat.

No pictures of Alex because he was at home when we left, waiting for a friend to get dropped off. He left with his friend at around 7pm before we got back. His friend did at least have a homemade costume, but Alex went around in his usual clothing of a T-shirt and jeans. They brought home what felt like 10 pounds of candy apiece and then traded candy with his friend until his friend was picked up.

If we hadn't already promised him that he could invite a friend over, however, he would not have been allowed the privilege of trick or treating. Yes, he had more trouble at school. He's having trouble with his new English teacher, including a missed assignment and something he said today that offended her. Sigh. He's grounded again.

Gearing Up For Halloween

I was on call yesterday, so Patrick had to do all the driving for the various activities. I did manage to help him a little by bringing Anthony to school at 6am. That meant that I got to work a little early but that also meant that I could stop by the Starbucks by his school to pick up a little treat for me for breakfast. :)

Anthony ran at 9:30am, which was at least early enough that Patrick could go see him and then drive back home to pick up Alex to go to his game, along with the little ones. Anthony had a soccer game at the same time as Alex's game, but he skipped that to go to the end of season party for the cross country team. On the way home from picking up Anthony from the party, Anthony made plans for his best friend, A.O. to come over and then spend the night.

I took this picture this morning after I got home and after everyone had their usual Sunday morning donuts. I had bought these Mario and Luigi hats (with matching mustaches) for Anthony and A to wear for Halloween. Unfortunately, A won't be able to come over for Halloween so it was good that he came over so they could wear the hats now. Last night Patrick texted me a picture of the two of them wearing their hats while on their laptops in Anthony's room. This morning they put the hats on as soon as they got up and kept them on until Anthony got ready for soccer and A.O. left for home.

Alex got to go to a friend's Halloween party last night. It was good that the big boys were home so Patrick didn't have to worry about carting the little ones around. They all need sleep. Natalie put herself to bed at 7:40 last night!

Alex and Anthony both had games again today in different locations, of course, at noon and at 12:30, respectively. Patrick took Anthony to his game because it was at an unfamiliar field and he figured that I wouldn't want to navigate to an unfamiliar field when I was postcall and tired. That meant that I took the little ones with me to Alex's game, which was at our home field closer to home. They have a pumpkin patch at the home fields this year, and this is Natalie and Eric staring longingly at the pumpkins. They wanted to get pumpkins, but frankly, I don't really know what to do with those. Sometimes I feel like such a bad mom!

As for the results of the soccer games, Alex's team again lost. This time the score was 0-6. Patrick is very frustrated with that team and we may be looking at other options soon. Anthony seems to be thriving with his team, on the other hand. They won 7-0. Anthony started the game despite missing the game yesterday, so that was a nice plus.

Tomorrow I'll be sharing some Halloween pictures, hopefully.

"X Pactor"

Speaking of our "Exuberant Student", Natalie came home today and told us that she had gotten written up for talking during class. Her teacher was trying to teach and Natalie was talking too loudly. She really is very exuberant. I never thought to describe her that way until I saw how Patrick had titled his blog post. She was in tears when she owned up to getting in trouble.

Recently the three youngest kiddos and I have started watching the new show "X Factor" on the FOX Channel. Eric calls it "X Pactor" (just in case you thought I had misspelled my title above). I tried to get him to say the "F", but he couldn't do it. This is from the boy who still pronounces the "th" sound like an "f", so he says "free" instead of "three" or "baf" instead of "bath". I still think he's pretty cute when he mispronounces things and I'm sure he'll learn it eventually.

This is a picture of Eric from this morning. It was "Orange and Black Day" at his school, so he wore this shirt. I was trying to convince him to let me take a picture, but it took a lot of convincing. He wanted to bring one of his "Cars" cars with him to Show and Tell (which is every Friday), so at first I said that I wanted to to take a picture of "Rod Torque Redline" (the car's name). He knew that trick already, so he started by putting the car on the kitchen counter so I could take a picture of the car. I asked him to hold it and he said that if he held it then he would also be in the picture and he didn't want to be in the picture. I finally wore him down and he started holding it.

I was also practicing my photography and trying to focus on the car with Eric blurred in the background. There's a reason I was practicing and there's a reason why I didn't post any of those pictures here today--none of them were any good. They were all too blurry with nothing in good focus. I was also practicing my low light photography since my whole house is too dark for any good pictures. Even this picture isn't great, but I couldn't get him to move from where the bannister was casting that big shadow over his face. Well, I still need to practice some more.

Here Eric is telling me to take a picture of him saying "rmmm rmmm rmmm". I can't remember exactly what nonsense sounds he was making, but the point was that I can take a picture of him saying something, but it looks like any other picture except that his mouth is slightly open and he's moving and making this a little blurry because he's moving while he's talking. Hey, at least he let me take a picture. :)

He got a haircut today, so I'll have to convince him to let me take some more photos on Sunday when I get home from being at work.

An Exuberant Student

Well, she has gone and done it again. Melanie left the keys to her blog out and now I have a chance to take over for a few minutes. Okay, let’s be honest, she asked me to talk a bit about my parent-teacher conference with Natalie’s teacher yesterday.

I am always a bit apprehensive about these meetings, not due to any grade problems, Natalie always does well in school, but due to behavior. Natalie brings an exuberance and joy to almost any situation, but in doing this she can be loud, outspoken, and, quite frankly, rather annoying at times. Her love of talking has gotten her into a bit of trouble in the past. This wonderful love of school and learning can be a great thing but it can also be a major distraction to other students. Ms. C. is a wonderful teacher for Natalie because she recognizes Natalie’s energy and is able to redirect it when she needs to.

The most wonderful thing to hear from her teacher was the comment about how “kind” Natalie is. It was fantastic to hear about how she is helpful and kind to her classmates. Apparently, she has even gone so far as to try to explain some of her classmate’s behavior to her teacher in an attempt to get them out of trouble or keep them from getting into trouble. I am told that she sometimes goes out of her way to help some of her fellow classmates learn some of the more difficult lessons. We always try to bring up our children to be kind and respectful toward others, so it is great to hear about Natalie’s kindness. Though, I do suspect that this kindness has made her teacher a bit more forgiving about some of Natalie’s outbursts.

I was also interested in hearing about Natalie’s progress in math. Although she has always done well in math, we never really considered it her strongest subject and, at least for a while, it was certainly NOT one of her favorite subjects. Natalie’s openness helps her in school because she readily tells her teacher when she doesn’t understand something. According to Ms. C Natalie seems to figure out things a bit differently then the class plans present problems. Ms. C has encouraged Natalie to think through problems and show how she figures things out. When it all comes together for her she fully understands how it works. Lately, math has been her strongest, and now, her favorite, subject.

I believe the key to elementary school is to look at several questions. Is my child excited about school? Is s/he learning new things every day? Is s/he having fun and getting along with other students? With Natalie, the answer to all of these questions is a resounding “yes” and we couldn’t be more thrilled.

-Patrick

An Agreement

Alex has always provided different challenges for us than his siblings. As he has gotten older, those challenges have changed. He was constantly "colicky" or "fussy" as a baby, making Patrick's transition to "stay-at-home dad" status even more difficult. When we started signing him up for various activities, we would often have to "force" him to do things that we thought he would enjoy. He was never convinced until after the fact when he was already having fun. Nowadays he seems to only care about texting his friends or messaging them through Facebook. He even said that he is thinking about quitting club soccer because he doesn't have a lot of extra time between that and the mountains of homework he does on a daily basis.

As a condition of being allowed to have a Facebook account, we require that the big boys make us their "friends" so we can keep tabs on them. We want to not only make sure they are behaving appropriately, but we also want to know who their friends are. This past weekend, Patrick happened to notice that Alex was no longer on his family "list". A search for his name also proved unsuccessful. We thought that his account had been deactivated for some reason. Well, it had been deactivated. What we hadn't counted on was that Alex was using a different account to chat with his friends and to play games on Facebook. That was a breach of trust.

We had a big meeting and talked about how this was a "no-no" and that he would lose privileges. Alex picked his penalty. He wouldn't be allowed to play video games. He had already planned on seeing a movie with his friends and we allowed that just because we're always encouraging him to see his friends in person instead of only chatting with them on his phone or computer.

Also in the last few weeks, Patrick noticed on the online grading system that Alex's grades were slipping. They were all still "A's", but they were trending downward. He still has to learn how to be more efficient when he does his work, but we know that should improve over time. Then this past week we noticed that Alex had some very low grades in P.E.. I'm not talking about "B" type of low grades, I'm talking about 40-50 for some grades. That's in P.E.--Physical Education. That's from the athletic boy that runs around for an hour each soccer game without any trouble. This was very upsetting.

Patrick spoke to Alex's P.E. teacher. Apparently, Alex didn't bother dressing out for P.E. some days. He had to run a certain distance twice and got a regular grade but on the second run, he got a "0" because he didn't finish it. That averaged out to a "50". Again, this is from the boy who runs in soccer without much effort. It's not the low grades that bother us, it's the perceived lack of effort on Alex's part. P.E. should be easy to get a good grade in. We always want the kids to put their best foot forward. We've been lucky that their best foot forward usually results in "A's".

We had a couple of big discussions with Alex and we came to some agreements. It's too late for this quarter. He ended up with an "83" for this quarter in P.E. where his other grades were all "A's". Starting next quarter, if his P.E. teacher tells him to run, he'll run. He will also dress out every day. Also, started next semester (because changing it would mean changing his whole schedule around), he will take P.E. Athletics instead of the regular P.E. We had hoped he would be in P.E. Athletics this year because the kids who are in the organized school sports take that class. We thought it would be more beneficial for him in soccer and beyond and that he would find it more interesting as a result. Well now he's agreed to take it. He might even try out for the track team in the spring semester.

We have high hopes that a low grade in P.E. won't be a problem anymore.