BB Champs Part Two

We learned on Sunday morning after warmup that Natalie was chosen to be in the 200 yard Medley Relay doing the backstroke (first) leg. The girl who was originally on the "B" relay team got moved up to the "A" relay team, so Natalie replaced her on the "B" relay team. Natalie loves relays. They're more exciting and she really gets into the team spirit aspect. Unfortunately, the relays were scheduled to be the last events, so we had to pretty much stay for the whole morning session. That meant that we didn't finish the relays until around 1:30pm but then we still had to be back for the warmups before the Finals at 3:15pm.

We've learned that in the past, Natalie does better if she leaves the meet, even if she is only at home for a couple of hours. Of course this time, we didn't even have that much time. She decided to stay in the tent while I went and got her lunch. Her friend Renzi was in the same boat since Renzi had been on her relay team (which got third place--more on that later). They may look asleep in this picture, but they weren't. They didn't nap at all, but I guess at least they rested.

I thought I would take one last photo of the "tent". My back was against one wall of the tent, so this is a view of the whole length of the tent. There weren't as many people packed into the tent today. We thought that was probably because it was much nicer outside on Sunday than Saturday, and that people either sat outside in the sun or sat outside in other tents that they set up themselves. We actually had some leg room today and I didn't have another folding chair so close to the back of me that the corner was stabbing my back.

Patrick brought Eric to Natalie's first race, the 50 yard Butterfly. She was seeded something 14th place out of 21 with a time of 33.86. In the prelims she got a time of 34.13. She added 0.27 seconds. We were happy that once again she did not act pouty and disappointed like she has done in the previous few meets. She qualified for the evening finals, which is what was important. In the evening, she competed in the consolation final and finished with a time of 33.73. She dropped 0.40 seconds from her previous best time and came in 10th place overall (out of the 16 girls at the finals). She wasn't ecstatic, but she was not unhappy.

Unfortunately, her friend Ally got disqualified because "her foot moved before the start of the race". Natalie tried to comfort Ally the best that she could. Patrick had just been talking about how he did not like the officials at this race, because he felt like they were unnecessarily nitpick and which he didn't feel was good for the young kids.

This is Natalie with Ally on her right and Renzi on her left. There was a little unnecessary drama amongst her and her friends during this meet, but they appeared to have worked it out for now.

We had to wait over three hours before she swam again (for the prelims). In the meantime, Patrick left with Eric so Eric could go to Faith Formation class at our church, then he took Eric home to stay with Alex and he came back for Natalie's 50 yard backstroke race. Natalie was seeded 7th out of 27 with a time of 34.34 seconds. In the prelims she dropped 1.14 seconds to come in first overall with a time of 33.20 seconds. That was an "A" standard time and Natalie was ecstatic and so were we!

To top it off, she swam in that 200 yard Medley Relay a short time later. Since she swam in the first (backstroke) leg, her time "counted" as an official time. She swam her 50 yard backstroke in a time of 33.03, for even more of a drop in time. We were so happy for her! In the evening final, Natalie got first place in the championship final with a time of 32.53 seconds! She dropped 0.67 more seconds for an overall drop of 1.81 seconds! Wow! She wanted a medal and she got the first place medal!

Interestingly, even though she now has "A" standard times in the 50 and 100 yard backstroke, she decided not to go to the A Championship Finals in three weeks. That is on Valentine's Day weekend and Natalie wants to go to the dance at her school and spend time with her non-swimmer friends. We're glad that she seems to have other interests as this will make her more well-rounded. Her friend Ally has faster times than Natalie does in everything except those two races, but she was disappointed that she didn't get any "A" times. She wanted to go to the A Champs in place of Natalie. Ally's mom said that they might notice since Ally is a head taller than Natalie with blond hair and blue eyes.

So, this was a very tiring weekend, but after not dropping any significant time in any of her events in the last few meets, it was nice for Natalie to make some measurable progress at this meet. I guess that makes spending the whole weekend in a tent worth it.

BB Champs Part One

Whew what a day! Natalie has the BB Championships this weekend. This meet has preliminaries and finals, meaning that if you make the top 16 in the preliminary races, you get to come back and swim again in the evening.

This was the first time we've been at the Barshop Natatorium on the campus of the University of Incarnate Word, and this will probably be our last time. Their pool is 25 yards long and has 11 lanes. There is barely any room on either side of the pool for spectators to sit, let alone the 419 swimmers and their family expected at this meet. It reminded me of one of those houses that they build in popular areas like West University or Bellaire near Houston, where the houses are box-like in shape to maximize the square footage on the tiny lots. The warm-up/cool-down pool was only the two lanes on the end, lanes 10 and 11, where in other natatoriums, they have warm-up pools that are the same size as this competition pool.

The worst part was that to accommodate the swimmers and their supporters, they put up heated tents in the parking lot. That many people inside the Natatorium at one time would violate the fire code. Our swim club had the largest contingency of swimmers, over 180, so we got the largest tent, supposedly 5000 square feet. Unfortunately, there was another group of swimmers from the Wave swim club (over 80 swimmers) that were in our same tent. The tent supposedly held 500 people. At one point, one of the guys in charge came into our tent and told us that there was plenty of room for everyone and that we should stop complaining. Let's see--260 swimmers and their families and a tent that can hold 500 people. That comes out to less than one parent/supporter per swimmer. Someone can't do math and someone doesn't realize that many swimmers come with more than one parent and sometimes with extended family and other siblings, too.

On the plus side, we got to sit next to two of Natalie's good friends, Ally and Renzi. We also got to meet some new people, like Michelle and her nine-year-old daughter Paige who also swim with the same club. Michelle helped me to initially find space to sit. Some people ended up sitting in their car rather than try to find space in that tent, but I wanted to at least try to be social.

Natalie also did well in her races today. She swam the 50 yard freestyle first. She had a seed time of 31.17 seconds and had a time of 31.26 seconds today (+0.09 sec). We were pleased that there wasn't a hint of disappointment or pouting after this race. She was in a great mood. She said she didn't "expect much". She went into the 50 yard freestyle event knowing that she was number 30 out of 40 and that she would most likely not make it into the finals. Her final status was 31st place.

Her second race was two hours later, the 100 yard backstroke. She was seeded 9th out of 34 swimmers. Her seed time was 1:15.70 and she dropped 1.63 seconds for a new personal best time of 1:14.07. She was really happy after that race. That put her in 10th place for the prelims, which earned her a place in the consolation final. Being in the consolation final meant that she would not come in any higher than 9th place since the first eight places belonged to the eight girls in the championship final.

We went home, for a couple of hours then came back with Eric in tow. I think he wanted a change in scenery and/or wanted to play on my iPad that I brought with me. In any case, he was a good boy for the four hours we were there tonight. Natalie ended up first in the consolation final heat with a time of 1:11.25. That was about three seconds faster than she swam this morning and a total of over 4 seconds faster than her seed time coming into this meet! That time was actually the second fastest amongst the 16 girls in the consolation and championship finals in the 100 yard backstroke, but for the reason stated above, she was officially in 9th place overall in the 100 yard backstroke.

Natalie sort of hit a plateau in her swim times before this meet, so this improvement today was a very nice change. We're hoping that this performance will boost her confidence which can only be good for her swimming. In the meantime, we're back to that tent tomorrow. Wish us luck!

Ice Day

Last night, the forecast called for temperatures in the upper 20s with rain. The key word there is "rain". The cold wasn't that bad if you bundled up, but the rain made going out dangerous. We didn't get any sort of instructions at work as far as what to do if the weather turned out as icy as the forecast said it would. I guess I always knew that no matter what the weather was like, I was going to try to go to work no matter what. The last time the weather was like this, I was only one of three anesthesiologists that made it into work.

I was worried enough that I woke up at about 4:30am, way before my alarm rang. I looked on the internet for school closures. I couldn't find the info on the school district website but instead on the local news website. Because Patrick was getting up to go to the bathroom anyway, I turned on the TV and got the definitive news--many of the area school districts, including ours, were closed. Unfortunately, I had to go in to work anyway.

Luckily, I had no trouble at all getting to work. I left around 5:10am, about 20 minutes earlier than usual. There were less cars than usual on the freeway. The roads were wet but not icy at all, except for maybe some of the overpasses. I didn't feel like I lost control of my car at all at any time. The only way I knew there might be ice was that the car in front of me at one point looked like it moved from side to side very briefly. There were some cars stopped on the side of the road, I guessed from last night, which made everyone go even slower than they were already going.

I got to the exit from 410 to I-35 South and that exit ramp was closed. Everything else was open. I had to figure out how to get back on track after that detour but again, I didn't have any trouble and I got to work after about a half hour trip (my usual time is about 20 minutes). Surprisingly, there was a "Cowboy Breakfast" to commemorate the beginning of the Rodeo in town, and there were a ton of people in the parking lot of the Cowboy Dance Hall where that was being held. Apparently, later on, many of the area freeways were closed, causing people a lot of trouble trying to get where they were going. So, it wasn't the weather so much as the roads being closed that caused the trouble.

After I got to work and parked in the parking garage, I noticed that the covered (but still outdoor) walkway was closed. I did not want to walk across the wet street instead and leave myself open to being hit by cars and getting rained on, so I went under the Caution tape and walked across anyway. I thought it was silly that the walkway was even closed. Apparently later, they had someone standing out there preventing people from crossing. Really? That is a great use of limited manpower--not.

This is a picture of the "Board" at 2pm. We had way more anesthesia personnel show up than OR staff, so we started with running 8 operating rooms plus two trauma rooms. The higher ups called and told us to hold two trauma rooms in case we got a bunch of trauma cases related to the weather. We actually only got one case for the whole day--except that one case came to the OR twice. We heard a few more trauma calls to the ER later in the day, though, when people started getting on the roads. I called Patrick in the morning and told him not to go out. He had contemplated a trip to the library. He held off on the library trip until the afternoon when the temperatures climbed to above freezing.

We started more operating rooms as more OR staff arrived. I was chosen to run "the Board" and I was so busy all day that I couldn't even go to the bathroom without receiving a couple of calls. The staff we had were pretty stretched, but everyone worked together as a team and that was wonderful. A few more anesthesia personnel showed up also, and by about lunch time, we were running all the rooms we were supposed to--I think it was 24 rooms plus two trauma rooms. All our staff that were designated to work late also arrived, which made me breathe a sigh of relief because that meant the rest of us could leave on time.

As you can see from the picture, everything was running later, but it looked like it would taper down to a manageable level by about 5pm, which is somewhat typical. Of course, just before I left, there were two emergency cases, one that was possibly related to the weather, but another that was not, so I'm not sure how things will turn out tonight. I was so happy to get home (and it was an easy drive too), even though I had a terrible headache. I lay down as soon as I got home and took a nice nap.

It's supposed to be a little warmer tonight and then even better tomorrow. I hope so--we're going to be spending most of the weekend in a heated tent for Natalie's swim meet--more on that later.

Swim Friends

Today the kids were off school for Martin Luther King's Birthday. Natalie doesn't get to spend much time with her friends outside of swimming, especially her swim friends, so today was the perfect opportunity. Her friends Renzi, Aspen, and Ally spent most of the day with us. Renzi and Ally arrived around 1130. Aspen didn't arrive until around noon since she still had school (home-school). They did some silly things like take selfies while standing in the middle of the street in front of our house and singing to their favorite songs. Three out of four wore their matching "What Does The Fox Say?" shirts. They mostly spent time in Natalie's room with the door closed, but at about 1pm they decided they wanted to go get ice cream.

We haven't taken a trip to Brindles in a while, so we went there, and I took Eric along as well. Natalie got her usual Red Velvet ice cream. Her friends all got the Cookies and Dream flavor, which is like Cookies and Cream except with Dreamsicle ice cream instead of the "Cream". It was a beautiful day so we all sat outside to eat our ice cream. The girls went into the Half-Price Books next door and Natalie came out asking if I would buy them matching bookmarks that said, "Life is too important to take seriously" with a picture of silly birds sitting on each other's heads--silly bookmarks for silly girls.

We were originally supposed to take them all to swim practice on Monday night so their parents could pick them up there, but swim practice got cancelled, so they got picked up at our house at about 5:30pm. Natalie had a lot of fun being a normal girl with normal friends who just happen to swim.

Lego Shopping

I used to blog a lot more often, with shorter entries that were often without photos. I'm going to try to do that again, mostly because I want to be able to record more little stories--stories that are too short for a scrapbook page but too long maybe for a Project Life pocket page, but still stories that I want to remember.

Today, I took Eric to Faith Formation class at our church, or "church school". It was only when we got there that we found out that his class was cancelled due to the holiday weekend. Anthony took him to church school last week when Patrick and I were at Natalie's swim meet, so they may have said something then, but of course Anthony would not remember that sort of thing.

I had planned to run a few errands while Eric was at school, so I took him with me instead. One of our stops was WalMart. We usually go to Target, but last weekend a friend showed me the Minion bandaids that she got there and WalMart was closer to Costco where I got gas, so we went to WalMart instead of Target. I needed to get those Minion bandaids for Eric. :)

Eric always wants to go to the toy section, especially the Lego section wherever we are. He doesn't remember going to WalMart even though he's been there before, so he asked, "Do they have Legos at WalMart?" Why yes, they do. They have a whole long aisle where one side has sections for the various Lego themes. Eric is really into Lego Ninjago right now because he received one set for Christmas and because he has been watching the Lego Ninjago shows.

He saw two sets that he was interested in, one was $90 and one was $60. I told him he didn't have enough money for those sets. He said, "What about the money from Grandma and Grandpa?" Um no, you're not going to spend that much money on Lego sets. I told him, "Why don't you save your allowance instead?" At first he was going to get a cheaper $20 set, but I didn't want him to buy something he didn't like as much just so he could get something. I asked him if he really wanted that $20 set or if he liked the other sets better. After a pause when he was thinking about it, he decided that he wanted to save up for one of the bigger sets. Good choice. We didn't buy any Legos (or other toys, for that matter) today.

It's pretty tough for kids to learn the value of money. I don't know if he'll make as wise a choice in the future, but I hope he'll continue on the path to knowing how to make wise choices.

Commitment Core Value Award

This past Monday or Tuesday, I was driving Alex home and he said that he needed to be at school early on Wednesday (Jan. 15) for "some little awards ceremony" and that we didn't need to go. I started thinking of what awards ceremony that we might have attended with Anthony at this time of year. I asked Alex, "You mean the Core Value Awards?" Anthony always got his in the last quarter of the year, so Alex getting it after the second quarter threw me off. Alex of course doesn't understand that we will always try to go to any awards ceremony where he receives an award. Luckily, I was already scheduled to be off work on Wednesday for Eric's monthly Art a la Carte class, so I was happy about the timing.

At Alex's magnet school, they have four "Core Values", which are Perseverance, Integrity, Commitment, and Kindness. Each quarter, the teachers pick one student that they feel demonstrates each core value. The student can't get more than one award for each core value and they can only get one award per year. A few students get all four core value awards--Anthony did.

They had the ceremony in the same classroom that they've had it in for the past four years. They have a breakfast spread to one side with pastries, cake, coffee, and juice. The parents get to sit in the chairs and the students all have to stand up in the back of the room and on the sides. The room itself has stairs so that the back is higher than the front--for easier viewing. I elected to stand this year instead of sit, so Patrick and I both were able to stand next to Alex.

The mystery is always which teacher picked him and for what award. Alex strictly forbade me to take any photos, and especially no photos with his teacher. Sigh. Alex's teacher for Web Design, Mr. V gave him the "Commitment" core value award. In the past, Anthony would allow me to take a picture with his teacher after the ceremony. This year I had to get more creative. I took a picture of the little certificate that Alex got as well as the pin. I realized that I have never actually taken a picture of the pins before. Patrick and I always get a pin also, with just the school name and symbol on it, not the core value award. I think Anthony put his on his backpack or something like that. I have no idea where Alex is putting his pin.

After Alex left to go meet his friends before school, Patrick and I went up to his teacher to say hello and to thank him for recognizing Alex. We've met him before, of course, when he was Anthony's teacher. He told us that he picked Alex for this award not only because Alex is doing well in his class, but he showed extra effort and commitment in coming in after school to work on projects plus Alex also worked on those projects at home. Alex had a 100 in the Web Design class for the first semester, apparently one of only five students who have ever been able to do that. Patrick doesn't think Anthony was one of them.

Alex has said that his goal is to get better grades than Anthony. He seems to be well on his way.

2014 Title Page

I finally finished my 2014 Title page this past week. I've followed the same format for the past few years. I get a picture of all four kids, then I stamp their hands directly on the page. Last year and this year I decided that the handprints might last longer if I heat emboss the ink, so the handprints are shiny in real life. The hardest part for me the last couple of years has been to figure out how to fit the handprints on the page, since Anthony and Alex's hands are pretty big. I had to ask them to squish their fingers together, so that made Anthony's hand look thinner. I should have done an actual comparison and had them put their hands together. I probably could have arranged the handprints a little differently here, but I wasn't about to do this again. The kids surely would have balked.

The kids all then write their names next to their handprints. Eric decided that his name was too far from his handprint, so he drew an arrow. Alex was in his own world as usual and automatically wrote out his whole name and not just his first name.

Usually Patrick will get the heights and weights for me, but he was busy preparing dinner, so I did that this year. Alex was disappointed that he and Anthony were the same exact height--71 1/8 inches tall. They had just weighed themselves when Grandma and Grandpa were here, so they didn't want to get weighed again. Anthony was 147 pounds and Alex was 157.5 pounds. Alex has always had more "meat" to his frame, so this was not surprising.

Natalie has made the most physical change this past year, I think, and I'm not referring to her height and weight. She and Eric both grew a couple of inches and she's gained about 15 pounds since last year--all muscle from swimming, I'm quite sure. I asked Anthony if he thought Eric had changed while he was gone. Anthony replied, "Not really."  When I asked him if he thought Natalie had changed, he said, "Oh yeah."

Eric is just a little guy. He is 45 inches tall and 44 pounds. I just looked it up and Natalie was about that height and weight at the same age. Anthony was that size at about age 5 1/2. Alex was at that size around when he was 2! Eric is still growing, though, slowly but surely. We can certainly tell that he is maturing by the way he talks and moves around.

Yes, my babies are growing, which is good. Whether or not I make another scrapbook page this year, this page is still the most important.

Short Course B Champs

This past Saturday and Sunday, Natalie swam in five events for the B Championships. I don't really take pictures of her swimming anymore, since I have so many of those, so I ended up taking pictures of all of us waiting. There was a lot of waiting. There were also a LOT of people there, as you can probably see in the background of this first picture.

On Saturday morning, Patrick brought Eric with him to the meet since there would not be anyone at home. Anthony brought Alex to school so his school soccer team could go to the south side of town for a tournament. That gave them some time to stop by one of Anthony's old haunts, Benny's Tacos, for breakfast.

Natalie had two races on Saturday morning. She swam the first event at about 0830 and the second at about 0930, so luckily that meant that we could go home early, since we had to return in the afternoon for two more events. Her results for Saturday morning are as follows:

Event 1--100 yard IM--Seed Time 1:21.53--Time today 1:21.07--Difference -0.46
Event 5--200 yard Free--Seed Time 2:37.26--Time today 2:41.78--Difference +4.52

Patrick went to Alex's two soccer games on Saturday (one at 12:00 and one at 4:30), despite having a really bad problem with allergies. Alex actually got to play, which is not the usual case with freshman, so we thought that was a good thing. Anthony came to the Saturday afternoon session with us, so Patrick missed those races so he could watch Alex's game and then pick him up.

Eric is acting a little goofy in this second picture. I was charging my iPad and he didn't want to play on the old iPad, so he kept himself busy trying to rest his legs on Anthony. Because he was doing that, Natalie decided to rest her feet on her friend Ally's legs. She didn't want me to take a picture of her feet, though, so she asked Ally to put her feet on Natalie instead. I love that the two girls look happy in this photo even though most of the time they were far from smiling. Ally is mostly serious anyway, and Natalie was not happy with any of her races on Saturday.

Natalie's two Saturday evening races were at about 6pm and 7:30pm. Her friend Ally had to swim even later than that, but we couldn't stay because we really needed to get Natalie and Eric to bed. Natalie's results for Saturday evening are as follows:

Event 35--100 yard Free--Seed Time 1:09.43--Time today--1:10.52--Difference +1.09
Event 45--100 yard Fly--Seed Time 1:23.94--Time today--1:22.69--Difference -1.25

She really didn't do badly at all, but in her mind she still wants to drop time each time she races, and she was so close to a BB time for the 100 yard Free that adding time meant she wasn't going to get that BB time. She even got some new cool red and black goggles, but that didn't help her confidence or her performance.

Natalie didn't have to race until 1030 on Sunday morning, but she came early to support her friend Ally, who swam in the first event. Ally's mom had to go pick up her other daughter, so Ally stayed with us to support Natalie for her one race on Sunday. Natalie's seed time for the 200 IM was 2:53.76. Her time today was 2:57.99 for a difference of +4.23. She was not happy at all, but having her friend there really helped.

Ally's mom Elana and I joked with each other about how Ally will smile for me even when she won't smile for Elana. The same thing was true for Natalie with Elana. It's a good thing we were there for each other's daughters! It's all a growing process and Natalie is getting lots of experience. Patrick and I are super proud of her and her dedication at such a young age. Next step--BB Championships in two weeks.

Title Page Photo Outtakes

I've been meaning to post these photos for a week now, but alas, last week was the first week back to school for the kids, and the first week back to work for me, so we were very busy. Alex had soccer practice every day plus he got to play in a tournament on Thursday night, Friday during the day (he missed almost the whole day of school) and most of the day on Saturday. Luckily, having Anthony still around helped us manage shuttling the kids around plus still allow Patrick to watch most of Alex's soccer games. Alex actually got some good play time in--when his team was already winning by quite a bit. Natalie of course had daily swim practice plus a meet last weekend--more on that later this week.

Last Sunday, January 5th, I gathered the kids in front of the tree for their yearly photo. I plan on using that photo for my yearly Title Page for my scrapbook album. In the last few years, that page has pretty much been the only page that I had in my scrapbook album, but I still like to do that one page. I'll share the actual page when I actually finish it. Like everything else this week, I didn't have time to put it all together.

Before I proceeded with the group photo, I took some test shots to get my camera settings, white balance and flash the way I wanted them. The first picture is overexposed on Alex's half of the photo and underexposed on Eric's half. How could I throw away that photo, though? Their poses are hilarious! Alex will often make funny faces like that one for photos, and Eric likes to pose his body in different ways, too. The second photo is one of Eric's funny faces. He likes to open his mouth nice and wide.

Of course I tried getting Natalie to pose first. They were all folding laundry in the living room at the time. I asked her to step closer to the tree. She was not really willing and the only photo I got of her was blurry. Anthony would have been willing, but he was actually folding laundry.

This is the photo I'm going to use for my page. We did the yearly height, weight, and handprint for each of the kids. Hopefully I'll finish that page soon.

Meanwhile, notice Natalie's red jacket--she loves that jacket and wears it for most of the year, even when it's super hot outside. Also notice that Natalie's and Eric's socks don't match. Natalie and all of her friends apparently mismatch their socks on purpose--for fun. Eric liked that idea, so he started doing that too. Natalie is also wearing one of her favorite shirts, "What does the Fox Say" after the now famous viral YouTube video. Her hair is half up and half down. Her friend Margot has been telling her that she should wear her hair down. She knows that I don't like her hair down because it gets messy, but I told her it would be okay if she wore it half up and half down. Sometimes she listens to me...

Notice that Eric is wearing his Green Bay Packers shirt. After the Packers won their game the week before when Eric wore this shirt, Patrick made sure that he washed that shirt so Eric could wear it again for the Wild Card Playoffs that Sunday. Unfortunately, the shirt wasn't as lucky as Patrick had hoped and the Packers lost. Still, he loves that Eric has a Packers shirt too. Natalie asked for one for herself. Patrick loved that.

The photo doesn't really reflect this fact, but notice also that Anthony and Alex are the same size. When Anthony first came home for Christmas Break, Alex wanted to see how he measured up against his brother. He was upset that they were the same size. Alex really wants to be taller than Anthony. Someday soon, he will be...

Fiesta Texas Season Passes

The weather was beautiful this weekend, and even though it did get chillier on Sunday, the sun was still out. We took this opportunity to visit the local theme park, Six Flags Fiesta Texas. We have had season passes for many years, and last Friday, we went there to process our season passes for 2014.

For the first time we didn't have to wait in line to get our season passes processed. This was a Friday afternoon, so maybe everyone had to go back to work. We were glad we didn't wait until the weekend. For the first time also, they didn't need to take photos of all of us. They're switching over to a fingerprint identification system instead of the photos. I still remember when Alex was a toddler and we didn't make him get out of the stroller to get his picture taken.

After we got the new season passes, Anthony, Alex, and Natalie went off to ride on The Iron Rattler. The ride used to be called The Rattler and was a wooden roller coaster, but they put a new steel track on top of the previous wooden structure and made the drops steeper as well as adding a portion where riders are turned upside down. Anthony had not ridden the new coaster since it opened, so he really wanted to give it a try. Natalie said she didn't want to go at first, but her brothers convinced her to go and of course she loved it.

Eric didn't understand why he couldn't go too. We tried to explain to him that he was too little and that the bigger rides were not as safe and not made for smaller people. He even asked if people could be too big for some rides and we definitely said that was true.

Instead, we took him to the kiddie area. He and Patrick rode on the ZoomJets ride (first picture above) where the seats were red airplanes that went round and round and up and down. The next ride was the Kiddie Koaster (second picture above). When Eric saw the ride, he said, "That's not a good roller coaster. It doesn't go upside down." We thought that was statement was hilarious! We also saw our future of Eric riding on all of those big roller coasters that went upside down and which way, just like his older siblings.

For now, he seemed happy enough riding the kiddie rides. We also saw a big Christmas tree. Too bad we didn't see it at night when it was lit up. Just like when he saw the big Christmas tree in the Galleria in Houston, wondered out loud how big this tree was. We didn't know, but Eric seems fascinated with quantifying things.

Ironically, despite no line to process our season passes, the line for The Iron Rattler was quite long. We rode all of those rides with Eric plus walked around plus he played at this one playscape type of area. I'm guessing it was around a hour that we waited for the kids to finish riding that one ride. Eric rode on one more ride, the "Yosemite Sam's Wacky Wagons" that was a mini-ferris wheel. Neither Patrick nor I wanted to ride with him, and Eric didn't mind riding by himself. This ride was near the exit for The Iron Rattler, and the other kids came out just before Eric finished with his ride.

It was a short visit but it was nice to enjoy the weather and each other's company. The kids started back to school again today, and Anthony goes back to Boston next Monday. We'll be back to our busy schedule soon enough.

More New Year Memories

We got home yesterday, and although it is always nice to sleep in my own bed, I miss my family already. My sister Cynthia is such a wonderful hostess, and once again we have left stuff at her house that she has to mail back to us. I guess that means we want to go back soon, right?

I want to tell a few more stories of what we did when we were in Houston plus I want to share a few more photos. In this picture, Eric is playing with his Legos on the floor in Cynthia's room. Eric received a few Lego sets for Christmas and he wanted to play with them while he was there. We were worried that he would lose some of the pieces because he isn't very good about putting his toys away. Cynthia let him play on the floor of her room with the Lego pieces on top of the poster board to keep them together.

My Mom and Dad drove to my sister Melissa's house because it's closer for them, and then she brought them to Cynthia's house for New Year's Eve. On New Year's Day, they were all about to go back to Melissa's house including my niece Emily whose Dad was going to pick her up so they could spend time together on New Year's Day. Dad wanted a photo with all of his grandkids, but the big boys weren't up yet, so at least we have this photo of the girls with Dad. We should have gotten a photo on New Year's Eve, but I didn't even think about it.

My nephew Nick recently "rediscovered" their Nintendo Wii. They had not played on the Wii in years, but when his PS3 stopped working, he started playing his old Wii games. Here he is playing a Star Wars game with Eric, which of course Eric LOVED. Patrick decided to let Eric stay up an hour longer than he would have, just because they were having so much fun. What other opportunity would they have to play together? Anthony and Alex were at a movie at the time, and when they got home, they played on the Wii also. Our Wii isn't working, so they "rediscovered" the Wii as well.

We mostly hung around the house during our visit. The big boys played with their electronics, and the girls hid out in Aly's room. We did manage to go out on the evening of January 1st. I went shopping at the local outlet mall with my sisters and Alex. It still amazes me that Alex is my one child who always wants to go shopping. Still, Cynthia and I agreed that Melissa has the most shopping stamina. The cell phone reception was spotty there, so we had trouble reaching each other. Alex had gone shopping on his own and I went with my sisters, mostly to be able to chat and socialize with them. When we met up with Alex again, he said he was ready to go an hour before, but he figured we still wanted to shop.

Meanwhile, Patrick took Aly, Natalie, and Eric to see the Disney movie Frozen. Natalie and Eric had already seen the movie, but Patrick and Aly had not. Natalie and Eric didn't mind seeing the movie again, especially Natalie, who had seen the movie a second time with her friend Margo already. This was her third time seeing the movie. After they got back, Anthony drove Alex to the movie theatre to see Anchorman 2. Nick had already seen that movie with his dad, so he stayed home to play on the Wii.

I took this photo before we left on January 2nd. Emily had originally planned on coming over then, but she was invited to her friend's house and she decided to do that instead. It's too bad we didn't get a photo of all of the cousins together.

Right before I took this photo, I called them all to come to the living room to get their photo taken. The younger kids automatically gathered on the sofa. Anthony and Alex were the last ones to get into position. Alex was still fixing his bedhead and was the last one to come downstairs. I told the big boys to stand behind the sofa and crouch down. Anthony fussed at me, saying that didn't make sense since they were the tall ones. He thought they should be the ones sitting on the sofa and the other kids standing up, but the other kids were already sitting on the sofa. I love how this turned out.

January will be a busy month for us, with swimming championship meets coming up and high school soccer games starting. I'm not sure when we'll be able to visit family again, so it was really nice to be able to spend a few days with them over the New Year holiday.

New Year's Eve 2013

I'm having technical difficulties posting remotely from my sister's house. First I had to reconfigure the WiFi from my camera so that it would send photos to my phone. I was originally going to edit the photos on my computer, but I wasn't able to and that is a whole other story. From my phone I sent the still unedited pictures to my blog, but Blogger's iPhone app messes up the formatting and I don't know enough about HTML code to fix it. I decided that I could let go of perfection when it comes to processing my photos before posting here.

This first photo was taken in my sister's living room. I'm not sure why Alex has his hood over his head, but it may be because he knew I was going to take a photo and he had not combed his hair yet.

It's been a relaxing day for most of us. My sister Cynthia was working pretty hard to make sure everyone was fed. She and her husband John made breakfast for most of us. She already made the pumpkin bread. John made the pancakes and she made the turkey bacon. They only made enough for those of us that were already up. That meant that the big boys went without. That was okay though, because by the time they got up, lunch was pretty much ready. Cynthia got some Chick-Fil-A nuggets for everyone plus made pasta and reheated the quesadilla leftovers.

My sister finally arrived by 2:30-ish with her daughter Emily and the girls were off to Aly's room to play. I'm not sure where this idea came from, but they came downstairs asking for aluminum foil. They wanted to make foil caps to enhance their ability to read each other's minds. I got in a little too close in this photo, but there is foil connecting the two caps on Natalie's and Aly's heads. Emily was the one that fashioned the caps. I'm sure it wasn't really a surprise when they found that having the caps on their heads really did not help.

The boys stayed on the sofa on their electronic devices for the rest of the afternoon. My parents had driven to my sister Melissa's house, so she went to go pick them up and bring them to Cynthia's house. My mom said that the drive to Melissa's house is easier for her. They arrived around 5:30.

At one point, we told Anthony that Lola had brought Flan and that it was still warm. Anthony loves Flan, but he merely turned to me and said, "Oh"--a bit of an underwhelming response. The same thing happened when we told him that the Shrimp Ring was out and ready to eat. Anthony also loves shrimp. He was finishing watching a show on his computer and wanted to finish it first. When he was done, he went over to eat some shrimp. John had put the three or four tails on the side of the Shrimp Ring when he ate, but Anthony went and got a plate, obviously because of the number of shrimp he was planning to eat. After a few minutes, Alex got him a chair to sit it. What a great brother!

When it came to the Flan, I got some on a plate for me to eat and I went over to where Anthony was sitting on the sofa to feed him a couple of pieces. He willingly ate it, of course. I knew he could get his own, but I guess I felt like feeding my baby boy. He and Alex ate quite a bit of food today. My sister Cynthia and I said that we were pacing ourselves for eating the rest of the night.:)

John is monopolizing the big screen TV with college football (especially the Chick-Fil-A Bowl with Duke vs. Texas A&M). Cynthia and Melissa are watching Star Trek Into the Darkness on the TV in Cynthia's room. So, we're all doing our own thing, but having fun being together as a family. I'm not sure how long we're all going to be able to stay up, but it doesn't matter because we're together and that's what counts. Happy New Year, Everyone!

Grandma and Grandpa Visit

Patrick's mom, dad, and "little brother" Geoff arrived last Sunday, December 22nd. I was on call at the hospital then, but apparently they arrived some time after Natalie's swim meet. This was the first time in three years that we'd seen Geoff, the last time being three years ago when he came with his parents for Christmas also. He lives in Alaska, so traveling to see him is cost-prohibitive plus I don't like cold weather.

This time Geoff played with the big boys on the PS3. He also watched with a few of the movies we own, like Despicable Me and Despicable Me 2, complete with Eric dancing to the musical numbers. They also rented a movie that they kept saying was really bad. I was at work so I was spared having to watch it. Geoff even went with Patrick and Eric to one of the local parks and played with Eric on the playground equipment. On Christmas Day, Geoff said that Eric was the only one that was fun to shop for. He got him a remote control car that Geoff himself played with. The rest of us got gift cards to the movie theatre--fun gifts but understandably not as fun to shop for.

Patrick's mom's birthday is today, December 30th--her 80th. They weren't going to be with us on her actual birthday, so we celebrated on Christmas Eve night instead. After church in the afternoon, Patrick prepared some brisket for dinner and then we sang "Happy Birthday". She didn't want the fuss of a candle, but it did make it more like a birthday in the fact that she could blow out a candle. She definitely didn't want 80 candles. :)

Patrick had texted his sister Lisa to ask what her favorite cake was. In the end it was good that he didn't get an answer until after he had gotten this chocolate "Tuxedo Cake". Lisa had said that carrot cake was Mom's favorite, but Mom said that it wasn't. She seemed quite pleased with this cake. She had a couple of pieces of it before they left and talked about how much she enjoyed it.

On the night of December 26th, they took us out to eat at Paesano's. We came back and took this photo in front of the tree. Mom and Dad are actually looking at the camera, which makes it a very rare photo. :) They left the next morning after I had already gone to work. Patrick was good about taking a few photos before they left, but Anthony and Alex got up just to say goodbye and Alex's gravity-defying hair proved it. I didn't have the heart to post one of those photos here.

We'll see Mom and Dad again for Spring Break. As with every year, I hope we can see them more often. I'm very lucky to have wonderful in-laws like these.

Christmas Cheer

On Christmas Day, Patrick and I woke up around 7am-ish and heard Eric and Natalie downstairs with Grandma and Grandpa. They were busy playing with the items in their Christmas stockings. I got up by around 8am to make pound cake waffles. We didn't have any fruit or whipped cream, only chocolate chips. Grandpa and my brother-in-law Geoff put butter on their waffles, while everyone else had chocolate chips. Surprisingly, Anthony and Alex were up by around 9-9:30. They ate breakfast, and then we opened presents.

I didn't take a picture of the kids in Santa hats in front of the tree the last couple of years, but I love this picture and I need to remember to do this every year. As opposed to last year when they hung out all day in their pajamas, they all got dressed in their "day clothes" before we opened presents. Alex was better dressed than he was for church on Christmas Eve, complete with his red and green sneakers. Both he and Anthony came downstairs already dressed.

They all look good in red, but then red is my favorite color. Eric doesn't really care what color he wears, but recently he's favored the shirts with the "minion" theme. He's wearing a shirt that says, "I tried to be good, but I got distracted" with a picture of a minion looking guilty.

Natalie and Eric divided up the gifts, and then they all started opening. I didn't take a before and after photo this year, just photos of the ongoing action. Eric's pile was again the biggest, but mostly because his gifts were bigger. Anthony and Alex are much harder to buy presents for than Natalie and Eric, so they tend to get "smaller" gifts like gift cards. Each year, Grandma and Grandpa get them "art folios", i.e., Sports Illustrated Swimsuit calendars. Grandpa usually handwrites a little note about how he hopes they enjoy their "art folios".

This year they also each got checks inside a puzzle box. They had to solve the puzzle in order to be able to open the box and get their checks. Both of them solved it pretty quickly and then, just for fun, they tried to open their boxes again. It was fun to see them enjoy themselves with the puzzle boxes and I have to say that I was a little proud to see them solve them so easily.

Anthony bought his own presents for his siblings this year. We've been so proud of him taking it upon himself to get a job at school. We were expecting to support him fully until he graduates.

He gave Eric this Darth Vader voice changer mask. When Eric turns it on (yes, it needs batteries), he sounds like Darth Vader. We took a video of Eric saying, "Anthony, I am your brother" just like Darth Vader in Star Wars says, "Luke, I am your father." Natalie got shark socks. Patrick and I got WPI "Dad" and "Mom" shirts. Anthony gave Alex a Whataburger gift card. There is a Whataburger near Alex's high school, and that will surely come in handy. He also gave the gift card inside a Tinkerbell card, complete with fairy stickers--very creative and very funny.

Right about the time we were finishing up opening our presents, we heard the doorbell ring and then when I looked towards the door, I saw the USPS carrier set a box down next to the front door. I couldn't believe it--the post office delivered a present on Christmas Day! I would not have believed it had I not seen it for myself. The present was from my parents to Eric. My mom was going to wait to give it to him when we came to visit for New Year's, but she thought why not go ahead and send it. She got him Minion pajamas and Angry Birds Star Wars Telepods, which are toys designed to incorporate specific characters into the iPad game--very cool concept. Eric loved both presents and used them right away. We got many more presents, but I won't list them all here.

After we opened our presents, we just relaxed at home. I was glad to capture this shot of everyone enjoying videos together on the computer. There is a popular video for Volvo that has Jean-Claude Van Damme doing the splits while balanced between two big trucks. There is a parody of this video starring Channing Tatum, and then now there is a new video of a digitally created Chuck Norris doing the splits while balancing between two airplanes and having a bunch of guys above him in a Christmas tree formation--all very entertaining. Anyway, I had the windows open to the videos on my computer, so Patrick went and got my computer and showed Grandma, Grandpa, and Geoff. The kids had all already seen them.

We don't get to see Grandma and Grandpa very much and we almost never see Geoff, so it was nice to have them all here for Christmas this year. My next blog post will have a few more details about their visit.

Merry Christmas!

I've been spending some time with my family as well as Patrick's Mom, Dad, and brother Geoff, who arrived last Sunday when I was on call at the hospital. I have been mostly staying away from the computer since then. I wanted to at least share this photo from today. Amazingly, the USPS mail carrier dropped a package from my parents off at our front doorstep this morning. In the package was this Minion pajama set and Angry Birds Star Wars Telepods--all for Eric. I got him the Minion slippers.

One of the first toys he started playing with were those Angry Birds Star Wars Telepods. There is a way to use that toy with the corresponding app on the iPad to "unlock" those characters. Patrick thought that was a brilliant marketing ploy. The kids all just thought it was cool and started playing on the iPad.

This evening, after his bath, Eric wanted to wear the pajamas even before they were washed. I took the photo so his Lolo and Lola could see how happy he was with his Minion gear.

I'll try to post some more before the new year--probably back-dated. Until then, I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas!

Winter Wonderland Meet 2013

I'm post-call today, so I'll probably be actually finishing this blog post after today. This is mainly a "for my own records" type of post anyway, so most people are not going to be interested in reading this.

Natalie had a swim meet this past weekend, called the Winter Wonderland Meet, at her home natatorium. She swam in nine events over three days. Unfortunately, she got her period this past week and she felt crampy during most of her races, even after being medicated with ibuprofen. Cramps and swimming don't go together, so she ended up adding time to her personal bests in almost all of her events. That meant lots of tears of disappointment. 

She was disqualified in the 50 yard backstroke a month ago, and that was the only event this weekend where she actually took time off of her personal best. She was still disappointed, however, because her time for that was 34.34 seconds, and when she was disqualified, she said that her time had been 33-something seconds.

Below is a summary of her events and how she did in each of them:

Friday
200 IM--Seed Time 2:53.76, Time Swam 2:59.99, Change + 6.23
50 Free--Seed Time 31.17, Time Swam 31.46, Change +0.29
Saturday
200 Free--Seed Time 2:37.26, Time Swam 2:39.75, Change +2.49
50 Back--Seed Time 35.34, Time Swam 34.34, Change -1.00
100 Fly--Seed Time 1:23.94, Time Swam 1:28.32, Change +4.38
100 IM--Seed Time 1:21.53, Time Swam 1:21.64, Change +0.11
Sunday
100 Free--Seed Time 1:09.43, Time Swam 1:10.96, Change +1.53
50 Fly--Seed Time 33.86, Time Swam 35.65, Change +1.79
100 Back--Seed Time 1:15.70, Time Swam 1:16.71, Change +1.01

Patrick and I feel like they also haven't been working on their endurance in practice the last few months, so Natalie got noticeably tired especially in the longer races. Hopefully this will change in the next month or so as their workouts get harder.

On the plus side, Natalie sat near her friends Aspen and Ally, so they cheered her up when she felt down. Ally was doing really well at this meet and apparently Aspen was not. When we were leaving the meet on Saturday, I bought Natalie a small panda stuffed toy that was the smaller version of the one she got from Aspen from her birthday. I also bought her a small turtle that she could hand on her swim bag. She got a similar one, a dog, to give to Aspen to cheer her up. That's what friends are for.

I told Natalie on Saturday to hug the panda on Sunday when she's sad, because I was going to be on call on Sunday and not be able to be there to give her a hug. Yes, I was using retail therapy to cheer her up, but she's my daughter after all--she agreed that retail therapy does help!

He's Home!

This is the leftover evidence this morning that Anthony is home. His best friend Alejandro came by late last night when I was already in bed asleep. They apparently made one of their sweet dessert concoctions, probably involving ice cream and the various treats they left out on the counter--different types of chocolate including truffles, Milano cookies, and Pop Tarts. Patrick said he left them alone to enjoy, so he didn't take a picture. I found all of this out when I came downstairs this morning to get ready for Natalie's swim meet (more on that later).

Anthony's flight was supposed to get in a little after 7pm, but there were a couple of delays and he ended up coming in at around 8:30pm last night. The good thing was that Patrick was able to see Natalie's two races at her swim meet last night. Eric and Alex went to the airport with Patrick. Natalie and I had just gotten home and I stayed with her.

They got home and Patrick commented on how Anthony's voice was very low and very different. My poor baby has a cold and he is coughing and sniffling up a storm, and that includes his voice sounding a lot lower than usual. I hugged him a lot, and each time Patrick kept saying, "Be careful. He's sick." He had his last final exam on Thursday, and he stayed up until about 3am on Friday celebrating with friends. His Aunt Lisa took Anthony and a friend of his to the airport this morning. The first leg from Boston to Atlanta was on time and uneventful. The second leg home was delayed for some reason. He texted us from the Atlanta airport to let us know that he was out of cash so he was going to charge his dinner at Chick-Fil-A on our Discover card. He had not had Chick-Fil-A since he left San Antonio in August. Because of that, Patrick got Chick-Fil-A in his head and brought Eric and Alex to Chick-Fil-A for dinner before coming to the swim meet.

Anthony spent most of the day resting/sleeping on the living room sofa after taking medications. Last night when he first arrived, he plopped into his usual spot--the La-Z-Boy reclining chair in the living room--it was like home again. He is sitting there now with his laptop on his lap, with his earphones in and chatting with a friend of his (maybe playing Borderlands with Alejandro?) and I'm enjoying just letting him do his usual thing. It's as if he never left--except that I keep feeling the urge to give him hugs. Welcome home, Anthony!

Happy Birthday to Me!

Many years ago, when I was an anesthesiology resident, my birthday was on a weekend and I was on call that Friday and Sunday. That was 48 hours spent at the hospital on my birthday weekend. I swore then that I would always request not to be on call on my birthday. In the last few years, I've also requested to be off on my birthday. This year, however, we had someone new doing the December call schedule, and I didn't want to request anything unless I absolutely needed it. The result was call on the day before my birthday, which meant that I was on call last night.

I knew that I was asking for trouble because I wanted to get sleep and nothing invites being busy on call more than wanting/needing to sleep due to planned activities the next day. In addition, it was a full moon last night. Luckily, it didn't turn out too badly in the end, but I still didn't get much sleep (but it was my fault for not going to bed early).

Maybe I was motivated to do things just because it was my birthday, but with only about two hours of sleep, I was able to stay up until after lunch. The first picture above was the Spicy Lamb Meatballs Pizza that Patrick and I shared for lunch. This second picture is a piece of the Dark Chocolate and Nutella Torte that we had for dessert. Yum!

After that yummy lunch, I took a shower and that created the perfect conditions for a nice afternoon nap. I woke up after Natalie got home. When I called to Eric, he came in and wished me a "Happy Birthday" as did Natalie. They both gave me nice hugs, even while I was still in bed. Loved it!

Natalie didn't go to swim practice tonight so we could go out for dinner. Alex still had soccer practice after school, however, so when Patrick left to pick Alex up, Natalie and Eric and I went ahead to the mall so we could meet them there. Natalie wanted to do a little shopping for Christmas gifts for her friends. We proceeded to The Cheesecake Factory when Patrick texted that he had Alex so that we could get on the list, if needed.

There was no wait for a table at The Cheesecake Factory, so we waited for Alex and Patrick to arrive. Eric was goofing off and I took this picture. After I took this picture, he asked if I would be able to turn him into a Minion on my phone. At first I was thinking that he must have heard of some new app where you could turn yourself into a Minion. That explained the goofy expression on his face in this photo--he was trying to look like a Minion!

We were so full after dinner (they have such large portions) that we took our dessert home. Alex was very happy with his pasta dish because he liked the taste and because they gave him a huge "Alex-size" portion. He finished all of it and he didn't have to order a second entree, which is something else he's been doing lately when we go out to eat.

Alex doesn't usually order anything at The Cheesecake Factory, believe it or not. This time he decided he would get the Banana Cream Cheesecake. He put Dulce de Leche ice cream with it and shared it with Eric. They finished almost the whole thing, but Alex said that he liked the ice cream more than the cheesecake and didn't think the banana taste went well with the cheesecake taste.

Eric also had a little of the Godiva Chocolate Cheesecake with Patrick and Natalie. Natalie would have wanted her own piece, but we went ahead and bought a whole cheesecake for when Anthony gets home on Friday. I had wanted to send him one for his birthday in October, but as of earlier this year, The Cheesecake Factory stopped shipping their cheesecakes. That will be a nice homecoming dessert to share with my oldest son.

My sister Cynthia called on Face Time to wish me a "Happy Birthday". As we talked, her family started doing things behind the chair she was sitting in, and she took a picture of them. The way Face Time works usually puts your photo in a small box in the corner, so I took some screen shots of my phone to send to her. We talked a little about my blog post last week about how her husband John had brainwashed the girls (including Natalie) into liking his alma mater Texas A&M University. He said that he calls it "enlightening" instead. It's always fun to hang out with Cynthia and her family--despite the subliminal brainwashing. ;)

My new laptop arrived today!!! I was actually the one who signed for it when the package came to the door. I didn't know it was coming today, but when Patrick saw it he said, "You were supposed to be asleep." The package came in the morning before my nap. :)

I bought my own birthday gifts, for the most part, except for the laptop. Patrick wasn't going to buy me a laptop without okaying the specs with me first. I bought this cool laptop cover that makes my laptop look red. The kids even remarked that the you can even see Apple symbol light up through the translucent case. Natalie asked why I bought myself my own presents (which Patrick wrapped so I would have stuff to open). Patrick told her, "So she knows she'll get what she wants." I have to say that even though I knew what was in the packages, I was still excited about opening the presents and getting to use them! I'm using my new laptop now to type out this blog post--awesome! I also got a bluetooth earphone set.

I also received a package from my parents today with pajamas. Yay, I can always use another set of warm PJs. Cynthia sent me a package as well, with a beautiful handmade card. She got me a Starbucks gift card and a scrapbooking desk calendar--cool!

I totally didn't get any Christmas prep stuff done today, so that will be on my agenda for tomorrow. For today, I couldn't ask for a better birthday--a loving family surrounding me and giving me hugs, a delicious lunch and dinner with yummy desserts, beautiful weather outside (even though I didn't get to enjoy it), and even birthday phone calls from my sister and her family, and one from my beloved son who I haven't seen in four months. Happy Birthday to me!

December Art a la Carte

This past Wednesday was Eric's Art a la Carte class. I took this "selfie" photo of Eric and me while we were having lunch. His teacher, Mrs. B came up to us as I was taking the picture and asked if I wanted her to take a picture of us. I replied that I wanted it look like a "selfie"--the expressions are more fun and not so posed.

I texted Anthony during lunch with Eric. We had another instance of fraud on our Discover card, so we had to close the old account and open a new one again--the third time in two years. Anthony had just received his card and I was texting him about activating it. I told him that I was having lunch with Eric and that I would take care of activating the card when I got home. When Eric heard that I was texting Anthony, he said "Hi" so I took a short video of him saying "Hi" and sent it to Anthony. He also said "Nine days!" Eric has been counting down the days (as have I) until Anthony comes home. This was on Wednesday, December 11th, and Anthony is coming home on December 20th. Every day Eric tells me how many more days (as if I don't already know).

Today's art lesson involved adding black and white paint to yellow and red paint to make different shades and tints. Then the kids also mixed some of the red and yellow colors to make new colors. This was a potentially messy lesson because of all of the paint mixing involved, especially because there was a boy at Eric's table that was a little out of control. During the first half of class, Mrs. B kept a constant watch on LaSalle, taking his paint brushes away so he would not spread paint all over everything while the art teacher was telling the kids what to do next. I tried to help her with this, but I was also trying to help some of the other kids. Mrs. B was relieved by Mrs. M, who "co-teaches" with Mrs. B. Mrs. M then kept a constant watch on LaSalle, but she was not as vigilant so I really had to pay more attention. It was exhausting, to say the least.

In case you can't tell, Eric's picture is supposed to be a vase of flowers. His vase is a little misshapen, but I have let go of my need to "help" him to make it better. He enjoys himself in that class no matter what anyway. I learned a little about mixing paint and I would have loved to join in the lesson. Alas, they really needed me to help with the other two volunteers. I'm really enjoying these art classes with Eric. I've already arranged to have the day off for his January Art a la Carte.

Natalie Update

I was going to just post about Natalie's last swim meet that took place last Sunday (Patrick's birthday), but so much more has happened to her besides that. First of all, she said her ear hurt some time Friday night, when we wouldn't be able to get a doctor's appointment. For the last week or two she had complained about not being able to hear out of her right ear. Patrick just thought it was because she didn't clean her ears, so we got some drops for that. When she started having the ear pain, though, it seemed like something else. On Sunday morning, after I got her up to go to the swim meet, she said that she had not slept well because of her ear pain. She also said that it hurt whenever anything touched that ear--including her swim cap. Great. The bad thing when your child doesn't complain is that you don't realize how serious it is until it's serious.

So, the swim meet was rather interesting. Natalie almost didn't warm up because of her ear hurting, especially when she did the breaststroke. Of course the 100 and 50 yard breaststroke were two of the events she was going to be swimming in that meet. After warmup she was to the point of tears, saying that she didn't want to swim in the meet. Luckily I listened to my experience instead of listening to what she was saying because she ended up wanting to swim after all. After discussion with Coach Anderson, who was covering for her coach, we decided to let her swim the two breaststroke events and just skip the last event, which was the 200 yard IM. She automatically looked relieved after we made that decision. The ibuprofen Patrick had given her before we left home probably had something to do with it as well.

She also complained about her head and stomach hurting. This has been an ongoing complaint before each of the last three or four meets. Natalie says it's nerves. I still can't believe that after a year of competitive swimming she is just now starting to have the physical manifestations of feeling nervous. A friend mentioned that maybe she feels more pressure now that she has been doing it for a year or maybe because she turned 11 and the time standards are more stringent. I hope she learns to cope with this if she is to continue swimming competitively.

As we expected, she didn't do well in her events. Her seed time in the 100 yard Breast was 1:37.72 but she ended up adding time with a time of 1:40.29. In the 50 yard Breast she had a seed time of 44.31, and she actually had the fastest seed time in the meet, but she came in with a time of 44.51. Patrick wasn't there because he had to take Eric to church school from 10-11am. The meet was running just a little ahead of schedule and he got there with Eric just after Natalie raced in her second and last event.

On the plus side, she clearly started feeling better before she swam in her events. She was sitting with her friend Maddie and I was sitting with Maddie's mom Jen. Jen said she knew right away when Natalie started getting really chatty--her normal self. Natalie was really disappointed with her times, but she handled it well. That was a sure sign that she was feeling better.

Patrick took her to the pediatrician on Monday, and sure enough, Natalie had an ear infection--Swimmer's Ear, her first ear infection ever, that I recall. She has antibiotic ear drops now and her ear pain is slowly going away. She still had some pain this morning, so no swimming until that is gone.

It is just as well that Natalie has to stay home from swim practice, because she had her Winter Band Concert last night also. I didn't bother bringing my big camera as she keeps trying to hide from me anyway. I was so thankful that I was able to get this photo of her before the concert. I tore Eric away from playing Angry Birds on the iPad, so he wasn't happy either. At least he can still smile on command. Natalie can only muster a non-frown. She played on the xylophone first then the snare drum then the big bass drum last. The entire "Beginners Band Concert" was only about 15 minutes. Thankfully for the parents, they were the first ones to perform and then we were allowed to leave so that the next set of parents could come in and sit down for their kids' concerts. That was just as well too, because Patrick had to leave right after the concert to pick up Alex late from his soccer practice.

I also have some other miscellaneous Natalie facts. Last night when I was about to take the picture above, one of her band directors walked by and said, "Is that your brother? He looks just like you!" Several people have said that to her in the past and she usually makes some face showing her dissatisfaction. Eric looked pleased. She started using my pair of black slouch boots this weekend and the boots have not made it back into my closet. Apparently she's been wearing them to school every day since then. After the swim meet, I was ordering a AAAA sweatshirt and T-shirts for me and for Patrick (AAAA is her swim club). She asked for a Texas A&M sweatshirt and T-shirt so she could wear it on Fridays when they are allowed to wear college gear at school. Patrick commented that he could have gotten her a Rice University sweatshirt (our alma mater) instead. I think Uncle John has successfully brainwashed her and her girl cousins (Texas A&M is his alma mater).