The Abdalla Nest

There's No Crying in Soccer!

Not the performer we thought he was.  Well, Thomas isn't the soccer superstar that he had us believing he was going to be.  He does so well at practices, but cracks under the pressure of games.  First, he wouldn't even sit for the team photo, throwing a fit and crying desparately.  At his team's first game he wouldn't play until he watched from the sidelines for a while.  And at the second game last weekend, he was so crabby that he just pouted and refused to participate at all.  That's what we get for feeling superior to the parents whose kids were crybabies at practice.

Let's hope he's not allergic.  We drove down to Poteet, Texas, two weekends back for their Strawberry Festival.  While they are only the Strawberry Capital of Texas, not the World, it was still a huge festival.  Thomas ate tons of strawberries, had some strawberry ice cream, and we sampled some strawberry wine.  They had pig races, which was really fun, and Thomas got a blue ribbon for picking out the winning pig.  His favorite part, however, was the cloggers.  Even Evelyn enjoyed them, and tried clapping, which she wasn't very good at.  There were lots of good exhibits, including from San Antonio's Drum and Bugle Corps, Revolution, which I didn't know existed.  There was also a great equine rescue group, whose name I can't remember, so I'll add the link later.

Another big one.  The most fun news is that Thomas and Evelyn have a new cousin! Tyler is Maddie and Gabi's new little brother who was just born a month ago.  He was a huge newborn, about 10 pounds, and is the only Abdalla kid so far that favors his mom. It's nice that Thomas won't be the only boy cousin, although usually he has to work hard to keep up with Maddie, rather than vice versa.

Baby in a bucket.  With the weather so pleasant lately, we try to get outside as much as possible.  We took the kids to the park today and Evelyn got her first ride in a swing.  I don't know what she enjoyed more, swinging or watching Thomas swing.  She was very entertained by Thomas whooshing back and forth in the swing next to her.  Honestly, she seemed more interested in eating the swing then anything else, but as long as she's happy....

Gaining altitude.  Evelyn has been standing quite a bit lately.  She will stand up and grin at you as if to say, "Hey, look at this! Where's the applause?"  before she falls back on her bottom.  She'll do this several times in a row until it's obvious that you're getting bored with it.  She's been cruising a little, too , and even has tried to take a step while standing on her own, but mostly still gets around crawling.  She's gotten pretty efficient, although she still keeps one knee up when she crawls like Thomas did.

Shout out to our homegirl!

Just a blog to let "Aunt" Andi know we're thinking about her back here in CONUS.  She's currently deployed to an Army hospital in Germany, taking care of the soldiers who are evac'd from the frontlines.  Thomas misses her quite a bit, and if Evelyn was more cognate, I'm sure she would, too.  But it is a comforting thought to know that she's over there helping to bring others home healthy and safe.

Hints for Soccer Coaching (Thomas's First Soccer Practice)

Everyone knows it's a challenge to sucessfully coach a soccer team to greatness.  So we've put together a little guide.

First, of course, a player needs good kicking skills.  Proper foot-to-ball contact is critical.  And a good victory dance is necessary as well.

Second, the athletes should be able to handle the ball on the field.  Shooting goals takes preparative concentration. A good player also maintains control of the ball as he moves down the field, keeping in mind the first rule of soccer: No Hands!

Teammates should operate as a well-oiled machine, able to simultaneously defend and attack.  Working with your team to get the ball in the goal  is the best skill a sucessful player can have.

Easter Whales

For Easter weekend, Meemee and Pawpaw drove up to spend a few days with us.  Although the weather report was rather ominous, we hedged out bets and went out to SeaWorld anyway.  The storm hit in the middle of the orca show, which wasn't too bad, since Thomas and Meemee got wet, anyway.  And after we sheltered in a restaurant for the worst of it, the rain eventually cleared and the rest of the day was relatively clear, albeit rather chilly.  See the March 2005 album for more pictures.

Pawpaw and Thomas also did some manly work out on the back patio, fixing gates and chainsawing stumps.  Evelyn enjoyed showing off her new skills.  She's almost cruising now, and has crawling down pat.  She crawls like her brother did, on only one knee.  She also was grabbing table food off our plates any moment we weren't looking.  She demonstrated her singing talent, if you can call it that.  But mostly she liked just torturing them, grabbing their glasses and putting fingers up their noses.

Non-blog

No excuses.  Well, since I've been on Christmas break for three weeks and then on my Family Practice rotation (which is no call, no weekends, just 8 to 5), I really have no excuse for not updating the blog.  Can I say that I've just been spending so much quality time with the kids that I have no time for the computer?

And in the meantime, I was playing with some of TypePad's new features and managed to reset my blog style to the default settings, so I'll have to re-do all my preferences. Ugh!!

Eventually I'll have updates for our activities back to Thanksgiving and get the blog pretty again... In the meantime you can check out the photo albums.  Not all the pictures have captions, but you can at least see how Evelyn has grown!

How'd I get here??

Well, Evelyn's not a decathlon athlete yet, but she's beginning to get a little more mobile.  She can roll over and over for several feet, although she always looks disoriented when she realizes she's in a different place.  I don't think she's has a clear understanding of the space-time continuum thing quite yet.  She has beginning to "swim" in that pre-crawling stage.  She'll push off with her feet and reach with her arms, but really doesn't move much.   It would probably just confuse her if she did, anyway.

Thomas and Evelyn have such a great relationship!  He really dotes on her and worries when she cries and insists on kissing her all the time (which is probably why they were both sick this week some some kind of fever-inducing bug).  She is so entranced by him and if he is talking to her and tickling her, she will giggle and smile like he's the best thing since baby bottles.  They really put each other in good moods, which is very useful to us when one or the other is being crabby.

Vulture! Duck!

Saturday we faced the chilly, damp weather and went  to the Botanical Gardens Fall Festival.  It was a nice time with the family, but Thomas was just a little young, still, for the children's activities.  But next year or so, it'll be great fun for him.  He still got to run around outside, which is all he needs to be entertained.  They had some neat entertainment, including a old-fashioned flea circus, which was surprisingly hilarious in the silly way I enjoy.  The had a dairy cow with milking demonstrations, at which we tried to explain to Thomas where milk came from.  I think he thinks cows drink milk now.  There was a flower garland booth that made garlands for kids and I got one for Evelyn, albeit it's a little large for her.

The best exhibit, though, was from Last Chance Forever, a bird of prey rescue group from here in San Antonio.  They treat and release 65-80% of their birds each year, and rescue a good number of birds each year.  The had some amazing birds to show, including a white red-tailed hawk and some gorgeous eagles.  It was a great chance to get up close to the birds and the handlers seemed to enjoy flying them right over our heads .  I made sure to keep a good grip on my little bundle of pudge.   And by that I mean Evelyn.

For pictures of these beautiful birds and the kids, look in our November photo album.

Roll 'em, Roll 'em, Roll 'em...

Evelyn rolls like a maniac now.   And she's learning that she can roll back over onto her back, rather than crying because she's stuck on her belly.   She can actually locomote a little that way, but hasn't put it together yet.  Watch the video; just ignore the part where Thomas man-handles her.

Baby Singalong

Just a quick note for the sole purpose of posting a couple of videos of Eve talking.  She just as vocal as we remember Thomas being.  The first one has her really singing; in the second she is beginning to fuss.  She kept looking like she was going to roll over, so I kept taking video, but she never did completely.  So instead I just got a bunch of video of her kicking and drooling.

Princess and the Peepee

But I just changed your diaper!  Evelyn is growing too fast for my tastes.  She's already rolling over and doing baby push-ups.  And over the last week, she has found her toes.  She loves to giggle and grab her toes.  Of course she loves to giggle and suck on her fingers, giggle and wave her arms, giggle and drool, and giggle and hiccup , which she gets if she happens to giggle too much.  In fact, Evelyn likes to giggle all the time, except when she has the slightest bit of wetness in her diaper.  She simply cannot tolerate a dirty diaper, much unlike Thomas who would rather spend days in a wet diaper rather than stop playing to have it changed. When she was in utero, Eve was so picky out the way I laid or sat that I called her Princess and the Pea.  But now I know it's Princess and the Pee.

Thomas still adores his little sister and loves to kiss her and "be nice to her", which means to pet her gently.  And she's beginning to reciprocate, watching and grinning at Thomas whenever he talks to her and tickles her.  Thomas has always been such a sweet kid . 

Time flies....  Since we are finishing up the last week of our general surgery rotation, we were given the weekend off, and we are all immensely grateful for the break.  Today I woke up at 7am, thoroughly refreshed and glad to be able to sleep several hours later than I have the last six weeks.  I will miss Wilford Hall, however... I really enjoyed my time there, which was good since there was so much of it.  Monday, I start cardiothoracic surgery at the VA, which should prove to be interesting.  It's really wonderful to enjoy my job so much!

Trick or treat, Smell my feet.  We had a great halloween.  Wednesday night, Andi and Rachel came over to carve pumpkins with us.  Joe had gotten a pumpkin-carving kit some time ago, and finally got a chance to use it.  I roasted the pumpkin seeds which came out wonderfully addictive. 

Saturday, we spent the evening at Seaworld.  It was very crowded, but fun! There were monsters everywhere, which delighted Thomas.  We got to see the Shamu show again, except it had creepy music and zombie dancers on the little stage at the end of the tank.  It was neato to see the orcas (which I found out are really dolphins, not whales) swimming in the dark water.  It amazes me how perfectly their moves match the music, and I wonder if the sound guy controls when the music hits dramatic points, so he can synch it with the orcas leaps and splashes.  Anyway, the highlight of the show was when an orca lept out of the water and did a flip! These are awfully big animals... he had to get a whole lot of air to complete that manuever!

On Sunday we went with Rachel and Andi to the Zoo Boo at the San Antonio zoo.  We all dressed up and had lots of sugar-induced fun!  Each sponsor there had kind of a closet with a door for the kids to knock on and say Treat-or-Treat.  Everyone decorated their door differently, so it was really cute!  They also had carnival-like games for the kids to play, which Thomas liked.  I dressed up as a cat and Evelyn was my kitten, but she didn't like her ears very much and kept wiping off the nose and whiskers I painted on her face.  Thomas was superman, and Joe dressed up like Clark Kent. Rachel was an Outbacker, and Andi wore my pirate renfest costume.  Unfortunately, my digital camera was on strike, so the only picture we took was at a booth for mysa.com, who was subsequently posted the pictures on their website.

The Big Three.  Thomas turned three on the 5th, and on the 6th we had a birthday party for him at Burger King.  While ToysRus definitely has the best parties, we just couldn't afford it.  BK had a good deal and has that indooor playground which the kids loved.  Between a few friends from school, some of my classmates' kids, and his cousins, Thomas had a good number of guests.   And he loved playing host, too.  With every arrival, he rushed over to give the kid (or an adult -- Andi, her friend Amy, Rachel and Rumya also attended) a goody bag and every time he opened a gift, he would give the giver a hug.  He got a Spongebob cake and was very cute blowing them out .  He got lots of fun toys with which he spent the rest of the day playing with.  Evelyn just slept through most of it, except when Rachel gave her the hiccups again from laughing too much .  It was a quite a zoo having all the cousins in the house overnight, but lots of fun for them.  Unfortunately, my camera was still on strike until right before the party, so there are lots of cute, but corrupt, pictures that we can't upload.  But see lots of other pictures in our November 2004 album.

SplishSplash. At least Thomas  and Evelyn  like getting clean.