Tennis Star in the Making?

Dominic and tennis go way back:

Watching the U.S. Open  on Sept 11, 2010

You might say it was his first pastime.

So anyway, he has mentioned tennis off and on over the last few years and even used to answer "women's tennis" when we asked him what sport he wanted to play when he was older.  I'm not sure where he got that idea!  He's definitely old enough for organized activities now and before Christmas I asked if he'd like to take tennis lessons.   He found that question a little odd, and told me he already knows how to play: you hit the ball and the other person hits it back.  I told him a coach could show him how to hit the ball properly, to which he replied "Mama, you just whack it."

Cute story aside, I found some youth lessons and signed him up in early January.  The first lesson was one-on-one for 45 minutes and I was very impressed he was attentive and did not get frustrated.

Wait for it....

Whack!

They even have some cute child-sized courts.

Here he is playing with the family over at the high school near our house:

Can you see a hint of Christy's presence? More of our balls kept disappearing into the trunk of her car!

 

And on MLK Day he got to do a group lesson with 7-year old triplets.  We're doing another tomorrow afternoon.  It's really nice that we only have to coordinate schedules with one other family despite it being a group of four.  Especially with all the rain and nasty weather lately. 

The coach's pose reminds me of elementary school PE class, shudder.

They are running relays, by the way.

So that's that.  He seems to like it so far and looks forward to playing.  Maybe we'll stick with this for awhile if things continue to go well.  He's already trash talking his Tio Tony about beating him at a game.  

Christmas 2014

We spent Christmas at home with Ita and Tio Tony.  On Christmas Eve, we were also joined by Knox, Yvette, Sylvia, and Gil for a gluttonous feast of prime rib roast, scalloped potatoes, cole slaw, tamales, soup, salad, and a few other things I'm forgetting.  Christmas Day, and the following week for that matter, were spent relaxing at home and doing very little.  It was totally awesome and I can't wait to do it again next year.  So all of you out-of-state family reading this should consider a trip to Texas at the end of 2015.  We'd love to have you!

Christmas Eve

Yvette helping Christy eat a cupcake. I'm not sure they made it past the tall whipped cream frosting.

Our new 8-seater table and chairs were delivered about 10 days too late for this party.

I happened to catch Knox getting Christy out of her high chair - haha.

  Christmas Morning

The contents of Dominic's stocking at about 5:30am.  I told him the night before that he didn't have to wait for his clock to turn green, but he couldn't get up TOO early either.  He came to our room around 5:15 and I got up with him.

The storm trooper pez was a big hit.

Christy woke up after 7am as usual.

She was happy to join in on the childhood Christmas tradition of overindulging in candy before breakfast.

This is how the tree looked toward the beginning of gift-opening, which started after 9am.

As much as she was on this princess car that week, you'd think it was a new gift. It was from Migs and Emmy in 2013 and she still loves it!

 

Christy is in a major book phase.  This one from Tio Tony has knock-knock jokes and she loves it.

A friendly dispute over Dominic's new sleeping bag.

Dominic playing with Christy's puzzle.

Christy playing with Dominic's action figures.

Marcos went to the garage to get something and discovered Santa left something out there!

 

I forget what they were watching, but it looks pretty intense.

To those we did not see this year, I hope you had a wonderful Christmas.  Happy 2015!

November/December Catch-Up

Let's see, what happened since the last time I blogged?

On November 1, Christina turned 2-years-old! Hard to believe.  The day of her birth was such a perfect day in every way.  Her birthday fell on a Saturday this year, so we had some friends and family come over in the afternoon (technically only Andy was family, but many of our friends are honorary family by now).  I made "hello kitty cat" cupcakes and Christy cried when we lit the candle.  She was ok after Marcos helped her blow it out and she realized the cupcake was still for eating.   Here are some pictures of her opening her gift from us in the morning, followed by just a few from the party. 

Dominic had a really hard time not ripping open all her presents. He couldn't stand how un-rushed she was.

Her jaw dropped! They are so easy to shock/impress at this age!

Minnie Mouse purse set.

Cupcake on fire.

After she calmed down.

Can Dada have a bite?

OK.

Playing with a new tea set from my parents.

On November 2, we had family pictures taken.  We were really happy with them, and these are just some of my favorites:

Don't worry, I'm not going to provide a daily update. Let's skip to mid-November when we had a visit from the Chayrez's.

Cutie-patootie!

 

Smothered with love.

 

Tea party!

Here's one random shot of Dominic and Christy playing in her crib:

The next major event was Marcos and I going on a cruise with 9 of our Morales/Arazoza family members while the kids spent a week with my parents in San Diego.  Major thanks to my Mom and Dad for agreeing to this and to Tony and Judi for planning the cruise! 

People seeking tips in Cozumel.

 

Key West

Imitating the statue behind us.

We took a tour on one of these.

Mile 0 on Route 1.

Cuba in the distance.

Next, in early December I got the camera out because Christy's teacher gave her piggy tails and she looked so.... grown up?

 

Today was the Christmas recital for the kids' daycare.  Christy's class sang jingle bells. I took a video but it's REALLY shaky because I was in the back trying to stand on a partially folded table and I still had to hold the camera above my head.  Parents can be pretty inconsiderate in terms of standing up in the front to see better, not caring about all the people behind them.  Anyway, Christy shook her little bells but didn't open her mouth once to sing.  She was on par with the other kids in her class.  Dominic's class sang Frosty the Snowman and Marcos stood along the side wall to try to film him.  His video was shaky, though much better than mine.  Dominic and his classmates did a great job!  Almost all of them were singing and doing the hand motions.  I have not uploaded the video to YouTube yet, but here are some pictures of Dominic and Christy before we left our house:

Christy refusing to look.

Dominic making her look.

And now we're busily getting ready for Christmas, just 12 days away!  We have some major shopping, baking, and menu planning to do.  We have Ita and Tony arriving 12/24 to spend the holiday with us.  Thanks to my use-or-lose leave, I'll be taking almost two weeks off and look forward to the break from work.