A remarkable DQ

Ray was DQed at 50 breaststroke in last weekend swim meet. He did one and half dolphin kicks. After he found out, I was a little surprised he didn't care it that much. He even joked that he would do it again at 200IM. Nowadays, Mr. Tight started loosing up a little bit. This is something notable.

2016 SI-swimming All Star team against Sirrena Neveda All Star team duel meet. Ray handled an undesired 500 yard event, his first individual event, as it was assigned by coach for the need of the team. And Ray got a first place with decent margin at 50 free on the second day. Ray also made a great contribution to 200 IM relay B-team. Ray improved his 100 fly leg by thress seconds over his PR and B-team bested A-team by 6 seconds! All the kids from various clubs competed each other in SI meets. Now they are a team and friends against another team. This was a great team experience. This was not about achieving personal records, but about helping team win more points and the competitions! 

Mount Laguana fall hiking

Mount Laguana fall hiking.

Ray is 10 year old now

Ray's B-party!

Ray wanted a birthday party, so mom made it happen. Dad was scared to death, as he almost missed his flight the day before for attending Ray's party. Mom had another mission so she had to leave before the party ended. It was a pretty scary relay but we made it!

Tony's violin

Ray's violin moved up to 1/2 size. Tony's violin need to move to a real 1/8 size from his paper box. A big step.
"Tony, do you want to get a new violin?" mom asked.
"How much does it cost?" Tony asked.
"180 dollars," mom said.
"That is OK. Get it." Tony replied calmly with a little thinking.

This surprised mom, as Tony even didn't show much emotion on such an "expensive" thing. The other day mom asked Tony why he thought 160 dollars was OK for a violin.
Tony replied, "Because I can afford it."
He meant the money he saved in his little piggy bag. He is not kidding. He is having about $200 saved so far.

Tony's bed

Mom bought a new bed for Tony and sold Tony's old bed for 60 dollars.
"Where is my bed?" Tony found his bed was gone.
"I sold it", mom replied.
"How much did you sell it?", Tony asked.
"60".
"Can I have 30 dollars? It is my bed", Tony asked.
Before mom replied, Ray talked to Tony, "If mom give the money, can you give 15 to me?"
Mom cannot hold her laugh.
It is like an old Chinese saying, JIAN MIAN FEN YI BAN.

Something remarkable

Mom dropped Tony and Ray at the entrance of Butler music school. She needed to find parking so Ray and Tony walked to the classroom themselves. When mom came over after parking, Tony was playing violin while Ray was teaching on the hall way.
Actually Tony asked to play Ray's violin as Tony's 'violin' is still a violin shaped box. And Ray not only let Tony play, but also helped him to press the right string to make the sound better. Love Tony's curiosity and motivation and Ray's kindness. It is just such a sweet scene!

Near UT campus, where mom can find free parking

This year UT string programm shirt is long sleeve. And the design is very nice.

Bike to school

Ray's lunch at school

Starter's violin

Tony got his first upper front teeth! Congratulations!

UT string project started!

This year Tony is also in. Here is the convocation last year.

Ray caught a little frog

Swimming lesson continues

Since Ray has been in swimming team so long, dad felt Ray should be able to coach Tony. When dad was away, dad gave Ray this assignment with some incentive. Tony was not happy about it in the beginning, as he was concerned about Ray could be mean. The attitude changed faster than Texas weather, right after dad gave incentive for being a good swimming student. Both reacted over the phone like:"mom, let's go to the pool."
Finally, mom managed to take them to the pool today and mom saw such a sweet moment as two brothers worked together so well as a coach and an apprentice. Tony was so serious about his butterfly stroke and Ray had been trying to teach him and thinking hard to get some supporting tools like kicking board. This was a good learning experience for both of them. Way to go!

Star war party rock!

Nathan's mom and dad hosted an awesome birthday party for him. Every kids got a chance to get jedi training. Here are a few scences captured by mom.

Tony was totally inspired by the party and continued to make his own star war fantasy after going home.

 

Tony tried and tried. He tried so hard but still felt down from climbing pole. Ray finished it even without trying.

The bag loaded skywalker through maze is a challenging weight training and Tony's favorite. Tony repeated it a few times. Even when everyong was eating, Tony quickly finished his stuff and loaded himself up again into the maze. There must be some really serious fantacy on his little mind.

Sabering on balance bar is a must training.

Ray knows how to pose.

 

The final act, blow the death star. Ray blew the death star with a really hard hit.

Two archeologists

Tony became a blue jay!

Ryan's stay

Summer break at Grace's house

Soccer season in spring

It was a great season. Ray has played in Rattan Creek TASK group on Sunday for three years. It is the first time he plays outside of that group. It works out well. In YMCA 1st/2nd grader league, making a goal in a game was not easy, as the defense was pretty tight. Ray averaged almost one score for a game, as his team's leading scorer. The highlight of the season was the game against Will's team. Ray was late due to violin recital. When we arrived, the game was tied at 0:0, and there was 10 minutes left. With fresh legs, Ray scored the only two goals for his team. We all were impressed.

Graduation flag leader

Tony told mom if she was coming for his graduation ceremony. Mom said of course. "Guess who is gonna hold the flag?" "Who?". Mrs. Sheila picked me because I am always a great little helper".

Want and Need

Dillon has a Nitro swimming gunn, which is pretty nice and mom thinks it is very cool. The other day, Mom and Ray were shopping something in Lane 4. Mom saw the Nitro gunn and asked Ray if he wanted one. Ray peeked the price tag, which was $100 for adult size. Kid's size might be cheaper. Then said, first, I don't need this. Second, look at the price. I am not gonna spend 100 dollars for this. So I don't want it.
BCES did a good job to have him understand the differenece of need and want and Ray has been using it fairly well.

25 cents gift for mom

Here is another mother's day. It happened to be our neighhood yard sale day. Both Ray and Tony were pretty excited about going yard sale. They got a bunch of dollar bills and ready to go. Mom were worried about too much traffic and didn't want them to go. Ray and Tony insisted to go.
Well, the compromise came as to do it in our street.
A while back later, Ray and Tony came home with hands full. They totally spent 25 cents. Ray and Tony bought a plate for mom as mother's day gift. And they got a big stuffed dog as a free bonus. Now Ray and Tony got their fourth dog.
It is a fun day to them.

Ray' warts

Ray had a few warts on his fingers and toes. It has been pretty bad. Mom and dad had been really worried about it, as they were growing bigger and bigger. And they are expanding to other fingers. We knew they were caused by virus. But we don't know how long he is getting over with it. This week, Ray suddenly found out one of them fell off. Wow, we finally felt easy.

An easy way to blog

I just found out an easy way to blog. Really easy! I am not telling how but it is quite amazing. Actually this blog was written with this way. This first actual product from this way. Way to go!

President and VP

That is what Ray claims. And rarely Ray thinks Tony is the 'P' man.

Auntie Yingqian visited Austin

Visit Xingxing in Houston

We went to Auntie Clare's house at Houston in Christmas with Auntie YingQian. Xingxing can walk around now. We also saw Xingxing's grandpa and Grandma.

Math Burger and Knight' Sword

Ray won two burger tickets by finishing Math superstar work. He only used one and shared his burger with Tony. The other ticket was saved to show to dad.
Tony has a new favorite toy now. He even held it when he was asleep. It is a knight's sword, a gift from Ray with the help of Ray's piggy bank. Don't know why he likes it so much, he just likes so much. Ray's words count, actually it counts a lot to Tony.

Confidence

On the way back home, Ray asked dad to go to HEB for honey nut Cherrios.
"Let's call mom so she can buy it on her way from work," dad proposed.
"No, we don't need to buy it. Mom bought it already." Tony commented.
"No, we don't have it. You must confuse it with parmesan cherrios (a cherrios Ray dislikes)." Ray quickly declared.
Ray was kinda right as we did have parmesan cherrios at home, dad figured.
"No. It is honey nut cherros. It sits on the kitchen corner" Tony insisted.
"You don't even know how to read. That must be parmesan cherrios." Ray was quite confident.
"But there are bee on the box." Tony didn't argue if he can read or not even he can read a little bit.
Well, Tony might see an empty honey nut cherrios box ... Dad figured.
"How much confidence do you have, Tony?" Dad asked and intended to wrap up this conversation.
"At most 50%," Ray said.
"80%," Tony replied.
Well, both traded 50% and 80% number verbally back and forth. Fortunately, just verbally.
When we got home, both forgot what happened. Dad was curious enough to bring this up. Ray went to the food closet and picked up a box of parmesan cherrios on the corner.
Tony went to another corner in the kitchen and pointed to a solid box of cherrios with bees on the box. Actually the box is still in HEB plastic bag. Dad had no idea how he could see bee. Maybe he pulled down the bag to check it on purpose.
Well, 80% confidence has a pretty good chance to be right.

Let's get back to our posts

It has has really be a long long while to have a new post. Many excuses for that. So let's see how much we can remember for the past year.

Little boy blue show in BCES.

September/October update

It has been more than two months since Ray started elementary school.
We had our first parent teacher meeting on 10/10. The feedback was great. Mom and dad got a chance to see Ray's work in school. We knew those homework but there were a lot of in-school works we didn't see.
Ray's reading made so much progress. Belli, Nanthan, and Ray formed a small reading club. There were two weekly assignments for them. Ray seems to enjoy school life very much. Ordering his own lunch in school kitchen is an exciting thing to him.
Ray made a pal with another Ray in grade three. We knew it through the interview notes they made.
Chess club has been going well, thanks to dad's insistence to Ray's finishing chess worksheet.
Swimming was going very strong. We joined in YMCA for in-door swimming as weather in Austin finally started cooling down. There was a swimming team for older kids in YMCA. Ray should be qualified for making a team. Right now, dad still enjoys and is confident with being Ray's coach. Average three practices per week. Ten laps for 25 yards pool per practices. Butterfly arm is out of water now. We just bought a pair of flippers for kicking practices. Ray's breathing manage was fairly good. His heart rate was just moderate after a full lap. He is ready for having more laps. The motivation for weekday swimming was ipod touch game on the way plus hot chocolate in YMCA. Weekends waterscape is attractive enough for Ray and Tony. BTW, Tony passed adult pool swimming test as well. He is so proud that he has his own little green rubber band.
Violin class set our Saturday schedule. Tony managed to be his company sitting in the same classroom. Mom did a great job for weekday small private class and parent orchestra. Hanging around UT feels great.
Sunday morning soccer game really boosted up Ray's confidence in team sports. We registered Ray into a basketball team in YMCA for this coming spring.
Ray got a WII for his birthday. Honestly, WII really needs some changes to be competitive.
OK. When school started, life is getting a little busier.

Twin wish

Ray talked to mom in private.
"I wish Tony and I are twins", Ray said.
"Why?"
"So we can do everything together." Ray wished.
Certainly Ray wasn't thinking about he would lose half of toy fights.

Remind which guy in Dragon ball?

Answer: Go-ku.

A fresh K-student

Ray has been in Brushy Creek Elementary Kindergarten for two weeks. He liked it a lot. It was quite a bit change for everyone's life.
The first day was something. Everyone woke up at 6:40am and left house at 7:15am. We walked to school as it was just two blocks away. Our neighbor kids are taking photos in front of their doors. A tradition for the start of every school year.
We walked to school and sent Ray to his classroom. Starting from tomorrow, Ray will stay in cafeteria first, then the whole class walked into their classroom altogether.
Ray got a straight 'super' stickers in his home communication folder from his teacher.Each sticker means a kid has a good day in school.
Dad was greeted by another teacher passing by in a morning with 'You got a very smart boy'. Dad thought that was an equivalent to 'Good morning' in school. But he still asked Ray.
"Do you know her?"
"Yes, she asked me a lot of questions. I got most of them right. A few of them wrong. She said I did a good job."
"OK. Way to go."
Mom and Dad managed to keep half hour swimming daily for Ray and Tony. We need to make sure Ray goes to his bed before 9:00pm. So it is a little tight. Ray's teacher, Ms. Taylor has started assigning some books for reading. Ray was a little pumped up by it. Dad gave Ray a notebook to write down the names of the books he finished up. That night he inked five book names in it. The next two nights, zero. It is pretty much a tiger head, snake tail. But we have to admit that Ray's interest in reading growed a lot. Ray made a friend, Nathan on the first day. Ray said he played a lot with him. We met Nathan's family at Waterloo icy house in a family gathering organized by school parent teacher association (PTA). Nathan's parents said Nathan was very excited that Ray's in his class too. Good to have some friends around.
Austin is still three digits hot. Dad is so glad to find out Brushy creek has a indoor gym for P. E. class. Somehow it wasn't shown to us in the school tour night.
One thing worth mentioning is Ray's violin lesson is about to start. Mom and dad already had training on Suzuki method. What is amazing is that the philosophy of Dr. Suzuki fits dad's pretty well, kinda contradicting to mom's. So...well, let's talk about something else.
Ray's free style is almost there. Butterfly is the lst one to conquer.
Here are the goals for this school year we noted down in the school communication letter,
1. Get into Nitro swimming team (require four swimming styles, but we are almost there)
2. Develop a good interest in violin (Might be tough, as Ray has already been talking about playing instrument is boring and it is not necessary for every kid)
3. Have a happy and productive Kindergarten year!

Antie Clare's community Sugar Land

Houston zoo 2

Houston zoo

Aaron back in town