choosing my battles

A few weeks ago I bought Kimberly a lot off clothes off ebay. I cleaned out her closet of everything that doesn't fit and pretty much all we were left with was the new stuff I got on ebay. I washed and hung each outfit together so that she could easily and quickly dress into a cute and matching outfit.

My plan failed. She keeps wearing the same 2 skirts over and over again with any fugly top she can find. This morning she is wearing a pink/white checked skirt with a red 4th of July shirt from Old Navy. What the hell? I'm trying not to come out of my skin and yell at her for something that really doesn't matter. Is it too much to ask to expect her to at least match her clothes? Damn!

*vent over*

Last day of school and swimming lessons!

Today is Kimberly's last day of first grade! This year has absolutely flown by. It is exciting that today is the last day of school because it is another milestone that needs to be reached for me to be that much closer to delivering Griffin. Here is my mental timeline:

Jeff's sister needs to have her baby...CHECK!

Kimberly needs to finish first grade...CHECK!

My brothers wife needs to have her baby in July

Then it is my turn in August!

Baby Griffin is growing a lot and has gotten really strong. He is finally starting to kick me hard enough for it to be a little painful. I can tell I have another little muscly man child in there.

Speaking of Man child...Kennen is taking swim lessons. The place I go to is awesome! You need to go every day for 30 minutes for an entire 2 weeks. It sucks because I have to actually drive out of my little suburban bubble and I am wasting a lot of gas, but this is truly the best place to go. Kimberly had taken lessons at a few different places when she was little, but it wasn't until her 2 weeks at this place that she learned to swim. They are miracle workers.

Kennen started a few days ago and we got 'Mr. Rudy' as our teacher. I was a little taken aback when they first told me it was a 'Mr.' If it was Kimberly, I might not have felt comfortable with that. In my mind i wonder why would a grown man want to have a job teacher preschoolers how to swim? Beautiful little preschoolers in swimsuits with their parents on the other side of a plate glass window. I know, gross. But I figured...I have a son so I don't have to worry about molestation. Welll......then I realized that probably for some people, little boys float their boat. Ew ew ew! Me and my Generalized Anxiety Disorder started second guessing this whole thing. Then I mentally slapped myself and told myself to snap out of it. Chill out. Take a deep breath. You will be there. Your child will be fine.

It turns out that Mr. Rudy is a coveted teacher. He is about 20 years old and is a huge man. It's like Mike Tyson is standing in the pool waiting to teach a buch of little tiny tender people how to swim. Before Mike Tyson got the tattoos all over his face that is. I walked Kennen in that first day and one little girl, who looked about 2, was crying so hard that she gave herself a bloody nose. By the looks of this man, I half expected him to start shouting, "What is your dysfunction soldier!" Seriously...Mr. Rudy looks like a badass who takes no shit. But he just held a paper towel to her nose and gently purred to her that she have nothing to be upset about and that everything is going to be okay. It was so touching. Like one of those black and white pics where big strong man hands are holding a newborn baby. Then I got kind of choked up at his his tenderness and had to run out of there before I started crying...damn hormones!

I sat down in the parents area to watch. Each teacher only has 4 students and there are about 10-20 teachers in the pool. Each 'class' sits on a little built in pool love seat and the instructor takes them one at a time to practice something new. The first time He took Kennens hand and pulled him under water, he gently dunken him as he walked backwards to the center of the pool. When Kennen's head came back out of the water he started sputtering and screaming and with his 50lbs of muscle, he managed to get Mr. Rudy in a head lock and start climbing up this man. I swear his feel were up on Mr. Rudy's shoulders and he was trying to perch himself up onto his head. Thank goodness Kennen has a big strong man teacher. Mr. R gently disentangled himself and pulled Kennen down to his eye level and I saw him firmly mouth, "STOP" to Kennen. Immediately Kennen was mesmerized and relaxed and then carried on with his lesson. He is the perfect teacher for my freakishly strong son. Kennen loves him and looks forward to lessons every day...damn, in fact I have 10 minutes to get dressed and get out the door for todays lesson. Peace out peeps.

Oops!

Today online registration opens up for Kimberly's fall soccer season. I was hunting around the website and i found a few tidbits of advice for soccer parents:

“Asked what embarrasses them most,
every single child surveyed listed parents
hollering plays or instructions from the
sideline or stands.”

OOPS!

• The Ride Home
• – Never reward what you perceive as success
• – Never punish what you perceive as failure
• – Don’t evaluate your child’s performance, he or she is playing to have fun, not to earn a grade! If he/she had fun, the day was a success

– Meet your child’s needs: remember the questions you asked and the answers you got as to why your child is playing soccer

OOPS AGAIN!

I must admit that last season I was a screaming maniac on the sidelines. I exploded on her in the car after she played really poorly. It is just so hard to watch your child be so disinterested in a little competition. I am not super competitive but I at least want to feel like i am in the game, you know? I want to make sure nobody feels like I am letting them down. It was painful to watch Kimberly focused on the super soft sand around the goal, or the bugs crawling through the grass. It made me so mad to see her half heartedly running along with her friends with zero enthusiasm...but when it was the end of the game and time for snack, she sprinted as fast as her little legs would carry her to get her share.

I don't know how to motivate in a positive way. I would rather my kids have me be hard on them to prepare a little for the world...instead of syrupy false praise that give a false sense of a job well done. I don't want Kim to think she is perfectly fine just the way she is without applying herself to something. I just don't feel like i am doing her any favors by plastering a smile on my face and saying, "Wow! Great game Kim! Excellent teamwork!" when it was glaringly obvious that she didn't even try.

Maybe I should just build her up though. I dunno. Should I be her soft place to fall? Should I be the one to apply the pressure to her that she needs to succeed? I really don't know. This is the first time I've had a 7 year old and I have no idea what I am doing.

29 week belly

It's that time again! Time to see how I've grown...
The thing is...I haven't changed that much in the last month. My belly looks the same-ish, yes?


I still have a small semblance of a waist. I'm not saying that I'm rocking the hour glass figure, but my waist still goes in a little.

So i ask you...Where the hell am I hiding the 25 lbs I've gained? Could it really be all baby, fluid, placenta, etc?


Ah-hah! There it is! Bliggity Blam! My ass is huge! My poor granny panties can't even cover it anymore. sigh. My loungy pants look painted on now. Awesomeness.

So I gotta say I'm a little worried about my impending birth. My first go round, labor lasted 6 hours from first contraction to baby being born. Second labor was 4 hours. I just really hope I don't have the baby in the car. Oh well. If I do, I will save all the money on hospital bills. If that happens, I wonder if I can use my heath savings account card for Botox. :D

How do I have a 7 year old?

Yesterday was first my babys 7th birthday. SEVENTH! Holy cow! Hello, my name is Stella. I'm 29 and I have a 7 year old. It's amazing...she suddenly has grown up a little more. Yesterday for the first time Kimberly curled up on the sofa with a Junie B. Jones book and read 2 chapters. This is the child that I was planning on putting in a summer reading program because she was behind in reading this year. Well slap me and color me purple. Now that I know that she 'can' read, I just need to make sure that this summer she 'does' read.

Her party was a huge success! The day started off really bad. Like ridiculously bad. Like I wanted to cancel the whole thing, pull the covers over my head and cry myself to sleep. We planned to blow up the inflatable slide from last year so Kim and her friends could put on their swimsuits and have some fun in the sun. But it was raining. Not only was it raining, but it was raining only over our house. You could see sunshine on every horizon, but there were black angry clouds thundering overhead. Also, Jeff and I could not find the stakes needed to secure the slide into the ground. We tore apart every storage closet, and searched the garage and the attic high and low only to come up emptyhanded. And I was somehow blamed for the loss. Then I went to McDonalds to order Happy Meals for all the kids and 99cent burgers for all of the adults...and I had the wrong debit card. I had them swipe it anyway for good measure, and it was declined. o.v.e.r.d.r.a.w.n. Yep I was the asshole that just ordered $100 worth of food with no way to pay for it. Shoot me now. I drove back home and got my other debit card, all while crying hysterically.

Thankfully, bad things only happen in 3's and I racked up my 3 'bads' before noon. It could only get better from there. The sun started to shine, my friend Laura came to the rescue with stakes to secure the slide so it was safe enough to use, and debit card number 2 worked splendidly. I showed up back to my house with happy children running around my backyard...eager to tear into their Happy Meals. Even better was that I was surrounded by my friends. Suddenly I realized that nothing was really that bad after all and that I might be a little hormonal and over reacting. :D The last few children left at 9pm and I had so much fun! It was Kimberly's birthday party, but it also felt like the kickoff to the summer. I am definitely ready for days filled with swimming, sun, hot dogs grilling and ice cold beer. Just kidding, I wont be drinking beer. Just a little wine. I'm kidding people! mostly kidding...

I only have 10 or 11 weeks left of this pregnancy. Hallelujah! I had a doctors appointment today and after the doctor checked me over, she said "Okay great...see you in 2 more weeks!" Just so you know, that means I am in the home stretch. Every appointment up until now has been once a month. My wonderful doc also gave me another ultrasound. I have been nervous because the baby doesn't kick a whole lot. Today my fears were compounded becasue the nurse couldn't find my sons heartbeat! Ack! Once the little dude was up on the ultrasound screen, we saw that all was well. He is head down and his little hands are smashed up next to his face. His butt is in my ribs and his little legs kick towards my back. I guess he is just sort of a quiet baby. He does more shifting and slow rolls wheras my other two kids actually caused me physical pain with their thrashing around.

Oh! And I am please to officially announce this little dudes name. We completely scrapped the old list and had to start fresh. Jeff and I were in a stalemate...big time. But we finally agreed! Sometime in August, we will be welcoming Griffin Jacob to the world. Kimberly, Kennen, and Griffin. We were unable to keep going with the 'K' alliteration but I still think that Griffin somehow matches. Plus, it just feels right. And when Kennen says "Gwiffin' my heart just melts. :D

p.s. the ultrasound tech said that my baby is already 3 1/2 lbs! Holy macaroni!

Throwing you a bone

Helloooooo?

Does anyone still read my blog? I completely suck since I never update. But I suffering from some serious writers block. Or something. :D

Instead I am going to share a new website I just found:

www.textsfromlastnight.com

Let the hilarity ensue. You are welcome. :D

Moms really do make everything better!

My Mom has been visiting here for the last few days to keep me company while Jeff is away on a fishing trip. We have spent most of her trip scouring the city of Houston for the best deal on things for the nursery, and I think we have found them! It reminds me of how we used to spend our free time together when I used to live in Arizona. She is the only other person I know that also loves spending their Saturday morning at yard sales, followed by brunch, and then finish the day off with rearranging furniture and basking in the glow of knowing you have gotten a smoking good deal. I miss her so much. I wish we could do this every weekend. Maybe I could just not drive her to the airport tomorrow. Hee hee...I want to keep her. I think my stepdad would object though so I will be a good daughter and drop her off at the airport as long as she promises to come back soon.

Being with her just fills my soul. Aren't Mom's great? Just look at a child and their primitive need for 'MOMMY!' I guess it never really goes away huh? She will be back here in August when I have my baby...if it takes having a baby to get her to come out and pamper me, then maybe I will have a 4th. ***just kidding!***

Stay tuned for pics of the baby room...and for the little buggers name! :D