She's a keeper.

Leilea Alice

So she's finally here! We waited and waited (okay, some people wait longer, but still... ) and for all those who said "she'll come when she's ready"- you were so right! Friday morning John and I were wondering whether or not to go to the hospital and whether or not John should go ahead and go to work, and by lunchtime she was here. Amazing. This was by far the easiest of my three birth experiences. I am still in awe.

She weighs 8lbs 4ozs, is 21 inches long and has a head full of brown (yes, brown) hair. I guess one of my children will take after their father after all. Oh well. Can't win 'em all.

I'll have to get better pictures up here but in the meantime, here's a picture taken just a few minutes after she was born.

If you don't have anything nice to say...

I haven't posted in a while because of the lack of news. I was hoping that my next post on here would be about Leilea and how cute she is and how she just walked out and got a job, but alas, we still wait.

I thought in the meantime, I could post pictures of Kawika's new haircut but the camera is packed and maybe it's best to let it grow a little before too many people see it.

See- the Friskillo men don't go to the barber. I have been cutting their hair and so far I've done a pretty good job. (don't mean to toot my own horn but- beep! beep!) I have two haircuts in my repertoire- full buzz and faux hawk. Kawika has usually gotten the faux hawk but today mommy was not on her game and had to resort to a #2 guard full buzz.

I regret to inform you that he now looks like he is training for Hitler's Youth. John always gets the full buzz but it doesn't look so severe on a grown man, you know? Anyway, his hair grows fast and I think he likes the feel of it.

A really cool thing I did today was spent the afternoon with my two best childhood friends EVER. It was really cool to spend time with them and sit back and think about how far we have each come in our lives.... and also how we're still those little girls who rode our bikes to each other's houses and gossiped about that girl who made out with that guy with the lazy eye. I love it.

The last hUrrah

This Labor Day weekend, my folks organized a road trip. It was so much fun! We ate, and swam, and ate some more. We also did some educational/historical sight seeing- because no Steinbrink road trip would be complete without it. Fun was had by all.

That said, I don't foresee any more of these trips for the Frisky's any time soon. I don't know how we could have done it without the four extra adults that were there. Leilea was pretty easy to take care of, being unborn and all, but I just can't imagine me and John out of town with three kids (especially when one of them is Kawika- whew!).

Like I said, we had a blast. I'll post pictures later. Hopefully they will include the most adorable traveler ever, Miss Hannah.

A Little Serious Today.

If you know our little Iwa, you know how she loves animals with a love so great, one might even use the word "obsession". She has always been this way. She would cuddle a stuffed pig before she would even notice a baby doll was in the room.

Both my favorite and least favorite Iwa stories deal with this love.

First, one of my favorites. Sometime last spring, I was taking a shower, getting ready for school when John came in and in a hushed voice told me that something had happened and wanted to consult on how we should deal with it. When Iwa was letting General, our dog, outside for his morning constitution, there was a dead squirrel in the grass. She came and got him and told him that General was stepping on a squirrel. John, trying to be discrete, came back to talk to me before he had made an official statement to her. I was giving this a lot of thought. How do you explain the nature of nature to a 3-year-old? It was just about then that she burst into the bathroom saying, rather mater-of-factly, "Mom, there's a dead squirrel in the back yard and General's stepping on it. I'm gonna hold the tail while daddy holds the body to throw it over the fence." That took care of that.

Now, one of my least favorites, happened today while we were visiting John's dad's house. They live out in the country with horses, mules, goats (one of which was Iwa's second birthday present- a pygmy goat she named Sheep), a pony, and, of course hunting dogs and barn kitties.

She went out to the barn with Martha to visit the baby kitties infesting the barn and one of the more socialized hunting dogs came along. She had made fast friends with this dog, whose name is "Broke Tail Buck" as soon as she arrived. These animals follow her around like she's friggin' Dr. Doolittle.

Anyway, when they came back, she was hysterical. "Buck the Dog" who I thought might have even been semi-retarded attacked one of the kitties right in front of them. Now, this really sucks but I really don't want to lie to her about these things. They weren't playing. The kitty wasn't sleeping. If she's going to be spending time around a farm and loving animals, she needs to know that wild animals do these things. That's why they're wild. Sometimes our inside animals can do these things. It's life. Not everything wants to cuddle and be petted.

I took her outside to a rocking chair, and after lots of tears and cuddling and talking, she was fine. Maybe she's a little more grown up, maybe scarred for life. I know I certainly am. As for her, only time will tell. Bless her heart.

Oh, Yeaahh.. I'm venting.

Okay. I'm glad people think my kids are cute because when they're with me people are usually too distracted by them to comment on how friggin' huge their pregnant mother's belly is.

Sometimes even they are no match for the rudeness of strangers.

I can't tell you how many times a day I am asked by complete strangers (and sometimes not strangers) how many babies I am carrying.

While the resemblance to a certain sugary drink icon is undeniable on Rivercrest "spirit days" (go Redbirds), it's also an undeniable fact that you just don't approach a woman who's 9 months pregnant and tell her she's huge. I get it. I carry this thing around all day. When I turn to answer kids questions, I knock another kid in the head with my stomach. (much to their horror because most of the time they have no idea what it's all about) It's an issue.

If you've been there, you know that any woman at this point in pregnancy already feels huge. That's why it always surprises me when women do the asking. Last night, we went to IHOP and a woman and her daughter approached me to ask "how many" because they were taking bets on it. And she was a nurse!

I know they don't mean to be rude but for the record, IT'S JUST ONE... and she's still got a month to go.

All dressed up, no place to go.

Here's some pictures of the kids from Sunday. We got dressed and ready, but didn't quite make it to church. Yeah, yeah.... I know. Straight to hell with us, but at least we'll be in our Sunday best.