Brace Yourself, Its here!

My beautiful baby girl on her 9th Birthday

My beautiful baby girl 3 days later, making that huge leap into a world where looks really do matter and fine, white, straight American teeth rule the adolecent years.

For the record, she was totally brave. I knew she was scared inside because of the way her eyes shifted slightly every second and how she constantly tugged and bent her fingers back, but she didn't let on other than that. When they gave her a mirror, for a second.... her eyes got all watery and her lip quivered, but she held it in. I cried a bit inside for her. I do think she looks cute tho, and the blue bands are totally adorable.

Later, before soccer, my brother said, "She needs a mouthgaurd."

"She hasn't gotten hit in the face with a ball since last spring. It's just one practice. I'll buy a mouthguard tomorrow."

Oh yeah. You guessed it. First 10 minutes of soccer practice, she takes a ball directly to the face. Every parent there winced, sucked their breath in horror and waited. Her lip quivered. Blood started to form on the corner of her mouth. Then she kept playing.

She is an amazing kid.
I am a shitty parent. One who will go and get a mouthguard tomorrow.

Know your Place!!

The first day of the official Indoor Soccer season began with new uniforms, on a new field, under a massive, new air-formed dome. Which, incidentally, smelled like "new pool float."

We were so excited about Abby's first game on a premier team and she was mentally and physically ready, willing and able.

How did she do???????????????????????????????????

I think "unmitigated disaster" would be kinda fair. Painful to watch, painful to look at, painful to be there. Having only really played one defensive position for the past two years, the poor kid had no idea what the coach meant when he told her different positions.
When he told her to mark up to a certain player on the other team, she nodded her head but wouldn't cross the halfway line to mark up. She was suppossed to be on on side of the field in a new position, but didn't understand and went to another side by mistake. When she realized her mistake, I thought she was going to cry out there. Hundreds of people, three fields, kids who are AWESOME players kickin her butt and she was just trying to figure out her place in it all.
Poor kid. We'll work on knowing positions and getting her confidence back up so that she can go kick butt like she normally does.
Until then, remember what it was like to be the only kid out there who didn't know your place? I had that memory in vivid detail today.

Abby for the WIN

The day can't pass without celebrating Abby's amazing soccer game and a wonderful win for the team. Everyone was happy, cheerful, supportive and downright LOUD in their pride and admiration for all the kids on the team. Hell, I even cheered for the other team when they got a hard-earned goal. They worked for it, so why not?

Evie was a trooper for the whole game, which was under a blindingly hot Indian Summer Sun. We were all sweating and possibly melting, but the flush of victory kept us in our seats. :)

David Julie did a great job coaching and I'm just so happy to have been there for the win.

Now I have to finish working, pay my mom's bills and get the kids ready for bed.

Tomorrow is Daffodil Planting Day at Abby's school, which I volunteered for, so that should make for an interesting next post.

Real girls play soccer, even in the rain.

And they look pretty darn cool doing it.

Our day today was mostly spent at Soccer fields, with a little bit of shopping thrown in for measure at the end of the day.

Tonight will be the last night that Evie spends in her crib. Tomorrow afternoon we'll be setting up her "Big girl bed" and redecorating. As usual, she has picked out a Butterfly theme for just about everything. The only big exception was that she chose the massive fuzzy-soft pink blanket over the not-so-soft butterfly comforter.

I'm a little sad that our home will finally be void of a baby crib. Even after Abby had outgrown it, we still kept it in the spare room because we knew that eventually we would have another baby occupying it. Tomorrow it will be dismantled and put in the attic, maybe for a grandchild many, many, many years from now.