Swimming pillows and ports

We've been busy little bees this week. I've got several more pillows in the works. One pillow is just waiting for a glamour shot, along with Lumplings that need photos!

Yesterday I made the cutest pajama pants for Finn. They are black with wee ghosties flying around. Luckily, he's totally my kid and loves everything Halloween; so he's very pleased with them.

Sneak peek below of new pillows and Lumplings!

Every morning last week the children had swim lessons. Finn has taken lessons from Miss Katie for the past four years and this was Ella's second year with her. Miss Katie has a heart of gold and nerves of steel...how she can stand an entire group of kids screaming bloody murder in her face is beyond me. Beyond me without valium or vodka anyway.
Finn is an excellent little fish and doesn't get upset about swim lessons at all now. But his first year, he was a runner...one of the kids shrieking and running away from the pool. Miss Katie would just calmly get out, pick him up and plop him back in the water.

Those are the parenting moments that make you just want to sink into a hole.

Finn is now the first one to jump off into the deep end and swim the entire length of the pool.

His best friend, Jackson, jumped in right behind him and they were the only two that could swim the entire way across.

Hans and I look smug and tell people that we didn't name him Finn for nothin'.

Now Ella... well, you know that it couldn't just be totally easy at first. She screamed like a banshee the first day. Ella would hold her hand out, palm flat in Miss Katie's face and scream "NO! I don't want to!" Miss Katie would, of course, just pick Ella up and plop her in the water.

I did the best that I could to hide behind my hands.

But then I got sneaky. I told Ella that if she didn't have any more hissy fits at swim lessons that I would take her to Target and she could get Hello Kitty Nail Polish. You could see it click in her baby blues. "oh! Okay, mama...no more hissy fits" and she waltzed through the gate and sat down on the stairs in the shallow end all calm and sophisticated even. Miss Katie looked nervous as she greeted Ella, but Ella smiled and said "HI, Miss Katie, I'm gonna get NAIL POLISH". And from that moment Ella had a great time and would beg for her turn as she looked smugly at the little girls who were still shrieking. Ella definitely has the smug look down pat.

I am so not above bribing. It has saved my parenting ass many a time.

Yesterday, I took my munchkins to Target and Ella got her Hello Kitty polish and Finn got a new x-men toy. Both kids haven't let go of their prizes for more than five minutes.

Hans missed yesterday's grand finale of Swim Week because he was down in Atlanta getting the port for his chemotherapy removed. His oncologist, Dr. Ajani, in Texas wanted him to keep it in for two years, but it's really been getting on Hans' nerves. It pained him and I think that everytime he looked in the mirror he had to be reminded of the cancer. His surgeon, Dr. Hofstetter, said to just remove the damn thing and if Hans ever needs chemo again, they can put it back in. Hofstetter knows Hans very well now and knows what will upset him. We are lucky to have a doctor that views Hans as a person, not a number.

So now the port is gone and we have a new bandage to check and change. I'm very good at changing bandages and cleaning wounds now. Most of the time in the hospital the nurses would just hand the supplies to me and let me go at it. They must be trained to recognize control freaks like me.