Letter to anyone wanting to get to know my kids...The Girl Child

I'm writing this post for anyone who truly wants to get to know my kids.  Think of it as a cheat sheet to help you know what makes them tick.  Thought I'd start with the tougher of the two...The girl child.

C arrived 3 weeks early, due to having to be on my feet all day long and the stress of school.  September 25th was the original due date, but she said, "Nope!  I'm coming NOW."  She was a MUCH easier baby than her brother in regards to the fact she was born in September and slept through the night 3 days before Christmas that year (BEST CHRISTMAS PRESENT EVER!!!!).  Her brother FINALLY slept through the night at 15 months after several start/stop episodes.

Here are some other quick things about her:

* She's fiercely loyal to/protective of her family.

.....This doesn't just extend to me, her brother and her stepdad.  This includes her ENTIRE family.  Jason and I moved to McKinney with every intention of raising our family there and putting down roots.  However, we were both really close to our parents and siblings and found ourselves returning home every weekend (just about).  We decided to move back to our hometown, and it was the best decision we could've made.  Less than year after moving home, Jason was diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukemia.  Upon his untimely death at 38, my older sister moved in with us to help with the ramifications.  As a result, the kids jokingly (but not really) refer to her as their 2nd mom.  She did everything to earn that title.  She backed me up, disciplined the kids, and helped with homework, tutoring, counseling, and everything else a parent would do.  In regards to the rest of our family, it falls under that old, "I can poke fun at my crazy, but the moment you do...GAME ON!"

......She and her brother were very close when they were little.  There was a period when they drifted apart, but they've grown close again recently.

* She wants to be a Zoologist or something along those lines (the degree can vary).  Her only want as a Christmas gift is a membership to the Dallas Zoo.  She follows many zoo's Instagram pages and knows all kinds of things about the zoo, their animals, and their keepers (especially the Dallas Zoo).  She learned at a camp that she volunteers with that a zoo somewhere, has a program where you can follow (intern-like) a zookeeper for a month.  She's jealous about that and wishes the Dallas Zoo had something like that so she could do it.

* Due to her love of animals, we have a small zoo.  Her biology teacher at her high school has asked her to come back even though she won't be part of his class and help organize the food and supplies for the animals.  At home, we have a hedgehog that she inherited from a young lady from the biology department who was going to college.  She couldn't take it to school and her parents didn't want it.  So, we now have it.

* She's passionate about animals in general.  It upsets her when she hears about animals that have hard lives or die at zoos.  She gets even more upset at the comments that people leave that are mean or narrow-minded.

* She loves volleyball, and likes discus.  She HATES shot-put. Her goal is to play volleyball and throw in college.  She has already sent Hudl video to a couple of colleges.  Actually, to the military academies of West Point and the Coast Guard.  She has researched careers within both of those branches that would allow her to continue her work with animals.

* She's inquisitive.  If she wants to learn something that no one can help her with, she researches it.

     * In 7th grade, she wanted to learn how to jump serve.  She'd seen several of the girls doing it in club, and wanted to learn.  She couldn't find anyone who'd teach her, so she watched volleyball videos and taught herself.  Granted, it was ugly, but she did it.  Later, she found coaches who could help her. 

     * She likes art.  She's pretty good at it.  She went to the art magnet in Richardson, and learned several important lessons. 1) She prefers art as a hobby, 2) Like ballet and dance, she doesn't like for people telling her to do something.  She'd rather create on her own and own time.  The same goes for photography.  She dropped the photography magnet because she learned that she liked it as a hobby. She felt that she was taking the spot of someone who might prefer photography as a career, and that was not right.

* She had to learn an important lesson (actually, many of us can relate): Your true friends will be happy for you regardless of whether or not you do better than them.  Several of her "friends" from Junior High gave her a hard time when she made the varsity field team.  She started taking on an attitude that track wasn't interesting because it kept them from making fun of her or saying mean things to her.  She worked her way through that thanks to several upperclassmen that she looked up to.  She was accepted by the varsity members and they enjoyed hanging out with her, even though she was a Freshman.  Mainly because of her no-nonsense attitude, but also because she didn't try to act better.

* Her maturity is a bit more advanced than most kids her age.  She has no use for drama and most kids in her high school class annoy her with their attitudes and habits. She's emailed the JROTC leader at a local high school to inquire what will be expected in the program at her high school.  The program will be new this year, and she wants to make sure that it'll be a good fit. She doesn't want to waste anyone's time or drop the class because of her commitments both in school and out.

* She's competitive.   And I mean COMPETITIVE.  She is doing the summer strength and conditioning at her high school (2 days a week).  It's a program that, this year, has encompassed all sports at the high school.  On the first day, they did weights in the weight room.  She asked the coach in charge if she could have a different weight schedule.  When asked why, she said it was too easy.  She explained that the 60% of the max weight listed on her schedule, was more like 30% of her max.  He didn't believe her that her max was 285 lbs on the squat.  He double checked with the volleyball coach that was helping out, and she confirmed that 285 was C's max.  They ended up giving her and a couple of the other players the boy's schedule.  Then during conditioning, they did sleds.  She beat several of the boys.  The last day she went, they did sprints.  She beat several of the soccer girls.  She then said, "I beat them.  Then, I threw up.  But I beat them."  That's just the way she is.

....She was diagnosed with Exercise Induced Asthma in junior high.  She had what was called External Asthma when she was younger (due to contracting RSV at 5 months old).  Conditions had to be "just right" for her to have an asthma attack...ie: seasonal allergies, wet conditions, temps going from warm to cold or vice versa within hours (WELCOME TO TEXAS!!!).  We thought the stronger her lungs got, the less episodes she'd have when allergy season hit.  However, in junior high, we found her using her rescue inhaler more.  After being diagnosed with EIA, she didn't want anyone to know she needed an inhaler.  So, she would either use it before athletics or forgo it if she ran out of time.  One day after school, she forgot to take it before athletics.  The volleyball coach told the girls on the team that if anyone started slacking off, she was going to sit them out during practice and they wouldn't be able to play in the game the next day.  C started having trouble breathing, so rationalized that if she slacked off, she'd be able to stop and go get the inhaler in private.  That didn't happen.  Then they finished practice by running bleachers at the high school stadium on the property.  Half-way through, she went to the coach because she couldn't breathe.  Her inhaler was in her backpack in the locker room and they weren't nearby.  Of course, her coach panicked and they got her to the locker room and to her inhaler.  Of course, I got the phone call from the coach profusely apologizing.  I'm sure she was shocked when, after hearing the story from her and the coach, I reassured her that it wasn't her fault.  C should've said something was wrong when she started having trouble.  I'd informed the nurse, and sent an inhaler to the nurse's office.  But since it was after school, there was no way to know.  The coach talked to C privately and asked why she hadn't said anything.  C explained about her reasoning, and the coach laughed and said, "C.  You have to understand, your slacking is still better than what some of the girls can do simply because of the skill difference."  They came up with a signal that C could give her if she ever forgot to take her inhaler.  However, that wasn't necessary because the coach always checked with C before practice started.

* She HATES being late to anything.  Detests it.

* She loves saving money.  Her Grammy took her shopping for items for her room, and C took great pleasure in finding similar products on sale.  As a result, she's not impressed with fancy places.  In her opinion, you can get just as good service and things at places that are in the middle.  For example, to her On the Border or Chili's are special places to go.  We don't go to those places often, and she loves them.  But she understands that they're expensive for us, so she relegates them to special occasions.  She loves Benihana, mainly because it's where she, her brother, and Aunt go after getting her aunt's Christmas tree.  Christmas tree shopping is always special.  We couldn't have one, originally, because her dad was allergic to them.  But now, we don't have a real one because it's expensive, and she doesn't feel that the expense is worth it.

That's C in a nutshell.  She's a tough nut to crack, but when you do, she's fun.