The Linda Family

We’ve been talking about it for months, finally settled on a school 2 months ago, planned to start her May 1 and yet here we are in late June.  It’s finally time.  All of our ducks are in a row and Ashleigh is officially a student in the Rain Forest Cottage at the Young School.  She’ll be attending school 2 days a week, Tuesday & Thursday.  We can drop her off any time after 7 AM and pick her up any time before 6 PM.  If she gets there before 8 (NOT likely) they have a “breakfast club” so the kids can enjoy breakfast together.

Her day will most likely start at 9 AM most days.  During the summer session her group will be doing water play from 9:30 – 10:30, so she will get plenty of outdoor time!  She is even excited about her “nap time” at school!  They do naps from 1 – 3, but if the kids are up at 1:30 they go to another activity, so they are not forced to lay there for 2 hours if they don’t sleep.

I’ve spent the past week getting everything ready for her to go to school.  She needed 2 extra outfits to keep in her backpack at school, 2 bathing suits, 2 beach towels, a lunch box, water shoes, and bedding for her cot.  We finally found water shoes last night on our trip out to find Sunbutter so I can make her a sunbutter and jelly sandwich for lunch.  I tried making a cream cheese and jelly sandwich, which is a trick I learned from other moms with kids in schools where all nut products are off limits, but Wes told her it was strange, so while she liked it at first, she decided it was yucky when Daddy told her it was weird.

Ashleigh woke up bright and early this morning to get ready for school.  She had her new bunny cereal, got dressed in her bathing suit, let Daddy put her sun screen on her, put on her clothes over her bathing suit, and let me put her hair in a pony tail.  I even surprised her with a Princess Lunch box, despite the fact that I still think it’s ugly.  It does hold more food than the other one I had found…

I had a knot in the pit of my stomach the whole way to school, but she did great.  We met her teacher, Ms. Crystal, and chose her activity station for the day.  This week’s theme is Camping & Fishing, and she chose the Arts & Crafts activity station.  Some other options were construction, dramatic play, & Science.  She came home with 4 cool crafts.  Two paintings, a pair of toilet paper roll binoculars, and a fish on a fishing pole.  She is thinking about which activity station she wants to do on Thursday.

She had a blast at school, she did make a friend, but she can’t remember the girl’s name.  She said she couldn’t sleep during nap time because it was too noisy, and she didn’t want to get really wet in the sprinkler, so she just got her hands wet.  What a kid.  We do have a few cute photos, and I’m hoping to get a first day of school recap video from her, but there wasn’t time.

We asked her this morning what she wanted to have for dinner to celebrate her first day of school.  She said she wanted Rita’s.  When we pryed for food to eat BEFORE Rita’s she decided she wanted mac & cheese, so instead of going out, I went to the food store for some cows milk on the way to get her so that I could make her some mac & cheese.  After I picked her up, we went to get Wes, came home and made dinner, and headed to Rita’s.  Came home and played a quick game of Mario Kart and off to bed she went.

I’ll get some pictures up tomorrow.  Hopefully a video from her as well.  I didn’t want to keep everyone waiting!

Ashleigh is enjoying the craft projects she has collected pieces for over the past year. I’m getting over my fear of being messy and we’re working on projects. The most recent was the flower pots she made for Nana, Grandma, and Aunt Beth…They turned out pretty stinking cute if I do say so myself! She painted the wooden stick shapes and we stuck them in some florist’s foam in a flower pot and covered it with Spanish Moss. She also painted some for me, but we haven’t gotten mine assembled yet.

Take a look at her cute creations!

We’ll have to see what project we come up with next!

Ashleigh had been making plans for months…For quite some time she has been telling me she wanted a Princess Crown birthday cake. As her birthday was approaching, and I was still recovering from Bekah’s birth the task of actually having a birthday party seemed a little daunting to me. I tried to convince Wes that April would be a better month, it would be spring time and we could have fun outside. Unfortunately for me, he didn’t go for it

We started talking to Ashleigh about her birthday party and she decided that she wanted a Princess party like her friend Mia had last fall. Upon further discussion she realized that she really wanted a prince and princess party so that her friends who are boys could come and have a good time. She made her guest list and we sent out the invites, and started to plan what we could do to have all of her friends here and make it a Royal Gala.

I tried to go simple, but really, if you know me, you know there’s no simple anything….With the help of my mom we made up some great goody bags with tiaras, lip gloss, Disney Princess Crayons, Disney Princess Fruit Snacks, and a necklace & bracelet set for the girls. The boys were ready to be Knights in Shining Armor with Chest Plates & Swords, and they also went home with Spiderman Crayons, the same fruit snacks, and a card game. While everyone arrived we had some Disney Princess Movie music playing and the kids had fun dancing around the living room. Once the majority of the guests were here we moved into the dining room for BINGO. I had intended to make BINGO cards so that I could use Disney Princes and Princesses (because the commercial ones are only Princesses). Unfortunately I had a heck of a time trying to find pictures of Princes and the images were all completely different sizes and it was totally overwhelming.

I had pretty much given up on the BINGO game and was trying to find something else that I could do instead when I found a BINGO card generator on a website that is full of homeschool materials. It was amazing. I was able to choose the size of the cards, whether I wanted words or pictures, and then I chose a theme. I chose the midevil theme and we played BINGO with knights, princesses, mermaids, suits of armor, and all sorts of princessy stuff! Perfect!

The next “project” was Princess Clay. I think the kids enjoyed it. I whipped up a batch of homemade play-doh and the kids got to choose their coloring (kool-aid) and mix that into it, as well as some glitter, for the Prince/Princess effect. It was messy, but not that bad. They had a good time and I just wiped down the table when they were done. We also played “pin Cinderella in her castle”. Well, it was more like stick Cinderella in her castle. The kids had fun, several of them took two turns.

For lunch I tried to go healthy. We had sandwichs, PB&J, tuna salad, and chicken salad. The PB&J were cut into stars, hearts, and flowers. We had veggies and dip, fruit salad, and some chips & pretzels to go with it. I had a bunch of Capri-sun Juice pouches we had never consumed, so we served those as well. The kids all seemed to be happy and full when they left the table.

The cake was Ashleigh’s favorite part. With all the time I put into it, she sure better have enjoyed it! It actually was not as bad as I expected, I just forgot that I had an infant to care for as well as make the cake. Next year it will be easier! She chose the Wilton Castle cake pan for her cake. I had never made flowers before, but I found it was surprisingly easier than I expected.

By the end of the party I was ready to lay down for a bit and take a nap, though that could have been caused by the fact that I wait until the last minute for everything and therefore only got 3 hours of sleep the night before her party…but hey, it all got done and everyone had fun! Thankfully I have some great friends who helped along the way!

After the party was over we relaxed for a bit and took some photos before Celebration #2 started. Nana arrived, then cousin Virginia and Dave, then Aunt Beth, and eventually Uncle Roy. Aunt Beth brought a ton of great stuff and we spent the latter part of the afternoon redecorating Ashleigh’s room. You’ll have to wait for the next blog post for that, but for now…Enjoy the party photos

Ashleigh,

I can hardly believe that you are four years old already. It seems like yesterday that I was pregnant with you, and now you are four years old and a big sister. Where has time gone? The past year has brought many changes to our world. You went from being an only child to being a big sister. You have grown so much in the past year. You are starting to come out of your shell and interact with the world around you. I love your excitement levels. You are so enthusiastic about most everything. You love to let your creativity shine through.

It’s amazing to see how much you have learned in the past year. You can now write your name, and you love to learn. The puzzles you started with last year are all way too easy for you to do. A 24 piece puzzle is done in minutes. You are very good at 63 piece puzzles, and we are moving to 100 piece puzzles! I’m amazed by your problem solving skills and your ability to think through the task at hand.

Books are so much fun. You love to “read” to your stuffed animals and your “kids” at night after Mommy and Daddy read you books. Speaking of your “kids”, your imagination is incredible. Your imaginary friends are all your kids. You started off the year with just a couple of them, then you had 6 of them, and now I think you’ve lost count. Caillou & Rosie are the ones who are usually around, but we’ve also met Herbert and Sherbert, as well as many others.

You love to see the world around you. Trips to the Science Center, Aquarium, and Zoo are always a great time. Storyville is a great place and you also enjoyed the Nature Story Hour the week we actually made it there. Anytime you can be in an enviornment where you are learning you are thrilled.

This fall we started “doing school”. We bought some pre-k curriculum and we have been learning about letters. You love to learn how words are spelled and you are a pro at sounding them out. You have a memory that I can’t even fathom and often try to make sure mommy and daddy don’t forget events that you remember.

I love to listen to you count and try to do simple math. I’m so proud that you know that 4 + 4 = 8. You are so smart! I hope we can continue to foster the love of learning you have deep inside. You amaze me with the information you retain, and the things you like to know about. I don’t think your brain ever rests.

You are an amazing big sister. You love nothing more than to sit and hold your sister, or lay next to her and “talk” with her and make her smile. I love that I can leave the two of you alone for up to 10 or 15 minutes to do laundry and you two will still be where I left you chatting away. I hope you two love spending time with each other in a few years!

You love to help with your sister too. You are always ready and waiting with a fresh diaper during diaper changes, a change of clothes when needed, or just a smile and hug for your sister. You love to watch Bekah sleep, and you can’t wait for her to learn how to talk so you can have real conversations with her.

In the past year you have started to blossom and come out of your shell a bit. You will now sometimes speak to other adults in our presence, and you are quite the social butterfly when among other kids (with no grown-ups watching). I love seeing you mature and grow each day. I can’t wait to see what the next year holds for us!

Love you bunches and bunches,
Mommy

We had a great day for Ashleigh’s birthday. We went to playgroup this morning (for the first time in about 6 months) and then headed to Dr. Stern’s office for Rebekah’s 2 month check up and Ashleigh’s 4 year check up. Rebekah is 11lbs 4.8oz and 23.5 inches! Holy cow! That puts her in the 75th percentile for weight and the 95th for height! I thought it was a bit odd that the 0-3 month clothes fit her so well. Guess that’s why! Ashleigh is 3’4″ and 34lbs! That puts her in the 50th percentile for both height and weight, so perfectly proportioned. Dr. Stern says she was in the 50th for both last year too.

We discussed the fact that Bekah has had this cold/congestion thing basically since birth, and it seems to get better, then get worse and at this point it’s not really affecting us, but I was concerned. He doesn’t think it is a cold, he is assuming it is seasonal allergies. Apparently Ashleigh’s slightly purple under eye circles are a sign of allergies. At this point, we are not discussing doing anything different than what we currently do. Benedryl as needed for Ashleigh, and we’re running a humidifier in our room and in the living room for Bekah as well as the rest of us. It is my understanding that the fact that she is showing signs of seasonal allergies means she is at a higher risk for food allergies, so we will need to be cautious when we do start to introduce solids. So, for now we watch her and hope it doesn’t turn into much.

I had to fill out a questionnaire about Ashleigh to measure her skills. It was broken into sections to see her development in different areas. Each section was made up of 6 questions. Some of the questions were things like “Ask your child what they do when they are hungry, and record their answer” of course, she knew she should eat when hungry and sleep when tired. She also was able to look at 3 very similarly sized circles and choose the smallest within seconds. I was actually shocked at that one. Each section was worth 60 points, there were 2 sections I scored her a 55 because I wasn’t sure she always did one of the questions asked, so she got a sometimes. One of those questions had something to do with throwing a ball overhand, I forget what it was exactly, but I scored her a sometimes, and there was another question I forget as well.

After we finished at Dr. Stern we headed to get Wes from work. He was actually finished early and we headed to Chick-fil-a for an early dinner. We were all hungry, and Ashleigh requested Chick-fil-a for her birthday dinner. After we ate Ashleigh played in the play area for a good hour or so while Rebekah and I ran to pick up the rest of the stuff for the party. We came home to change and headed off to the gym. Ashleigh was very excited to go show off her new baby sister at the gym. Rebekah did great. They said she sat happily in the bouncer for the whole 40 minutes. The woman working said she felt guilty Bekah just sat there contently, so she brought the bouncer over where she is. She also let me know that they don’t allow the other kids to get close to the babies, which this time of year makes me happy.

As Ashleigh and Wes got into the car on the way to the gym they were discussing Ashleigh’s birthday. She commented that it couldn’t be her birthday without cake! Wes tried to explain that we’re having her special castle cake on Saturday at her party, but she just wasn’t having it, so after the gym we hit the food store and found some yummy cupcakes that were even topped with cool Dora and Boots rings. She had requested to play Mario Kart, so our night was finished off with 2 rounds of Mario Kart before she opened some presents and headed off to bed.

She loves the new princess nightgown we got her and wore it to bed tonight. I snapped a quick picture of my FOUR year old!

Bekah is tired and cranky tonight thanks to the shots. She cries when her leg is bumped, but I’m sure she’ll be fine tomorrow. I’m going to give her another dose of Tylenol and head off to bed in just a few minutes. I have a feeling she will be sleeping well tonight! Tomorrow and Friday will be filled with getting as much ready for the party as we can. Her Prince/ss party will be here on Saturday. We expected some people to be unable to attend, but so far, everyone is coming! So, we’re going to be busy trying to clear out some space! Ashleigh is VERY excited for her party, so hopefully she will be a big help!