The Linda Family

Ashleigh had her first day of Kindergarten.  She LOVED it.  Bekah was not impressed.

We took her to school at 8:45, and at 9:00 they had a ‘parent pep-talk’ with some repeats of the important info they shared at orientation and a few new tidbits.  This was our first time meeting Ashleigh’s teacher, Ms. Buckley.  They did parent conferences last week while we were away basking in the sun and sea air.

Ashleigh’s school requires uniforms, she decided on a skirt and her pink shirt.  She was adorable as she headed out to the car for school.

We all made it through the day with no tears.  Well, all of us, minus Bekah.  Bekah was lost without her big sister and walked around the house asking for Ashleigh and Daddy.  When I told her it was time to go to the food store, and then get Ashleigh, and then get Daddy, I thought she was going to jump for joy.  She was SO excited.

We arrived to get Ashleigh a little early, so we hung out on the sidewalk and chatted with a few other moms.  When Ashleigh’s class came out, she wasn’t with them.  I eventually made my way over and asked if the rest of them were coming out.  Ms. Buckley told me that the math teacher, Ms. Prada, was finishing up their math assessments and Ashleigh and one other child were inside with her, and I should go ahead inside to get her.  I walked inside as they were getting ready to walk out.  Ashleigh was thrilled to see us, and I got to meet Ms. Prada.

Ms. Prada and Ms. Buckley both had wonderful things to say about Ashleigh and her first day.  Of course, I know what a wonderful kid she is, but it was nice to hear it from someone else too.

I had every intention of being a good mom and baking cookies for Ashleigh today.  I went to the kitchen, defrosted the butter, and realized we had no chocolate chip cookies.  So, I decided on Rice Krispy Treats.  Only to find out we were out of Rice Krispies.  I seriously would have been a lousy mom in the 50′s!  So, I gave her a choice.  Starbucks, Dunkin Donuts, or 7-11.  She decided that she must have a slurpee, so we had a family outing to 7-11.

I made her a special dinner too.  We had steamed shrimp, some yummy scallops, london broil and her favorite oven roasted potatoes.  I was going to make a salad, then realized that she wouldn’t eat the lettuce or the carrots, so I saved myself some effort and just tossed a few tomatoes on her plate.  She thoroughly enjoyed dinner, or so I gathered when she asked for her fourth helping of shrimp.

Ashleigh was SO excited to tell everyone who would listen about her day, so I’ll let her tell you all about it….

Ashleigh’s First Day of School from Wes Linda on Vimeo.

This is our wonderful Ashleigh telling everyone about her school day!

Dear Ashleigh,

I can hardly believe that tomorrow morning your Daddy and I will be taking you to KINDERGARTEN!  How in the world did you get to be a Kindergartener already?  I remember vividly the morning I learned you would be joining our family.  I remember the first time I felt you move.  I’ll never forget seeing your sweet little face, right after the doctor announced, ‘it’s a girl’.  Your first 5 years has been full and exciting.  We’ve been to beaches and weddings, aquariums and children’s museums.  You’re learning to read, and you have a new found love for math.

I’m so excited for the new things you will learn and the new experiences you will have.  I’m sad that we won’t have our lazy mornings and fun days whenever we feel like it, but I’m excited for you and the next chapter of our life.  I hope you make some wonderful friends and have a great time at school.  I can’t wait to see you grow and learn this year.

I’m SO proud of you kiddo.  You’re going to have an amazing year with your cute uniforms and new hair cut.  I can’t wait to see who you become by June!

Love you,

Mommy

Yesterday was Ashleigh’s first school field trip. She was supposed to go to Port Discovery last month, but it was during the week she was out sick, so she missed the trip. Yesterday’s trip was to North Run Farm. It was a bit chilly, but thankfully not raining (like it is today, the day the 2 yr olds from her school go!).

I hadn’t planned on going on the field trip, Ash didn’t seem like she needed me there and I didn’t think a chaperone with a baby in tow was what the school really wanted. Tuesday morning she started panicing that she would be taking the bus to their trip and I would not be there. So, I emailed her cottage director. I was told that I was more than welcome to join them, but there was probably not room for me on the bus. I was to follow the bus in my car. PERFECT! I’ll be there to get her on and off the bus, I can enjoy the time with her, but when the trip is over, I get to go home! Plus, no bus full of noisy 4 yr olds!

The farm truly is a farm. They grow hay and feed corn as their main source of income. They also grow pumpkins and gourds. They are only open to the public for 8 weeks a year, and most of their customers are schools. We started with a tour of the “barn” where they sell the produce. We were shown several varieties of pumpkins and we talked about the difference between feed corn and the corn we eat.

Next stop was the animals. They only have 5 animal pens, the cows, the chickens, the goats, the pigs, and the sheep. The cow they have is a beef cow, not a dairy cow. The past 3 years she has had twins. The twin calves were only 3 weeks old, and we got to see them walking around and nursing. It was adorable. The goat also had twins, the kids were 3 months old. One of them was nursing when we first walked up, but they were startled away when 20+ kids came running at them!

The sheep, pigs, and chickens were also fun to watch. We learned that pigs like pumpkins. They were “yelling” at the farmer’s wife when we had our tour because she didn’t bring them a pumpkin. The kids really seemed to enjoy the animals.

Next stop was the hay ride. We went on a short hay ride down the field. We went past the pumpkin patch and the corn maze. It was a short little trip, but the kids enjoyed it. When we got back the kids got to find a small pumpkin from the pumpkin patch. They go through the patch in the afternoons and cut off the orange ones so the kids just have to find the pumpkin that is sitting next to the vine. Ashleigh picked a perfect little pumpkin! It’s bright orange and perfectly round. It’s sitting on the front steps getting us ready for fall.

Next up was the corn maze. The farmer’s wife led us through part of the maze (the whole thing was WAY too long for the kids). She showed them the roots of the corn and told them what animals eat feed corn. We learned that chickens, cows, and pigs all like the corn, but it is VERY bad for horses. More useless facts to add to a little corner of my brain.

We brought the kids lunches for them to enjoy at the farm, so after the corn maze we sat down at the picnic tables and let them eat. When they were done they got to play on the play area. They had a tire park, a mini corn maze (using bales of hay and big tubes), a hay area to climb on, a tipi made with corn stalks, and a corn box. A what? A corn box. There is no sand on the farm. Really, it’s an AWESOME idea. They took old tractor tires and buried the bottoms of them, and filled them with the kernels of feed corn. The kids climbed right in to play with shovels, buckets, rakes, and corn. They didn’t come home all dirty and sandy! It was great.

It was a chilly day, so Bekah and I came home and warmed up, but Ashleigh had a blast, Bekah was a good sport, and overall it was a good day!

I have some pictures, but the picture software isn’t working properly, for now you’ll have to check them out on Facebook

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!

Well folks, we’re on to day two and things are beginning to settle down.  Since last night, we’ve progressed a great deal, and things are beginning to settle down.

First up in the night was the bath for the kid, the tech was an hour late, and well, lets just say not very understanding of newborns or their parents desire to not see their child in total misery.  I’m not sure how this person got a job in a hospital, but perhaps they had to meet a hiring requirement from the government.  Every business must need to have one person without one lick of intelligence.  After a not so great experience, we were able to return to the room for our first night as a new family.

One thing is for sure, Hospitals are no place to get well.  Our night was filled with pain for katy, beeping of machines, and the hourly desire of hospital staff to visit us.  Outside of that, we had a great night of sleep and rest.  LOL

Even through the interuptions, we were able to get some rest, and as the night progressed into morning, things started improving in this room.  First, after many alarms and issues, the nurses removed the leg compression and circulation cuffs from Katy.  This immediately reduced the noise and interuptions and was the first step to slightly more peace in the room.  Soon thereafter, the IV was pulled from Katy and this improved her level of comfort as she didn’t have a huge cable hanging from her arm.

The morning went smoothly, lots of great baby time, and a first for daddy, our daughter fell asleep in my arms.  I’ll stop to say, this is by far one of the best things anyone can ever experience.  But since I like to hide any opportunity for folks to think I’m a sensitive guy, I’ll move on now.

Approximately 10 minutes after my daughter fell asleep in my arms, in came the tech to do the hearing test.  Suprise!!!!  Just kidding, i know she was only doing her job, but hey, I don’t get a ton of these moments.  After just a few moments, it was announced that our daugther passed the hearing test with flying colors, and passed in the quickest time of any baby that day.  I’m not sure if that was the truth or a line that the tech shares with all parents, but it was great to hear.

Just a bit before 12, we finally landed on a name!  That’s right, nearly 24 hours after the birth of our daughter, we decided on a name.  Rebekah Joelle Linda, isn’t that a great name?

A bit later I headed out to grab some lunch, and after heading back, walked in to enjoy watching katy get her catheter removed.  MMMMM…Hungry now folks…

Okay, so it wasn’t bad, and it was much less painful than Katy was told by others, so, the final tube connected to katy was removed.  And she got cleaned up a bit, and got to change into her own clothes, another blessed moment that really helped her relax a little more.  We spent the afternoon enjoying some time with Ashleigh and Katy’s parents before they began their trip back to PA.  I’d like to throw in a little note of thanks to them for taking Ashleigh for the night and making us some meals for when we return to the house.  We really are blessed by the family we have, and we can never say enough in thanks to those that help us.

A Beautiful Trio

So, now we’re heading towards the evening, and Ashleigh is having lots of fun here, and Katy and baby are resting, Katy is beginning to realize the tough road she has ahead.  But she’ll do great.  If she can put up with me, a recovery from a CSection will be nothing at all.

Well, I’m going to head off into the night, take care of these darling girls of mine, and will post any new up

dates as the days move forward.