The Linda Family

I know, I know…I am horrible at updating….I will try to do better.  I blame it on, well..life!  We went to the midwife a few weeks ago and baby was doing well.  Heartbeat sounded good, nothing to report.  This one sure takes after his/her big sister with energy levels.  My goodness!  It’s a good thing the baby is only 12 inches long and 16 ounces at this point, or I’d be loosing sleep already.  I think Ashleigh will have quite the playing partner in a few months.

As for Ashleigh she is still very excited about being a big sister.  Every Wednesday I get my weekly baby update from one of those parenting sites.  It’s usually a bunch of sillyness, but she likes hearing how big baby is, and having something to comepare it to.  This week they told us that baby is 12 inches long, or roughly the size of an ear of corn.  I think that’s a pretty big ear of corn, but at least it gives her a visual to hang on to.  We also learned this week that baby’s taste buds are starting to form.  Ashleigh had a little anatomy lesson about tastebuds and how we all have them and what they do.  She was a little freaked out at first as she heard “taste bugs” instead of “taste buds” but I think we’re all straightened out!

We also have other new and fun stuff going on.  This week I finally forced myself into actually starting a pre-school program with Ash.  It’s something I had planned to do starting about 3 weeks ago.  We have learned about the letter A and the letter B.  She loves the school time.  We learn to write the letters, do some puzzles or flash cards that pertain to the letters, and then some activity sheets and a craft. Craft time is her favorite.  She LOVES gluing and making things.  We’re getting into a good pattern with her learning, and as we learn more we can add more fun activites to the whole day.

Wes is keeping busy with Hopkins, WorldFire, and PassionSpice.  I’ve been working on getting our name out there and preparing the house.  On Tuesday Wes and I are driving to Olean, NY to pick up all of the PassionSpice inventory and bring it back here.  We’re a bit fearful of the sheer volume of merchandise we will have in our home, but we’re excited about having actual physical control over our products and shipments.

I forgot to mention that at the beginning of September Ashleigh headed to CT for a weekend to visit Aunt Beth and Uncle Roy with Nana and cousin Virginia.  She had a blast!  She came home with some fun new clothes, a new game, and a book she loves!  We have read Where Do Balloons Go so many times in the past two weeks that she knows most of the words.  It’s quite frightening how much of a sponge she is.  At least I can be sure that now is the time to teach her good habits and lots of things that will help her through life!

I’m sure we have pictures floating around here somewhere, but I don’t know where right now.  The next update won’t take as long and I’ll find some pictures!

Yesterday was a very full day for us. While it was busy and crazy, it was a blast. We woke up early to take Wes to work and meet Hillary and the kids for a morning trip to the Science Center. I did take pictures, but they are still on the camera. You’ll just have to be patient with me. We spent almost 2 hours walking around and visiting the dinosaurs, then checking out the weather exhibit and watching a “tornado” form and fall apart over and over again. We were going to check out the physics area, but there was a big camp taking over that area, so we headed up to the kids area to play. It was different than our last visit because now Blake is walking. Instead of having 2 kids to chase after, we had 3. We only lost Owen briefly, and it turns out Ashleigh found him, she just didn’t bother to tell us. We weren’t too concerned, as I had been standing in view of the exit for the kids area, so I knew he hadn’t left. But, it was still a bit unnerving not knowing where he was.

After playing we headed to Cheesecake Factory for lunch. Yes, we love that place. We also love the reimbursement for the secret shops there! Ssshh….don’t tell. We enjoyed a lovely meal, where the kids were very well behaved right up until the end. It was getting to be nap time, and all of us were wearing out. Including Blake, who fell asleep during lunch. It’s a shame I had put the camera back in the car! That would have been a great photo.

After we all had full bellies we headed back to the cars. Ash and I headed home to get her suitcase packed. We had just under 2 hours to get home and get her ready to go visit Grandma and Grandpa. We got Ashleigh packed and hung out for a bit before we headed off to get Wes from work so he could say goodbye. Ash is going for a last visit to my parent’s house before school starts and life gets too busy. She was very excited, but started to break down as we left to get Wes. She was going to miss Mommy & Daddy. It was also past nap time. We picked up Wes, he said his good-byes and she was all smiles to go meet Grandpa. When we got to the meeting location Ash was less than thrilled when Grandpa opened her door. She was not sure she wanted to go. But, we went inside to use the bathroom, and got her stuff transfered over to Grandpa’s car. She then remembered that she had saved some of her afternoon snack for Grandma and Grandpa. She had two mini marshmellows for Grandpa, and two for Grandma. After giving Grandpa his, she suggested they stop for Twizzlers on their way to Grandma. She LOVES twizzlers right now. So, Grandpa agreed that he did need to stop for gas, and since she knows Twizzlers live at the gas station she was VERY excited. She tuned to me, waved, said “bye Mom!” and went back to Grandpa. She heard Twizzlers and she was gone. Glad I’m easily replaced by anyone offering Twizzlers!

Grandpa and Grandma had some fun things planned for the long weekend, and Ash will be home on Tuesday with my mom, who is going to stay and help me clean out and organize more stuff. I don’t think she knows what she’s in for! I honestly am not sure where to start. Guest room or baby clothes? Hhhmm….the decisions. All I know is that for now, I have some work to do and need to get back to it. I’ll decide what to organize later!

Yeah. She’s practicing. We’re in trouble. Nap time today was met by some complaining, as usual. I eventually got her into bed and I took my seat on our bed to get to work. I have found our bed to be a much more comfortable place to sit than the couch during this pregnancy. So, as I sit in bed working, I see movement above my computer screen…I look up to see Ashleigh quietly sneaking across her room to get a basket off her shelf in the cubes. I remind her that it is nap time and she is supposed to be in bed. She looks at me, hangs her head and pouts, and walks back to her bed.

I of course think the situation is over and I go back to work. Suddenly I see more movement. But when I look up, I don’t see Ashleigh. I look down again, and there is is — CRAWLING this time! She looks up, sees me, I remind her it’s nap time, and she heads back to bed. I am now assuming this is done. I mean really. What ELSE could she pull? Famous last words. A few minutes later I see movement in her room. I look up and I don’t see Ashleigh, but I do see her doll house sliding across the floor. When I look closely I see little fingers holding onto one side of the doll house. Yeah. She was trying to be sneaky. Figured if I couldn’t see her I couldn’t see the doll house? Well, lucky for her I was trying WAY too hard not to laugh to really yell at her. Of couse Wes finds it HILARIOUS that she insists her door stay open recently. If she had allowed me to close the door, I never would have seen her! We’re going to be in trouble when she REALLY learns to sneak. She’s too creative already. Pray for us

Geez. In my state of pregnancy stupidity I forgot some of our fun stuff! The day before Wes left for FL was a Monday. I was getting work done in bed, and Ashleigh and Wes were downstairs. Ashleigh was enjoying her Curious George as usual. During one of the between show shows they showed some kids bowling. Ashleigh thought that this was just the coolest thing ever! Of course, to a child who has never seen bowling it is. Wes asked Ashleigh if she would like to go bowling. She was quite excited about the prospect and came upstairs to ask me if I wanted to go bowling with she and Daddy. Of course, I assumed that she and Wes were rolling a ball through the living room or something. I had no idea what had gone on. Just as I joked with her about her “bowling” my cell phone vibrates. I have a new text message. Now, if you’ve been around us recently you know that we are Twitter addicts. Our church started using Twitter a few months ago to keep every aware of any prayer requests and announcements. Since then we have been active chatters on Twitter. So badly that we had to upgrade to unlimited text messaging. So, back to my cell phone. It vibrates and I see a text message from Twitter. I check it, and it is Wes asking if anyone wants to join us for some Duckpin Bowling. I just laughed and sent him a message telling him how Ash had asked me if I wanted to go bowling, but I thought she meant a game with Daddy downstairs.

After a day of planning we ended up at Chick-fil-a for dinner (really, are you surprised?) and then across the street to the bowling alley. Ashleigh was just beyond excited. She was asking a million questions, looking all around, not really sure what was going on. We went to AMF Westview, where on Monday nights it’s only $7 pp to bowl from 7-10 PM! During the day shoes are $4.25 and then it’s $3.50 per game. hhmm…which did we choose?

Luckily for us we had ordered a new video camera which arrived that afternoon, so we have some great (or so I assume) video of Ashleigh bowling. Wes says it’s edited, but the file is HD and way too big for the internet. So, he’s going to figure out how to make it a better file size so that we can upload it. Ashleigh had a blast. Ok, we all did. After the first frame she had a score of 8 and Wes and I were a 3 and 4. Ooops. We caught up to her in the end, but she did great. Hopefully we’ll have the video soon to show you. In the mean time, when you see Ashleigh you can ask her about bowling. She loved it!

Ok, I promised more updates. I’m sure you’re really interested in how the ultrasound and perinatologist and midwife visits went today, but you’ll have to wait for those……

The end of July was a bit of a whirlwind. On the 29th Wes left for Orlando for 8 days. This of course was a BIG change for us. He’s never been away from Ashleigh that long, I’ve never been the lone parent for more than 48 hours, and I don’t think Wes and I had been apart that long since before I moved to Maryland 7 years ago. Of course add the pregnancy hormones onto that and well, you have a big basket case. The day before Wes left Ashleigh made some artwork for Wes. She made 3 different prints, two we gave to him when he got home, and the 3rd we hid in his carry on bag. We used the Clementine Art Print making kit that Ashleigh received for her birthday. She loves it. She used it every day Wes was gone. She made prints for Wes, Grandma, Grandpa, Nana, a few more yet to be delivered, and one for me. Here are the photos of the prints she made for Wes, as well as ones that we took the day before he left.

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Wes’s flight was at noon on Tuesday, so we had him to the airport at 10:30 AM, which left Ashleigh and me with a full day ahead of us. We came home, relaxed a bit, and of course, Ashleigh made more pictures. We met Hillary, Neil, and the kids at Chick-fil-a for kid’s night. Since she had refused to nap during the day she passed out in the car. The funny part was that she put her book over her face and then fell asleep. So, she napped with A Chair for My Mother on her face. You can laugh at her and enjoy the photos…

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The day after Wes left was Wednedsay. Wednesday happened to be National Cheesecake Day (did you know there was one of those? I didn’t). 2008 also happens to be the 30th anniversary year of The Cheesecake Factory. Of course this means that they had a big special. They had all of their cheesecakes for only $1.50! Of course we couldn’t make a trip to the Inner Harbor without something fun, so we went to the Aquarium. We’ve got to use those memberships while we have them! We hung out at the Aquarium until they closed, and then we headed over to Barnes and Noble to look at some books. We had forgotten all about a gift card Ashleigh received for Christmas. It had been in Wes’s wallet, and I had recently put it in my purse. I told Ashleigh I was going to stop to get a drink on our way to the book store. I opened the door to Chipotle and headed in. As soon as I did that, Ashleigh asked if we could have a pickle. Well, a pregnant lady never turns down a pickle, so we closed the door to Chipotle and walked next door to Potbelly. I have to say, I didn’t mind. I much prefer Potbelly’s food, but Chipotle was closer, so that’s where I was going to stop for a drink. We waited in line, and $2.50 later we walked out with a large pickle to share and a large Diet Coke.

We eventually made it to Barnes and Noble where Ashleigh got to pick out three books. I tried to help guide her a bit, but I did let her make the decision on her own because it was her gift card. She picked out It’s Wubbzy, The Little Mermaid, and Welcome To Your World Baby. I tried to talk her out of Wubbzy, but it didn’t work. I figured it was her gift card, so she should get what she wants. Unfortunately I am the one who has to read it to her!

We then headed over to The Cheesecake Facotry to get our names on the list. Hillary was meeting us for Cheesecake. I expected it to be an hour or so wait, so when I knew she was almost an hour out I went over. Little did I know they were going to tell me it was an hour and half to TWO HOUR wait! Geez. All for $1.50 cheesecake. Ash and I headed up to Pizzeria Uno to grab a quick dinner. It was nearly 8 PM, which meant it would be 9:30 – 10 PM before we sat down to eat! Yikes. We needed dinner before 10. We had a lousy meal with a horrid waiter. Hillary went to see how much longer our wait would be for The Cheesecake Factory, and we were told we were any minute. I quickly paid our bill and headed down stairs. One order of Avacado Eggrolls, two coffees, and three slices of cheesecake later we were all quite satisified and ready to head home. It really was a wonderful day, you can see those photos here–

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The next day we went swimming with our friend Erin from church, Ashleigh had a blast. It was a little cooler than any other day had been, so we didn’t stay that long. We had a lovely visit with Erin, finished with some ice cream from Baskin Robbins. We headed home to shower, and while we had planned on going back to Hillary and Neil’s for dinner, I was just way too worn out. We stayed home instead. It was nice to relax at home considering the few days we had had.

Friday found us heading to PA for the weekend to visit my parents. Friday night we headed to MusikFest. Mom and Dad had never “done” Musikfest. I had never made it to the end we started at, and the last time I was there was the summer of 1999. We had some food and walked around. We met up with Ted, and while we were waiting Ashleigh spotted an ice cream stand. That kid has radar, I swear. So, Grandpa had enough tickets left that Ashleigh got some ice cream. She enjoyed eating it while we waited for Uncle Ted to make his way to the giant ice cream cone where we were standing. We hung out for a while, and then Ted made his way back to the pavillion where his friends all were to watch a band. Mom, Dad, Ash, and I did a little more walking. We found a stand that had giant pickles on a stick, and it just so happened we had just enough food coupons left to get one. So, Ashleigh, Mom, and I shared a pickle on a stick as we walked some more and then headed back to the car. Mom teased Ashleigh about eating ice cream and then a pickle. Which one of us is pregnant?

Saturday we hung out during the day and then headed over to the stadium in Allentown for DCI East. We got to see The Dunneman’s, who are friends of the family who always come to the valley that weekend to see their oldest son Mason, who used to march, and now is an instructor with Phantom Regiment. I was worried about how Ashleigh would handle the show, beinc that she doesn’t like loud noises, and she hadn’t been to a show in 2 years. She LOVED it! The Phantom shirt she had was too small (12-18 mos) so Grandma had to take care of that! She got a new shirt, and she was very excited that it was red! She also enjoyed some pink and blue cotton candy as well as some funnel cake. When I took her to the bathroom she realized we were missing a corps. She was very upset to be missing the show. I was very impressed with how well she behaved, how nicely she sat, and how much fun she truly had. She suremade Grandpa proud!

Sunday was up for church, and then back to pack to head home. We made it home in time to get to church Sunday night and had Monday at home to relax and cleanup from the whirlwind week we had. Tuesday was Ashleigh’s first art class at The Painting Workshop. She LOVED her class. It was a blast. We were signed up for the Mommy & Me class. She painted Daddy a beautiful picture frame with a fish on it. It was a wooden Ikea picture fram with a wooden cut out fish that she selected from the variety of shapes they offered her. She had pink, orange, yellow, and red paint to use, and she painted the whole thing. the only help I gave her was holding it while she painted the edges. Once the frame was done she got to make a lovely spin art painting for the inside. She did great. the last part of class is making playdough. They have the kids help make it (no parents allowed) to get the kids used to gooey art stuff. She did great and had a blast. Unfortunately for us we were the only ones to sign up for the class, so that was our first and last class :’( We’re hoping to find a class that works for us in the fall.

Class was from 3:30 – 4:30, and Wes’s plane was due in at 5:15. Perfect! Too perfect….Wes’s plane was delayed almost 2 hours and he didn’t leave Orlando until almost 5. This left Ashleigh and I with not enough time to go home and relax, but way tooooo much time to just go to the airport. So, we headed downtown and visited the Science Center. We got to walk through the dinosaur area before they closed, and then we walked around the harbor and enjoyed some Rita’s. We headed over to the airport and on our way I got a text message from Wes letting me know they had laneded. I was kind of bummed that the flight was shorter than it was supposed to be, because that meant we wouldn’t be able to get to baggage claim to meet him! Well, lucky for us, unlucky for him, it took them 20 minutes to open the gate and let them off the plane. We were able to park, run across to baggage claim and walk down just in time to see his first bag come on to the carousel. I grabbed it and then saw Wes. Ashleigh hadn;t noticed him when I started dragging her around the carousel to where he was. We were able to sneak up on him, and Ashleigh gave him the picture she had made in art class and the Sweedish Fish she had put in her pocket to bring to him. And like a good sport he ate those Sweedish Fish. Blue Denim lint and all. We headed to Dockside, our favorite place to eat, for dinner, and then home to relax.

Wednesday was spent doing laundry and recovering from the week. Thursday night and Friday we got to spend at Hillary and Neil’s. They had an out of town wedding Friday AM, so Wes, Ashleigh, and I spent the night with Owen and Blake. It’s a big adjustment to go from one three year old and a dog to two three year olds, a one year old, and two dogs. It was exhausting, but we had fun. Ashleigh did NOT want to go home Friday evening.

This weekend we hung out and spent some family time. We enjoyed some time at the playground yesterday. I have some cute video on my cell phone. I’ll try to get that up tomorrow. Ashleigh taught Laci a new trick. You’ll get a kick out of it.

Today was spent on the new baby, but that will be a seperate post…