Whoa! Neither Patrick nor I were prepared for the shock of the first day of school - and the shock was our own, NOT Ayden’s! As we prepared Ayden’s outfit the night before the first day of school and tried to mentally prepare him by talking about what the coming day would bring, we found ourselves in utter disbelief that our BABY is old enough to be going to school?!?! At one point in the evening Patrick mimed to me a rocking little baby in his arms and made an exaggerated sad face - no, we were NOT ready for this. However, Ayden certainly was! It’s a good thing the kid doesn’t know what Disneyland really is, because for the time being he thinks his new school is the best Disneyland in the world! I had been to the school for various informational and parent-orientation type events, but Ayden had never stepped foot in the building. We did have several play-dates over the summer with the kids who were lined up to be in his class this year (a GREAT idea!) so that at least most of the faces were familiar, if not the surroundings. In addition, Teacher Linda made home visits to each of the students in her classes to get to know them in their home environments, so that the kids would already know HER upon their arrival at school, and so that we could give her the 1-yard of cotton fabric that Ayden chose for his school bag. Yes, Teacher Linda requested that each student provide her with 1-yard of fabric of their choosing that she would sew into a school bag with each child on the first day of school. How awesome is THAT?!?! Choosing the fabric was an event in itself - you’d have thought I’d taken the boys to a candy store - they were both SO excited to search through the 
neatly stacked bolts of fabric! It was like a treasure hunt for them - Ooh, stars! Look, Santa! Mama, pumpkins and ghosts! Whoa, robots! Pretty, flowers! Scary, spiders! Cool, tractors! Mommy! DINOSAURS!!!!! And so it was that the Dinosaur fabric has become Ayden’s school bag for the year. Oh, and naturally, since his favorite color IS blue (and against my apparently not-so-important observation that the blue ribbon did NOT match the dinosaur fabric and that perhaps the brown ribbon would be more pleasing to the eye) he chose the bright blue ribbon to be the handles.
Suffice it to say that Ayden had a VERY good first experience at school yesterday. He cannot wait until tomorrow when he gets to go again 
His eyes were twinkling and he was positively alight as he moved from one part of the classroom to the next, discovering each new activity and treasure trove of possibilities. I could not be more pleased with his reaction to the school and it definitely makes the parental shock and associated and necessary adjustment to having a school-aged child a bit easier to swallow. My baby is in school! When did THIS happen?
Enjoy all the pictures from Ayden’s first day in the new gallery!
This pregnancy is FLYING past! We had another of our “getting to know you” visits with one of the midwives in the group that we had yet to meet this past Thursday. It is SO hard for me to believe that our second son will be here in just 5 or 6 weeks. I guess we have been so involved with (and amused by) Ayden in the recent weeks and months, that we’ve hardly had the chance to recognize how soon we’ll have another beautiful boy in our lives?!?!? Having a house move on one’s horizon can also keep the mind occupied! As soon as baby #2 arrives, our house becomes instantly short a bedroom, so we’re frantically finishing do-it-yourself projects around our home in anticipation of listing it for sale. And of course, listing our house for sale means we have to be searching for a replacement one! No wonder I haven’t had time to think about our pending arrival! And to top it all off, Patrick and I are currently trying to come to grips with the fact that “our baby”… well, isn’t, anymore. Ayden is becoming quite the little B-O-Y, in every sense of the word. His vocabulary is blossoming, he’s growing like a weed (and much into the proportions of a boy, rather than a baby - yes, he’s finally growing into his HEAD!), his crazy personality and independence are shining through, and he tells us that he wants to do things like a “big boy” now. That’s heartbreak for a mother!!! At least I take some comfort knowing that I have baby-boy-round-two right around the corner to look forward to! We can’t wait to meet him!
For your viewing pleasure, please enjoy the second and final ultrasound images from December. Most of them are pretty self-explanatory, and the close-up of his “nether region” is labelled appropriately! No more photos forthcoming until his birthday! Bummer! And for the record, we’re still working on his name…
Ok ok… so it’s been since October. Things have been beyond hectic around here… not to mention an 18 month old who now RUNS around the house and demolishes everything in his path. The main news is that Baby Whisler #2 is cooking along nicely. We’ve had two ultrasounds (at 8 weeks and 19 weeks) and all the necessary parts and pieces are where they should be. I will honestly try to get the ultrasound images scanned and posted in the coming week. And what you’ll be interested to know is that the ultrasounds show we are cooking another BOY!!! Testosterone prevails in our family! What’s a girl to do? ;-) Part of the justification we used for learning the gender was to make name selection easier… NOT SO. We are no closer to choosing a name than if we hadn’t found out the sex. At least we can now refer to the baby appropriately… and tell Ayden about his little brother! And there’s always the perk of hand-me-downs!
Extra! Extra! Read all about it! Ayden is going to be a BIG BROTHER!!! Yay!!! Our little family is expecting to grow by one next year! We’ve been to our initial doctor visits and everything looks great. Our estimated due date is 05/06/07… pretty easy to remember! I hope the due date doesn’t move back any, since my birthday is 4/27 and I can think of better things to do than to be giving birth!!! Just kidding! We are absolutely thrilled and cannot wait to meet our new little one! May seems like such a long way away… and yet there’s a lot to do before he/she arrives (like find a bigger house with enough bedrooms for us all! Ahhhhh!). So that’s the news… and we’ll be sure to keep you all updated as we "grow" along! He he!
Ok, so it’s taken a little longer than expected to get pics on here
with a new baby, hardly any sleep, and a toddler running around begging
for attention. :) We did manage to load a few though, and
we’ve started three new galleries that pics will be added to over the next week as we attempt to play catch up.
Also, please go check out the pics of Ayden on Carrie’s site, as she has had lots of "child free" time to post! 
Thanks Carrie!
He’s finally here!
Please help us welcome Ayden Thomas Whisler. Here are the stats for all of you inquiring minds.
Born: June 30th
Time: 10:12 am
Weight: 7lb 8oz
Length: 19.75in
He and mommy are doing wonderfully and starting to get a nice routine going. We’re trying to get all of the pics up on here, but bear with us. Chloe will also have to get on here and tell her birth story, and let you guys know how things are going. Check back tomorrow evening and there should be some photos for your viewing pleasure.
Happy Friday! Patrick and I just returned from an appointment with our midwife
and I thought it time to update everyone. Everything continues to
go smoothly and "by the book". My only recent complaints include
inability/uncomfortable sleeping and KANKLES! It’s true - there
is no longer any part of my body that resembles a standard ankle…
they look far more like tree stumps at this point. But if this is
the worst side effect of pregnancy that I have to endure, then I will
consider myself VERY lucky!
We’re now about 38.5 weeks along (out
of 40 for those of you that don’t know) and you’re considered full term
at around 36 weeks… so we’re ready for launch! And at this
point, I’d rather this baby decide it would like to be home for dinner
TONIGHT, rather than wait another week and a half to two weeks.
God forbid we should go past our due date at this point… I am SO DONE!
As for the nitty gritty details (CAUTION: If you are at all squeemish about details, then you’ll want to skip the rest of this paragraph!) the midwife did an internal check and determined that we’re 50% effaced and 1 cm dilated.
As you veteran mothers know, while this is exciting progress, it
doesn’t really mean much as far as when the baby will decide to greet
the world.
On a funny note, Patrick is getting a bit antsy at
this point. He keeps asking me if I’m done "hogging the baby
yet". How adorable is that?
We’ll keep you
updated! Unless I go into labor sooner, our next appointment is
Friday July 1st. There will be an update to follow that
appointment!
Two new photos have been posted in "The Whislers" photo gallery. We had our second ultrasound appointment this morning. We were thrilled to easily recognize arms, legs, hands, feet, fingers, toes, and even the baby’s jaw opening and closing. It’s a very surreal experience to see this little human life in black and white on the screen… especially when you see it moving, twitching and kicking it’s legs - yet you feel absolutely nothing going on in there?!?! It’s a little freaky! According to fellow moms and the literature, I should be feeling some movements in the very near future - and I can’t wait! We probably won’t have another ultrasound until March sometime, so this is the last of these photos for a while. 