Whiteside family

Last week was exciting...but I am glad that it is over and that things have started to slow down. My college roommates came to visit and I just had so much fun spending time with them- reminiscing, laughing and talking. Ashlyn was thrilled to have them all come to see her (and only her in her mind), she REALLY loved having Mommy's friends here. If ever we had to leave her behind, like when we went to get pedicures, she was nearly devastated to be left out! When it was time for everyone to go home, she also had a hard time dealing with this. She'd tell them "no, you stay here!" Ashlyn went down for a nap before Jamie left- the first thing Ashlyn said to me when she woke up was "Mommy, where's yo friends?" Even though it was such a joy to have Allison, Jamie, and Katie here... Ashlyn really made it hard to deal with her by pulling out all her worst behavior- tantrums, crying, disobeying, the word "NO!!!" She did however counter all of that by being fun and cute at times too. Hopefully we didn't scare anybody into never wanting to have children.

Benjamin's baby shower was this past Saturday, and it was great! I am so blessed to be surrounded by so many amazing people who care about our family. I was truly overwhelmed by all the people who took time out of their busy lives to help us celebrate the upcoming arrival of our son. The fact that my college roommates could make it to the shower was very special to me too. Ashlyn is crying in the picture here, most likely b/c the shower was from 2-4 aka her naptime! I plan to add another photo or two once I get them from people who took pictures for me during the shower.

I am officially in my 9th month of pregnancy as of Wednesday- I am a little surprised by this, it kind of snuck up on me. However, I do feel huge enough to believe that I am 9 mos pregnant! I had great difficulty today at the grocery store getting my groceries from the cart to the conveyer belt and again while trying to load them into the car- I don't easily fit between the cart and the check-out or between the cart and the car anymore.

We went to the specialist again, for the last time, and they did all their detailed measurements and even took a couple of 3-D pics for me! Sorry about the quality of the ultrasound- it didn't scan that well. Check out those lips! He really looked like he was smooshed in there, it took a little while for him to give us a good face shot. I was just so thrilled to watch him in "real time" and to see his face; it was AWESOME! Sometimes I love technology. Supposedly the baby is measuring about 6lbs 4oz... how much weight can a baby gain in the last month? I am trying to get everything in order, get the newborn clothes, blankets, burpcloths, etc... washed and in the drawers. It is time-consuming but it sure is fun too! Every once in awhile I feel like a little girl who is playing house. Once the baby comes and the reality of having 2 children hits me, I doubt I will feel much like I am "playing." I am getting more and more excited the closer I get to my due date. My bet is that I make it pretty close to May 30th, but we'll just have to see.