Ashlee Stücki

Today we were watching Animal Cops. You can pretty much count on our tv being tuned to Animal Planet or Noggin if it’s on. Today’s episode featured a kitten whose tail was injured when it wedged itself in the dash of a car. As they zoomed in during tail amputation surgery the conversation went like this:

That’s kinda gross.

“I don’t think it’s gross. I think it’s just sad.”

You’re going to be a great little vet someday, kiddo.

“I decided I just want to be a mom.”

What about before you’re a mom? And once your kids are grown up? You know I used to have a job, and I will again someday.

“I like being home. I’ll just watch tv and cook food for my husband. And he won’t work either so he can be home with me all the time.”

Well how will you make money to pay for your house and food?

“We’ll have a yardsale. A really big yardsale.”

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Layla, please put that where it goes.

“It’s fine there.”

It isn’t fine there. Get moving, ya lazy bum.

“But I like being a lazy bum.”

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My parents spotted a 4-5ft long snake on their property a few days before we came for a visit. We went for a walk and I guess I was squeezing Layla’s hand, because she felt inclined to say:

“Don’t be worried mom. Snakes only hurt adults. I’ll be fine.”

Filed under: Laylaisms on June 10th, 2009 | No Comments »

I think most everyone that reads this blog has heard elsewhere by now that we’re expecting. (If not - surprise!) NewBaby is due mid December. Last week I successfully entered my second trimester and things seem to be going very well. Morning sickness was practically nonexistent compared to my pregnancy with Layla. Other than some marathon headaches and the constant need to eat it’s been very uneventful thus far. I’ve got some of my energy back which is a great thing considering Layla is home for the summer. And since I’m definitely rounding out earlier than with my first pregnancy here’s your first peek at the two siblings together:

Layla is very excited to be a big sister - as long as it’s a girl, or a boy and a girl. She has spent lots of time convincing me the baby should sleep in her room, that she’ll change dirty diapers and get me water and snacks while I nurse. She’s done lots of reading on the subject thanks to our library trips.

We’ve brainstormed names, and have our girl name pinned down, but the boy names are a bust so far. I think the nesting has already hit as I’ve never wanted to move and be settled so badly. And in an odd twist I’m probably the only woman I know who wants to move into the city to raise her kids. A safe area, with decent schools and in walking distance to things…because that exists in Nashville…right?

I’m a pretty hands off pregnant woman. I tend to get tired of the questions, advice and input pretty quickly and nothing annoys me more than how the baby belly suddenly becomes public property for all to pat and rub. (Warning - I will slap your hand away in a split second. It is out of my control.) Despite that I’ll try to give regular updates here to quench your curiousity.

Filed under: Family Updates on June 8th, 2009 | 2 Comments »

Growing Our New Baby

Which Requires Lots of Naps

But we’ve had energy for some summer fun:

Drive-In Movies

Campfire S’mores

Camping with Cousins

Strawberry Picking

Filed under: Family Updates on June 4th, 2009 | 1 Comment »

Thanks to blackout curtains and a busy day at Epcot, we slept in again. We caught the bus to Magic Kingdom and arrived around 11am.We headed straight to Tomorrowland to fight evil with Buzz. On our way out we saw Stitch and waited in line for a photo.

Layla was extremely excited to see him and although she had decided not to do Stitch’s Great Escape based on the fact it was deemed scary by the tour book, she quickly changed her mind after meeting him in person. And it was a little scary, but it was also her favorite part of the day. Ben’s most anticipated ride, Space Mountain, was closed for maintenance while we were there. So we headed on down the road to the Tea Cups which Layla was excited about. Unfortunately so was everyone else, and there was a 45 minute wait…for teacups…so we skipped them.

Since Layla was disappointed we let her talk us into touring Minnie’s House….Minnie’s crowded, stuffy, boring house. Layla liked it. Then she spotted Donald’s Boat which was another disappointing part of Toontown. Maybe you’ve noticed MK isn’t my favorite. Luckily Ben spotted the train station and Layla was more than happy to board.

We got off the train when it reached Fronteirland.   Since we were there we took a raft ride over to Tom Sawyer Island. Our highlight there was the writing on the signs, but we were quickly ready to head on to Adventureland.

We were hungry so we stopped for Mexican food near Pirates of the Carribean. It was quite tasty and impressively affordable relatively speaking. The Jack Sparrow upgrades to the Pirates of the Carribean were great. Next was the Tiki Room, and I’m not really sure I enjoyed the new screeching Iago, but it was nice to sit down in an air conditioned building. We rode Aladdins Carpets and then headed towards Fantasyland. They were doing a show at Cinderella’s Castle so we watched the end of it. Unfortunately it cut off the direct route to Fantasyland and we had to take the long way around. Tried to get on the Teacups again, but the line was even longer.

We really wanted to do all of the rides in Fantasyland, but some of the waits were just too much. We managed to fit in Snow White, Small World and finally Dumbo.

We were all getting sleepy by then, so we headed towards the exit. Layla bought a Princess balloon on Main Street and we once again got back to the hotel in time to watch the fireworks from our room. That night we ordered pizza and slept like babies.

We fully intended to get an early start each day and take the shuttle back to the hotel for naps, but since we slept in both days it didn’t happen. It led to some grumpiness around 3pm, but magically a popsicle and a little rest usually perked us up enough to enjoy a few more hours.

The next morning I had scheduled us for a character breakfast at the hotel. It was much less expensive than doing it at the park, and rightly so because only Pluto and Goofy attended, but Layla loved it anyway.

We then walked to Downtown Disney where Layla spent some of her birthday money on a charm bracelet, locket and legos. The Lego store was awesome! Layla loved the sculptures made from legos and building a car to race.

On the way back to the hotel she ran through the fountains for a while. Then we all took a little nap. We woke up an hour or so later and Layla and I headed down to the pool. The pool at the resort had a great zero entry area for the kids with fountains, squirters and all sorts of other features. We swam a while and sunned for a while and then Ben joined us at the cabana for a late lunch/early dinner. After that it was time to get ready to see Cirque du Soleil. It was a long walk through downtown Disney, but the show was amazing! Layla loved the clowns and the tightrope walkers. She chose a water bottle as her souvenier. It says, “When I grow up I’m going to run away and join the circus.” She uses it almost everyday. We had an interesting dinner at a Cuban restaurant in Downtown Disney that night and got a good night’s sleep for our trip home the next day.

We had such fun and I think we planned the perfect number of days and amount of activity for our family. I’m still glad we won’t be doing it again for another 5 years or so, but it was definitely enjoyable and a great way to celebrate Layla’s 5th birthday.

Filed under: Notes from the Road on May 27th, 2009 | No Comments »

We took a pretty ideal vacation to Orlando for Layla’s birthday. We drove down on Friday after Layla’s birthday ceremony at school. At Montessori they don’t really have parties, but the parents bring a special snack, a poster with a picture for each year of the child’s life and their classmates sing a song about how many times the Earth has circled around the sun since the birthday girl or boy was born.

We hit traffic in Atlanta on the way down, but by switching up drivers every 3 hours or so it wasn’t much trouble driving straight through.  We arrived late Friday night in Clearwater. Ben had a project there Saturday so Layla and I spent a few hours at the beach, a while at the pool and took a good nap.

After dinner that evening we headed to the Regal Sun Resort in Orlando. Regal Sun is one of those hotels on Disney property, but not part of Disney if that makes sense. I chose it based on tripadvisor.com reviews where it was suggested to specify a “DisneyView” which we did. That scored us a room in the newly remodeled tower where we had a great view of Dowtown Disney with Epcot in the distance.

We slept in a bit Sunday then caught the complimentary shuttle to Epcot around 11am. We headed straight to The Seas to talk to Crush which was the #1 thing Layla wanted to do at Disney. Crush even chose her to ask a question and she paused for a minute then asked him how old he is. 150 years young! It was defintely one of our favorite parts.

We were hungry by then and stopped for lunch in France. It wasn’t exactly what we wanted, but after passing up a few countries in search of better we were too hungry to be picky.

After that we ran into a few characters and stood in line to have photos. Belle & the Beast and Jasmine & Aladdin had entire conversations with her which was very cool.

We were there during the Flower Festival so there were some gorgeous topiary characters. Our doggy loving Layla liked this one the most:

After all of the rides and a few shows in World Showcase we headed over to The Land. The longest line we waited in was for Soarin for about 50 minutes. Luckily they had some interactive games to keep us occupied. Layla thought that was a very cool ride so I suppose it was worth it. I preferred the tour of the experimental gardens of course. We were all pretty tired by then, and decided Spaceship Earth would be our last stop. Layla was impressed by how big the ball was compared to how small it looked from our hotel room window.

We caught the shuttle back to the hotel and got to our room just in time to see the Epcot fireworks from bed. Layla likes to watch firworks, but isn’t a fan of the noise so it was great for us. We ordered room service for dinner and she settled into bed with all the puppies she bought with her birthday money.

Filed under: Notes from the Road on May 10th, 2009 | No Comments »