And it's a....

You may be able to guess from the new look of our blog that we are having a...GIRL!

We were able to see our new little daughter via ultrasound yesterday. Lincoln came with Ryan and I to the ultrasound and he was a little concerned that they were hurting me, but I reassured him that it was okay. He lifted up his shirt and started rubbing his tummy and repeated "okay, okay" in mimic of the ultrasound.

We are so excited to welcome a baby girl to our family! I almost don't know what to think - what do you do with a girl??! We are so used to everything boy - toys, clothes, rough and tumble, everything blue, etc. We went to Baby Gap the other day and I was in awe of the whole new world of cute baby girl clothes that has now opened up to me. Hooray!

It's so nice to finally know the gender of this little person and to dream of the possibilities of our baby GIRL.

Going Bananas

Found these little "minis" at the grocery store! Aren't they cute?! Link can eat them in about 2 bites! (The phone is to show the scale) :)

Don't you hate it when something very important is completely out of your hands??

This is the case with our upcoming move to the UK. We have rented a storage place. We have chosen a moving company to pack our stuff. We are selling our car. We have started packing up all our things. We are mentally READY to leave - except for one little thing - Lincoln's passport.

We sent in the paperwork back in early February being told that it would take 3-4 weeks to process. Now it is over 5 weeks later and still no passport. I have called the passport agency half a dozen times (and waited on hold for no less than 30 minutes each time), and all they can tell me is "it's still processing." I have since paid for an expedited processing time, but still to no avail. The worst part is that since it is the government, and the ONLY option for getting a passport, we have no choice but to wait. Their customer service can be terrible, they don't have to live up to published timelines, and what can I do about it? Nothing. Grrrrr.

On a lighter note, here are some fun/funny things about Link these days:
- He absolutely loves books, and for a while was wanting the same stories every day. But now he likes to mix it up each time. His current favorites: "If you give a Mouse a Cookie", "The Cat in the Hat", "Mater and the Ghost Light", "The New Baby", and "Thomas' ABCs".

- Speaking of ABCs, Link now knows one letter!! O! He can recognize it in books and different places, like in his name. He also usually can recognize P, S, and T - or he thinks every letter is "P".

- At dinner yesterday he had his Lightning McQueen car at the table with him and I looked over and he was using Lightning as a spoon - dipping him in dip and licking it off him! Yuck! No more toys at the table.

If you're wondering what happened...

...you will have to wait just a little longer.

To make a long, frustrating story short - we didn't get the ultrasound due to a mix up with the ultrasound order from the doctor and the radiology center not being able to do "that" kind of ultrasound; which seems like a routine thing an ultrasound place would do...oh well. We rescheduled at another place for next week, so hopefully this one works out - if not, we'll just have to get one in England!!

So, while we all wait with baited breath to discover the gender of the next Giles child, here are some cute pictures of our current baby (okay, big boy!).

We had a fun visit from Nana, Pop, and Aunt Kelly last week. They brought lots of birthday gifts for Link and we had fun playing, chatting, and going into New York a couple times. We even saw a show, "Altar Boyz", (sans Link) which was very cute - I would recommend it.

Here is Link with his Nana waiting for the subway - he was very excited to ride the "train".


On the subway:


Hopefully we'll have some news to share SOON!

Any Guesses?

Today I am having my 20 week ultrasound and will find out the gender of our next little baby!

Any guesses what it will be??!

Happy Birthday to our 2 YEAR OLD!!

Lincoln:
Is insatiably curious

Is social with everyone he meets

Will perform "tricks" on cue

Asks me every day where Daddy is - then runs to greet him when he gets home

Loves Cars, Thomas, tractors, trucks, and yes, even Star Wars (daddy's dream!)

Gives the sweetest loves and kisses - even if they are open-mouth!

Knows how to get what he wants - not in the tantrum way - but by quietly getting a chair to climb up to some hard-to-reach place to get down a book or a toy... or a doughnut

Talks more every day, with "Uh oh!" and "Oh no!" probably being his most used phrases at the moment

Loves books and can even "read" some of his favorites that he has memorized

Does not eat much and usually has to be strapped into his high chair and distracted to get any food into him. He will eat cheese any time of the day, however.

Can climb up on anything and everything

Likes to watch TV, but has the attention for about 5 minutes of a show

Loves to be outside - even when it is freezing

Must take his fire truck, binky, blanket, and other-car-of-choice to bed

Hates his car seat, but loves to fasten buckles

Pretty much gets what he wants when he says "Please!" and looks at us with those big brown eyes (trouble!!)


Here's little Link the day he was born:



His one-year birthday:


The birthday boy today:

Oh yes, we did go to Chuck E Cheese.



We love our big boy and are so thankful for the wonderful adventure these past 2 years have been!

Evening at the Museum

Last Saturday Ryan had the fun idea of going to the Museum of Natural History. In all the time we have lived here and in Manhattan I have never been there - so I thought we had better go before we leave!

We knew Lincoln would love it. Anything to do with animals and open space to run around is a recipe for fun in his book. It was so cute to watch him look at all the stuffed animal exhibits in awe - and then run as fast as he could to the next one!

Link looking at some "horses" - he knows a lot of animals, but for some reason calls deer, donkeys, and giraffes "horses" - they're probably related somehow!

He also liked to "raar!" at the tigers and dinosaurs. He looks scared in this picture, but he is really just looking around at all the other things to see in the room.



I wanted to take this picture of some "Links" (get it?! Link and a Lynx! haha)


We finished our trip into the city with some dinner at the Shake Shack (Upper West Side location) - which isn't nearly as fun as the one in Madison Square Park during the beautiful summer/fall weather. Oh well, still yummy!