Hart Edward Halman

As your pregnancy progresses you try to imagine what this little baby you carry around is going to be like.  Who will he look like, what will his personality be, how in the world will I have enough time for all 4 of them?  Then your baby is born, laid upon your chest, and all the answers come:  He looks like Isla with Palmer’s brown eyes (most likely), has the personality of Leo, and I won’t sleep until I’ve had one on one time with each one of them every day.  Hart chose his birthday to be Saturday, November 17, 2012.  Our tiny 7lb 8oz. baby boy was born that morning at 6:05am and measured in at 20in long.   To say he is the sweetest baby ever would be an understatement.  He is our “SweetHart” for sure and we are so very much in love! 

The fact that we have 4 children still doesn’t seem crazy to me at all…it feels so natural and just what was meant for our family.  We get comments all the time, practically every day, about how we “sure do have our hands full” and “how in the world do you do it?”  To be honest, while yes I do have my hands full most of the time, I love every second of it.  It is my life and I wouldn’t change it for the world.  There have been some days where I think I might lose my mind if bedtime doesn’t get here soon, or wondering where the day did go and why I still haven’t showered, but from the time I was a little girl, this is what I dreamed of becoming…a Mom.  And I’m so blessed to say that’s what I do for a living. 

Friday, November 16   It started like any other morning.  I fed, dressed, packed lunches, and dropped Isla and Leo off at school.   Once home, I broke out the mop and went to work on the kitchen.  That should have been my first clue that this was labor day.  Palmer and I then hung out in the living room until it was time for my Dr. Appt.  At 10:45 I had my appointment with Dr. Greene.  He checked my cervix and said that I was already dilated to 2-3 cm. but then he went ahead and swept my membranes since I was almost 39 weeks pregnant.  He said there would be a 50% chance that I’d go into labor that day.  After the appt. I met John at Chic fil A for lunch.  Palmer had a blast playing in the children’s area while John and I talked about the fact that baby could be coming today.  I started to have some pain at lunch but just thought it was all in my head.  Palmer and I picked Leo up from school and went home for naps.  That afternoon we picked Isla up from school and played in the front yard with our next door neighbor friends, Ben and Avery.  We decided to have our Friday night dinner down by Nocatee and do a final walk through of our house together since it might be the last time I could do it before having the baby.  We picked John up at his office and ate at Napoli's, our new favorite Italian restaurant.  I had eggplant parm. because they say it can put you into labor.  After a very nice, party of 5, dinner we went to our house and I spent my time walking up and down the staircase to get things started.  We drove home, put the kids to bed, and contractions started around 9pm.  I knew from the first painful contraction that this was it!  I’ve done this enough times to know when it’s time to head to the hospital.  I called my mom at 9:30 right after my Dr. told me to head on in.  John and I packed up the bags and the car and arrived at Baptist Beaches Hospital at 10:30.  April, the same nurse I had for Leo’s birth, was assigned to us.  That immediately put me at ease because we liked her so much with him.  She checked my cervix and I was already at 5cm.  She said it was a good thing I came in when I did because labor was moving fast.  After that cervix check, the contractions were right on top of each other and Painful!!  We were admitted into room 4 and I kept focused and did my breathing exercises I had learned for Palmer’s birth until I was able to get the epidural…which wasn’t until 1:15am.  I was checked right after and was dilated to 7cm.  April left John and I to sleep and while he caught some z’s on the couch I lay in bed just anticipating the birth and soaked in the feeling of him wiggling around in my belly for the last few hours.    At 4:30am I was checked again and was an 8-9 and my water still hadn’t broke.  April said that if he was born in his bag of waters, they say that means he’s a prophet.  Dr. Bing came in at 5:30 and broke my water though but I still think he’s our little prophet.  I was so excited that Dr. Bing was on call.  She’s my regular Dr. and delivered Isla and she’s been such a great Dr. and friend throughout all my baby having years.  They left the room again and all of a sudden I felt the need to push and felt all the contractions (epidural had worn off).  April had me do some practice pushing until Dr. Bing came back but with the first push, baby boy crowned.  I had to basically hold him in while April and John urgently paged Dr. Bing.  She ran in, scrubbed up, and with one more push by me caught him.  Then my moment came, my piece of heaven.  The moment I get to hold my newborn on my chest.  This time I got a good 10 minutes of snuggling and kissing my slippery little boy.  Oh how I adore that moment in time.  I’ll never forget it with each and every one of them. 

Hart Edward Halman is here and completes our family.  We are living the dream! 

(Dr. Bing)

Let the journey begin!

October

What a month it’s been!  My favorite season of the year has not disappointed that’s for sure.  Our month of October has been filled with a bunch of fun and smiles.  Even though we have been busier than ever before, I’ve welcomed the stresses because it involves all things good and so no complaints over here.  Isla and Leo are dong great in school and while they are learning Palmer and I spend our mornings hanging out, running errands, taking wagon rides, and packing up the house.  Palmer is mommy’s little boy and I could cuddle him and listen to his laughter all day long.  He definitely keeps me on my toes.  Our 18 month old is constantly on the move but with the sweetest disposition ever.  Some new words of his are, “ju” for juice, “side” for outside, “sue” for shoe, “ah duh” for all done, “bah boo” for buddy fruit and “buh” for book.  Our P-nut still loves his bottle so that’s the one thing I’m trying to work on with him.  Leo has made a best friend in his class, Peyton, and it makes me so happy to know he enjoys going to school and having fun playing with his buddy.  At three he is trying to protest his naps but if I lay down with him after he has been in his room for 30 min. he’s out within 5 minutes.  I love this snuggle time with my tender heart.  His favorite afternoon activity is playing outside in the afternoon and finding sticks in the yard to use as swords.  He and Palmer have “sword” fights every day and Palmer has the scars to prove it.  My boys crack me up.  We met with Isla’s teacher last week for the end of the 9 weeks parent conference.  Come to find out our little angel is at the top of her class.  Insert proud mama/daddy bragging moment into the blog.  She’s already reading on a level 4 and excels in Math.  The one thing she does need to work on is “yelling out the answers” and “teaching” those at her table.  Keep up the good work, Isla Shea!  Baby boy is ready to go and could come at anytime.  I’m almost 37 weeks and we are anxiously awaiting his arrival.  I constantly have Braxton Hicks contractions so I’m just on the edge of my seat wondering when the real things will start.  I love the suspense and excitement though.  He’s such a wiggle worm in my belly these days but since he’s running out of room, some of his movements stop me in my tracks.  I’m soaking it up though and loving every last second of this pregnancy.  I really cannot wait to hold his little newborn body though. 

Here are some of our October 2012 memories:

Pumpkin Patch off of Penman

The kids loved climbing the haystacks, picking out the tiniest and biggest pumpkins, and riding the wooden pony. 

Pumpkin Patch at Palms Preschool (Leo’s first “field trip”)

They played bean bag toss, parachute, had a book and sticker station, had a foot race, ate chocolate chip cookies, and played in the sandbox.  Nothing better!

(he won the race and was so proud)

Last trip to Disney as a party of 5

We went for the day on Isla’s teacher planning Friday.  I didn’t realize how difficult it would be at 9 months pregnant but I made it through and even though I had contractions on the entire 2 1/2 hour drive home, it was totally worth it.  The Magic Kingdom never gets old and I feel like our family could go every week.  Their favorites this time were It’s a Small World, The Carousel, Pirates of the Caribbean (especially the swords they picked up afterwards), Dumbo, and the Parade.  See you in 2013, Disney, with a new baby in tow. 

An Angel, Batman, and Skeleton on their way to a Halloween Party at My Gym

For an hour they jumped, rolled, and danced around My Gym all the while getting treats for their skills.  Such a fun time. 

Pumpkin carving followed by Hot Chocolate and freshly roasted pumpkin seeds

It was the first really cold day of the season so we deemed it the perfect night to carve our pumpkins.  Leo and Palmer weren’t too into getting their hands in the goop but this year Isla helped me separate the seeds and even planned out the face she wanted John to carve on her pumpkin.  After cleaning up we bundled up in side and warmed up with a snack of delicious seeds and marshmallow lover hot chocolate.  It was perfect! 

Happy Fall everyone!!!

Three Years Old

Leo, our sweet little boy, turned 3 last week.  He still has the same innocent and tender heart that he was born with on September 25th, 2009.  He hasn’t changed a bit and I want him to stay like this forever.  I still look at him like he’s my baby and it’s crazy to think that in a couple months he will be my oldest boy of three.  He will be the best big brother ever to Palmer and baby on the way…he’s already the perfect playmate and friend to Isla.  Happy Birthday Leo, our love!!!   

Now, time for the party.  We celebrated the Big 3 at My Gym.  Leo loves My Gym classes so we thought this would be the perfect place for him to have his party surrounded by his bestest friends.  He also loves the Toy Story movies so we made it a My Gym Toy Story themed party as best we could.  Gigi bought him a Woody shirt to wear, we had toy story decorations, green alien colored donuts, a Buzz Lightyear balloon, and a “Leo’s Toys” box for his presents.  The kids played for 2 hours straight stopping only for about 10 minutes to sing Happy Birthday to Leo and eat a donut and sip down a juice.  It was such a fun time and I don’t think he’ll ever forget the day. 

This was the cutest thing ever.  They wheeled Leo out on “Bullseye” to the song “You’ve got a friend in me” and had him do a couple laps on the horse while all his friends sat and watched then we took a group shot.  It brought tears to my eyes. 

(Naomi, Conner, Ava, Leo, Isla, Palmer, Ben, Jack, Presley, and Avery)  Carson, Ava, Liam, and Bailey were still playing. 

On his actual birthday he awoke to a train table and a wooden Thomas the Train railway set.  He’s wanted a train table for so long and I was so excited to see his reaction to this.  He loved it as expected and really enjoys coming up with new ways to make the tracks go.  Big sister and Palmer love it as well. 

(We got him a superhero bike helmet as well that he decided to wear for the rest of the morning and slept with at naptime)

At school we celebrated his birthday with cheese pizza, applesauce, bananas, juice, and chocolate chip cookies.  They ate on spiderman plates and a table cloth that all his classmates decorated for him. 

(Leo, Layne, Isabella, Bella, Drew, Peyton, Isla (yes a little girl in his class), Ava, Harper-Kelly, and Lila) Logan is hiding

(The Palms Preschool director always takes the birthday child for a ride in the bicycle basket down the hall ringing the bell while all the other classrooms line up outside the rooms and wave and yell Happy Birthday…Leo had his fingers in his mouth letting us know he was nervous but was all smiles at the end.) 

We topped the day off by going to Leo’s restaurant of choice, Taco Lu.  The boy LOVES Queso and ate practically the whole bowl with tortillas for his birthday dinner. 

Leo, our love, we love you so much!  You are Mommy and Daddy’s little Buddy and thank God he gave you to us. 

Leo at Three:  His favorite food is queso, kaukuna cheese on crackers, and pretzels dipped in hummus; he loves trains, pirates, tiny toys, puzzles, and riding his bike and scooter outside; he is daytime potty trained but still wears a diaper at naps and nighttime; he sleeps with his “Bashful” donkey but gave up his “gaga” the day after he turned 3 (we thought this would be a nightmare but after one night of crying for 15 minutes he never cried for it again); he loves to have books read to him; he is always quoting movies and it’s the funniest thing ever; when he wants me to hold him he says, “I wanna hold you mommy”; when I kiss him goodbye or goodnight we kiss then point to our eyes for “I”, then cross our arms for “love”, and then point at each other for “you”;  but mostly what I want to remember about Leo at 3 is that he simply brings a joy and warmth to our home that only he could bring.  He’s the sweetest soul that ever was!