Caroling for mommies

Our neighborhood, while it has a few families with children, is mostly filled with singles or families without children. Still, a few of our neighbors who live fairly close to us have some children, and ever since we moved in, the children from these families have always come here. I'm not sure if we've somehow gained a reputation as the people who always take time to talk to the kids, but they always come here and they always want to talk to us. They particularly love Nacho and Rocky. Last week, for example, three little boys came over and asked if they could rake and blow off our driveway and front yard. That was a lot of work, and those three busted their butts for probably 2 and a half hours...so I paid them $20 between the three of them and they were totally loving it. There are also a few little girls that live about a block from us, and they've come over several times since we've been here for one reason or another. Well last week I was sitting here relaxing in the living room and I hear this tiny little knock at the front door. When I answered it, it was the two little girls from the next block and one little boy that I've never seen before. They were so cute, and they just said: "Can we sing you a song?". I said of course, and then out popped this Mother's Day card...it was the kind that sings a song when you open it. Apparently, the three of them had memorized the words to the song from the card--which I wasn't familiar with--and they came to sing the song to me. It was really one of the cutest thing I've ever seen. They were singing so loudly and like really from the bottom of their hearts, and the whole time they had this Mother's Day card opened so it could sing with them, all of them holding the card together. I cannot tell you how precious and touching it was. When they finished the song I told them thank you and then asked them where they learned the song. They told me that they had memorized it from the card, and they just wanted to sing it to me. Adorable! I gave them this bag of Hershey's Kisses that I bought about a week ago but hadn't opened yet. They were SOO excited. They said "Thanks! Thanks! Thanks!" and went running off. It's such a small story, but it was so cute that I just had to post about it. I can't wait to introduce them, and all the rest of you, to little H!! :)

Christmas at the Heymans

This year Christmas was particularly exciting for us because it is officially the last year that we'll be just H and I...next year we'll have little H with us and our Christmases from now on, or at least for the next 15 years or so, will never quite be the same. How exciting!! Admittedly, it took us FOREVER to put up our tree (it was propped against our wall for over a week without any decorations on it), but we finally got it together and it looked beautiful, check it out:We even went and bought little Henry his first Christmas present; it was a rattle and a special ornament for our Christmas tree: It's hard to read the writing, but it says "To Baby H, From Mommy and Daddy". And just a quick explanation on the ornament: H and I have this special tradition that we've started, and every year at Christmas we go out and look for ornaments. We each get to pick our own ornament to hang on the tree, so in the future, we'll have a tree full of unique ornaments all with sentimental value. Here's the ornament we picked out for little H this year...next year he'll get to pick his own!! You can't read the ornament too good either, but it says "Tis a gift to nourish"...and it is. I love nourishing this sweet little H in my belly! We also bought Nacho and Rocky each a bag of doggie treats, which they fought over while they were still wrapped, even though they had no clue what they were. We have some funny footage of that, but I'm not sure yet if it'll make it up on the blog. It was early in the morning, after all. H bought me a great quilting set, so I can get started on little H's quilt that I'm making him, and I bought H dinner and a movie. I know, it's not the best gift, but dang, it was hard buying for H!! Overall, it was such a great Christmas, and being here with H was the best part. We are so blessed to have such a happy life, and to have had such a lovely Christmas, and I can't even wait to see what this next year has in store for us. Thanks to all of you for your love, prayers, and support, and I hope that your Christmas was as love-filled and relaxing as ours. Merry Christmas!!

Oh, and P.S. : here's a picture to commemorate my 32 week mark...that's right: 32 WEEKS!! Agh..we're getting so close! And yes, I can't even imagine what I'm going to look like in 8 more weeks...eek!!

Merry Christmas, from the Emoticarolers!

Until I can find the time and energy to post some real Christmas cheer, here's a little carol I've written in anticipation of little H's arrival. Hope you enjoy!!

We're making a move!

Even though I've blogged about my entire pregnancy (and then some) on this blog, I think that this new phase in our life is deserving of a new blog site, so I've created a new one which you can view at http://Mandthe2Henrys.blogspot.com. I'm putting it up now so that all you readers out there (whoever you might be) can get used to the idea, but I really won't start blogging there until little H finally makes his entrance. Until then, you can keep up with what's happening in our family here, but please check it out, bookmark it, do whatever you have to do so that you're ready for the transition. And believe me, that's a blog you'll want to follow, since it'll include all the great little H first-time moments and much more. I CAN'T WAIT!! :)

My Grandpa, the artist

For those of you who don't know, my grandfather builds houses. Not only that, but he is a very talented, yet humble, artist. As a gift for little H, he wittled this amazing wooden sculpture for us to hang in the nursery. It's also something that little H can keep for the rest of his life, and it's beautiful. My grandfather has always loved birds, and for the majority of my life, he's always had numerous birds that he raised himself, yes, all the way from the egg. It's incredible. He's always built large cages for them, and always had multiple birds at a time. And all kinds: pheasants, cockatiels, canaries, you name it. Because of this, birds have been a constant theme in his art work, paintings or carvings. And by carvings, I mean more like sculptures, not etchings. Here's a sample of his painted work that I was lucky enough to snag for my house...it's been with my family for as long as I can remember. It's a painting of pheasants:That was just getting you warmed up. For little H, he wittled us a series of birds, one for the daddy (H) and one for the mommy (Me), and thanks to the brilliant suggestion of my grandmother, an egg to represent little H. The birds he wittled are painted buntings (or pops, if you're a Cajun), and they are gorgeous. Here's a look at the entire thing in the nursery:It's kind of hard to see in that picture, so here are some close-ups of the whole carving:
Here's the daddy bird, watching over mommy and baby: And the mommy bird, caring for her lovely little egg:My favorite part about the whole thing is that tilt on the mommy bird's head. It's so loving and caring, and for some reason, it makes the bird seem so real to me. My grandpa also painted this great family tree on the back side of the wood--which was a piece of driftwood that washed up after the last hurricane in Louisiana--so that little H can know where he comes from (I probably should have taken a picture of that too, darnit!). Having that carving in the nursery, and to pass on to little H, is such a blessing, and it will always be there to keep him connected to his wonderful family. I think, actually, that after seeing it in the nursery, we might go ahead and get him a few real birds for his room. Then, if we're lucky, he really might take after his great-Grandpa, not only in the artistic sense. :) What a talented family I have! Little Henry will be one lucky, and super-loved, little boy!

Little Henry: mover and shaker

A few months ago I got obsessed with these Youtube videos of babies moving in their mommy's tummies, and I was so freaked out. I actually thought to myself: "that cannot possibly happen to every woman!". Well, maybe it doesn't, but it has to me. Little H is so active and so jumpy that during a large part of the day, you can actually see my stomach rippling and moving wherever he is. It's (admittedly) sort of creepy, but literally one of the most incredible things I've seen in my entire life. I could watch him for hours when he really gets going. Since all this has started, I've wanted to get it on video to show everyone, but little H has a bad case of stage fright and refuses to perform whenever the video camera is on (don't ask me how he knows..and if you need proof, check out how he covers his special parts with his hands in his ultrasound video). Anyway, I finally got some footage of it, and I'll probably be putting more up sometime soon, because his movements have recently gotten much more intense than this video. Bear with me, there's not much sound (except Rocky's clicking feet) and my stomach is blurry because I was holding the camera and my perspective is a bit skewed, but you can DEFINITELY see him moving and kicking, and it's totally cool. Soon, I'll get big H to film it for me so you can get the real effect. Enjoy!

God bless the working girl!

Today is a great day because I finally finished work. I graded all of my exams and turned in my grades this afternoon, and I'm telling you, I couldn't be happier! I've wanted so much to focus just on "nesting" for the last few weeks, and having to be at work and worry about other responsibilities has really made that difficult for me. Now, though, I am free to nest to my heart's content, and focus all of my time and energy on making this a fresh, clean, and happy home for when little H makes his arrival. Not to mention that working at school is tiring! I really hope God blesses all of the pregnant women out there who have to work throughout their entire pregnancies, like right up until the due date. It's hard! I've been so tired lately, and the worst part is that I've developed this condition called Osteitis Pubis, which is basically a VERY painful inflammation of the pubic bone due to the stretching of the cartilage in preparation for birth. I'm telling you, it's difficult. It makes walking--among other mundane tasks like putting on my pants, getting out of bed, squatting to go to the bathroom, etc--very painful, and the pain is constant. Although I don't have a clue about what the "scale of 1 to 10" means, H has assured me that the pain he's observed me having is about a 6 or a 7, which is exactly how I described it to my doctor. I had my 8 month visit with him today (my last monthly visit!!), and all was well. Especially great was my weight gain, which was only 2 pounds since the last visit....I'm very happy about that. He prescribed me some Percoset for the pain, and told me that although the pain is brutal and unfortunate, the condition won't go away until little H is born. That means 2 more months of this pain...so, needless to say, I'm beyond thrilled to not have to be walking around campus and standing for hours at a time. I don't know if I could do it, actually. Be that as it may, there's only one more thing left to be said: God bless the working girl!!

Shower the people you love with love...

Not only did we get to Savannah to see H's family this past week, but since we were there for a few days, we were able to make a quick one-day trip to Augusta to see my family. Believe it or not, H has not been to Augusta in almost two years!! We were so happy to get to see everyone and even more, that he was able to be with me. I'm so used to visiting alone, it was awesome. We were also very blessed because we had two lovely showers, one thrown by my mom with her family and the other one thrown by my dad's wife Lillie. Both of the showers were so incredible, and we felt so loved and cared for. We also got some really nice things, some that we really needed, and some that were just sentimental but equally important. My brother Tim and his girlfriend Rachel bought us all of our bedding, which, as you can see in the pictures below, looks totally adorable in the nursery.
The bedding print is a safari print, and has all sorts of cute animals on it. The colors look perfect in the nursery, too! You can see that we also got lots of other great and useful things like a wipe warmer and a changing table pad, as well as TONS of clothes, blankets, cloths, and towels. Basically, we left Gainesville with pretty much nothing we needed and came home with almost all of it! My brother Matt also made us tons of adorable things, all monogrammed with little H's name...I can't tell you how cute they are. The bag hanging on the side of the changing table is one of the things, and here's a close-up of the embroidery:

How adorable!! My other brother Jarett (who is an amazing craftsmen/artist/luthier) is also making us a "mommy's rocker", all out of very high-quality cherry wood, but it won't be finished until Christmas...and believe me, when it gets here, you all will be the first to see it. It's going to be gorgeous! My mom and Fred also made us a nifty little toy box shaped like a wagon for little H, and my grandfather carved us some painted buntings (or pops, if you're Cajun) for little H's wall. That sculpture will be getting it's own post, don't worry! We also got lots of other lovely things from my grandmother and my cousins, as well as from tons of people from Lillie's shower. It was so amazing and overwhelming to see that so many people care about us, and about little H, more than anything. We're so excited to welcome him into the world soon, and we can't wait to share these moments with all of you. And needless to say, I have oodles of thank you cards to write....because we are SOO thankful. How blessed we are! :)

It's Paula Deen y'all!!

This last week H had a long-needed vacation and we were thankfully able to get home and see our family. It's so hard living so far away, and being pregnant and getting ready for little H makes it just that much harder. We have no one here to share all of this with (except through this blog), so it was great to get to see everyone and spread the love around. Yes, we got lots of belly rubs. :) In any case, H and I and his mom took a trip to downtown Savannah in search of Christmas ornaments, and decided to venture out and see if we could get into Paula Deen's restaurant The Lady and Sons. Of course, H and his mom had been there before she was famous, but since she's hit it big, lines literally wrap around a few city blocks to get in...and there's no waiting list. We were totally lucky though, and we actually got in with NO WAITING and got to enjoy her delicious food. And believe me, it was delicious! Sure, it was so salty that I was swollen for the rest of the day, even to the point of pitting, but it was all worth it. I ate my back out and then got a nice little picture with the Lady herself:

Yeah sure, it is a cardboard cutout (which may explain why she looks skinnier than me), but I had to do it nonetheless...as cheesy as it was. It was so yummy, and so fun, and if you ever get to go, TRY THE FRIED CHICKEN. EEEYUM!!

Birthday blog, edition 08

Today I feel happy:
Every year I try and write something on my birthday, sort of reflecting on what I've been through in the previous year, and looking ahead to what I have coming in the next year. I also always read my writing from the previous year, just to try and put into perspective how things have changed, and how I might have changed, over the course of the year. It's interesting this year because this will be the second time that my writing appears on this blog. When I read back over my Birthday blog from last year, the one thing that strikes me is how similar it is to this year, and how different it is all at the same time. Last year I was dealing with my first miscarriage and trying to process that loss, and this year I'm getting prepared to be a Mommy for real. It's practically inconceivable. This last year may have been the most dramatic in my life, and may be the one that has brought about the most serious changes, and it has turned into one that I will never forget. Not only that, but the next year has much promise for me as well. Looking ahead I can hardly believe that little H is really making his way into our lives, and that this lifelong desire that I've had to be a mom is finally coming to fruition. What a blessing! My typical birthday writings are usually infused with complaints about what's going on in my life, or littered with uncertain comments about what I can expect from the next year, but this year that's a bit different. This year I feel not only like I have crossed a never-before crossed threshold in my life, but also like I am standing at the cusp of a year that will be nothing like any other year I've experienced before. For once, I have no idea what to expect, and I'm loving it. The only thing I know is that it will be filled with love: love for both of my Henrys, love of being a mother, love for my family, and love for the beautiful future H and I have ahead of us with little H. We really are so blessed...I really am so blessed. This year I have no complaints. All I can do this year is thank God for the amazing gifts I have in my life, and do my best to prepare myself for what's to come. I want to be the best parent (and wife) that I can be, just like anything else in my life, and I want to do all that is necessary to provide a loving and happy environment for both of my Hs. Even though I normally summarize my musings, this year there's no need for a summary. This year there is only one thing to say:

I'm in love.

And here's some proof:

I guess in the end it's true what they say: love really does make the world go 'round. Boy oh boy, I can't wait to see what this next year brings!! Thanks again for your love, prayers, and support, and for helping us to bring this incredible life into the world, and raise him to be the best person he can be. I'm overwhelmed with it all, and I can't ever express how grateful I am.