Sleepy Mommy

Here's Halen helping me do some baking. He's quite the helper!

Halen really enjoys the baseball games. He watches intently, says utoh when the ball drops, and claps when others do (even if it's the wrong team). He was real proud of his daddy when his team won their last game.



Sorry it's been awhile. I've been tired and sick with the new baby. I should be done with this phase in just 3 weeks or so. I'm so ready. I get winded just standing up. Keeping up with Halen is lots of work. Many nights, I'm going to bed with him at 7:30. Eek. Dan likes it because he gets to play more play station, without the bitching wife. Bitching comes real easy when pregnant.

My Dad Turned 30

And this is what I got him. Aren't we adorable?

Meet Penny

She is the newest member of the Hawkins-Harrison clan.

Look At All The Fishies

Halen loved the aquarium.

C-YA

We love our Atlanta friends very very much, but we are officially moving this summer. Portland, OR, here we come. Come visit us in our trailer park whenever you please! More later.

This Is How...

You put the egg in the basket.





Happy Easter.

Sesame

This is what she looks like right now (not as cute as her big brother yet), and is as big as a sesame street. Oops. I mean seed. I honestly didn't do that on purpose. We like Sesame Street around here, Elmo being our favorite. Halen says his name like "melmo."
I'm so super excited, but also nauseated most of the time. So if I'm cranky, that's why.
We went biking yesterday with Halen's cousins and my bro and sis in law. Caroline, who is 4, and Grace, who is 6, rode their own bikes for 8 miles. Up and down crazy hills! No training wheels or gears, with small little wheels. It was crazy. They did so good. I was a proud aunt. Halen and Sam, who is 3 next month, sat in the trailor. They kept sticking their hands out to touch the rear wheel of Dawn's bike. They had little black hands. They where real cute in there, making crazy noises, and giving each other hugs.
When we got up this morning, the bikes where still in the living room. Halen grabbed his helmet and tried to climb on. He was ready to get going. With this crazy cold front though, I'm hybernating!! Somebody please do something about this weather. I hate it.

OMG, It's Like The First April Efforts, All Over Again

How your baby's growing: This week marks the beginning of the embryonic period. From now until ten weeks, all of your baby's organs will begin to develop and function. As a result, this is the time when she'll be the most vulnerable to anything that might interfere with her development.

Right now your baby is an embryo consisting of two layers: the epiblast and the hypoblast, from which all her organs and body parts will develop. The primitive placenta is also made up of two layers at this point. Its cells are tunneling into the lining of your uterus, creating spaces for your blood to flow into so that the developed placenta can provide nutrients and oxygen to your growing baby when it starts to function at the end of this week. Also present now are the amniotic sac that will house your baby, the amniotic fluid that will cushion her as she grows, and the yolk sac that produces your baby's red blood cells and helps deliver nutrients to her until the placenta is ready to take over this duty.

Halen is very excited. Ask him about babies and he'll blow kisses into the air and rock his arms back and forth. I am so happy to be giving him a sibling. I can't imagine feeling this motherly love, twice over. It's going to be so great. I also feel this slight tinge of quilt. Apparently, it's normal. Up until this new baby is born, Halen has been the center of my universe. Now he's going to have to share me. I think there's enough of this mommy to go around.

April Effort was named so because we found out about Halen in April. Effort was just a word for 'the making of'. He was mostly likely actually made March 26th, our wedding night. Isn't that sweet? It is also an anagram of Tarp For Life, Dan's Crew. Now we made another baby in March, but found out on April 1st. I guess we like spring time. Anyway, this baby fits right into April Effort in more ways than one.

Halen Is Cute

I got Halen this backpack full of side walk chalk. He loves wearing the pack and eating the chalk! What a surprise!


This is just Halen being cute in a new outfit. He's trying to put on my gardening gloves (even though they don't match).

and last, but not least, Halen has an announcement. He wants everyone to know that he is going to be a...



It's a little early to be making this announcement, but we're all too excited to wait. I'm only 2 or 3 weeks along, and there's a 20% chance of miscarriage within the first 20 weeks. So if you don't want to tell everyone that you've had a miscarriage, you're not supposed to tell everyone you're pregnant until that danger is over. That's not fun stuff to talk about though. This is, the projected due date is December 7th. Another December birthday. Oops. The Chinese Lunar Calendar, that is an ancient sex predicting chart (with 93% accuracy), says we're having a girl. Whoopi.

Dan Wins

Guns. They have been an ongoing discussion between Dan and I. I, against. Dan, for. Do I really need to clarify? Several recent occurances have led me to allow one of these monstrosities into my home. I am still anti-gun, but I also can't deny that an intruder is most likely going to have one and we might as well even out the odds. With the nice warm weather, there has been a recent crime wave in our neighborhood, and everywhere apparently. We have heard gunshots nearby. The neighborhood association has started a crime watch patrol, hiring off-duty cops to patrol the neighborhood. The final blow was the break-in that occured at our friend's house Sunday night. They were held at gunpoint, in the middle of the night, while teenage boys ransacked their house! The bastards actually pointed their gun in the face of their 18 month old son! Thankfully, he didn't understand and will most likely never remember, but it is the most horrendous thing I can imagine happening to the parents. I'd rather a gun pointed at me than Halen. They lost alot of material stuff, a car, and worst, their feeling of being safe in their own home. They where selling that house anyway, so they have moved to her parents house until the house they are building is done. They're still shook up and will never forget the experience. I am so thankful they are still with us. I get so sick thinking about it.
So, Tuesday, Dan gets home from school carrying a long narrow box. Inside was "the Persuader," a shotgun. It's real intimidating! I hope we never have to use it and I hate seeing it up in my closet. But it's there if anyone threatens my family and it makes me feel a little safer knowing we have it. I'm still not sleeping well though. These assholes haven't been caught yet. I really wish the police where actually as good as they are in the tv shows. Every little crime is investigated to death until it's solved. These boys where teenagers! How sneaky and untraceable can they be? They where in a stolen car in the vicinity. Was anyone even looking for them?
well, gotta go.

Oink Oink

We went to Noah's Ark, a rescued animal sanctuary south of Atlanta. You could walk around with pigs, llamas, and deer. Behind fences, there where monkeys, lions, ostriches, emus, bison, and horses. Maybe more. Halen loved it. It was pretty cool and a little stinky too. Oh yeah, alligators!

Sandy Poop

This is Halen's new sand and water table, courtesy of Oma and Opa! He loves it! He loves it so much that he had sandy diarrhea all day. I don't think the eating of the sand is what gave him the runs. He had it before he started eating sand. I am going to take him to the doctor tomorrow, because it's still pretty bad after two solid (more like runny) days of upset tummy. Once again, parenting and talking too much about poop, go hand in hand. Sorry.


Look at the Umbrella!

I married a couch potato and I gave birth to a couch potato! I love 'em anyway!

Snazzy Man

We went to a clothing exchange the other night. Halen's favorite article was this gem of a jacket. He knew he was wearing something special for sure!

Salty Dog

Apparently, This is the most fun imaginable!

That's Not Candy

Now it's Crayons. YUMMY!

That's Not Chocolate

This is why we need some grass in our backyard.

Mississippi

We went to visit Mississippi for the weekend. We stayed with Halen's Oma and Opa, my aunt and uncle, and had a great time. Oma babysat while Dan and I got to go play some blackjack, see a movie, and cruise the beach in her convertible bmw roadster. 300 is good! I recommend it. We got to hang out with cousins, Kayla and Cullen, poppy, aunt Sue and uncle Scott! It was lots of fun. Halen had the most fun at the beach, even though he face planted into the cold water once!

Cousins!!!

Halen had a blast at the botanical gardens, hanging out with Grace, Caroline, and Sam. Poor Sam had pink eye, so we tried to keep them seperate. It was just too cute to seperate them when Sam came and gave Halen a minute long bear hug. After they both let go, Halen wanted more and did a running hug that ended up being a tackle. He and Sam then rolled in the grass, wrestling and laughing. It was very cute. Halen also managed not to get pink eye!

Spring Break

Dan is on his spring break from school. We couldn't afford for him to take off work, so we're doing fun things around Atlanta after he gets off work. Yesterday we did more hiking, this time at Arabia Mountain. It's a mini stone mountain and pretty cool. Halen had a blast. All that uneven rock was just right for him to practice his stepping up and down. Bruce had fun too.
Today we are going to the Botanical Gardens with his cousins!!! He's going to be ecstatic. He loves his cousins!!!

Yummy Smoothie

I'm a Purple People Eater

The Little Hiker

We went to Sweetwater Creek today and Halen had a blast!!! We tried to put him in the backpack, but he wasn't having it. He wanted to touch every tree and pick up every rock, stick, or whatever was on the path. He also wanted to step right into the raging freezing cold rapids. Against his wishes, we had to keep him in the backpack when we where right next to the water, or he would have darted right in. I had to stop at every tree to keep him happy, so he could pet the bark and say, "tree." He's going to be a botanist, I tell you! When we got to the harder climbing areas, he'd adamantly refuse to hold hands. He wanted to do it himself!!! And he did! He climbed up some stuff that I never thought he'd be able to climb up. Then on the loop back he all the sudden wanted to be picked up. He went from 100% independent climbing everything boy to asleep on your shoulder boy. Very cute. He slept all the way home. We've been home for about 3 hours now and he's still asleep! It was quite the adventure for the little guy.

Tree

Halen's new favorite thing is to say "tree," and then go feel the bark. Then he looks around for another, points, speaks, and goes!

All Boy

Now that it's getting warmer (not that this pictures shows any evidence of that), Halen is developing a whole new scent. It's the little dirty boy scent and I love it. There is an absolutely primal necessity for me to sniff Halen every few minutes, ever since he was just born. I'm sure he's pretty familiar with my scent as well, trying to sleep in my arm pit half the night. He is growing a new tooth and we where all up all night long agonizing over it. At least I was. Halen's motto is, as long as there's a boob in my mouth, I can deal with anything. If there's not, I'll scream like crazy till there is. I love nursing. It is an amazing bond between us and it's so healthy for him and his fragile little immune system. But there are the nights when the first damn molar is ripping through tender gums that I feel completely drained, literally. He will nurse off and on all night, without me getting up to drink any water, and I wake up feeling like even my eyeballs are dried out. It's crazy how a mother's body will pull moisture and nutrients out of anywhere to take care of her child. He's numero uno for sure.
Also since it's been warm, we've been going for lots of bike rides. We'll just cruise the neighborhood, or go to the playground. The whole family road to Raging Burrito for lunch over the weekend. Halen got his own bean burrito. It was huge and only $3.50. I think it's more the right size for me than the adult burritos, but you have to be 12 and under. Halen made a friend at the playground yesterday. Cash, who was 22 months old (and smaller than Halen), had lots of fun chasing each other around the little league field with a ball. Cash had a baby brother who was only 4 weeks old. Halen was fascinated. He was in a bjorn on his mommy and Halen kept grunting for her to squat down so he could pat his head and say and sign baby. When Halen does the sign language for baby (it's like you're rocking one in your arms), it's just about the cutest thing you've ever seen. I think he wants us to make him a little sibling.
On other news, Halen has two new aunts. My father just adopted the two girls who have been living with him for many years. They are the nieces of my step-mother and have had the most tragic lives you can imagine. Not that I agree one bit with how my father has raised them (super sheltered, home schooled southern baptist), but I guess it's better than getting shuffled around in the foster system. Or is it? Anyway, they're good sweet girls who have been dealt a shitty hand. Growing up with two brothers, I always wanted a sister. Now I have two.
Well, this has gone on longer than I planned. Dan is home from work today studying for a test, so Halen is more distracted than usual, so I actually had time to write a little. Speaking of Halen, right now he's trying to ride his xylophone.

I Think Halen Needs To Go To A Show!

VAN HALEN IS BACK!
VAN HALEN OFFICIALLY ANNOUNCE SUMMER TOUR
February 2, 2007
Los Angeles, CA - In what is no doubt one of the most anticipated moments in rock and roll, VAN HALEN officially announces their 2007 North American tour.

The tour will mark the first time since 1984 that original VAN HALEN front man David Lee Roth will perform with Eddie and Alex Van Halen along with new bassist Wolfgang Van Halen for 40 shows this summer.

VAN HALEN fans can look forward to legendary high intensity performances, featuring a set list of the most iconic hits ever produced by America's premiere rock band.

Eddie Van Halen states, "I am very excited to get back to the core of what made VAN HALEN."

Lucky Halen

We have found a home for the puppy, Halen will not be eaten. I was recently thinking that myspace has become too overwhelmingly infaltrated with dumb stuff. I was considering closing my page. Then we found a home for the dog through myspace! I called many shelters and rescue groups who where all full. Kelly sent out a massive email to a list of people who foster animals. And we find a home through myspace. I am a new believer. don't send me your band info or clothing line info though.

ADOPT ME

I'm cute and sweet and need a home, or I'll eat Halen. If you read this blog, then you should love Halen enough to help save him.

Best Buddies

Happy Halentines Day

Halen is blowing kisses bye bye and dressing like Cupid. What a cutie!!!
We're still not sure when or where we're moving. Portland, OR is added to the possibilities though.
I hope everyone has a wonderfully sweet and romantic valentines day.