We Are Free

Double Digets

Now that Zac's birthday is over we have a week until Emily's. The 4th is her birthday then the 5th Halo has her appointment.
   I am having a hard time believing that Emily will be 10. She is small for her age but has a heart bigger than her body. She doesn't know what she wants to do though.
    She keeps changing it. We suggested the trampoline place. We also suggested getting a pool, DJ, and some other things. They have been asking for a pool. Halo and I have gotten just a little more baby stuff.
    Not much though. We are waiting to find out the gender now. We have started setting up the baby room. Anna gave us the changing table that Halo had.
    We set it up and put the diapers and wipes under it. We need to get a crib but Zac says he wants to get that. I don't think I will let him though. We don't want them buying anything to expensive.
    Zac said that either gender he had a rocker for the baby. They have clothes to. When I asked why they want to help us so much he gave me a simple answer.
    He said "You helped me when I didn't know what I was doing, now it's my turn to help you. Plus we don't have a use for the clothes anymore." We laughed for a little bit. It is good to know they have our back, but they know we have theirs.
    Zac says that Zane is really excited about the doctor appointment. He wants to see the baby.
*June 30*
     "Okay, Emily what do you want to do for your birthday? You have 4 days." I say to her.
     "I want to go to the trampoline place." She says.
     "Okay, thank you."
     "Welcome." I call the trampoline place and make a reservation. I call Ava's mom, Zac, and Anna. They will all be there and I tell them what I haven't got her that she wants.
    Ava doesn't know that Halo is pregnant. She will be in for a huge shock when she sees Halo's growing belly. It will be a big day that's for sure. We are going to the parade, her party, and the fireworks.
     Ava will be dropped off at 9:00 in the morning. She is going to spend the night and we are dropping her off before Halo's appointment.
*July 3rd*
      "Jace, do we have everything?" Halo asks me.
      "Yup, pizza will be dropped off. We have the cake. We have the presents wrapped. We are good." I say.
      "Okay." I don't know, is Emily is more excited over turning 10, seeing Ava, or Halo's appointment? Well it is a good question at least.
*Next Day*
Halo and I get up at 8:30. We get dressed and ready to go. Halo can't be jumping on the trampolines now being like 4 months pregnant. We hear a nock on the door and Halo gets it. Ava comes in and her mom does to.
      "Where's Emily?" She ask me.
      "She is still asleep. Go wake her up." Ava drops her bag and goes to wake Emily up. Ava's mom stays for a little bit.
      "Make her take it easy on the ice cream and sweets, she will puke. That's my only thing. We think she may be lactose intolerant so I put medicine in her bag. If her stomach acts up give it to her and she may have to come home." Her mom tells me.
      "Okay." I say.
      "Oh and, congratulations!" She says to Halo. She hugs Halo.
       "Thank you."
       "How far are you?"
       "15 weeks tomorrow."
       "Well that's awesome. If you have a boy I have tons of clothes from when Ava was born."
      "Okay, Zac is giving us a bunch of stuff. They are done having kids and he has stuff for both."
      "Okay, well I have to go see my sister."
      "How is she doing?" I ask her.
      "We find out today if she is cancer free or not. I have to go see her and then she will be staying with us." She says.
      "Okay, well good luck."
      "Thank you, Ava!" She comes to her mom.
      "You be good, take it easy on the milk and sweets, if your stomach gets upset tell Jace or Halo. Be good." She hugs her mom before she leaves. Ava made her promise that when she found out about her aunt that she would call. She said she would. Emily gets dressed and we eat breakfast.
    I give Ava orange juice instead of milk. Andrew gets dressed. We clean up the kitchen. We get everything in the car and sunscreen on the kids. We throw blankets, and pillows in the car and they get in.
    We get in and go to the parking space. Ava was wearing a pink skirt with shorts under it and a purple shirt. Halo was wearing shorts and a tight tank top. It showed her small bump. Ava hasn't noticed yet.
    Andrew had on basketball shorts and a shirt. Emily had on a crop top and jean shorts. She had a tank top under her crop top that was skin tight. I was wearing cargo shorts and a t-shirt.
   It said hooligan. Halo and I sit on the tail of the truck and the kids play with pin wheels. They do cart wheels and play tag in the small area. When they hear the parade coming they get ready.
    They watch the bands, horses, and different floats go by. They laugh and smile. They collect candy and glow sticks. As the parade slowly ends and each event has gone through.
     We pack the car up and head to the trampoline place. The kids eat candy and laugh at each other in the back. We get to the trampoline place and they go inside.
    No sooner had they dropped all their things on the table and got their wrist bands then they were jumping and falling on the trampolines. Halo and I sit down. Ava comes to us.
      "Can I have a juice?" She asks me.
      "Yeah." She sits next to Halo and I hand her a juice bottle. As I do so Zane comes running to me and jumps in my lap.
     "How's the baby?" He asks.
     "The baby is fine."
     "Let me see." He looks at Halo's stomach. "I can see it." Ava looks shocked.
      "Halo's pregnant?!" She asks.
      "Yup! See!" She looks at the bump and her eyes get big.
      "Do you know if it is a boy or girl?" She asks.
      "Not yet."
      "Yay!" We laugh at her. Blake comes me.
      "Hi!" She says.
      "Hi!"
      "Baby!"
      "Yup Halo has a baby."
      "Baby!" She claps her hands. "Yay!"
      "Baby!" Ryker yells.
      "Well they aren't excited." Zac says.
      "No, not at all." We start laughing. Emily comes to us and has Chloe go jump with them. Halo goes and sits on a trampoline letting Zane, Blake, and Ryker do small jumps. Emily starts jumping.
      "Kid, you are going to make me puke." Halo tells her.
      "Why?" She stops and asks.
      "The baby will get mad at you."
      "Oh, wanna see something cool?" Emily says no longer caring.
      "As long as you do it on a different trampoline yeah."
      "Okay." She jumps onto another one and does flips until she hits the slanted trampoline. She bounces off of it. She does flips until she reaches a little foam block pit and jumps into it. Halo, I, Zac, Blake, Ryker, and Zane clap.
      "Yay!" They yell. We laugh at him. Soon the kids get hungry and we all sit down to eat. I cut up Ryker's pizza and Blake's. When we finish eating we let Emily open presents.
   She gets clothes, toys, coloring books, art supplies, shoes, and more. She gets hair ties, head bands, and play makeup. I know what the girls are doing when we get home.
   Finally I have one last present for her. I hand her a small box.
      "You have to take care of this." I tell her.
      "Okay." She rips the paper off. She rips two more layers of paper off. "Dang! What did you do Jace?"
      "I didn't do it."
      "Halo!"
      "Hands down best wrapper." Halo says.
      "Well if Jace wrapped it it would have duck tap on it." They start laughing.
      "Sadly that is true. I can pull apart engines and rebuild them with my eyes closed. Wrapping presents I can't do."
      "I got a box." It was a little brown box and I took the item out of its original box and put it in that one. She open the box and sees a neat little bag. "I got a bag guys!"
      We laugh at her. She rips open the bag and sees something wrapped. She rolls her eyes. She rips a layer of paper off it. She rips 4 more layers off. "Is there even a present here?"
      "Keep going." She rips the last layer off.
      "No way!!!"
      "What is it!"
      "It's an iPod."
      "It's the iPod touch 6."
      "That's so cool." She hugs me.
      "Halo got you something for it." Halo hands her a case. It wasn't wrapped. It went on in three layers. It had a rubber layer, back, and then the front snapped on.
   It was blue and black. On the back was the Cheshire Cat from Alice in Wonderland. He was smiling and under the picture it said "We are all mad here".
    The case came with a thick as glass protector for the screen. Halo helps her put the case on it so it doesn't get nocked off and broke. The kids jump for an hour before we all get bored and leave.
    We go back to my house. The kids get in their swim suits and I turn in the sprinkler. They run around in the cold water and scream. They laugh and play. They play with chalk and jump ropes.
*8:00 PM*
We get ready and throw blankets in the back of the truck. We get to the park and open the back of the truck. We throw the blankets down and the pillows.
    We all crawl in the back of the truck and get comfy. We wait for the fireworks to start. It's been a big day and I can't believe she is 10. I also can't believe that I am going to be a dad, that I am done with high school, and more.
*Next Day*
We have dropped Ava off at home and we are on our way to the doctor. Halo is now 15 weeks and she still gets morning sickness every once and a while.
    She dropped a fruit loop on the floor today and cried for 10 minutes. I hugged her, but she still cried. When she calmed down she got dressed then cried because her jean shorts didn't fit her.
    I laughed when she wasn't looking. She settled on a skirt and a tank top. We left the house and now we are almost there. Zac and Zane are in the parking lot waiting. We pull up and Zac rolls his window down.
      "Bout damn time." He says.
      "I will kick you in the balls." Halo says.
      "Yikes! I will warn Zane."  Halo flips him off and he rolls his window up. We all get out and Halo was fine. We go inside and she checks in.
    We wait for the nurse to come get us. When she does we all go back and Halo lays on the table. She pulls her shirt up and the doctor comes in.
      "Hi!" The doctor greets us.
      "Hi."
      "Who are these two handsome men?" She asks Halo.
     "The baby's uncle and my nephew."
     "Awesome, you are getting big. That's a good sign. Now let's see what the baby is doing." She rubs jelly on Halo's belly and put the camera on it. We hear a heart beat instantly.
     "The baby's heart is beating!" Zane says.
     "Would you guys like to see the baby?" They all go to the screen and look. We see fingers, toes, the head, stomach, legs, nose, and mouth. Halo starts crying and the kids get all excited.
      "You still have a healthy, happy, baby!" The doctor tells us.  She cleans up Halo's stomach and prints out pictures. She gives us the pictures and we give one to Zac. We make an appointment, the next one will be the gender reveal.
    In 8 weeks. He will be 25 weeks pregnant and be able to know what we are having. We don't know how we will reveal the gender. We will cross that bridge when we come to it.
    All I can say is I'm looking forward to the next one more than anything now. Zane will be 4 the 12 and he is getting so big. We both want the baby to come. Waiting is the hard part.