Oh, it's on

This move, that is. I feel like Matt and I are throwing down our best game in the packing biz. (In true Olympic fashion.) We've now reached the "junk phase". The nice, tidy stuff is packed and now it's the ugly, odd-sized stuff remaining.

The master plan has been to move all packed boxes into our room...which is now almost unnavigable. This picture was taken two days ago and the boxes have practically doubled. Trust me, it's nice.














We have known about this move for eight long months, and now that we are a week away I am feeling so reminiscent of the last week or so of pregnancy. At the end of both of my pregnancies I have felt excited, afraid, uncomfortable, stressed, joyful, nervous, nostalgic, bittersweet and ultimately happy. Knowing that life will never be the same. But excited for the new life awaiting us. Just really confused. So here we are. Waiting for this move with the apprehension of waiting for labor. Sigh.

Today, as we've packed and sorted and packed some more, it's been crazy. Jacob and Nicholas have been underfoot throughout it all. And I've felt so annoyed at their presence. Just wishing I could focus on the task at hand. But tonight Matt and Jacob ran a quick errand and it was just me and Nico. It was just fun to spend time with him and not feel stressed to be filling a box at the same time.

What a stud.










































I can't wait to get to Chicago, unpack and get back to normal. I miss normal. I love normal.

And the winner is........

That's right, the winner is Grandma Great! Expect your prize soon Grandma! (I'll post the prize on the blog when it's ready to ship.)

Thanks to all who participated and for finally answering that burning question about our readership. Ten or fourteen? Ten or fourteen? It's fourteen! Thank you though for your kind words about this blogging business. We're certainly enjoying it and hope you do too. As Meredith said, here's to 300 more!

(Just 299 left to go...)

An historic 300th post

I remember sitting in the little sunshine lounge in our old apartment and asking Matt, "So, do you think we should have a blog?" I was 8 months pregnant with Jacob and feeling very far from home. I thought that a blog would help bridge the distance between us and our families a bit. Matt chuckled and said, "Sure".

And so it began.

It's been three years and 300 posts, baby. We've gone from this:


















(Man, I avoided "pregnant nose" with Nico but got an extra helping of it with Jacob!)

to this:


















We really feel so blessed (and a little coo-coo bananas) to have these two little fellows. They are unique and bright and delightful. They are also pretty easy on the eyes. That helps when times get tough.















































Allow me to tout the virtues of such an amazing addition to the world wide web. From its humble beginnings Babies are such a nice way to start people has stayed the course and held true to the Hutch Fam's values. Values like cuteness, fun-ness and other fun stuff.

And where would we be without you, the readers! I really don't know if there are 10 of you or 14 of you...but regardless of who you are you matter a lot. I would like to say that I would do this even if no one read it, but I'm just not sure! It's become a scrapbook and a time line for the boys' lives and knowing that it will be read and enjoyed helps me to do it. (Perhaps I should feel concerned that I wouldn't just do it for us...)

Anyway, in honor of our lovely readership we have created the

Babies are such a nice way to start people award for outstanding achievement in the field of excellence!

If you'd like to be eligible for such a fine distinction then please leave a comment. I will randomly select one commenter on Sunday August 10th to receive the commemorative Babies are such a nice way to start people award for outstanding achievement in the field of excellence! prize. The prize is well worth the comment. It will be commemorative, useful and edible! Curious?

Thanks again for your loving readership of this humble, all-important, amazing, tiny, little blog.

*The recent pictures were done by our good friend Penny. Here is her website. She also did these pictures of Jacob so long ago. Just so you know...

A good impression

Nicholas saw this picture today (which is our current desktop) and immediately did this:














Man, he really captured the essence of a little gross-out mixed with Nicholas.

Bravo!

Allow me to clarify

I recently mentioned that Jacob has moved from a crib to a bed. We did, in fact, change his crib into a toddler bed a few weeks ago. We did not have a side rail for the bed and so, in a burst of creative thinking, we set up the pack and play and pushed it next to the bed to act as a rail. We thought it would make do nicely until we bought a real bed rail.

It worked well for a week (although he usually pushed the pack and play away from his bed before retiring) until he started preferring to sleep in the pack and play. Soon all of his bedtime friends and about forty books were joining him for some raucous parties in the "baby bed".














This has gone on for a few weeks.

A bit of a tight fit, huh? Just barely a sliver of room big enough for him.


















I've been following the sage advice of a friend who told me to not worry about it and leave well enough alone. Very sage advice when dealing with a three year old. And imagine my surprise when tonight Jacob asked me to make his bed (organize all of his junk) in his big boy bed!


















Sweet dreams man. (10 points to anyone who can see Nico in this picture.)

In Chicago the zoo is free!

Despite the excitement we feel at a free zoo in our future, we still found time to go to "Zoo Atlanta" before we leave. This was Jacob's second time to this zoo, but it was Nico's and my first time. Namely because a year ago our family looked like this:














and so Grandma Jan and Papa took him to distract him from the fact that HIS LIFE WOULD NEVER BE THE SAME. (I love this picture of Grandma and Jacob.)


















I hadn't been to a zoo in about a million years and I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it. I had pretty ominous memories of snake houses and monkeys with red bottoms from the zoo experiences of my youth and I just wasn't sure if I'd fit in at a zoo. Thankfully we steered clear of the snake house (wouldn't want to scare the children) and there was not a red bottom in sight. Phew indeed.

We went with our friend Miss Caroline (it's a southern thing...I'm known as "Miss Robyn" 'round these parts) and her three kids.

Some highlights include:

Smelly flamingos:














Lots of blessed shade, a fun table and good friends to enjoy lunch with:














A merry-go-round:














A cute girl to squeeze while on the merry-go-round:














And a petting zoo:

Jacob really showed his sensitive side with these goats. He grabbed a brush and got busy.














I guess he didn't care to brush the one right next to him. Too easy!














Nicholas, on the other hand, had to be restrained as his love for all creatures great and small leads to his pulling handfuls of hair out of the poor little guys. The man in this picture was slowly driving himself crazy in his efforts to protect the animals from the mobs of kids. He fussed around with a broom eternally sweeping up goat droppings while calling out to anyone who would hear him to, "close the gate!" or "don't pull Mildred's tail!" or to simply "get away from Dexter!". I found him a little weird but also pretty charming. Such love for goats. It's touching.














The zoo was also the place that Nicholas had a chance to show off his new red shoes. Who knew that such blindingly bright red shoes would be so wonderful. Let me explain: you never lose a red shoe.


















So, in summation, the zoo was lots of fun and we're looking forward to lots of trips to the FREE zoo in Chicago. Come see us and we'll treat you!