Fifty Percent

When I posted on my blog last night Matt pointed out that that this year I posted about 50% less than I did in 2008. At first I sort of shrugged at his comment and mumbled something that had the words "pregnancy", "busy", and "dishes" in it.

I don't know why, but we started looking at old posts from when we lived in Atlanta. Then the guilt came. Those archives were magical. There were so many little things about our old life that I had loved and since forgotten. My sunshine-filled kitchen, the view out of our back windows, the driveway/play area, the lovely road we lived on, so many things. To say nothing of the joys of when Jacob was our one and only, to when he became a big brother, to sweet mop topped Nicholas, to learning how to be parents of two. I loved looking back at the pictures AND the stories.

In all of the living we've been doing I had forgotten that Jacob wasn't always a questioning 4 year old. Completely forgotten. And Nicholas' perfectly round baby face and eyes had been replaced by his more grown up current shape. We spent a while clicking through and while we did we found ourselves laughing and reminiscing a lot. I actually cried a little bit I laughed so hard at this post.

Now, I really have been busy and pregnant and doing a lot of dishes in '09, but we've also been having a lot of fun. Fun vacations, fun visitors, fun trips to the park, fun times at home, and other fun stuff (fun). And really, that "fun" is indicative of our blessings. Blessings fit to record. Even the not so fun is something to be remembered, learned from and laughed at later. I've always believed this about this blog, but the "fruits of the blog" really hit home last night.

With this season of our life with only 2 kids winding down and the promise of a darling new baby on the horizon I am, ahem, resolved to post more. I realize again how much we benefit from it. So, expect more blogs, more "fun" and some major catch up from '09 in the coming months. Oh, and more pictures of these fellows.

Brothers Gotta Hug

What a Coincidence

The other day Nicholas did this:


















and then told me that he had a baby in his tummy. Which is a really funny coincidence because I have a baby in my tummy too! Like, a real one, not just one wrapped in my shirt. Ta da! The baby will be coming in May. We feel very blessed and excited.

We told Jacob and Nicholas about the baby a week ago. I feel like a living science experiment. Every day Jacob has asked, "Mommy, how big is your baby today?". I'd better start eating a lot of twinkies, because he's so excited for me to have a big tummy. And frankly, because of his enthusiasm, so am I! (Except, I'd rather my big tummy be made of baby and not twinkie.) I think Nicholas barely grasps the baby in the tummy concept enough to think up the above gag...but he'll get there.

We are thrilled. Because really, who wouldn't want more?














I realize that we are totally counting on the most beautiful baby in the world. Oh I love my new babies. The boys set the cute baby bar ridiculously high. Just after looking at these old pictures Matt and I can't wipe the smiles off of our faces.

Here's to a family of five!

How to Roll Dice

Should I get him in a tap class?

Dice are fun for this analytical 4 year old.

Here are the specs of our exciting dice game:

Roll, look for matches (triples, etc.), pull out matches, repeat until all dice are pulled out as matches, then roll all dice again. Repeat the process until I put my foot down and make him stop. Because he'll never stop. Never!














I've been saying this a lot lately, but the mantle of "the more challenging child" has just about 80% passed from Jacob to Nicholas. I'm not trying to label them (although I just did) but I'm happy that Jacob's chilling and that Nico's, um, throwing a lot more tantrums. It's really Nicholas's turn to be more demanding and difficult. It's so fun to see Jacob reason through things and take things in stride more. It's also nice to be more capable of dealing with Nicholas's crying since this is my second time 'round the toddler bend. Especially when he cries because I can't put his granola bar (or banana, popcicle, etc.) back together again after he breaks it. When will he learn it's impossible? Oh. Man.

Holy Halloween, Matt Man!

We Hutches were superheroes this Halloween. You might wonder, "Why superheroes? Why now?"

Well, it was basically a chance for me to make the kids wear those darn capes! And it worked! Jacob said about a month ago that he wanted to be Superman for Halloween. I told him (through gritted teeth...still bitter about the capes) that Superman wears a cape, so he would have to wear one. He quickly said never mind.

But the superhero bug had bitten him and soon enough he started to get excited about donning his cape and being CAPTAIN JACOB! Nicholas became NICO MAN, Matt became MATT MAN and I became ROBYN. Get it? Matt Man and Robyn? Genius.













Here they are wearing their masks. Masks that Nicholas tore off quickly and that Jacob miraculously wore the whole time!














This Halloween involved 3 rounds of trick or treating, 3 Halloween parties, and lots of candy. Oh, too much candy! But we had a great time. We went trick or treating first at Matt's school on Friday night. The boys were in heaven. Jacob pretty much floated from office to office beaming and saying, "Happy Halloween!" to anyone who would listen. Here's the one picture I took that night and I think it captures the tone of the evening beautifully.


















Trick or treating round 2 happened in our building (after an awesome party in our building that morning) on Saturday. Everyone should be jealous of trick or treating in an apartment building. Soooo warm!

Follow me, follow me to candy!


















And yes, their Halloween bags were brown paper sacks. Handmade only goes so far in our household.














Round 3 was a trunk or treat at our church. I can stomach a trunk or treat in a big city (why does Provo, Utah have them!?!), but I didn't take pictures because there's just not much to a trunk or treat. The Halloween party afterward inside the church was wonderful. It was especially gratifying to win the "Best Family Costume" prize! What did we win, you ask? A piece of paper that said, "Best Family Costume"! Woot woo! But, considering that we had just received 5 pounds of candy in the parking lot I think the piece of paper was prize enough.

After the church party we went home and practiced our angry faces. Like, you know, superheroes have to get angry when they are chasing the bad guys.




























Apparently really angry.














Like, really angry. (Nice dental work Matt!)














Here's my favorite Halloween 2009 picture.

Brothers are sweet.

Oh Blogger, Where Art Thou?

I'm straightening my couch cushions. It just keeps me too busy to blog.














I wonder who's messing them up!?! Hmmmm.

My Artist

After years of art time consisting of 5 minutes of erratic scribbling I am so happy to say that things have changed. Overnight.

Jacob spent twenty focused, chatty minutes at the table with his art supplies.














And the result is intelligible!

Allow me to explain his picture. Trust me, he explained it to me at length -- I'm an expert.

Note the armless person at the top of the picture. That's Jacob. He's in an airplane. Apparently an invisible airplane. Doesn't his neck look more like a thorax? Anyway...he's flying above his city. To the left there's an orange building. Not as big as the "serious tower" (Sears), but big. Next to that are assorted cars. The cutest cars in the world. And then to the right there's a green tunnel.














Isn't this amazing?!? Bravo J.J.! He's now producing ridiculous amounts of art. Which is producing ridiculous amounts of guilt in mom as she hangs each piece in the balance. To keep or not to keep. Sigh.

In the quiet moments

I find Nicholas doing this kind of thing.


























































































































What a show off! I am in love with this face.


















Nicholas is so darling. He is a sunshine boy. I am grateful to have such a determined, bright, funny boy. I just love seeing his little face working things out.

Here's a conversation Matt & Nicholas had a few weeks ago when Nico was in the tub.

Matt: You're naked!

Nicholas: I not naked, I Nico.

Touche Nicholas, touche.

My Heart is Breaking

Nay, broken.

That's right folks, it's back to school time around here. Or, just "to school time" for Jacob as this is his first time attending preschool.

I have been dreading this day for a long time. I enjoy having him home with me. And I enjoy setting our own schedule. He also just doesn't seem old enough. Four shmore, I say. I don't look at newborn pictures of Jacob and marvel at how grown up he is. The pictures that kill me are from when he was about a year old. Like this.


















In my head Jacob is still this age. I think I need to have my head examined. Look at that big boy!


















When we first arrived he was very prim and proper (see above photo). He just didn't seem sure of what to do. Prim and proper is not usually his style, so I was a little worried about the good-bye. Jacob is not a big fan of change. Or saying good-bye. I was prepared for the worst.

For the first day of class the parents were supposed to stay for 30 minutes while the kids played. I had NOT counted on this. I was ready to drop him off nice and quick, like ripping off a band-aid. But I had to linger and ponder the momentousness of the occasion.

But, Nico is the one who made me cry.

The teacher had the kids line up against the fence for a red light/green light activity. (Isn't he so cute?)














After they played one round Nicholas jumped out of my hands and positioned himself RIGHT next to Jacob. He simply wouldn't leave his side. Cue heart break. I started thinking, "They love each other!", "They need each other!" and "How can I separate them?!"


















They truly are the best of friends and the worst of enemies and I hadn't thought about how they (especially Nicholas) would feel about the separation. Obviously Nicholas was not having it.

For story time Nicholas found Jacob's side and didn't want to leave it. I even tried to pick him up and take him to the other side of the group, but he ran back around the whole circle and plopped down with Jacob again.


















Then the teacher, who I think wanted to make us all cry, read this horrible book. It's all about saying good-bye on a child's first day of school. We've had it Jacob's whole life and I couldn't quite believe that the moment had come for Jacob and I to exchange our own kissing hands. Sob.

I actually held it together the entire 30 minutes. For Jacob. I kept looking at the other parents and thinking, "Are you as broken up as I am?" They looked fine. I hope I looked fine too.














Now, you might be wondering why I'm not writing much about Jacob's emotions. Pretty much because once he broke the ice he was all in. He was LOVING it.

The teacher asked rhetorically, "Aren't we all excited for preschool?" Jacob said in his loudest voice to the whole group, "Do you know what I'm going to learn? I'm going to learn about books and numbers and all kinds of things! Yeah!" A lot like this. I think some parents were jealous of his enthusiasm...there were a few weepy kids.

As the kids were lining up to enter the school there was a moment when Jacob lost me from sight in the group of people. I could see him looking for me and so I called out to him. He saw me and gave me the happiest, sweetest little smile-filled wave. I pumped my fist in the air and waved back. Then, surrounded by kids with sad or indifferent faces, he did his little happy dance. Fists pumping up while hopping from foot to foot. So darling. He was ready.

Even though I broke down crying to my kind friend Tracy the minute I left the school grounds (darn you Nico!) I couldn't help but feel that my boy was growing up and that it was going to be OK (eventually).

Yeah...

...we know him.


















We also (obviously) occasionally buy into blatant commercialism.

And we often dance.

In Town

The boys and I took the train into town.



















We played at Crown Fountain.



















We skipped and pranced.





































We met daddy and headed over to a concert at Millennium Park.















We ate Subway sandwiches.



















And then we made funny faces while we listened to the orchestra.











































Daddy's shoes!



















Mommy's sunglasses!















Nicholas's legs!















Nico yelling "cheese!"















Daddy imitating Nico's "cheese!"



















Daddy trying to block Nico's "cheese!" in a (vain) attempt to not disturb our fellow concert-goers.

































































A monkey popping his neck!

































































Oh yeah, and Grandma Jan wanted to know where Nico picked up this crinkled smile.



















I have no idea.