Happy Birthday Grandma Jan!

Hope you like your presents above!

For those of you who don't know, Grandma Jan holds these skills in high regard.  Also, Nico's video doesn't demonstrate his ability to swim 4 feet without floaties (yay!).  It does, however, demonstrate the darlingness of a little boy with big floaties jumping off the diving board.  It's like puffed sleeves!

We love you Grandma!  Hope it was a great day.

For those who are curious, Benjamin is 15 months and these are his first steps.  We are elated.  And yes, we reeeally wanted him to "stand up please" in that second video.  (Excuse the general debris and jumble of cords in the background.  The house is for another post.  Ooooh yes.)

Oh, and we're still working on the dive.  Soooo close.

I guess I'll have to go for that P.h.D. after all

I've enjoyed being the only member of our family with a graduate degree.  I mean, you know, mommy got her masters!  And man it helps me in my day to day parenting adventures.  Nothing gives me greater joy than to discuss word order in Dominican speech or the etymology of the word "gringo" with my boys over the proverbial pb and j.  Soon enough my degree will serve me professionally, but for now it's just bragging rights.  Bragging rights that Matt has pried out of my cold, dishpan hands.

I knew when Matt got out of school he would also have a masters, and I would have to be happy with an educational tie.  Alas, it was not meant to be.  A few months into his MBA we realized that, for a myriad of reasons, it would make sense for Matt to also get a masters in Public Policy.  Two degrees!  Two.  Bah.  You win this time Hutch.  Only this time.

It really was a great time to celebrate Matt's accomplishments and our family's small role in them.  We're so grateful for our time in Chicago (something I know I've beaten into my readership).  And I am so proud of Matt's hard work and dedication.  My parents were able to come out for the graduation and unsurprisingly my dad took a million wonderful pictures of the event.  Here are some of my favorites.  There are a lot of them.

Graduation was held in Rockefeller chapel, which made me feel like Matt was graduating from Hogwarts.  Seriously, with the stone walls, cloaks and scepters (I counted at least two) it was a far cry from the innocuous setting of the Marriot Center.  A score board really takes a bit of the pomp (and slight creepiness) out of it.  This was pomp (and creepy) filled.  But the building was beautiful.  And so was Matt.

Receiving his diploma

And then the heavens opened and a light shone upon the Master(s).  He's sweet.

A truly beautiful building.

The next day we slapped some brand new maroon bow ties on the boys (thanks mom and dad) and took some pictures of the graduate and his family by the business school and Rockefeller chapel.  Again, thank you so much dad and there are a lot of pictures.  

Bartenders!

Little graduates!

Rockefeller chapel

I love the look on Ben's face.  

Jumping for joy (trying to cheer up Jacob...unsuccessful).

Cheesy face of mine, unbelievably beautiful face of Benjo's

We did it!  Go team Hutch!  (That's how I'll make myself feel better about the whole Matt beating me thing...hooray for coattails!)

This baby

This baby is growing up.  In a big way.  He started waving today.  His hair is thickening.  He giggles.  He crawls super fast.  He blows 30 raspberries a day. 













He eats 30 million cheerios a day. 



Oh yeah, and he can also cheer for the team!  (Thanks to J.J., Josh and Barbie for introducing this to him.)

Touchdown!!!!  (Sorry for the super grainy phone pics.)

The Face Diet

September 2009 (1st day of preschool)













August 2009 (Cake face)













January 2011 (Ghost face)

The big boy is emerging...all gangly-like. Thin arms, thin legs, thin tummy, thin face and huge eyes.

Apparently a tan doesn't make you look thin and three bowls of cereal EVERY MORNING don't make you fat.

Say Hello to a new Sunbeam

A primary Sunbeam to be exact.

Ben-zilla!

As of this week he stands! And he subsequently destroys peaceful games of Uno on the couch and carefully laid out trains (or cars) on beds.

By the way, in our house fastidiously selected and arranged groupings of cars or trains are common. Especially in beds.

All I want for Christmas

is my two front teeth.













Then I could wish you Merry Christmas!

Sweet Six Months

Today Benjamin is six months old. He was born in the wilderness of our affliction, or at least in a time of intense change and activity. Four short weeks after he was born we relocated to Provo, UT (mom and boys) and Omaha, NE (Matt) for the summer. We sublet our apartment to three nerdy University of Chicago undergrad guys and we then became very high impact guests of my parents while Matt worked at an internship.

That summer little Benji was my roommate and best buddy. I fell in love with him. Just completely. And he fell pretty in love with me. He is gentle, mild, sweet, and happy. Ben is big. At four months he weighed two pounds more than Nicholas did at the same age. He loves his brothers even when (especially when) they are being silly. He brings a lot of joy into this house. These six months have been very rich. They've also stretched Matt and me more than we thought we were able to stretch. They've also gone a little too fast. OK, a lot too fast. As we anticipate Matt finishing school this year and settling down for the longer term we are so grateful that our wild ride in Chicago included bringing Benjamin into our family.

My only complaint? He decided to commemorate his six month birthday by starting army crawling this morning. Wah.

And so, to Benjamin! We love you always darling boy. Here's a nod to the Benjamin of yester (half) year with pictures taken by our friend when he was 4 weeks old (thanks so much Amber!).







































































































And in case you forgot what this big boy looks like now in his older infant glory, here he is enjoying those big, bad brothers.

I've got to do some blogging

My backlog is astounding. Lots of things I need to remember and that I'd love to share. But, it's late. And I can't settle into a long post. So for now I'll share a bright spot in my day. It's my darling Ben smiling. He is such a sincere smiler. He a-goos and coos so sweetly and loves a friendly face. He's a total delight.

And when he flashes his smile at me at 2:00 in the morning it doesn't feel that bad to be awake. Not at all.