Fiddling

"Look, are you just fiddling around with me or what? " says the Man in Black to Fezzik.

Joseph and I aren't fighting to the death but he is definitely "fiddling around with me."

Although, some days I feel like my brain might explode if he doesn't potty train soon so maybe it is a fight to the death! My death! Exploding brain death!

Whenever I bring up the P word he'll have NOTHING to do with it. But every now and again he'll come running into wherever I am and exclaim, "Poop is coming!" So in we go to the bathroom, sit him on the potty, one of the girls usually brings in entertainment (books and cars) and then wait.
He reads, plays, sometimes has juice, chats with his sisters but doesn't get around to actually putting something in the potty.
I know he can do it. The other day he was in the tub and exclaimed, "Poo is coming." I pulled him out of the tub and put him on his potty. A few minutes later . . . ta-da! Poo!
Maybe I'm ready but he's not.
Maybe its too fun with the books and cars.
Maybe I haven't found the right motivation yet.
But maybe, just maybe, he's playing me.
Am I being played?
I just can't decide!


"Look, are you just fiddling around with me or what?" says the Man in Black
"I just want you to feel you're doing well. I hate for people to die embarrassed." replies Fezzik.
Okay, so he's only three. I'm certainly not embarrassed but I am most certainly frustrated.
Do I need to take a deep breath and just relax and let it happen?
Does that mean I'll send him to kindergarten in diapers?
"AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH" (that's me screaming in tired frustration)

Do-It-Yourselfer

Ella lost a tooth yesterday. Its only her third loss but its a big one, a front one!

AND

She did it herself!

"I was kind of like twisting it and then I heard a pop noise and then it came out really easy."

She is so proud to be missing that tooth and can't wait to show her friends at school.

(And its kind of sad for me and Adam. Our little girl, who is seven going on 17, now looks older too. She's all snaggley like the other second graders. Where did our baby go? )

My Dad's Fault

Friday night is Movie Night at our house. At the end of a long week of school, its nice to have the girls excited about something we do at home.

And do they ever get excited about Movie Night!

Usually I choose a movie (they would fuss for hours if I let them pick), let them pick dinner (within reason) and a treat (we make a special trip to the store).

This particular night was Halloween Eve and I was feeling especially lenient so they got two treats and Spooookiwi soda in little Frankenstein cans (btw, nasty stuff). I was declared the best mom ever (which is normal for movie night) and we watched Hocus Pocus (the best Halloween flick ever) on our bed (wins, hands down, over the couch every week).

I love our little tradition.

Its my dad's fault because a thousand million years ago my dad would have "junk food night" with us. We got to choose soda (which my mom never allowed), a TV dinner (this was the 80's folks) and Little Debbies. We'd get to eat in front of the TV (usually taboo) and watch a movie. My dad continues the tradition with the grand kids but we live too far.

So the tradition lives on at my house and I hope my kids will remember "Movie Night" as fondly as I remember "Junk Food Night".

And who doesn't like to be the "best mom ever" once a week?

We love Bubble Gum

How do you get cheap bubble gum off skin and out of eye brows?

Not with peanut butter!

Not with ice!

Mostly it took good ol' fashion elbow grease.
And a few Whoppers for a bribe
Remarkably it all came off but Joseph did NOT like being scrubbed on. Adam and I had to double team him to keep him still enough to work on. I'm pretty sure he's going to remember to keep gum IN his mouth from now on.

Normally I would Google such a problem but that night our internet was down. Of course!

p.s Just for the fun of it, I Googled it and that was totally unhelpful. Lots of suggestions for peanut butter and ice. Peanut butter works on hair NOT skin and ice to the forehead for that long won't work for obvious reasons.
Guess it was okay that our internet was down that night.

See, with Halloween right around the corner, aren't you glad you read my blog today?

So Handy

Joseph loves tools. He's convinced the door to the laundry room needs fixin'.

You gotta have glasses to fix properly.

He's concentrating so hard. It's adorable!

And you've got to use the claw end for something.

Required Equipment for "fissin" the door, according to Joe:
glasses

screwdriver

hammer

matchbox car

(matchbox cars are essential for everything Joe does, EVERYTHING)

Where to begin?

So, its been . . . four months since I posted last and I offer no excuses. I just didn't want to anymore. So I stopped. That's it!

But now I'm kind of feeling it again so "here I go again on my own . . . dunnuh, nuhh, nuhh!" (hello, old school Nelson).

I know better than to try and catch up so I'm going to start with now and if I find some good stuff from the last four months, all the better. Don't count on much though because not only did I lose interest in blogging but I took far fewer pics. Far!

Where to begin? There's nothing like the present, right?

Hutchinson Family Pictures 2009

All us Hutchinson's last had a family picture taken in 2001 with just eight people. We have grown to a whopping 17 people. This last minute, afterthought picture at the end of our session ended up being the crowd favorite.
Adam and I haven't had a family picture since . . . NEVER. This is our FIRST!

Our children were running amok while we had this picture taken.

When the photographer said "mom and daughters" I didn't join the group. I was then told to sit myself down and be in the picture where I belonged. I appreciated that. I have incredible sisters and mom-in-law.

My favorite part of looking at other people's family pictures is trying to pick out the siblings vs. the spouses. Can you guess?

The two guys standing on the ends and me in the middle are in-laws.

Did you guess right?

We were all looking forward to getting a grand kids picture. Such a cute little group of friends/cousins.

Men folk. I am fortunate to have awesome brothers-in-law. I love it when all the grown-ups get together and can chat (in peace). I end up with aching cheeks and tears in my eyes from laughing so hard (their wives are pretty funny too).

And the family picture we were first trying to get but ended up liking the tree one better.

FYI, pink kids belong to Randy and Angie, teal kids belong to me and Adam and green child is Emily and Sean's.

I am so blessed to have married into such a loving and accepting family. I love watching the family grown in number and in size (kids growing up). The cousins play incredibly well and can't stand to be apart for too long. The begging to play is actually pretty cute!

For the first time ever (I think) we all happen to live in Salt Lake right now. Its so much fun!

I am thankful for my "other family" and how much they love me. I love them an awful lot too.