Little Guy's Gymnastics

I came into the living room yesterday to find 9 month old Little Guy inside of our toy box.  I'm not sure if he used the pictured stepping stool or the trampoline that sits to the right.  

The great thing was that he couldn't figure out how to get out for about twenty minutes.

Bullies in Our Midst

We have an official bully in our house.  Sure she's cute, and she likes to say "Snuggle you? Snuggle you?" but don't let that fool you.  Lila is a menace who must be stopped.



Lately, Lila has been picking on Little Guy.  I'll be in the kitchen and hear him crying in the living room.  When I go in, I'll say, "What happened?" Lila will smile at me and say, "Push head floor," or "Poke eye," and then she will proceed to show me exactly what she did to him.  I'm not sure if I should appreciate the honesty or be horrified at her lack of empathy.  For now I think I'm going to go with, "Great honesty Lila!" Thumbs up.

How Long Have You Had Those Kids?

This month marks eight months since our foster kids, Little Guy and Little Sister, came into our home.



Legally I'm not allowed to show their faces on the internet or write their names or really talk about their situation at all, so it makes it really difficult to share anything about that part of our lives.  One thing I can say, however, is that it's definitely the most difficult and challenging thing that Johnny and I have ever done.

I started doing a little reflecting after reading this article on fostering/adoption from the New York Times that my friend Anna posted on my wall.

My favorite part of the article went something like this:

  “When I first went into this, I had this idea that everyone should be doing this,” Maureen told me, referring to foster-care adoption. “But if you are going to do it, you better be darn well sure you can handle it.”

I couldn't agree with this sentiment more.  When we believe in something, I think we have a tendency to feel that everybody should be doing it, especially in the Christian community.  I remember feeling guilty at Wheaton every time I went to a speech or fundraiser or whatever for different causes throughout the world.  I think by Christmas of my freshman year I had opportunities to "adopt" world vision children, buy cows for farmers in third world countries, tutor underprivileged children in Chicago, give money and wear red to support AIDS research, and so on and so on.  I'm not saying any of those things were bad; I just didn't need to do all of them...or any of them.

That being said, I do think that Johnny and I have been called, at least for now, to be foster parents and possibly adoptive parents.  If that's something you are interested in and you have a good support system and you don't mind if you get crayon on your walls or that all your hair will turn grey by the time you're 27 or that you just might unexpectedly see your kid's biological family at the library or that everywhere you go people will either ask you if "all those children" are yours or glare at you for having children of different races, then go for it.  It's an understatement to say that there are tons of kids who need help.  Just while writing this I got an email from my case worker asking for an adoptive family for a sibling set of three precious boys.  Our agency's website has literally pages and pages of children needing families.

So before I start rambling, here's the gist: fostering is hard, hardest thing we've ever done, don't do it if it's not for you, jump in head first if it is.  

Put On Your Freaking Tutu and Get in the Car!

I was originally going to title this "A Hutson Halloween," but I think the current title is more fitting: Halloween was clearly not invented by a parent of young children.  Here are a few snapshots from our Halloween festivities.

We carved pumpkins on Tuesday, and once they were carved, Lila kept saying, "Me sit pumpin."  She then encouraged Little Sister to sit on the other pumpkin, but Little Sister's lid kept falling off, so she did not understand the appeal of pumpin sitting.



This photo was taken right after Little Sister put Princess Tianna inside the pumpkin.  I believe she is kissing her to make it better.

After naps on Halloween, we rushed over to Johnny's office in full costume to go trick or treating.  Little Guy was a dinosaur.

And the girls were two pretty peacocks.  I realized when we walked in the door to his office that I didn't explain Halloween beyond, "You have to put your tutu on because this is the day that everyone wears a tutu, and Daddy will be so sad if you're not wearing a tutu so put on your freaking tutu and get in the car!"  I quickly gave them a run down about saying trick or treat, but they clearly had no idea why all of Daddy's friends were giving them hand fulls of candy...or why Mommy said after one piece it was just for looking at.

 

After trick or treating at Johnny's office, we had to deal with the reality of having a family made up of two families and splitting holidays.  But after being driven all over Kansas City, Lila got to end her day handing out candy at Grandmommy's.  Once we pulled into Grandmommy's driveway, Lila was very excited to show her the costume that only thirty minutes before she had pushed to the floor of the car.  She was all like, "Um Mom get my tutu!" and I was all like, "Um Lila where was that enthusiasm an hour ago?" Geeze.

Happy Halloween!

Too Cute

I mean can you even handle it?  If you could only see the front.  Even cuter.