Days 40 - 41

I love my family, and I LOVE this picture. Jon and I have family scattered around the country and it's rare to get everyone in the same place--let alone the same picture. But, lately, we've been fortunate to have amazing family gatherings. We spent Christmas with Jon's parents, both of his sisters and their kids--which never happens. It was awesome. Jon forced everyone to pose for a "timed" photo--and it was sort of successful. We have two pictures in which every Olin is looking at the camera--and looking somewhat decent.

This weekend, at Mom's (surprise!) 60th birthday celebration, Jon orchestrated a series of Mickler/Micco family photos, including this one:

Honest Family Photo

This is about one of nine in a series. If you look closely--or, okay, if you just look--you'll see that Jules is holding up a piece of chocolate, which he received as a bribe to smile when he melted down. We're not sure why that happened but we think it had to do with the fact that Kai had grabbed someone's phone and he was "getting" to play with it. Well that and the fact that everyone, little guys included, has been staying up way too late, getting silly with favorite peeps they rarely see. And eating too much sugar. And all that jazz.

There are "better," more smiley photos of my fam in this series--but this one is my favorite. It captures a moment (which calls to mind weekend's worth of moments) in time... and one that I want to remember for a long, long time.

PS: Jules, I appreciate your attempts to pull it together and promise not to pull this out someday to show your junior prom date. 

Day 37

I've been thinking a lot about the nature-versus-nature thing lately. Like, do Kai and Jules sing loudly and dance around 24/7 because, much of the time, that's what we adults in the house are doing too or because all of our DNA encodes a love of music and moving? Is Jules "cranky-plus" in the a.m. because he's watched me act like a jerk toward Jon--or did he inherit two dominant genes that predispose him to being "hangry"? (Speaking of, check out this super-cute pillow on the fabulous New Duds blog.) Does Kai love sweet things because I ate too much ice cream while I was nursing him or because of the way his brain is wired, naturally? (Yes, I understand that this statement might make me sound like I didn't pay attention in any of my science classes... but it's what I wonder.) Finally, I must ask: can an obsession with deer be inherited and might this be a trait that skips a generation? Because take a look at this:

Oh deer!

Jules spent nearly an hour yesterday at school cutting out these pictures and assembling this collage, which is--save for one snake and a tiger--full of deer. This was totally unprompted. His teacher had just given him a bunch of magazines. Maybe this sort of sorting and categorizing is age-appopriate. Or maybe my kid is brilliant in this area. Or maybe, maybe he just really likes deer, which must be a "nature" (versus nurture) thing. In our home, right now, there's a huge focus on cows, horses, lions, tigers and elephants and giraffes--mostly plastic. But my dad, like many in Western Pennsylvania, is a huge deer hunter. So I think Julian got the "deer" gene.