It's been an uneventful post-Thanksgiving week. Aaron had one thing to say that I wanted to record: he was having hiccups, and he said to me something like "One of my hiccups was wearing the costume of a cough", meaning one hiccup started out sounding like a cough but then turned out to be a hiccup. Of course, nothing happens to Aaron without me hearing about it. Jack continues to be his fairly quiet self: whizzing through math, good at spelling, getting fluent at reading, and being a good big brother. Sarah has joined us at the table in her high chair, and she will talk and talk to us from that position while we eat. All of us except Blake are getting over being sick with lingering stuffiness and coughs. Sarah has had it very mildly... just a few sniffles and coughs per day. The picture is from Jack's cub scout soap box derby race a few weeks ago. Fun!

Well we'll have to call this the H1N1 Thanksgiving. Jack was quite sick yesterday, and me last night and today, with stuffy nose, sore throat, cough, and slight fever. Ashley is starting with it, and Paul has it too. But that all did not mar the day yesterday. Ashley with help from Stephany cooked a wonderful meal, had a couple of friends over, and Paul's parents, and we had a great evening. The kids went to bed and I could actually hang out and drink wine and talk like a real adult! That was fun. Aaron was zipping around, showing off all his moves early in the evening, then had a bad case of the 5pm meltdown, then recovered nicely in time for the 2nd half of dinner. Jack joined us as soon as I let him get up after resting b/c of his illness (he actually threw up that afternoon), then was quite fine. He very nicely joined in when everyone was saying what they were thankful for, and he said "Aaron and Sarah". For all their squabbling they are quite aware of how great it is that they have each other. And Sarah was just being her calm, patient self! Blake, in London, was fairly oblivious about Thanksgiving I think!

Ok, this one is all about Sarah. She hit 2 months this week and went to the doctor. She's 90% for height, past 99% for weight! She's smiling and making some noises, and waving arms and legs. And wearing 6 month clothes now. And getting cuter and cuter...as you can see in the photos!

We spent the day today with my old friend Pamela and her family in old Town Sacramento today. They have a girl, 6, and a boy, 2. Jack's comments beforehand: "She's always trying to chase me around; I'm going to have to avoid that." We went on a replica of an old merchant sailing ship, and to the train museum, and had time for chase games. Jack did seem to enjoy chasing around, I have to say! Aaron was up to various examples of his infamous persnicketiness; I am going to take him to see an ENT about his snoring & disturbed sleep.

Aaron had his first preschool "report card"/teacher conference this week, and Miss Ana pretty much said that he's her favorite kid and she and her assistant are always talking about what cute thing he has said lately, and that he is very kind. In fact, once we were talking about hugging at school, and I asked him if there is anyone he hugs there, and he said he gives hugs to the girl who is sad when her mom leaves. Miss Ana said she expects his kindergarten teacher will find him to be a "dream student".

Something Aaron said to me the other day, after having a quiet moment to himself finishing his breakfast alone, was "once a long time ago there were only babies - no adults - and God and Jesus took care of them". Like he was thinking of the chicken-or-the-egg question, and decided in favor of "egg". But he didn't like it when I told him about Adam and Eve; he insisted that babies came first!

Jack is doing fine in school; he spends all recesses running constantly, likes spelling now, is starting to be excited about reading, and finds the math very easy. The teacher has given him and 2 other students their own harder spelling list.

And Sarah has grown out of her newborn tummy aches, and is quite easy-going. She spent the day in the sling inside my jacket, only her face sticking out (sideways, so you can't see in the picture)! It was fairly chilly.

Hi to everyone. So this is the first installment of the Hughes Report: The goings on around here. I've always wanted to send out regular updates about the kids, with a picture, and now I'm finally starting. I'll try and write once a week! We'll see.

This week's news: Aaron continues to terrorize the family (as you can see from the photo, in which he's trying to be scary). Most recently he's been whacking Jack with Jack's heavy maglight flashlight, and throwing it at him. He is a kitty-cat Clone Trooper (Star Wars), he tells me. Jack's had a cold or something. Their clothes are on backwards in the photo because Jack had "turn your back on drugs" day at school. We even had backwards pants and underwear! Sarah's been smiling, and she laughs when I sing now! However, she cries when Blake sings. And she still won't let him hold her much, but she does love it when she can talk with him from the safety of her favorite chair. And Aaron doesn't terrorize her; he only gives her love. Jack too. She's 7 weeks now, her acne is almost gone, and she's sleeping 6-7 hours straight when she first goes to bed at night. She looked cute in her Jayhawk outfit, by the way, but that picture will have to come later.