The secret to solo hockey nights is cookies.

After 20 minutes of sweaty work, they were almost halfway ready to go to hockey.

Cooper was happily contained with freshly baked chocolate chunk cookies (Harry accidentally grabbed chunks instead of chips at the grocery store, and after tasting the cookies, he called this a "good mistake") and the use of me as his human high chair.

I packed him this little meal. He only really ate the cookies.

Also, he stopped in a hallway to watch a goalie bounce tennis balls against a wall, and a really sweet coach gave him one, which totally made his night.

And the cookies came in handy on other solo nights this week.  There were 3 of them.  I bough more chunks, eggs, and vanilla in advance of this week's solo nights.  But no hockey because I am coming home from a day of meetings and it's just too much-- facing 3 kids who've been living it up with a babysitter all day is a little too much, you know?  It'll be all I can do to feed everyone whatever semi-nutritious takeout I've purchased, bathe them, and tuck them in before I pass out.

Inexplicably, these are Jack's "weekend teeth," although this picture is from Thursday.

Cooper got this tent for Christmas from his grandparents.  He was skeptical at first.

But the big boys

dove right in,

and before long, Cooper joined them.

They all helped me sort baby clothes before school on Friday, and they could not get over how tiny and adorable and pink everything was.  Neither could I.

Harrison is writing a new chapter of the Star Wars series.

Is this what baby girl will look like?

I have decided I want to read 100 books this year-- and not e-books, either.  Actual real books.  So retro.  I have severely cut back on my wasting time on the internet time and so far this year, I have read 5 books: The Middlesteins (great), Happier at Home (not bad), Elsewhere (Fantastic!  Richard Russo is my favorite living author, and reading his memoir makes me want to go back and reread his entire oeuvre), The Round House (a great book, and the second-to-the-last line was so beautiful it made me burst into tears on my elliptical machine), and Gone Girl (Terrific!  Totally lived up to the hype!).  I went to Barnes and Noble and got 2 Nicole Krauss books, The History of Love and The Great House, so those are up next.  So far, I have bought all of these books, and while I love to buy books, I am not going to have the shelf space to sustain 93 more.  So, that means I have to find time to go to the library, preferably without the majority of my children.  Also, Amazon is way, way, way cheaper than B&N, and I love using Prime.

In Happier and Home, Gretchen Rubin picks a word for each year-- a word to live by, sort of.  I have seen this trend flying around FB and the blogosphere, too.  If I had to pick a word, I think I'd pick relish.  I want to relish in 2013 and all the last firsts a final baby will bring.  Reading 100 books fits right in-- I love to read and rarely make time for it but you know?  It's surprisingly easy to find time to read while hanging out with the kids, and I feel way, way, way less neglectful snuggling onto the family room couch/playroom floor/bottom bunk with a book as opposed to my laptop or phone-- I am better able to engage with them and with my book, and it's a way better example than a constant screen.  We'll see how it goes-- a couple books a week for a year?  Think of all the late night nursing sessions I'll have to fill... 

Cooper has been having some ongoing nap issues.  I think part of the problem is his new room and him not quite feeling comfortable in there-- he cannot sleep with the lights off, and he always liked his old room totally dark.  And part of it is the sad, sad fact that he is finally dropping that second nap.  Anyway, today, it took some time to settle him down for his one and only nap.  I told him as I was changing his diaper that if he took a good nap, when he woke up, we could go to the grocery store and get a treat and he could be my helper (he LOVES to be a helper). By the time he woke up, I decided it would be way easier to just take Harry, and I didn't think Cooper would remember or care.  WRONG.  When Ben took him downstairs to play, he started to cry, but I didn't really pay attention.  They came back up to retrieve Ben's laptop from the garage, and Cooper started putting on shoes.  I asked him if he wanted to go with us or stay home with Daddy, and he pointed at the door and mumbled something.  This was inconclusive, since Ben had just walked out that door to get his computer.  I told him if he wanted to stay home, he should say dada, and if he wanted to go to the store, he should say mama.  Very clearly and without hesitation, he said "Mama."  Of course, Harry and I took him with us.  Where he proceeded to freak out so loudly at the butcher counter that I had to actually take time back home, leaving my cart and returning for it a half hour later, which really screwed up dinner prep.  Some helper.

Room shuffle: the conclusion

 Harry and Jack are becoming good little skaters, and Harry is a good puck handler, too.  I haven't taken them to hockey for awhile-- because putting all of their gear on SUCKS-- but I took them on Saturday as a trial run.  They are signed up right now to play twice a week-- on Saturday morning and one other night over the dinner hour.  In the fall, this was not a problem because Ben and I were both home that night, and he took the big boys and fed them after practice, and I had dinner with Cooper and put him to bed a little early.  Everyone won.  In the spring, though, I am on my own with 3 kids, including one bored, hungry baby, and 100 pounds of sweaty equipment.  FUN TIMES.

I broke 3 fingernails to the quick and bled all over Harry's skates and then called Ben when I finally got them on the ice to demand that he get on Amazon and order 2 pairs of velcro skates ASAP even though velcro skates kind of suck.  He did, of course, but they didn't qualify for Prime, so this week, I am SCREWED, but next week, we should be on the ice much faster.  Since both boys are in seatbelts now, I also get them ready from the waist down before we get there-- shorts with velcro on the legs to hold up their socks that go over their pants, silly padded suspender hockey shorts, knee pads, and tall, thick, footless hockey socks that velcro to their undershorts.  Then when we get to the rink, I "just" have to help them with shoulder pads, elbow pads, neck gear, jerseys, helmets, under gloves, gloves and those goddamned skates.  I don't know what Cooper is going to be doing while all of this is happening.  Maybe screaming in his stroller, but I think the stroller is going to be more trouble than it's worth since it will be an epic battle to get him back in when it's time to go, unless  have some sort of chocolate to bribe him with.  And then there's the taking off of everything and the cramming it back in the stinky hockey bag and getting three kids outside into the freezing, black cold with a hockey bag the size of Jack and 2 sticks.  Hmpf.  I'll let you know how it goes.

We finally, finally, finally finished the room shuffle.  Now all I have to do is figure out the baby's name on the wall in her room (I have the letters-- decoupage is not going as smoothly as planned. but I am like $75 into the project and will probably keep going) and wash her tiny pink clothes and hang them on the tiny pink hangers that are just waiting in her closet.

We ended up spending about what we anticipated, but we saved a ton on bedding and accessories by going to IKEA and re-purposing stuff we had, and we splurged a little more than we thought we would on furniture by going to a local furniture store for dressers instead of getting them at IKEA and buying night stands to match.  So, it all came out in the wash.

Here's Ben putting the finishing touches on her room:

 Cooper is so confused by the move.  I honestly did not think he would care, but he so does.  Anytime we tell him it;s time for night night, he grabs a couple pacifiers and his blanket and heads to his old room.  He was happy to try out the crib, but a little confused when I laid him down because it was NOT nap time.

 Speaking of Cooper, here is his cute little room.  I really think I like it the best, and besides his dresser and nightstand, we only spent $34-- 30 for that print of cars and trucks to round out the Target theme and 4 for a basket to hold his current favorite board books.

 I should probably put pictures of him in this growth chart, since it only has Harry and Jack for now.  It is also totally meaningless because it is apparently hanging at a different height than it did at our old house, and none of the measurements are accurate-- but it matches the room, so there you have it.

 Cooper's crib and nightstand, although I have since moved the book basket because he tried to lean over the side of his crib and grab books this morning when he first woke up and the crash took years off my life-- I thought he fell out of his bed. I am going to be totally pissed if he have to move him to his toddler bed just days after purchasing a second crib.

 And now, perhaps, you can get a better sense of the Target theme.  Wait til I pull out the old Circo robot quilt for his fire truck bed.

 Dresser. And all Target accessories on top.

I am, of course, a big fan of the baby's girly little room.  I like how spare everything is right now, too, because I know she is going to accumulate plenty of crap to fill it up.  We moved Jack's dollhouse up here to gain valuable floorspace in the toy room, but he doesn't mind and is happy to play with it upstairs. (We also moved his fire station into Cooper's room in anticipation of the toddler bed to be, and he's cool with that, too, because Jack is a kid who is used to someone taking all his shit).

 I LOVE this sweet little IKEA crib.  Ben tried to fool me and say it only has one level, so he wouldn't have to take it apart to lower the mattress, but Facebook shamed him into admitting the truth.  I know we could have gotten a white crib anywhere, but I love our other IKEA crib that is Harry's age and still going strong.  I also love that their furniture conforms to international safety standards, does not have any drop sides, and is not made with horrible chemicals in the wood.  I am planning to put her name on the wall behind the crib if my letters turn out.  If not, we'll at least do a giant first initial like the boys have.

 My natural inclination is to fill this shelf with as much crap as I can as quickly as I can, but I am really going to wait until it nautrally fills with baby odds and ends and more toys.  I am looking for more stuff to go on this wall, but I am waiting to find the right thing instead of just gobbling up Target art by the canvasful.

We filled this frame with pictures of us and our siblings as babies, as well as with Harry and Jack and their cousins.  I love, love love it.

Wait, you are thinking, didn't Circo make more mindldess little kid art work?  Wasn't there a turtle and frog series, too?  Why yes, we respond. CHECK OUT OUR BATHROOM,

And wasn't there an alphabet pattern? And monkeys way back in the day?

So much Target.

Nagging Ben to let me borrow his paint brush today while he was embroiled in touch up painting from moving all of our stuff everywhere, I woke Cooper up accidentally an hour into his only nap of the day, so we had to bribe him with a Fannie May chocolate sucker to make it through the grocery store.  We're awesome.

And not only are we Circo addicts, but also we are obsessed with EXPEDIT shelves, hence a toy room face lift, just for kicks:

Ben freaking hates making IKEA furniture, but he is so good at it!  I think he's relieved, though, because there isn't a single thing we need for any room.  FOR NOW.  And just in time, too, because he returns to the real world this week, and I return to taking care of my kids by myself.  Boooo.  But a certain first grader has school tomorrow, and he is very excited.  And so are we.

Harry and Jack's bigger boy room

For the billionth time, I totally cheaped out on Pottery Barn Kids.  I love their super hero stuff and had an online shopping cart full of Batman and Spiderman bedding and wall decals and didn't buy it.  I even saved a coupon from the latest catalog and planned to go there after IKEA and buy the stuff in person-- because I also wanted to check out lamps for the baby-- but then I saw a wall of $20 duvet covers and I thought of how much snot Harry and Jack get on their bedding, and the rest is history.

Not sure why it looks so dark in some shots, but here's their new room:

It was Ben's idea to replace their Lego table chairs with IKEA stool, and I love it-- way lower profile.

Those pictures are also an IKEA find-- I thought they were so cool

These letters are back on the wall because they are paper, so if they fall off and boink Harry on the head, he won't get hurt-- everything else seemed too heavy.

Found these super awesome vintage posters at a comic book store by the mall.

And Ben said the IKEA lamps were really hard to put together.  I looked at the 5 pages of instructions and quietly put them back in the box...

Harry and Jack made their own beds today without prompting.

I love all the stuffed animals-- reminds me that they are still little.

So does their sweet little train table that they still play with everyday and their toy box (ignore that locked cabinet.  It's the awkwardly placed electrical panel for our entire house).

This is the first room to be totally done.  Cooper's room and the baby's room still need all of the art on the walls, but stay tuned-- Ben's going to knock it out tomorrow morning.

No more shopping for me

We had a lovely little New Year's Eve.

Ben made a lovely spread of appetizers, and we rented the latest Diary of a Wimpy Kid movie

Harry and Jack loved it.

Especially when we whipped out the confetti guns

And the streamers.

I am still vacuuming up confetti.

They both crashed around 9.  Ben and I were in bed before midnight.

Cooper slept great and didin't realize he'd missed a celebration.

Today, we went to IKEA, where the kids were angels, and we got a ridiculous amount of stuff in the van.

And had ice cream while Ben was loading it like a Tetris puzzle.

Cooper's all "Where's my ice cream?" and then he realized it was gone and lost his shit big time.

Harry was the first one done, even though he doesn't really like vanilla.

Pretty sure Cooper's shoes are on backwards, and there's definitely an applesauce massacre on his lap.

We are officially done buying stuff for 3 bedrooms.  I, in fact, am officially done buying anything for awhile-- that's how much stuff I have bought.  The thought of buying anything else makes me want to puke.  I have been intending to buy new boots all break, but I don't even want to shop for them or buy them.  TOO MUCH STUFF.  Crib!  Book shelves!  Dressers!  Nightstands!  Accessories!  Bedding!

But, oh, you guys, the rooms are adorable!  Baby girl stuff! (Well, not really baby except for the crib, but girl stuff!)  Crazy adorable bright colored big boy stuff for the big boys in a new room that is plenty big for their train table, their Lego table, and a toy box.  Cooper's room might be my favorite-- it is so bright and cheerful with a theme that can only be described as "Target." He has inherited all the old decor from H and J's room here and at our condo.  If Circo mass produced it on a canvas, lampshade, pillow, or sheet, it's in Cooper's room, along with a surprising amount of toys.  We also got more toy storage shelves for the toy room, which has freed up a lot of space in the family room, and there's an empty toy box and shelving unit in the baby's room, meaning BRING ON THE AMERICAN GIRL DOLLS and the pink retro PBK kitchen and Barbie's dream house. 

Someday you know, when I can stomach the thought of buying stuff again.