Our nieghbors hate us. Happy V-day!

 I LOVE Valentines Day.  For the past few years, I have been making cookies and decorating kits for the kids' classrooms, mainly because they always want to just buy borning old store bought Valentines.  Boo.

 Also because by February we are totally done being sick of cut out cookies and frosting.

 OMG you guys-- she was nursing her doll!  It was presh.

 In Harry's class, some kids carefully frosted their cookies and artfully arranged a select amount of candy on top, and some kids slapped as much frosting as they could on the cookie and used their dirty palms to press ALL OF THE CANDY onto the cookie.

 Not hard to guess which camp Harry falls into.

 Interestingly, when I gave the third graders their plastic knives, the teacher said, "What's pour rule for knives?" And all the kids chanted "No stabbing."  Erm.

In Jack's class, there was no knife excitement, but almost all the kids passed out candy (Jack brought sensible pretzels).  The teacher asked the class how many pieces of candy would be reasonable fpr them to eat at the party, and Jack said in a sing-song voice "9 pieces."  Clearly he was expecting everyone to join in with him and was really surprised when they didn't.  Ha!  (The teacher was thinking 2 pieces, BTW).

Ultimately, the first graders were more joyful than the third gradrs but also more restrained.

 These blowy things were a HUGE hit.  I see future birthday party favors for sure.

 Jack's girlfriend gave him a heart shaped peppermint patty.  He was enamored.  It was pajama day, BTW, which is why the kids look so grubby.

When you have 4 kids, even minor holidays get kind of major.

 Dorothy has never had a box of chocolates before, and she was a fan.

 Jack really wanted a pink leather journal so he could draw pet fashion designs.

 Dorothy also fell in love with Play Doh

 Like for serious.

 We gave the kids their presents on Friday because today, the plan was to get up early and go to my parents' house for my brother's baby shower, stopping at Bradley where we met and fell in love for a campus walk around, a trip to the bookstore, and the lunch at bar where we used to drink til we vomited.  Then we planned to drive home at like 4 or 5 so harry could play hockey tomorrow morning and we wouldn't have to stay in a hotel just to leave at the crack of 6 am.

We stayed up until midnight putting new media on all the iPads in anticipation of an 8-hour car day, packed the babies each an extra outfit, gathered up all the Valentine candy and a couple of sippy cups and the camera and tripod and books for everyone and you get the idea-- and we hit the road.

An hour into the trip, we encountered a full-on white out from blowing snow and fish tailed all over the road.  Ben couldn't see the brake lights of the car in front of him, which made tapping our brakes at 70 mph really fucking scary.  SO we turned around and went home because it is so cold and windy and we couldn't imagine making the drive ay night.  Which was SO SAD because we really wanted to see my grandma and aunt and sweet baby Henry.  Plus what a sweet Valentines day to visit the place where we fell in love.

Plan B was a boozy lunch at our favorite birthday bar.  Cooper spent 20 miles talking about his hot dog, fries, and milk shake.

 Dorothy was chatty.

 Harry said he was cold, so everyone hugged him.

 Back at home, Jack and I made a cake from scratch.

 Dorothy ate a cookie in her sweet Vd-ay sweater that I bought her specifically to wear to the shower because it matched the baby M&Ms I ordered with Henry's name as a shower favor.

OK, so besides the shower dramz, the weirdest thing ever has happened to us.  Some random nosy neighbor called the POLICE on us to say we have 2 dogs who have been living outside all winter.  WHAT? We only know this because Thursday night at 11:00 pm when we were getting ready for bed, we heard a cop knock on the front door and sure enough A POLICEMAN was standing on our porch.  He was super nice, and he explained the complaint and asked to see Beatrix, who was snuggled in her crate in her own damn room.  He was really apologetic and said the neighbors were nuts.  And then the next day, ANIMAL CONTROL came by saying a relative of the person who called the police called her to say our dog lives outside on the deck in her igloo shaped dog house.  WHAT IN TH HELL? She was also really nice and thought Beatrix was adorable.

 Obvi this is totally nuts and so, so strange.  Will keep you posted for sure. All night Ben has been screaming "She's just going out to pee" when he lets the dog out. Ha!

Not so bah after all

Grading.  SO MUCH GRADING.  I am grading all the time.  That's the thing about teaching online this semester as opposed to teaching in the classroom-- my time is no longer broken neatly into work and not work.  Instead, I can always be working.

BUT, I am fighting my way to the surface to tell you that I forgot last night in my wine-induced fog (and the headache!  such a bad headache!) that we did something really simple and fun this past weekend-- we went outside to build a snowman in the dark, mainly because we ran out of time to do it in the daylight but the snow was PERFECT for snowmen and snowballs, so we couldn't resist.

Super fun and the although birds have eaten his face off (Oreo eyes, carrot nose, dog food mouth), he still stands, and he scares Beatrix so badly she has to be carried across the street on her morning walk, and she cannot pee if Ben takes her out front right before bed.  Silly Beatrix.

Also fun this past weekend:  We went to The Wonder of Physics, a show put on by physics professors and graduate students at my university.  It's really cool, and the kids love to see all of the experiments close up.  Harry brought a friend, and he and Jack and the friend sat down front where they really hoped to get called on to assist, but sadly never did.  Ben and I sat in back and took turns walking a chatty, loud Dorothy in the the hallway while Cooper whined to go home.  Magical and special for sure.

Today, I volunteered in Jack's classroom.  It's a big day around here-- the 100th day of school.  Harry and Jack made little treat bags for their friends using Vienna fingers and 2 Keebler fudge stripes to make a 100.  Jack wrote everybody a Happy 100 Days note, but Harry printed his on the computer.

Anywho, today was the big 100th day so after doing my usual volunteer thing, I got to watch Jack's teacher mix up the special snack.  Each kid brought 100 pieces of food to contribute, and they were SO excited to eat it because, as one little girl said, "Jack's mom!  WE'RE EATING JUNK FOOD!"

Aren't they cute in the hallway during bathroom break?

I got to help the kids individually while they worked on 100 Day books.  They had to read the prompt and fill in the blank and then illustrate their pages.

When prompted "If I had 100 dollars, I would," Jack responded "buy a giant balloon."  They he rolled his eyes and said, "That one was so obvious."  I am still laughing.

When Ben and I left Harry and Jack to their own devices to get ready for the science show, they chose some crazy outfits, much to our delight.  So we decided to stop picking out their clothes for them ever because now we will be entertained everyday.  They repeated their science show outfits for school today:

Dorothy's face in the second picture pretty much says it all.

And as great as those clothes (and stiff hairstyles) are, they don't beat Dorothy's warrior princess get up from a few days ago.  I mean, what could?

bah.

I have the WORST headache, and it is annoying the hell out of me because I waited ALL DAY to drink this wine, and I deserve it because today was a bummer and a half.  I went to an academic staff assembly meeting and listened to the chancellor discuss the governor's horrific budget cuts.  Layoffs, she promised.  Layoffs of staff to be exact.  Erm.  Not the warmest, fuzziest news to a room of academic staffers, KWIM?

Pro:  I bought a giant new iPhone today, and I really, really like it.  It's super huge.  The kids kept calling it an iPad.

We have done a ton of nothing since Thursday.  Work.  Always work.  Some house cleaning.  Sports practice and a basketball game.

 No more crib escapes, THANK GOODNESS.

She's been working on going DOWN the stairs, and we have high hopes that someday the baby gate will be gone.

I am watching Dumb and Dumber To and feeling so stupid when I laugh.  BUT IT'S SO FUNNY.  But that makes me so stupid.  It's a conflict.

Baby No-Sleep Returns for What I Hope Is a Limited Engagement

I was going to write about this yesterday, but I WAS TOO TIRED.

On Tuesday night, after running a 102 fever for a couple of days and being generally whiny, Dorothy woke up at 1:00 am.  FOR THE DAY.

We heard her crying-- were jolted out of the sound sleep we have become accustomed to in fact by hysterical screaming-- and Ben ran down the hall to her room.  When he opened her door, she burst out and thundered into our room.  Ben just stood there gape-mouthed in her doorway, so confused as to how she was already out of the room when he hadn't even lifted her out of her crib.  It took us both a few minutes to realize SHE CLIMBED THE HELL OUT OF HER BED.

We are dumb in the middle of the night.  SO dumb.  We just laid in our room for 4 hours trying to get her to go back to sleep.  We were kind of afraid to put her back in her room because of the climbing thing, and we were too out of it to think about giving her Tylenol (which-- coincidence, I think not-- we had given her exactly 6 hours before she awoke), so we just pleaded and cajoled until around 5-ish when she fell asleep until Ben's alarm went off at 6:30.

Yesterday, I started thinking about it and decided she MUST have an ear infection because not sleeping is not like her anymore.  Of course, I cut nap short, packed her and Cooper up, an drove them across town the the pediatrician to find NO ear infection.  Also, our doctor was out of town, so we saw a nurse practitioner who has a baby Dorothy's same age and has been seeing us occasionally for sick visits for almost 2 years.  She reminded me that Dorothy has about 8 more teeth she should be getting before she turns 2, and it all made sense, especially her nonstop nursing on Tuesday night.

Last night before bed, I gave her some Ibuprofen and told her if she climbed out of the crib or kept me up all night again, she would never get na-na (her word for nursing) again.  MOTY.  But she slept from 7-6:20, so I think she took me seriously.

In other news, I am shopping for toddler beds, but I think I might just go straight to a twin.  So far, I have found an awesome pink princess castle number, and I am totally in love with the turquoise Jenny Lind bed from Land of Nod.  BUT, her room is kind of small, and I think it would be cool to do a PBK loft bed when she is bigger, so maybe a toddler bed is what we want.  I don;t know-- that's not the kind of decision I feel capable of making right now because thinking of her in a bed makes me never want to sleep with both eyes shut again-- she is TOO LITTLE to be out of a crib!  Think of the havoc she could wreak while we sleep!

The whole thing made me wonder how the hell we used to function on no sleep when she was a tiny baby who slept terribly for over a year.  I mean, this one measly night of no sleep almost killed us, and we had the reserves of many months of unbroken 8-10 hours a night.  Yikes.

We had our sports practice gauntlet last night that totally destroys the dinner hour and forces us to divide and conquer.  I made a delicious chili for Ben and me, but Ben fed Harry cereal and Sour Patch Kids before hockey (I feel like Harry picked this menu), and I took the babies and Jack through the Culver's drive thru before basketball.  Then I spent all of basketball practice trying not eat their fries and part of Dorothy's grilled cheese.  I was marginally successful.

SNOW!

About a month ago, Cooper's preschool sent home forms about enrollment for next year.  We filled them out with amazement, realizing Dorothy will be 2.5 and can go to 2 year-old class.  OH MY GOD.

We immediately started reading D.W.'s Guide to Preschool with her and talking about how she got to go to Cooper's school next year, and she was pretty stoked.  We started having to read that book twice a day at nap and bedtime, and she never wants to leave when we drop Coop off.

Today, we got word that both Cooper and Dorothy have been accepted for 3 mornings a week, and we paid our tuition deposit and OMG!  For 9 hours a week next year from September-June, all 4 of my kids will be at school.  THIS IS AMAZING and also weird.  But mostly amazing.  And then?  The fall after THAT?  75% of my kids will be at the school in our neighborhood.  Trippy.

 ^^ On Saturday afternoons, the big boys and I go to the library.  H and J have a wonderful education student who does enrichment work with them, and I veg with whoever's turn it isn't.  As you might imagine, Jack is a calmer library date.

 ^^ It was horribly cold and blowy on Sunday, but the children really, really, really wanted to go outside. Ben and I did too because it was the first real snow we have gotten all season, and we had visions of snowmen and sledding.  OF COURSE it took us longer to get bundled up than we actually stayed outside.

 ^^ Cooper was hard at work

 ^^ So was Jack

 ^^ Dorothy just kept saying INSIDE.  I couldn't blame her.  The snow wouldn't pack, and the wind was BRUTAL.

 ^^ Throwing a snowball

 ^^ A little attitude

 ^^Not smiling.  Grimacing because the wind and blowing snow STUNG

 ^^ Snowy little puppy

 ^^ Cooper;s teacher is pregnant, so he came home from preschool and shoved a stuffed dog up his short ad told us he had a baby in his body.  We (I) made the mistake of telling him that when his teacher has her baby, he'll get a new teacher.  Every day before school (so, um, 2 days a week, but everyday sounds way more dramatic), he asks if his teacher's baby is done-- only he says done like dumb, so I hope he doesn't ask her that, too.

 ^^ More snow today but no wind, so we went sledding after school

 ^^Everyone loved it

 ^^ Dorothy would only go down on her kink (pink) sled with Jack

 ^^ Cooper stopped bitching about his socks and his mittens and his tight sleeves and bunchy sweater and had fun!

^^ They were a little stuck

 ^^ Oh, Jack.  Not pictured:  Me sliding down the slide with Dorothy on my lap.  Not pictured because the slide was so fast we flew in the air and crashed into Harry, who was supposed to be taking the picture.  Oops.

^^ Rubbing her little eyes because she took NO NAP. She also cried for 30 minutes before falling asleep tonight.  Ear infection?  She's had a fever and a cold the last couple days.  Or maybe she is trying to drive us to drink.  Either way, cheers.

January: What I read

WOW did I read a ton of books in January.  I think after 2 years of beefing up my reading, I am really hitting my stride and am able to waste less time on the internet and more time reading.  I also have been reading more during days at home when I might have been more likely to clean the bathrooms again.  Time better spent, for sure.

22.  13 Things Mentally Strong People Don't Do by Amy Morin:  I read this for a TLC blog tour.  My review is here.
21.  Where Have I Been All My Life? by Cheryl Rice:  Another Blog Tour book reviewed here.
20.  Close to Home by Lisa Jackson:  SO TRASHY.  But fun to read while I was sick.  A really bad use of a $2 because I rented it from the library, and it really was terrible.  I picked up another one of her books in the 14-day section, and that should have been a warning sign-- she is cranking them out so fast you can rent one AND get one in the new release area?!   I didn't even open the other one-- just took it straight back to the library, which I NEVER do.
19.  The Best of Us by Sarah Pekkanen: Trashy but so entertaining.  Even though it was not a thriller, it reminded me of that awesome Christopher Pike book about the friends who go away to the beach for the weekend.  I read it in an evening sitting in front of the TV watching crap shows, a time I would normally spend trolling the internet.
18.  In the Memorial Room by Janet Frame:  Hilarious and dense.  It was a slim book and kept me happy at a hockey practice.
17.  The Twits by Roald Dahl:  Read this to Cooper and Jack over 3 days.  They LOVED it.  Harry read it to himself while the three of us read Fantastic Mr. Fox.
16. Fantastic Mr. Fox by Roald Dahl: So weird and cute-- how did I not read this as a kid?  Jack and Cooper adored it, too.
15.  I Lost Everything in the Post Natal Depression by Erma Bombeck:  This was the last book in my Erma bender.  It was terrific, of course.
14.  After I Do by Taylor Jenkins Reid:  I LOVED the premise of this book-- long-time lovers who just aren't happy any more.  It was so sad and realistic sounding.  A really sweet and touching romance with an excellent narrator.
13.  The Winter People by Jennifer McMahon:  SO CREEPY.  I stayed up late finishing this book and then could not go to sleep.
12. Alena by Rachel Pastan:  An updated Rebecca.  But really it's Rebecca-light.  How could it NOT be?
11.  Yes, Please by Amy Poehler:  A little funnier than Mindy Kaling's book, but not quite as good as Bossy Pants.  Way better than Lena Dunham, though.
10.  The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion:  Delightful premise and a wonderful narrator.  Worth reading for his voice alone.  And there's a sequel that's 6 months newer!  Can't wait!
9.  Her by Harriet Lane:  GRIPPING.  Read it in a day and will be haunted by the ending for pretty much ever.
8.  This is Where I Leave You by Jonathan Tropper: Ha!  Loved it!  Probably would have loved it more if I read it BEFORE the movie, which is always the ideal way to do it.
7.  Me Before You by Jojo Moyes:  OH MY GOD IT'S GOING TO BE A MOVIE, and I CANNOT WAIT.
6.  Elizabeth is Missing by Emma Healy:  This is really, really good.  A woman with dementia is losing touch with her current world and solving her sister's 70-year-old murder.
5.  Flesh and Blood by Patricia Cornwell:  Best Scarpetta in YEARS.  I loved this book and tore through it.
4.  Dear Committee Members by Julie Schumacher:  Oh so funny.  If you are an academic, you need to read this book!!
3. Revival by Stephen King:  This might be my favorite Stephen King book ever, and that's really saying something.  His main character was so great, I didn't even need the terrifying stuff.  I actually cried at a really mundane chapter just because I was so happy for the guy for getting his shit together.  I loved this book.
2.  The Girl You Left Behind by Jojo Moyes:  This book was cheesy and predictable, and WONDERFUL.  I cried and cried and cried but felt GREAT at the end.  You should read it.
1.  The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin:  This book was a charming delight.  I loved the scope and the pacing-- pretty far zoomed out and clipping-- but still full of wonderful characters and details.

The top 10 books on my list this month are all terrific, and with the exception of Topper from 2010 and a Moyes book from 2013, they are all late 2014/early 2015 books.  You should probably put them on your list.