Today

 I think I was a little too excited about the kids going back to school.  Because they did go back today but then there were still2 kids at home.  With me.  All day long.  Ben had to work normal business hours today, which, WTF, man?

Harry, Cooper, and Dorothy were up and at em by 6:00.  They enjoyed breakfast together.

 Harry and Cooper and I filled out today's entry in this awesome book I got in a family gift exchange-- it is so much fun!

 I had to go wake Jack up around 7:15.  He read me a BOB book while he ate his oatmeal and strange, dense pumpkin bread (which is Dorothy's number one favorite food in the world, by they way).

 The big boys went to school, and I had 26 minutes to shower and get dressed for Kindermusik.  Dorothy and Cooper enjoyed a blowout.  (And I realized it takes literally 6 minutes to blow dry my hair-- I have NO EXCUSE for going anywhere damp again).

 

The babies trashed the bathroom while I primped, and we left it pretty much looking exactly like that and got to class only 7 minutes late.  I call that a win.

 We only had 45 minutes between Kindermusik and Dorothy's Little Gym class, and she slept the whole time in her car seat which she NEVER does, but music class was during her morning nap, which screwed everything up.

 I planned to lie down and nap with Dorothy from 1-3 (her usual afternoon nap is 12-2, but we didn't get home from Little Gym until 1), but she was NOT HAVING IT.  So I worked on my online class and put away laundry while she happily played on my bedroom floor.  At 2:20, she got fussy.  We all slept from 2:25-3:05, and then we had to haul ass across the street.  Cooper cried the whole time because it sucked to go from warm crib to freezing cold street in 6 minutes.  He rebounded when I made them hot chocolate and put a whole box of cookies on the table.

 THEY ATE ALL OF THE COOKIES.

 I am not going to lie; there were some screens. 

Dorothy walked all over the place with her dolly stroller

 We took a selfie.  #lazyeye

 I fed the kids chicken nuggets, fries, peas, and clementines  (pro: organic, all  con:  frozen, most).  Ben mercifully came home from work but left 20 minutes later to take Jack to hockey.  Dorothy helped clean up dinner.

 Harry supervised this nonsense so I could work out.

 The he got completely lost in his book which has never happened before. Harry is a good reader, but he doesn't really LOVE to read.  It makes me so happy to see him engrossed in something.

Tomorrow, I have a dentist appointment for me and Jack.  I need to take my library books back.  Ben works until after bedtime.  I have to take everyone to go pick up the scripts for the play Harry and Jack are doing.  You guys!  These 2 days are way harder than break, even with all the extra days of break. Damnit.

Bubble is bound to burst soon, right?

Lunches are packed; school clothes are laid out.  We are leaving our little home bubble tomorrow I hope/pray/think.

I thought I was being totally awesome yesterday because I made a crockpot chicken and sweet potato stew and 2 loaves of pumpkin bread at 8:30 am before I ran out for a quick 60-minute massage.  I checked on the bread before I left and noted that it had a really strange texture and seemed pretty short, but I didn't consciously give it much thought.  Then, 43 minutes into my massage, I tensed up and realized I FORGOT TO ADD ANY BAKING SODA because I was dismantling my spice cabinet looking for cloves and deciding to just use pumpkin pie spice instead.  Such a pisser,  Completely odd and dense bread.

But Dorothy LOVES it.

We had a 28-person play date yesterday and it was SO FUN. 20 kids ages 7 and under, 8 moms, and a whole lot of wine.  I made a gross of cookies (literally), and there were only 1.5 dozen left at the end of the afternoon. I keep finding hunks of cookies and juice boxes in weird places-- a success all around.  All of my children were asleep by 7:45 last night, and Jack slept until 7:30 this morning.

Cross your fingers that we have school tomorrow.  I think we will-- we haven't had any snow-- things have been canceled for severe cold, and it is supposed to be a comfortable 12 degrees tomorrow, so we should be all good.  Which is good because Ben has to work normal business hours (happens twice a year and sucks ass), and the babies and I have both Kindermusik AND Little Gym.  Showers and real clothes all around.  Not sure if I am ready to leave the bubble, but I'll put up a brave front.

Calm before the storm

The grocery store today!  You guys!  IT WAS HORRIBLE.

First we went to Whole Foods, which is pretty cozy here, and we couldn't even park anywhere-- like seriously, we had to park on the curb behind the giant truck hauling away the last of the Christmas trees because there was a huge line of people waiting for spots.  We went inside anyway because we needed stuff, but we shouldn't have.  THEY WERE OUT OF BROWN SUGAR.  (Not totally true-- there was some for $11.98 a bag, but WTAF is THAT all about?).  THEY WERE OUT OF THE BROWN SUGAR I WILL BUY (which is annoyingly $6.99, but that is my limit).  I stood in the damn baking aisle trying to reach the tumeric for MINUTES while this oblivious asshole read all the ingredients on a bag of gluten-free flour and would not move (SPOILER ALERT DICKNOSE:  NO GLUTEN).  Jack kept jumping and falling down in the middle of the aisles, and Cooper flapped and screamed like a crazy person.  Dreamy.  Then we had to go to a normal store to buy Corona Light (a necessity) and Goldfish crackers for a Goldfish cracker buffet which is sure to be adorable and Pin-worthy (ha!), and I took the kids to the car while Ben stood in line for 30 minutes.  People are FREAKING OUT in advance of the storm.

Long story short, I am going to brave the subzero weather and go to Target tomorrow to fill in a few gaps.  Because I am hosting a ginormous playdate with wine (20 kids!) on Monday to stave off the break-extension-crazies.  No school Monday and maybe not Tuesday either because it is too darn cold.  Bah.

Harry is kind of a puzzle savant.  He did the whole frame with minimal help.  Harry, by the way, is so damn cute.  He told me tonight that his favorite time of the day is when we crawl under a blanket and read our books.  ME TOO.  He is reading a sci-fi trilogy that he borrowed from his teacher, and it;s the first fiction he has really connected with-- he is a staunch non-fiction/biography fan.

 You know who isn't very helpful when you're trying to do a puzzle?  COOPER.  But he is actually freakishly good at puzzles, especially considering we have never done them with him-- we just threw a couple in his toy box and left him to his own devices.  Story of his life.  (He built a Lego car today.  WHAT.)

 Tall enough to pull leaves off the plant, dumb enough to eat them.

 Harry and Jack tried out for a play today.  I'll keep you posted.

2014, so far

I am in the basement with Dorothy and Cooper right now.  Dorothy is standing next to a bin of toys waving a hockey stick around with her free hand when Cooper grabs her Leap Frog sound and music table and pushes it up against the IKEA toy shelves.  The way she looks at him as he clambers on top of it to better reach his giant digger is trouble-- she is watching and learning, and how long will it be before she is gleefully atop the table wreaking havoc?  Not very in my experience.  Already she has scooted across the room and pulled up on the table, standing on her little tippy toes staring up at Cooper and trying to figure out how to raise her leg high enough to join him.

We braved the horrible weather to walk around the zoo and almost had the place to ourselves.

 Cooper loved it

 Dorothy's cold face

 My cold face

 Jack needed a picture in every cut out

 She was super cold

 We did this whole puzzle before realizing we lacked 2 pieces

 So big.

 She loves to poke this doll in the eye

 Secret agent baby

 Bunch a monkeys

 If we get the new norovirus, it's because we went to Chuck E. Cheese.

 Naked baby

 Sweaters!

 We could also get the plague from this indoor playground

 I love her shelves with toys she actually uses.

 She had a sink bath today before nap, and LOVED it-- and washed a plate.

2014: SLOWER

I decided to pick a word for the year on the advice of Gretchen Rubin whose Happier at Home I read and loved a year ago.  I tossed around a few: enjoy, engage, relish, present, mindful, etc (etc would be a GREAT word of the year), but I settled on slower because it summed up a lot of the others.  And because I have 4 little kids.  It's hard to do ANYTHING quickly.

For me, moving slower means making time for more as well as enjoying the moments as they come.  Last year, I wasn;t big on specific resolutions, but I set a larger reading goal.  This year, there are some really basic things that I want to remember to do, and I need to take the time to follow them through.

To operationalize my word of the year, here are my 2014 resolutions:  (And it is dorky, but I really do take these seriously.  I am not the kind of person who says I am going to do something and then bails-- I am all about the follow-through)

1.  Lose those last 17 pounds.  I lost 10 and then have been maintaining that loss for a couple of months because dieting sucks and depriving myself of food is a bummer, especially when I am nursing and starving.  But I really do like the bonus calories nursing provides, and it will ultimately be less painful to lose all the weight while I am still breastfeeding.  So, I am cutting my calories by 50 this week in the spirit of renewal, and I am going to make it a point to be able to eat what I want and enjoy it. No more standing at the counter scarfing food and then not recording it.  Instead, I am going to have a reasonable serving of whatever I want on a plate, in a seat, like a person.

2.  Wash my face and moisture EVERY SINGLE NIGHT before I go to sleep.  I have been skipping this more often than I should, and it's showing on my poor old skin.

3.  Floss twice a day everyday.  Seriously.   I act like I don't have time to do this everyday which is of course crazy.

4.  Drink at least 74 ounces of water a day.

5.  Read a book a week.

6.  Read to or with every child at least once a day.  Ben does more reading than I do, and I am a little ashamed of that because I love to read, and I know how important it is to read to kids.

7.  Write fiction without caring about what will become of it.  Write to get back to writing and back to my rhythm and because I love it so much and miss it as a part of my everyday.

The great thing about the word I picked is that there are many other things that fall under it: blogging more, wasting less time on the internet, doing more stuff with the kids, following through on my hair growth project-- FASCINATING THINGS, and I don;t have to spell them all out in a contract.  Instead, I can relax and see where the year takes us.

So there you have it.  2014.  My SLOWER year.

2013: A Year in Review

Of course 2013 is one of my favorite years because it contained one of the 4 best days of my life.  Is there any day that could ever be better than the day you get to meet a beautiful, healthy new baby?

I don't see how it's possible, especially since meeting the new person means you are no longer pregnant which is the cherry on top of a terrific sundae because you guys?  Those last few weeks of pregnancy?  THEY ARE AWFUL, and I say this as someone who has been blessed with normal, healthy, active pregnancies.

Sweet little Dorothy Tallulah is my favorite thing about this year OF COURSE and her wonderful birth-- I will remember how calm it was and how she felt in my arms in those long minutes before her cord was cut forever.

Harry, though, was horribly sick mid-year, and his PICU stay will always color the way I remember 2013.

As you can see from the pictures, we didn't do anything special all year-- no travel first because of  the baby and second because of the illness.  Lots of pool time and lounging around our house gtting used to ourselves as a family of 6.

January:
Here we are ringing in 2013 with a bang in our cozy basement. Can you believe how much the boys have grown?

Here I am incredibly pregnant with Dorothy

February:
I have no photographic evidence of us doing anything exciting in February, most likely because we are boring.  But also because our HMO prohibits travel 30 days before a due date.

Chubby Cooper

 Dapper Harry

 A pile of kids

March:

I continued to get bigger

 We celebrated Ben's 34th birthday, ad I went into labor that night

 32 hours later, we had our dream come true at 2:18 am on 3-15.  There she is, all brand new 6 pounds, 10 ounces of her:

 We also hosted our families for Easter/Passover

And spent time together at home because what the hell else do you do with a newborn?

April:
Jack turned 5

 We juggled 2 babues

 Cooper sucked his toes.

 We took the monkeys to see the monkeys

 Jack turned 5 again

 Harry spent a terrifying week in the PICU with a pericardial effusion.

 May:
I turned 35, and we had a fantastic Mother's Day

We took a hike,

 played water guns,

 and welcomed the pool season with a chilly start.

 June:
We celebrated the last day of 4K and first grade

Dorothy continued to get more adorable everyday

Harry turned 7 a few times (no pictures of his bowling alley party, but it was epic).

 July:
Raspberry picking

 Gardening

 Staying classy

 Staying squishy and adorable

 Relaxing in a sunbeam, you know.

 August:

Family reunion

Harry's drama class ended with a performance

 We went to Legoland

 We had an impromptu cousin meet up

 We enjoyed ice cream at the terrace

 We had the pool to ourselves

 Dorothy learned to sit up like a big girl in a shopping cart

 Jack practiced sun saftey

September:

Family dinners

 First day of kindergarten and second grade

 Cooper turned 2!

 We broke out the pumpkin hats

 Harry got to be star of the week

 Ben enjoyed season Badger tickets

 Jon made his second of 3 visits

 October:

Hanging out

 Braving a corn maze with Cooper as our leader

 Picking pumpkins

 Halloween!

 First time on a swing

 Twin Day at school

 And of course sticking the baby in a pumpkin

 November:

Thanksgiving

 Hanukkah

Thanksgiving

 Hanukkah

 December:

Is there a better picture to sum up the month?  I couldn't find one.

We're ringing in the new year at home with the babies tucked in bed and the big boys determined to stay awake until midnight.  All diets are off, and we are eating an drinking the fattiest stuff we can find.  It's a perfect night in the context of a low-key year.

We can't wait for 2014.