Wow! This latte has a lot of sugar!

At first I was really annoyed to discover that this coffee shop is only open until 4:30, but then I realized a couple of things.  First of all, I told the babysitter I would be home by 5, and I still have to swing by the sandwich shop and pick up dinner (MOTY), so really, I could only stay until 4:45 anyway.  Second, I only have 45 minutes, and like, seriously, that is not enough time to work on my talk for next week OR to write much more on my NaNo book.  So, I might as well update this blog and make some iTunes playlists and shop for baby girl headbands instead (the playlist sitch is dire because I accidentally killed all my playlists when I got my new computer, and I can only shuffle all for so long, you know?).  While drinking the (decaf) ginger bread latte that the super cute barista just brought TO MY TABLE.  (And this latte is excellent-- puts Starbucks to SHAME.)

Family pictures WERE A NIGHTMARE.  We all looked adorbs (although my face is like a fucking moon, so we'll see how that turned out, and the photog made me and Ben kiss in a shot, and my long wear lipstick had not quite set yet because I put it on as soon as we drove into the (seriously picturesque and rustic stone-wall-sporting farm), and he pretty much had blood red lipstick on for the rest of the shoot). Basically, though, Harry and Jack behaved like animals who could not hold still or follow simple directions like "look up" or "Stop picking your nose," and Cooper started crying 40 minutes in and, as it turns out, did not stop.  If I had known he was DONE, we would have called it, but we valiantly kept going, thinking he would cheer back up.  Ha!  Merry Chrismukkah indeed.

I am so excited to have a new baby in the spring, by the way.  Early spring/late winter is SUCH a drag around here because it is cold and snowy and slushy and it sucks to bundle everybody up for 5 months in a row and not being able to send the kids out to play is getting really old, and we are always just starting to come out of our winter cocoons and realize how damn fat we got.  And this year, we will have something to celebrate and a reason to turn up the heat, break out the comfort food, and snuggle on the couch all day.  A squishy new baby!  What could be better?

Plus, kids are so weird.  I am excited to have another one, especially because the 3 we have are so different from each other.  When it was just Jack and Harry, we could think about them as Harry and not Harry in terms of skills and personality.  But the addition of Cooper made us realize that it's much more complex (duh).

Cooper, by the way, is a ridiculous little person.  He climbed all the way to the top bunk the other day.  Thank god we found him before he tried to get down.  He is such a happy little guy-- he says yeah and occasionally YES!, but never no.  He does, though, have really strong opinions, and he freaks the freak out when his needs and wishes are not immediately met.  But he hugs and give really toothy kisses.  He's just a delight.

And Jack is hilarious these days-- I could watch him play all day.  He uses every toy in the house, and they all have a very specific purpose.  I don't know what this taggie blanket is doing in the Bat cave, but I guarantee you Jack does.  he also makes all of his guy talk in a different voice, which is as adorable as it sounds.

 Like How Harry's foot is lovingly in Jack's throat?  He's a trip, too.  He's really into reading chapter books, and he has caught onto the fact that the different reading groups in his class are linked to ability, so he is really excited to be in the Henry and Mudge group, although he can't decide if it is the same as the Frog and Toad group because the books have the same level-number on the back.  CRACKS me UP.

 Not only is he eating non organic yogurt (!!!!!!), but he is drinking honey crisp apple cider (!!!!JUICE!!!!) and he had an Oreo.  Not a Joe-Joe, not a 365 Organic sandwich cookie (those suck, by the way), but an honest to goodness Oreo.  I have been requiring (shut up) a stack of DoubleStuffs with lunch everyday (shut up), and I have to give Cooper one so he stops screaming (shut up).  And because it is so adorable to watch him take it apart, lick off all the frosting, and discard the shells.  Also, I got all the raspberries and yogurt out of that shirt because I rule laundry.

 He had to be disrobed after the above lunch (he does not like bibs), and this is how I found him after I spent a few minutes scrubbing his shirt with Watkins dish soap.  He pulled that box down from the little plastic organizer in his closet and pushed it over to the crib before clambering on top.  He kept lifting his fat foot up and trying to put it over the top of the crib, but I didn't get a picture of that.

I also wish I had a picture of his random, random diapers.  They're Pampers Cruisers like usual, but instead of featuring Sesame Street characters, these diapers say USA. Olympic leftovers, maybe?

Anybody writing a novel this month?  I am having a hard time getting on track word-count-wise, and I know I'll be skipping days for Thanksgiving, etc, so I want to get ahead.  Also?  I have good characters, some really excellent dialogue, and, um, no plot.  So.  Slogging through.