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.