Life right now

Cooper has discovered his love of hide and go seek. He is a pretty good hider, sometimes, and a really bad seeker. If he has not found a hiding spot before I am done counting, he simply freezes wherever he is and tries to be unobtrusive.

He is also totally into writing in my pregnancy journal, which SCORE because I do not have a snowball's chance in hell of filling it up before the baby is born.  I have already addressed this sorry state of affairs in the journal, assuring my unborn daughter that I will finish the journal after she is born and write to her about her first few weeks on this planet.  Right?  Because I will have WAY MORE TIME after baby #4 arrives, obvs.  Also, Harry's class has to share family traditions during their unit on the olden days (further cementing in his little head, I am afraid, that Ben I grew up in the olden days).  He was going to do his two holidays (Christmas and Hanukkah), but I pulled out the other 3 baby journals (my "Dear Baby" books I call them), and Harry flipped through trying to read my messy handwriting and delighting in the tiny footprints at the very end of each book (I always have the nurse do the newborn prints in that book as opposed to their actual baby books, but I am bringing #4's baby book, too, and hopefully her feet will be inky enough for 2 sets of prints).  So now, he is going to bring my Dear Baby books instead.  HOW SWEET IS THAT??  Also also, I reread the end of Cooper's with his twee footprints and the birth story I wrote hours after his birth, and according to me, I was 6.5 cm dilated at 11:30 and and ready to push at 12:15.  And Cooper was born at 12:40.  Holy shit-- no wonder that hurt.

Harry took this picture of fireman Cooper during our interminable teacher development day off school on Friday.

Ben made a delicious cake with whipped cream and pudding frosting.  He liked it, too.

Harry wore this Halloween costume when he was 2.

Here we all are this morning.  You know what this picture clearly needs?  One more baby.  Um.

Cooper totally has a future as Harry's roadie. Harry, by the way, also has a real guitar and is taking lessons.  Beautiful music.

Jack was rocking out to the theme from Dinosaur Train

Yup.  More kids.

Anticipating the arrival of a new family member makes me really want to hang on to our routines.  I remember feeling this way before we had Cooper.  The mundane gets poetic, and I am simultaneously anxious and nostalgic.

On days that Ben works, Cooper and I seldom get dressed before 2.  We send the big boys off to school with a post-breakfast snack and 30 minutes of physical activity before drop off.  Then we come back home, and he has a snack (he loves goldfish crackers-- calls them sish-- and hates Annie's Bunnies) while I have a huge cup of water and eat the ice cubes. We go downstairs, and he roams and plays with all of the toys while I do a little work or read a book and absentmindedly play with him.  We vacuum up his snack and clean up the downstairs and put away the laundry right before it's time to get Jack, who comes home just in time for lunch.  We have lunch, and then Jack gets to watch TV, and Cooper is thrilled to go down for his nap (seriously-- he wriggles like a puppy when he hears it's time for night night-- that kid loves a 3 hour midday siesta), and I work out while watching Baby Story and clean up lunch and get dressed and join Jack on the couch.  I will miss these days, even though I know we'll find a new rhythm.