TL; DR: So busy

Fall in the air!

 We were so excited by the slight chill on Saturday that we went to the apple orchard to pick Dolly’s first food. And everyone wore their pumpkin hats, natch, but I noticed that the truly dedicated first time parents, who all did a way better job of documenting every adorable second than we did, had their snowflakes in APPLE hats.

Damnit. I think we are rushing the season.

H and J have been obsessed with this truck for going on three years now.

Coop in the tree

Ben ignoring the posted no climbing signs to get those perfect galas at the top of the tree

H and J staring in amazement as their dad climbed

Pumpkin heads

The men went up a huge hill to snag some Macintosh apples for the pie I have yet to make.  The babies and I stayed below so Cooper could finish eating.  He eats apples from the top down stem and all.  If you saw his giant monster teeth, you'd be surprised that he doesn't eat the branch.

Selfie.

Contemplative

Family pic-- my jeans were not really that mom-short, I swear (although they are "ankle" length from Gap which is generally fairly unfortunate, a fact I never remember until I have bought the damn things).

Ben and the boys made a scarecrow.

We tried to get a good picture of all 4 kids.  And failed.

She's such a jolly little baby.

We came home from the orchard and used my Beaba Babycook to turn our bounty into delicious applesauce for our tiniest snowflake-- straight from the tree to her little tummy.

She didn't open her mouth once, but she did stick her tongue out to lick food off of her face.

We also made a fantastic apple crisp because I chickened out on the pie at the last second because I am terrible at making pie crust-- something I want to rectify but don't really have time to deal with.  And Hary had a soccer game, where he scored 2 goals and never once asked to sit out.  Who is this kid?

So many boys

Their eyes are the exact same color.

As usual Blogger uploaded my pictures in a completely screwy order.  This is Dorothy's first encounter with food:

No sir, she doesn't like it.

On September 15, she turned 6 months old!

Looking surprised and meaty

Slightly different face and a FILTER.  Do you think I am going to regret all these Instagram pics in a few years?  Why take a perfectly lovely peaches and cream baby and tint and blur her?  I have no good answer, but I can;t stop doing it.

Harry is the Star of the Week this week, and he needed to bring a special snack.  Normally I would bake (probably something apple-y), but he has a gluten allergy AND a nut allergy in his class, so we made these juice box/applesauce/raisin/dumdum robots instead.  Harry loved drawing on the faces.

Wearing all of Cooper's old stuff

More Coop-me-downs

SUCH A GOOD HELPER

This baby is mobile!  She started on her back in the middle of the gym and scooted over there!

And she's proud of herself

Spent a rare 30 minutes with just Jack at the park enjoying the harvest moon

Tonight she tried carrots! And loved them.

Don't let this face fool you-- she really did love them.

Making waffle batter for tomorrow morning.  I even bookmarked the instructions for my waffle iron on my phone, so I can start cooking them before my coffee is ready.

Playing a sight word game before bed.

You guys! I had the most exhausting day today!

Dorothy woke up at 12, 1, 3, 4, and 5 .  At 5, I tried to feed her for 10 minutes, but she was not hungry (because she had just eaten at 12, 1, 3, and 4, duh).  Then I gave her a kiss, plunked her back in her crib, stumbled blearily back to my room, turned off the monitor, and crawled under my covers.

When Ben woke me up on his way out the door at 6:30, she was still asleep.

I was starting breakfast for the boys (and by starting breakfast, I mean tossing the pumpkin chocolate chip muffins that we made from whole pumpkin-- seriously, don't buy pumpkin puree-- make your own-- it tastes SO MUCH BETTER -- on their plates with a yogurt and a glass of milk) when Ben came back in to say our friends had just called him.  They were on the way to the hospital to have baby #3 and were dropping their 2 older kids (in Harry and Jack's grades) at our house.

The morning was a bit chaotic-- in a good way, and I managed to wipe down all 3 bathrooms, do 3 loads of laundry, and vacuum 3 of the bedrooms while a 5-kid tornado whipped through the basement and Dolly bounced in her exersaucer.  I did not manage to shower or put on any make up, and my hair was in a ridiculous top knot.  This was unfortunate because I had to volunteer at school from 9-11.  Luckily our sainted babysitter cleaned up the kid mess while my traitorous baby took a 2 and a half hour morning nap.

After the sitter left, I fed Cooper, nursed Dolly, cleaned up lunch, put the three loads of laundry away, and put Cooper down for his noon nape (yes-- all that other shit happened before noon).  Then I burned 300 quick calories on the elliptical while the baby happily played with toys and took a shower while she pretty much scooted around my bedroom screaming at me.  By 1:00 she was napping, and by 2:00, she was up again, which was good because I was able to nurse her before I went to work.

I spent a quick afternoon on campus, came home to feed the baby again and help Ben get dinner on the table.  I cleaned up the kitchen and supervised waffle making.  Then Ben headed to campus to meet with his speech team, and I put all 4 kids to bed.  When he gets home, we are going to sort out raffle prizes for the giant PTO fundraiser we are running next weekend.

And this is why I have not blogged.  Things are hectic over here.  I am 2 months behind on Dorothy's baby book-- THAT NEVER HAPPENS TO ME.  I have only read 2 books this month.  September is killing me, and in October?  We have hockey 4 days a week.

I am just hoping to make it through these next few weeks with my sanity in tact.  I have to observe 30 TAs in their classrooms, and I can only be on campus for 2 hours at a time because of somebody's eating needs, which means LOTS of trips back and forth and no time to work on my other work.

The good news is I have had time to check out Pinterest for healthy Halloween snacks, and we're all set on over achiever classroom treats for 5 weeks from now.  Priorities, right?