TGIF

Dorothy slept in her own crib last night from 7 pm until 2 am. Usually, she comes in my bed closer to 11 or 12, so it was nice to have the extra 3 hours to sleep in whatever position I choose. When Dorothy sleeps with me, she nurses ALL NIGHT LONG, and I have to sleep on my side with my arm around her so she can't roll out of bed, and I have to roll over every 45 minutes or so and arrange us all over again.  But she is like holding a fat loaf of bread all night, which is pretty lovely I must say.  And whenever she is awake enough to notice me she says mwuh and gives me a sort of asleep kiss which is adorable.

Anywho, I stumbled groggily into her room to get her at 2 and found her holding onto the side of her crib and JUMPING UP AND DOWN.  Usually, she is kind of lying there bleating and blinking. She was totally well rested and didn't really go all the way back to sleep.

I decided to do this cray new thing where I hid how horribly tired I was from the boys and acted as cheerful and happy and relaxed as I possibly could.  FAKE IT UNTIL YOU MAKE IT.  I taught them the meaning of TGIF, even.  harry asked very suspiciously what was wrong with me.

I didn't care when Cooper absconded with a box of cookies and sneaked downstairs for MOAR screen time

I let the bigs play Wii U

Dorothy got to play with the blinds-- her favorite

Wide awake before 7.

More TV and cookies

Harry had a field trip, so I couldn't pack him is usual special snowflake Bento box. He wrote his name like this on one side of his bag after being totally humiliated by the way I wrote it on the other side

Posers.

MASTERPIECE

Little bit of a Wii fight.  Happens every time.

Then the boys went to school. I did some work.  I dragged the babies to Target after Dorothy's super short nap (she is getting 3 teeth right now, which, ABOUT TIME).  Then Ben came home at noon,  and I slept. Ahhhhhhhhhhh.

Looking forward to a couch date and an ottoman full of appetizers tonight-- you know, just a crazy Friday night.

Oh!  I finally took Dorothy's 11-month pics, and they are super cute.  She LOVES Cooper so much:

First Birthday Nostalgia

Once again, Blogger has uploaded my pictures in completely random order. But this time, I kind of like it. A year (almost) of Dorothy all jumbled together-- fitting because I know it's a cliche, but I really can't believe it's been a whole year already (almost).

 At The Little Gym, the last thing that happens in class is bubble time-- music plays, and the teacher blows bubbles all over the babies, much to their delight. In Dorothy's class, none of the bubbles that land on babies ever pop- that's how soft and squishy these babies are-- softer and squishier than the gym mat even. I can attest to this-- she is delightfully, unimaginably soft.

 Even though she walks everywhere now, she is still deliciously cuddly, too. And she loves to give kisses. I thought nothing could be cuter than a kissing baby, but I was wrong. A kissing, wobbly toddler takes the cake.

Speaking of cake, party plans are in full swing. It's going to be a small party for a tiny girl, but it's going to be adorable. My grandma sent beautiful table cloths that she made in middle school and high school, and my mom sent napkins from both of my grandmas-- I remember some of them from birthday parties when I was a kid. Against Ben's better judgment, I ordered THE CUTEST invitations even though they're going to family who is already on the way to the tea party, but YOU CAN'T PUT AN EVITE IN A BABY BOOK, is my perspective. Ben bought the most ridiculous tea pots on E-Bay, so he's not a total Scrooge.

For awhile we (especially Ben) really thought seriously about having another baby, but you guys. I think we have enough babies. We want to take them to Paris and keep them in organic milk and Apple gadgets. Taking 4 kids anywhere is a circus-- 5 is unfathomable even though I'd love a little Fitz. (Also a good dog's name).

We are getting ready to celebrate our last first birthday girl, and I can't help but feel nostalgic.

Gah

I am only writing this because I am going to cross off every damn thing on my list today if it kills me and one of those things was to blog. So there. 

You guys. The pencil skirt I am wearing is cutting off circulation to my stomach. And even though I will be on a beach in a mere 89 days, I cannot stop eating. WTF?

I had a perfectly reasonable half whole wheat bagel with 48-calories of peanut butter for breakfast. Then I mindlessly ate 10 animal crackers with my coffee. Ok. Carb heavy but only 305 calories for the morning and my morning workout burns 350, so, no big deal. 

I had a quesadilla with 2 50-calorie corn tortillas, a red pepper, a green onion, and 2 TBS of cheese for lunch with some salsa and an orange. A perfectly respectable 340 calories. Then I had a leftover cup of chocolate mousse. Only 100 calories. Until I added whipped cream, a handful of chocolate chips, and a crushed Oreo. WTAF? Now 225 calories. Which is a grand total of 870 calories which means WTF  am I going to eat for dinner??

I actually have 930 left because I start with 1450 because breast feeding is awesome and then I add 350 for my workout. But between a handful of this here and that there and a mouthful of chocolate chips here, I am sure I go over my goal everyday. Which is why I am still only down the same 10-ish pounds. I want to lose at least 15 more-- some days it's more like 17. 

But apparently I don't want to lose it because the eating. 

Ok. Back to my list. I will surely be up all night finishing the "grade essays" bullet. 

I should be in bed right now.

Ugh, you guys.

All I have done is complain and eat cookies for days now.  I haven't read any books.  STILL have not graded my papers.  Taking a pause from working on the school carnival.  Not finishing building the new online class I am almost done with.  None of it.  I swear this all ends tomorrow when I will clean the house from top to bottom (more like top to top because Ben does the bottom) and grade for the online class I am actually teaching right now.

One thing I have been doing is obsessing over Dorothy's birthday party, and that has been mostly productive.

Also, I have been KILLING it on the cookie front.  Used an entire Costco bag of chocolate chips (not as good as Ghirardeli but SO BIG) in a week and made the perfect cookie that is round and puffy and lovely and also tastes delicious.  Usually mine are delicious but pancake flat.  These could be in a magazine.  7.5 dozen baked on Thursday and they are ALMOST GONE.  Yes, I am very proud.

Harrison had a hockey game today on the full ice which is a big deal for his age group.  They also kept score on the scoreboard which was super cool.  His team won 6-2, and Harry was one of 3 kids on his team to score goals-- he was super, super proud of himself, and he skated great!

After the game we went to a cute little supper club for dinner.

Dorothy loved it.

Cooper was, erm, loud.

I took Jack to the grocery store(s) today-- he LOVES to shop with me, and he is so well behaved-- definitely the best behaved kid we have.

We always go to the non healthy store after Whole Foods to buy non healthy items like low-calorie bread, and Jack was DELIGHTED to find this pink cart.

Then after 2 grocery stores, I dragged him to a huge antiques store where we spent over an hour looking dishes for Dorothy's tea party birthday party-- we scored big time.  Jack nearly expired from boredom, but he was SO GOOD.  He told me gleefully as we were leaving that he actually touched a bunch of stuff (I of course told him not to touch on our way in), but nothing broke, so I was happy.

Dorothy toddled around the hockey rink with Cooper's milk taunting him.

That's Harry in the white helmet charging down the ice.

Dorothy ate a french fry.  Ben ate her.

Waaaaaaaah: Wambulance Edition

Sorry about the radio silence over here.  I have been felled by horrendous PMS.  Hormones so out of control I violated my cardinal rule of work life balance and have STILL not graded the 19 project prospectus papers and annotated bibliographies sitting in my bag since Tuesday.  Holy hell.

LOOK HOW LONG MY HAIR IS!!!

As you can probably imagine, this shirt will never be the same.

Cooper had a fever (just his regularly scheduled I LICK EVERYTHING virus of the month), and he was cold, so I blew his hair dry before bed.  So much body!!

A full tme walker, Dorothy needed shoes.  She got those shiny little mary janes at Stride Rite.  A good neutral first step (ha! get it?) but now I am pretty uich obsessed with searching for THE MOST ADORABLE shoes.

Cooper loves to shovel.

Jack prefers lounging.

Harry:  SO BIG.

Not only has PMS rendered me completely useless and unable to do anything but sit on the couch and internet shop (the eye cream that Ulta got me hooked on via free gift is $70.  NOT COOL, ULTA) and eat cookies-- cookies that I baked-- erm, bake-- EVERYDAY,  but Dorothy is finally getting another tooth, and as a result, she can only sleep between the hours of midnight and 6 am latched on to me at every single second.  SO SNUGGLY.  Someday, I will miss my sweaty little bedfellow-- that's what I keep telling myself anyway.