Cookies, conferences, and habits

 I have made 96 of these cookies in the last 2.5 days.  AND THEY'RE ALL GONE.

Oh, sweet little Dorothy.  She is too much.

 Harry and Ben had hockey practice last night, but the rest of us went to Culver's for a school fundraiser.  Last time our school had a fundraiser night, Dorothy barfed all over Chipotle.

 THIS TIME SHE HAS PINKEYE.  Yum!

 The boys asked me to take their picture by this weird bronze statue of readers outside the library.  Jack was trying to see what the statue kid was reading and was hyper annoyed to find that the book didn't really have words.

My week has been a little nuts because I have had a paper to grade and research conferences to hold for my class.  Normally, these tasks are NBD, but I have 40 STUDENTS this semester, so meeting with each of them for 15 minutes has been crazy!!  I have sat on my ass more this week than I ever do.  Any chance I get, I have been jumping up to take a walk outside or at least refill my water bottle.  Except, you know, RIGHT NOW.  I also spent a good 10 minutes putting books on hold for Jack at the library because his class has a read-in on Halloween Eve (no Halloween parties at our spoil sport public school which is how come the PTO has to throw one at night), and they can wear jammies and bring their favorite books.  His favorite book series is one he only gets from the library, and I was going to buy a bunch of it on Amazon, but middle child story short, I put them on hold instead.  Hashtag MOTY.

In any case, I am losing my weekly Fitbit challenge really badly this week.  My 62-year-old mother is, for example, a comfortable ten thousand steps ahead of me.  Blergh.

We had preschool conferences for Dorothy and Cooper, and I really LOVE their preschool.  It is sweet and adorable and play-based.  Cooper has started writing his name on everything, which neither Harry or Jack ever did, and he is doing so well, which thrills me because he is kind of a shrinking violet.  Dorothy is a force to be reckoned with.  Her teacher seems to enjoy her large personality, and Dorothy has totally changed in her dealings with other kids since she started school.  We used to be worried when she encountered a kid on the park or something because she was pretty rough and handsy.  Little Gym was kind of tough at the end of last semester.  But now!  Every kid she meets is "my fwiend."  Adorable.

Mostly, though, we loved conferences because Dorothy and Cooper got such glowing reports, which we are not used to AT ALL.  Since he was in once-a-week 2-year-old preschool, Harrison's teachers have been intimating that he has ADHD, and Jack is slow to meet academic goals.  Even though Cooper has speech therapy once a week at school, both he and Dorothy are well behaved and on-track or advanced developmentally, and that's a luxury we have never before experienced.  I left the school smiling with a bounce in my step.  So this is how other parents feel, I thought.  How awesome.

I finally got Gretchen Rubin's Better Than Before from the library, and you guys!  It is even better than I thought it would be and the inspiration for this daily posting.  I want to get back in the habit of coming here everyday.  I have also finally printed all the photos I have been neglecting to print since Dorothy turned 1.  I am always really good at printing pictures when I have an infant because I religious update the baby books on a monthly basis, but after that first birthday party, my enthusiasm wanes.  But now!  I am caught up, and I have made picture collages for my bedroom from our last 2 vacations, and I have bought frames for our family pics this year.  And now!  I am going to faithfully go through my Photostream monthly and print my faves.  So now all of my pics will be on one of my computers, on my time capsule, and on Shutterfly or Walgreens AND languishing in a box in my basement.  I'd feel better if they were ALSO in a safe deposit box, but that's because I am a little nuts.

As if you hadn't guessed.