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Some bloggers aspire for multiple posts per week. I feel like a success if I can throw up 2 posts a month. Will naps with some regularity now when the big kids are in school and that is SO NICE, but unfortunately I don't just get to lay around and do whatever the hell I please. Because if that was the case, I'd be blogging a lot more. And eating bon bons. And maybe shaving my legs with more regularity. But I have to do things like laundry and cleaning the house and making grocery lists and researching winter coat$$$$$. That is all anyone is getting this Christmas- cold weather gear. Maybe I'll throw in a sled or something so the kids don't think I'm a complete Grinch, but special $15 mittens that won't fall off their little hands and get lost in the snow means that there is no Barbie Dreamhouse in our future. Back to the biweekly recap- I saw my first car while walking the kids to school one morning.

The Low Rider

Immediately texted the photo to my entire family so we could all marvel over this glorious find.

Going through some of the papers Sam's teachers sent home and I literally laughed out loud when I saw the dog he drew.

He always draws a heart on people's and animals' chests. I think it's so sweet and wonder where he picked that up.

Just another day at the park. These children need a backyard something fierce.

And this little babushka.. 10 months old and 400th percentile in weight and still can't be bothered to sleep through the night. I've tried sleep training this one but it turns out that I really like this one a lot and can't stand listening to him cry (it also doesn't seem to wear him out one bit- it's almost like he's energized by all the screaming). He takes a nice solid nap once we get back from our school drop off walk which allows me to drink an entire cup of reheated coffee and empty the dishwasher. Bless him.

Attempting to destroy Sam's Chutes and Ladders setup

This game was a very good purchase. Sam will set the whole thing up himself and then ask who wants to play. Molly and I usually volunteer but then Will tries to smash it to pieces, so inevitably I have to remove him from the general vicinity of the game. I tell Sam to go ahead and spin for me and move my piece for me too while he's at it. Molly loses interest the minute she hits a chute. So Sam continues spinning and moving pieces "for me" until there's a winner (usually him). Never knew it would be such a great solitary game but it's worked out nicely.

Someone attempted to do her own mascara.....

This was a week where I was inspired to cook. Like something other than the stuff that is in heavy rotation around here. This was obviously met with much resistance and I was left wondering why I wasted half a naptime prepping the food for dinner if I was going to have to work like a dog trying to convince people to eat it. Such a waste. Back to the basics.

Will turned 10 months old and my brain couldn't get it together enough to get a real picture that day. People joke about mom brain and ha ha ha I am so scatterbrained but let me tell you- it is a very real condition and I am suffering from a severe case of it.

Everyone wears SO MUCH SHIT. And our washer can only do tiny half loads because it's one of those really inefficient apartment-style stackable washer-dryer combos so I literally have to do multiple loads of laundry every day. (Not to mention THE DIAPERS.) I just want to put a dresser in the kitchen so I can take the clothes out of the dryer and throw them right into the drawer. There is such a breakdown between getting them out of the dryer and then getting them upstairs and unloaded where they need to go. I threw in a load of diapers today while Steve and the kids were at church and wondered if I passed out on the floor from the fumes, how long would I lie there before someone found me? Our poor landlords are so used to heavy thumps on the floor that they would surely think it was normal. Sam would probably walk in and be like, ugh she's napping. Lazy. Can you open this cheese string for me? Nowwww????

Willie and I dropped the big kids off at school and then made the L-O-N-G drive (not really- only 11 miles, but it took us over an hour) down to the cool part of Brooklyn where Casey lives. She made this awesome quiche and we had mimosas while watching the latest Baby Einstein and catching up on all the gossip. Somehow we text all day (and sometimes all night if both babies are up) and still get together and talk nonstop. I highly recommend everyone have a Casey. But not my Casey because I called dibs on her first. Plz find your own.

In this episode of Art By Sam, he drew himself and Molly walking Odie and Marci. He also repeatedly said, "Look at the details," which I can't help but find hilarious. He sounded out the bottom part which says "I am in Pennsylvania." You probably already knew that but I figured I'd clarify.

Then, shore nuff, we ended up in Pennsylvania. Dreams do come true! We went down to celebrate Sam's "PA birthday" and get our winter stuff out of Steve's parents' basement. My poor children were the only ones wearing fleece jackets and no mittens on the playground and I was starting to look semi-neglectful. Now we are officially prepared.

We went to Linvilla Orchards on Saturday morning for a hayride and to see the pumpkin patch. I thought it would be a madhouse being the weekend of Halloween, but getting there early proved to be a good move!

We saw the animals and played on the playground before calling it a day and going to get lunch at CHICK FIL A!!!!! Happy day all around. Then Sam got to help Steve's mom make his birthday cake.

6!

He modeled this cake after Steve's grooms cake from our wedding. After looking through our wedding albums, he saw the cake and was really taken by it apparently. The strawberries on top were delicious! I support his decision to switch things up!

Molly is so obsessed with Odie. No interest whatsoever in baby dolls or Barbies, but start talking about animals and she is all ears.

We got back on the road Sunday morning and headed home, hoping to beat the traffic. It took us an hour and a half to go 11 miles trying to get out of the city the Friday we left. We were hoping to beat that time by a lot.... and luckily we did! And car naps for everyone!!!!!

Can you see me popping confetti and champagne bottles?!

Monday morning came around- Halloween! Guess who had a note taped to her cabinet for three weeks that said, "HALLOWEEN COSTUMES!"? Yes, that would be me, good guess. And guess who did not round up or order or make (hahahaha) Halloween costumes for anyone? Also me. They were allowed to wear their costumes to school so I had the brilliant idea of having everyone try on their costumes from last year. And lo and behold, they fit! And the angels rejoiced!

After dropping the big kids off at school, I put Will down for a nap only to get a reminder text from my landlord that the window guys would be coming in 30 minutes to replace the front windows in our house. Ahh and here I thought I was going to drink coffee and pat myself on the back for not failing at costumes. Mad dash to clean the house and get everything away from the windows. Will miraculously slept through most of it but when he woke up, the house was freezing!

Make it warmer but please leave that nice open view!

ew I did not even know dried jelly fish skin was a thing

first Halloween!

That evening we went to our friends' house to trick or treat. They live in an actual neighborhood so the trick or treat experience was more authentic there.

HOW CUTE ARE THEY

Gahhhh I can't take these cute Aubies!

I didn't take too many photos while trick-or-treating. Was focusing on making sure no one was hit by a car or wiggled out of the stroller and was on the defense against possible clown strikes. One can't be too careful.

Matching and organizing his candy- never enough Reeses

At some point Casey and Riley and Will and I went to the mall to pick up an order for some winter stuff for Will. Then we stopped at a Shake Shack and it was delicious.

I am half-horrified, half-proud of myself for letting go of my psycho tendencies when it comes to controlling the kids and their food. I can't even tell you how old Sam was when he first ate a french fry. I can, with 1,000% certainty though, tell you that it was nowhere near the vicinity of TEN MONTHS OLD. But since I give Will a bit of everything that we're having, age appropriate or not, he tends to try just about anything. Hopefully this works in favor of him being a more adventurous eater later on down the road. Sam was strictly monitored and is still gagging at broccoli drowned in ranch dressing. (insert my eye rolls here please)

Riding this bike might have been the greatest thing that's happened in Will's life so far. He was in heaven.

We celebrated surviving until Wednesday (or something) by going out to our favorite local place for lunch. We sat right next to the kitchen and Will was mesmerized by all the activity and waitresses flashing him smiles.

My friend has snapchat and showed us the filters. This one is the one that is most likely to not send you into convulsions or give you nightmares. The rest of them made me laugh so hard I actually cried and then the rest were so scary that I cried. If you want to see any of the others, please text me and I will give you nightmare material for the next three months.

Korean bbq..... so messy, so fatty, so friggin delicious.

My blue eyed boy

We are still working on the kimchi peace sign pose. Bless his heart, he doesn't know it's required.

Fully in the kimchi spirit, we went to a gimbap place nearby that makes it fresh while you wait. Obviously we needed something to eat with the leftover KBBQ. I saw this "cinnamon punch" they were selling and it instantly reminded me of the drink they'd give us after every beef and leaf meal. I would give just about anything to go back to Korea. Anyone who thinks Minnesota is far away, please know that I was begging Steve to apply for jobs in Korea so we could move there instead. I'm dead serious. I feel like I'm missing an arm half the time, I'm so lost not living there. I'm thankful that we have such plentiful Korean options here in NYC and now I'm scratching my head as to what we're gonna do about that in breezy ol' MN, but I guess being near our Korean neighbors will ease that a bit.

Our eyes were way bigger than our stomachs- we got three rolls and couldn't even finish one of them.

Beautiful day at the park!

Steve took the kids to church this morning while I stayed home with Will so he could continue his sacred nap schedule. While he still doesn't sleep through the night, the gaps are getting bigger, so I'm really trying to do whatever I can to make sure this keeps happening. I really thought third babies were a bit more go-with-the-flow and not so high maintenance when it comes to sleep but that's what I get for assuming, I suppose....

Now off to wake up Molly from a nap that she violently refused to take for a solid hour. This should be fun... wish me luck!

Labor Day weekend

Friday showed up bright-eyed and bushy-tailed at 4:15am, proving that the phrase TGIF is utterly useless when you're a mom. At least Will is nice and happy first thing in the morning and there is coffee. Major perks. I can also pawn the baby off on Steve sometimes depending on how often I was up throughout the night. I never sleep as hard as I do when I know that Will is full of milk and being handled by a perfectly capable someone else that is not me. We stopped at H-Mart before meeting friends at a playground. Will was thrilled to snag the coveted and highly sought after buggy seat.

I tend to make the same face when I get that first whiff of kimchi in the morning.

H-Mart actually sells tons of meat that is already marinated in various Korean sauces and since I know not what I buy, it's a bit like a lottery feeling every time I cook it up. Will this be spicy? Sweet? Garlicky? Give us all diarrhea? Who knows! How exciting! This time I bought sweet meat (haaaaaa) and it tasted almost exactly like our favorite beef and leaf's pork. Sam and Molly, children who previously only ate rice and pickled radishes in Korea, suddenly could not get enough of the meat and Steve and I were left wondering who these children were and where did all the beef go? Ah well. At least we've found a meat they enjoy that doesn't involve the word "nugget". Gonna mark that down as a win.

On Saturday we headed down to the commissary at Fort Hamilton in Brooklyn and to let the kids play on the playground that overlooks the ocean. Except we got to the playground and it was closed for renovations. Womp womp. We were hanging around watching the cars on the interstate and bridge when all of a sudden, Molly got stung by a yellowjacket!

Her thumb quickly swelled so we went to the px to get some benadryl. If there is one thing I hate giving my children, it's benadryl. It doesn't have that "desirable" effect on them like it does on others... they take it, their reaction goes away, they get drowsy, they get angry that they're drowsy, they fight the drowsy, they're now tired and angry and eventually they fall asleep. Except the sleep only lasts 20 minutes and then they are drowsy, angry, and groggy. It is JUST as fun as you're imagining. Anyway!

On the bright side, they were having an infamous case lot sale at the commissary so naturally we bought 12 boxes of macaroni and cheese and 437 Clorox wipes. I'm that germaphobe mom that just doesn't give a shit come dinnertime. Hey!

After a family walk/jog/bike ride down by the bay, we had dinner and baths and everyone went to bed SUPER early. Because sometimes the kids just need to catch up on sleep, right?

And maybe I had bought some Binches at H-Mart and we ate a few while we watched Seinfeld SO WHAT. We are adults and this is the stuff you're allowed to do when you're done adulting for the day.

Sunday morning, we met up with our first friends in Korea!! They were visiting New York and had time to get together, so we met up at Central Park. Molly was SOOOOOO excited. Sam was too but Molly was really over-the-moon at the thought.

Are they not the cutest???

We girls got to go off on our own and take a carriage ride. Not only was it fun, but it was very informative too!

Did you know you could own a 2-bedroom apartment at the Plaza Hotel for a cool $4mil? Molly and Sofia seem to be considering it.

The girls and Scott the horse (failed to catch the driver's name whoops)

We met back up with the boys, who by this time had been mistaken for a very good-looking gay family complete with Will attached to Steve in the Ergo. We made our way to the Carousel.

The center of the carousel was so detailed, not to mention the 57 hand-carved horses! When people wonder what the collective "they" did before the Internet, I would assume it was something time-consuming and beautiful like this.

Before long, Sofia and family had to get going. Molly is still talking about when Sofia can come play at our house. I wish we only lived a few feet away from each other still!

As we learned during our carriage ride, these rocks are the only things that are native to Central Park. Can you spot Sam?

We stopped to see this upcoming art display before heading back to our car. Riveting.

We had to make a slight detour on our way home via the Bronx because I stupidly agreed to pick something up in-store from Target and our Target ran out and redirected me there. Interesting place for sure. Almost as interesting as all of the hysteria surrounding the hurricane.

Tropical storm warning this weekend

The craziest part to me was not the clear blue skies, but the complete lack of rain in the forecast. Yet the weatherpeople were pretty adamant that this was going to be bad. So far we've had cooler temps and a very lovely breeze. Not the hurricane weather I am used to, but I'll take it.

After our picnic car lunch and Target pickup, ring pops were handed out and then Sam passed out hard.

That afternoon we ended up at a local park to ride bikes and play on the playground. Sam decided it was now or never with the sprinklers and got himself completely soaked.

Every playground here has some sort of water feature and my kids have avoided them all like the plague this summer. They shut the water off today (Tuesday) and Sam came around on Sunday.

Caravan back to the car

Actual Labor Day started out slow and easy. It was still windy from the "hurricane" so we went to the park down by the bay to fly a kite that our neighbor had given the kids. This neighbor isn't known for his niceness or generosity so it was a strange gesture to begin with, but the kite looked very nice and how hard could it be? Turns out, very hard. We never got the stupid thing to fly (pretty sure there were a few missing pieces...). But Steve did get a very thorough sprint workout in and Molly got to ride her bike in circles for awhile, so overall it wasn't a total waste.

Molly found a sharpie and decorated herself with some nice new semi-permanent tattoos. A lovely addition for someone attending a new school in two days. Speaking of which, TWO DAYS. The first day is only an hour and a half and the next day is a half day and then Monday is off for a holiday but TUESDAY is a FULL DAY. In TWO DAYS I will have a slight break and then on TUESDAY I will be free. FREE. FREEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!

It will definitely be weird without them around 24/7 but I'm looking forward to hanging out with that tiny baby by himself for a bit.