Seven Months

We're back to where we were before Dylan got sick, sleep-wise. Now let us never speak of it again.














Nana has a game she plays with Dylan where she bounces her hand on Dylan's mouth while Dylan entertains herself by making a variety of shrieking noises. Dylan recently figured out how to do it with her own hand, so we hear her up in her crib on the monitor shoving her hand in and out of her mouth while jabbering.














Dylan suddenly looks more like a person than a baby. People who haven't seen her in a month or two are really surprised. People have been saying she looks like us for a while and I haven't believed them, but now I'm starting to see it.














This is still a really fun age. Dylan is so playful and cheerful most days. She still babbles all the time. She wants all food anyone is eating, particularly that cookie you have there. A lot of new foods still give her that rash on her face, but I am slowly expanding what she can eat.














She puts herself to sleep much of the time, although she has trouble every 3-4 times. Even though she can turn over easily in both directions now (as of about four days ago) she sometimes flips herself over in her crib and can't sleep and just lies there flapping until we come rescue her. I bet she'll be crawling within six weeks.

All Clear

So far no more gaping holes have opened in my abdomen. That is to say, my surgery seems to have worked thus far. Lifting restrictions to remain in place for the next few weeks, aside of course from the squirmy 16.5 pound weight attached to my arm.

I took Dylan to an MD/PhD function at lunch today. Man does that kid like a party. I had about six people ask if she had just woken up from a nap, but no, her hair just looks like that.

Snuffy is awfully restless this evening for someone who got taken running today. Remember that new toy I got him a few weeks ago? He now demonstrates his desire to play by tossing it at us. It weighs like ten pounds, so I fear for our safety, particularly the pinheaded little one.

As Requested, The Ending

We are all doing much better now, thanks. No one is sick anymore and the last two nights of sleeping have been passable. Dylan had some sort of breakthrough in the course of about one day, let's call it Tuesday. She is rolling all over the place now and for the first time has some degree of mobility (video pending). She was in a total daze from being sick and tired until halfway through yesterday, but today she was fine. Today was the first day in about a week that I stopped feeling like I had been drawn and quartered (although in fact I had not been drawn and quartered, don't worry). The weather has been spectacular here so we've been outside a lot the past couple of days.

This past week aside, I am tantalizingly close to having a couple of hours between Dylan's bedtime and mine, if only by virtue of the fact that even I can't bring myself to go to bed at 7:15pm. Just to put me in my place Dylan decided to have this bout of sleeping about like a newborn, in no more than 3-4 hour stretches at a time. Confusingly enough she never did that as a newborn, so maybe she got things mixed up. Nothing some time in the naughty spot won't clear up.

Enough about the sleep. A few days ago I caught the middle of a radio story. A man was talking about his wife and someone named Vicki. I thought maybe the piece was about mental illness, because the man was saying how Vicki had tried to get his wife to turn the car into a guardrail. He spoke for a while about his wife's contentious relationship with Vicki. Finally the show's host ended the piece by saying that the commentator lived in Maryland with his wife and their GPS. I can only wonder if my parents' GPS, Lucille, is somehow related to Vicki.

Counterpoint: Last Monday

Another timeline! Just what you wanted, you lucky dog.

Midnight: Dylan up for the second time. Back down.

1:45am: Dylan up. Not back down. Try to save Aaron so at least one of us will be functional.

4:00am: Wake up Aaron. Skulk back to bed.

4:30am: Dylan down.

7:15am: Dylan up.

7:30am - 8:30am: Running debate about whether Dylan is still too sick to go to daycare.

8:31am: Dylan helpfully settles debate by yakking all over kitchen.

9:00am - 10:45am: Work while Aaron watches Dylan.

10:45am - 12:30pm: Watch Dylan while Aaron goes to class.

12:45pm: Painstakingly get self, Dylan, and Snuffy ready to go jogging. So much multitasking! Watch the baby, exercise, and Snuffercise all at once! And Aaron can work! Fatefully remove raincoat before leaving because it is too hot out.

12:50pm: Massive, quick-moving thunderstorm.

12:55pm: Back home. Pass baby off to Aaron, who was already on his way out the door to rescue us.

1:00pm - 1:45pm: Play with Dylan while Aaron works.

2:00pm - 3:30pm: Work while Dylan sleeps and Aaron is at class.

3:30pm - 5:30pm: Take Dylan while Aaron works.

6:00pm - 7:30pm: Back to school for a seminar.

Meanwhile, at 7:15pm: Dylan down.

7:30pm - 9:15pm: Free time! Rejoice, bake cake.

9:15pm: Dylan up.

10:00pm: Aaron down.

10:45pm: Decide Dylan would surely like to hang out in the bed while I sleep. Doze off.

10:50pm: Wake up. Dylan enticed, enraged by Mickey Mouse pillowcase.

11:15pm: Everybody down. Sigh.

Last Saturday in Links

Hey, I could stop posting anytime I want to. I just...don't want to. That's it. No promises for later in the week though.

Look! Sometimes we have fun days!

9:30: Morning play group for Snuffy in the park with Henry, Isabelle, Jake, Sophie, and other dogs less likely to be confused with a preschool class. Sadly early in the day, as by 4:00pm Snuffy will have recovered sufficiently to plague us for exercise.

11:30: Slyly arrive late to brunch with friends, avoiding the 30-minute wait for a table. And the 5k run they had just completed. Suckers.

2:30 - 5:30: Be entertained by the newly-engaged BrynAndJeff, who traveled from Ithaca to hang out with us. Suckers. Spend entire time exclaiming about how much fun Dylan is when she's not in a sickly daze. Show off Rochester's yummy ice cream.

6:30: Ignore signs of imminent Dylan meltdown. Go out to dinner. Eat quickly while Aaron holds Dylan and asks for a doggie bag. Do not share contents of doggie bag with pouting dog.

Sleep Break

Last night was another doozy. I am going to take a few days off from posting because until I get just a little more sleep they are all going to be along the lines of

grumble...mutter...grump...whine...wah wah wah...beg dylan to sleep...collapse

Sorry, sorry, refunds all around.

The problem with the comments has been noted and sent to the technical support department, who is still asleep at the moment.

GRUMP!

Sorry for yelling like that in the title. It's not anything you did.

I take it from your lack of comments on the last post that

1) I diligently and thoroughly follow up on all things bleisenblog; and

2) You have lives that do not, apparently, involve hanging on my every word all weekend. It wouldn't be my personal lifestyle choice, but to each his own I suppose.

Speaking of follow-up, Dylan had another crappy night last night. Both literally and figuratively. We haven't had a slew of bad sleep like this in a couple of months. I will use the following photograph to demonstrate:















That has been the expression on Dylan's face for about three days now. She's not that sick, just tired and grumpy. Wait, like me! Come party with us! Actually, we did have a pretty fun day yesterday. You may get to hear about it later if you're lucky.

And she's sold

Dylan got up for a quick snack at 3:30am, which, fine. If she does that and otherwise sleeps 11-12 hours, I am a happy one. If she does that and proceeds to wake up every half hour for the next FOUR HOURS, I start the bidding.

I guess I should mention that she did have a cough and a fever and a wee touch of diarrhea. Whatever, Dylan, any excuse. She bought herself a day home from daycare. And then had as cheerful a day as any, although I have to say she looked like hell.

Arg, I just realized that I never put my cool Flickr flashy sidebar thing back after I messed with the template a few weeks ago. I also had to delete that audio post because it somehow screwed up the comments.

Oh yeah, also, I know that when I read blogs it annoys me when someone mentions something urgent or interesting that is happening and never says anything about it again. Since I am firing on about half a cylinder right now, I keep meaning to ask if there's anything I haven't followed up on that you've been wondering about. Snuffy poop, Dylan hijinks, all the Vicodin I have, you name it...

Meta-Aaron














Evening walk














Convalescing

If she doesn't let me sleep soon I am auctioning her off

Dylan got to visit some of the older kid rooms today. She loved it and was very popular.

She has been having a terrible time sleeping for the past 4-5 nights, so we are all exhausted.

And now...

...the PuppetMaster

Back at it

I went running today for the first time since the surgery three weeks ago. I felt fine, if you count being completely out of shape again as feeling fine. Snuffy wasn't even tired afterwards, although that was sort of his own fault because he found a broken tennis ball two minutes in and scuttled along with it in his mouth the whole time, inhibiting his usual mindless sprinting.

Did you know bimonthly means both every other month and twice a month? Well, it does. Please note that if this is the only descriptor of when your meeting is held, it will be hard for me to figure out when to attend. Thank you.

Dylan took a nap that ended at seven this evening, so we are in for it tonight. Ugh.

we're grizzled old daycare users now

I'm pretty sure Dylan understands "bath time" and "Snuffy." Although I think she thinks anything that ends in "time" means bath time because she also gets really excited when I say "bedtime" and "naptime," and excitement is clearly not what she means to express in connection with those things.

Yesterday a new baby, probably eight weeks old (I'm getting good at this from hanging out at daycare all the time) started at daycare. The new teacher in the room said, oh, I've never heard of a baby not wanting to take a bottle like this. The other teacher and I burst out laughing. Ha. Ha. Ha.

Actually, the daycare room is a lot better with the new teacher. She is friendly and great with the babies. And the other teacher that I like is in the room a lot more. The whole place seems a lot more inviting. There are only two babies older than Dylan now, so I hope she doesn't take them out in her ruthless quest for power. They moved her crib to the back of the room, which is apparently a sign of seniority.

And one more in the Happy Highchair series:

just go to sleep you little twit

Oh man. I have a couple of posts brewing, but I have so much work right now I am working all the minutes that I'm not watching the baby and she WILL NOT GO TO BED tonight so, alas you'll have to wait a little longer for my wisdom and insight. Here's some more from our photo shoot yesterday:

Our Days Are Numbered

As can be seen by:


A few other thoughts.

It was just gorgeous here today. It made the light in Dylan's room beautiful so I was able to bend the camera to my will more than usual.

I spent the morning confused about why the sound coming out of my computer was so quiet. It turns out my headphones were plugged in so it was coming out of them. Just before I made that discovery I helped Aaron with some of his work. He is now having a bit of a crisis of confidence from having been helped by someone who is so dense.

When Dylan is making our day difficult Aaron keeps threatening to send her to the glue factory. But in my opinion Snuffy much more closely resembles a horse.

I've been watching Top Design, an interior design reality show which is not as good as Project Runway or Top Chef, but is getting better as it goes along. What I never get tired of, however, is how when the designers get kicked off they say, "See you later, decorator."

We used one of those coin counting machines a few weeks ago and got $29 from it. I couldn't help myself and got Snuffy an expensive toy with it. He LOVES it and it releases a mint smell when he plays with it.

Dylan has taken to whining whenever she sees me, no matter how happy she may have been beforehand. It's so cute.

We Catch On Quickly

About once every two weeks Snuffy gets into the stash of plastic bags we keep on the bottom shelf of the pantry. He is only selectively destructive at this point -- leather, squirrels, a few key baby toys, and, when the mood strikes him, all the plastic bags he can get his paws on. We usually try to keep the pantry door shut so he can't go on a rampage, so the destruction generally happens when one of us forgets. When the pantry door broke a while ago we spent a couple weeks wrestling it shut until we finally gave up and took it off altogether in a fit of rage. In order to keep the bags from constant Snuff exposure we had to reorganize things, which brought Aaron's compulsive side great satisfaction. And now, for your enjoyment, the pretty pretty organized pantry. It's also the first thing you see when you walk in the door as if to say welcome to our house, Eat Me.



And another happy highchair baby:

Cop Out

Tired...long week...here's some pictures...

Those two days of spring were nice

Heh, I thought Dylan was waking up an unfortunate twenty minutes after going to bed last night, but it was just Aaron figuring out how to post that audio clip.

She is SO HAPPY all the time lately. She makes everyone around her happy. I'm sure she'll crank up again, but I'm hoping we'll have a nice month or two.

















From yesterday:

"I have a new shopping list going even though we just went to Wegmans"

"Yeah, I saw that"

"That's weird because I didn't write it down yet"

Aaron: Arbiter of Justice

Actually, not really. He didn't get on a jury, but it was close. The defendant in the morning case plea bargained before they started choosing people. In the afternoon case he was one of 30 people chosen from 120 to make it to the next level (it's like an elimination challenge!), but after that he got weeded out. So he's done with that for at least the next six years. Stay tuned in June for Kate: the Grand Jury.

Dylan had another good day at daycare yesterday. I am officially considering it slightly less stressful. I think one of her teachers is totally burned out, so that's not going to get better. But even when she gets fussy and clingy (Dylan, not the teacher; the teacher is the opposite of clingy) I can't imagine that it will be as rough as it has been.

The time change is funny because it is like the whole world is slightly jetlagged. It is actually great for us because the extra daylight makes it so much easier to get Snuffy exercise after work. It sets all my work to get Dylan to bed earlier back by an hour, but getting her to bed has been a lot easier lately (way to jinx it there, Kate).

They got him

Aaron called for jury instructions at 12:45pm yesterday as we rushed back from Ithaca to be in town should they need him. The instructions: call back after 5:30pm. Then, finally, the big moment. He needs to report today. Don't worry, he'll bring tequila in honor of spring break.

Lest you thought the glassy-eyed camera stare had been outgrown














In the McDonald's parking lot in Mennonite country














Those spots apparently get some use based on the trail of evidence (not pictured, although I have a good one) left by the horses.

SPRING BREAK 2007

Aaron is now on Spring Break. He has gone to Cancun. In spirit. I, however, am not on break or on a spiritual vacation. This is made clear by the Official Academic Calendar: "This is NOT considered a semester break for Ph.D. students. All Ph.D. students must report to lab or office during this period."

We got a crib for my parents house. It is missing a key piece. There is even a section in the crib pamphlet emphasizing the need to not assemble the crib if this particular piece was missing. I improvised a bed for Dylan as I have whenever we have traveled since she outgrew the bassinet a few months ago, which always generates a few extra wakeups in the night. Aaron spent twenty minutes on the phone with the company (the crib is Luv brand, so this means he was calling the Luv hotline) to get a replacement piece, but it turns out they don't have any. They'll call us back.

Rocky was Here

We ditched Snuffy for the week because we weren't sure how much I could handle after the surgery. We are consequently in Ithaca to fetch him this weekend. Reports came back all week about odd patches of destruction throughout the house that were at first attributed to Snuffy, although subsequent investigations have revealed that a squirrel was also living in the house all week. The squirrel forced us out of our traditional basement lair, which led to an unfortunate and sleep-deprived night. The moral is: I am grumpy. Hearing Aaron squeal over the baby monitor when it scampered on a pipe above his head almost makes up for it though. The squirrel was apprehended in the night and is now running free in the outskirts of Ithaca.

I hope Snuffy doesn't want his bed back

What's the wrist version of a cankle?

Dylan thinks you are a giant lollipop

Get Yer Fat Naked Baby Here

Aaron continues to be ensnared in the Monroe County court system. Although for him the house arrest is not too different from his normal activities. Um, I mean, they don't need him for jury duty Monday morning, but they continue to keep him on a short leash and may need him that afternoon.

Dylan had another decent day at daycare yesterday. We brought in Dylan's Candy Bars for her teacher's last day to butter them all up. I think it worked marvelously. I think I like the new teacher, but I'm not sure yet.

Oh my god with the babbling, always babbling.

Maybe they should put her in the toddler room

Last night Dylan and I went to the first meeting of the medical student mothers' group. There are a ton of babies within few months of each other, so it could turn into a playgroup. Dylan, as always, was delighted to be showered with attention. When she suddenly started fussing I figured it was time to get out of there and get her to bed (which it was), but it turned out she was just VERY ANGRY I was not sharing my biscotti with her. It did look a lot like her teething biscuits, which she is deeply in love with. There was a two and a half year old there that she also feel deeply in love with. She chirped cheerfully at him whenever he got near and giggled whenever he did anything. It was a lot like she is with Snuffy and friends. She babbles all the freaking time these days. She can sit up quite well, but you never know when she will just topple over. Oh, she's also become an excellent eater, although we haven't introduced too many foods yet.

Aaron has secret service jury duty next week. He calls a special number Friday after five, and they tell him when and where to report, if at all. Further instructions to be given on a need to know basis. I wonder if "wear dark clothing and a ski mask" will be part of the protocol.

Quick Thursday Morning Notes

I fixed the milk duct, most excellent.

Dylan has been trying to get her favorite lamp to play her shaking head imitation game.

Aaron is taking a midterm right now.

Recent luscious Dylan curls courtesy of No More Tangles. The kid was getting dreadlocks.

Peek-a-boo comments are back courtesy of Aaron.

A Good Nap

Dylan took a good nap at daycare today. I am so happy. I can't resist one more daycare story, although they probably just make me look silly because why do I still have the kid there if I hate it so much? (lots of reasons, but still...) The girl who is leaving after this week said, in response to my proclamation that I would be coming in VERY often today to use Dylan to help clear up my brand new plugged milk duct, "it's not something you could do with a pump, or something like that?"

All my pictures of Dylan are blurry now because she does not sit still for even one second, despite her lack of mobility.

Got to go, Aaron is sitting there with his tail wagging waiting to watch Gilmore Girls.