Happy Birthday Dylan

And when I say it feels like ten years I mean that in the nicest way possible.

Water Water Everywhere

Twice in the past two days I have been hanging around the house with Dylan and she has gotten out of my sight. Things are more or less baby proofed around here, so that is usually fine. Both times I noticed an eerie silence and went to investigate, only to find that she had gotten her little mitts on one of the water glasses I like to leave filled around the house and was sitting there proudly drinking out of it. I am going to sit here for a moment and appreciate that that is what she thinks of as getting into trouble.

...

Also, she is now sleeping better on a cot at daycare than she ever did in the crib there.

Park

Dylan now barks reliably when asked what a dog says, so my work here is done. She has been in a snuggly charming happy mood for about a week. She must know it's birthday season.A wild beast stalks its preyBut in the circle of life even the hunter is huntedA temporary truceEnoughCaptured: The circle is complete

Baby teeth

Dylan's teeth get a lot of attention from onlookers, primarily because they are ridiculous. Exhibit A:In an effort to take care of those teeth, chipmunkesque though they may be, I seem to have been suckered in by some kind of pediatric dental scheme. From what I read, this is about the right age to take Dylan in for her first dental visit. I obediently made her an appointment, which is no small feat because the clinic we can walk to requires you to be on hold for a minimum of 20 minutes to get one. When we got into the exam room the dentist praised me enthusiastically for getting her in so early. I now think perhaps the enthusiasm stemmed from me being the first person to have ever done so. In any case it is not clear that he had ever before seen a one-year-old, although he gave it his best shot.

"Hi Dylan! Would you like a sticker?"

Kate grabs sticker from box and sticks it on Dylan's arm. Heh, that will keep her busy for a while.

"Dylan, would you like to pick out a sticker now?"

Kate and Dylan sit there blinking until he figures out that the child has not yet developed a preference for Spiderman vs. Batman.

"So, does she take a bottle before bed?"

"No."

"Oh. That's mostly why we want to get kids in this early."

***Thirty Seconds Later***

"So, when should I bring her back in?"

"Well, they say six months. But really a year is probably okay. Maybe nine months. You know, once she has all her teeth."

He somewhat sheepishly charged us for only an exam and not the cleaning because, you know, only four teeth. Actually he was quite good with Dylan during the exam and she was so mystified she just gave him the old blank stare. The nice ladies at daycare had a good laugh at me because they hadn't brought their kids to the dentist until they were two. Three! FOUR! Hah, I'm so dumb.

Dylan Mongering

Last week we took Dylan to an evening FESTIVAL they had at daycare. To Aaron's delight it had a bounce house, despite the sad fact that no one in our party fit the target age/height/weight demographic. Nor did Dylan fit the profile for the face painting, arts and crafts, or, at least I like to think, the greasy greasy food truck. She was suspicious of the cotton candy and too tired at the end of the day to play on the playground. So what, you ask, did we participate in? I believe it was called the Fear Mongering booth. It was a quiet booth off to the side, with few children. I know now that that should have raised red flags. But when the nice woman smiled as I walked over I thought she must have an activity for Dylan. And she did: fingerprinting. Along with distribution of helpful materials to help fend off kidnappers (motto: kidnapping--it's not just for strangers). I also have some trading cards sent home a few weeks ago with her school picture on them, presumably to hand out to the police and their friends should a kidnapping occur.

Dylan's First First Birthday Party (1 of 3)

Milestone: Dylan discovers stuffed animals

And some other pictures from the past week:

Master of the House

Aaron passed! He won the program! (And the sandbox) It's time to quit while he's ahead!

The repercussions of our Friday night delay in leaving Rochester have been vast and wide. At least in my mind, because our spending Friday night here resulted in my true colors as a cranky grump coming through. Two of the houses across the street from us are newly inhabited by med students, and there was a raging party going on in the lot between them Friday night when we got back home from the airport around 10:00pm. Raging to such an extent that there was no way I was going to be able to sleep. I sat there imagining our elderly neighbors on either side and that nice young Japanese family cowering in their homes, not to mention the precious minutes of sleep slipping from my grasp. And I marched myself over there to tell them to turn off the music lest they find themselves mowed down by our Subaru. I was directed to the guy in charge, who said "Oh. Are you a...neighbor?" Like it honestly hadn't occurred to anyone there that there might be...neighbors. In the neighborhood. (Hint: who are the people in your neighborhood?) They had turned off the music by the time I walked back to the house, although they milled loudly for several more hours. Kate: Bringer of Justice.

And a photo series. Dylan: Friend of Ducks

Live from rochester!

Smooched

Yesterday I was going to post about how Dylan wanted to give me a bunch of kisses. However, I was interrupted by, guess what, Dylan. She would not tolerate a distance of more than six inches between the two of us. I have not ever (NEVER!) had her sleep in bed with me all night for no other reason than I don't sleep with her there (or with the blinds pulled, the window closed, the door open, you get the idea). I have tried out of desperation to get her to sleep there a couple of times, but it doesn't seem to work for her either. We had her in that bassinet attached to our bed for the first few months, which was nice because she was NOT IN THE BED. Well, last night she freaked out to such an extent whenever I wasn't right next to her that I ended up in bed with her for the night at 9:30pm. She slept okay except for a little jaunt from 4:00am to 6:00am. She hasn't gone to bed well at all this whole week and I hate to even mention it because it is even starting to get boring to hear myself talk about this but it dominates ours lives to such an extent that I really have no choice. You understand, I'm sure.

Anyway, the kisses. At first I have to confess I had no idea why her head was suddenly inches from mine with her tongue sticking out. Aaron figured it out though. It turns out Dylan kisses are not too different from Snuffy kisses. The cute sort of made of for the slobber. Sort of.

Postponed

Aaron has to give a public presentation of his research as part of the requirements for his Master's degree. The presentation was scheduled for this morning, so Aaron spent a lot of the weekend working on it, as did I. That is, of course, when we weren't hanging out at the airport. A certain element of stress might have been removed from the weekend, if you know what I'm saying, had we known that the presentation would not actually take place until Thursday (overseas family emergency of a committee member). Luckily Aaron's dad lives in the cupcake district of Greenwich Village so we at least got to cut the stress with sugary frosting. Aaron had ordered two boxes of goodies from his former employer that I got to hand out throughout the day since they weren't needed to butter up the audience, so to speak. I noticed I was in some demand today.

Other things:

It has been noted that although there is a new name on my office door, there is only one name and it is a two person office. As there is no other office for me, we can conclude that I will probably not have to leave. I'm just undercover now.

I had a nice photo essay planned for you, scheduled to take place in the creepy tunnel that connects my building to the main medical center building. Hissing pipes, decades-old graffiti, it had it all. Unfortunately, the contractor elves got there first and suddenly it's all nice and painted and the pipes no longer seem like they're about to explode. Next time I'll be sure to seize the day more promptly when it comes to amusing property defacements.

Over the course of Saturday Dylan figured out how to 1)turn around and scoot down backwards to get off the little table she kept climbing on, 2)draw with a pen, and 3)stand on her own for a couple seconds. Today she started doing the sign for thirsty. I can tell she really wants to communicate all of a sudden. I better go learn some more signs.

Carry-on baggage

Recent Arrival

Knock knock knocking

I heard a banging in the hallway while I was working in my office yesterday. It was like someone was running down the hall knocking very loudly right next to, but not quite on, each of the office doors. I kept almost getting up to answer the door, but then the sound would move on to another door. A few minutes later there was a knock on my actual door -- my advisor and another student had stopped by to ask where my new office was going to be. My new office, eh? You mean the FIFTH new office I will have had in my two year tenure in this department? They were asking because my name had been removed from the door and replaced with the name of an incoming student. Ah, pseudo-knocking explained. The same thing had happened to the student who was standing at my door, only his new office had been located. As of yet, mine has not.

New flight scheduled to leave around noon.

Off the plane. In Rochester. Giving up for the night.

Finally we're boarding, at least we think so

Between the three of us we managed to smuggle many precious precious liquids through security -- baby vitamins, sunblock, AND toothpaste. We'll be so hygienic!

Aaron was giving Dylan a drink of water but he started tipping the bottle a little too soon and dumped it all over her face. Maybe hysterical laughter wasn't the most empathetic response?

Dylan and I used the FAMILY RESTROOM. We also met Chet The Recycling Cheetah. What a great Friday night.

They WERE toying with me. Now they've moved takeoff to 8:45. Jerks.

Aaron pillaged

I did get some M&M's and reese's pieces. I am amazing. Everyone in the terminal is impressed with Dylan's diligence with pushing the stroller.

They keep saying planes have been "released." What does that mean? I have a vision of an incredible hulk-plane bursting out of its restraints. They're back with m&m's, but Dylan took mine.

Oh yeah, Aaron ran off muttering something about m&m's. He must be out hunting/gathering them. And minding the baby! I guess the woman's work in this situation must be keeping the public apprised of developments. Never fear, I'm on it.

Now they're saying "wheels up time is 8:14pm." Why are they toying with me? Are they in cahoots with Dylan? Wait, where did Aaron and Dylan go?

Dylan is now racing around the gate on her knees pushing her stroller.

A little liveblogging

Well, here we are at GRIA, or Greater Rochester International Airport for newbies. Two thumbs up to free wireless in the terminal. It is an eight minute drive to the airport from our house, yet as events have transpired we will be spending three plus hours of our lives here this evening. I thought I would catch you up on all the excitement so far, and keep you updated on all the happenings here at Gate A10. So far this trip...

I woke Dylan up from a nap to get to the airport on time. Ha. Ha. Ha.

Aaron sent his boarding pass through security.

Dylan spent dinner waving and grinning at everyone who passed by.

Some as yet unnamed object in my purse mystified security.

We got to skip the security line because of the stroller (Aaron: "I think we got to skip the line because of the baby!")

That allowed us to get the last couple seats an earlier flight. It was scheduled for 4:30 and is now leaving at 9:00pm. Our original flight is likely to be cancelled. They suggested we go home and try again in the morning. I also suggested we go home and try again in the morning. Aaron demurred.

The nice little baby play area is gated off.

Stay tuned...

Miscellany II

Dylan has slept through the last three nights for no discernible reason. I can't help but look at her with suspicion. Why is she toying with me? Whatever her motives, how about if we go away for the weekend to make sure this doesn't last? We're fools. FOOLS!

I have noticed a subtle change in Snuffy since he started being allowed to go upstairs. I've always thought he did a lot of moping around the house. Everyone always tells me no, he just looks like that. But he doesn't seem as mopey anymore and he seems more attached to me. He's never liked to be left out of the action, but now he's even more diligent about plopping down three feet away from wherever I am. It's like he's not quite so anxious now that he can more accurately track our movements.

They're going to start transitioning Dylan onto a cot at daycare. I may have laughed and caused some offense when they told me, but COME ON. They've also suggested that they should start spelling out N-A-P around her due to the ensuing rage. They just moved a bunch of kids up to the next room so she's already one of the oldest and they only have room for so many cribs and blah blah good luck with that.

I had been predicting that Dylan would walk at 14 months, but now I think it could be pretty soon. I actually think she could do it now, but she's not interested in what might happen when we let go of her hands. Conversely, if we hold her hands she'll run and run and I guess I should get a video of that now that I think of it.

Miscellany

I always find it a little annoying when people compare their babies to teenagers and say how they're in for it if the kid is like this already. And yet...she found the volume knob on the stereo. I turn it down, she turns it up. I change the station, she changes it back. Plus she wants to talk on the phone all day long.

Aaron programmed his many phone numbers (the house, one office three days a week, another office the other two, plus a brief flirtation with a second cell phone, although that didn't work out) into our cell phone, which I use for the most part during the day. I tried to call him yesterday and was cheerfully greeted with Kelly's voicemail. You can't get rid of me that easily, my friend.

Dylan will not eat peaches or my delicious homemade mac and cheese or peas or broccoli or cream cheese or pears or non-pureed carrots or tortilla or beans. Maybe she was looking for more of a kick because I gave her a big bowl of not unspicy Indian food for dinner last night and she slurped it right down and signed for more (her second day of using the sign, very proudly). Then she got some in her eye and was less pleased with the dish.

Some new stuff Dylan does lately besides the phone thing

• Dances to anything that resembles a beat, including books


• Loves getting squirted with a rubber ducky, especially in the face


• Almost stands on her own


• Greets almost all strangers with a steely glare


• Subscribes to the meal once every three days toddler eating program


• Also the picky little twit food selection program


• Figured out which buttons turn off the radio and open the cd player and routinely puts that knowledge to use (stop messing with my public radio addiction, kid)


• Figured out stairs are fun! to! climb!


• Pets Snuffy nicely on the head


• Thoughtfully feeds Snuffy before feeding herself


• Identifies nose fairly reliably, although sometimes confuses it with "mouth" and "so big"


• Whines pathetically whenever I enter or leave a room


• Goes straight for the toilet paper


• Barks at dogs


• Makes a noise that resembles nothing so much as that sound Dr. Evil makes while dancing

If only her hand had ringtones

Still sick = more pictures, less writing for you

Baby talk

In retrospect, 3 out of the 4 of us had a stomach bug for about four days this week. That pretty much sums up the week.

We think Dylan has started doing a couple of signs after several months of sporadic halfhearted attempts to teach them to her. That and the talking thing is weird. Even though it's only a few words, they're on purpose! Like a real person! Who talks! She also started slapping her hand over her ear. I figured it was bothering her in some way, but she didn't seem upset. We finally figured out that she was copying us talking on the phone so now we all walk around talking into our hands.
Nothing like the real thing though.
In addition to making overseas calls for us, Dylan also serves as our backup shredder.
The dress is Dylan's loot from my parents' trip to Hawaii. It's a little big and she can't crawl that well in it but she muddled through.

Crime Fighting Starts at Home

We went to our neighborhood's National Night Out Against Crime last night. Our neighborhood association's requirement of a child under two in every household is really doing the trick because the place was crawling with them. It was at a playground and there were bubbles and ice cream sundaes and arts and crafts and face painting and a fire engine, and, of course, representatives (a Storm Trooper, the Flash, some dude in a cape) of our local chapter of costume enthusiasts. Snuffy is always very popular at such events among those children whose parents aren't cowering in fear at the thought of Huge Beast coming near Precious.

Uncle Tommy and Friends have taken to using us as a frat house on the weekends, so I'm feeling another trip to see the butterflies coming on (they're, um, enlightened? simple? as frat boys go).

Bleisenblogs sick, tired-->Another picture post

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