Google is my Co-Pilot

You know that thing in the Google toolbar? Where you type in a letter or two and common searches pop up? I find it comforting to know that I am not the first to search for the various odd things I am searching for. Google is always looking out for me. Speaking of Google, did I tell you to go to Google Moon? And zoom in all the way? Well, I just checked, and nothing happens. But it used to be cheese! It was cool, one time. Really I just thought that was a funny title and needed a few sentences to back it up.

We are having Sleep Issues. Can you tell? I am fun to be around.

In another, unrelated issue, Aaron fell ill and went to bed at 6:30, uncharacteristically missing out on a social engagement. A social engagement that involved Sol cooking dinner for us on a propane-tank-powered-professional-looking wok contraption in his very cold garage. I was quite sincere when I told him he could be a street vendor.

Here, pictures, bed calls.

Psychic

Except it was 2am to 5am.

Quick daycare report

This morning when I dropped Dylan off at daycare by the time I turned around from filling out her sign in sheet she was sitting at the table eating snack and waving bye bye. Then she started blowing kisses, as did all the other kids. So she seems happy enough in her room. I think it's fine, but I will be happier when she moves up to a room where the teachers are more interested in talking to me. We went and visited her old teachers yesterday and they were still happy to talk about her. The most important thing, though, is that they recently launched a line of (I can only assume) overpriced daycare themed clothing.

So far so good with the sleep tonight. That statement probably just bought me a ticket straight to waking up at 2am for two hours. I live on the wild side sometimes.

Wednesday thoughts

Dylan climbed back in the tote bag today and sat there until we toted her. She has a completely blank (or "Aaron") expression on her face the whole time, yet can't seem to get enough of it.

Aaron taught her a new trick that is only appropriate to show you in video form, so I guess this is yet another tease on that front.

There is a policeman on horseback downtown every day at lunchtime. Does he have a giant concealed pooper scooper somewhere on his person?

We are still mourning Veronica Mars and Gilmore Girls. Sigh. Although there is plenty I'm enjoying right now (before the strike anyway)...Amazing Race (Aaron: is that the show where it's all about them buying plane tickets?), Project Runway, ANTM, The Office, House (off and on enjoyment only).

Does anyone know a good turnip recipe? I have recently come into a large number of turnips. Also three huge heads of cabbage. HUGE!

Oh, the irony

We try not to put water on her

I have been trying to put together a post with Dylan saying a few words (yes, caught on video, with Nessie dancing with a ufo in the background). However. If you're interested you'll have to speak to Aaron about that. He's insisted on using his computer, the one with the magic video creating wand, for the past couple of days. To do work, no less. And now he just insisted I make him cookies. He's really cramping my style.

Of the past 17 nights Dylan has gotten a decent night's sleep exactly once. Her system has never quite gotten back to normal since the episode, and I am just now figuring out that she may be, let us say, all backed up. Commencing prune treatment post haste.

Since this is basically a fashion blog at this point, I thought I would show you the latest in tote bags. Here we have Aaron (don't be fooled by the "Kate") sporting a sassy little number:
But, you ask, does that bag really fit with my gremlin-toting lifestyle? Aaron, why don't you show the people what they want to see...




Even the gremlins like it! They find the dank darkness to be to their liking! Here is one begging to get back in after being evicted:

SPECIAL BONUS SEGMENT: SNUFFLEUPAGUS OR CHEWBACCA?

Dylan and the blue and orange crayons

Also, Snuffy and the tongue
Also, this is the kind of news item that matters to me.

Some bullets and a link

• I was able to switch all our electricity to hydroelectric and wind. Cool!


• Daycare sent home a 3-page single spaced biting policy letter. It turns out biting children are like bats (or vampires?): "There may be a time when your child gets bitten, doesn't respond immediately, and you find the bite after you get home."


• We have been enjoying this page in the Williams Sonoma catalog (warning: may be offensive to those who do not appreciate gingerbread man porn)


• Dylan wants to know where Snuffy is at all times. If he is not in sight she runs around yelling DOG DOG DOG until he is located.


• Current Dylan word list (boring, I know, just humor me): yes, no, ball, baby, DOG, hi, bear, moremoremore, again, give, DILL (dylan), nurse, thirsty (sign only), uh-oh, (increasingly used after deliberately dropping things), mama, dada, plus an estimated 300 words in her own language


• A group was asking Dylan "what does mommy say" in an attempt to get her to blow her nose. Instead she started blowing kisses. Ha.


• I have 13 out of 50 people enrolled in my dissertation study.


• The ride back to Rochester today (taken while, uh, not driving):

Dispatch from wishing I were asleep

Bleisenblog World Headquarters is in Four Alarm Sleep Deprivation Mode. Proximal cause: two weeks of terrible sleep. Secondary causes?: teething, gastroenteritis, fear, travel, personal vendetta. Some of us have been in a terrific mood despite the difficult circumstances. Others have not fared as well.

I forgot the video camera cable in Rochester, so here are the past few days in pictures:

Another instance in which Dylan was put into a weird costume without my knowledge or consent




Leashed to Aaron's foot during turkey time

Round 2

Closure

Okay, two more things about the trip and then I'll stop.

One. One of our planes was continuing on to Munich. We, however, did not realize this until halfway through the flight. Thus we were confused when the only announcement for the first 45 minutes we were on the plane was in German and only German. The flight attendants were German and when they saw our last name they figured we were German too, even after we explained that we were not, in fact, German. Luckily my mom's high school German conbined with several convinving context clues were enough to figure out the translation for "Would you like something to drink?"

Two. Live action demonstration of the bag dragging.

The SCENE: Last night, 1:15am

Phone: RING RING

Aaron: Leaps across the room to answer phone, give directions to pizza guy.

Meanwhile, upstairs...

Lisa: Leaps out of bed to answer phone, does not give directions to pizza guy.

Back downstairs...

Aaron: "Sorry, Lisa"

Kate & Tommy: Intrigued that the pizza delivery guy is named Lisa.

In the driveway...

Pizza guy: Arrives.

AND back upstairs...

Snuffy: Barks.

FINALE

Kate, Aaron, Dylan, Tommy, Snuffy devour pizza. Stupid baby.

Excuses Excuses

I have all these ideas for posts and then it gets late at night at I don't have time and then I just have to throw you some swill because I want to post every day this month. You like swill, right? I am especially hoping to be able to do some more videos in the next few days.

In the meantime, here's some other stuff.

Aaron and I use google calendars for our schedules. We are able to share them so we can see each other's plans each day. Of course we would never share our passwords, even with each other, but if we did, one day, I might have gone into Aaron's calendar and added some important items to his week. They may have related to bodily funtions. And then he might have gone to schedule a meeting with someone from work looking over his shoulder at his calendar. So that's why we don't share passwords even with loved ones.

Dylan is suddenly interested in helping out with housework. That, combined with her new understanding of basic English, has lead to a new means of entertaining myself. I have gotten her to unload the dishwasher, move things from the washer to the dryer, pick up toys, and scurry to the other side of the room to huddle in the corner with Snuffy while I vacuum. Of course her new understanding has also led to baby's first moments of deliberate defiance.

I'm like a narrator for national geographic

Now that I've waited this long to write up our trip I can't remember it. The end.

Wait wait, it's coming back to me, but I'll have to rely heavily on the pictures to recreate events.

As I believe I mentioned, it featured a lot of Dylan stopping traffic by dragging large plastic bags around.
After daycare today she got her little mitts on a plastic bag, filled it up with detritus from the house, and dragged it around the living room. Dylan finds a lovey.

There was also stopping of traffic because of general cuteness. These nice tourists elected to include Dylan in many of their trip photos.
There was a lot of snuggling BAAAAYBEEEEE.
In between dodging bicycles we enjoyed some art on the Stanford campus.
Dylan did not, however, enjoy Uncle Gavin, non-uncle Jonah, or any other man she encountered on the trip.

We took in some fine art (ie the museum cafeteria and gift store) with friends from Princeton (or PU as my mom calls it).
One thing you might notice about Ilana and Jake is that they in no way coordinate their outfits, at least not on purpose.
One other thing to know about Jake is that he has a superpower where you put him in a moving car and he falls asleep instantly with his head at a 90 degree angle from his body. Then he wakes up briefly and tells you how well rested he is, then the car moves a little more and he is back asleep.

The museum courtyard was filled with all this seemingly climbable art next to signs saying not to touch the art. We will not be ordered around by a stupid sign.
Aaron got the Kate's Special Trader Joe's Gift Pak as a present, to which he responded "but what did you get for ME?" I have no idea why he would say that. *chews covertly* Also, we went to IKEA against everyone's wishes but mine. Also, Dylan hardly slept and I think I may be in a coma from tired.

Finally, I have this picture of Dylan that says, "Go ahead, ask me where I get my ideas."

And there you have it. Questions? Comments?

The Way Home

I hope this doesn't throw you for too much of a loop, but let's start with the way home, shall we? That way it can be more like a debrief to get all the unpleasantness out of the way. Actually it was fine once we got going, but it was by far the most harrowing check-in experience I have ever had.

We checked the flight status before leaving for the airport. Two hours late. Logically enough, that made us rush to the airport ever sooner which turned out to be good. We thought it was because of the dense fog outside and figured the whole airport was socked in. We began to think otherwise when we tried to check in and they were like oh, that flight. Then they actually had us switch airlines, which involved briskly walking through two terminals with all of our entourage only to land ourselves at the end of a huge line with ominous 45 MINUTE CUTOFF signs blinking everywhere. We couldn't get seats together because we had been booked on that flight so late, and would be left to the mercy of nearby passengers as to whether we could sit with Dylan. Then on to an enormous security line, which at first went well -- Dylan was our ticket to the express stroller line. Our actual tickets, however, were our ticket to the SECONDARY LINE. The SECONDARY LINE is a depressing little corral of 5-6 people, all wondering how they got there, with no entrance or exit without an employee escort. We naively thought we had been pulled out of line because our flight was getting too close and we needed to be rushed through. One full body scan and many many minutes later we were granted the privilege of shuffling quickly toward our gate. I am sad to report that one bag of liquids was left behind in the process, may it rest in peace. Then, with time for neither diaper change nor use of bathroom, we were on.

We went through Chicago instead of Philly as we were originally supposed to. I liked having two medium flights with Dylan much better than one very short one and one six hour one, although she really was fine the whole time. In the end we got into Rochester two hours earlier than our original flights would have, even with no delays. And I think we all learned a little something about ourselves in the process.

One nice thing was that Dylan silently drifted off to sleep in her car seat on one of the flights. I think she has done that about three times in her life. It was sad though because she doesn't do that whole sleeping like a baby thing -- instead she did that nodding off to sleep only to jerk awake when your head bobs down too low thing. It was really sad to watch and I couldn't figure out how to help her position the pillow better. But she did end up with a decent nap that got her through many hours of flying.

Thanks to Gavin and Cathe for all the hospitality and generally catering to our every whim! Sorry about that trip to IKEA!

Quick Non-Post Post

We're back in Rochester after an adventure filled day of travel. I think I'll save my trip roundup post until I can illustrate it with pictures, which are unfortunately stuck for now on my mom's camera (stupid proprietary sony stuff).
Dylan was great and is now fast asleep in her own bed, amen.

Home tomorrow

We had a meeting of the Northern California Bleisenblog readership at Golden Gate Park today. We enacted some bylaws and elected officers. If you are interested in membership send me an e-mail.

We get back late tomorrow, so I hope it's not too hard on Dylan.

Notes from CA

The Dumb flared up again. I managed to bring the big camera, but made no provision for charging its already dead battery. Trip photos may be sparse.

Dylan is still lugging little Dylan everywhere (aaron says the name choice is creepy; we will have to have a talk about respecting Dylan's choices). We actually think she is trying to say her own name. She points to herself and says "Dih!" then she points to the baby and says it again. We were with a couple of Tommy's friends yesterday who are freshmen at Stanford, one of whom said, "It's self-aware! Now we can't let it leave the network!" They also remarked that it is difficult to have a conversation with me around because I am always yelling BELLY BUTTON. Whatever, these are people who say 2am is an early night so I don't believe a word they say. The Stanford campus is beautiful except for the kamikaze bicyclists.

Arrived

As far as flights across the country with a 14-month-old go, I think this one wasn't too bad.

Highlights:

I kept a quick diaper changing kit in a plastic bag for the flights. Dylan adopted that bag as another child might a blankie and dragged it lovingly all over the airport.

I gave her a little baby doll, Dylan, to play with. She LOVED it and patted its head and rubbed its back. Good baby.

Also popular were: Aaron's ipod, my little magnifying glass, the window, the peek-a-boo book, big chunky crayons for little chunky fingers, and toilet paper. For the way back I have some floss and scotch tape.

Dylan was happy and cheerful most of the day.

We didn't check bags. No wait when we arrived!

Lowlights:

We didn't check bags! That's a lot of stuff to haul around all day!

The movie was...Transformers.

Dylan got up at 5:30am the day we left for no reason at all.

I got a mini Bop It as part of my baby plane entertaining program. It makes noise but is relatively quiet, and Dylan loves the big version so I thought it would be a good choice. It was, until it started making a loud siren noise when we messed up. Perhaps not the best idea mid-flight.

We bought a seat for Dylan because we thought it would make the long flight a lot easier, but it meant she had her own seat on the Rochester to Philadelphia flight also. On that flight she fell asleep on the plane from before we left the gate, after intensive sleep-generating efforts. Fifteen minutes later the flight attendant told me that since we had a seat for her she had to be in it and I could not hold her, even though we could easily not have gotten her a seat. This is an instant ticket to awake for Dylan. I thought about using my 3oz liquid bags to inflict some injuries. This rule turns out not to be an actual "rule" so much as a "power trip" because on the next flight no one said a word when I held her as she slept at the beginning of the flight. Why she fell asleep at the worst time possible TWICE I do not know.

Dylan's digestive system has still not fully recovered. She went through three outfits and eight diapers during the trip.

Winter Fashion Preview 07/08

Flying the Coop

Guess what? Dylan and my mom and I are flying to California today! We're fleeing the moderate fall Upstate New York temperatures in favor of the moderate fall Northern California temperatures. I'm still hoping to post every day one way or another (that's what that NaBloPoMo thing on the sidebar means -- you post every day in November), but I'm not making any promises. Wish us luck on the plane with the squirmy little one.

Round 1

Dylan has been absolutely delighted with the extra dogs around the house. We have kept them barricaded in the kitchen most of the time because they are generally coated with mud from a hard day's romping. Dylan hangs out on the living room side of the gate and drops things into the dog area, so I keep finding piles of toys and clothes there.

My consultants inform me that the technical problem with the video was that I filled up Aaron's hard drive. Who knew that could happen? I soldiered through, and now I would like to introduce a video series called Dylan VS Snuffy, pitting one against the other in a contest for our love. Here is the first installment: