solo for the president

Okay, okay, I've now got all the Annie references out of my system.

What I meant was, Happy New Year, again!

santa claus -- what's that? who's he?

We tempered all that optimism by adding Hard Knock Life to the loop, so now I'm a little bummed about all the well-choreographed scrubbing that needs to be done. Luckily daycare also introduced Dylan to movies this month (a classroom favorite is the moment the grinch's small heart grew three sizes -- the "now he's bad! now he's good!" appeals to the three-year-old crowd) so we blew her mind by playing her some scenes from the movie. I have to say, I'm ready to knock a little of that spunk out of Annie.

Speaking of Annie, Daddy Warbucks is featured for about five minutes at the end of the last Bourne movie. I know because we watched all three of them in a row the other night because Tommy got them in blueray. So much HD violence.

Ollie has been sleeping in 5 or 6 hour stretches when it suits his fickle, fickle fancy. Sadly, he is doing the same reflux thing that Dylan did, which takes significant chunks out of all of our sleep and probably will for months to come. He's still cute though, and enormous.

We're going out for yummy dinner tonight for New Year's, and are thus spending the day drooling in anticipation. Happy New Year from my elfin family. Best wishes that you, too, are drooling in anticipation. [photo credit: Dylan, for the one of me and Ollie]

so ya gotta hang on

Dylan managed to keep her head from exploding on Christmas. She actually held it together pretty well, given that she thought she was getting a laptop based on a list generated at, and possibly by, daycare (Aaron, when she brought the list home: Do you even know what a laptop is? Dylan: No). She did get a cool dollhouse that is far fancier than our actual house, with "a wind turbine, a solar panel with electrical inverter for generating electricity, a rain barrel for collecting rain, a biofacade which uses plant growth which helps control the appropriate temperature of the house, and a shade canopy that can be pulled down or lifted up to allow the right amount of sunlight and air circulation to come through."

Luckily our spirits have been buoyed from post-holiday letdown by putting Tomorrow on a loop for the past three days, per Dylan's request. I defy you to hang on to your bottom dollar after the fifth repetition. It just wears you down.

Speaking of dollars, which are not involved in the following anecdote, there are only four people left in survivor football. If San Fransisco loses to Detroit I will win the pool, which I would estimate is equal to $700 worth of joy to me.

sees you when you're sleeping etc.

Daycare has spent the last month brainwashing the children about christmas, which they use both as a source of constant craft ideas and as an ever-present behavioral threat. In the middle of hanukkah Dylan wasn't doing what I was asking when it was time to go home, and the teacher apologized to me that she didn't know how to use the holiday to threaten Dylan to listen to me (no santa to call and whatnot). I was going to take it easy on the santa stuff, but that wasn't an option as Dylan came home knowing every detail of every ritual and all the words to all the songs. We did have fun this evening as we put out the cookies and such, although it took her a good hour and a half to fall asleep. I am hoping she doesn't pop out of bed at 3am ready to open presents.

We are on our annual end of December Tour de Upstate road trip. Ollie has already logged one two-hour car ride in which he stayed asleep the whole time. Dylan has literally never done that in her entire life. It really had not occurred to me that some of the stuff that was really hard with dylan (you may recall: the bottle, the spitting up, the starting daycare, the cessation of sleep at 4 months of age, the screaming in the car seat) might actually be easier with this one, so any of those things that is not a nightmare will feel like we won the baby lottery. I'm sure he'll come up with something of his own to throw us for a loop. So far though he's been a rather reasonable baby, although I know I still have a bunch of months of scurrying to bed right after he does to hedge my bets. On that note, he's asleep now so to all a good night.

The Many Moods of the One Month Old

Slight Distaste

Bemused Fatigue

Grim Determination

Stupefaction

Tempered Optimism

Tired of Holding Up This Noggin

Irrational Exuberance

***

Ollie is one month today.

To celebrate he has been grinning like a fool for the first time, revealing a hint of dimples.

To celebrate I am applying an antifungal cream to his armpits, where he has a yeast infection due to growing so fast he has "fat folds other babies don't have," to quote his pediatrician. [current weight: 11lbs 2oz, up ~2.5lbs since leaving the hospital]

I am so disoriented it feels like I have simultaneously been here taking care of this baby forever and that he was born about an hour ago. The last month has been a nonstop party, with people visiting every weekend and some weekdays and Thanksgiving and Hanukkah (not to mention survivor football, where I am one of five people left out of an original 70, with of course no money at all at stake as that would be illegal. or something). We have literally not eaten this much takeout in our entire previous 6.5 years here.

***

Dylan is back to her old self, with a few modifications, including 1) lingering suspicion of my mom, who watched her while we went to the hospital, 2) an extra dose of evil in all her doings, and 3) a requirement of reassurance that she is toilet trained. Her version of a toileting regression has been to not actually have an accident, but to worry about having one all the time. She is nothing if not fastidious.

Anyone remember how I spent the whole year after having Dylan muttering about being relieved that I was no longer pregnant? I feel the same way, only more so this time, both because I was getting so alarmed about Ollie's size and because I was moderately ill the last few weeks of pregnancy but was holding off on taking antibiotics until he was born. An added bonus this time is that Dylan is right there with me. It turns out she had been cataloging every single thing I said I couldn't do when I was pregnant. Now each day she cheerfully mentions something I can do, such as Ride a Bike! Eat Treats! Pick Me Up (For a Little While)! Not Test Your Blood! Drink Beer! Have a Lap! Can't argue there.

She still hasn't figured out to resent Ollie and really likes having him around. The rest of us do too.

Dylan and Luigi Cooking At Home

a random sleep

Is an "I'm busy with a newborn" post boring? It is, I know it. Plus I imagine it has a slightly hysterical tone from sleep deprivation. And yet, that's what I've got for you today.

Ollie has had a stuffy nose for infinity days now (sometimes I lose perspective, with the babies), and hasn't allowed me to put him down to sleep since Saturday. Thus I have not had two free hands or any decent sleep since that time. If it looks like there might be a chance I could get him to sleep without being quite so personally involved I find myself daydreaming about my next three moves, usually involving personal hygiene. Then I get through half of whatever I want to do first and he's up and there goes personal hygiene and that explains a lot, doesn't it?

I feel a lot less caught up with the details this time around. Last time would think, she slept X amount last night and I ate this for dinner and changed her diaper at Y time and WHAT IS THE PATTERN TO IT ALL? This time I feel more like there is some sort of baby broadcast signal driving his actions and I can't receive those signals and I have no control anyway. I remember that the peak of crying is supposed to be 6 weeks and babies aren't very good at digesting until 12 weeks and there is no rhyme or reason to it beyond that. My main misconception last time was that the sleep would continually get better and then it wouldn't be something we would have to worry about. Which is true, but it happened over a two year time frame instead of the four to six months I had imagined and Dylan could still wake up crying at 4am on any given night even though she usually chooses not to. So: I have no hope of routinely getting decent sleep for at least a year and a half. I am appreciative that at least right now I have time to devote myself to napping and resting, assuming I can avoid Dylan and her mortal opposition to anyone in the house taking a nap. She is relatively tolerant of Ollie sleeping, but usually still notes that she wishes she could play with him. I guess for her "giving up the nap" means all of us, recent convert and all that. She's been doing great this week, though, in terms of the exorcism.

One pattern I have identified is that all those days I got to the gym were days that Aaron was home. Now he is working and Ollie can't go to the gym daycare until he's 6 weeks, so there goes personal fitness also.

I'm off to stop pushing my luck and go to bed since Ollie seems to actually be down for the moment.

And The Winner Is

That's right folks, get your Baby Pool results right here.

To recap, 19 of you submitted guesses as to the baby's birth date, time, weight, and sex. In the scoring, I weighted the date most heavily, followed by weight and time, and a bit of Who's Line Is It Anyway-style point granting.

The correct answers were:
11/22/09
7:35pm
9lbs 3oz
Male

Here is the blow-by-blow:

Date
Four people got the date correct. Two of them, Aaron and Annabelle, were disqualified for late entries. Aaron in addition receives some kind of bad karma for entering as we were leaving for the hospital, while Annabelle gets extra points for entertaining Dylan for a full weekend since Ollie was born. The third was Anne, which is notable because she was the winner of Dylan's baby pool and must be weirdly in tune with my birthing arrangements. The fourth was me, but it must be noted that I entered on time and in the end had relatively little control over what day things got going. Had it been up to me it would have been the 19th, which is about when I started panicking about the largeness of the Ollie. Unfortunately, the kind commenters who guessed on the early side were the farthest off, and populated the bottom of the scoreboard. I thought the turkey baby guess was going to be way late, but it turned out to be reasonably close. Guesses that crept into December were, as Dylan might say, Not Nice.

Time
You all were pretty evenly spread out throughout the day, with late afternoon a popular time. Eerily, Vanessa and Adam both guessed within 15 minutes of the correct time.

Weight
Again those kind entrants who guessed smaller weights were rewarded with worse scores. Sarah M and Zach B were both within one ounce of the actual weight, and sadly, Sarah was the only one to guess too high. So thank you all for your optimistic thinking in that regard. As was noted earlier, Alana somehow knew the baby's weight on the day the ultrasound was taken, so bonus points for that. Also, extra points to both Sarah and Alana for providing us with weddings to attend in the next year. It's all about us, you know. (congratulations!)

Sex
Everyone said it would be a boy, although Dr. Borus gets extra points for feeling the need to distinguish between sex and gender, and Sarah gets still more points for wondering, correctly, whether cookie monsters have a gender.

In summary
Aaron got the best score, but was disqualified for his lack of a moral compass. He may or may not get the lick the bowl. I got the second best score (anyone see The Office episode with the employee of the month?), but I bake things for myself all the time so there is no need to have me win a contest for such a purpose. So the actual winner is...ERICA. This is well deserved, as she is the only one of all of you who stopped by our house last weekend to bring us a treat actually called bonbons, thus allowing me to spend the last two days sitting around eating bonbons. Honorable Mention and a baked good of her choosing will also go to Sarah M for all those extra points and for being off by only 1 day and 1 ounce. Dylan gets to lick the bowl, and will likely be conscripted to help with the baking. Ollie is really not pulling his weight yet for this purpose.

Options For Baked Goods
Cookies we all know my compulsion for cookie-making
Brownies
Apple Pie this tends to involve tears and rending of garments when I'm working with the crust
Pumpkin Pie cream-based, and thus delicious, even to non-pumpkin pie eaters
Cake
Also open to suggestions

Three Weeks, second time around

I'm having a lot of fun trolling around in the archives to see what we were up to when Dylan was the same age as Ollie. It appears that last time I was just starting to be able to walk at this point. This time I was done with the sitting around taking it easy a few days ago and now I've gone to the gym four days in a row. I feel a lot better, but did you know that on the treadmill you CAN go uphill both ways?

Ollie took a couple days off from sleep of any kind in favor of resolving some digestive issues, but has now resumed his former schedule. Otherwise he doesn't cry very much, although he also seems to hate the car seat. We've had him out a lot because the alternative is often remaining cooped up in the house with a restless Dylan. She's slowly getting back to her usual self, but still, bored three-year-olds are no fun. We now have snippets of both Dylan and Snuffy popping up in most baby pictures.

He seems like he wants to use his arms better and I swear he's on the verge of smiling but hasn't quite figured it out yet. He does the bonk thing also when he's hungry, sometimes rather violently. He mostly hangs out gazing up at me when he's awake. Perhaps Aaron and Dylan could learn from his example. Actually I sit around all day gazing at him too, so we are REALLY boring to hang out with.
Oh, and this one? Will be taking a bottle. Starting now.

Curious George: A Template

1) George was a good little monkey, and curious.

2) George and The Man With The Yellow Hat ("The Man") leave the house.

3) The Man fails to provide adequate supervision.

4) George slips away.

5) George causes all sorts of mayhem.

6) George partially alleviates the mayhem he has caused.

7) George receives effusive praise for his actions from [the entire village][the shopkeep][the animals][concerned onlookers].

8) George and The Man return home.

fin

rats. or mice. or something.

When Aaron found the shoes filled with dog food in the basement this morning, our first thought was...Dylan. That was our second, third, and fourth thought too, given her penchant for stashing the remote in her kitchen set and the gps in her tote bag. I was looking for my school ID last night and digging through her stashes of stuff seemed as reasonable a thing to do as checking my backpack. But then the questions started. How did she get that much dog food into the basement? When was the last time she was even in the basement, anyway? And has she ever been down there unsupervised?

I suggested that Aaron check if the bags of food we store down there were okay. No, no they were not. One had been...compromised. This is especially unfortunate given the astronomical cost of Snuffy's food and the amount of effort required to obtain it (I know what day of the week the shipment arrives at the store, if that tells you anything)(It's Tuesday). But that is another issue. Given our recent acquisition of Ollie, we were not in the market for any extra creatures in the house. Several hours later the nice man from the exterminator was in our home taking care of business. Aaron noted that it is a little embarrassing to have the PEST CONTROL truck in one's driveway. It's just as well though, given the increasing effort we were having to exert to ignore the scurrying in the wall behind the fireplace. Well, not ignoring, per se, but passively waiting for the other member of the marriage to figure out which exterminator to call.

checking in

Hi, hi.

Dylan would please like to express how she feels about life at the moment. Thank you.

Today her existence has been especially taxing owing to a stomach bug. She has moved from her perch on the couch only for potty breaks and naptime.
Note the new couch. The trusty old blue one, rest its soul, did not survive Thanksgiving.
[confidential exhibit A:
]
Given my current frequent nighttime couch usage (ahem, OLLIE) we deemed it urgent to obtain a seating arrangement with some kind of structural integrity. There was an unfortunate one week period without ANY couch due to the inability of the couch store to accurately gauge when their inventory will arrive (estimates ranged from December 2nd to the 18th, with four different dates given). But! We finally wrestled it in the house (Hi Zach and Kate! Thank you for sticking around for the Unpleasantness) last night and have all camped out there ever since. Snuffy has been reluctant to try it out, which is just as well since he would blend in rather well and we might lose him.

****

On an unrelated note, I declare it unpossible to get a decent picture of both children at once. This is the best I could do so far, and really, no one looks their best in either one.

quick notes from the field

Ollie still sleeps ALL THE TIME. Dylan definitely never did anything like this. She also never caused anything like the amount of laundry he has generated. I don't think the diapers we have are designed for his body shape, if you know what I'm saying. He's slowed down with the eating a bit and is looking less like a cute little troll than he did the first week.

Dylan has gone from a somewhat alarming level of clinginess to what I would imagine is a more typical reaction of switching to her Pure Evil setting a lot more often. It's actually a lot easier to take. Her teacher noted that "this is a new side of Dylan I'm seeing." I think this teacher has been great with Dylan while she's been having a hard time, although Dylan did come home today saying "[Teacher] said she would have to call santa because someone made poor choices." Heh.

chub chub chub

Ollie has focused his recent efforts on packing on weight. We were at the doctor for a weight check this morning and they asked me if the number could be correct because he has gained so much since we left the hospital.
He's starting to stretch out his sleeping and waking a bit more, which makes mommy less grumpy.

Dylan is showing signs of settling in a bit, and she really does seem to think he's excellent company. She reads to him and covers him up and babysits while mommy and daddy hit the town. There are just so many (2) children in the house, it's really weird.

One week

Thanks everyone for all the comments and e-mails. It was so much fun to have you all following along with us.

This really does seem to be easier the second time. We feel like we know what we're doing, the nursing is going well, and I'm starting to be able to walk farther without getting dizzy and tired. Ollie is sleeping about 20 hours a day, but is highly strategic with the other four so as to prevent me from sleeping more than 2.5 hours in a row.

Dylan is doing great with Ollie. She really likes having him around and helping to take care of him, and has apparently not made any connection between her emotional upheaval and the actual baby. She is not doing great with me, however, and maintains a laser-like focus on trying to keep me from napping or being away from her for any amount of time. Aaron has to pretty much tackle her to let me get any sleep at all during the day. If she realizes there is a choice between being with me, or even near me while I sleep, and leaving the house to do something fun, she will always choose not to leave. And forget about trying to distract her if you are someone who is not Aaron. I am looking forward to preschool this week. Perhaps being off for four days in a row has contributed to some of the intensity.

I turned out to be right about Ollie being big, but it may have been sort of a coincidence because he's mostly really tall, which isn't usually what happens with diabetes. The pediatrician said he didn't look like the babies of diabetic mothers usually do, which I thought also, and he's actually sort of scrawny looking, although chubbing up quickly. None of the newborn stuff fits (Kate: Aaron, do you think this outfit fits? Aaron: Well, only if it's supposed to be culottes) because he's so tall and his shoulders are really wide. The doctor actually offered to be his agent, but I'm not sure this is going to persist into adulthood. He's been easy to take care of so far, especially in comparison to the anxious and emotionally volatile bigger one attached to my leg.

deja vu

And now it's time for a round of...

birth story

This is an easy birth story to write because all I have to say is that pretty much everything was the opposite of our experience with Dylan. In retrospect that was even worse than it seemed at the time, even without the hemorrhage part and accounting for the second babies are easier to get out than first babies part. Except for the enormous baby staging a sit-in and having to be negotiated with to come out, that was about the same, this time with a half pound more enormity.

Seriously though, this was so straightforward it's boring (= not complaining). We went in at 8:30am and did logistical-type things for a couple hours. I started having contractions right away when they started the pitocin late in the morning. They broke my water. I could barely feel the contractions, but they still seemed to be working. I got an epidural pretty soon anyway because Aaron and I still think so fondly of the last one. I contracted away all afternoon while we hung out and watched tv. Aaron alternated between pacing restlessly and sitting restlessly in the rocking chair. I mostly had this odd feeling that I could tell when the contractions were changing my cervix, but that I otherwise couldn't feel anything -- I could have predicted each check before they did it (and did, in my head, but it would have been more impressive had I said it out loud). I started getting uncomfortable around 6:30pm and was ready to push a little after 7. The attending and the nurse both stayed with me the whole time I was pushing, which lasted about a half hour. This time they kindly removed the whole placenta. Then the baby was out and they let him just hang out on my stomach and snack for an hour before doing all the meds and measuring, except for doing the weight right away because we were all dying to know how chunky he was. I didn't think he looked as big as Dylan did, but that was incorrect. And...that was that. Everyone was so nice and supportive and communicative the whole time, and the whole thing was over in less than 12 hours, and now I don't have to be pregnant anymore, which was starting to seem unsustainable anyway.

I couldn't let things go without a little drama and tried to pass out when I stood up a few hours later, but they revived me with modern medical smelling salts. Seriously, they shoved an ammonia wand in my face. No one had mentioned that I had lost a borderline-excessive amount of blood during the delivery because they didn't want to worry me, so I had no idea that I might be pretty anemic. I took to my bed for the night, but I can walk around a bit now. I have actually felt great the whole time, but anticipate grumping out later this week as I get less and less sleep.

I thought Ollie would look just like Dylan, but he really doesn't. He has a very round face and Aaron's ears and a lot less hair, although it's the same reddish blond as hers. He acts just like she did as a newborn though. He is really alert and can hold his head up and track stuff. They gave him a 10 on his second APGAR score, which they don't usually do for sort of superstitious reasons but they couldn't resist because he was so pink and happy. He ate great for the first hour, then took the next 14 hours off from eating as he gurgled out fluid all night. He has been doing great with the nursing since then, also unlike his sister, although such was his enthusiasm that he only let me sleep for an hour last night. You're not supposed to compare your kids, right? That's not going to work out here.

born yesterday

we are limiting his access to credit so opportunistic salespeople can't take advantage of his obvious inexperience.

Ollie

• Oliver Wright Blumkin



• 7:37 pm



• 22 inches



• 9 lbs 3 oz

Everyone is healthy and doing fine.

hanging out

they broke my water ~noon

i have a lovely epidural

i was 5cm last time they checked an hour and a half ago

we have spent the afternoon following nfl games -- i'm still in survivor for next week

and...dylan took a nap for the first time in weeks. all that anxiety wears a girl out. plus she heard us rustling around at 6am and got up too.

getting show on road

We're in the hospital, all checked in, with all the paperwork, IV, ultrasound, etc out of the way. The latest is that we're going straight to pitocin. Aaron is going to have some too out of solidarity.

Dylan is reportedly doing very well now that we've gone ahead and left already.

T minus 2 hours

Going in at 8:30 this AM. Was told "there are two of you vying to come in." Aaron or I will update from hospital, but not sure when.

40.5 weeks: the dumbening

I've been trying to think of something to say besides about my current state of not birthing a baby, but apparently that's the best I can come up with. I spent most of the day staring vacantly at a selection of walls, tv, family members, and the internet.

The car, you'll be pleased to learn, is working again, and we have logged our second visit to our (now beloved) mechanic that resulted in no charge because they felt sorry for us for being so stupid. And! Now we have an HD radio in the car, as soon as we figure out how to work it.

I'll try to think of something of substance for tomorrow, but I might get tripped up on the "think" part. Otherwise I'll give a status update Sunday morning.

another item checked off the to do list

have car towed from driveway

days = numbered

• nonstress test = good
• cervix = 2cm, from 1cm last week
• doctor's assessment = he doesn't seem that big
• ultrasound done anyway to humor me (i know they're not that accurate, but it worked for my purposes) = estimated 8lbs 14oz --> let's check on when they can get me in for induction --> call 6am sunday to see if they have room
• also, I think I have walking pneumonia
  

Chattering on

Dylan is really losing it. She cried for two hours before bed last night and then woke up three hours later to cry some more. I feel like most three-year-olds are not quite this tuned in, and I think it's about the same as Snuffy being so smart, which is that it would be for her own good to be slightly more oblivious. She has big plans after the baby is born to take advantage of my new lap space and to feed me treats. Works for me. She also plans to be able to button her own jeans at some point.

Aaron volunteered to call the car place tomorrow. It's nice when dividing up the household tasks is relatively cut and dry. I have big plans to have absolutely no involvement in pursuit of operation: make the subaru run again.

The deadline to submit abstracts for the big pediatrics conference is today, so Aaron has been all focused and worky and can relax tomorrow. I told him I would not get in the way of the deadline, which his co-workers didn't believe. I actually signed up to do some work at school through this past Monday. It's worked pretty well thus far to assume I won't go into labor and go about my business. I got through all the work I wanted to, and am now onto the dregs of my to do list, including estimating how much tax withholding we should have next year. It's just as well about the work because I did a clean install of windows 7 thinking I had the disk for microsoft office, but really it turns out I just have the box so doing actual work is unpossible for the time being. But my computer's all shiny and clean and I finally found and deleted the hidden lenovo files that have been taking up 50% of my hard drive since I got this computer.

****

And now for some fun links

Newest item on my to do list

Review of our favorite restaurant, sadly revealing its existence to the general public. Aaron may or may not have had a role in this.

Bio-Diversity from the NY Times

Slate's index to Going Rogue

Daily Show episode with a segment on our children's museum and an entreaty to Rochester to "get your heads out of your garbage plates."

Starting to lose it 9 days after Dylan's due date

****

Baby check tomorrow AM, with ultrasound.

superpower

Dylan, as she is being strapped into her car seat: Mommy, what are you eating?

Kate: Um...raisins.

D: No...I think it's a treat.

Kate goes around to driver's seat

D, thoughtful: I think it's peanut butter. No, I think it's peanut butter with chocolate.

K: Fine. Take one. I guess you deserve it if you can do that.

D: Mommy, you're not supposed to have treats until the baby comes out.

Cooked (=40 Weeks)

As I mentioned, one of our cars is, ahem, out of commission. Aaron drives to work two days a week, so Dylan and I dropped him off this morning so as to have access to a vehicle during the day. As we were leaving Aaron called out that I would have to come pick him up if I went into labor, see you later. Luckily going into labor isn't something I do very often.

Plunging ahead

There is something embarrassing about being hugely pregnant and walking into a store at 9pm to purchase only a plunger. But at that point in the evening the cabbage smell was threatening to suffocate us all. Attempts to clear the drain using an allen wrench on the disposal (aaron) or a baking soda and vinegar volcano (me) (the internet told me to) having been unsuccessful, Action had to be taken. We deduced that for sanitary purposes the sink should perhaps have its own dedicated plunger, so off I went. While I was out Aaron requested that I buy one, or possibly several, fuses for the subaru, which I learned at that point has been rendered undriveable due to the Multiday Stereo Installation Process. Aaron made up for this in part with a highly successful declogging operation once the plunger made it home, and I have to say it is fun to poke around an auto supply store in the absence of any knowledge of the needs and wants of autos.

***

I told Aaron a couple days ago that time had stopped, but it turned out I was wrong. At that point it had only slowed. You may have noticed that it stopped entirely from 5-7pm today, for which you can thank Dylan. Her steady whine of Mommy is intimately connected to the spacetime continuum and she has no qualms about using her power to ill effect. She has been very clear with me that she is not worried about the baby, who she is looking forward to having around. She is mostly worried that we her parents are going to take off for the hospital for an undetermined number of days without any prior notice. Yeah, about that... She is also having some discomfort that a little dried fruit couldn't hurt if you know what I mean, so hopefully I cleared that up for tomorrow with a few well placed snacks.

Original compositions

Dylan, singing, at dinner: I'm all done, I'm all done, I don't want any more food.

Kate: Great, let's go upstairs.

D: No, I'm still hungry. That was just a song.

Aaron, singing: I'm having contractions, I'm going to the hospital, I had the baby.

********

Actually, I may have guaranteed labor tonight by clogging up the garbage disposal and not figuring out how to deal with it yet. Aaron has maxed out on manly tasks by replacing the car stereo (the buttons all stopped working besides the CD eject, so we had to choose between listening to the one CD in the car, from the beginning, at high volume, or total silence), retooling our wifi, and contemplating replacing a light fixture, so it appears to be up to me. Never make homemade cole slaw.

Refreshingly less gross

Let us all keep in mind that I was pregnant with Dylan for 15 more days at this point, and she still took some convincing to get out. I have therefore given up on going into labor. I called to try to change my appointment (made yesterday, you will recall) to a little earlier in the week, only to be told I had no appointment to change, and they would have to try to fit me in somewhere. I really think I shouldn't go too much longer than another week so the baby doesn't get 'UGE, so my plan is to lobby for being induced by the end of next week, much as I don't want to go through that again.

In the meantime, we got another Dylan. I think Snuffy likes her.

He's doing a lot better today, but has bought himself a bunch of days of antibiotics.

I'm getting enough stuff wrapped up that if I have a few more days next week I can really just hang out and see movies and spend time with the already-birthed creatures.

I'll see your yuck and raise you one disgusting

You know what is (presumably) grosser than reading about my cervix? Reading about Snuffy's anal fissure. The vet said that the collar drives most dogs crazy for a few days, then they get used to it and it's fine. That's not really Snuffy's MO. He will morosely accept whatever it is you have to do to him, then continue to be morose until you stop doing it. I had to have a baggie to carry all his meds home.