quick pretend it's summer before it drops 40 degrees

And again

"M!"

"No, remember, that's an upside down M, which is a W."

"Okay, W, H, O. What word?"

"That spells WHO."

"Daddy?"

"No, WHO."

"Jamie?"

"No, it spells WHO, that's the word."

"Rachel?"

"No, I am not asking you a question, I AM SAYING THE WORD WHO."

"Kylie?"

"AARON! I QUIT."

quotidian

In an effort to get Dylan to eat her food before bed rather than a) waking up hungry and weeping at 3am or b) staying up for two hours hungry and weeping before falling asleep, we started telling her that dinner was her opportunity to eat. So now she'll look up at us in the middle of the meal and ask "is my opportunity?" which we find hilarious, and the other night when I wasn't eating much she casually mentioned that it was my opportunity to eat. Don't sass me, kid.

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This week they celebrated Earth Day at daycare by painting a globe on her teacher's (clothed) 9-months-pregnant belly. And by painting on paper with dirt, which seemed sort of literal to me.

*******

I have one more week of my pediatrics rotation. It is going well, and I am definitely more confident than I have been in the other rotations. It has been a different kind of experience working with people who are so nice about everything all the time, although it does make it hard to actually figure out how I'm doing because they get even more supportive when you (okay, I) say dumb things.

*******

The stars aligned in some kind of show of awesomeness, because it was 70 degrees and sunny here today and I got out of work at 3pm. Dylan and I brought her easel out and painted on the front porch, then Aaron got home and we biked to the playground. It's nice to be able to do stuff like normal people sometimes instead of basing our lives around my unpredictable work hours. Up tomorrow: a sheep shearing demonstration (no, not on Aaron, but he did suggest he could just jump in line).

Monkeys and Tea

We had some kind of enchanted visit to the zoo this morning. It was like someone waved a magic wand and told the animals, whatever it is that you might possibly be able to do in your cage that would be entertaining, try that out this morning. The sloth was doing laps on the ceiling. The orangutans were rolling around in a big fluffy ball, shredding a big brown paper bag. The tigers were sprinting around their cage chasing each other and leaping up on the fence to grab fish treats. The polar bear was chowing down on what looked like Snuffy food, the penguins were flapping around in a herd, jumping in and out of the water, the tortoise was ambling around his cage, the sea lions were doing synchronized swimming (seriously, swimming in circles with their flippers in the air and their heads resting on each other's tails), and one of the monkey species was having an apparent gang war. The best part was that it was bath time just as we got to the elephants. The elephant raised each leg on command to be scrubbed, then flopped down on its side to be hosed off. It knew right and left, and when one side was done it lumbered up and lay down on the other side. Aaron thought the trainer was tossing peanuts in its mouth the whole time, but it turned out to be bread (he has some sterotypes to work through).

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Dylan attended an actual tea party last weekend, with frilly dresses and tea and scones and everything. She had been wearing a dress, but it was removed an hour prior to the party when she got a new t-shirt as a present from globetrotting grandparents. Most of the pictures came out pretty blurry, but you get the idea.

Counting teeth

Aaron took Dylan to the dentist last week and e-mailed me describing it:

The dentist was delightful. Dylan really enjoyed the waiting room and peed in the potty. The hygienist and dentist were great, but our daughter's behavior wasn't. Mostly she was scared. They tried showing her the equipment by having her touch the various tools, but she got scared. Then they tried counting her teeth, but she got scared. She ended up on my lap, and was still scared. All they did was count her teeth today, her molars are coming in. The dentist said that her teeth are clean, so we're doing a good job brushing them. Next time, hopefully he can go in for a good cleaning, but didn't want to do it because she was scared. When we were all done she got to pick out a toy, because she did such a great job being scared. She got a sticker and since she didn't have any cavities we put her name on the wall and once a month there is a drawing from the names on the wall and the winner gets a $15 gift certificate to Barnes and Noble or Borders (I wasn't paying too much attention because Dylan was so scared). Actually by that time she was ok. She was happy with her little toy plane and thomas the tank engine sticker. When I wrote her name I asked her what letters she saw. There was a D for Dylan and a B for Blumkin. I told her that was because it was her name. On the car ride back she said her mouth tasted yucky. I said that was because the nice man was counting her teeth, and that although it may not be fun, she did get a sticker and the plane, and Mommy and Daddy have to go to the dentist too to make sure our teeth are ok. She then said that she likes the dentist. But I'm not too sure about that.

Then I guess when he picked her up after daycare she asked if they needed to have anyone else count her teeth, and now she occasionally points to her mouth and starts counting.

Recycling day

Sunday

I had to work most of the day yesterday. Aaron and Dylan had a nice day together -- a trip to Best Buy, running around in the park with Snuffy, and playing with duplos. So wholesome.

Jumping Beans

One thing we learned recently is that there are not one but two facilities in Rochester that, for a fee, allow you unlimited access to giant rooms full of enormous bounce houses, as well as bounce mazes, bounce gladiator courses, and bounce precipitous drops mascarading as slides.




The main problem was the hulking 10-year-olds careening around the place trying to severely injure the wee ones, but with a little glaring they tended to disperse easily enough. If you have a birthday party there there is a big inflatable throne that the birthday kid gets to sit in. We saw one in action while we were there. Someone had wrapped a hula hoop. Hm, what could this one be?

Also, they had a photo booth for suckers who are suckers for getting as many people in a photo booth as possible. I think this counts as 7 people if you round up because Allison is 7+ months pregnant. Note Aaron working his eyes. I guess he doesn't like to watch ANTM with me because he thinks of the girls as amateurs. And check out my pointy tongue. Hissssss.

Happy Snuffday

To celebrate Snuffy's 4th birthday we baked a cake, but it was made of chocolate, which is bad for dogs, so we had to eat it ourselves. Then we gave him no extra treats at all because we need to start experimenting with his food again because his prescription dog food has creeped up in price from extravagant to exorbitant.

Nonetheless, we did take him out for some excellent snuffercise despite the most unpleasant combination of weather conditions, including temperatures right around freezing, pelting rain, and gale force winds. You're welcome, dog.

Dylan grabbed the camera from my neck yesterday to take a picture of him. He was looking pouty because we were a) in a different room from him and b) looking at him. We've all been there.


He still needs just as much exercise as ever, although he's usually calm in the house now. The most notable change as he gets older is that he gets more and more snuggly. We like that in a dog. He is still really really smart and if I had more time I would do more training with him. He and Dylan pretty much act like siblings, and they are really attached to each other. He is sad every time we leave the house and understands "goodbye," "you have to stay here," and "you can't come," all of which cause him to droop down into a sad puddle. But he also does the doggy thing of getting all excited every time anyone enters a room, no matter how briefly they were gone, and I can tell him to "go find Aaron," which he will do. Good boy, Snuff.

The birthday snout