4/30

Since Aaron's still larking it up in Denver I thought I'd give a blow by blow of our day languishing at home without him so he'll know what we're up to. Before we go any farther I'll also address the question I know you're all thinking: Can our relationship can withstand the long distance and the two hour time difference? Maybe.

Overnight: Children take turns waking up and thus waking me up. Both are probably my own fault. I tried to have Snuffy sleep in my room so I could take him out early in the morning unaccompanied by the wee folk, so Dylan woke up wailing for him at 2am and I quickly shuffled him in there to make the noise stop. Ollie woke up at 4am wanting to NUR, as is his wont a couple times a week. Again I took the quickest path to making the noise stop.

Morning: Did not get up before children, so shuffled everyone outside to help with Snuffy. Made elaborate breakfast appreciated by no one but me. I knew that going in though, and I appreciated it enough for all of us. We had to be at Sesame Street Live mid-morning, so we did a couple errands that did not involve getting out of the car. I would not have suggested taking Ollie to a 90-minute show had it not been legally necessary to bring him, supervision-wise, but he thought it was AWESOME. Dylan did too, and was in fact one of the oldest children there. Worst audience ever. Ollie fell asleep for his three-hour slumber as we pulled in the driveway (Dylan NEVER did that, with the nap, right? The boy is like clockwork), while Dylan helped me with some yard work and assisted with the determination that I am unable to make the lawn mower go on now. I eventually wrassled Dylan to her room for her mandatory 45-minute rest time. The child is currently a delight, but 12 solid hours of even cheerful chattering makes my brain mushy.

Afternoon: I still had sole responsibility for all three creatures, so we had a little adventure to exercise the big furry one. Again, I might not have volunteered to take everyone out by myself, but it was the first really nice day we've had in I think ten years so we were all thrilled to get out.









I quickly scrapped plans to obtain foodstuffs at Wegmans and coerced some passersby to carry the children and get tex mex with us.






One thing led to another and we ended up at a bar an hour after their bedtime. Perhaps Aaron is providing supervision of more than the children when he is here. Something to ponder.

They're all asleep now and Snuffy is all curled up in a tired way instead of in a pouty way, so that's a good sign. Over and out.

i will check and see if it's alphabetized

We've fallen into a vague routine on weekdays, with Aaron at work and the kids and at daycare and me frantically flitting around the house/yard/city/internet trying to take care of things before I start work in mid-June. Today was oddly disconcerting then, as not one of us had our regular schedule.

Dylan had to be in to school early for a trip across town to see Allison Wonderland (that's Dylan's adaptation, not the theater company's), Aaron is flying to Denver on a lark (if you consider pediatric conferences a lark, which I'm sure you do), I had my last official day of med school learnin', and Ollie had his last day in his current classroom.

This meant this morning: Dylan was bonkers, yet grumpy, with excitement. Aaron was mentally gone, then physically gone. Ollie sensed something was up and started uncharacteristically bawling when I dropped him off. I'm holding up well, thanks, although it should be noted that I do have the kids by myself for three days now.

Ollie's been spending more and more time in the new classroom all week and it's going great and I like the teachers and daycare just seems to work for him. Longtime readers will remember a certain daycare-related angst until Dylan was at least two. His current teachers have had him almost a year and they are all weepy and it actually seems sort of sad since they'll a) really miss him and b) probably get in his place a crying eight month old. Overall it's great for him though because they get to go out on the playground in the new room and we don't have to take our shoes off at drop off since there's no one crawling around on the floor and he seems happy there already. Perhaps at least SOME of Aaron's easygoing is showing up in one of the kids? Although just to qualify the easygoing thing, I will tell you Aaron routinely spends at least twenty minutes organizing the kids' bookshelf and kitchen set, and we all know how long that lasts.

'nuff people say they know they can't believe...

Dylan's Fashion Tip of the Day

It's okay--No one knows if your underwear doesn't also have stripes

Dylan's Egg Hunting Tip of the Day

Bring a lackey



Of note, the wine was part of my basket

miracle worker

For Easter we let this enormous creepy bunny get its mitts on Dylan. She escaped to freedom shortly after this was taken.
She was really into the household egg hunt. I made her hang out with the eggs hidden while I walked Snuffy (the other boys were still sleeping) and by the time I got back she had marked them all with big pieces of paper with eggs drawn on them to help her keep track of them. I think an elaborate birthday treasure hunt is in order this year.

***

We haven't been home for the weekend in a long time, so it was really nice to just hang out, but for the ongoing rainy season. We were so excited to all go biking again we went out anyway, despite the 50 degrees and the rain. The kids didn't mind but it made me and Aaron grumpy so we went home pretty quickly. Looks like rain is in the forecast for the next FIVE DAYS yet, so I guess ultimate: week four is not looking good either.

***

I took Dylan to a unitarian church with our friends yesterday (look at me, all almost up to the present) because I have been at a total loss to explain religion to her. Between that and the seders she got more religion this week than in her previous 4.65 years...and now she wants to go back to church. They did sing Somewhere Over the Rainbow and there was a turnin' and greetin' session, so I guess that was a hit. File it with makeup, princesses, and meat under topics regarding which I have been completely ineffective at brainwashing her. She's always announcing how when she's a grownup she's going to 1) wear lipstick and nail polish and 2) always eat meat. I guess we'll add recruiting souls for the LORD to the list. (although in my understanding that's not really what the unitarians seem to be saying. what they are saying is: war is bad. check out our playground.) By the way mommy, you know that milk and cheese come from animals, right? At that point I usually point about about Ollie's milk not bothering me but by that time she's got her fingers in her ears.

Speaking of Ollie's milk, hmm. I think his first stringing-together-of-two-words is MORE NUR. Luckily no one understands that besides a select few (Dylan: MOMMY HE WANTS TO NURSE RIGHT NOW). You know how I said he doesn't have a resentful stare? Well if I don't feed him quick enough he has taken to glaring at me AND THEN SPITTING AT ME. I tell him that doesn't make me what to nurse him particularly much but that makes him laugh. Little twerp.

I had a lot of fun yesterday looking through the BleisenArchive when Dylan was the same age. The most striking things were 1) I seem to have had a lot more time then and 2) this led to much more funniness. Anyone remember this curling post? Ha! Aaron always says its good I think I'm funny. Not sure what he means by that.

Anyway, it was also fun comparing the children, which remains among my favorite games. There's a certain clueless toddlerness that seems identical to Ollie now in the pictures of Dylan from that age. I also mentioned often how destructive she was, but I get the sense it was more in an exploring kind of way and less in the manner of Ollie's signature deliberately evil style. Dylan was already a super picky eater by this age. I think she's more sensitive to textures and more cautious, and I'm sure nothing I did was helpful since she wouldn't sleep if she didn't eat enough and I was still desperate to get her to sleep. Ollie is still basically an indiscriminate vacuum cleaner (they're usually indiscriminate, I've heard). I can't even call Dylan picky anymore (see: vicious eating crackdown of 2009), but it's helpful having Ollie around since he makes everything look like it must taste like those chocolate covered peanut butter pretzels from trader joes. Or whatever you're covertly munching on right now.

The other notable thing is that Ollie is like 50% more...solid that Dylan was. I suspected he'd been outgrowing clothes months before she had (particularly hats, the melon-head), but this helped confirm my suspicions. I proudly announced Dylan outgrowing the 18-month size at this age. I don't even remember the last time Ollie wore that size, which means it was a least a week ago.

Speaking of comparing children, anyone recognize this one? Without looking at the date or the background?
This one I think you will all recognize (from about the same age)
And now I will perform a space and time bending feat, merging the babies into one picture...
It's an Easter Miracle! Right here at Bleisenblog!

SF 2011

I am in fact several weeks behind since I just managed to get Aaron and Dylan's San Fransisco pictures off Aaron's phone.


lily tomlin







i believe this was a nod to ollie's love of, and resemblance to, hippos

dispatch from ground control

I'm still about a week behind here, but since I'm functioning that way in real life too you're not missing out. Aaron and I got to see Win Win last weekend. Some friends asked us how it was and I had just opened my mouth to answer when Aaron jumped in, "She doesn't get out much and is overanalyzing it but it's a good movie and we liked it." Right, then. It was not the first time I'd been asked.

***

There's a fantastic new playground near Ithaca that we had to check out. All the playgrounds in Rochester subscribe to the same boring playground design aesthetic, so we love different ones.


We, uh, never got tired of this game.


SpiderFamily

Maybe we should all get out more.


***

I did get to get out to Philadelphia, briefly, and the drive home was harrowing. It was during all those storms and tornadoes and floods and plagues and whatnot. The minivan felt like I was driving a barn, with a huge surface area for the wind. The rain with the wind was so crazy I almost pulled over in Scranton for the night, but that didn't seem like the greatest idea either for some reason. Luckily Aaron has an app to track my phone and followed along the whole way remotely. Sometimes he sends me creepy texts like, "How's the intersection of Clinton and Elmwood, on the south side of the light?" Don't you wish you were married to Aaron? Maybe someday.

bleisentoxins

For some reason, daycare is CONSTANTLY having Picture Day. There's a regular one each spring and fall, then several more where they randomly stuff the children into dress up outfits. Ollie became so bereft on the last two such occasions that he could not be captured on camera, and Dylan for some reason always looks sort of goofy.

The most recent one had an Olde Thyme theme that seemed to work for Dylan, and I actually had a hard time choosing which picture to get. (a choice was necessary because each package only includes one shot and additional packages were like $15 more and you see why I never order any?) I guess sepia is her color.



***

We attended not one but two seders this year. Ollie enthusiastically took to traditional seder foods, and has had equally enthusiastic output all week. One episode prompted Aaron to wistfully wish he, Aaron, could also do his business at the lunch table. Upon further investigation it turned out that the business had not yet been completed, but was promptly finished upon the start of nap time, which made the whole house smell positively TOXIC for the entire three (good boy!) hours of nap.

Speaking of toxic, Dylan had a little run-in with denatonium benzoate, aka the "bitterest chemical compound known." I was innocently using the bathroom (today's theme, it seems) when she attempted to bust down the door (sent by Aaron, I later learned) wailing about the terrible taste in her mouth. I determined that she had been helping apply deer repellent, which apparently is not toxic (unlike OLIIE) but uses a strategy of X-treme Bitterness, and got a tiny amount in her mouth. It look several hours to get the taste out of her mouth, but a popsicle helped ease the pain. She won't eat the flowers anytime soon, I'll tell you what.

***

No updates yet on the school front. We're expecting to hear next about the bilingual one in mid-May.

***

I have the AWESOMEST road trip planned for us. I can't reveal all the details since "Aaron" wants some of it to be a "surprise." Since Ollie is involved the definition of a good road trip includes less than four hours a day in the car, so we're not covering too much distance, but we're doing lots of fun stuff.

***

Since when do we have monsoon season? I'm trying to play ultimate this spring, but it was cancelled for the last three weeks because of flooding and the forecast for the next four days has rain. I got an e-mail recently with the subject "April showers bring May showers."