bleisenblog

Happy New Year

2011-12-31T18:03:00.001-05:00

good boy

2011-11-01T22:06:00.000-04:00

Braaaaaaains

2011-11-01T13:02:00.001-04:00

- Posted from residency

where's bleisenwaldo?

2011-10-19T20:41:00.000-04:00

comment if you can figure it out

Knock Knock

2011-10-15T09:16:00.004-04:00

Who's there.

Banana.

Banana who?

Knock knock.

Who's there.

Banana.

Banana who?

Knock knock.

Who's there.

Banana.

Banana who?

Knock knock.

Who's there.

Orange.

Orange who?

Orange is the color of Ollie's cast!

First Days for everyone (a post by Aaron)

2011-09-02T22:55:00.007-04:00

Dylan's ready for her first day of kindergarten

Dylan and Ollie are both ready for their first day at a new day care

and Ollie's getting ready for...

Spring Break 2012!!!!!

School and day care piqued their interest in different forms of transportation. So they went for a drive:

Took out a boat:

Learned to fly:

I guess Ollie is Goose in this picture:

Dylan: Hey Ollie, those people look like ants down there!

Finally they used the last major form of transportation, turtle:

5

2011-08-31T16:33:00.000-04:00

a walk in the street

2011-08-28T09:16:00.005-04:00

But first...which is worse?

Reheating the broccoli and forgetting it in the microwave overnight?

OR

Reheating one's coffee in the same microwave that holds the broccoli without noticing the broccoli?

YOU be the judge.

***

a little tap number

I went to NYC for the weekend and all I got was this new aunt

2011-08-21T22:24:00.010-04:00

starting early this year

2011-08-18T10:13:00.001-04:00

I'm not sure how I'm not making myself clear here

evening walk, this evening

2011-08-09T21:36:00.002-04:00

looming b-movie monster
if you are going to be in this picture with me you WILL smile

channeling molly shannon

mush!
aaand back to your regularly scheduled sulking resentment
and a little more resentment, from the little one

help our towels are digesting us

2011-07-31T15:11:00.002-04:00

Here is another thing that is new with Ollie: he wakes up between 9 and 11 every other night to poop. The other nights he's just grumpy.

what's up, internet?

2011-07-30T19:32:00.006-04:00

I am now 5+ weeks in and I have yet to be the direct cause of anyone's demise! A rousing success!

The main thing I have learned: Aaron has been holding out on me lo these many years. I walk in from work and having successfully gotten the children to and from daycare he's got them scrubbed* and flowers on the table** and is serving a little something he whipped up from the pantry* wearing his oven mitts and apron.** Which reminds me, I never told you about how on his trip in May he was openly mocked by his fellow plane passengers for drinking diet coke. Hm, I started out trying to say something nice back there at the beginning of the paragraph, didn't I? Who can remember at this point?

*true
**not true

Ollie. Has learned NO. He had it in him all along, but now he can SAY it. This is looking to be a more discipline-heavy toddlerhood than that of other children we have spawned.

He does have an appreciation of nuance though. If your question does not provoke an unequivocal NO he is the first to admit his ignorance, in a gesture passed down from generation to geeky generation.

Here he is at the air show ("par broil your children with a hint of jet fuel") prior to the tragic moment when our path diverged with that of the yellow line. He's got a touch of the family OCD, that one.

Dylan learned that I was holding out on her and have the capability and equipment to make hair straight.
While I do not personally think young children require all that much grooming, my personal young child REALLY wants to be groomed.

It is weird to have dropped off the face of the internet to this extent. I'll be around more this month since I have a lighter schedule and a backlog of pictures.

never happier than mealtime

2011-07-09T14:00:00.001-04:00

doughboy

2011-07-06T21:02:00.003-04:00

note cookie monster shirt

proud mentor. qualifications include four years of intercepting 50% of all dough before it hits the cookie sheet.
they seem sweet, but they'll turn on you the minute you cut off their sugar supply.

a minute in the life

2011-07-04T13:41:00.000-04:00

day off

2011-07-02T20:30:00.006-04:00

A fire truck passed by the house and suddenly Ollie popped up wearing that hat.

15 miles. We biked 15 miles with the childrens. There was ice cream involved.

Birthday: t+1

2011-07-01T20:56:00.003-04:00

Thanks for all the birthday stuff and whatnot yesterday from many of you (for the rest, i got paranoid and took my birthday off facebook so no public announcement, unlike the THIRTY DAY countdown from last year). I have to say though, you were all outdone by the car dealer where we bought the minivan. E-mails, cards, phone calls. I think they may be stringing banners in the other room right now. Sorry guys, it was YESTERDAY.

***

Intern year tally: one week down, all the other weeks to go. No patients were harmed in the posting of this entry.

Fathers Day

2011-06-25T10:01:00.000-04:00

slippery slope

2011-06-25T08:05:00.003-04:00

"Dylan, they just changed the law in our state so girls can marry girls and boys can marry boys!"

"What about people in your house?"

"Do you mean like your brother?"

"Yes!"

"Uh, no."

Street Cleaning

2011-06-24T22:00:00.001-04:00

We've doubled our workforce

2011-06-23T21:43:00.004-04:00

And again with the child labor

Ollie, phoning it in

2011-06-19T13:40:00.003-04:00

a few things, before i start

2011-06-19T07:09:00.016-04:00

Well...orientation has been more intense than predicted. I thought I wouldn't drop off the face of the earth just yet, but next thing you know we've done so many activities that I'm one sandwich short of an orientation picnic. Neither Aaron nor I can keep track of what day it is and Ollie's taken to getting up at 5am and we haven't had access to the kitchen in three days or the shower in a week, as I required tile work to start residency.

You know what is surprisingly convenient? Having all the toiletries in the kitchen.

***

Ollie has always been an eater. He has never willingly stopped nursing, he inspires Dylan to try new things, and I'm pretty sure he can detach his jaw when needed to fit more food in. Give him a banana and it's like a spaceship docking, with one slow relentless path into his face. We were at a restaurant recently, with a long wait because they had dropped our dinner on the floor and started over without mentioning it, so we fed Ollie a lemon slice to entertain ourselves because: ha! He made an amusingly puckered face, shrugged, then ate the rest of it.

***

I have had the worst time finding Dylan underwear in the correct size. It was mystifying to me (hi! I'm your new doctor). The options are: 4-5T, 4, or 6. The 4-5T were too small, and the 6 was way too big. Turns out, it's 4. Sounds so simple, when I say it there. It's just...she's a size 5! Why would I think to try a 4? I was wrong though, I know that now.

***

Ollie: is a HAM. He is hilarious, with an on-purpose awesome silly sense of humor at 19 months. We're so proud, except for the part where he PRETENDS to put all sorts of random stuff in his mouth just to mess with us.

He also says EEEEEEEEEEE ("cheese") whenever I get my phone out, and now says EEEEEEEEEEEEEE whenever he wants: cheese.

***

These kids! just get an endless kick out of each other. They are really opposites in a lot of ways and it works for them.

***

Dylan has ALWAYS been very clear when she is going through a developmental spurt, much more than Ollie usually is. She's clingy, klutzy, and generally high maintenance, then: she's not. It's harder as she gets older because she can verbalize her irritation in a much more excruciating manner. Anyway, the point is: now she can swim like a fish. It was sort of weird.

I know kids are mostly concrete thinkers at this age, but she can't wait to not be. She's always telling me she feels like she might not really exist and asked the other day if maybe we were just a dream (after she said something about rowing? a boat?)(not really).

***

Starting in the hospital Friday...

not, technically, tin

2011-06-14T09:20:00.013-04:00

120 is Dylan's go-to number for expressing something really big, second only to spewing a random stream of digits. As in, "How many beans do you think Ollie can eat? ONE HUNDRED TWENTY?!!!" Or, "I weigh 34 pounds and Ollie weighs 26 pounds, and how much do YOU weigh Mommy? One Hundred Twenty?!" Exactly, Dylan.

She's always saying that Ollie is Happy Like a Clam.

I confirmed with Ollie's teacher's today that he does not have a problem with clocking the other children at school. At home, in contrast, Dylan has trained him, via the Big Sister Shriek method, to whack her with kitchen tools.

At one point, early in our road trip, Dylan captured me singing Wind Beneath My Wings (Aaron: I didn't even know that song HAD those words) on one of the many iDevices scattered about the car. I thought she would squirrel it away for future (HIGHLY EFFECTIVE) blackmail use or to launch her blogging career. No, she had shorter term plans and broke it out during a jaunt to the grocery store in Boston. I had my hands full with groceries and Ollie while she trailed ten feet behind me and played the video, loudly, in its entirely. They always say we learn from our children and in this case the lesson is: don't be so narrow-minded that you can't embarrass people without the Internet.

Residency orientation starts tomorrow. I'm expecting BleisenPosting to be downgraded to quarterly, so I would HIGHLY recommend a feed reader if you read even one other blog or website on the world wide web that updates routinely with content. I'll probably be around and posting for about another week since orientation lasts many days and I am hoping not to find orientation, at least, too overwhelming.

Don't worry, the children are prepared. No one is going to mess with their brain waves while I'm at work.

Boston II

2011-06-08T20:54:00.024-04:00

Okay, where were we? Tooling aimlessly around Boston? Indeed. So, a new hotel room, which is right up there with cardboard boxes in entertainment value.
In adhering to the "children should be neither seen nor heard" philosophy, this is where we put Ollie. That's a soundproof comforter, right there.

Now, down to business. The REAL reason we were in Boston was to celebrate Uncle Ducky's graduation from PsyD School. I say "celebrate" and not "attend graduation" because my planning skills petered out around New Paltz. Let me assure you, at this point the trip descended from "seemed like chaos up to this point" to "pure chaos."
Dylan and cousin Noah were on the same page, celebrating-wise.
Here, let me help you feel some of the chaos yourself. Ollie would please like to nurse now, thanks.

The Brain Trust in Action
I believe we established legal residence at this shoeshine booth.

Please ignore the Photographer In Action.

Ollie, friend of dogs. ("Daddy!")

Dylan and Ollie got to swim with eight or so relatives. No pictures there because Ollie needs like three people to prevent him from climbing out of the pool and hurling himself back in. I finally put one of those floaty backpacks on him at the Y yesterday and hey, all the wild kicking actually works for him.

And then we had to drive back home, all at once. The End.

Boston I

2011-06-06T09:50:00.008-04:00

So I'll pick up with us on the road again, to Boston. I thought to myself, Kate, what would be a good toy for the road? And I said to myself, Kate, I know! A percussion kit! Yes! We even made up our own song. "We're in a band. We're in a band." And so on, for three hours.

I don’t know if you can tell, but the children have gone feral at this point. I don’t know about the prospects for redomesticating them.

Here Ollie has thrown himself on the map I was looking at.
I don't know how this worked out, but we got the coolest hotel room, complete with Goody Dylan herself.

We did leave the hotel room at some point.

I have a picture to prove that we saw a mother mallard with eight ducklings while walking through Boston Public Garden.

We were feeling unabashedly touristy, and went right for the Duck Tour

That's the top of Dylan's head and her little hand as she DROVE THE BOAT.
And the rest of the pictures are still on the camera, so I'll save the grand finale for tomorrow (where tomorrow = when I get to it).

Home again, and another letter

2011-06-05T20:34:00.011-04:00

Dylan is going to the bilingual school! Yay! It doesn't look like we live far away enough for her to ride the bus, so we'll (=Aaron) will have to drive her over there, but there's an after school care place next door that I really like.

Now, down to business. After Sesame Place we drove to a rental house in the Hudson Valley near Bard. We got to visit a bunch of our old haunts from when Aaron lived there, AND we got to start telling stories to the kids about the Old Days.

I will tell you, renting a house is SO MUCH BETTER as a way to travel with little kids. And: there was a pool. And: a tree house. And: rooms that were not our room for the kids to sleep in. We'll definitely do it again.

And some from outside the house:

Up next: we head to Boston for Another Graduation

Kids do the darndest things!

2011-06-04T16:00:00.000-04:00

I am going to have a little Ollie interlude here, but I’ll masterfully tie it in with the trip, in the end. That’s signposting, there.

He had his 18 month appointment last week. No one is more surprised that I that he is proportionately taller than he is wide. As I’ve mentioned, his portage is not unlike that of a watermelon, or English Bulldog, or ambulatory rugby ball, or Chief Wiggum, or Barney, or all of South Park. But his height was in the 80s and his weight was in the 50s, percentile-wise. He just concentrates it all so efficiently about his midriff. Actually I think he shot up in the past couple days and doesn’t seem quite as dense anymore, but Aaron are and I just hanging out in a hotel room again and the similes got away from us, metaphorically speaking.

He got an “incident report” from daycare the other day. He was the biting victim, it seems, but rather than saying he had been bitten by a friend, it specified that he had tried to take another kid’s toy and the other kid had bitten him in response. I found it entertaining that they sent home a report saying that he had been wronged, but made it clear that he had it coming.

He learns a new word or two every day now, although pronunciation-wise you can only understand them if you’re me or Dylan. He has traveled remarkably well this trip. Which isn’t to say he hasn’t had a few rough nights, but so has his nearly five-year-old sister, which is much harder to take, patience-wise. He’s able to participate in and enjoy most of what we’ve been doing, and we can tell that in another year we’ll hardly have to worry about any of the baby stuff and mostly be doing things all together. He is just a basically happy kid, whose hobbies are evil and destruction. Those things make him happy.

Anyway, the point is, here is what happened yesterday evening. We’re in the final hotel of our journey, a Sheraton that I’m told is the biggest in Boston. We have adjoining rooms so as to sequester ourselves from the children, which ended up working a little better than intended (and now foreshadowing! I’m just full of it over here). We had just been swimming, so all four of us were in various stages of bathing and dress. Ollie caused a diversion by pooping in the tub, which caused all sorts of mayhem and less focus on applying clothing than would normally be the case. Aaron manfully took on tub decontamination, while I wrestled a diaper on the boy child and Dylan flitted about without any clothes on complaining about being cold.

As soon as the diaper was on, Ollie scooted away, and before I could even turn around the door to the other room, the one containing: Ollie, all the luggage, and my room key, was closed from the other side. Meanwhile I was left in a towel without access to clothes, with Dylan (naked as mentioned) and Aaron in a bathing suit.

Oh no! I said. Do we have a room key? Yes! Aaron said. Don’t worry! I have one right here.

Then he said, all casual-like, The door is also latched to stop Ollie from running out. Do you have anything very thin and sturdy?

Then he disappeared into the hallway in his bathing suit and banged around purposefully for a few minutes. I let him convince me to put off calling security for the first minute, but after that he was in full agreement about involving door-opening professionals. Once the security guy realized the part about the latch he went to fetch some extra tools (They have a dedicated unlatching reachin’ tool! Doesn’t make you feel super secure in your room…). Meanwhile I could only catch every third word of what was happening outside the room. Aaron told me he had been fielding questions from many curious passers-by about why he was talking soothingly at the door in his bathing suit (your WHAT? is in there?). I also later learned (due to selective omission in the moment) that he had been trying to use his room key to unlatch the latch. The key fell under the door, but Ollie helpfully slid it back out.

Ollie remained cheerful throughout the 15-20 minutes it took to spring him. I guess the novelty of having his own pad kept him from completing the Demolition Circuit that he had worked out when we first checked in (crush creamer with bare hand, then eat it, throw coffee maker, call front desk, dip soap in toilet). Dylan and I chatted with him through the adjoining door and he chirped back at us. He liked the sliding things under the door game. There was a period of ominous silence in there. We may never know what happened. Receiving further instructions from his UFO is high on my list of theories.

He did seem happy to see us, in the end. We did have his beloved blankie though, so you never know.

The Next Installment

2011-06-02T09:56:00.029-04:00

Here is what we did next: went to Sesame Place. It's an amusement park almost entirely geared towards kids under eight, with about 60% water rides. It was fantastic! It was in the 80s the whole time, so whenever we got hot we dunked ourselves into a nearby sprinkler.

I was SO EXCITED to meet Cookie Monster. I mean, for Dylan to meet Cookie Monster. Although he turns out to be sort of feral. I had to yank her away because first he was eyeing her hungrily, then tried to squash her with his paw.

This was topical because we have a CM talking stethoscope on the trip that is very sensitive, so if I so much as turn a corner in the minivan we hear "Eat two cookies, and call me in the morning."

Dylan proudly told everyone there about our dog Snuffleupagus.

Dylan is (almost) fearless since Disney and went on just about everything. Although the roller coaster we'll save for "maybe when I'm older."

I am impressed with Dylan for gracefully tolerating a seven-hour day with Kate In An Amusement Park.
I do have to point out that while this picture is cute, it is only because she is incapable of turning off her camera face in front of a camera. What she was saying was MOMMY I CAN DO IT BY MYSELF DON'T TOUCH MY HORSE.

Ollie says CHEESE now too. And is self-packing. He just needs a little ice.
This is clearly Dylan's work.
I only have a third of the pictures to post because I had to buy a waterproof film camera (see: water park) after the first day and my phone ended up in a bag of rice to (successfully!) dry off. I had to do a lot of explaining to Dylan about why we couldn't see the pictures right away. Relatedly, after several days of ipad time in the car Ollie now tries to touch the pages of books as if they were a touch screen.

This definitely fell under the "exorbitant amusement park" portion of the trip. I don't feel like we got a deal, per se, because I am sure that nobody gets a deal at these places, but I do feel like we escaped with as little damage as possible. We brought a cooler in and there was a shuttle from the hotel (parking was $15!) and breakfast was included and maybe I just won't think about it any more. Ollie keeps missing stuff because he needs to sleep to make up for the hours of which we don't speak. Dylan went swimming five times at our current location and Ollie went zero due to this issue.

She and I did the lazy river three times because it was so much fun, although it was quite a different experience, depending on if you were her or me. I could use it as god intended and relax, while Dylan just used the tube as a fancy kickboard and flailed around wildly the entire time. The only downside to really relaxing was the freezing water features that could catch one unawares.

Up tomorrow or when I have time: back in NY, via NJ

Re: our whereabouts

2011-06-01T20:25:00.033-04:00

Yes! Permanent vagabonds! (see comment on last post) I like it. But only if my time in the car with the children is limited to less than an hour a day, and the hour is nap time. The fatal flaw of a road trip is that we have to be in the car with the kids. Manning the back seat for long stretches on trips is one of my least favorite parenting tasks. This trip we have six-hour car days on the first and last days, but otherwise no more than 3-4 hours, with a bunch of days with little or no travel.

We have done very little traveling since circa 2006 that hasn't involved family. Which is the most fun! Of course! Hi, loyal blog readers who are related to us! This trip is ALL ABOUT family, as you will see. But we also got to plan a bunch of stuff on our own and it's been really fun to have just the four of us for parts of the trip, at least between the hours of 8am and 8pm. We will never speak of those other hours again, CHILDREN.

Here I go, rambling on, and still not revealing where we are. Currently: somewhere in the Hudson Valley. We started out last Friday heading to Philly. I think you've all gotten a flavor of the actual journey, thus far. We camped out in a hotel room there for a couple days ("c'mon kids! pile on in the bathroom!")
Aaron, I guess, used the opportunity to practice his mime routine with actual glass to make it more realistic.

Then we eventually made our way to Tommy's college graduation. Remember when he got in? Right here on the blog? Because of his trustworthy photographs? I was waiting for Dylan to be born in that last link! I am STILL glad that finally happened.

Anyway, graduation!It had the requisite hot and uncomfortable, and also immediately upstaged my graduation with a brilliant student speech and the coolest venue ever.

I got around the hot part by volunteering to spend two hours in the air conditioned car to let Ollie nap.

Dylan got to relive her swinging glory from last time she visited. She has a single-minded focus on college attendance thanks to this swing.

The Giant Adirondack Chair: the novelty never wears off

Of note, Aaron and Ollie wore matching outfits in honor of graduation, but I didn't get any good pictures because of Ollie's grueling overheating/napping schedule. The best I could do was the one at the top of the post, in Ikea after we left. Because OBVIOUSLY buying furniture is an awesome idea at this point.

I think that gets us up to about Monday. WHO KNOWS where we've been since then.

Joooooooooin Us

2011-05-31T09:28:00.001-04:00

Aftermath

2011-05-29T13:06:00.001-04:00

From right after Ollie got sick Friday.

- Posted from a temporary way post

2 for 2

2011-05-27T13:30:00.001-04:00

That is, the number of children, out of the number of children in our possession, who have puked voluminously in the car during a trip this month.

Day 1. Awesome.

- Posted from the open road

Location:Somewhere in PA

Days of endless labor powered by pandora

2011-05-25T22:54:00.007-04:00

Here is a tip: if you want to guarantee that your new mattress will be really, really comfortable, sleep on the couch for a week before it comes. Force your husband to do the same, for his own good.

I moved on from the (relative, sort of) fun of painting the bedroom and moved on to: the hallway, stairs, living room, dining room, and entryway. With the bedroom at least I could flounce about discussing my design aesthetic and repurposing my clutter into an elegant, tasteful display (note: this did not happen). The rest of the house was varying shades of off-white and is now: varying shades of off white. Spending days and days painting to achieve a feel of "slightly less grubby" is less than satisfying.

What we decided was, as long as we're not moving, let's at least make it FEEL like we're moving. Or so it seems. Really, the thinking (that was done. by us) was that we'll almost certainly move in three years (DON'T LAUGH) and have to do all those minor repairs that you have to do before selling a house and then you kick yourself because hey, this is nice, why didn't we do them for US? So we are doing them for us and it is nice, but guess what? It's a lot of work and it feels like we're moving.

It also dawned on me that I have eased into the role of general contractor, as I attempt to coordinate: the driveway guy, the mason, the tile guy, the tree guy, the plumber guy, and the window guy. None of whom seems eager per se, to exchanges services for money, but at least it is I who am the middleman. Really, it's a new hobby I'm exploring.

***

The school district says it will mail out assignments Friday. We leave Friday for many days of road tripping (note to thieves: neighbor Karl has his eye on you). I called to see if I could call once they're mailed to find out and they told me: no, maybe late next week, when we have the assignments in the computer. I guess they hammer them out on stones first, then deliver them to people's house, THEN put them in the computer.

My NEW BEDROOM

2011-05-23T12:00:00.008-04:00

Several items are of note.

We have a bed frame. Technically, we had one before, but it since it just barely performed its "keep the mattress off the floor" role and was not visible to the naked eye, I'm not sure it counts. Thank you, craigslist.

We do not have a mattress. I got a little excited to throw the old one out since it just happened to be garbage day when I got started last week (Aaron: "I have a number of questions regarding this plan.") In retrospect, garbage day THIS week might have been a better selection. The new one should get here by...Wednesday.

It looks like a furniture store. That is because there is a big heavy desk that we are not capable of moving. It will no longer reside in the bedroom someday, insha allah.

Not pictured: Dylan, pouting in the corner because SHE wants my new bedroom. I JUST DID her room. She got to pick the paint color! It is exactly equal parts pink and purple! There are glow in the dark stars and a ceiling-mounted remote controlled rotating solar system! There is a laundry chute in her closet and shelves full of toys and a big box of all her treasured play bills and postcards. I don't want to hear it, kid. Although it's quite fun to have a child who enthusiastically appreciates my every minor home improvement. She gets all excited when I so much as pick up the toys in the living room.

shorts

2011-05-20T22:04:00.009-04:00

Perhaps we should keep better wraps on Aaron's wallet? "Look what I've been working on Mommy!"

***

It is embarrassing to graduate from medical school and walk into the frame store and ask them if they can match your diploma frame to your PhD one.

***

I would like to emphasize how short and squat Ollie is. Really, it's silly.
He's still working diligently to manage a fine balance of affection and cuddles with evil and destruction. He has had a lot of success, thus far, because what else does he have to do, in a day?

***

I've been painting again. I swear I've learned something from all the HGTV. Although I haven't learned enough to know that even though I love yellow and red-orange, for example, they may not be the best colors for the walls. I do know enough that at least I got samples first. Other teaching points from this painting adventure: 1) it goes a lot faster without any wall repair, and 2) perhaps it is best to contain one's zeal in throwing out the ten-year-old mattress until a new mattress has been procured. Our bedroom thus has no bed, but is now a distinguished grey with white trim.

Backing up (beep, beep beep)

2011-05-17T12:39:00.007-04:00

I got a little behind, so let's rewind a few days. When last we left our intrepid Bleisenblogs, we were traipsing about New York City, attending weddings and taking turns ejecting our stomach contents. As of last Friday though, we were in the midst of a whirlwind of graduation whatnot as I finally finished my formal schoolin'. Persevere, kids, and you too will be done by the time you're 30!

Aaron actually flew out of town during the graduation party taking place at our house. I always tell you, we know how to party. Thanks to everyone who sent their best wishes and came and helped us celebrate! I particularly appreciate how gracious you all were with respect to having your cars whisked away due to parking restrictions and cramming into the back seat of the minivan to be shuttled to the not-brief ceremony. That's dedication, right there.

Do you know how many pictures I have of the festivities? One. Sent to Aaron on my phone during the rehearsal to document that it would NEVER END. Not perhaps the best picture in all the land, but no one has sent me anything else yet, so it's what you're getting.

***

In other events, they've cancelled the Lilac Festival for the third day in a row because it started raining again. I've never heard of anything like that happening. I guess it's good we've been teaching Dylan to swim.

Things I have learned in the last 48 hours

2011-05-16T19:05:00.029-04:00

Dylan mentions ache and pains almost daily, and they invariably amount to nothing. Nonetheless, when she insists from the back of the cab with increasing urgency that she feels sick, it wouldn't hurt to take action, let's say, before she does. Sorry about your rain coat, Aaron. And underwear.

Donald Trump announced his non-run for presidency today from the same hotel where were staying. Coincidence? You decide. I did stay up an hour later than I meant to last night watching the celebrity apprentice, so that clearly played into the decision-making process.

Having left a starbucks minutes before a cab crashed into it will make Aaron refer to "safe starbucks" (those in malls, hotels, or airports, I've surmised) for an indefinite period of time.

Just because Dylan SEEMS like she hates every minute of the horsedrawn carriage ride due to complete exhaustion and its attendant malaise, it doesn't mean she won't ask to do it again the next day.

Ollie would like to have a word with me, about the horse.

Ollie would like to have a word with all of you, also. He picked up like 20 of them in the past four days.

The apple store does not want you to hang out in their vestibule, driving rain or not.

The huge HD screens in the apple store are an AWESOME place to watch the shuttle launch.

Fielding questions about future astronaut career options is a bit of a downer though.

A deep love for AIRPLANES! does not necessarily translate into endearing behavior on airplanes. Ollie, looking at you here.

I hate to use the term "boot and rally" here in reference to my four-year-old, but honestly. That's her there, the pink blur.

Dylan thinks she is in a musical every waking minute. She just accommodates the rest of us in our routines as necessary
Aaron can totally pull off a tux. (Congratulations Brenda and Andrew! For getting married, that is! Not just for getting Aaron in a tux! The whole thing was amazing!)

He can also pull off an entourage. Hm, looks like he had: Ollie, Dylan, the stroller, and the bags, while I had: the cameraphone.
I am a SERIOUS lightweight, booze-wise. Or else I had food poisoning. Or a virus (see: Dylan, #1). Possibly all three. Am doctor now.

Ollie. Strong like bull. Seriously, I packed that suitcase, and it was not light.
Neither rain nor lightening nor dark of night nor ATROCIOUS behavior at the restaurant can keep up from getting cupcakes after dinner.
I am way scarier as an underbridge troll than Dylan. Seriously, what is she, like three foot six? Plus she can't compete with the retainer.

more unfortunate skills the short round one has acquired

2011-05-07T21:03:00.011-04:00

-Turning on the toaster oven. He can tell when it's on, too, then he leaves.
-Adjusting the burners on the stove. There's a cooking theme here, I guess, since he still opens the oven on occasion.
-Turning on the faucets in the bathroom. All of them.
-Spitting resentfully at people who are not me, when provoked.
-Honking car horns (requires adult enabling).

His current redeeming features are: a seamless transition to the new daycare room, 15 hours of sleep per day, big, slimy kisses, an indiscriminate appetite, and awesome moves to Wheels on the Bus.

***

My retainer is awethome, right? It's nothing too exthiting, I just had a couple teeth that were thliding around driving me nuth. Dylan kept making me say words for her amusement. So did my friends, for that matter. Gymnastics and chick peas are favorites. "World's Strongest Man" was mistaken for "World's Drunkest Man" in one instance. I'm leth lithpy now, but Aaron and I have agreed: best to remove it for phone calls.

***

Should hear about at least one school next week.

***

We socialized more this week than in the past...three weeks! Combined. Plus or minus a year or two. Because! Annabelle returned to the ROC to visit us, which is like adding a third person to our marriage, for better or for worse. She ran with Snuffy, took Dylan to the movies, and lurked happily in the basement lair. I took like one picture, so here you go. Dylan asked if she was a giant, but I told her no, it's trolls that lurk in the basement.

***

waiting for daddy to return from Out West

anyone need a babysitter?

2011-05-03T20:00:00.001-04:00

Now with lisping action!

greetings, comrade

2011-05-03T07:46:00.000-04:00

hodgepodge

2011-05-02T22:33:00.005-04:00

I was rewarded for my hubris Saturday thinking I could manage alone with both kids (if you count recruiting friends "alone") with sort of a grind Sunday, although I do recommend going to toys r us and playing with all the toys if you're having a hard day. The kids liked it too. The Dylan/Snuffy combination is a tough one since it's hard to get him enough exercise without covering some distance, and some days it's draining to cajole Dylan into covering any distance at all. Ollie just gets strapped to my back, which works for him. He's fun because he's quite the gearhead since he knows the appearance of shoes, boots, sunblock, hats, helmets, or whatever means we're going to do something cool. He cries when we take the bike helmet off. Here's some pics from our rainy day bike excursion. Note to future self: if it seems like a good idea to put rain coats on the children, it is not a good idea to go biking. The addition of a driving wind is another clue as to the correct choice if you have your wits about you.

I think this one's ready for school

2011-05-01T21:36:00.004-04:00

She spent AN HOUR on Friday writing (not illustrating) her book, despite not being able to spell any words independently. I feel like she could be five years older in this picture.

She also put a copyright symbol on it after asking what the one on the Cheerios box meant. She did not, however, mark her book Kosher.

She is so excited to be 4 and three quarters, but she's not quite there yet and we're nerds so I told her she can tell people she's 4 and two thirds.

4/30

2011-04-30T22:03:00.013-04:00

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

2011-04-29T15:18:00.007-04:00

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...

2011-04-28T15:48:00.001-04:00

Dylan's Fashion Tip of the Day

2011-04-27T20:25:00.002-04:00

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

Dylan's Egg Hunting Tip of the Day

2011-04-26T22:41:00.003-04:00

Bring a lackey

Of note, the wine was part of my basket

miracle worker

2011-04-24T20:06:00.018-04:00

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

2011-04-23T20:03:00.005-04:00

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

2011-04-23T11:54:00.012-04:00

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

2011-04-22T20:21:00.007-04:00

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."

rainy day i mean month

2011-04-20T22:11:00.004-04:00

Aw, manhandling disguised as cute hand holding.
Complete toss up as to who is being walked here.

pop quiz, hot shot

2011-04-20T08:55:00.002-04:00

In each of these pictures there is

a) someone who is my sibling and
b) someone who is one of nine members of a body that is in one of the branches of government that is in the business of justice-dispensing

Any ideas who's who from the peanut gallery? Minus points if you are my parent or sibling.

sweet & savory

2011-04-19T13:54:00.001-04:00

One more addendum to the pants story is that just the other day Dylan proudly traipsed off to school in black leggings and a white turtleneck "so I look like Daddy in his running clothes." No longer an appropriate goal, I would say.

***

I'm a little behind with the pictures from this outing, but we had an awesome Donuts 'n' Poultry themed morning the weekend before last that deserves its rightful place on the Internet.

Dylan looks a little googly-eyed herself here.
Cookie Monster donut last featured here. As previously identified by astute reader Bridget, this is from Donuts Delite. I hadn't actually been there yet in all our Rochester Years, so it was quite a treat.

And now on to the poultry.

If Ollie knew swear words it might have helped him express himself during his initial introduction to the chickens.
Dylan showed him how it was done.
He enjoyed himself, although I have to say he was a little heavy handed. (so soft)

***

Also! We saw The Lion King! So awesome!

***

And Heeeeeeeeeere's Ollie!

Might as well have married Janet Jackson

2011-04-19T08:42:00.003-04:00

As I've mentioned, Aaron found Exercise a while back, and now runs with Snuffy and goes to the gym all the time. He was so enthusiastic about weightlifting I was forced to take it up myself, and the one time I tried to race him on the bikes with the virtual scenery it took me two days to catch my breath. You may also recall his swanky new running pants, mentioned here, that were initially purchased as ladies' pants, then returned in exchange for gender-appropriate pants? Well, yesterday they fell down on the job, so to speak, in a dramatic wardrobe malfunction that cut Aaron's run woefully short and necessitated a three-quarter mile scuttle back to the house. heh heh heh heh. Ha! ha. heh heh heh. ha ha ha. Sorry Aaron! hee.

talky

2011-04-13T09:03:00.000-04:00

We had a big conference on refugee health in Rochester the last couple days. I agreed to give a presentation on my dissertation stuff, figuring about 12 people would be there. Estimation has never been my strong suit, so luckily the conference organizers told me that 87 people had signed up for my talk. I hadn't done anything like that since my dissertation defense a couple years ago. I thought that might be a good opening line for a joke, something along the lines of "...hopefully your questions will be less menacing," but Aaron said there was no good joke whose lead in is "Last time I gave this talk they gave me a PhD! What do you all have to offer?! Hopefully your questions will be up to my standards!" He was sufficiently alarmed that I dropped the stand-up routine, although really I think we all lost out there.

***

Ollie has taken to wearing a blood pressure cuff around. He's a trendsetter, that one.
I didn't remember him having a resentful stare like this, but Aaron pointed out that it's not resentful stare, it's "cheeks stuffed with graham cracker, chipmunk-style."

babes on bikes

2011-04-09T22:14:00.013-04:00

We sheared Aaron right before he and Dylan left for San Fransisco. His fluffless head was unfamiliar to Ollie, so in contrast to a days-long joyous reunion with Dylan, Ollie regarded Aaron in stony silence for 48 hours before recognizing (or newly accepting) him.

Dylan and Aaron were both jetlagged for about three days. It's mildly amusing in a 4-year-old ("Mommy...I'm having trouble waking up this morning...I'm going to go lie down on the couch while I eat breakfast"); less so in one's husband ("Get up!" "..." "Out of bed! Now!" "..." "Go to work!" "...")

But! All is forgiven because he put together my new toy. Which is awesomely awesome. As background, with Ollie it is easily possible, with the aid various contraptions, to run, walk, or bike as far as my little heart desires. With Dylan, none of those things is easy. Now we're one for three.
Ollie is up for any and all adventures, so we took him out biking for the first time later in the day. He wouldn't let me take the helmet off him for a while.He manages to convey much with few words. The main message today was Faster! He may not have the natural neurotic caution that works so well, self-preservation wise, with Dylan.

He got a new contraption of his own, but it's less fun and more pod-like.

***

Here's an article about how all those MTV teenage pregnancy shows are a great public health message. I totally agree. I think they're well done and no one would want to have a baby after watching them until they're 45.

The Returnening

2011-04-07T08:23:00.002-04:00

buildin'

2011-04-06T09:23:00.003-04:00

There's been an ENORMOUS crane looming menacingly over our neighborhood, ostensibly to add a new floor to one of the hospital buildings. It's so tall it had red lights on it for planes, which admittedly fly like ten feet over the hospital on the way to the airport. We manage to be in the flight path and like ten minutes from the airport without it being annoying. I'm not sure how, but it's fun to watch the planes all the time, and better than going to the observation deck at the actual airport in hopes of seeing planes, since they only come every twenty minutes. Anyway, I haven't seen the crane in action much, but I today I learned its true purpose: hauling port-a-potties.
(click to embiggen)

Happy SnuffDay to One and All

2011-04-05T21:14:00.004-04:00

Snapshot from the SnuffCam, 4.5.11 21:23:00
He can be said to have had a happy birthday, thanks mainly to Ollie's new hobby of persevering in the face of all obstacles to deliver a steady stream of food to his bowl, one pellet at a time.
Not to mention our obsessive devotion to his every need, but that's every day.

as always, safety first

2011-04-04T09:18:00.000-04:00

We decided to take the new recommendations one step further, and are keeping Ollie, rear-facing, in a car seat in the living room.

get your child care, right here

2011-04-03T20:49:00.022-04:00

I have, since the steady decline of my "responsibilities" at "work," been doing thrilling things like getting the washer (and dryer!) serviced, cleaning the gutters, organizing the attic, monitoring the stove to make sure heated water boils in due time, and trying to write a review paper that I've been working on off (mostly) and on (riiiight) for at least three years. Aaron is usually in charge of holding down the couch, so at least I don't have to do that. He and Dylan got so bored from their very proximity to me that they took off for California for FIVE DAYS. I hear it's lovely, this time of year.

Meanwhile, I did what anyone would do when left alone with Ollie: fled home to Mommy and Daddy. That only worked for like a day and a half though, so now it's up to me.

Oh hello, Mother.
Dylan is responsible for 80% of the Ollie-care around here, so much of this was new to me. I put him in his crate so he would feel more secure, like the book said.He quickly escaped and destroyed several socks, wearing an expression that, I think you'll agree, can only be described as maniacal.
Then he radioed for help, but luckily the other toddlers don't understand Morse code yet.He can be distracted with food, especially when served via Heavy Machinery Utensil.

When we got home he went right about his business, which today included: ensuring the ongoing destruction of my ear drums,
moving the entire contents of the recycling bin into Snuffy's food container, and
[Snuffy would like to take this opportunity to express solidarity with the little fat one that always has food stuck on its person.]

doing a little reprogramming of the printer/copier/fax/scanner.

He's down for the night now, although he's been putting up quite a fight for the last couple weeks. But I have triumphed for the moment!

Peek-a-boo! Mother.

learnin' revisited

2011-03-30T21:32:00.003-04:00

So, when last we peeked in on Kindergarten Drama, I had initially thought Dylan would surely get in to any one of four great options, which would all be, obviously, great. Then we learned that one of the city ones, which was my fourth choice anyway, would likely be cutting all their arts. Even if she gets in there, which isn't guaranteed, we're now not sure about sending her there.

Next up, the small private school. Dylan got a spot there, and we love it, but we decided to put off accepting a place until we find out if she gets in to one of the other two (free) options. This evening was the information session for one of them, the charter school. It sounds like their funding, although public, is stable, and their presentation was even more impressive than I had expected. It is exactly what I want for Dylan. And, at the end of the HOUR AND A HALF we all sat there, they informed us that because of higher than expected sibling enrollment there will be SIX(!) spots for kindergarten next year in the lottery. There must be at least 100-150 applications. The lottery is on Monday, but I feel silly having even considered it an option.

The fourth option is the bilingual school. Dylan had the language screening they require last week. They took her away to do it, so I don't know what happened, but she said it went well. They are VERY vague about their process so I can't tell if the screening is pass/fail and if you pass you're entered into a lottery, or if it's more nuanced than that. I found a document online that I don't imagine they meant to be online saying that the decisions for that one are mailed the week of May 9th.

So I'm not sure how this happened, but it seems like we are down to one public school that we like with any real (where "real" may be ~40%) possibility of her getting in, and the private school, where she may or may not lose her spot if we wait too long. My failsafe is a year at the kindergarten at daycare, then applying again for the private school. Or moving.

This is all sort of discouraging, since we didn't leave town and we didn't move at least in part because we thought some of these schools would be great. I don't think we can do anything differently at this point, but it's hard that we won't know how it works out for over a month yet, maybe two. I know she'll do fine wherever she is, but I feel pretty invested in giving her a really engaging experience.

rinse cycle

2011-03-28T21:21:00.012-04:00

Ollie is not kidding about being ready for summer.
Okay, that's not really true. Dylan is the only one who remembers summer. He's just modeling stuff.
As is Snuffy, ever the fashion-conscious canine.

Ollie continues down The Devil's Own Path. Here he regards me defiantly while turning up the volume on the stereo as loud as it goes. Then he dances.
In comparison these ones seem like no trouble at all. Although some could make better choices at the dog park, is all I'm saying.

There is something indescribably nerdy about whipping out your iPhone in an Apple Store to take a picture of your toddler at their computer. Yet, here we are.
He takes things one step further than wanting to do whatever Dylan does (she's at another computer, instigating his need to have one too)--he just assumes he already CAN do whatever she's doing. Reading, computing, swimming (NOT SAFE! keeps putting face in water), whatever. Actually it's been fun because he can do more than I would have guessed, or tried, without Dylan around, and he understands more than I would have thought. She is also highly supportive of his efforts, particularly the ones that mess with me. She's always either physically helping him get into stuff, encouraging him, distracting me, or copying him. That is how both children end up in the dishwasher at once, for example. Bath time! I'll even put the temperature setting down a notch, for the sake of the children.

rubbernecking

2011-03-27T22:24:00.009-04:00

We have, as you know, determined that we are not only remaining in Rochester, but remaining in our very own house. Nonetheless, we seem to be in search of that life-upheaval experience. We're rearranging a lot of rooms and figuring out if we can finish the basement, which would involve so much furniture- and stuff-shuffling that we'll get all the inconvenience of moving with none of the being in a new house charm. Not only that, we've been acting like total tourists. In the past couple weeks I've been to four new restaurants and one recreated olde thyme village.

We started with the house rearranging by adding an island to the kitchen, which takes up all the floor space but adds 50% more counter space. We've been hanging out there constantly, so four chunky thumbs up from the children thus far.

***

Aaron's tip of the day: If possible, avoid giving blood then proceeding directly to a weekend-long bachelor party.

***

The kids are so desperate to get outside we took them out biking in the cold the other day. Ollie was pleased to be placed on a bike, although I think he considers it a prop at this point.

I'm on a bike

We got an awesome yet-to-be revealed, yet-to-be-assembled contraption that should let all four of us go on longish rides together this summer.

chocolate and the teeth to eat them

2011-03-22T20:50:00.004-04:00

Ollie's gums are still fighting the good fight with his molars, so there's some ongoing collateral from that. He was stumbling around in exhaustion this evening, clawing at his face. Only ice cream could help. I understand, I feel that way all the time.

***

We started reading Charlie and the Chocolate Factory this evening with Dylan. Just as good (and weird) as I remember. She loves it, and notes it makes her want chocolate. I feel that way all the time, too.

more catching up

2011-03-21T21:16:00.005-04:00

I was cleaning off a shelf full of junk this evening. There was a candle on it, so I lit it because using it would obviously make things cleaner. Aaron got back from the gym and asked whether I had it burning to exorcise whatever had possessed Ollie (combination of incipient molar+fever/snot-thing[technical term from medical school]) and then I realized that YES THAT WAS IT. Sorry kid, I didn't appreciate how low maintenance you usually are, but now I do, okay?

***

Aaron was complaining last weekend about having to get up at 2am to change the clocks.

***

I'm glad they did the new thing with the rear-facing car seats until age 2 (more technical speak from all my learnin'), although I do wonder if the people making the recommendations realize that children start to drive at 16, and should probably be out of booster seats by then. But really, Ollie's big head does seem safer with all that extra support and he's got Dylan to keep him company so he doesn't mind being backwards and we have these honking big car seats for Dylan so she can be in a 5-point harness until she's like 50. I think some child safety stuff is overblown, but probably not this one.

***

For a while I thought we had the school thing pretty much under control, with four great options, any of which would make us happy. Then I visited one that I liked, but the tour guide said the plan with the current budget is to cut ALL art and music. Less than encouraging, and it made us worry about both of the city schools we have on the list, although I guess things can change by the time school starts. The private school offered Dylan a spot, but wants to know right away if she'll come. And we don't know how the budget stuff affects the charter school, which is still public money, if I have any understanding at all of how charter schools work. The lottery for that one is in a couple weeks.

***

Back at it. We don't need no spring.

Miscellaneous Catch Up. But Not Ketchup.

2011-03-20T21:52:00.006-04:00

First things first. I can't believe I missed posting this one with the Toronto pics since it's one of my favorites.
A few things of note:
1) All Those Chins
2) The crib is indeed stuffed halfway into the closet. Worked well, sleep-wise. While awake he would mostly press his little face up against the bars in the direction of freedom, however. Freedom!
3) The brown stuffed animal is a beaver given to him by the hotel. Those nice Canadians.
4) Is he kidding? Who can sleep like that?

***

Next up, one more Match Day picture. I got to be in one!
Notable items regarding this picture include:
1) The sheer volume of Aaron's beard.
2) Ollie's Piece is slightly askew.
3) Ollie wishes he were elsewhere.
4) Dylan does, too, and she can tell me, in the same tone as when she had eaten her green beans: "Mommy, I didn't want to go to your special ceremony, but I did anyway!" [There was a pizza party for St Patrick's Day at daycare at the same time. I am not qualified to compete with that.]
5) We are still toting around that piece of paper, as if the next three years of our lives depended on it.

***

And on to the Random Thoughts section. I'll keep on numbering, to keep things in line around here.

1) Should I do a six week Boot Camp? I have a bit of time now, and I think I would like it, but it's at 6am three days a week.

2) Why are all the good things in Rochester, MN? If I don't tell Google about being in NY it tempts me with all the amenities they have to offer before I realize the truth. Same goes for Monroe County, Indiana.

3) Aaron and I got to see Paul last night. If you like Shaun of the Dead et al we highly recommend it. If you don't like copious gratuitous swearing we do not. Also recommended: getting out, on occasion.

Dylan makes a cameo

2011-03-18T09:53:00.002-04:00

As do such pieces of paper as the one in the previous post.

Match Day for Students

Matchmaker, Matchmaker...

2011-03-17T21:41:00.001-04:00

Gone North, And Back. Like, a week and a half ago.

2011-03-14T22:13:00.008-04:00

And here we are. Again.

Yes, it's that time of year, where we leave the ice cold windy winter in Rochester for the icier colder windier shores of Toronto. It was: rainy.

******
I started that like, the Thursday of the trip, which was not this past Thursday. It's been all I can manage just to get the pictures off my camera (on surgical ICU rotation), so the only commentary I will give is that Dylan, impressed with my underwater swimming ability, announced, Mommy! You look like a whale!

posts pending!

2011-03-11T09:30:00.002-05:00

Hi, hi. I've been trying to post for at least a week, with little success. I'm on an ICU rotation and my current shift goes until 6am tomorrow, so patience, patience.

On order:

Last weekend was the 4th! Annual Toronto in March Expedition
School update
Minor changes we have made in our house and as long as I'm at it I'll let you know my plans for eating breakfast tomorrow
Likely there will be pictures of children and maybe dogs

And there you have it.

2011-02-28T21:39:00.015-05:00

For those interested in Dylan's learnin' (I believe this club consists of: me; sometimes Aaron. this qualifies it to go on the internet, I guess), here are the four school options for her for next year:

-the public spanish immersion school
-one of the neighborhood public schools
-the charter school in the science museum
-a small private school in the city

I don't think we'll know which one until April or May. We're applying to the private school now as a backup plan if she doesn't get into any of the others (although I like it so much it's sort of tempting in any case. we're so used to handing over half our money to daycare anyway, maybe it's just a habit). Anyway, as part of the admissions process she has to spend a half day there this week without me. Aaron has helpfully been encouraging her:

"I spend half days without Mommy all the time! It's great! I really like it!"

We've continued to play The Game of Life with her on the ipad, thus creating a ruthless, moneygrubbing, babymongering monster. She plays us off one another and trash talks the entire game. I suppose I'll have to start picking on her, too.

Ollie's latest effort was to switch the radio from npr to a very conservative talk radio show.

My latest effort was to finishing painting a new room for Dylan. I discovered Aaron has a light fixture-changing function, so that's been fun. In this case we went for "boring" which is a vast improvement over "vintage barely functional."Dylan picked the color, so she's thrilled, but I think she's even more excited about the laundry chute.
There is now an ever-growing pile of dirty laundry/books/shoes on the stuff I have stored under the laundry chute in the basement.

Speaking of piling up, you know? Sometimes when we all go to the grocery store Dylan gets buried in food.

As I said to the girl in Ollie's glass who was not wearing pants this morning, happens to the best of us.

the latest

2011-02-26T22:07:00.000-05:00

I can't seem to get it together to post or respond to e-mail lately. Or bathe, but I suppose that's a separate issue.

***

Ollie's teachers told me they almost called me a couple days ago because he kept getting into so much trouble. They said at least he makes a characteristic hissing noise before he clobbers the other babies. It was noted that a call home for misbehavior is not usually warranted for one-year-olds. They were mostly laughing, I think. Today he hurled big wooden hunks of fake food at his baby cousin for playing with his toys. I think I'm going to start picking on him, or something. Oh, wait ("a doll, a doll...")

***

We're almost done with Dylan's room, which is going to be most excellent. Since it's looking like we're going to stick around this house for a few more years we're looking at it in a whole new light. We're starting with sprucing up both kids' rooms and getting a whole bunch of boring medium-big things like mattresses (most opaque consumer purchase ever, per consumer reports) and light fixtures and a new toilet. We're toying with finishing the basement, but may not have the collective stomach for it. I want to paint a bunch more rooms but Aaron has suggested that further painting projects be put on hold pending appropriate ventilation opportunities (= warmer than 19 degrees out).

There's a house down the road that seems PERFECT for us and continues to taunt us, but we keep going over things and it does seem like staying put for now is the right decision.

***

I've started working through the first set of Bob books with Dylan. She just seemed all of a sudden like she was really ready to pick up reading. It has been so cool. We've been doing one every couple days for the past few weeks and it's helped her put everything together. By everything I mean: three letter words with short vowel sounds, except "e" because I guess that comes later.

***

Snuffy and I ventured out into the snowstorm yesterday and covered 3.5 miles on cross country skis (me) or paws (Snuff. obviously) in like an hour and a half. Perhaps the DRIVING WINDS and RAGING SNOWSTORM could have been incorporated more thoroughly into the day's agenda? Maybe next time? Self?

***

Mat sat on the fat cat and the big pig but not the sad rat.

***

Rank lists were due this week. That is all.

a day in the life

2011-02-21T20:33:00.003-05:00

Just thought I would give you more of a taste of Ollie at 15 months. He is a dastardly combination of really smart, oddly strong, and relentless. I am not kidding about the maniacal laugh. Today he:

-learned how to turn on speakerphone on the phone base, so he can make calls even when I confiscate the handset
-pushed the ENORMOUS cart halfway down the aisle at Lowe's while I was dealing with Dylan
-OPENED THE OVEN while I was cooking pizza at 475 degrees
-figured out how to not only mess with the volume on the stereo, which has long been a favorite way to get some instant attention, but also to turn ON the stereo, so turning it off in desperation will get you nowhere, MOTHER
-moved the kitchen stool over to the corner, climbed up on it, and used the vitamin containers now within reach as maracas
-used his puzzle rack as a stool to get to the Wii, which he dragged across the room
-rearranged the furniture more to his liking, which involved relocating the full sized chair so he could have access to Dylan's lair

I guess it's nice he's so...independent.

In his favor, he sings while getting his teeth brushed. This amuses me.

and onward

2011-02-20T21:01:00.015-05:00

I will now tell you where I have been: hanging out with Aaron. More specifically, playing games on the ipad. More specifically, playing: Life, Monopoly, Scrabble, and Trivial Pursuit. To answer the obvious question, we learned long ago that Risk is not good for our marriage. We also learned long ago that playing most of these games with two people is lame. It does not bother us anymore!

We did let Dylan play Life with us today. Tut, tut. Children having children. That kid is ruthless, I'll tell you what.

Other activities have included:
-(unsuccessfully) reining in Ollie (now with bonus climbing action and maniacal laugh)
-watching Ollie's desperate need for a nap fight it out with his desperate need to stuff his face as he nodded off during lunch today
-sanding and priming one of the bedrooms (now with less peeling paint action)
-and! making headway on our Life Decision Fest Extravaganza 2011.

To recap, here are the decisions up for review:
-City of Residence
-House of Residence
-Kate's Workplace
-Aaron's Workplace
-Ollie's Daycare
-Dylan's School

We are, it seems, leaning towards Boring and Practical. This means not really messing with 4-5 of those items. Awesome. We are, at least, changing Dylan's school. We totally don't have to! She could do Kindergarten there, thus not changing one single thing from our existence now except for making my schedule many many times worse.

This is...not what we thought we would be doing. I flew all over the country looking at programs and we've looked all over the area at houses and we thought about all sorts of other stuff. We have good reasons for doing what we're doing. All the options were good options. But we're feeling grown up and responsible and sort of lame (board games aside).

February ramblings

2011-02-14T21:10:00.013-05:00

Let's see...where we were?

Right, right. Interminable winter. I LOVE winter. I've been out skiing, of the flat and sloped varieties, way more this year than any since we moved here. But honestly, Enough.

This month in medical school we are doing a fake research project in a group of seven. Unrelatedly: I am grumpy.

Our input as to where to go next year is due the 23rd of this month. The results, I believe, are announced St Patrick's Day. If we stick around we've got it down to four schools for Dylan, but we won't know which one until April or May. We may switch Ollie's daycare, or not, depending on where Dylan ends up. We're also looking at houses, in several cities. There's one here we like a lot, but we think it's overpriced by tens of thousands of dollars, so we're not sure what to do. Their realtor told us they were "talking price reduction." To summarize: indecision all around.

Ollie. So cheerful. So snuggly. He's always plonking his round little self on my lap with a book. He also licks my face, which I think means kiss, or maybe salt deprivation. Yet he's SO BAD. He is ceaselessly destructive. We are having to babyproof all this stuff Dylan never thought to get into. And he is SO DRAMATIC about everything. I always suspected Dylan was an oddly reasonable toddler, and I was totally right. Ollie, like Snuffy, has a total pouty breakdown when even one family member leaves the house. He points and demands things all the time and starts crying immediately if he doesn't get it. On the other hand, he stops pretty easily if you distract him. Dylan hasn't ever been able to calm herself down once she gets going. Like right now, for example! And now! And now.

Dylan, and I have to express my sincere appreciation for daycare at this point, successfully had her first actual ski lesson last weekend. She was shorter than any other kid in the class by a full head and didn't have enough mass to keep up without lengthy boosts from the instructors on the flat parts (which I know, obviously, via my perch in the trees) and cried at least a couple times (I witnessed a rescue by a couple kind strangers at one point, BUT DIDN'T SWOOP IN) and I still got her back begging for just three more runs. Being a child of mine and Aaron's she certainly has the instinct to be really shy, but I think the constant socialization has really done a lot for her.

And now...here's a little photo segment I like to call, Who can use what to blackmail who?

We've moved beyond "Ollie wants a doll"

Starved for attention, the children transferred their affections to Vinny, the Vat of Vinegar

The mouth of a muppet. Try not to look at the camera-wielding maniac in the background

In the News/"News"

2011-02-08T12:18:00.002-05:00

Heh. I find it's nice, on occasion, to outsource making fun of one's husband.

And your children's potential future educators. Go team!

I thought this review was pretty entertaining.

From the New Yorker, we thought this might be a reasonable job description for me.

more weighty, weighty topics

2011-02-06T22:25:00.005-05:00

Here's an article about Disney getting their stuff to parents in the hospital when their babies are born. When Ollie was born the hospital photographer took his pictures, which we didn't even buy, but ever since then the marketing company mentioned in this article has been emailing me and sending me stuff specific to how old Ollie is. I don't think companies should be able to mine the information of new parents and babies like that. When Ollie was born I was often alone with him, with no one who wasn't delirious to figure out for me whether I was signing a birth certificate or a promise to buy a lifetime supply of tiaras. I go through them so fast, you know. I don't even think I gave that photographer any of my information myself, since I didn't want to buy the pictures.

sunrise, sunset

2011-02-05T22:00:00.002-05:00

I finished reading Mary Poppins to Dylan a while back, and since then she has been pressuring me to Find More Chapter Books! to read at bedtime. I think most actual chapter books are still too dense for her, but there is a whole line of "chapter books," apparently designed for her demographic, where the chapters are like three pages long. And so it was that I found myself reading The Adventures of Captain Underpants this evening. I have never seen that child laugh so much in my life (Pair with: Tigger jammies). Anyone else need "wedgie" defined for them?

.

what's up, here, to a man

2011-02-05T11:06:00.017-05:00

I have been remiss. I have failed to acknowledge the starting of the Birthday Era, lo this February the 1st.

I decadently gave Aaron a real etch-a-sketch as a picture frame.
He was pandered to, never fear. Let the six months of festivities begin!

***

Ollie.

First of all, he looks FANTASTIC in a snowsuit.

He also loves playing in the snow more than I would have imagined for a person of his stature.
He has outgrown all the hats Dylan was wearing when she was like a year older.

He is SO ATTACHED to Aaron. Not in a clingy way, more in a HI DADDY way. He will shuffle his puffball self halfway down the block for a hug if he sees him coming.

He will also reliably eject whatever food is in his mouth if you offer him something better, just for your information. Dylan is still pleased to have him as a plaything. Just this morning they made me cupcake soup for breakfast, so I view their collaboration as highly fruitful.

***

We took Dylan skiing again last weekend.

It's so awesome. We took her on the chair lift for the first time and she made it down from the top of Bristol. She now has stopping action.

I think of her as someone who is not into...discomfort. Or adversity. But she's actually sort of a trooper.

And sassy, you know.

***

Here's Snuffy, also looking fabulous. Work it, Snuffy.

***

Let's see, what am I up to? Putting my outerwear on the dog. Planting the baby in a snowbank. Crafting gifts for my husband. Dragging Dylan out in the snow. Attending lecture. Trying to make decisions about: city of residence, program of training, school for Dylan, daycare for Ollie, and what house to buy, if any. So, to summarize: I am often grumpy. Some of this is fun, but it will be really nice to stop reshuffling every aspect of our lives.

whistle while you work!

2011-01-31T22:27:00.003-05:00

Seven hours of lecture today. And tomorrow. Coping only way I know how...child labor.

Ulterior motive:

Happy Weekend

2011-01-30T22:12:00.001-05:00

Princesses revisited, again, and yet again

2011-01-27T11:55:00.020-05:00

Obviously visiting the heart of princessdom (All employees! call all the little girls Princess) presented an interesting issue for me. I am feeling ever more strongly that this is just a pipeline for all the things I've always had a hard time with about how our culture deals with girls. I heard the author of Cinderella Ate My Daughter on the radio this morning and I could have written that book.

My approach with Dylan is a mishmash of casual indifference, letting her have small victories (if she sensed how much I cared about this she would hone in like some kind of...honing thing), substituting better things to think about, and refusing on bigger stuff (many of the girls at Disney World wander around in princess dresses and it was not happening).

This is so difficult to address because any given piece of it seems (and IS) relatively innocuous and there is SO MUCH PRESSURE from peers, from teachers, from tv, movies, and family to participate. In fact I think she ONLY cares about some of this stuff to impress her friends and otherwise is sort of indifferent. But in total it is completely unacceptable. Someone brought up how sometimes the movie characters are okay role models (especially with American Girl dolls also), but they both make shopping and consumption inseparable from being a girl and having interesting experiences (and PINK! but I'm considering that more of a symptom than anything else. I've had a hard time figuring out how to reasonably say she can't pick things in the color she wants). Those princesses are skinny and gorgeous and often not wearing a lot of clothing. It pushes girls to daydream about their weddings and their boyfriends and there may not be anything so terrible about that per se, but little boys sure aren't encouraged to daydream about those things--they're supposed to be off having adventures (full disclosure: we sing "A doll, a doll, Ollie wants a doll" with some frequency since he's rather attached to Dylan's baby dolls).

I heard the author of a new book about The Feminine Mystique on Fresh Air last night, and she summed up how these issues look for young women today: 1) teenagers and college girls are encouraged to achieve as much as they can in sports and academics, but they are expected to be hot while they do it, and 2) mothers of young children are being fed these expectations that that are able to and responsible for making every moment of their children's lives a teachable, meaningful experience, while also having interesting successful careers. It reminds me so much of all those really smart girls at Princeton who dressed up and drank heavily 2-3 nights a week and spent tons of time and money trying to be really hot all the time and then called it a choice.

Dylan asked me yesterday if we could toilet train Ollie soon so he could get Iron Man and Spiderman underwear. I said NO and later, but that I could look for some for her (she's in a class with a herd of five-year-old boys at the moment) and she was sort of shyly excited. You know I don't love VIOLENT SWAGGERING role models or wanting to be like all the other kids all the time either but I guess anything that's not pink feels like a victory. I just want her to be able to do her own thing, you know?

I never thought I'd be a Won't somebody think of the children? kind of parent, but there you have it.

we're back!...and we were gone...and i'll let you guess where

2011-01-26T21:08:00.040-05:00

Actually, I'll let Ollie tell you. Here he is in a rare moment of freedom.
This is a more typical scenario, with the crib jammed into the bathroom. He earned his confinement, I will tell you what.

And, how big a pain is Ollie on a plane? THIS BIG.
Speaking of confinement, here is Aaron regarding the scenery on our bus from the airport. There will be NO VIEWING OF THE OUTSIDE WORLD during the promotional video, please.
And there's this one. She was...pleased.

She spent today rapidly alternating between excitement about bragging to her friends and wishing she was still on the trip. By the end of the day she was firmly in the "Are you sure we had to come home?" camp.

She is also, at this point, justifiably confused about what is and is not real.
She has not only seen Mary Poppins the movie, but also gone to the Broadway show and let me read her the 200-page book over the past couple weeks. A lengthy conversation with the woman herself is not helping matters, you know?
Aaron's mom kindly let us go out. Every single night. We should probably try to get out more, is one thing. I'm sure you all were thinking the same.
The arcade had a Deal or No Deal game where you could actually win tickets. So we did.
We got to know the hotel bartender. He made fun of us a lot, for some reason. I asked if I could have a Bailey's and he blinked at me for a solid three minutes and then said, "I can try."Aaron was involved in an unfortunate incident during a laser fight to save...some good thing from some bad thing? Seems to be how most of the story lines go? And this one was Toy Story?I assure you that we were not posing for this. I won, for the record. Aaron is also a winner, of course. Just for playing! And losing! To me!

We figured Ollie was going to be mostly a liability for all this, which of course he was, but I was surprised at how much he enjoyed some stuff. Hippos. He likes hippos. He also thought meeting the characters was great. Here he is plunging his fingers into Donald's luscious underbelly.

Minnie took a shine to the boy, and he kept trying to get back to her, long after we had been shuttled along to the next magical moment.

I think this picture should be called "Day 4."
Aaron, pale and glassy eyed, Dylan feral, me taking pictures, and Ollie crying accusingly in my direction.

Dylan liked the rides way more than I expected. The last day she and I sprinted around the Magic Kingdom and got in four last ones in about an hour. I didn't notice a lot of other mothers sprinting around with their young children in strollers, but maybe because I was going too fast?

And, as in any Disney adventure, there were some lessons learned.

1) Tigger jammies: may seem cute. That is incorrect because however cute they are to the naked eye, "MOMMY LOOK AT ME JUMP I AM TIGGER BOUNCE BOUNCE BOUNCE" negates any cuteness in the 30 seconds before bedtime.

2) Hair trigger motion sickness and an enduring love of roller coasters is a TERRIBLE COMBINATION.

3) You may think you can get away with a flight without someone mentioning the baby's ears, but that is also incorrect. They will shout it at you, as you are walking off the plane. Try a bottle during takeoff and landing!!!

4) Watching fireworks from your hotel room is awesome.

5) Having the fireworks be an hour after the kid's bedtime is less awesome because she's knows they're coming. Oh yes she does.

6) I am estimating a minimum of two years before I can handle this again. Besides the constant corralling of the children, it is tiring to be me in such situations because whatever reservations I might have about Disney I MUST DO ALL THE THINGS.

Have a magical evening, one and all!

walk this way

2011-01-20T21:58:00.003-05:00

It warmed up to like, 35 degrees one day this week before plunging us back into the frigid icebox of cold frozen January ice time. We were giddy with all the warmth, so we let Ollie walk to daycare.

Dylan coached him every step of the way. Every other step she ushered him into the street, but the idea was nice.

Now he gets SO MAD when I won't let him walk, even though he would be an Ollie-sicle if we let him stay out that long at these temperatures.

Do you have ANY IDEA how long it takes us to get out the door these days

2011-01-19T21:50:00.005-05:00

Not to mention actually achieving a destination

This was functional, but Ollie later lodged a formal complaint with the management about how it emphasized his neckfat in a less than flattering manner.

As promised: sledding

2011-01-18T20:00:00.001-05:00

This does not capture how awesome it was. I later built a second jump in the middle, and the top part was so high Dylan couldn't climb up it without help. She was really landing hard by the end as it got faster and faster, but she claimed to like it.

Two Thumbs Up

2011-01-18T13:32:00.015-05:00

I need to catch up on reviewing all the things that people are clamoring for me to give opinions on!*

Yaktrax. Snuffy and I just had an excellent run thanks to them.

The Monster at the End of This Book iPad app. It's obviously an excellent book to begin with, but the app is really cool, with a lot of interaction and great animation. Dylan wants to read it every morning.

Chicken Soup with Lemon and Bulgur recipe from the NYTimes last week. My soups NEVER come out, but I had some bulgur I wanted to use and I got some fake chicken and I thought it turned out well--filling, but light, with a good, not too lemony flavor.

The Nike+ GPS iPhone running app. I've been using it for runs, walks, and cross country ski excursions. It makes a cool route map of where you go and it shows you your pace along the route and it tells you when you reach each mile. Sometimes it makes Tracy Jordan and Lance Armstrong say encouraging things to you.**

Breakfast at our favorite place AND
Carhartts with tie dye (outfit by Dylan)
Demerits to Ollie for attempting to go home with the people next to us. Additional demerits for eying their food so longingly that they were actually tempted to feed him.

Star stickers. If you're like us, these are a vital tool in making major life decisions.

Awesome front-yard sledding courses with lots of terrain. Four-year-olds don't weight anything, so they are a pleasure to design for. Video to follow once Aaron's phone comes home from work, if it turned out okay.

Kitchen elves.

*Not true.

**I should probably develop a Resolution to stop swooning about how apps enhance my life. I just have some vague sense that a geeky threshold has been crossed.

loaded question

2011-01-17T20:35:00.000-05:00

"Mommy, we learned about Martin Luther King, Jr today. And something bad happened to him?"

*****

They did a segment on using only one segment of a round trip flight on Marketplace Money. I apologize! You were all correct to be concerned! It's true that you can get away with it if it's the last leg, but otherwise I guess they're huge jerks about it. The guy they had on the show skipped the first leg (even I thought that would be a bad idea), and they wanted to make him 1) pay a $150 change fee, 2) pay the difference between his ticket and a one way ticket, AND 3) buy a new ticket. He negotiated them down from a couple of those, but that was their first reaction. They said that the airline still owns the ticket even after you buy it, and there aren't that many other similar situations with other products and services.

*****

We have a little county rope tow, with $8 lift tickets, so Dylan and I did a little more of this over the weekend:
I should have been a little more concerned by the sign in the lodge that said "icy rope is not sufficient cause for a refund."

This is a not a rope tow with "seats" or "handles." This is a rope. That is icy. But not in a refund-causing kind of way. They had to stop it for us because I lost traction halfway up and the rope just slid through my fingers and the people behind us caught up to us. To make up for all the delays, what with a whole hill full of total beginners valiantly, yet unsuccessfully, trying to make it up the rope tow, they run it REALLY FAST. Dylan, at least, was unfazed.

The upside is that if you do manage to make it to the top, the hill is your own. The other upside is that she has a great feel for it and is getting better really fast, so we both had a great time. I wouldn't say "stopping" is a strong point, but she can really turn and she was this time very responsive to what I was saying, unlike THE REST OF HER LIFE.

*****

Our household was running on a one-hour delay this morning, which was a funny coincidence because daycare had been evacuated because of a gas leak during the relevant hour. As we walked up this morning we saw line after line of kids trooping back across the street into the building. Dylan was SO MAD to have missed the fun since they brought over a TV to pass the time. I never get tired of how they pile a bunch of babies in a crib and roll them around. I was dropping Ollie off just as they were rolling in his classmates and he thought it was awesome too. He's been crying when I drop him off since New Year's, but today he just toddled around giggling.The child is a fool.
And a terrible lifeguard, by the by.

Also, I know it wasn't clear from the video, but he shuts his own self in the cabinet. At first he climbed in when I had some pots out, but now he shoves himself in there even when it's not empty. Dylan's always egging him on. "Ollie! Don't you want to go back in there? Go on, now."

children having children

2011-01-16T21:16:00.001-05:00

quick dance break

and a quick pry the bandaids off, wad them up, and hand them to me break

Life is Butter Dream

2011-01-15T22:29:00.000-05:00

That's Dylan's version of Row Row Row Your Boat and she will defend it to the bitter end.

*****

It occurs to me...perhaps Young Oliver is prone to become motion sick in the car. For decorum's sake I won't mention why it occurs to me. You're not supposed to turn kids' car seats around until they're two now, but maybe that would...improve the situation.

*****

Speaking of Young Oliver, since attaining the age of Solid Food Consumption, he has been know to yell at me should I, perchance, be in possession of food that is not going into his fat face. Now he has taken his tactics up a notch in sophistication by yelling BABY! BABY! when I have food he wants (=any food). I assume he means, "Mother! Your darling young baby here is famished and would like to partake of some sustenance! Forthwith!"

*****

We are getting a mini version of a CSA this winter, with root vegetables and some frozen stuff. To make room I have embarked on Adventures Through The Freezer. I now have an Inventory and every meal this week featured something from the frozen depths. Aaron scurries away with his ice cream treats now so I don't make him tabulate them.

*****

I went on my first school tour last week. It's the newest expeditionary one here, and the chances of getting in are great because it's so new. I liked it a lot--it was small and felt very manageable, the kids were all well behaved, and the teachers seems great. They go on field trips every week related to whatever topic they're learning about. Dylan would be a distinct minority, but I think she would be okay. The only problem is we would have to give up trying for the Spanish one to do it, which I don't think I can do. And the other problem is we haven't decided what state to live in next year yet, so this may not be relevant.

*****

I call this series Pile of Bleisencreatures

probably shouldn't put this on the internet

2011-01-13T22:59:00.001-05:00

Morning walk

2011-01-12T09:49:00.003-05:00

My car enjoyed 15 feet of clear, shoveled driving before enjoying several blocks of fresh powder, as is the way with our street.

Snuffy and I slogged through even more blocks of untouched powder on our walk. It occurs to me that this may be our big chance if we want to cross country ski from the house and make better use of all this snow.

As long as I'm enthralling you with pictures from the neighborhood, here's one from the other day, depicting the end of our DRIVEWAY. Police were called.

And one more fun tidbit for the road. Dylan and Ollie were playing SO NICELY by themselves in the kitchen over the weekend. During that time, we later learned, Dylan thoughtfully took the initiative to feed Ollie his medicine. I think she may have bought into the hype surrounding the health benefits of garlic though, and he was sputtering garlic powder for hours. A little goes a long way, Dylan.

Exclamations!

2011-01-10T19:27:00.015-05:00

Carefully maintaining the comb over!
Seen at the school choice expo: Impenetrable Gingerbread Fortress!
Speaking of schools, again, I found more recent information that said the lottery results for my favorite school last year were...17%!

Captured on film: Me! Technically not wearing pants, but whatever!

Do you want to know what my superpower is? If I am woken up any time between the hours of 11pm and 8am I can tell what time it is within an hour. I was not born this way, oh no. Practice, my friends. Practice!

What I'm reading, lately:
What the science of human nature can teach us: newyorker.com Sort of interesting, but so depressing! Why?!
Is Law School a Losing Game? I thought this was interesting, but that their lead guy did not really illustrate the point well since he seemed so clueless.
Haiti map, last year and this year

Things to raise your heartrate

2011-01-08T20:55:00.003-05:00

Dylan was helping me sort through some of her old 2T clothes for Ollie "The Chunk" yesterday. I had already taken out the dresses, but we still had to make a "possibly too girly but let's check with Aaron" pile. Aaron is not always the most decisive person, but he did seem to know this one. This led to a discussion with Dylan about how boys can wear girls clothes if they want to, but Daddy, for example, usually chooses not to. As far as you know. And stop bothering Mommy about her new men's socks, as they are awesome, although a little big.

***

I went to a Rochester school fair today. Good lord. It is reminiscent of the med school match process, but in an even more byzantine lottery sort of way. There are 4-5 city schools that we are eligible for that are, like my new socks, awesome. There are three expeditionary learning schools, which, after talking to parents and teachers, are just as cool as I thought they would be. Aaaaaand the chances of getting into one are in the 35% or less range. There is a Spanish immersion one that is also great academically, but you have to pass some kind of language screening first and then I have no idea what percent of kids get in. There's a neighborhood-ish school that also seems really good, with a 58% acceptance rate. And then all the others seem like they're maybe fine but it's hard to tell and we wouldn't be that excited about any of them.

Attending this event has thus served only to make me more excited about schools with a not-great chance of Dylan getting to attend them. That was clear, flowing, English, if ever I've written it. But you get me. Other options are: a private school in the city that's at least cheaper than daycare with an educational approach I really like, moving to a neighboring suburb to guarantee excellent public education through high school, moving close enough to the one neighborhood school to guarantee acceptance, which is not an area with a lot of single family houses, or leave town. Figuring out how to rank everything seems very strategic, and I'm not entirely clear how it works.

I called the school district in one of the other cities we're looking at and they were like, well, move to a house, then register with the closest school once you get here. I was like, oh. Okay then.

I hate to be all competitive and invested in this, especially since none of the odds are that good and its KINDERGARTEN, but I have also had enough of years of Dylan being somewhere that's perfectly adequate but isn't anything special and not really our style, and I want her to have a good experience. I really like that a city school will have kids from all kinds of backgrounds, but some of them are pretty clearly focused on making productive members of society out of tough kids, which is not the main issue with this particular kid.

***

Aaron and I went on the closest thing to a date we've been on since...oh yeah, hiking in September. I hate to count that since it made my toenails fall off AND Ollie was with us. Well, I hate to count this either, and you will see why. We went to the Y, dropped the kids off at the childcare there, sprinted away so we could pretend not to hear them crying, and went upstairs to the bikes with the virtual routes on them. You can see where the people on the bikes next to you are, virtually, if you do the same course, which means you can race them. If you're feeling competitive.

Aaron usually does these courses for part of his workout. I never do because I prefer my gym TV screen to have ma stories in lieu of digitized scenery. Arg. He is in GOOD SHAPE. I am spoiled from all those other years of our marriage where he was wedded to his chair and I could trounce him. I kept up for the first five miles. Even if I got a little behind I could catch up, although he did not like for me to be even a little bit ahead and would pass me immediately. The last mile he lost me, although I think I finished 5-10 seconds later. I don't usually...get my heart rate up that high, during your average workout.

Stardate: January

2011-01-06T21:15:00.011-05:00

"What do you want for your birthday?"

"I don't know...I hadn't thought about it much...it's fine though, we have the next three months to celebrate."

***

Our nearly 4.5 years of child-having have been remarkably free of vomit. Ollie had a little something to say about that. Uh oh!

Actually he really did puke on himself in the car once, wept for a moment, then was all like, Uh oh! Really, it was uh oh. I had to disassemble the entire car seat to wash it, but not before driving two hours to get home. I agree, this is an appropriate use of "uh oh," Ollie.

[Please note that this illness was entirely independent of the prior illness that took 3/4 of our family out for like two weeks. This new one ventured further afield and took out several extended family members in addition to my ever-stoic (to outsiders) husband]

***

Words that Ollie says at 13.5 months that are not uh oh:
mama
dada
dylan (DILL!)
DOG
baby
more
milk
banana
HI!
some kind of noise that means give me that iphone now, man, and it better be the one with that egg cracking game on it. [ed note: the egg cracking game involves poking a (virtual, you understand) egg with one finger until it cracks open to reveal a cute prize. i was reading him a book the other day with a picture of an egg and he starting madly poking at it]

He now points to his nose correctly, but there was a week in there where his right eye was in danger from being identified as "nose" too enthusiastically.

He's starting to point and yell DAT at things. I think Dylan did that for about a year. He has figured out how to provoke Dylan with like a twitch of his eyebrows. Awesome. Dylan's really nice to him unless she is cranky and then she is nice to NO ONE.

***

Current household status is: grumpy due to: too many life decisions in the offing OR lingering recovery from a stomach bug OR requiring constant interaction but only receiving interaction for 59 minutes of every hour OR some combination of the above. [Exception: Snuffy, whose status is: pleasingly fatigued. or pouting. who's to say, really? I can report that he is delightfully fluffy, fur-wise, at the moment]

***

Dylan combined a couple toys to make this. I thought it was cute:

So I made my own. I know, cute, right?

blankies: snuggly of champions

2011-01-03T10:31:00.002-05:00