Long, and long

Eventually, if I don't post for long enough, I not only lose the ability to string together coherent thoughts, but also the ability to remember all the things I think of to write about. Which pretty much leaves us with stream of consciousness. Should be thrilling, read on.

Dylan has morphed into some kind of actual child, who understands all the words and knows what's going on all the time and gets embarrassed when I tell embarrassing stories about her in front of her. Hm, I wonder if that translates to the internet? I guess we'll have to wait until she can read to figure that one out. Although she actually really wants to read right now, I think she's got a while before that's going to work for her. Her favorite thing to do at the moment is sit at the computer and have me spell words that she types out on the keyboard.

Any new level of functioning has been accompanied by a total loss of ability to GET A GRIP. She cries about everything, she argues extensively whenever I tell her no (quote from today: "Mommy, yes, or yes?"), she tells us she's hungry every evening thirty seconds after she swears she's done with dinner. She just seems unable to calm herself down whenever things happen, or don't happen, or might happen. Trying to help her not be a miserable ball of pathetic is tough, and it's almost like dealing with a whole different person than we're used to. She still yells NO THANK YOU when she's angry because that's what they say at daycare. It's hard to argue with that. But really, I almost can't tell sometimes whether to be stricter or more patient.

Snuffy, in comparison, still seems better trained than ever. The other little human one is behaving itself as well, with only the occasional cessation of all of my gastrointestinal functions. Are you not supposed to compare your children and/or pets? Because that's not going to work out. Relatedly, Dylan has been asking not only about whether she is getting a brother or a sister, but also keeps confirming, "Snuffy my brother?"

This last rotation was hard. I was getting up before 5am a lot of mornings and spending a lot of time cutting sutures in the OR. You really honestly get judged on how attentive you are with the suture scissors. The last case I was in went about three hours longer than anyone thought it would, and required a lot of contortions to retract things appropriately, in addition to the requisite not eating, drinking, or peeing. I think we're all comfortable with my decision not to head into any kind of surgical specialty at this point, am I right? I'm not even going to tell you what the surgery was for because, ew.

We just got back from a very nice family wedding, in which the groom, who I have known for many years, came up and introduced himself to me so sincerely that I was pretty much speechless except to proclaim that hey! you know me! He was in fact kidding, which is lucky if for no other reason than his own mental functioning. The weekend was also marked by Aaron getting to stay out drinking until the wee hours, which I am always happy to facilitate since I don't like staying up very late, so it's like I'm doing a public service. Although Aaron's mental state today has been: absent, so I may reconsider my commitment to such service in the future. I will not even tell you what my brother considers to be service to the community, but perhaps he should consider more dietary fiber.

Enough? That was probably enough. Goal for tomorrow: fewer words, more lucidity.