dalleyfamily

So. Turns out Eli has always had a gift for working through jet-lag. Who knew? We were blissfully ignorant in the past that his behaviour wasn’t the norm. NOW, however, we know. Neither of the girls has… adapted… well… to the time change. A caveat here: Eli has been doing as much walking as Lana & I, so his physical weariness may be helping offset any kind of two-thirty-in-the-morning waking. NOT-SO-MUCH FOR FINLEY. Each & every night so far, she has been up & on FIRE from 2:30am GMT onward. Kind words, promises, cajoling murmurs… threats… a freaking cat-o’nine tails can’t really stop the Finley train once it pulls out of station. And, as she is sharing a room with Eli, eventually the sound of blows, the screamed imprecations, and the totally unveiled and almost daringly flourished threats cause him to wake… and then the circus goes from two rings to three. Added to which is the fact that neither of the twin beds in that room has a mattress comfortable for an adult’s back, so in the (late) morning, when we finally wake (as Finley usually winds down / suddenly stops around 7:30 or 8:00am & falls into a deep sleep, anesthetizing all three of us), my back is as twisted as a Pretzel Time pretzel. (A little Oakview Mall reference for my fellow Omahans out there.)

So… we stagger bloodily onwards. We are trying to make her exercise as much as possible during the day, filling her up with food at dinner & bedtime… and have finally found a way to tape the gag in place that won’t pull on her hair (just kidding, grandparents).

I have missed much of the epic battle that Lana has fought with Sawyer on much of the same ground– that has been happening in “our” bedroom, whilst I have been in the “kids” room. We have varying theories about what is going on with Sawyer, but as a 6-month-old is normally fairly reticent with the details, painting the conversation with “broad strokes,” as it were, we are mostly guessing. We think that her Pack n’ Play (which was a left for us by the management service) may be different enough from her crib at home that it is causing her some stress– might be a bit cold in the room, though studies seem to suggest that moderately colder might be better (and it’s not all that cold– and neither is she, when Lana has picked her up), the lack of a fan (who knew that there were studies out about that? We just did it for the noise… ), or… perhaps… just… jetlag. I mean, if people think you should allow a day of recuperation for each hour of time change, we really haven’t been here long enough for things to have “settled out.” We’ve got the White Noise app on my phone going full voice now, and that seems to have helped by preventing most of the waking via startle, especially during the day. (Sidenote: she is the MOST easily startled baby– and I can’t decide if that is strangely curious or certifiably WARRANTED, given her siblings)

Realistically, I should go to bed now, though– as I should be hearing from Finley in about 3 1/2 hours.

___

Edit: Last night went MUCH better. Finley woke up once– at 1:30am– and went back to sleep when walked back into her room. She got up for the day at 5:30am, which (hopefully) means she will be even more ready for bed at bedtime. Sawyer continues to be troublesome (inasmuch as she is ever “troublesome”)– getting up several more times than usual (like every hour from 9:30pm ’til 12:30am and then up at 4:00, for an hour, and back to bed until 8:00, whew). As mentioned above, hopefully this will have settled out in eight days…

…is not as intuitive as I would like. I have spent quite a while messing with the layout of the blog (using the “theme” I have chosen through WordPress), and I can see the attraction to doing this in the other (non-free) manner available to users of the WordPress software. It took WAY to long to format & insert the new “LAX to Heathrow” graphic I posted there in the sidebar, and I STILL am not quite sure how to easily add a cycling set of images showing the new flat. All of this has conspired to make me spend several hours “computing” with no visible result… something Lana alternately mocks & berates me for. At least I was not doing so & simultaneously ignoring the needs of our children. Evidently, this is something I do.

Tristan: (type, type, type, stare at screen)

Child One: “Dad, can I have some milk?”

Tristan: (type, stare, noncommittal grunt)

Child Two: “Dad, can I play outside?”

Tristan: (type, type, type, stare at screen)

Child One: “DAD. Can I PLEASE have some MILK?”

Child Two: “I was here first!” (obviously untrue) “I WANT TO GO OUTSIDE!”

Tristan: (type, stare at screen, turn toward noise, squint, turn back to screen, type)

Child One: “I WAS HERE FIRST! AND I am getting the milk MYSELF!” (sound of fridge door opening, wet splat as milk hits kitchen floor)

Tristan: (type, type, type)

Child Two: “FINE!” (child exits. door slams. sound of screeching tires immediately outside door.)

Tristan: (type, type, pause) “Wait. Did someone need milk?”

(all is quiet)

Tristan: (to self) “Hmpf. Thought somebody wanted something.” (type, stare at screen, type, pause, looks down) “HEY! Where did all this milk come from?”

OR AT LEAST THIS IS WHAT LANA WOULD HAVE YOU BELIEVE.

Decide for yourself, based on your knowledge of my character. Do not inform me of your ruminations– I would prefer to falsely assume everyone’s good opinion of my character.

Tomorrow, I will (again) attempt to provide some images of our new flat.