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Journal Key:

Green = Steve | George = navy | Janet = Purple | Evelyn = Black

6/3/10 (Thursday)

The fact that Puma has a facebook page has put me in a somewhat odd position. The other day, Cara was being distracted while I was trying to get her to get something done. "I think it's Puma's birthday!" she said. "No," I told her, quite truthfully, "Puma's birthday's in March."

I forgot this morning to remind Cara about our deal. I was very impressed when I picked her up that she remembered: if she got to bed before 8:20, she could have four books. After 8:20, just three. Unfortunately, even though ballet was rescheduled to Saturday, we had a late dinner. She decided to watch Curious George afterwards and when we pointed out that she had only ten minutes to get ready if she wanted four books, she decided she just wanted three!

Still, I think this might work out. I'm having fantasies about making her a chart. In bed by 8:15=four books. In bed by 8:20=three books. In bed after 8:30? Just two books.

One of the things I liked about the literature that Steve brought home from kindergarten orientation was a part that said that kids at this age tend to procrastinate, especially in adult-directed tasks. Yes, they do!!

6/4/10 (Friday)

Owen slept until about 4:30 last night, but then he was pretty much awake and ready for the day. (Actually, I think he was so alert because he had to poop. It makes him perky!) I wasn't excited about getting up, but actually we had a very nice morning. We tried to stay quiet, since no one else was up. He sat nicely in his bouncer while I showered and got myself together, and then he had a little bit more of his bottle while I made my breakfast. We moved out onto the living room floor, and I snuck in a little reading of the paper. When I looked up, he was getting sleepy. He happily dozed off on the floor and spent at least another half hour asleep.

He was on the floor at YBR when I got there to get him. The girl sitting with him said that I had "just missed it!" Apparently she had sneezed three times in a row, and he had laughed at her. For the past five minutes, she'd been sneezing for him. He was delighted.

It was a fun day for Owen. For "Activities," besides tummy time, his sheet says, "exercised legs (got out a lot of gas)"! I wonder at what age I should stop saying of him, "he was the gassiest baby in the NICU."

6/5/10 (Saturday)

Owen and I took Cara to ballet today! She didn't want to go. Of course, she had a fabulous time. She's even been invited to what sounds like a really cool birthday party; it's at a movie theater. Owen hung out happily on the floor and played. I talked to Cara in the car about him; I asked her, since he wouldn't do ballet, what activity she thought he might do when he got older. He'll be a tap dancer.

He got a little sleep in the car when he went out on an errand with Steve this afternoon, but, aside from that, he was awake, awake, awake. Cara and I went over to PJ's pool, where Steve and Owen came and joined us later. Owen hung around and spent his time wriggling, but the other kids had a Good Time in the water. PJ and Casey can both touch the bottom now with their feet, and they've been swimming around with their vests on. They even jump in all by themselves! Cara went in without her vest, and she can hop around perfectly well but can't really swim. She's not quite able to make herself horizontal, for some reason. She did soon emulate PJ and Casey in jumping in. She and PJ, particularly, would have kept jumping all afternoon, had we not had to tone them down. They went without their vests, letting their heads get under water and everything.

Casey got out of the water before the other kids, and when Owen got himself wet and I decided to take him home to change him, she decided to come with me. She got to pick out his clothes; I put out several onesies and she chose. Her favorite: the one that says "baby" on it. Now he's labeled. I let her stand on Cara's step stool to watch while I changed him. I told her she could touch him, and she carefully put out one finger and just barely touched his hand. Seeing her do that later, Steve realized it was because of how careful we used to have to be with him. We'll have to let her get more comfortable with him.

Owen stayed awake for the entire time we were over there, from maybe four until after eight. He actually may have spent more time than Cara did watching Return of the Jedi. I did explain some parts to her, but she'll really need to see Empire first and then watch Jedi from start to finish. PJ's grandma was there, and she did a good job of explaining to Cara that the good guys always win, so it's okay to watch scary parts.

It was fun to watch her in action as a grandma. Casey came down the stairs.

Casey: Grandma?

Grandma: She's not here.

Casey: Grandma?

Grandma: She's not here.

Casey: Grandma?

Grandma: She went to the store.

Casey: Grandma! (big hugs)

Grandma: I was teasing you!

Casey: Again!

I shortened that. They did it again. Then again. Then Cara had to have a turn. Then Casey had one. The two girls went upstairs discussing how they could both come down at once. It was the best game ever.

6/6/10 (Sunday)

Last night, Cara got me to read her a third book by picking a small stuffed book that is only about four pages long and is about a Sesame Street character. The theme is "wake up." After we read it, Cara requested that I come into her room the next morning and yell "Wake Up!" I warned her that she might not like me saying that to her in the morning. Indeed, she slept late and I did actually yell "wake up!" at her. But then I told her that I was in the middle of flipping pancakes, so that made it OK.

Grandma and Grandpa visited today! Grandpa got to sit in the glider and nap with Owen. Grandma was forced to color a lot of things. (Grandpa gets out of drawing by claiming that he "stinks" at it.) We had a nice time. Mommy tried hard to get Cara to play her tea party game with Grandpa, but they ended up doing a puzzle instead.

Owen was a bit congested today. He was breathing with a lot of noise, coughing, and sneezing. Ev finally got the opportunity to use one of the many, many bulbs that we got from the hospital (and possibly elsewhere) for sticking into babies' noses and sucking out the stuff. I was worried that being a little sick would make him fairly miserable, but he hasn't been noticeably different than usual. We'll see what the night brings--it's my turn to get up with him!

It was a hot day, so within minutes of Grandma and Grandpa departing, we had the sprinkler out. Cara got in her swimsuit and Owen came out in his bouncer. We inadvertantly let Owen sit in the path of the sprinkler for one pass--he didn't like it very much. Cara had a nice time--we were worried that we might have to cut the sprinkler short because of rain, but the predicted storm never did arrive, just a little wind.

After that Mommy and Cara made chocolate chip cookies. We don't really need cookies but it was a nice thing to do together. Meanwhile, we put on The Empire Strikes Back. Cara had requested the film last night, and we all got to watch it. It's interesting because Cara is constantly saying "Who's that? What's he doing? What's happening? Who's that?" so we end up explaining a lot of the plot to her. For me, this is of course fun, but also somewhat illuminating, since I've seen the movies so many times that I don't even think that much about the plot details.

Cara is a big Star Wars fan now. She was excited to tell Grandma and Grandpa about this when they arrived. The next time we visit them, Jim's and my Star Wars figures may have come down from the attic. After dinner, we even managed to get in the beginning of Return of the Jedi.

A couple of funny moments from Empire. There's a scene near the beginning where Princess Leia is getting very annoyed with Han Solo, who is trying to convince everyone in the room that Leia is very attracted to him. Leia says "I guess you don't know everything about women," and turns around and kisses Luke (who has just been rescued from a tussle with a snow beast). Cara decided: "She must be kissing his boo-boo."

Later in the movie, Han flies his ship into a hole in an asteroid to avoid being caught by the bad guys. He eventually discovers, in a big surprise, that the ship is actually hiding inside of a giant space worm who was living in the asteroid, and the good guys get away just before they are eaten. I was wondering how Cara would react to this, or even if she would understand what was going on. In the event, she barely seemed surprised at all; she just sort of grinned and said, "Oh, they were in a big snake."

Cara still isn't totally versed in all of the terminology and names. Though I had explained the term "lightsaber" to her several days ago, she still seemed to think today that they were "lifesavers" or possibly "lightsavers." And Darth Vader she dubs the much more logical "Dark Vader."

Earlier, Cara talked me into drawing mermaids for her. She made sure I knew on what paper I was to draw, and I asked whether she had a writing utensil in mind. She went off in search of one, and, just as I was starting to wonder whether she knew the word "utensil," she came back, relieved that she'd been able to find a pencil.

6/7/10 (Monday)

Owen woke up before six, just as I was getting dressed. When Steve got up, I asked him what time Owen's last bottle had been. His last one had been the one he'd had around eight thirty last night, because he'd slept through! Oddly, he wasn't awfully hungry. He didn't mind coming downstairs to play, though.

When I picked the kids up, I heard from more than one teacher that Owen had grown over the weekend! I was relieved that his stuffy nose didn't seem to have progressed or to have caused him any trouble today. He hasn't had a big appetite, particularly, but he's been perfectly pleasant for the most part.

We stopped at the farmer's market, where Owen slept in the stroller while Cara learned to get bags off of rollers, helped select apples, and then for the first time got to push the stroller. It's funny to see, because it's so easy for me to do and it's so much harder for her, poor thing! She persevered, though, and she ended up pushing her brother all around the store and then out to the car, with me steering in the parking lot and helping with the more complex maneuvers.

The first thing Cara had said, when I got to YBR, after my hello hug, was that she was excited about watching Star Wars tonight! I'd forgotten that we'd watched the start of Jedi last night, promising to finish today. Steve worked a little late, so we decided to eat in front of the tv. It's a good thing we did, because there turned out to be a lot left! Also, I couldn't resist stopping it a couple of times to explain things. I think it's a teacher problem. Well, Ewoks are a big, big hit. I think that they really make the big climactic fight scene far more watchable. It's a great, great movie. It's a great trilogy. Now Cara's seen the whole thing, because she's done, because she doesn't need to watch Episodes I, II, or III, because they're not real Star Wars. So there.

This past weekend, we got our cable disconnected. We turned in the box. It took us quite a bit of effort to teach Cara how to turn on the tv: first the button on the box, and then wait a few seconds, and then the button on the tv. Yesterday, when a menu screen on the dvd was repeating, we sent her out to turn it off. It was her first time seeing that the box was gone. She took a while. "Turn it off!" we called. She answered, "I can't!" This evening, I confess, I had the same problem. It's hard to hit a button that's not there!

Owen was mostly happy, watching the movie and playing, but at the very end he got fussy. I held him and then Steve held him, and then Steve changed his position and he got sleepy. I made him a small bottle, but he really went off to sleep while Steve changed him and put him in his sack in his crib.

We had to skip Cara's bath, but she wanted to be sponged off. "Don't hurt the boo-boos on my toes," she told me. I hadn't known about the boo-boos; they were new. One looked very suspicious. Without my glasses, I could tell for sure: that was a splinter. Fortunately, it was very close to the surface and we were able to get it out with minimal pain. It was scary, but then I did manage to find a very tiny band aid. That helped.

6/8/10 (Tuesday)

In an exercise in irony, Owen slept through the night. Cara was up around three. Even though it was my turn, I made Steve get up. I'm not sure how I justified that to myself. He was in the bathroom when I got up because she was screaming harder. She was upset, she explained, because she didn't want to go back to sleep. I was willing to acknowledge her feelings, though I was not willing to have her go downstairs, as she wanted, and watch a movie. I got her to agree that she could look at a book now if she wanted to and that in two hours when I got up she was welcome to come down and watch something.

It wasn't until the next morning that I found out that she hadn't even wet the bed; I'd assumed that Steve had changed her sheets and then she'd flipped out. No, she stayed dry and was crying only because she wanted it to be daytime. Today I find this funny; I don't think I will, if it becomes a habit.

Owen woke up at quarter to five, which is really perfect. It gives me time to give him a bottle before it cuts into my getting-ready-for-work time, and then he and I hang out while I get myself ready. He's welcome to wake up then any time--until the summer!

Steve had to work late again, so Cara and I had some free time before dinner. We elected to watch Star Wars and paint our nails.

Owen did some fussing before and during dinner. Steve tried to explain to him that he was very very tired and needed to go to sleep, but he wasn't happy with being in his bouncer. After dinner, around eight, I took him upstairs (still fussy), changed him (a perfectly happy baby), sacked him (playful!), and put him in his crib. I figured he'd get antsy in a few minutes and I'd give him the bottle that we had ready, but instead he lay there looking around for a quarter of an hour or so and then fell asleep on his own. I've said it before: he's very strict about his bedtime.

6/9/10 (Wednesday)

I thought all day that Owen had slept through the night, getting up at ten of five again, and we had a really nice morning. He was very chatty. I remembered this afternoon that he'd actually been up around three. I went and made him a bottle, but I should have gone to look at him first. He had moved himself over and had an arm all the way out between the crib slats. He likes to rub his face against things, and he was turning it back and forth very fast. Unfortunately, he was banging it against the side of the crib, which made him cry. He was still asleep. I moved him back to the center, and he continued waving his face around happily, asleep. I put the bottle back in the fridge and went to bed.

Picking Cara up today was eventful. Emily came over: "Cara's mom, I want to go trick or treating with you. At night." I confirmed that she thought we ought to do that on Halloween. Yes. Then it sounds fine. One or two little boys, overhearing, would like to come, too. I think we should all go.

Yesterday I called Em and PJ picked up the phone. It took me a few moments to figure out what had happened. Em mentioned afterwards that her phone had been almost dead and was probably beeping at him, which I'm sure made things more difficult. However, we were eventually able to establish that we were both there. Who is it? he asked. "It's Evelyn," I told him. Nothing. "It's Evelyn." This wasn't getting through. OK. "It's Diane!" "Oh," he said, "Diane." I asked whether Mommy was there. "No," he said, sounding like a little lost muppet, "just PJ." Mommy was talking to Susan. She called me back later.

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