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Journal Key:

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

6/24/10 (Thursday)

Yesterday I hung a toy moose on the handle of Owen's car seat. It's got long legs and jingly feet, and it's got loops to grab and things. He does seem to like it. He can jingle it, or, of course, Cara can reach over and jingle it for him. I gave him a bottle in his seat, and I saw one of his hands holding a moose leg. He fussed in the car for a little bit, and, when he stopped, Cara told him, "It's okay, Owen! Your moose makes you happy."

We went to ballet again this week. The other mom who hangs around is from Sri Lanka, and she told me a saying they have there. The gist of it is that you can never get tired of watching babies or elephants. Owen is fun to watch. He can lie on the floor and entertain himself, when he feels like it. He is still working on getting both hands into his mouth at once, and he can roll to one side. I'm still not sure whether he can only roll to the right. It's very hot at ballet. There's no air conditioning and no fan in the waiting room. I stripped Owen down to his diaper and let him hang around like that. He definitely appreciated it.

At the end, I strapped him into his car seat just like that. Other moms came in, one of whom had a boy a little older than Owen. The kids came out of class. "Our baby's wearing baby clothes," remarked his big sister.

6/25/10 (Friday)

I parked a couple of blocks from YBR this morning, and we used the stroller. We dropped Owen off, and then it was just me, Cara, and an empty stroller.

Cara: Mommy, I'm really tired.

Me: Oh. That's too bad.

Cara: I wish I could sit down.

Me: Good thing you'll be at preschool soon; you can sit down there.

Then she abandoned all subtlety and just asked me to let her ride in the stroller. I told her she'd be like Ned, in One Fish, Two Fish. His head and feet stick out of his little bed.

I picked Owen up around lunchtime to take him for a follow-up appointment with his surgeon. It was uneventful, except for Owen having a really wonderful time on the crinkly paper of the examining table. Owen has now graduated from his urologist. We spent a quiet day together. I put him in his jumper, put music on, and then I think we had a dance party.

6/26/10 (Saturday)

Why, oh why, has Owen forgotten how to go to sleep? Just last week he was so particular about his bedtime. Now, he is particularly against it. Every night, we give him a bottle and then have to dance with him for at least five minutes. Before, we were able to put him down awake and he would put himself to sleep, with a minimum of fuss. This evening, even dancing with him three times has not sufficed. He is sitting in his bouncer now, sucking on his wrists.

6/27/10 (Sunday)

At the moment last night's journal was written, we were all of us (except perhaps Cara, who was probably asleep) feeling pretty exhausted. Earlier in the day we had been busy: we went out to lunch, then spent a good while at Barnes & Noble where I read lots of books to Cara while Ev got to change Owen and give him a bottle. After that, we came home and at Cara's suggestion instigated a Loeffler pool party. It was my first time this year getting into the pool, and I had a great time. I ended up tossing a lot of kids around, and PJ did some impressive things on his boogie board. Owen spent the entire pool party asleep in his car seat on the patio, which may partly explain his inability to get to sleep later that evening.

It was another action-packed day today. In the early morning, Ev gave Owen a big bottle, but he still seemed to be smacking his lips, eager for more. So she tried something we'd been thinking about doing for a few days, and gave him some cereal for the first time. A lot of it ended up on him, but she thinks a lot of it also went in him. Afterwards he had a bath.

Later in the morning, Ev and Cara went off to the theater in Metuchen to rehearse for Cara's big dance recital! Cara got to put on her costumes and see the stage. (Cara had spent the whole morning up until that point asking if it was time to go yet.) Then it was back home for lunch. It wasn't too long before it was time to go off again for the actual recital. Juliana kindly offered to be our Owen-sitter, so we didn't have to chance an infant in the theater. She was already chattering away with him when we left.

This year's recital was a big contrast over last year's glitzy affair. The theater was much smaller, with fewer performers and performances. The audio was controlled by a guy named "Pete" who was continually being admonished to either start the music or hold off a minute. The rull range of lighting was "on" or "off." But Cara has considerably improved in her dancing skills. Her numbers were fun and I think she and a lot of the other girls involved had fun doing them. I think for all the grandparents this year's recital was much less of an endurance test. And Cara claims she wants to stay at Miss Valerie's again for next year.

After the show most of us headed over to the Edison Diner--I picked up little Owen and brought him over so he could at least experience the wrap party. I started eating my dinner and looked up to find that Cara's hot dog had vanished off of her plate. It was extraordinary. The little bean was handed around to various people at the table, until he just got plain fussy and I packed him off back home for a bottle.

It was a small bottle, so afterwards Ev suggested we try the cereal again, and this time I got to feed him. It was a blast. Owen has been very chatty lately and somehow he found the being-spoon-fed thing absolutely thrilling. He was kicking his legs all over, squeaking and cooing. I think perhaps my saying "Aaahhhhh!" to get him to open his mouth was a new and amusing expression for him. He seemed to do pretty well at putting it away, though it was a very slow and careful process, and he did once manage to kick the bowl with his foot.

We also had time in the evening to have some nice play time with Cara. Her girls, I believe, were headed off to a picnic at "Play Park." They got all packed up and stuck themselves into a basket, and we built playground equipment out of tinker toys. Then it was time for Cara's bath, so they will have to wait until tomorrow to get to the park.

6/28/10 (Monday)

Between five fifteen and seven o'clock this morning, Owen took ten ounces of formula and most of a bowl of rice cereal. At quarter to ten, at daycare, he set a personal record by taking eight ounces. We suspect a growth spurt. It's either that or a tapeworm.

I picked him up at twelve thirty to head down to Trenton for a high-risk infant follow-up program. The physical therapist is actually the daughter of one of the NICU nurses. Owen absolutely loved it. He smiled and cooed and squeaked and talked and laughed. He sort of sounded like a flock of birds. He did great at turning his head to follow a toy, and he also reached for it with his hands. He demonstrated how well his hands have found each other. She spent some time showing him the handsome baby in the mirror, which was interesting. As I knew it would be, tummy time was his downfall. I've really not been doing that enough with him. Amy showed me some techniques to help him to "organize" himself so that he can get as much out of it as possible and to minimize his frustration.

We also saw a doctor, who explained that he was going to treat Owen as a full-term baby and see how he was behind. Everything is physically developing perfectly. Owen "passed" on muscle tone and sitting up. His legs and feet and arms and shoulders are all aligned properly. He got weighed and measured; he's in the 50th percentile for head circumference, the 25th for height, and the 10th for weight, all of which is pretty great! The thing that a full-term five-month-old could do that Owen can't is to sit on his own, propping himself up with his arms. To help him learn to do that, and also to help him learn to stand up, we have an exercise to do. With his left hand, the doctor held Owen sitting at a 45-degree angle. With his right, he caught both legs. While singing to him, he made him essentially do sit-ups, but moving only his legs. After he'd done that a little, he stood Owen up again. He put a lot more weight on his legs. The doctor did all of this while Owen was naked. The nakedness was not necessary. I checked. Owen really liked the singing.

I'm feeling excited about all of the things we have to do. The doctor says that after a couple of weeks of exercising, we can expect Owen to be able to sit up like that. The tummy time, too, should help a lot. When he understands what to do with his arms, he'll be a lot more competent.

We headed back up north and picked up Cara. The picture she drew today is interesting; it's a dress shop, so there are two dresses being worn by what are clearly dummies. The three of us went and did groceries. It may be my first time taking them to a supermarket together. Cara cannot see into Owen's carrier when it's up on top of the cart. She spent a lot of her time jumping to see him. She also still wanted to push the cart, in spite of not being able to see. I steered, and I felt like the guy on a boat who has to take soundings and call out how deep the water is. "Go forward, forward, forward, and . . . stop!" The biggest adventure was that, as I ought to have been able to predict, Cara had to use the bathroom. We had to take the cart back with us into the giant warehouse in the back of Pathmark and all squeeze into the ladies' room. Another mommy came along with her little girl, too. "That was a great adventure!" Cara declared when we re-emerged.

Owen had a long day, I guess. He's still having a tough time in the evenings, and poor Steve always seems to have to deal with him. Juliana described how astonished she was yesterday; after we'd left, he cried and cried. He was tired. He rejected his bottle and cried. She walked downstairs with him and, when she looked down, she saw that he'd suddenly fallen asleep. A lot of the time, these days, he just seems to need to cry to get himself to sleep. Tomorrow should probably be my turn.

I read to Cara. I had to read If I Ran the Zoo. There are places where animals have horns or legs or other things that are all tangled up. Cara wouldn't let me make "silly" noises while I traced them. I had assumed that was the point! It's hard to trace them without making noises.

6/29/10 (Tuesday)

As a treat for everybody, Grandmama came up today! She and I picked up the kids together, and then she played with Cara and made silly faces at Owen while I made dinner. We all had a good time. Afterwards, they played outside while I opened up some boxes and found a lot of Cara old baby toys. It was neat to see them again, and many will be great for Owen, if not now, then soon. Cara pulled the tail of her old light-up musical butterfly, and I got her to brush her teeth efficiently by challenging her to get done before it stopped. "Pull it again!" she yelled, running off.

I forgot to note that yesterday Cara was involved in the second tragic hugging accident of her young life. Aiden was being picked up when I picked her up, and he was very helpful; he actually got her lunch box for us. We got outside and said goodbye, and then Cara ran back for a hug. She ran a little too hard, and she's easily a head taller, and down they went! Fortunately, everyone recovered very well.

6/30/10 (Wednesday)

One of the most gratifying moments of my day yesterday was when Sandi at YBR saw on Owen's sheet that he'd gotten up at 4:30 in the morning. She was horrified. I'd taken him out in the stroller from five to six, and he'd stayed awake the whole time, too! Today, he was up in the night at 2:30 and then up again at 5:30. I know that when I was working full-time and he was doing this, I enjoyed it. Now, as I predicted, it's hard! We had a pleasant morning, though.

They've been working with him on tummy time. Someone gave him a mirror to look at, and he really liked it! One of the many baby toys I found yesterday is a mirror, so this afternoon, during playdate, I put him down on his tummy, propped on a rolled-up blanket, and set up the mirror in front of him. The sun was glaring onto his face, though, so I moved it to the side. He stared at it. His head headed off to the side. His leg and arm started heading into the air. Slowly, slowly, slowly, Owen rolled over to his back! It was really more of a fall, I suppose. If I'd had more presence of mind, I could have gotten the video camera! There was time. Actually, I'm really pleased with how well he's doing with his tummy time now and with his other exercises, too. He's making progress. We've been very dedicated; we have to keep it up.

I think Owen liked having everybody over for playdate. For a while, he sat in his bouncer, Em and I were upstairs, and the kids played with him. Cara showed PJ and Casey how to do "How big is the baby?" and they both tried it several times. Someone gave him his caterpillar to play with. He was happy. During dinner, when he made noise, or, actually, every few minutes whether or not he made noise, a child went to check on him.

When I got to YBR to get Cara, she showed me that she had a large green maple leaf. She brought it inside while we got her stuff. She put it in the bottom of the stroller with her lunch box while we got Owen and went back to the car. One of the highlights of the evening was when she asked me quite seriously, "Mommy, what should I do with my leaf?" I had no idea. Her lunch box came with a drinking bottle that goes in a pouch strapped to the side. Cara's job, when we get home, is to put the bottle in the fridge. I found her lunch box on the table with the leaf in that side pouch.

Another playdate highlight: I made a nice peach crumble and we had it with vanilla ice cream. The kids, of course, rejected it and had some ice cream with chocolate chips. Cara pointed out, "This ice cream is frozen!"

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