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Journal Key:

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

7/22/10 (Thursday)

I decided to take Friday off this week, and left from work early today. I managed to get home before Ev and the kids. Owen apparently was continuing his scooting at daycare. He was crabby when he arrived home; looking at his sheet, Ev remarked that he hadn't slept in several hours. I spent some time carrying him around against me, then held him out to sit on my leg and found that he was falling asleep while sitting there. A few seconds later he was cuddled in my arms and lightly snoring. It was nice.

So we packed ourselves all back up again and headed for the mall. Our mission: to purchase a new copy of a paper doll book for Cara, which the internet claimed was in stock at the Barnes and Noble. As it turned out, it was not, and we had to order it; but we nevertheless had a very nice trip to the mall. We used the food court to its full extent: each of the three of us who have teeth got food at a different place. Ev got a chance to try out the diaper-changing setup in the restroom. It was nice, but it had a little trash can to the left of the changing pad which Owen started scooting at as soon as he was put down!

We got home late and, contrary to our normal custom, Ev put Owen down for the night while I read Cara some Just So stories. The second one I read her was about the wise King Solomon and how he accidentally chastised his 999 vexatious wives by helping a butterfly husband make good on a ridiculous boast. I'm not sure what she got out of that, really.

7/23/10 (Friday)

Cara told me a story yesterday: "Mommy, when your tummy got big, I thought you were eating too much. Then I found out there was a baby in it and the baby was growing. Then we found out it was a boy, and we named him Owen. Then, he turned out to be the best baby brother in the whole world!"

This morning was house-cleaning time. Cara actually has been making her own bed every day, and today she helped me take the sheets off of all of the beds. Then she delayed things by going to get a flashlight and creeping under the sheets, pretending that they were a cave. She also cleaned up her playroom, which was very helpful. While Steve was mowing the lawn, Owen was napping, and I was vacuuming, she brought her old shoe box of paper dolls up to the living room and sorted them all out. Miraculously, neither dolls nor shoe box is in evidence right now. When she found a dragonfly she'd made, she got reminded of Crazy Quilt, which we had to put on. Now, she wants to make all of the crafts Maggie and Jackson create on the show. I think we can do some of them. We may have to find more supplies, though!

When I was about to put clean sheets on the bed, Cara came up and climbed onto it. She bounced around for a second, and then she said, "I don't want to be Shelby!" She climbed down and headed off. (It's true that Shelby is very often a big problem when it comes to being in the way when we're putting sheets on the bed.)

The four of us took Aunt Claire furniture shopping today, and then Cara got to ride in Claire's car. She had fun and found a baseball cap to wear. Back at Claire's house, Owen hung out in his diaper while Cara played with the cardboard restaurant and furniture that she and Claire had made weeks and weeks ago. She'd brought CInderella, and prince, and a lego person to be their baby, as well as a car for them to use to drive to the restaurant. We met Grandmama and Grandpapa for dinner, and Owen was fairly unhappy in the restaurant for a while. He was tired and we'd dragged him around a lot today. Finally, he was willing to take a bottle and fell asleep in Grandmama's lap.

In the car, we're reading Little House on the Prairie. It made me cry. Today we read the chapter where they all get malaria and also the one where Mr. Edwards meets Santa Claus. It's different reading some parts, though, as a parent. Sometimes I don't think Ma's fair.

This evening, I lay on the bed with Owen sitting up on my tummy, his back against my legs. Shelby came along. I petted her, and he stared at her. She wasn't really interested in him; in fact, she didn't notice that her tail was waving around right in front of his face. I do think he was thinking about catching it. He's not fast enough yet. In another few weeks, she'll have a problem. We spent a good five or ten minutes just hanging out. Oddly, later, when I'd gotten him to sleep and sat back down in the glider to make sure he was really out, she came in and climbed up onto my lap. She settled in. Did she feel that she'd become friends with him? Had she determined that he wasn't a threat? Perhaps she felt that he'd invaded her territory, so this was fair. Anyway, it was strange.

7/24/10 (Saturday)

Today was Casey's birthday party (she turns four next week), so PJ and Casey came over to play all morning. It was fun. We did puzzles with Casey, and it's possible that she may be starting to get the concept of edge pieces. Cara brought Casey upstairs: "I want to show you something!" It turned out to be Little House on the Prairie. "We're reading this book. We're almost done." She showed her several of the pictures. Steve let PJ have a bag of plastic army guys that turned up in the basement; PJ's been asking for them for weeks. He and Steve and Cara played with them for quite a while. Steve tried to explain the concept of a flanking maneuver, but the kids were basically at the level of making explosion noises. Cara got out her girls to join in the fray, and some plastic animals also were enlisted.

Soon it was time to head for the party. The girls were both wearing very beautiful dresses, but of course they immediately changed into swimsuits and got into the pool. I think that Cara changed into and out of and back into her swimsuit at least five times over the course of the afternoon. The new development was the the kids got into the hot tub, which wasn't really all that hot. They found an area that they decided was a slide and a place for cannonballs. They yell "cannonball" whenever they jump into water. Cara asked me what it meant, and I explained. I showed her how to curl up like a cannonball. She nodded and went right back to jumping in the regular way: "cannonball!" For a while I was in the hot tub with PJ and Cara. PJ would tell me he'd be back in X minutes (he held up fingers), and then he'd run off, get into the pool, shoot people with some shooting thing, and run back. Miraculously, he always happened to get back just as I had "finished" counting.

Owen sat around and was cute, and then he fussed and Juliana put him to sleep. He slept in his car seat through the pinata, presents, and cake, and then Steve took him inside. Lucky Steve got to watch Casey's new Barbie movie with her.

7/25/10 (Sunday)

Today, I took both kids to Nick's birthday party down in Farmingdale. Owen really enjoyed most of the party; he sat up in my lap and smiled at people and watched all the kids. Cara had a good time, too. She remarked earlier that Hugh's party, which was months ago, had been really great because there had been a lot of slides there. Well, there were slides at this one, too, so clearly it was good. Cara tried them all.

A couple of highlights: The pinata was a pirate. On the first blow, he somehow became decapitated. Nick got to hold the head while the body, where the candy was, got strung back up and hit by a succession of kids. As this was going on, Nick beat that head to a pulp. Occasionally it would go flying across the room and be returned. Eventually the body came apart, too. I think it was just cruelty to sever the poor guy's already wooden leg. Upstairs, there were cupcakes decorated with what turned out to be rings with the transformers symbols on them. I asked Nick's dad which was which, and he explained. The purple ones were the decepticons, and the red ones were . . . the other guys. He said it was okay that I didn't know that, because I didn't have a big boy running around. Oh, did Denise know all this stuff, then? No, she didn't. She came over in a minute to tell me that Jay was making fun of her because she'd assumed that the purple ones were for the girls.

Our adventure continued after the party. We drove to Red Bank and picked up Aunt Claire. Cara handled her disappointment over Claire sitting in the front seat very well. Owen was asleep, so I wanted to take advantage of the situation by eating first. At Friendly's, naturally, he woke up. He actually got to spend some very nice time with Claire today. He loved it when she tossed him into the air! He also thoroughly wet her shoulder, but she said she'd chosen her shirt specifically with that in mind. While she was bouncing him, a man who worked in the kitchen came over. "I tried to win you a bunny, little guy," he said, "but I got you a puppy." He presented Owen with a stuffed animal from the claw machine. It's really kind of a scary stuffed animal that looks like it's been chewed on or run over or something, not the kind of thing I'd want to give my baby, but it was so cute! It does sort of have a funny expression on its face, too. We'll save it and explain it to him some day. Cara got to show us all the stuff she'd gotten in her goodie bag from the party. We learned that it's perfectly possible to apply a temporary tattoo using a napkin that a drink has sat on for a while. She also got six Toy Story stickers. She let Claire have the one with the little alien guy. She carefully planned out who would get what. One is for Owen, one is for Steve . . . I haven't heard about me yet.

When we were done, it was absolutely pouring. We'd come down to look at furniture Claire's considering, but we couldn't in that rain. Instead, we'll go back and try again tomorrow. Today, we stopped at Grandmama's because she and Grandpapa are on vacation and Claire wanted to get Schmutz in from the rain. While Claire and Owen hung out, I agreed to make just one craft with Cara. I got to trace a gingerbread man cookie cutter twice and make clothes for it. So far, I've just done the girl one. She has a lovely evening dress. We couldn't find glue or tape with which to attach it. "Maybe I know where it is!" Cara said as I searched. "Where?" I asked. She had no idea. She just really thought that maybe she knew.

A conversation from yesterday:

Cara: Mommy, after dinner, could I have some more of my candy from the pinata?

Me: Maybe one or two pieces.

Cara: I think three.

Me: Well, you know, you had some earlier, and you also had cake.

Cara: (whispers) Mommy, and I snuck some when you weren't looking!

Then she forgot to have any more anyway.

7/26/10 (Monday)

Today, as a list of pros and cons.

Pro: Picking up two happy kids at 3:15.

Pro: Getting to Aunt Claire's house without getting stuck waiting for a train. (They caught us the last two times.)

Con: Cara would have liked to see a train.

Pro: Having a bottle and some playtime at Aunt Claire's house.

Pro: Casie getting home. Everyone being hungry. Going out to eat.

Pro/Con: Hearing on the radio about a sinkhole messing up the Parkway for a couple of miles. Interesting, but possibly a problem.

Con: Going to Applebee's because the place we'd planned on going was closed on Mondays.

Pro: Owen falling asleep on a second bottle.

Con: Owen being woken by the shriek of a child old enough to know better at the next table.

Pro: Owen being awake to smile at the people who stopped to talk to him.

Con: Once again not going to the furniture stores. Again!

Pro: Stopping at the nearby supermarket to pick up an Archie comic to take to school tomorrow and getting Cara a coloring book.

Con: Not being able to catch a traffic report on the way to the Parkway entrance. Choosing to take the Parkway rather than 18 or 35.

Pro: Explaining to Cara that talk radio is very very bad without actually saying that it's the child of Satan.

Con: Getting onto the Parkway at 114 at 7:15.

Pro: At least a sinkhole is interesting.

Con: Getting off of the Parkway at 117 at 7:40.

Con: Maybe sinkholes mean NJ is going to fall into the ocean.

Con: Stopping at a McDonald's at 7:43 because Owen was screaming and Cara said her tummy hurt and she had to go potty.

Con: Large, raucous crowd in McDonald's.

Pro: Both kids feeling better.

Con: Both kids feeling better in the restroom at a McDonald's in Sayreville.

Pro: Talking about going over a really cool very high-up bridge in a few minutes.

Pro: Cara, apropos of nothing, "There used to be dinosaurs here."

Con: Having to choose Rte 35 or 9 and choosing the one that doesn't go over the very high-up bridge.

Pro: Cara sitting in the back seat with pink Barbie sunglasses on, reading Archie at eight o'clock at night.

Pro: Owen talking to his hands in the car.

Pro: Owen being awake and ready to eat some bananas when we get home at 8:15.

Pro: Steve getting Cara to bed.

Pro: Owen enjoying classic show tunes while eating bananas.

Pro: Being done. Mostly.

7/27/10 (Tuesday)

I've been explaining to Owen that people are going to call him "Mr. Banana-Nose" or "Old Peach-Nose" because of how he tends to get his food all over his face. It's not really nearly as bad as it was when he started eating, but it still does get spread around. Today, however, I've dubbed him "Gorilla Boy" because he has almost mastered the art of sitting up by planting both of his hands on the ground in front of him. He looks like a gorilla. He can sort of balance by himself sometimes, and then it's funny to see him topple over mainly head-first. (I was letting him do this on Cara's bed.) If I put just a feather's worth of support behind him or at his side, he can sit up for a while, looking around, sort of hunched over, like a little gorilla.

For Casey's actual birthday, we moved playdate to today. The three kids played in the pool; Cara and PJ have begun to, well, wrestle. In the water. To me, it just doesn't seem like a particularly good idea. The only parts we've said no to was when she tried to grab him just as he was about to jump into the pool or when one was pulling on the other who was trying to climb out. After dinner we had dessert outside and the kids ran and played. PJ wanted to play freeze tag, but no one else did. He brought out two little baseball gloves and a ball, and he and Steve and the girls, to a lesser extent, played. When I asked Cara later what the best part of the day had been, she said, "Going in the pool and playing catch!" By "playing catch," she meant catching PJ in the pool.

Cara had mild difficulty getting her nightgown on tonight. "Nightgown, if I have to struggle with you again, I'm going to throw you in the trash!"

7/28/10 (Wednesday)

A conversation between two of Cara's dolls:

Barbie child: Mommy, we can't have dinner yet! Where's Daddy?

Barbie mommy: He's dead, dear.

Barbie child: Oh, I forgot!

Barbie mommy: He went to get a beer, and he died.

Barbie child: Oh, yes.

They've noticed at YBR, as we have at home, that Owen likes trees. He loves to get outside and watch them, but looking through windows will do, too. He had a great evening, especially when he got to sit outside with Daddy and help grilling dinner. After dinner, when I wanted to feed him his dinner, he got horribly crabby. Nothing would make him happy. He was unhappy. Finally, we gave him a bottle in the glider and he drained it and fell asleep. He'd been upset because he was tired. Over and over again, I get this feeling like, hey, I've finally got this parenting thing all figured out.

Yesterday, Cara and I were reading one of the Just So Stories and when she asked me what "sagacity" was I used the word "wisdom" in the definition and had to then define that. We talked about it again earlier today once or twice. This evening, in "How the Leopard Got His Spots," we ran into it again. Did Cara remember what it meant? Yes, she did! She also reminded me that it's used in The Country Bunny and the Little Gold Shoes, which we haven't read for a longish while! The grandfather bunny uses it. She's absolutely right.

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