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Journal Key:

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

8/12/10 (Thursday)

On Owen's side of the street this morning, two babies were already doing tummy time when we arrived while a third sat up and looked around. I took Owen out of his carrier and put him on his tummy, too, to complete the square. He seemed perfectly happy to be in that position, folding his hands in front of him and looking around. I think he likes to have the other babies to look at.

I picked him up before I got Cara, because it was raining. I figured that would minimize the number of people who had to walk across the street in the rain. It did make things more efficient, to a point. I put his car seat in the car with all of the bags in it and he and I went in to get Cara. Things went well, until I got to the top of the stairs. I could hear that the lollipops were listening to a story, and I thought that perhaps Cara might not want to leave. Instead, after she came bounding over, more than half of the other lollipops also came bounding over to see the baby. We were in a narrow hallway with the stairs at my back, which made things slightly more exciting. They all wanted to see him and talk to him and touch him. The rule that we have established on previous visits is that they're allowed to touch his feet. Ironically, it's the more overenthusiastic ones who know this rule, since it's been enforced so often in their general direction. Gradually a teacher got us all moved over into the classroom, so that they could all see Owen at once, and then I escaped by claiming that Owen was going to help get Cara's things.

Owen has become a good eater. Three times a day, he has cereal with a fruit or vegetable mixed in. He's quite blase about the whole thing; he enjoys it with dignity, not quite a bouncily as before. Yesterday his problem during dinner was that he was too busy laughing to eat, but that was because I was singing. He also loses focus when Cara gets his attention. He gets distracted and sits there looking at her instead of eating. She's a lot of fun. He's doing pretty well in his high chair, even hanging out in it to keep me company in the kitchen. The main problem with the high chair is putting him in: he straightens out his legs so that he's standing in it. I've taken to holding him up with one hand while I pull his legs out from under him.

Tomorrow is a staying-home day! Cara loves going to school. Everyone there is her best friend. (Her most special friend is still Adrian.) Some nights, she tells me her favorite thing was going to school. Staying-home days, though, are also her favorite. I suspect that we will be playing family. Last time I asked what Owen would be, his assigned role was "the cat."

8/13/10 (Friday)

We had a lovely staying-home day. Cara and I rearranged her playroom in the morning, and Owen spent that time happily sitting up and watching, scooting around in circles, and putting his hands in his mouth and talking about it. His only substantial nap of the day came around lunchtime; I fed him some food, I gave him a bottle, and I knew he was tired, because he'd been up for about five hours straight. He rubbed his eyes, but he was otherwise very awake and quite pleasant. Eventually I did something that doesn't sound remarkable but is remarkable: I put him into his swing while he was awake. He did not object. In a few minutes, he was asleep. It's a long, long time since we've been able to put him into the swing while he was awake.

I worked out on the Wii while he was napping. Cara helpfully did some exercises with me, charmed by the idea that the man on the tv didn't even know she was doing it. He looked a little twitchy when I was heading off to shower, so I put Return of the Jedi on, just in case. Cara came into the bathroom while I was showering to tell me that she'd eaten more of her lunch. It was certainly important that I know that immediately. Then she came in to tell me that he was awake. I hustled to get done. When I left the bathroom, I heard him immediately; he was laughing. Cara was talking to him and keeping him very happy. I told her what a lucky mom I am.

Cara likes to point out that Owen loves her more than he loves me or Steve.

Cara got to head off to the beach with Grandmama, and Steve, Owen, and I had a fabulous date night. The weather is gorgeous, so we used the stroller and walked around Highland Park. Owen had a little nap and woke up in the Thai restaurant, where the waitresses enjoyed making noises and faces at him while we ate. We walked to the park and put him into a swing. He had almost no reaction to that. Steve says it looked like he thought, "Ok, something's going on here. I'm just going to hold very still and it'll be all right." We got back to the house at baby bedtime, just in time to have some apples and a bottle and (after a brief interlude of being happy in the bouncer) hit the crib.

8/14/10 (Saturday)

We had a nice morning, just Ev and Owen and I. Ev and I took turns doing Wii exercises while Owen stared (at one point I watched his eyes tracking Mommy's arm as it waved back and forth for one yoga exercise). We finally set out for Middletown late in the morning. Cara was happy to see us and immediately enlisted Mommy to come and play with her with the dollhouse. A lot of people played dollhouse with Cara today; it was definitely her preferred thing to do.

GiGi was there, and as usual Owen was happy to see her. The Bean showed everyone how chatty he is. In the afternoon we decided to change Cara's Mii character on the Wii, so that it would have the same hair as Mommy's Mii. We ended up with a Cara Mii that had eye shadow and blush, hair up in a bun with curly locks coming down on the sides, and a birthmark right in the middle of her forehead. It bore only the vaguest resemblance to our little girl, but she was happy with it.

In the afternoon Ev, Claire, Cara, and George went out on a walk to the Dairy Queen. Cara found an intact and very pretty moth which we brought home with us to show Grandmom, who appreciates these things. When they got back home Evie's arms were very tired from having had to carry her daughter piggy-back for the last quarter mile or so. Meanwhile, GiGi, Janet and myself had stayed home with Owen. GiGi left and Grandmama spent a lot of time walking Owen in circles around the house. He likes to move and he likes being outside--probably so he can look at trees. I stayed inside and took a nap. It seems that having two children has finally made me able to take naps in the middle of the day.

8/15/10 (Sunday)

This morning was Mommy's morning to get to sleep in, so I got up with Owen--a little late in the morning, since he'd been up around 4 and gone back to sleep until around 7:30. Cara came downstairs also and we spent some time hanging out. Owen had some peaches, and Cara decided to get dressed. When she came back down, she told me that Mommy was awake, because she had gone into our bedroom and Mommy was not in the bed.

Today was our day to hang out with my parents. They arrived in the late morning and we had a nice day together. We drew pictures on the iPad, played games on the Wii (mostly Mommy and myself with Cara's helpful instruction), and Mommy made a nice lunch and some brownies afterward. Owen was awake for a good deal of this--he took a few brief naps with the help of his grandparents, but not for long. We have confirmed that, when you put his tiger rag near him, he will intentionally grab it and put it in his mouth. He was not quite comfortable for long doing any one thing, but he did eat a lot of formula.

In the evening we gave Owen a two-person (well, three if you count him) bath. This time Ev and I switched our usual positions and I was the washer and she was the holder. He was utterly fascinated by the wash cloth and kept staring at it. He clearly wanted it in his mouth, and kept making grabs for it when I was swiping it past his mouth. Eventually once we'd gotten him out we gave him a new wash cloth with non-soapy water in it for him to try sucking on. I'm not sure it was all he had hoped for, but he worked on it for a little while.

He had a very awake day, and though he didn't want his bedtime bottle, it didn't take long for him to take the trip to Sleepy Land. I hope his trip will be a long and fulfilling one.

8/16/10 (Monday)

This morning I put Owen down on a blanket and stood in one place to take pictures of him as he scooted in a circle. He goes neatly counterclockwise and actually sort of traces the perimeter of the blankets we use for the floor.

It was a delightful surprise when I picked Cara up to find the Lollipop yearbook! Cara is one of the kids who got credit for making the cover. I asked Miss Jane what she'd done; the only thing I knew for certain was that she hadn't written "Yearbook." The writing was much curlier than anything she's ever done. Of course, it turns out that's exactly what she did, copying Miss Jane's writing. Each graduating lollipop gets a page with a picture on it and some personal facts. Adrian wants to be a mechanic. Aeshna wants to be a garbage worker. Emily wants to be a rock star. Cara, naturally, wants to be a ballerina. Her favorite book is officially Bubble Bath Pirates. Clearly they asked her this several months ago, when we had that from the library. Her favorite food is fish. Her favorite memory of YBR is "eating snack!"

It's a really really neat thing to have, and it'll be fun to take it out, years from now, to see what she remembers.

Owen didn't like the idea of sitting in his bouncer for dinner, so Steve and I took turns holding him. We held him, but Cara entertained him. She had him in hysterics. The baby laughter would start as soon as she smiled at him. At one point, he erupted into real, grown-up laughter!

I've been trying to convince her that hitting herself is not funny. I've told her he doesn't appreciate physical comedy. However, he seems to appreciate most things she does. One routine that he enjoyed tonight, she explained, was when she "punched [her]self in the head and fell down and hurt [her] butt."

After dinner, I brought him out to the living room and tickled him. "You're pretty good, Mommy, but I'm much better," Cara told me.

8/17/10 (Tuesday)

The adventure for today was my trip with the two kids down to Red Bank. I picked them up early and we went off to GiGi's house; Owen had never been there, and Cara and I hadn't been been since last fall! He woke up just as we were going in, and, thank goodness, he was happy and excited. He smiled at GiGi and had to look all around. Cara found toys to play with and things to explore. Owen tried out scooting around on the floor. After a short visit, we hit the road. We'd come away with a box containing a very nice floral shawl, a box containing several slips that I might possibly use some day, a small blue knitted shawl that was perfect to put over Nown in his car seat (I'm not sure why we'd need that in August, but it will be handy in the winter), a bunny toy for Nown, and a tiger toy that Cara picked out which turns out to actually be a dog toy.

It was good to stop and see Grandma, and it helped a lot to have a calm place to give Owen a bottle and change him before we reached our real destination, Marine Park. We met Grandmama, Grandpapa, and Aunt Claire there, because Tuesdays are lobster night at Boondocks, the seafood place right in the park. We ate by the water, with a view of the boats, but for Cara the most exciting part was seeing some ducks. Cara is a big, big, big fan of lobster. So am I, but it's hard to eat it with a baby on your lap. We all managed! Cara got to try a Strawberry Shortcake ice cream treat, which she probably picked because it's pink. I was surprised to hear afterwards that she hadn't liked the little cakey bits coating it. Grandmama took her down to the lower level of the dock, and they got to see some jellyfish and even a very active crab!

On the ride home, I was thinking.

Me: Cara, I think you're a big enough girl to watch The Wizard of Oz.

Cara: Oh. I want to do that one day! . . . Can we do that tonight?

Me: Hmmmmmm . . . .

Cara: I want to stay up and do that. I think I'm a big enough girl to stay up!

Me: Well, you're a smart enough girl to use logic on Mommy.

Steve was working out on the Wii when we got home, and I had to put Owen down. I told Cara that she could watch some of the movie if she'd be in charge of her own bath while Steve and I were busy. She decided she'd much rather watch Steve and then go to bed!

8/18/10 (Wedesday)

Owen is seven months old! To celebrate, he slept until seven thirty in the morning.

The surprising event of the day was that when Casey gave Owen a popper during playdate, he took it. He's been steadfastly rejecting poppers for weeks and weeks. Later, when Steve was putting him down, he took it again. He stayed awake, but he kept working on it. Finally, Steve put him down with it. He took his time, but eventually he fell asleep, popper and all.

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