| Previous Week | Back Home | Next Week |

Journal Key:

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

9/23/10 (Thursday)

Owen was in a really great mood last night and did some very ambitious and effective scooting. I put him down on the floor in his room, and he headed out the door. I got him to turn left instead of heading for the stairs, and he went straight into the bathroom. Before he clonked himself on his tub, I redirected him into Cara's room. It's a great mode of transportation, but it would be a whole lot better if he could see where he was going at all. I was talking about this to Miss Sandi at YBR today, and she told me that one day she'd turned her back for a second and when she'd turned back around he was gone, with only his feet sticking out from under the crib. He thought that it was very funny; she had a heart attack. Those cribs do have a lot of clearance underneath; nothing in this house is like that. Here, he'll just ram things and cry.

He's also making great progress on the standing front. Last night he was standing up on the floor, holding on to only one of my thumbs, which he was also holding up to his mouth for gnawing purposes.

Cara really has loved her first week of homework. I've quietly enjoyed that. Tonight's assignment was to work on her sight words. This week: "I like to." I wasn't sure how to do that, but in her folder today was a little pouch with the words written on cards. She knows other words, so I cut up some cardboard and made her her own sight words. (The others have to go back to school.) I did a lot of the words she's read with me and Steve, and she requested a couple of other. I had to make "slide" and "mouse," both of which I think are beyond her, but she wanted them. "Cat and I like to play on the slide," was our biggest sentence. On her homework sheet, because it said that if she was ready she could write a sentence, she wrote "I like to pet the cat." Then she drew a ballerina and some flags.

Tonight we finished a thousand-piece jigsaw puzzle. Cara's been very invested in our progress and had helped several times. I was surprised, though, that as soon as we finished she wanted to start another one! We're having company and I want my dining room table to be available for a while, but we've gotten out the next one we want to work on.

9/24/10 (Friday)

A miracle occurred this morning: Owen spent over five minutes on his tummy without being horribly unhappy! He was looking at toys and at the cat, and he can even push his chest up off the ground with his arms. When I mentioned it at YBR in the afternoon, they said he'd done the same thing there! Maybe he knows we're going back for a reevaluation at the high-risk clinic on Monday, and he wants to get a good report. Why, yes, I'll say, he's been doing his tummy time wonderfully, for the past three days! (Actually, he still has his feet up in the air behind him. I think that's something he needs to outgrow.)

At YBR, they've been bringing him to "circle time" with the toddlers sometimes. I thought it was a little unlikely that he'd get much out of a discussion of the days of the week or whatever they do, but apparently he enjoys the singing. I hadn't thought about that part!

Owen did some standing when we got home. He stood and stood. I was sort of trying to juggle him, and he ended up toppling over and landed on his face. He had some tummy time. Then I let him stand again. I moved him over and he stood and looked at some toys. I really had things to do, so I suggested that he sit down. I tried to move him to a sitting position. No good. I could tilt him back at a 45-degree angle; he'd keep standing. "I'll help!" said Cara. She came over and took his feet out from under him. I thought it seemed barbaric, but, really, it was quite effective. Unfortunately, I decided to move him to a better seat. He stood. I had to take his feet out from under him.

Cara's first week of homework was turned in today, and it came back with stars and smiley faces on it. The instructions clearly state that we do not need to send it in daily; they want to see it on Fridays. However, we may have to start sending it in every day, because Cara's "other friends" do that. If Cara's other friends can't read directions . . .

9/25/10 (Saturday)

This morning for breakfast Cara requested a bismarck "all for myself." Ev made a normal-sized one that we usually split between the three of us. "What are you going to have, Mommy?" Cara asked. She was determined to eat the entire thing, but in the end had two pieces of it.

It was a special day today, because Cara's Great Grandma and Grandpa from New Mexico came to visit! They got to see Owen in person, and he scooted and jumped for them, and showed everyone how he can drool and gnaw on people's fingers. Cara's Grandma and Grandpa were there as well. Grandpa and Great Grandpa and I wandered around the house doing things. We used Grandpa's chainsaw to cut up some big tree branches that fell in our back yard during the last storm, and we got to help Juliana carve off some branches in her back yard, too. Later, the three of us fixed Cara's bed frame, which was a little loose and rickety. Cara got a new princess sticker book from her Great Grandma, which she did some coloring in, and Owen got a very nice big wooden puzzle which he will definitely enjoy playing with.

After checking out her new book, Cara went into her play room and set up a detailed game of "Flight." A whole collection of her dolls were lined up in chairs. They were all on an airplane, and all of them were going to New Mexico to see their grandmas. Cara was the copilot and sat in front. Some of the passengers were placed in seats underneath other seats. Even with that, it was a wonderful airline: each passenger got some reading material, a drink, a meal of their choosing, and all of the girls who were sisters got to sit together on a comfy sisters bench. I was enlisted at one point to be the flight attendant and give all of the passengers their food. I think Ev had a turn as well. The flight attendants also doubled as qualified doctors and could administer medicine as needed.

We were really glad that Owen's great grandparents finally got to see him. He was mostly good for them, especially in his doorway jumper in the afternoon. His ability and his inclination to play with things and use his hands are improving. Today he really grabbed at a couple of toys that we keep in his high chair tray, and it is much easier to keep him occupied by sitting him down in front of a toy, because he won't just sit there and look at it. After lunch Cara got her wish and we got out the next jigsaw puzzle. She helped a little with sorting of pieces. Even after company left we had a bit more excitement: a quick visit from PJ and Casey, then Cara enlisted Mommy in a somewhat ambitious craft "project" which involved a lot of princesses and stickers.

Tomorrow we'll go down south and visit the grandparents and great grandparents again!

9/26/10 (Sunday)

It was a big family get-together in South Jersey today. Griffin and Jim and Sarah came, the four of us, the grandparents and the great grandparents. We had good food, we took pictures, and I had to race around the back yard after Cara. The babies showed themselves off and might have vaguely looked at one another a few times. Owen was playing with one of his toys to the extent that he was constantly dropping it off of the chair he was in, which was a new thing for us.

The car ride was spent reading our Little House book, as usual. Cara is definitely invested in the story and is thinking about it. She was worried when one of the characters lost a horse, and suggested he buy a new one. And after hearing a passage about a kerosene lamp, she asked whether they didn't have light switches?

For some reason Cara has been having a bit of trouble in bed at night. The other night she got up not long after bed time and said she did not want to be in her room all by herself. "Do you need Puma?" Ev cleverly prompted. It turned out she did need Puma. Puma has had a bit of a resurgence lately, and today he (his current gender is male) came in the car with us, along with his leash. He got played with thoroughly, and was dragged around by his leash. He also got swung around on his leash.

Last night was thrilling. Owen is congested again and was horrible about staying asleep. Cara had her own problems and wanted one of us to stay with her. There was a magical moment at around 2 am when all of us were awake. I was worried about how Owen would do in the car today, since he can sometimes get unhappy on the ride home. This time we acted quickly when he woke up--we pulled over and I climbed into the back seat between the two kids, and gave him a bottle (while also reading aloud!). He took the bottle until he got bored, then decided to go back to sleep, and stayed that way until after we got home. I only hope he can manage to sleep so well tonight.

9/27/10 (Monday)

Today I left work at one to take Owen to Trenton for his high-risk follow-up visit. We got there at two, and we left at quarter to five. Then we drove home, picked up Cara around six, and had a somewhat normal evening. Owen weighs seventeen pounds, ten ounces. He's in the 25th percentile for height and weight. I'm so exhausted that I really can't process anything else. Nothing bad happened. I'm done, though.

9/28/10 (Tuesday)

Yesterday was interesting, though long and tiring! The first person we saw was the doctor who gave Owen his sit-up exercises to do three months ago. He was very, very pleased with how well Owen sits. He wants us to do those exercises more, though, because having extra hip strength will help him with pulling to stand. That's right around the corner, the doctor predicts. He does sometimes push himself up, when we hold his hands. The doctor says he could pass for a full-term baby.

We also met with an Infant Developmental Specialist, who showed Owen a lot of toys. He really enjoyed that part, although mostly it was interacting with me and with her that he liked. The toys were good, too. He scored a 105 on the Bayley Scales of Infant Development, whatever that means. He's average. I was kind of relieved to hear that. I think that he's so focused on being social that he just isn't as interested in playing with toys. The NICU nurses had him pinned: he's nosy!

Our final meeting was with a physical therapist, who gave us some tips on how to encourage him during tummy time and to convince him that rolling over might not be a bad thing. I asked whether it matters whether a child crawls or not. Apparently, crawling helps us develop the arches in the palms of our hands. The therapist has an eleven-year-old son who never crawled. She says that, being a physical therapist, she freaked out when he was an infant, but that now he's fine and has good handwriting and everything. I had no idea that crawling could be connected to manual dexterity! I'm tempted to find out, next time I have a student with really scary writing, whether he crawled or not. My only real motivation to get Owen to crawl is that it's really very cute.

Today, as a sort of cherry on top of the busy few days I've had, I got to go to back-to-school night at Linwood. Before I left, I did look at Cara's homework. She had "chant cards" in it. A chant card has an uppercase letter, a lowercase letter, and a picture. The first one was the letter F and a picture of a boy and girl playing catch. I asked Cara what to do with it. Pointing to the uppercase letter, then the picture, then the lowercase letter, she said, "F. Play. Fuh." The others were T-top-tuh and B-bat-buh. I suggested that perhaps the people playing catch were having fun. Later, Steve, who was in charge of really doing the homework, suggested that they were friends.

Yesterday's homework involved singing some songs about the colors and how to spell them. It was tough, but we sang. Then Cara circled the color words in the appropriate colors. I got out a book about colors, and she saw that she could read it herself--at least the four she'd studied. It was a great accomplishment.

Cara frequently discusses those future days when she will have children. Tonight she told Steve that when she is the mommy, she will always read her children five books per night.

9/29/10 (Wednesday)

Something I've noticed lately about Owen: a few times I have taken him into the bathroom to start running Cara's bath. When I turn on the bath water, he gets very excited, flapping all of his limbs and wriggling in my arms. I guess it's because it's a loud sound, but it's very funny. I even got him to do it a little just by running the water in the bathroom sink.

The ladies at Owen's daycare really seem to dote on him. He gets picked up and smooched every morning, so it's no wonder he gives them a big smile when he gets carried in the door. I'm glad I get smiles when I get home. Tonight when I got home Owen was headed over to the Loefflers' in his bouncer seat. He got to see a very interesting airplane dogfight put on by PJ while I was trying to feed him. After dinner PJ took me upstairs and we played a video game. I didn't know that my gaming experience would be such a plus in gaining the trust of preschool children.

I was fairly popular with kids tonight, because after parting from PJ to take Owen home and put him to bed, I got to read to Cara. At first, Cara demanded that I read to her. "You should ask," said Evelyn. Cara: "Mommy, can Daddy read to me tonight?" Well, I guess we know who's in charge.

| Previous Week | Back Home | Next Week |