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Journal Key:

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

10/28/10 (Thursday)

Somehow Owen managed to get off of his regular schedule today; both of his naps were earlier than usual, and he was asleep when I arrived after five to get him. I blame his funny sleeping for his weird evening. He was fussy and clingy when we got home, but when I finally gave in and got him a bottle he wasn't at all interested. He wasn't interested in food. He was happy when I was holding him, and he was happy when he and Cara were in the living room with the movie I finally gave in and put on. He mostly sat with Steve for dinner.

After dinner he finally wanted a bottle again, but he was distracted and just played with it. Somehow, though, Steve got him to hold the bottle himself! He held it and took it out and put it in and did try waving it around a little, though that was discouraged.

He got a nice thorough bath and then took about eight ounces when Steve put him down. Tomorrow is picture day at YBR! It'll be Owen's first professional picture, and we're all excited. (YBR is doing Halloween on Monday) I'm not sure what he should wear.

Cara: We should comb his hair!

Me: But people might not recognize him.

Cara: (thinks about it) A boy in my kindergarten, Mario, had his hair combed, and we all recognized him.

Me: He had his hair combed?

Cara: It was fancy. But we all recognized him.

For the record, Owen has plenty of hair. It's not really hair that needs to be combed, yet, though.

Tomorrow Cara has her Halloween celebration at DT and then the Halloween parade at kindergarten! Her costume is ready, and we just finished making her a necklace like the one Leia wears at the end of Episode IV. We used cardboard and tin foil. Tomorrow I'll do her hair in loops, because we're skipping the wig, and off she'll go!

10/29/10 (Friday)

Cara: Mommy, when I'm grown up, I'm going to have a cat!

Me: Oh, good.

Cara: It's going to be an outdoor cat. I'm going to let it out, and I'll put up a sign that says "You can't touch the cat!" because I'm sure it'll bite.

Me: OK.

Cara: I'm not sure what it will eat.

Me: I think dry food.

Cara: Why?

Me: Well, it's easier, and I think that canned food is too much work! It's cheaper, too.

Cara: (brightly) Oh! . . . Mommy, when I'm grown up, will I like cheap things, too?

Cara had a really really great day today. In the morning we got her all dressed up in her costume, with her dress and her belt and her necklace, and I got her hair really secure in loops, and she looked perfect. Meanwhile, Steve managed to pick an outfit for Owen for picture day very efficiently, seemingly without considering the nineteen other possible combinations that could have been made from the pieces I'd selected. (You may think I'm kidding. I did the math.)

I got to Lindeneau at 2:15 to see the Halloween parade. Ron and I waited for a few minutes in the crowd of parents, and suddenly the parade was coming down the hill! We stepped out into the street to see. The principal was leading, and the kindergarten classes came right behind her. As they got closer, Ron saw that the very first child, holding the teacher's hand, was Cara in her Leia costume! She was a happy little girl. PJ was a few kids behind, dressed up as a skeleton.

It was exciting to hear all about Cara's day when I picked her up from DT later. In kindergarten, the teachers had pulled from their cup of popsicle sticks with names on them to see who got to lead the parade. I'd been speculating about why she got to do that! They had had a party when they'd gotten back to the room. Cara got to eat grapes, but they called them eyeballs. She put them up to her eyes! They also had pumpkin muffins, and a mom read them a story.

She came home, of course, with treats from everywhere. She has a little stretchy skeleton whom she loves very much. At DT, they trick-or-treated in the playground and also went pumpkin-picking. We do now have another pumpkin! We have many interesting varieties of candy. This evening, Cara tried Nerds for the first time. She liked them, but she didn't finish the box.

10/30/10 (Saturday)

This morning I got up with Owen, as is now the custom on weekends. All I really wanted to do was go back to sleep, so I tried to convince Owen to watch some cartoons or keep himself busy, but he was not having it. The only thing I did for him that kept him occupied and interested was to give him my glasses. Evie pointed out afterwards that when she tried the same thing with Cara, she ended up having to have her glasses professionally repaired. So far, my glasses are just kind of smudgy.

We had a nice breakfast and then Cara and I went off to dance class. It was my first time taking her and I missed a turn, but other than that it went very smoothly. Unlike on previous weeks, the class started on time, and an additional girl from the previous year (Antonia, whose movie theater birthday party I remember fondly) came along. Cara is so used to the class running late that when she came out, she told me she couldn't wait to get home so we could have lunch, even though it was only a little after eleven.

When we got home, Grandmom and Grandpop were there! Even though Cara already got a nice Halloween package in the mail, she got another bag of stuff today. Combine that with the treats and goodies from Discovery Time and kindergarten, and there's little material reason to go trick-or-treating tomorrow.

Owen was against napping today--it took a lot of Star Wars and a lot of singing and ingenuity for him to get to sleep. His biggest nap was finally underway when the grandparents took their leave. Cara and I decided to go and visit the library and the supermarket. When she suggested we purchase candy for the trick-or-treaters, Ev and I assured her we had plenty of candy. "Well, I guess they can have my candy," Cara said. She was perfectly ready to give it up, but we explained that Mommy had actually bought some separate candy for the occasion.

We've noticed that Owen is really trying to get himself moving lately. When he sits up, he tries very hard to scoot himself along, with very limited success. Crawling thus far is a washout, but he likes very much to stand and it doesn't take much support to get his little legs taking steps. Ev had the good idea to get out a little car toy and put Owen on it. He managed to get himself jigging a little on the car, and we could (with a lot of support) try him on the standing and pushing version.

10/31/10 (Sunday)

It feels funny to have Halloween on a Sunday. It was mostly a getting-things-done day and a hanging around day. In the morning, we finished our thousand-piece puzzle. I'd put in a powerful effort yesterday, because we really had to have our dining-room table this evening. Cara wanted to start another puzzle. I told her we'd take a week or two off first. It'll be nice to have the table.

I went out and did errands. Among other things, I bought a sippy cup for Owen! He tried it this afternoon. The spout is pretty different from a nipple, but he didn't mind. Owen likes his formula. He likes it in a bottle. He likes it in a cup. He likes it hot. He likes it cold. He likes it. One thing he's not sure he likes is actual non-jar food. Today I bought him some rusks. I thought maybe Cheerios and puffs had upset him because they were too tiny. Maybe he needed something to chaw on. I got him the only ones I saw, Hot-Kid Baby Mum-Mum Rice Rusks. They are Selected Superior Rice Rusks. They're Banana. They're New. He did do better with those than he had with bite-sized things. He wasn't gobbling them up or anything, but he put them into his mouth repeatedly and deliberately and did eat pieces.

This evening Emily and her family and of course the Loefflers came over. We all had pizza and then, when the grownups were finally done, we trick-or-treated. It was cool having all the kids in the house. I was impressed by Emily: I took her into the playroom while everyone else was eating, and I got out the Polly Pockets. We looked at them for a while, and then, "I'm bored," she said, and cleaned up!

Each kid ended up with three glow necklaces. One was the traditional glowstick, another was a stubby glowstick stuck inside a clear plastic ghost, and the third was a black necklace with little skulls and bones on it. They lit up in different colors when you pressed the button on the battery pack.

Owen had elected to skip his afternoon nap, though we'd mentioned to him several times that that was a bad idea. By the time everyone came over, he was pretty tired. He made it, though, without melting down, and finally, when we were getting our necklaces on, he slowly nodded off. His little eyes would droop, and his head would bob and finally land on my shoulder. It was funny to watch. He was done.

He did wake up very quickly when we got outside. It was cold! Steve and I took turns carrying him along while trying to keep up with the big kids. For them, trick-or-treating was different this year! They ran! They bolted from house to house, and they were ready to keep going and going. Casey fell behind soon. At first I got to carry her bag, which I found very amusing. She handed it to me, and at the foot of the stairs I would hand it back. When she'd gotten a treat and come back down, I got the bag again. Eventually I handed it over to Em. PJ, Emily, and Cara were all at about the same speed. It was a fast speed. Sometimes they would decide no one was coming and start heading to the next house, only to have to turn around in the middle of the yard to rush back to the opening door.

We went around the circle and then up to the haunted house. Cara's been talking about going in this year, and I've been a skeptic. It was different, though, this time. The exhibits were all outside in the open, and we had to walk by them. Cara was particularly comfortable with it, but she just went by and then started running for candy again. Soon after that, we crossed the street and worked our way back home on the other side.

It was seven o'clock when it was just us and we were home again. Cara was very happy with her haul. Steve was, too; she gave him her four peanut butter cups. One thing she got was a weird twizzler product that was stubby and green. "Nobody likes that," I said. "You like this, Mommy," said Cara. "It's green."

It was really nice to see, today, that Cara still really gets excited about trick-or-treaters coming to the door. Once they'd started, she was very focused on them. She would come to me or Steve to ask when more would come. She whined. She got out her chair to sit in and watch the door, like last year. It was very, very disappointing when we finally turned off the light and closed up shop.

11/1/10 (Monday)

Today was a day of milestones for everyone. Well, for everyone who still gets milestones. Owen's milestone was that we found out that he has a mailbox at YBR, like the big kids! It had things in it, like the YBR newsletter that tells all about what all of the babies and toddlers are doing. Owen, it reports, has mastered grabbing toys and likes to practice standing. He also brought home an art project. It's a white footprint on black paper, and it has googly eyes: it's a foot-ghost!

Cara's milestone: she got her own library card! You have to be in kindergarten. It was altogether a lovely trip to the library. She's so independent that she gets her own crayons and sits and colors while Owen and I pick out books. Then I filled out the form and she got to write her name on the card. It was a somewhat laborious process, because she's not quite used to using lowercase letters. She got the whole name on there, though!

Me: Good job, Cara!

Cara: I did it!

Me: You know, I remember writing my name for my first library card. It was really different, though.

Cara: It wasn't blue?

Me: No, it was cardboard. It had a little metal thing on it with numbers that they'd stick in a punch machine.

Librarian: Oh, I saw one of those once! That was a long time ago!

So now we have books out on Cara's card, and we returned all but one of the books we had out. That one was hiding under some bags in my car. I called to renew it, and it turns out to have been out on Steve's card. I think that families should have joint accounts. Now we'll keep using different cards all the time and we'll keep being surprised by fines. There's a twenty-five cent fine on Steve's card now that we won't pay until the next time we use it, which may be months from now! On my key chain, though, I have my card and Cara's key fob one, which I wrote her name on. She reprimanded me for using all uppercase letters.

You couldn't ask for a nicer evening than this one. Owen ate a full jar of dinner and then some fruit for dessert, and he mangled a rusk. Cara did some drawing and also, having asked very very nicely, convinced me to give up my dining room table again for a giant puzzle. She got it out herself and started finding the edge pieces.

11/2/10 (Tuesday)

Today was a "staying-home day" for me, so we had a somewhat relaxed morning and then all went together to vote. I've been told that she's not allowed, but I always let Cara push the "cast vote" button. Owen did not get to help anyone at all, but he obediently watched while a poll worker showed him his moose. I'm really glad Steve was there to carry him. He's heavy, and then when his car seat is added in, too, it's a lot! He's probably ready to move out of that thing, but he still falls asleep in it once in a while and then it's convenient to be able to just carry him around.

I roasted a chicken, and Cara helped me make gravy. She was very excited about doing it, but she still refuses to eat gravy. While I was cooking, she worked on a picture. I'm supposed to help her actually draw the main part of it, which will be a line of dancers all holding hands. The ones on the ends will have their hands on their hips. Cara has drawn the stage and the lights, though, and I told her some of the letters to help her write "Some day I will be the star of the show." Actually, given the cramped space she had to work with and her dubious grasp of the concepts at hand, she wrote:

SOME D

Ay I W

iLL BE

THE StAR

OF THE S

HOW

She is very much the master of many of her sight words, and she wrote the the's without any help. She also frequently points it out with great excitement when someone uses one of her sight words, such as "and," "the," or "you," and she has managed to actually read them in the subtitles in Star Wars and on the computer several times.

I'm very excited about getting ready to go to Florida. I bought some toys to surprise the kids with on the airplane. For Cara I got a couple of Rapunzel dolls; I don't know when the movie's coming out, but I'm sure the toys will be a hit. I also got her a cute art caddy and some color-change markers. For Owen, some new things to wave around and put into his mouth. I do think that even he appreciates things that are new and different. The other thing I'm excited about is having gotten some travel-sized toiletries. I splurged, too, and got a pair of very pink puffs for me and Cara. Getting those out this evening resulted in some pictures of what might be considered a hideous crime. Cara did it. Not me.

11/3/10 (Wednesday)

Owen was being changed when Cara and I got to YBR today to pick him up. "He's getting his special treatment," Camille told us. We went back to see. The girl changing him had pulled up youtube on her phone and found Star Wars. The phone was sitting there, playing the imperial march while Owen got his diaper changed. He lay there clapping, she said.

We're ready (mostly ready) to go to Florida! Both children have been bathed. In fact, it was easy to get Cara to come home from playdate tonight. I just told her she had to hurry to take a bath to be nice and clean for Florida. She'd explained to me earlier her plan to bathe. We're mostly packed. I convinced Cara to pick out books that were NOT large and hard-covered. She chose tonight to decide she was too old for her toy giraffe and to give it to Owen, for him to bring along. It's almost as large as he is, sitting up. I do not think it's coming. Some of us are getting some sleep.

Playdate was raucous tonight. While the big kids were running around, though, Owen was being a mover and shaker, too. He had fun standing up by himself, reaching out right away to grab on to the back of a chair and hold himself. Later, when he was sitting, he tried reaching and grabbing to pull himself up. He hasn't quite got it yet, but he's definitely interested. Even more excitingly, I think, and Steve agrees, that he may actually have a tooth coming in. What a big boy!!!!!

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