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Journal Key:

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

11/4/10 (Thursday)

We left at seven in the morning to go to Florida! It was still dark and rainy when we got to the airport, and of course it was cold. Cara and Grandmama ran over to the covered walkway with the luggage, and Owen and I followed them as soon as I could convince him that sitting, rather than standing, was what he should be doing in his stroller. Once he sat down, we had a fine trip!

Cara, of course, is an old hand at airports. She loved the air train and the moving walkways, and she was a big help getting everything through the security check. On the plane, I sat by the window with Owen, Cara sat in the middle, and Grandmama got the aisle. Grandmama paid the six dollars to get us a nice box containing an assortment of snacks; among the three of us, there was at least one who liked each thing! It's a bummer that we had to pay, but it was nice that we got to choose what we wanted, and it was really a fun treat.

The flight was great, except for the fact that Owen slept for only about twenty minutes at the beginning and twenty minutes at the end. In between, he spent some time sitting nicely and playing and some time having to be bounced around. He really really wanted to go to sleep, but he just refused to do it. We thought he'd surely conk out as soon as we got into the rental car, but he slept for only the final ten minutes or so of that drive.

When we got into grandma's house in Florida, he definitely seemed to know that we were in a home. He was finally really willing to take his bottle, and he was happy with the toys they'd bought him. He got a little piano! It's perfect for him, since he loves to just slam his hands down on things. He also got a V-Tech activity ball that rolls around (unless it's in his lap) and plays music and has exciting moving parts to bother. Cara was delighted with a new dress-up set and a jewelry-making kit. Grandmama made her a beautiful, very fancy necklace.

11/5/10 (Friday)

Owen had a really bad time sleeping last night. I'd figured he might, in a strange place, with a cold, and after not sleeping all day. Grandmama and I were up with him for two and a half hours. In the morning, though, having gotten a good five hours or so of sleep, we all felt much more human. Owen spent a very long time sitting in his high chair, making himself the stickiest mess he'd ever achieved with some rusks I'd brought. He was quite disgusting; I was proud. He took a morning nap with Star Wars and then in the afternoon Grandmama took him for a long walk in his stroller. He fell asleep, and she wisely left him in the garage, where he enjoyed a very long nap.

Cara and Grandmama roomed together. At night, they read books until it was very late. I had to go in and remind them of the time, like a mother at a sleepover. In the morning, Grandmama got up first. When Cara got up, she thought that maybe Grandmama had fallen out of the bed.

Cara and I spent some time drawing together while Grandmama was out with Owen. We worked on a project involving ballerinas, and I got to experiment with the color-change markers I'd gotten her. They're fun! She used mainly the purple one, which turned pink when she went over everything she'd drawn with the other side. I'm always glad to get to spend time down in Florida. I told Cara that being in that house always reminded me of my Grandpa Fred, who had died a few years ago. She looked around, awed.

Cara: This was his house?

Me: Yes, he lived here.

Cara: He must have had a lot of chairs!

For the record, there are four chairs around the kitchen table, maybe six more out around the table on the patio, and then also some at the dining room table.

Cara had been happy running around playing all morning, but she was very very happy when, after lunch, she and I got into the car with Grandma Anne and went to a local nature preserve. The trail was a very long wooden walkway over the wetlands, and Cara spent basically the entire time running ahead and then coming back when we saw something to look at. I don't remember being down in Florida before when it was cold up here, but, disappointingly, there was a cold snap. We both brought sweatshirts. I was happy in the sun, but Cara, wearing shorts, claimed to like the shade more.

Grandma felt that we didn't get to see a lot of animals, but I was pretty impressed. Out on a log where we saw a turtle, we gradually realized there was also an alligator! It may have been my first sighting of a really wild alligator in Florida! I'd definitely bet money it's the first time I saw one without having paid for the opportunity in some way. We saw a little black bird with a red head, who was calling and calling. Grandmama heard him saying "Papa! Papa!"; Cara felt that he was telling a nearby duck to go away. There were fish in the water and lots more birds, and we saw turtles sitting and turtles swimming. For me, the best part besides the alligator was that I spotted a diving bird. He was bigger than a chicken. He just happened to surface right near the walkway when I was looking down. He dropped a minnow. He dove. Three feet away, he came back up and swallowed a minnow. He dove. Three feet along, he came back up.

When we were leaving, I told Grandma I'd promised Cara some ice cream. She'd been thinking about ice cream, too! We called the house to check on things. Grandmama and Nancy had tied at Scrabble, and Owen was still asleep. Off we went for ice cream! (Grandma says that she believes that Grandmama is a wonderful Scrabble player but perhaps not a wonderful mathematician.) (Cara insists that she is a wonderful magician.) Grandma and I got cones, because we're not scared to live on the edge. Cara was very happy with a cup of her favorite treat: a raspberry sorbet. It was a very nice ice cream place, and I'm not just saying that because I think the guy working there thought that Cara and I were sisters.

To get Owen to sleep, I decided to change tactics. At one in the morning, I'd gotten him down by just putting him where he was supposed to sleep and gradually letting him get quiet. He was sleeping on a Pack 'n Play mattress on the floor, because the Pack 'n Play itself was broken. He was happy, surrounded by pillows. Friday night, I got him cuddled up and bottled and put him down and went shhh-shh-shh for half an hour, and then he was asleep.

11/6/10 (Saturday)

I woke up when Owen started making noise. I was delighted that he'd slept through the night. I looked at the clock. It was 12:30. I made shushing noises, and we both went back to sleep. The same thing happened at 2:30, and then we slept happily until almost five. It was lovely. By the time everyone else got up, we had watched Star Wars, taken turns having a little snooze, and both had a good breakfast.

It was our last morning, so even though it was cold the three of us went for a walk to at least see the pool. We stuck our feet in the jacuzzi, and Cara and I decided to come back with swimsuits on because that, at least, wouldn't be too cold. Fortunately, Owen fell asleep on the way back to the house and had another nice garage nap.

We jogged most of the way back to the pool, wearing our hoodies over bathing suits. Cara pulled hers down as far as she could, feeling, apparently, that it looked more modest. I felt that it just made her look as if she'd forgotten her pants.

We must have been there for close to an hour. For a long time we played in the hot water and watched a sky-writer at work. He was writing religious messages, which were upside-down from where we were. Cara read one word: DOG. He had it backwards, though. Eventually, Cara decided to just check on the water in the big pool. Grandmama tells me that this was inevitable and that she knew as soon as I said we were putting on swimsuits that we'd end up in there. I wish she'd warned me! Cara played in the real pool for a long time, while I stood around in a towel. A few Floridians happened by. They were wearing sweaters.

Our flight was at 3:30, so we had to leave right after lunch. First, Owen got to spend some last time standing at the coffee table, mangling a pile of New York Times Magazines. He actually managed to get the entire cover off of one, I believe. Grandma Anne finally got to hold him, too, which he enjoyed. She let him stand up.

It was really too soon when we had to leave.

Security in West Palm was tighter than in Newark. To travel with formula, you have to put the bottles and baby food into a separate plastic bag and declare them at security. In Newark, that was it. Coming home, a man took the bag over to the side (after Grandmama got a full body scan and the kids and I had come through the old-fashioned metal detector because they're too little for the scanner) and unpacked it. Every item had to be "sniffed" by his "dog," Fido. It really was called Fido; it was a hand-held device that somehow checked for bad stuff. Cara had fun watching. Everything was good!

On the plane home, our little tv screens were touch screens and we could all play games and watch movies. After a few minutes of a tough fight, Owen did go to sleep. I napped a little bit, too. Cara and Grandma played memory on Cara's screen, and then Cara wanted to watch a movie. She picked Monsters vs. Aliens, which totally mystified Grandmama and me. Later, at home, she explained that she'd heard the book of it at DT. That made a lot more sense then.

It was so, so good to get home. Owen, particularly, was happy. He kept looking around at everything, smiling and laughing, and he actually spent about half an hour in his high chair, a new record! It was around eight when we got in, and it was later when we wanted to put him down, but he was not particularly sleepy. So, it was a fight, but we won.

11/7/10 (Sunday)

I think that Owen was very glad to have his jumpers back. In Florida, his only jumpers were human. We're just not as good. His nose was a lot drier today. In Florida, he spent a lot of his time "snozzling" people's shoulders. He was thorough. Today, we're a lot less gross. Cara, however, seems to have picked up where he left off. Fortunately, she is able to use tissues!

11/8/10 (Monday)

Today we all ended up doing unusual things instead of going to our normal weekday locations--all of us but Owen, who went to daycare as usual. Evelyn dropped off Owen and then went to jury duty! I was going to go to work and Cara was going to go to school, but she was acting so pitiful in the morning, and had a mild temperature, so we decided to keep her at home. As things turned out, it was pretty much a daddy-daughter day for Cara and me. Aside from using up huge mountains of tissues, Cara was pretty normal for most of the day. I humored her even more than usual since she was sick, so she got me to draw a whole page worth of "brides," all with veils and bouquets. Then she found a Richard Scarry book and found lots of pictures for me to copy out onto another piece of paper. She kept finding one more thing for me to add to another empty spot, a lot of which were baby accessories. Later in the day I was cutting out dresses she had drawn on colored paper.

I had been thinking it would be nice to have a day with just her, so though the circumstances were not ideal, we did have a nice time and I'm glad it happened. Though I sort of wonder whether she didn't just pretend to be a little sicker than she actually was--especially at a point before lunch when she was in the living room wearing sunglasses and jumping along to Billy Idol songs.

Mommy came home a little earlier than usual and brought Owen with her. He was doing a lot of talking in the car, apparently. It has been exciting watching him lately, because I can see him starting to move himself. Tonight he was definitely doing some beginner cruising on Cara's old "Learning/Musical Playground" thing. Those little feet are shuffling along. He seems to want to turn around a lot, no matter what direction you point him. He is mostly against sitting or laying in any form.

Cara had a mostly normal day but now that it's bed time she seems to have sort of crashed. We still expect her to go to school tomorrow. Owen is still a bit sick himself, though seemingly on the mend--he still has an ugly-sounding cough but it's not nearly as disgusting when he rubs his face on you now. So it's about time for me to get sick!

I made chocolate chip cookies tonight, and Cara told me something very interesting. She was licking a scraper, and she told me that the last time she had had it to lick, the rubber head had come off of the handle. I knew that it often did that. What was news to me was what she had done about it. She explained that, last time, she had taken a bit of whatever batter she was licking, stuck it on the handle, and stuck it back in. It had dried and glued the two pieces together! I am so, so, so glad she told me about that, because now I have pulled them apart and they can be very thoroughly washed.

11/9/10 (Tuesday)

Today at kindergarten Cara got to be the Daily Messenger, or something like that. She got to read the daily message. It has to do with reading the calendar, including, apparently, several numbers, and also some sort of message that includes, "Good afternoon, boys and girls . . ." I cannot imagine how this works. I'd kind of love to see it.

The ladies at YBR call Owen "Owey," and Cara has taken it up as well. Steve and I agree that it is an acceptable nickname, though neither of us is at all inclined to use it. Cara's enjoying it very much. Owen himself has no comment.

He's really enjoying a basket of toys that we keep for him in the living room. He empties it out, plays with whatever strikes his fancy, and then finally grabs, manhandles, and sometimes chews on the basket. Even better than a basket, though, is paper. He loves paper. He likes to crumple it, wave it, shake it, and chew it. The newspaper is good, catalogues are good, his daily record sheets are okay, but one thing he is pretty sure would be great is Cara's kindergarten folder, which he is not allowed to have. This is a great trial to him.

11/10/10 (Wednesday)

I enjoyed getting to drop Owen off this morning, because jury duty starts later than Linwood and so I have time. I put him in his big-boy jacket, which he hated. He decided it wasn't so bad when he discovered that he could chew on it. Since I was doing the dropoff and the pickup, I left the seat in the car and carried him in, like a big boy. I think he liked looking around from this new angle. I'm not sure why, but lately in the car he's been laughing pretty frequently. Maybe he thinks the autumn trees are a joke?

I used the same word last week, but playdate was raucous today, too. PJ and Cara, in particular, seemed to be running around all over the house, up and down the stairs, and hitting each other with toys. There were also threats. I found the entire thing quite confusing. One up-side is that it doesn't make a lot of mess! In fact, this is one of the lightest post-playdate clean-ups we've had lately.

Kindergarten conferences start next week, and they seem to want to get some grades in or something. Cara brought home a test yesterday, which had been given on Monday and which she made up when she got back. It was on reading the colors. She'd missed three out of ten, but they sent home a review sheet that she did perfectly, on her own. Today, she just pulled a sheet out of her folder to show us. I'd ignored it, because she brings home worksheets sometimes, but this one has "test" on it, too. It's a math test, and she got 100. She can write her numbers, count things, decide which group has fewest, match things, copy patterns, and understand ordinal numbers (first, second, etc.). Cara attributes her success to the fact that she listens when her teachers talk.

It's a long time since I had a very long conversation with a representative from Pediatrix (the NICU pediatricians) and Horizon. That was in late July. I think that Horizon was supposed to have 90 days to decided whether to grant our appeal. I've been checking the mailbox daily to look for giant checks. Today, Steve got a message from Lisa at Pediatrix; she wants to "discuss the situation." This is daunting, and she won't be available to talk until the 15th. Daunting. There are still steps to take if they reject us, but I didn't want to have to take them.

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