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Journal Key:

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

12/30/10 (Thursday)

Owen woke up at 4:30 last night--and went back to sleep at 4:35. I think we were all pleased with that outcome. He had a pleasant, wriggly evening. He was mostly happy and found several things very funny--I'm not really sure what those things were, but they were very funny. Now that we have had his evaluation and know that he is in for some early intervention therapy, we are trying all kinds of experiments on him. We are trying to use his real name more often, so that he can recognize it and pay attention when we call him (this is hard for me since I have been calling him Bean and Buddy for so long). We are trying to get him to look at Daddy and Mommy when we say those words. At times we try to convince him to walk. He does seem to have the concept of object permanence down, as Evie commented tonight. For instance, when Shelby walks around behind him on one side, he turns his head around to the other side to see if Shelby will appear over there. Shelby foils his cleverness by deciding, after all, that she would rather turn around and leave.

I felt a bit self-serving, but tonight I dressed Owen in his new "My Daddy is a Hero" pajamas. He looks very cute, even though he hated having to put them on.

Cara is excited because tomorrow she is going to go to a fancy salon for little girls, and she and Casey will get makeovers and other things of that nature. We men will stay at home and, most likely, spend some time not napping.

12/31/10 (Friday)

Poor Owen has woken up at 4:30 now for several days in a row, but then he's gone back to sleep again! Today, he slept until about 7:30. Then he didn't take a morning nap. By one in the afternoon, he really, really wanted to go to sleep. We tried everything. I cuddled him up with a bottle and a blanket in the glider. We tried the bouncer; we tried Star Wars. We tried dancing. Finally, I just put him down in his crib with a blanket. I turned on his little aquarium thing and then left. He cried half-heartedly for less than a minute and then he was asleep for a long nap.

In the meantime, Steve and Cara went out to play in the snow. They did some sledding in the front yard. Steve used the shovel to tidy up the driveway, and Cara used her shovel to . . . I'm not sure what. We've had a spare recycling container sitting up by the road (we were trying to let its true owner reclaim it), and they dug it out. Cara put it on her sled and pushed it down the slope. They made a snowman--excuse me, a snow girl. Her name was Daisy. Eventually she became a snow cat. They also made a small snowman in a tree, and they made another small snow person of some sort, but before they came in they destroyed them all. Well, the one in the tree just fell out on its own.

To celebrate New Years, we went to Aunt Claire's house for a tea party. There were beautiful tiny petit fours, of which Cara ate only one before deciding she was done and running off to play. Owen destroyed and partially ate about four pieces of French bread, and he happily stood and drummed on the coffee table. At seven, when the other guests started to arrive for a dinner party, we got Owen into his pajamas and hit the road.

1/1/11 (Saturday)

Happy New Year! Our new year started off with excitement. First Owen got up for his usual 4:30 wake-up. I answered the call and was not very successful at getting him back to sleep. About an hour later, he had finally dropped back off, when Cara came into our room with the typical complaint of being lonely. Upon being told to visit the potty, she cried so much that Owen woke back up again. Eventually we all went back to sleep. Cara slept very late into the morning, and almost missed the nice big breakfast Mommy made for us.

We were lucky enough to get my parents to come up today on the spur of the moment. Just when they pulled up, Cara was invited to go sledding over at the Loefflers'. The timing was not ideal but I took her over and she had a great time zooming down their hill for a while.

Grandma did some coloring on Cara's return, and then we went out for lunch. Owen got a bit antsy in the high chair, but he was very pleasant when I held him. He sat quietly nibbling on one of his bars while I managed to eat lunch with my right hand. Nobody had a birthday at the restaurant, so that was good! Owen was pleasant for most of the afternoon and was not horrified by anyone.

Again, we're paying closer attention to his milestones now, but it seemed to me that Owen was working on some new consonant sounds today. I heard "mm" and "buh" at least. Ev also reports that he sort of partly sat up tonight.

I did not mention that the other day when Cara came down from her bedroom in the morning, she was lazing on the couch and picked up a board book that Owen got for Christmas. It has very simple, repetitive sentences. With a little bit of assistance from me, she was able to read a very large percentage of that book. I was very impressed! We won't be able to describe our little girl as humble, though, because whenever we praise her for this kind of behavior, she nods and says, "I'm smart!"

1/2/11 (Sunday)

Today was finally Princess Salon day! This afternoon Cara, Casey, Em and I drove down to North Brunswick. The Princess Salon is a little girl version of a stylish salon/spa. Cara got her hair cut, so for the first time she got to lie back and get it washed in a smaller version of a salon sink. She got a couple of inches off, and I look forward to seeing it. I haven't, yet, because her hair is in a princess-style updo! It's full of bobby pins, kid-friendly hair spray, glitter spray, and cotton candy hair perfume. It's also got a pink flower; it's very pretty. Casey's is the same. Cara is going to sleep with hers like that tonight, as may Casey, and I just hope that tomorrow it's in good enough shape for school.

Both girls also got their makeup done! They both selected pink eye shadow, and they got blush and a little bit of lip gloss. The best part was the glitter! Casey's was done first, so I just saw that she had two blue glitter hearts on her cheek. When Cara got hers, a star, I got to see how. First, a little lotion. Then, a wand shaped like a star or whatever gets dipped in glitter and pressed to the skin! They sell them. There's a part of my brain that's trying to talk the other parts into buying some.

We opted out of pedicures, because it's winter, even though the seats and tubs look like a lot of fun. They got their fingernails painted, though! I'm waiting to see whether this lasts better than when I paint it. I didn't hear the conversation, but Cara's nail art was a cupcake. It's got sprinkles and a cherry on top. The stylist, who was really nice, did it with very tiny, fine little brushes.

The whole thing was very exciting and wonderful. We took pictures of the girls on the runway they have at the back, which they use during parties. As of today, Cara has decided to have her birthday party there rather than at a "jumping place." We'll see whether that lasts.

Because we were so beautiful, the whole gang of us went out to dinner. While we were waiting for food, I took Casey and Cara to the bathroom. I mentioned to Casey that big girls only go to the bathroom once during a meal. Then I forgot about it. Em pointed out when we were leaving that, for the first time in his life, PJ had just sat through a restaurant meal without going to the bathroom! Casey had only gone once. It was a landmark event.

Owen is really working on the cruising. Of course, he mostly works on it in his office, but he's also moving to the couch and he likes to turn around and face the other way if there's anything (or anyone) there to grab on to. I have a little cut on my face from his nails, in fact, because I let him cruise on me. He tried to cruise on Cara earlier and I had to rescue her. When I was folding laundry, he cruised from his office to the couch and started methodically pulling Cara's pajamas onto the floor. She was distressed until I told her it was funny. This evening, he got into a really good mood after the restaurant. He and Steve read some books, I gave him some dinner, and then Cara read Hippos Go Berserk (with some help) while I got him ready for bed. I got him sacked, turned the lights down, and rocked him while he had his bottle. He got done, turned his face to me to go to sleep, and then turned back to laugh at his bottle and swat at it with his hand. He was in a really great mood, just not quite sleeping! I put him in his crib, turned on his aquarium, and left him. I'm sure he grinned his way to dreamland.

1/3/11 (Monday)

By an amazing coincidence I had off from work and Owen had off from YBR today. So we stayed home together. We ran a few errands in the morning and then hung around the house until I decided to try a nap. It was not perfect, since he spent about fifteen minutes screaming in his crib, but he did eventually have a nice long nap. In the early afternoon we went to Evelyn's school and I dropped the little guy off with his mommy. She got to show him off a bit there. When I picked him up, we men went off to the Cablevision store to do a special manly errand, and then I stopped to get gas before taking him home. I was worried he was annoyed at being in the car so long, but on the way home he was babbling to himself and practicing making raspberries.

He had a couple of good meals of solid food and was into his second nap (albeit a late one) when Ev and Cara got home. We had had a nice day together. Owen is really playing peekaboo on his changing table now. It may just be a happy accident that he likes to cover his eyes with his hands while he's laying there, but it gives me the chance to say "Where's Owen?" and then he uncovers so I can say "There he is!" and this can get really, seriously funny. Which is good because he is not a fan of being on his changing table usually.

Just like last night, this evening Owen was feeling goofy and happy after his bedtime bottle. I didn't know what to do with him in that condition so I put him to bed. Hopefully he knows what to do.

1/4/11 (Tuesday)

Today at dinner I gave Owen a long piece of asparagus stalk. He seemed to enjoy it very much, passing it from hand to hand and sticking one end into his mouth. He chewed on it, and eventually he ended up with two chewed-up ends sticking out of his mouth like whiskers. When it was nice and gross, we took it away.

Yesterday, Cara came home from school with a notice about a school-wide reading challenge. Everyone has to read 360 minutes by the end of February. There are prizes for the students who read the most and for the classes that read the most. For "emerging readers," being read to counts. Yesterday, PJ read eleven books! We have instituted a period of reading Little House together in the evenings, while one adult washes the bottles and Cara has a snack. Between that and her bedtime books, Cara totaled 40 minutes yesterday.

1/5/11 (Wednesday)

This morning two women came to the house to evaluate Owen for Early Intervention. They were a speech therapist and a physical therapist. The five of us sat in the playroom while they asked us a lot of questions and watched Owen do his thing.

They took out some toys for him to play with, mostly shape sorters. He showed them how well he can bang things and take things out of containers, but he's not really ready for putting things in. They see that he can hear but that he doesn't recognize words yet. He babbled for them.

The physical therapist put him onto his tummy, and he actually did pretty well. He pushes himself up a little on his arms, and he can kind of pivot. She also checked the mobility and flexibility of his legs, as his pediatricians have always done. After a little over half an hour of examination, they retired to the kitchen to write up their report.

They found that Owen is eligible for Early Intervention. Candidates have to be either 33% delayed in one area or 25% delayed in two. He seems to meet that criteria very easily. We'll get a detailed report later. The physical therapist agrees with the High Risk therapist's assessment that his feet turn out. That's normal for new standers, but Owen's a little extreme. We should follow up with the pediatrician and may have to see a pediatric orthopedist at some point. Owen seems to have skipped a lot of the baby milestones and moved on to try the big-boy ones, but he needs to go back. He needs to strengthen his core muscles and learn to maneuver himself better. He needs tummy time, and he does seem more ready to try it now that he knows that he has hands and can play with toys with them.

The speech therapist also found him eligible, not that he needed both of them to. She thinks that a lot of his delay is due to his having gotten the tubes in August, so really he's only been hearing fully for about four months. To help him, we need to try to focus his attention on our mouths when we speak and also to encourage him to imitate our physical actions, like clapping, because that will extend eventually to imitation of speech sounds.

The next step is for us to get a call from our service coordinator to set up a meeting. That meeting will be to determine what he needs and how he will get it, basically, what kinds of therapy, by whom, where and when. We'll get the call within two weeks, but I did initial a box that indicated that we wouldn't be upset if the meeting itself happened within ten days.

Playdate was really nice tonight. All eight of us sat around the table, Owen in his high chair between Casey and Cara. We gave him a piece of bread and some broccoli to play with. Halfway through dinner, Cara looked down and discovered, to her dismay, that she'd dropped a piece of broccoli. We suggested that it might have been Owen's. His wasn't on his tray. No, she was certain that that was hers. We never found his. He must have eaten it. After dinner PJ and the men played on the Wii while Cara and Casey ate about five clementines. Owen was happy and playing the whole time. I put him on his tummy, and he turned himself all the way around in a circle on the hardwood floor, playing with his gears. He seems to finally really be ready for this.

We read a full 50 minutes of These Happy Golden Years tonight. It's interesting to see what Cara thinks about it. When Laura's students in her first school weren't behaving, Cara suggested trying a time-out. She's pretty happy and excited about Almanzo and his horses. We're flying through the book; the question of what we'll read next is quickly becoming a serious one.

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