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Journal Key:

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

2/3/11 (Thursday)

In the past 24 hours, Owen has perfected his technique for rotating. When we put him down on his back, he shifts his feet over and his hips follow, and he really will hitch himself around in a circle, with his head staying stationary. It makes putting pants on him exciting. Tonight I put him down on his sack to get him ready for bed, and off he went; I had to haul his legs back. He thinks the whole thing is very funny.

2/4/11 (Friday)

We just had a lovely Family Fun Nite. For the first time in a long time, we went to Friendly's. Owen sat in his high chair the whole time, eating a good dinner and looking around to stare at people. He also ate some of Steve's straw wrapper. We even got to have ice cream! We gave Owen a little. He was shocked by whipped cream. Somehow, it just made him astonished. We read in the car, although Owen spent some of the ride telling us that ba ba ba BA BA!

Today Cara presented her bunk bed project ot her kindergarten. She was very excited about getting to do it, and it seems to have lived up to her expectations. She stood up in front of everybody and she opened all of the flaps to show them the writing underneath. PJ made a cardboard cutout of himself, with paper clothes on, and he drew things he liked all over it. In its hand was a book about Mario. Most other people made posters or books. No one else made a bunk bed. Cara's was the tallest project. She's a very happy little girl.

It's very important that we go read now.

2/6/11 (Sunday)

Yesterday we all drove down to Middletown for lunch, and then Cara stayed to sleep over. Everyone enjoyed lunch. Cara played with the doll house, where the inhabitants were getting ready for a sleep over. Owen took a few minutes to get used to being there, but then he had a very good time. Grandmama was very ready to walk him around, which really is what he wants out of life. He may have noticed that he was able to walk around in a circle, from the kitchen to the dining room to the living room and then the kitchen again. He certainly thought he was being very funny, walking around. He also sat nicely in his high chair and ate a better lunch than Cara did. After a couple of hours, though, Aunt Claire, Grandma Emily, Owen, Steve, and I left and went home, while Cara stayed to go out to an oldies show with her grandparents.

At last night's show, Cara's feet kept twitching to the music, but the expression on her face was as serious as if she were attending a service at the church of rock and roll. She beamed, though, when "Buddy Holly" duck-walked! We let her choose our seats, and she chose to sit nearly in the last row and up against the right wall; after intermission she got braver and we moved down several rows closer to the stage, but maintained our secure position. Actually, I didn't think we would make it past intermission, she seemed so sleepy at times during the first half of the show, leaning against us and resting her head on our arms. However, a little walk and some bottled water restored her energy, and she wanted to stay to see Elvis, whom she remembered from last year right down to the fringe on his sleeves and the fact that he sang about a hound dog. When the scarves came out I saw her become even more serious; we had talked earlier about sitting close enough to get a scarf. "Do you want me to get you one?" I asked, and she nodded solemnly, so I made my way down to the stage, raised my arms to Elvis and received a scarf and a kiss, and came dancing back up the aisle to put it around Cara's neck. Later, during the "Beach Boys" rendition of Surfing Safari, beach balls came out, and we managed to snag one of those for her as well. For the final number I got her stand up with me and dance in front of our seats.

I think her favorite acts, aside from the adored Buddy Holly, were Neil Diamond (who wore a sparkly red shirt), Elvis and the Beach Boys. I'm probably leaving some out. We, of course, had a wonderful time listening to the music we grew up on, which seems to have held up remarkably well over time.

We had a quiet day today, and now Steve is reading Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz. Our intrepid band of adventurers has wandered into a lovely land in which all of the inhabitants are invisible because they eat a certain fruit, and they are all glad to be invisible because if they were visible they would be eaten by the many invisible bears who wander around. The bears also eat the fruit, and they just meander invisibly around trying to find people to eat. Apparently the thing the bears fear the most is noise.

2/7/11 (Monday)

Today I came home from work early for a meeting with the therapists to plan out Owen's Early Intervention. Honestly, I'm feeling kind of overwhelmed. He's going to get two sessions a week, one at YBR and one at home. One afternoon a week, I'll get him and get here by four. He has a personalized plan with goals for him to work towards in the next six months. The speech therapist and the physical therapist each set three goals. We'll get a copy in the mail soon, but they wrote it here and told me all about it. In the meantime, before therapy starts, we have a lot to work on.

Owen needs to strengthen his core muscles. To help him do that, we have to have him sit in different positions. He can sit on his knees. He should try side-sitting, on both sides. He should practice sitting on a low bench, such as the step stools we have. We should put a heavy weight into the push-thing we have, to slow it down so that Owen can use it to walk without us having to hold it back. We need to try to have him reach across himself to get things. He needs to work on tummy time and on reaching for things when he's on his tummy. He's been scooting backwards a little. We should try moving toys away from him so that he might learn to scoot forwards. We should encourage him to continue to pivot when he's on his tummy. When we move him from lying down to sitting up, we should roll him onto his side and then up, so that he gets the idea that he could do that. When we move him from sitting up to lying down, the other way.

He also needs to work on verbal skills. He should spend more time with the mirror. We should put his hand to our mouths and say "mmmmmmmmm" so that he'll feel the vibration, then put his hand to his own mouth. We should use gestures with him and encourage him to use gestures with us. We could give him choices and let him gesture to what he wants.

In addition to the EI goals, we have to get him onto milk instead of formula, which won't be tough, I think. We also have to convince him to use a sippy cup, and we have to get him on food more than liquids, and we have to get him onto table food instead of jar food.

I'm feeling a little overwhelmed.

2/8/11 (Tuesday)

Still feeling overwhelmed, but sort of starting to process it all.

Steve suggested that we make a list and hang it in the house, and I think that's a great idea. It should be a short, doable list. Owen's also been very whiney and needy for a couple of days, and Miss Sandi reminded me that kids sometimes get fussy right before they move on to another phase, like how they throw tantrums before they start talking. We'll see.

Cara is working on making Valentines for her kindergarten class. I folded sixteen sheets of pink paper in half, and she cut a heart out of the spine of each one. So far, she's decorated about five. Each is for a specific kid, and she remembers which is which. They're all different. One has a girl made of heart stickers. One has a girl drawn in marker. One has a robot drawn in marker. (That one's for a kid who, I suspect, may not celebrate.) Slowly, we'll creep through this.

2/9/11 (Wednesday)

Today I sent Owen to school in jeans. He came home in jeans. Miss Sandi explained that she had changed him into "workout pants," let him work out, and then changed him back. His workout involved getting to use a push-walker in the hallway and being very happy about it. Now I want to get him a little baby sweatband to wear for his workouts.

He was in a much better mood today, which makes everyone's lives easier. Suddenly, this morning, the toys that he's hated for days were magically fun again. Sitting on the floor was okay. He was cruising on the coffee table and accidentally sat down. I was upstairs and Steve was in the kitchen; Cara was with him. The only way I knew he'd sat down was that I heard Cara talking to him about it! He seemed to think it was fine.

He did well at playdate, too. I let him sit on a grownup chair to eat some dinner. It went really well until he turned around in the chair to examine the back of it. Later I was walking him and he saw a really interesting toy at his feet. He sat down. It's the first time he's ever done that.

Another first: while we were getting ready to go, Steve was holding Owen and Em was talking to him. She was being very entertaining. Owen leaned out to ask her for a hug!

Cara's homework was a first: the kindergarteners have started to journal. They have to draw a picture of something they experienced, and then they have to make a caption. It's got to be something they sound out on their own. It doesn't have to be a sentence. Spelling doesn't matter. They're teaching the kids to stretch words out to figure out what sounds are in them. I've decided I totally agree with teaching them this way. At Linwood, we have the kids write in "writer's notebooks" in which spelling, organization, and punctuation really take second place to content and ideas. It helps them to become more fluent writers, instead of being hung up on whether something is "right." Cara drew a picture of herself at work and wrote "I am makig cards for my frends." I lent some moral support and nudged her a little bit in the right direction with a couple of vowels, but really she did that on her own.

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