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Journal Key:

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

3/17/11 (Thursday)

Happy St. Patrick's Day! Today, a leprechaun snuck into Cara's classroom at school! They know because he messed up the art table and left little green paintey footprints going to the window. He left them some pages of leprechaun pictures to color. One of the little boys was clever enough to realize that the leprechaun must have made those coloring pages at the art table, and that was why he messed it up. Cara wishes she could see a leprechaun.

Owen is doing really well at physical therapy. He was happy through most of his session today, and he even spent some time on his tummy. Karen showed us a few things to do to help him with the sitting-up part of his back-to-tummy-to-knees-to-sitting routine. He's so good at the rolling part that I can start him off with just two fingers now, and he'll finish the roll. Then he's pretty good at holding himself up with his arms, and he understands about tucking one knee under. We help pull his upper hip down, and he's able to walk his hands in until he can sit. The hands are the tough part, but he's getting better. We hadn't been sure how to best help him, and now we feel a lot more confident. We also worked on helping him to rotate his torso. We sit behind him, to keep him from rotating, and then we guide him to rest on one hand while reaching across with the other, and he can reach the very exciting toys that we've put over to the side.

Steve was able to be here for a lot of the therapy session because of jury duty, and so afterwards we put Owen in the stroller and walked to DT to get Cara. With math homework, playing, leftovers, and a baby standing up in the bath, it was a lovely evening.

3/19/11 (Saturday)

Yesterday I got home early from work and picked Cara up. We went straight home, got Cara's scooter, then went straight outside again. We scootered over to the Loefflers' house and Ron was kind enough to stick some training wheels onto an extra bike so that Cara could pedal up and down the street a little (with me walking alongside guiding the handlebars). The kids spent some time doing that and coloring with chalk (I also made a gigantic dragon on the Loefflers' driveway, which I'm sure they appreciated).

For our Family Fun Night we agreed to go to On the Border for dinner. The restaurant parking lot was absolutely packed, but fortunately it turned out that it was almost all people who were sitting at the bar watching college basketball, so we got seated immediately and had a nice dinner. Owen kept us busy by throwing his toys on the floor repeatedly, and eating a lot.

We whiled away the rest of the evening watching How to Train Your Dragon, which is a very cool CG kids' movie.

Today was "Daddy-Daughter-Dentist-Dance-Day," which as Evelyn pointed out has five Ds. First Cara got up early and the two of us went off to the dentist. She has no cavities, but she has (according to the dentist) a few more loose teeth! So we got more little tooth-keeper boxes. Then we were off to dance class--we got there first. After dance we went to Friendly's for a nice lunch. I was proud of Cara for ordering a side of celery and carrot sticks with her lunch instead of french fries--but then she didn't eat any of them. We got ice cream, but Cara never really eats all of her ice cream. Mostly what she wanted were the tiny gummy bears that she could get as a topping with it.

At home, Cara was excited to work on a "project" involving the Powerpuff Girls stickers she got at the dentist. She created a large household for the sticker girls, and added six or eight additional girls with crayons, a mommy, and of course a huge stack of bunk beds in which they can all sleep.

Owen was a tad off today. He took an early morning nap, and was ready for a second nap in the afternoon, which he hasn't been doing lately. But he had time to have fun also. He is really very good at rolling over now. If he's on his back, all I have to do is give the slightest tug on one of his arms, and he handles the rest by himself. We are really going to have to keep our eyes on him in the tub now, though. He spent half of his bath tonight gripping the edge of the tub and trying to stand himself up--and he has succeeded at this several times! I've tried to explain to him that people usually prefer to sit in the tub, but he doesn't pay any attention.

He's been saying something that sounds a lot like "Buddha" lately. Over and over and over again. Ev and I remembered that he has also said "allah" before. I am waiting to hear "ganesh" or "yahweh."

3/20/11 (Sunday)

Today we all got into the car after Owen's nap and went to see Aunt Claire's new house! She moved into John and Theresa's house in Middletown just a few weeks ago. Cara brought a lot of Polly Pocket girls because she and Claire had built a wonderful house for them out of cardboard, but, as Claire put it, it "got lost" in the move. Fortunately, the girls were able to make do with what they found. Our plan is that for Cara's birthday, instead of buying her a present, Claire and Casie will spend a day with Cara and me and a new house will be built. Having just moved, they have plenty of cardboard!

Owen was a very lucky little boy. He had me and Steve and Grandmama and GiGi and Casie walk him around. It's a good house, too, because you can walk from the kitchen to the dining room to the living room to the kitchen to the dining room . . . it was not surprising that he slept on the way home!

3/21/11 (Monday)

The daily sheet that Owen gets from YBR has a section for solid food. It's a picture of a plate divided into three sections. Today they had to subdivide it further. Owen seems to have eaten five or six jars of food in the five meals that he had there. He did have almost an entire stage-three jar in the morning, though, before Steve dropped him off; I hope they don't think we starve him.

When I picked him up, somehow I must have done something wrong. At first I thought that the mother standing in the next room was fascinating, because Owen was staring at her, but soon I realized that he just was pointedly not looking at me. This continued as I got his coat on and his stuff together, and he managed to avoid eye contact as I carried him to the car. We had a nice talk while I drove, and at a red light I managed to play peek-a-boo around the head rest, and by the time we reached DT we were on good terms once again.

3/22/11 (Tuesday)

Somehow or other, before dinner, Owen, Cara, and I ended up outside. Cara was being allowed to have a frozen fruit treat, because of which she was wearing mittens. Owen sat on a blanket and we rolled balls down the hill to him. He liked it, but when I counted to three as his early intervention therapist does before I rolled it, he absolutely bounced with joy. Soon, though, Cara discovered that it was cold out and we got to go inside.

Owen's favorite toys lately have been puzzles. He loves to take the pieces out and wave them around. We've been working with him on identifying some of the animals that he's playing with. I'm pretty sure that when I ask him for the kitty or the doggy from one of his living room puzzles, he can give me the right one.

Tonight was sight words night. It's a tough night. We're supposed to read all of them five times. Our habit has been to make sentences with our set of sight words, which has enough doubles to be useful. Now, though, there are really too many. Cara and I went through the sight words in her packet from school, and there were 64. We went through those once, and then Cara read me her Cinderella book all by herself, almost without hesitation. I am so proud of her!

3/23/11 (Wednesday)

At playdate tonight down the street, it's possible that for the first time Owen joined the other three kids in not eating enough because it was too exciting to go play (all three of them have done this). Instead of sitting on the floor and eating his dinner nicely, he scooted all around and complained until we walked him; when we walked him, he wanted to go downstairs to play. He had a very good time playing catch with a soccer ball, which he would occasionally lift up to his face with both arms and then spin.

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