| Previous Week | Back Home | Next Week |

Journal Key:

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

4/14/11 (Thursday)

In physical therapy today, we worked on pulling to stand. Owen is getting much better at it! He was pulling up and standing at the papasan, when he turned towards me, let go, and walked to me all by himself: three steps! Karen and I were astonished. He did that a few more times, walking back and forth between us with some confidence. We played for a while with a ball, and Karen's sure he's saying "ball." He's certainly saying something beginning with B, and the two of them were saying "ball" to each other with glee. He can pull up to stand on me when I'm sitting on the floor, and then he likes to walk up into my lap; he tried to climb onto the dining room table. Karen thinks we should take a movie of him scooting, because he might not be doing it for that much longer.

Upstairs, we worked on pulling up at the couch with a cushion off; Owen's very good at that. With the cushion on he needed some help, but the fun toy that Karen had brought and then some Cheerios were plenty of motivation. Karen said that we should probably try taking a cushion off of the couch for him to practice during the week, but then, when she was writing her notes, he pulled himself up with no help with the cushion on!

Since Owen's been holding his own bottle at night with Steve, I gave in and let him have it when I brought it up this evening. He was sitting on the floor while Steve got things tidied up. This was one situation where scooting beats crawling. He went scooting around in his pajamas, drinking his bottle. All we need, Steve says, is a ramp so that he can scoot himself up into the crib, and then we can let him totally take over.

4/16/11 (Saturday)

Tonight was our not-exactly-on-the-right-night seder, and it went far better than I had anticipated. Owen, oddly, stayed sound asleep when I carried him into Grandmama's house, even though it was cold and raining out. He slept on me for quite a while, but he did wake up when I finally tried to put him down. It took him a few minutes to wake up and get the hang of where he was and what was going on, but then he was fine and seemed happy to see Gigi and Grandmama. He was also happy to see all of the toys.

We put him in his high chair and started the seder. While we read, he had some mum-mums and some jar food and a sippy cup, and he did watch the reading a little. Then he started dropping things, which he thought was very funny, and I took him out. He was ready to play, so I put him on the floor in the kitchen with some tupperware to mess with.

I'd remembered to coach Cara on her role with the afikomen, but I'd completely forgotten about the four questions. Claire had to field that one, but when Grandpapa went to wash his hands for the second time, Cara went into action. She cleverly hid the afikomen in her room and made it back to the table before he did. When Grandpapa eventually looked for it and couldn't find it, Cara made him pinky swear to buy her a new Calico Critters toy.

Owen was happy scooting and playing while we read, but eventually we did take turns going to play with him. He does love taking puzzle pieces out; he can even grab the ones that have tiny red knobs. He went downstairs after dinner to play with GiGi, and he discovered a plastic beach chair just his size (but pink and with a princess on it), which he could use as a walker, pushing it back and forth across the room.

Cara stayed for a sleepover, but Owen came home with us. He fell asleep on the parkway and once again stayed asleep when I carried him in through the rain.

4/17/11 (Sunday)

On the way up from Middletown, Grandpapa and Cara stopped at Barnes and Noble for him to fulfill his promise. Cara arrived here with a new Calico Critters family, a set of dogs. Honestly, I don't think any of us could have predicted that. She also got two books, which are oddly similar. One is about Barbie's fabulous friends, and it just sort of introduces a lot of characters. The other is a Star Wars easy-reader, and it just sort of introduces a lot of characters. I find it astonishing that Grandpapa managed to get through the place without buying a cupcake.

It was very much a staying home day, but Steve took the kids out to play in the afternoon. Cara drew a big chalk Princess Leia, complete with buns, a voice bubble, and tattoos (a mermaid and a flower) on her face. She also rode her bike a little, discovering that part of the street is downhill and therefore exciting. Steve remembered the red walker/ride-on car that Cara got for her first Christmas, which we hadn't given to Owen yet. I got it out of the basement, and he walked back and forth along the sidewalk with Steve. He rode some of the time, but when he was riding he had to be pushed because he just sat there. He liked sitting and scooting on the grass, too, and needed new pants when he came inside.

4/18/11 (Monday)

Owen and I got up at quarter to six today, on my first day off for spring break. We had a nice time playing downstairs; he's very prompt at rolling over and sitting up now, and he is starting to stand himself up using only small things, like shoeboxes. He still needs a little help at the end; he winds up standing up but bent over! One of his toys started to play "The Itsy-Bitsy Spider," and Owen put his hands together! It's exciting to see evidence that he's learning the things that his therapist and his teachers (and we) are working on. That's not the only piece of progress Owen's made: he can now put shapes into his shape sorters, as long as those shapes are circles.

I saw him working on something else recently that Steve saw him actually accomplish tonight. Owen can stack the little wooden blocks that he loves to play with so much! He really loves to be read to. He'll pull book after book out of his basket, handing them over to be read, and he'll sit and watch them over and over again. I think he's starting to use the sign for "more." At least he'll put his hands together when I make it and ask him, and then he certainly doesn't object to getting another book! I was surprised when he handed me a book during dinner, I admit. I didn't read it to him.

4/19/11 (Tuesday)

This morning Owen got up to cruise in the playroom, and he got onto the toy bins. For the first time, he made a real mess of the room! He took two bins physically out, and he carefully took the toys one by one out of two or three others, neatly tossing them behind him. He kept on working there until I removed him to take him to YBR.

While I do think that at this point the journal ought to mainly be about Owen, since Cara's so grown-up, I have to mention that this morning, when we went to the diner for breakfast, I was confused because she turned over her place mat and started to draw dashed lines on it in crayon. It turned out that she was setting up hangman! Once I convinced her not to tell me what word she was making, it went very well. We played several games, and she stumped me twice. Both times I sat there running all of her sight words through my mind, and it turned out that she'd picked names: Casey and Owen. She did use her sight words, and she spelled them all right.

In the afternoon, Cara came with me to take Owen for his 15-month well visit. For the first time, I felt pretty good filling out the milestones checklist. I had to stop around the 13- or 14-month section, but I looked ahead and found that some of the things he's doing are well ahead of his age. That's good enough for me! He weighs 24 pounds, 6 ounces. I'm glad I bought the larger size of diaper this morning! He still loves the paper on the examining table. Cara tried playing hangman on it with me, but I was too busy, so she made herself some math problems and wrote some sentences. Meanwhile, Owen scooted all over the paper and crumbled it up and grabbed it and pulled it around. At the end, he was lying under it, playing peek-a-boo. He got two shots, during which Cara hid, and he has to get a blood test done. I'm supposed to wait on that until he's over the cold that we all have right now. Both children got stickers, and off we went.

At home, Owen did several wonderful things. He's definitely saying "ball." He can sort all shapes, not just circles, though he's not really able to decide which hole to try to put a shape though on his own. He also was very interested in Cara's little doll stroller. He wanted to push it, and when I helped him, he could. On his own, he couldn't keep up and it got away from him. I picked him up, but he wasn't happy until I picked the stroller up, too, and set him back behind it. Then I put a five-pound weight into the stroller, which is a nice pink umbrella stroller, and it was perfect. He can push it around all by himself. He went back and forth, back and forth, from the dining room table to the end of the playroom. I had to turn him around at both ends, but I do think he's thinking about getting the hang of turning. He loved his stroller. Eventually I had to bribe him with Cara's tea set to distract him while I made dinner.

After Owen's bath tonight, we went back into his room and he got out one of his books, which has foamy farm animals that can pop out of the pages. When he got to the sheep, he looked at me, set his lips, and very carefully said "Baaaa!" I even got him to repeat his performance for Ev. We're pretty sure that he knows that a sheep says Ba.

4/20/11 (Wednesday)

This morning I could hear Owen chattering to himself in his crib. Evelyn went in and got him. He got to wear a T-shirt and a light zip-up sweatshirt. When I got him to YBR he had gotten the Cutest Hiccups Ever. He was making these little squeak noises. I was sad when he stopped.

This afternoon when I went to pick him up, Miss Camille was there playing with him with a finger puppet glove--each finger ended in a monkey head. He had had a nice day. Miss Sandi tells me there's a little girl there (her name has already slipped my mind) who comes home and just can't stop talking about Owen. "Who is this Owen?" asked her daddy, and he got to meet him today before I got there. Miss Sandi also told me that she thinks Owen said "Bye-bye" today. They were telling him to say goodbye to Miss Carol and he said "Bah-bah," or something to that effect.

When I got him home tonight, he managed to stack three blocks on top of each other all by himself! It's very cute to hear him murmuring "Up, up, up," to himself as he works on the building. He spent quite a bit of time zooming around the downstairs with his umbrella stroller. I am working on teaching him the words "turn" and "go." A couple of times he sat down and I convinced him to pull himself up to standing again using the stroller handles.

| Previous Week | Back Home | Next Week |