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Journal Key:

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

5/19/11 (Thursday)

There was a birthday party at YBR today, and everyone got to eat some fruit. I hope Owen had some and liked it, because he's really never eaten produce for me! Each kid also brought home a blower thing, star-shaped sunglasses, and a hat. Owen wore his hat very well at the party, I am told. They do like to put hats on him. The blower and glasses have been appropriated by Cara.

Therapy was good. Karen's pleased with the progress Owen's making in pulling up to things and in then squatting down. He's very funny now; when he scoots he frequently tips over forwards to consider crawling, so he crawls a tiny bit and then his right leg stops crawling and he sits up. I think it's always a surprise to him to see where he winds up, since he must stop when he thinks his head is in the right place, but he ends up not even exactly where his bum is but sort of off to the left of that. Karen worked on encouraging him to crawl. One of her goals for the next month or so is for him to crawl three or feet for a toy. Her other goal is for him to walk across a room. She thinks that one is a stretch but that he'll get closer.

5/21/11 (Saturday)

Our adventure today was that, while Steve saw a movie with his brother, Cara and I left Owen at Grandmama's house and went out with Aunt Claire. I don't think we've ever left him anywhere without any of us before. It was traumatic. For me. It was fine for Owen!

Grandmama took him upstairs while we left, and he had a wonderful three or four hours playing with Grandmama, Grandpapa, and GiGi. He played downstairs and upstairs. He scooted. Ha crawled (more than three or four feet). He climbed the stairs and slid back down. He walked holding two hands, one hand, and no hands. He stacked things up and knocked things down. He snacked. He walked over to his high chair when he was hungry. He told them which animals say "baa!" (Most animals do.) He pointed out the pig when they asked him where it was in a picture.

One favorite thing that I got to see when we got back was how funny it was when Grandmama pretended to run away from him as someone walked him around and around between the kitchen, living room, and dining room. We're not sure what he'd have done if he'd caught her, but he loved chasing her; he kept letting out big, real grown-up laughs.

5/22/11 (Sunday)

I was upstairs this morning when I heard an exclamation of dismay from the kitchen. I looked down to see Steve looking at Owen, who was on the floor at the kitchen door. The problem was that Steve had left Owen down in the playroom. We're glad he's figured out how to handle the top of a set of stairs, but he still has no idea that he has no idea how to go down stairs. We need to get our pressure gate back from Claire.

Grandmom and Grandpop came up today and played with the kids! I'm hoping they'll be willing to come again, even though Owen beat Grandpop soundly with a big plastic giraffe that he likes. Owen showed off all of his regular tricks, and he also did one of his puzzles all by himself (it has three pieces: a square, a triangle, and a circle). He played with blocks and seems to be saying "down" as well as "up."

This evening Steve and I got to go out on a date and the kids stayed down the block. Much fun was had by all. The big excitement of the night (for me) was to see what Em could get Owen to eat. Things didn't start auspiciously, and Cara told Em that Owen wasn't going to eat and that she should take him out of his seat. Really, a challenge like that can't go unanswered. Owen ended up eating plenty of chicken and rice, and he ate two strawberries. He also ate a lot of blueberries, because Em mixed them into yogurt! She tried popping a couple of lima beans into yogurt, too, but Owen rejected those. I'm willing to let him slide on the lima beans, but I'm definitely excited about trying the yogurt trick to get him to eat fruit!

5/23/11 (Monday)

I brought the kids in and left Owen in the playroom while I went to get the groceries. When I came back in, he was halfway up the stairs to the kitchen. The potted plant phase really is very much over. The fastest plants I've met would be left in his dust. I accompanied him upstairs and asked Owen where he intended to go. He scooted himself over and stood up at the stairs heading to the bedrooms. Up, up, up! The biggest problem (besides the chance that he'll tumble down) is how he deals with the gate at the top. The poor little guy scoots at the gate and tries to close it, maybe just so that he can get around it, but he's always in its way.

Once he got around the gate Owen scooted and crawled into his room, where I left him to play. Cara joined him up there after a bit, and they were very happy while I started dinner. I had to bring Owen down and I left him in the living room, playing happily. Within a minute, he was back at the stairs. I don't think he necessarily wants to be up there, I think he just really likes climbing up. I hope that within a week or so he'll have realized that after he goes up, he's up, and he'll slow down a little!

5/24/11 (Tuesday)

Owen is getting very ambitious about walking. While I was trying to get him from YBR to the car, he dove down and I had to walk him along with one hand while I held the lunch box with the other. He made good progress for a while, but I stopped him before we crossed a street. He wasn't happy about being carried. On the other side, instead of going to the car, Owen decided to have a nature walk under a tree and sit in the grass.

We spent some time playing outside when we got home this evenin, and Owen got to sit in the grass some more. Cara brought out two balls for him, and he scooted around with one or the other of them. He also scooted all along the front walk, which looked painful but apparently wasn't. He crawled on the front walk, too, and that may have been painful; I think his knees were red afterwards. Cara brought out the chalk for herself, but she just took one piece and left the box on the walk with Owen. He made his first chalk picture! He took all of the chalk out, piece by piece, and he drew with some of them on the concrete. The result is a sort of semicircular multicolored smudge outside the front door. It's lovely.

5/25/11 (Wednesday)

Cara came with me to pick Owen up today. When he saw us come in, he lit up. "Da, da, da!" he said.

Outside YBR, of course he wanted to walk. I'd gotten Cara first so that she could carry the lunch box, but she was also very helpful directionally. She walked in front of us, backwards.

Me: Owen, where's Cara? Go to Cara!

Cara: Owen, come to your sister! Come on!

Owen: Baa! (toddles towards Cara, holding one of my hands.)

Cara: Come on, Owen!

Owen: (wanders off to the right)

Me: Owen, go to Cara!

And so on, all the way down third street.

He's been very unhappy in his baths lately, so after dinner, because he had happily rubbed meatloaf juice all over himself, I proposed that Em and I give him a bath. (I wanted backup!) We tried giving him a very shallow bath, hoping that, if nothing else, the novelty would be appealing. I'm pretty sure he didn't notice. He was very invested in standing up at all times, and eventually I gave up and washed him just like that. I dumped the bucket of water over his head to rinse him, and he did like that. All in all, he wasn't miserable. It just makes no sense to me at all, but Em reminded me that PJ hated his baths for a long time when he was little like this. It astonishes me how much I've forgotten about those years!

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