| Previous Week | Back Home | Next Week |

Journal Key:

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

7/28/11 (Thursday)

I had a meeting today with Owen's Early Intervention team; it was his six-month re-evaluation, and I'm very relieved and happy that he still qualifies! He'll get six more months of twice-weekly therapy, and all we really had to do was to update his goals. Some of them were adjusted, and others were done away with entirely. One goal was for him to respond to his name, and he certainly does that. Another had to do with crawling, and he does that. We got to just sort of cross those out.

Some goals just got upgraded. Instead of 25 words, our goal is for him to say more than 100 words. We've added a new speech goal: 2- or 3-word phrases. Karen's physical goals are more ambitious, too. She wants him, by the end of six months, to run with his hands down at his sides. She wants him to be going up and down stairs on his own. She wants him to squat to play. We're going to work on having him walk on uneven surfaces and avoid obstacles.

I feel so much better knowing that he'll keep getting all of the support that's brought him this far!

7/29/11 (Friday)

Poor Owen! By ten o'clock this morning, he had already had a long day!

He got up too early, for one thing. I probably should have left him in the crib longer; he might have gone back to sleep. Instead, we were downstairs to play at 5:20. At quarter to seven, he and I got into the car and headed down the highway so that he could get the blood test kids all get around this age. He was good. I think it was strange for him, in the waiting room, to see a room full of people who weren't all that interested in playing with him! He had brought his Playmobil camel along, and he told the receptionist that it said "humph!" He told her several times. The actual test was traumatic, of course. The worst thing, I think, was that the lady held his arm still. Once it was over, I got out the bottle I'd brought for the occasion and within fifteen seconds he was quiet and recovering.

I brought him home rather than to YBR afterwards, because Robin was coming. I made the mistake of telling him that twenty minutes before she got there; he walked right over to the door and started waving and saying "hi!" When she did get there, she worked with him on puzzles and books. Eventually she got out bubbles. He got to help open the bottle, and she blew some. "All done," said Owen. "No, more bubbles," said Robin. He melted down. She's pretty sure he's scared of bubbles, that he must have fallen down while playing with bubbles and was traumatized.

He fell asleep on the way to YBR afterwards. I carried him in asleep, and Miss Sandi and Miss Carol made up a crib for him. It was a long day.

7/30/11 (Saturday)

Somehow I had my timing off today. The four of us ended up at the library right about when Owen really needed his lunch and nap. In the car on the way home, he got veeeeeeery sleepy. We had a snack trap of bunnies to distract him with, and Cara and I gave them to him. He ate them. Then he got veeeeeeery sleepy with a headless bunny in his hand; his hand slowly drooped down, down. He woke up enough to get the bunny into his mouth, and then he was out. When we got home and Steve took him out of the car he made some chewing motions. That was all we could get; he was done.

Owen had a good nap and then got a special treat in the afternoon: He was baby-sat in Middletown by his Grandmama and Grandpapa! Here's Grandmama's report.

The little guy had a fine time chasing me around the living room level, which is absolutely hilarious because I can disappear around corners. He even came up with the idea of turning around to sneak up on me from the other direction. Then he settled down to amuse himself with the two baskets of toys we keep at child's-eye level. He seemed perfectly content on his own, so George and I relaxed on the sofa to watch. He selected board books from one box, and carefully "read" each one before setting it aside to get the next. Eventually he found a puzzle piece and crawled over to the puzzles to put it where it belonged; I had wondered whether he remembered our house - apparently he does, as he knows where things go.

We tried an expedition to the park, where the playground was hot but walking in the shade of trees was fine. Even better was the basketball court - what a great surface to run around on. Spying some small green apples, Owen announced, "Ball," and tried to step on them. Occasionally he managed to kick one and we cheered.

Back in the comfort of air conditioning we played extensively with our collection of farm animals, Owen helpfully making their noises for them. Grandpapa read several books to Owen, who applauded and cheered when Clumsy Crab achieved his happy ending. The little guy dined on most of a hotdog and an astonishing amount of strawberries and blueberries. It was a very chatty dinner. "Mmmmmm," he said. "Mmm-mmm good!" I responded. He thought that was hilarious, and we "mmm-mmm"ed at each other quite a bit; he never did attempt the "good." He also echoed us when we said "Wow!" and said "wa-wa" when I gave him water while saying the word. Later, when I offered him a choice of two books, he pointed at one and said something that sounded very much like "this one."

It was great to get some time alone with Owen. He seems very resilient at this point; when little things upset him, he recovers quickly, and generally he seems to be a happy little fellow and easy to get along with.

Owen was happy to see us when we got back, but he didn't fall into our arms or anything. I think I sort of got some happy feet and then he went back to whatever he was doing.

7/31/11 (Sunday)

We've been watching the Curious Buddies lately; Owen really enjoys the farm movie. As a result, he now says, "hay ride!"

I really thought today that I'd messed up the timing again! Owen's been getting up early, and so he gets tired early. A little after ten, the two of us pulled up at the supermarket. He was asleep. I pictured myself having to sort of drape him across the basket of the cart again, but he woke up enough to sit up. Actually, he had a wonderful time. He said "hi!" and "bye-bye!" to lots and lots of people in the store. He waved. He ate bunny crackers that I'd brought and made them hop around the handle of the shopping cart. The cashier said, "hello!" instead of "hi!" and Owen immediately picked up his "phone" and said "Allo!" back. He stayed awake on the ride home, too, and had a good lunch before his nap.

The poor little guy only slept for a little over an hour, though, and then I took him out in the late afternoon. He had as good a time as someone very tired can have, and then he did fall asleep on the way home. He was so asleep when I took him out of the car that I basically had to hold his head up so that he didn't collapse sideways as I carried him upstairs. It was only six o'clock, but we had to put him down. He woke up briefly around eight, but soon he was very clear about the fact that it was time to put him back down.

8/1/11 (Monday)

Owen and I went out for a very early morning walk today. He sat nicely in the stroller for about an hour and sort of ate his breakfast. Occasionally he said "hi" or "bye-bye" to things I couldn't see. He waved, too. When we got back to Nancy Circle, he started to call Da-da. It was six thirty when we got in, so Da-da was not immediately available. We were able to live without him, somehow.

As an experiment, we had ham for dinner. Cara thought it smelled like bacon. "OT-da!" said Owen. Even when he was eating it, "OT-da!" He wasn't interested in being in his high chair, so we tried out taking off the tray and letting him have a kiddie plate right at the table. We wimped out about strapping him in, but I think it's ok because the table keeps him from getting out. He did eventually seem to appreciate his promotion, but really he wasn't interested in dinner, alas.

8/2/11 (Tuesday)

What an eventful day for Owen! He was up at three and four o'clock in the morning, and then he and I got up for good at five. On our morning walk, we saw five bunnies! Well, really it was four bunnies, but we saw one twice. Owen was eating bunny cookies, too.

I wanted to take things easy this morning, so I wasn't in a hurry to get Owen to YBR. I walked out of the kitchen about five minutes after I usually take him. Owen walked over to me and asked to be picked up, which he doesn't too often do. I picked him up, and he waved and said "bye-bye!" to Cara and Steve. I had to take him to school!

Miss Chava told me when I went to pick him up that Owen has learned to say her name. They'd thought he might be saying it yesterday, and today he definitely was. When they came back in from playing outside, he ran up, "A-ba, A-ba!"

The other day, I bought Owen a book. It's a Fisher-Price lift-the-flap book about going to the zoo; it has about 40 little flaps to peek under. He's been looking at it at Barnes and Noble for quite a while, and he has a similar one about the farm that Steve has in his car. Now I have this one in my car. It's wonderful! I strap him in and hand him his book, and he sits there and "reads" while I drive. He's been saying "hop-hop-hop" to something in there. I asked Cara to look, and she thought he was talking about some prairie dogs. I'm hoping there was a kangaroo nearby.

This afternoon Owen got to pet Buster for quite a while. She was sitting on the bay window, and I put him up there, too. We petted her "gently!" He was actually pretty good about it. There were some bouts of patting that was a little too vigorous, but mostly he just stroked her back. He considered grabbing her tail, but I explained that that belonged to Buster. He saw how I was rubbing the sides of her head and tried that, too. She was very patient. It's probably a combination of her being older and more used to little kids and his being less mobile than Cara, who I am sure was more of a threat at this age! Impressively, I decided I was done and took Owen away before Buster left or he got out of hand.

After dinner, Owen was walking around the living room. He climbed partway up the stairs and stopped. He turned around. He was sitting on one step, with his feet down on the one below him. I talked him through the process, but I'm not sure how much help he really needed: Owen went down four stairs on his tushie, bump-bump-bump! I called Steve to see him at the end, and Owen was beaming; it was obvious that he was pretty pleased with himself.

8/3/11 (Wednesday)

There is a happy bat painted on Owen's wall. It's by the changing table, so I've let him stand up and pat it and he can say "bat!" In the morning, I noticed a picture of a bat in one of his books. "Look, Owen--bat!" I said. Owen looked. He put his hand to his head. "Hat!" he agreed.

The last time it rained, Owen impressed and surprised me by looking at the water in the gutters and saying, "bubble." Today, as we left YBR in the afternoon, it was very gently raining. "Bubble!" said Owen. My only theory is that he might mean "puddle."

This morning, Steve gave Em some milk for Casey and PJ. The following conversation resulted.

Casey: I'm so glad Cara gave me milk. She tells me every morning at camp to eat breakfast because breakfast is important. She tells me that because she's my best friend. I love Cara.

Em: Cara loves you too. It's why she gave you the milk.

Casey: But it's MORE than the milk. She wants me to have BREAKFAST. She's my BEST FRIEND!

I asked Cara tonight whether she tells Casey to eat her breakfast. Nope!

| Previous Week | Back Home | Next Week |