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Journal Key:

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

3/8/12 (Thursday)

There's a sure way to get Owen to eat something: anything I'm eating is very attractive. This morning, as often happens, I shared part of my bagel with him. I happened to have put raspberry jam on my half, so Owen demanded some. I swiped tiny amounts onto the little pieces I'd ripped off. I hope he won't expect that every morning now!

We walk together now from the car to Yellow Brick Road. It's very nice, albeit slow going. He is still a little anxious when I first bring him in, but he is easily distracted by toys now: Miss Mona got him some dinosaurs this morning, and he was soon roaring away.

Tonight Ev dropped the kids off and left for conferences at her school. We had the kind of lax evening you might expect when Daddy is in charge. Owen ate...some things...mostly the things that I was eating. I started to make a sandwich and he suddenly decided that he wanted one. He ended up with half of the roll. I made popcorn, and from there it was but a short slide to movie-watching. I was pretty excited about our starting to keep the TV off in the evenings, but things happen. Owen said he wanted to see "the baby crying." Cara and I are clever interpreters and knew that he meant he wanted to watch Boo in Monsters, Inc.He did end up seeing a scene where she was crying before I took him off to his bath.

I'm not sure how it happened--it was not planned--but Cara gave Owen a bath tonight. She started off putting bubbles from his bubble bath on his head, and then ended up washing him. I'm not sure I would want this to happen again, but it was cute this once.

I read Owen his stories and then got up to put him to bed. For some reason he started saying "Scooby-Doo, where are you?" over and over. This continued for a little while after I had left.

3/10/12 (Saturday)

Friday was of course Family Fun Night, which we spent with takeout food and TV. Owen has started getting into The Wizard of Oz. I don't remember how. But his favorite character is the Cowardly Lion. He refers to him as "the real lion." Evelyn and I hope that this shows his ability to discern between live-action and animation--and not that he's completely fooled by Bert Lahr's makeup. Owen had some ice cream which came with his meal--the next day he wanted more "yummy ice cream," which we did not have.

Today Owen had a long outing with his mother in the morning, first to go to gymnastics and then on an errand to the bank. By the end, Owen was getting sleepy, and had to be kept awake, which Evelyn accomplished by playing The Pirates of Penzance in the car. In the evening we went down to Middletown to celebrate George's birthday! This was appropriate as Owen had had his He-Man figures singing "happy birthday" to each other earlier in the day. The He-Mans came along with us and engaged in foot races around the kitchen and living room. They also went to bed in many different places.

The little boy had a nice bath at the house. He got to play with the pirate bath toys that Grandmama and Grandpapa have--both pirates are "pirate kings."

3/11/12 (Sunday)

Owen and I have been running a lot of races lately. The way it works is that we agree to run a race, and then we say, "ready, set, go!" We run together. Then we stop. Then we run some more.

The kids went over to PJ's house this afternoon while Steve and I went out. Owen walked over, pushing Cara's old pink doll stroller. Beast-Man was riding in it. Off he went down the street with Steve, pushing his little pink stroller. When they got to the steps, he let Steve lift it up for him. In the house, he pushed Beast-Man around some more.

When we got back, Owen handed me the stroller to hold and we had a race. Then, Cara having run ahead, we pushed the stroller home.

Steve and I were getting Owen into his pajamas when Shelby came into his room. She's been driving us up the wall by sleeping in the drawer under his crib, hiding in there while we put him down and then crawling out when he's in his crib and crying at the closed door. She even did it during his nap yesterday!

Me: There's that terrible cat.

Steve: Shelby's a bad kitty.

Owen: No, Hebby a GOOD kitty! A good kitty.

Twenty minutes later, Steve had to physically haul that good kitty out of the drawer before he could leave Owen to go to sleep.

3/12/12 (Monday)

We had to change the clocks yesterday for daylight savings, and I find that I'm very glad. Both kids had a hard time getting to sleep, but it was nice to feel fairly sure that Owen would not wake up at five in the morning. We're having great weather this week, and both kids were outside playing when I arrived to pick them up in the afternoon. We came home a little early to play outside in the sunshine!

Cara got out her scooter and I got out Owen's bike. Owen got out the little pink stroller. We went over to see Juliana, and the kids made full use of their various wheeled items and her nice wide driveway. Owen quickly abandoned the stroller to try his bike. He's getting pretty good at getting onto it, though sometimes he leads with the wrong foot and he would have ended up backwards if we hadn't stopped him. He mostly ignores the pedals and sort of walks himself along. He can sort of steer! When he got onto our lawn Cara put his feet onto the pedals for him and he kept them on as I pushed the bike up the hill, but soon he was done with them.

He took a break from biking for a while and ran around on the sidewalk while Juliana and I chatted. Soon, "a moo-cow!" he cried, coming over. He was convinced that he'd heard or seen one, and he wanted us to take him to see it. Eventually we managed to distract him.

All this time, whenever he was on the bike I'd been holding on to the handle that rises up behind him. Right around when Steve got home, though, he got onto the bike and then turned and said, "No, Mommy, you don't do that to Owen!" Really, I did think I was helping. However, I let go and he set off down the sidewalk by himself. I took Steve's coat and coffee mug from him and headed inside to make dinner. Owen got pretty far before Steve made him turn around.

When they did come in, Owen rode his bike up to the front door and stopped. He got off. "You ride, Daddy," he said, pointing to the bike.

3/13/12 (Tuesday)

Everyone was listening to a story when we arrived to get Owen. When he finally noticed us, he got up and then had to crouch down to pick up something from the floor: they'd played outside, and he'd collected the big, round, flat seeds that fall in the playground. Cara used to bring them home, too. He came running over and gave one to Cara and one to me, keeping one for himself.

We stayed at ballet instead of going to Target. First, we sat down and read about five books. When Owen was done with books, we went out to walk around. I'd planned to kind of go around the block, but there wasn't much time left. Instead, we had an argument about whether Owen had to hold my hand in the parking lot which resulted in my having to carry him to the car (I had to grab my wallet). Then I let him walk around on the grass and generally run around and explore.

As a result, we got to do an exciting experiment in hand-washing when we got home! Owen was not initially interested, but when he saw that he got to stick his hands in the water it became a far more attractive proposition. Next time, I'll think to roll up his sleeves.

3/14/12 (Wednesday)

Owen came over and sat on my lap when I got there this afternoon. "I want to go home!" he said. Eventually I got him to stand up so that I could take him home. He went to the fridge and (with a little help from a teacher) got his lunch box. He likes to carry it. He likes to tell me he's carrying it. It's so big it almost drags on the ground. He carried it out the door and down the stairs, and he carried it to the car.

When we get home, I give Cara the keys and she heads into the house. I get Owen out, set him on the grass, and turn back to get things out of the car. Today, he asked me for his lunch box. I gave it to him, and I took my things and his coat. He started down the hill and stopped to put his hand on my open car door. I let him help me push it closed. "Good job, Mommy," he told me when it was shut. He was delighted with himself for carrying his lunch box in. He's a good little helper!

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