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Journal Key:

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

3/29/12 (Thursday)

I brought Cara with me to pick Owen up today. On the porch at YBR, I handed her the keys to the car and showed her which button to press to unlock it. (Owen was very jealous.) Off she went. We'd parked on the opposite side of the street, all the way at the end of the block. I could see her climbing into the car as Owen got down to the bottom step, hauling his lunch box and still telling me he wanted to "press the button!"

It was definitely a day for warm coats, especially with the cold wind blowing. It kept whipping my hair in my face as Owen and I strolled gently down the sidewalk. He stopped to look at some flowers. We were still right in front of YBR.

Me: Owen, I'm cold!

Owen: No, you not cold.

Me: Yes, I am!

He didn't care. It's a good thing that Cara had something to color as we meandered up the street.

It's a good thing for Owen that we didn't have the camera out tonight. He found a sparkly purple dress-up purse in Cara's room. He had a few of her Polly Pocket dolls in it. I'd stripped him down to his diaper for his bath, and he was walking around like that, with his purse, telling us he was leaving.

3/30/12 (Friday)

Due to some illness on Nancy Circle, we had to cancel our more grandiose cinematic plans for Family Fun Night. Instead, we had some takeout food while watching Snow White in the basement. This was pleasant.

3/31/12 (Saturday)

In the morning I slept in a little but was ready to take Owen to gymnastics. I have to admit he ends up looking like a bit of a behavior problem in that class. He will no longer even sit still for the warm-ups, and I can barely get him to do the circuits. He did have a good time, though, climbing around on things. He discovered that he could bounce from a standing position to his bottom on the little trampoline (a modified version of what the teachers call a "seat drop"), and cracked himself up doing that for a while. When we went out for the big trampoline, though, he fell over on the trampoline and was traumatized, so wouldn't even let Miss Melinda bounce him. (It didn't stop him from going out very obediently for the train ride at the end, though--he's always good for that.)

In the afternoon Grandpapa George drove up to whisk both kids away for their second sleepover together. I'll let Grandmama take over here.

Owen draws circles! when the kids arrived, I had blank cards, markers and paint ready for them to make birthday cards for their mother. Cara set to to work swiftly and independently. Owen followed suit; "I made circle," he told me, and sure enough, there was a wobbly circle on his card. My grandson is a genius (of course).

Using watercolors is complicated: first the brush goes in the water, THEN it goes into the paint, THEN it goes onto the paper (not back into the water). It took Owen a little while to master the tricky sequence, but he managed to produce a colorful blob on his envelope, much to his (and my) satisfaction.

In the course of the evening, Cara and I learned that little boys, like cats, will follow a laser pointer anywhere.

Grandpapa had the pleasure of giving the little guy his bath this time; I poked my head in just once, to reassure him that he could rinse the shampoo out of Owen's hair by dumping water over his head. Sure enough, he tried it and the little guy beamed. From the next room, I could hear laughter.

Cara and I got him to sleep by the same stratagem we employed last week; she lay on her bed while I laid him in his, and I sat in the comfy chair reading The Hobbit to her until he had settled down comfortably.

4/1/12 (Sunday)

I will confess I slept with one eye open. Around quarter to 5 I heard Owen cry; I went in and found him crying in his sleep. I rubbed his little back for a few minutes, and he quietted down and slept until 7 a.m.

Grandpapa went out to run in a race, while we remained comfortably at home, eating biscuits, scrambled eggs and oranges. When Grandpapa got back, he proposed an outing, and we all wound up in the park, where Cara demonstrated her great speed running and Owen had a fine time playing under the playground equipment - "I under here" - and drawing in the sand with a stick. On the way home he spotted two guys shooting hoops, and might have remained rooted to the spot indefinitely if not for the arrival of the ultimate happiness, his own Mommy and Daddy!

We had a lovely lunch at the house, for which Aunt Claire was present as well. Cara had helped decorate the cake, a sort of combination Evelyn/Cara birthday cake, with little plastic horses going around in a circle. Combined with the rainbow sprinkles and ring of sparkler candles, it was a perfect miniature carousel. I was impressed. Owen had a wonderful time taking his two little horses and plunging them deep into the cake and icing. He loved his cake--he didn't eat a single bite, but it was lots of fun.

The little buddy continues his favorite pastime, which is flopping full length onto things. He discovered that Grandmama and Grandpapa's couches in their downstairs room are perfect for this, and went to with gusto. Cara and Owen both went through a phase in the living room where they were falling over and falling over onto the floor. Owen also found a toy phone and after getting the idea, he had some wonderful pretend conversations on it. "Hello Mommy, nice to see me!"

Owen really ran himself ragged well into the afternoon, and it was definitely after his normal nap time when we finally departed. He fell asleep in the car, naturally, and Cara and Evelyn went and did an errand while I waited in the car and let the boy nap on. He woke up just as we were taking the last turn into Nancy Circle.

4/2/12 (Monday)

Steve has pointed out lately that Owen has become possessive about his things. I hadn't found it to be a problem. In the car on the way home, Owen tried to take the definition of "his things" one step further.

Owen: My Daddy. Not Cara's Daddy. My Daddy.

It's lucky that Cara isn't a year or two younger, or there might have been trouble. As it was, we both tried to explain. I'm not sure whether he believed us.

4/3/12 (Tuesday)

Owen got himself dirty again at daycare. It is always horrifying to take his shoes off before his bath, but today, according to Evelyn, he had dirt in his hair as well. At dance class, they spent a lot of time just hanging around, looking at books and wrassling. At home, Owen made it abundantly clear that he is not going through a growth spurt. He did not want his dinner, just wanted to snack on things that we did not want him to snack on. Evelyn finally tricked him into having a few spoonfuls of yogurt, after having asked him which was his favorite spoon. Instead of actually eating all the yogurt though (which is usually the one thing we can always count on him eating), he mostly smeared it on things. Mommy was on the phone by this time, but Owen had to particularly call her over so that he could point out a blob of yogurt on his placemat: "Look! I made a mess here."

4/4/12 (Wenesday)

I had an absolutely lovely 35th birthday! Owen slept late enough for me to enjoy my breakfast, but Cara got up early. When he did wake up, all he wanted was to be held and snuggled. I love it when he wakes up that way! He doesn't want to be put down, but today I had a great way to change his mind--it was time to play on Cara's bed. He still loves to collapse face-first on a bed. Somehow, in the middle of the glee, both kids got dressed.

The weather was great, so the kids were outside when I got to YBR. Miss Kathy, Cara's favorite teacher, came over to say hi. She says that she loves having Owen in the big-boy school. He's very good at the teachers' names, apparently. Someone this morning called Kathy's attention to Owen, who was saying "Miss Kathy, Miss Kathy, Miss Kathy!" He had something he wanted to give her. We've also reached a milestone: none of us had been able to remember the name of one of the teachers, and we couldn't ask because we really ought to remember. She and Kathy demonstrated today, though, with great pride, that Owen knows it. It's Miss Minal. Or Minaj. We'll see.

I'd parked about two houses down the street, but it took at least five minutes to walk there. There's a little scrap of yard in front of YBR, and Owen likes to walk on it and announce that he's "up the hill." He went up the hill several times, and then he trotted back to the gate and all the way up the path to the inner gate, while I stood on the sidewalk. He felt that he was very funny. Eventually we got to the sidewalk, then up the hill again, then back to the sidewalk. When we got to the first house, Owen went up the walk. He sat on their bottom step. I mentioned the idea that I could carry him if he didn't walk, but he didn't like that. We almost got to that point. We got back to the sidewalk. We stopped to look at a little dimple in the concrete. Thank goodness I hadn't parked further!

Two big boxes had come in the mail: one was a gift for Cara, and the other was something Steve had ordered. Owen climbed up them and, to my surprise, he stood up on the big one. Then he asked me to come hold his hand while he walked down.

I got cards from everyone including Owen, who had picked out one with a fat middle-aged man done up as a cupid. Inside, he'd scrawled some circles. From Cara, I got a very cute plaster duck she had painted.

We went over to the Loefflers' for dinner and cake; three children helped me blow out one candle. Owen ate most of a brownie, collapsed several times on a big plush rabbit (who has been collapsed on many times by other children), and was carried home for a bath around quarter to eight.

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