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Journal Key:

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

The kids were hungry when we got home, and while I made dinner Cara asked for a fruit cup. I told her she could have one after dinner. She was disappointed. Soon, Owen came into the kitchen wanting Cheerios. I gave him some in a bowl. Fortunately, it turned out that Cara really loves Cheerios, too. She got her own bowl.

I'm wondering when she'll start saying things like, "You ask them, you're littler."

4/27/12 (Friday)

Owen knows about the pantry in the basement; he likes to go down there to get a box of crackers once in a while, even though we have open boxes upstairs. This morning, while I was eating breakfast, he announced that he was going to the basement. I let him go. Eventually he came back, brandishing a box of decaf tea bags. "I got this--to eat!"

4/29/12 (Sunday)

We had big plans for this weekend, which went up in smoke on Saturday when we discovered that Cara had a fever. We didn't do much all day except lay around and watch TV. There was one moment in the middle of the day when all the humans in the house except me were asleep (the cats may have also been asleep but I can't be certain). Today, to everyone's relief, Cara was better. We even all went out to do some shopping. First there was Lowe's, where we were looking at light switches. Owen helpfully picked up various switches and handed them to Evelyn, making us pretty confused about which ones we actually wanted to buy. Then we were off to Best Buy, where Owen enjoyed drumming on a low, metal shelf, and the kids chased each other up and down an aisle.

We also went out to lunch afterwards. Owen was good, but he has been getting very frustrated lately when he can't do something physical. At the restaurant it was his little mandarin oranges, which kept falling off his fork; he got so angry and upset about it. A very similar thing happened at dinner, when Owen discovered to his great sorrow that you really can't eat corn-on-the-cob with a fork. Even when Mommy thoughtfully cut it off the cob, the fork was still not the ideal implement.

Anyway, it has been a weekend of very full naps, which has been good for all of us. In the afternoon Evelyn went off to the farmer's market and the kids took the opportunity to run all over the house chasing after each other. Cara suggested they have a pillow fight, but not much came of it except that they both rolled around on the bed a lot.

At bath time, Owen was not particularly interested in his bath, until Cara pointed out that he could play with her mermaids. Then he shot right up the stairs. I reflected that Owen will have an interesting childhood, growing up and getting to play with all of Cara's old "girl" toys that she has grown out of. I was thinking about what kind of an effect this would have on him, and on gender stereotypes in general. Then I walked into the bathroom with his towel and realized that he was making the mermaids scream "Bonsai!!!" while body-slamming each other.

4/30/12 (Monday)

Generally Owen carries his lunch box, but today there was a tupperware container of his in the fridge at YBR, and he carried that. "I want apples!" he said. I told him there weren't apples in it, and he changed to peppers. No peppers either. Strawberries. OK, he wanted those, too.

He carried it to the car and I agreed that he would get to eat them in the car, when Cara was there to help him. I wasn't up for giving him an open container of fruit. We got Cara and explained her job. In the car, as I started driving, she opened the container. I'd imagined that she'd hold it and give him the fruit piece by piece. Instead, she handed it to him. "He'll just put it on his lap," she explained. "He'll hold it with one hand." And he did.

5/1/12 (Tuesday)

Months and months ago, when Hinda and Nicole came for a playdate, Hinda brought gifts for the kids. I hadn't been able to give her much direction, and she brought Owen a small toy train. Having played with him for a couple of hours, though, she announced that she'd made the wrong choice: he was an action-figure guy. She says there are vehicle guys and action figure guys. I'd had no idea!

Hinda's right, though. Owen very infrequently plays with vehicles. Lately we've had a toy truck out in the living room, and I have been putting Beastman on the flatbed, where he sits and asks for a ride. This afternoon, Owen decided that Skeletor would give Beastman a ride. We went downstairs to get Skeletor (who is actually only a torso with arms, but, ok). I had imagined that Skeletor would sit in the front of the truck, in the cab. Instead, he went to the back and pushed the truck around from there, giving Beastman a ride.

I remember feeling, when she was this age, that Cara was like a tiny little teenager. With Owen, I think there are similarities: perhaps this is sort of a boy version of teenagerhood. Owen likes to do things himself. He likes things to be his idea. If we offer him options, he'll reject all of them. Then he'll suggest something he'd just rejected when we offered it. He didn't want me to go and get Skeletor; he wanted to do it. (I had to go with him, though, of course.) He wants crackers, especially from the box in the basement, which we have not yet opened even though he's brought it upstairs about five times. He wants to get his food onto his fork himself, then he screams when it falls off. When we pick it up, we aren't allowed to just put it into his mouth; we have to put it onto his fork for him. It goes on and on.

During ballet today I took Owen over to Target. I'd been thinking of letting him walk, but I ended up taking a cart. In the car, Owen had been holding Cara's sweatshirt. When I'd gone to get him out, he'd insisted on bringing it with him. Rather than letting him drag it all across the parking lot, I popped them both into the basket. He held it in the store and on the way back to ballet. He let go when we went in to read some books. When we got home, he carried it to the house. It definitely needs to go into the wash.

5/2/12 (Wednesday)

This afternoon I took both kids to the mall for shoes. Owen's been wearing the same shoes (which still do fit) for a whole year, pretty much, so it was a long time since he'd tried any on. I was astonished at the difference between this trip and when we bought the last ones! Last year, he was against the entire process. This time, though, Owen was very invested in the shoe-shopping experience. While we waited he played with the display shoes, sometimes making them fight each other and sometimes just taking them one by one over to the bench and lining them up neatly. He was fine with getting his feet measured, and when the girl brought out shoes he let us put them on him and was excited abotu stomping around in them! It wasn't awful at all! He got a pair of sandals and a pair of sneakers, and Cara got some exciting Bella Ballerina sneakers, which have little spinning discs in the soles that let her twirl around. (Those are really the reason we went in the first place.)

At playdate, Owen went upstairs after dinner with the other kids. He came back downstairs with a hairbrush, apparently Casey's fourth-best or something like that. He also had a hand full of ponytail holders, which he wanted in his hair. I did try, but there was really no hope. They did look nice dangling from his ears, but he wouldn't put up with that.

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