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Journal Key:

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

The kids took me outside to play this afternoon. We got to the sidewalk and Cara went off on her scooter while Owen got off of his bike to sit down on the ivy. He learned that when you sit on wet ivy you get wet and dirty. Soon we all went off to Juliana's house, where she came out to sit on the stoop. Owen would come up the walk, sit down next to her, and then get right back up. He'd stand at the top of the walk and tell us to watch him, then he'd run down the walk. He made us watch him do it five or six times; we applauded.

I have to remember to ask at YBR about how often Owen gets time-outs. Whenever we ask him, he claims to have had one that day. Of course, he'll also agree that he saw Robin every day, so he's not particularly reliable. This evening several of his guys got time-outs. He laid them all out on their backs on a chair. When I took him out of his bath and I was getting him dressed, he claimed that he needed a time-out. He asserted that he liked them. Miss Mona gave him one today, he said. I asked whether he'd said thank you. He claimed that he had.

5/4/12 (Friday)

I'm very proud that instead of a kid who naps great at daycare and won't nap at home, we have a kid who's napping fine for us but not quite following the program there. The problem is, Owen sometimes likes to chat for a while before he goes to sleep. One day, one of the teachers told Steve she'd sat by Owen and rubbed his back for over an hour before she gave up. He had eventually gone to sleep after she left. Another day, they told Steve, they'd had to move him to a separate room because of his constant yammering.

It really is as if he's having a conversation with himself. He goes on and one, with an occasional "DA-na-na-na, Batman!" thrown in. I guess in a separate room no one else would be kept awake by it. Really, at home, it can be an advantage: it makes the nap longer.

I asked about time-outs, and apparently he never actually gets any.

5/5/12 (Saturday)

We saw Grandmom and Grandpop today for the first time in about a month! Grandmom played dinosaurs with Owen while Grandpop and Steve worked on reinstalling some lightswitches. We also took all of the stuffed animals out of the big basket in the living room and the kids got buried in them. Owen didn't eat much lunch, but he did eat half a piece of the (very belated) birthday cake I'd made.

Having taken a brief break, Owen is back to being a very dedicated Daddy fan. He needs Daddy. He really does. Now. Daddy's awesome.

In the evening, the kids stayed down the block while Steve and I went out to see a movie. I went to pick them up and found Owen walking around the kitchen eating grapes and potato chips, which Em was feeding him one by one from a bowl. He had had a good dinner (he likes steak!) and generally been good. I carried him home and into the house, where he finally saw Daddy! Tragically, I took him upstairs to change him. Don't worry, Daddy came up to read him some stories.

5/6/12 (Sunday)

In the morning Evelyn and Cara went out and I had some time with the Buddy. I decided to take him to the pet store again, as I'd done recently. We saw all of the animals. It's too bad this pet store doesn't have a lot of dogs to look at, but Owen likes seeing cats and he especially seems to enjoy looking at fish. With great discernment, he pointed into a tank full of the same kind of fish and said "I like dis one best." He also enjoys playing with some stuffed dog toys by the register. Afterwards, we had a quick trip to the office supply store, where Owen thought we could see more kitties--I had to disappoint him. We did get to sit on some swivel chairs, though.

After his nap, Owen got a chance to see Grandmama, Grandpapa, and Aunt Claire. We ended up all sitting around analyzing an episode of He-Man. We seem to have fallen back into the habit of watching a lot of He-Man. In the afternoon the kids went out to the park, where Owen sat in the mulch and drew with a stick. While making random marks, he claimed that he was drawing various members of the family.

5/7/12 (Monday)

Today at YBR Owen built a ladder out of some building toys they had out. Then he sang a song about a ladder. Unfortunately none of the lyrics were passed on to us. Owen also (inaccurately) claimed to have had a timeout.

Tonight he ate an impressive amount of crunchy, cheese-curl-like toddler food--which I fervently hope is healthy for him in some way. He is very much a snacker. He was, not surprisingly, somewhat uninterested in his dinner, though the prospect of getting to eat a biscuit with a fork kept him at the table for a while.

Last night Owen pulled out every single book on his little bookshelf in his room and left them in a giant pile on the floor. His taste in books has changed somewhat lately, as he has discovered Mo Willems. He likes Don't Let the Pigeon Stay Up Late and Edwina, the Dinosaur Who Didn't Know She was Extinct, but I think he may be the biggest fan of the Knuffle Bunny books (we have two). He can say "Knuffle Bunny" very well, and I was surprised to find that he referred to the sequel (which is actually called Knuffle Bunny Too) by something that is said in the last sentence of the book about finding a best friend. Cara also enjoys getting to provide the baby gibberish in the first book.

5/8/12 (Tuesday)

I'm feeling very slick right now: Owen hasn't been an awfully good eater lately, at least, not when it comes to meals we serve. Tonight, though, I think I won some skirmishes. He had a meltdown because he saw us cutting up bagels and wanted them for dinner, but we said no. Steve got him some yogurt and had to sit right next to him and actually feed him for a little bit. I got some broccoli. "Look, Owen," I said, "I'm going to eat a tree!" Then I did, dramatically. Eventually I let him have a little tree, and then I broke up a rather large piece of broccoli onto his plate, and occasionally he would dramatically eat a little tree.

He decided he was done right when I was cutting up some chicken for him. I got out a regular fork and a little Cars fork that he got for Easter and only actually got on Saturday. "Owen, which fork do you want to use for chicken??" Well, the only real answer possible was both. Both at once. Not both into the mouth at once this time, but sequential so that he'd have two bites of chicken in there at once. Anyway, he ate the chicken.

5/9/12 (Wednesday)

It was playdate tonight at our house--all the kids went right up to Cara's room, where I have no idea what they did. Owen insisted I come play with him at some point, down in the playroom, but I ended up wandering off without it causing too much grief. All the kids, including Owen, had a nice dinner. Ev used her "I'm going to eat a tree" line, and it still works.

Owen has developed a rather bad habit of pulling out a lot of books from his bookshelf. Those are all the books that he doesn't want to read. Hm.

Miss Kathy told me the other morning at YBR about how Owen did some great dancing. They have an exercise portion of the day where they usually dance to music, and Owen really got into it. Basically I think he does the twist to any form of music, but he kept going even after the music had stopped.

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