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Journal Key:

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

Tonight was awards night at Ev's school so I stayed home with the kids. Cara tried very hard to be helpful--sometimes she was a little TOO helpful. She chased after Owen with food on a fork, gave him a ride in a laundry basket in the upstairs hall, and tried to get him to sing the song of Scuppers the Sailor Dog. (It was not until he was by himself in his crib, after I'd turned his lights out, that I heard him attempting an a capella version of Scuppers' song.)

Owen was a good boy and sort of ate his dinner while wandering about. We started watching Snow White and got just a bit into it before his bath time. When asked what he did today, he claimed that he had gone to ballet. I explained that that was two days ago. Evelyn says that he told her that he had a time-out "Because I was crying like a baby. Like this! 'Waaahhh.'"

6/8/12 (Friday)

We had a coupon, so for Family Fin Night we went to Chili's! Owen sat in a chair and drank from a regular kids' cup. When our waitress came and introduced herself, he waved at her. A lot. His guys had come, so we spent a fun time with Tri-Clops, BeastMan, and Man-E-Faces' torso. The guys, shook hands, head-butted each other, wrestled, and gave each other piggy-back rides. At one point Tri-Clops hit Owen, Owen reported. We asked whether he had apologized, so Owen said, in his Tri-Clops voice, "Sorry, Owen."

We've been going to Chili's for so long that I've ended up being friendly with one of the hostesses, who held the door for us as we left. "You're so big!" she said to Owen. "I'm so big!" Owen told her.

6/9/12 (Saturday)

Owen has been getting up at five in the morning since Thursday, which Steve and I are not enjoying. Today was NOT my turn. Tomorrow IS my turn. Alas.

He was tired, therefore, when lunchtime came, and he actually fell asleep on me while I was reading to him! It was during my second time through Sleeping Beauty, the little golden book version. He loves it. He loves Snow White, too.

After a good nap, Owen woke up very cheerful and also very hot. It was weird, sort of like a sun shower: he was 101, but he was acting absolutely normal and perfectly pleasant. He may, Steve and I noted, have been slightly more willing than usual to sit still and, for instance, watch TV. (He often disappoints us in the willingness-to-watch-TV regard.) Really, though, he was very much himself.

I left the forehead thermometer sitting out, and Owen found it during dinner, having made a foray into the living room. He came back with the thermometer to his ear. "Hi, Daddy!" He had several conversations with Daddy over the thermometer. Once he even called me on it! He had a good dinner and a good bath and I read him Snow White once and then Sleeping Beauty twice, and now he's off to bed!

6/10/12 (Sunday)

All was normal when Owen went down for his nap. When he awoke, the world was turned on its head: all of the grandparents, Aunt Claire, Steve, and I had gone off to Cara's dance recital, and he'd been left alone with Casie! I'd thought about showing him pictures of her earlier in the day, just to make sure he'd have a clue who she was, but I never got around to it.

He adjusted well, anyway. The two of them watched some Phineas and Ferb when he first woke up, but soon enough they were busy playing. They played with Star Wars guys in the basement, they played with the counting bears in the play room. They spent some time, Casie reports, going up and down stairs and muttering a lot. He would say something she couldn't understand, she would ask him to show her, and they'd take some stairs. A good time was had by all.

After the recital Claire and Steve came back to pick them up and we all went to Houlihans. Owen sat with me for a while and with Steve for a while; he spent most of his time playing with his guys. Whiplash really enjoyed his outing. There was fighting and hitting, and then Owen hugged Whiplash to his chest and said, "I love you, Whiplash." Then he made me hug Whiplash, too.

Later Owen started sort of slamming Whiplash into my chest.

Me: Um, Whiplash, stop hitting me!

Owen: (in a tiny Whiplash voice) I'm sorry!

I'm not really sure, but Whiplash may have tried to kiss me.

It was a special day for Cara, and Owen was behaving himself, so we got dessert. Steve got a sort of ice cream pie, and Owen, sitting in his lap, shared. He really liked the ice cream, but it was hard to eat. The futility of his endeavors was made clear by the fact that he ended up exclaiming "I ate some!" whenever he actually got some into his mouth.

6/11/12 (Monday)

I parked a block from YBR and Owen and I had a very entertaining walk back to it. First we came upon something very strange, a furry object apparently perched on top of a fence. It turned out to be the back half of a cat, who was standing on the crossbar, thinking about jumping down, while its rear end and tail were still on the other side. Owen must have had an interesting view, looking up at it. It stayed still as we walked up, and then, while we watched, it jumped down. Then we got to look at it through the fence for a bit.

Later, we got to see the big yellow dog that we like to visit. We saw it through a fence and then through a hedge; it came over to the fence very hopefully, but when it saw that we were not going to be able to play it went off into its yard and started scratching. I pointed out the scratching to Owen. When we walked on, he showed me that he was scratching his arm: "Like the doggy!" He kept it up for a while. It actually bore little resemblance to the manner in which the dog was scratching.

I asked Owen what he'd done today. He explained that he was coloring. "I coloring very fast!" Many things were "very fast," I noticed.

In the car, with some prompting, Owen told Cara "I saw a kitty and doggy!" and "The kitty was jumping!"An hour or so later, at dinner, with some prompting, he told Steve, too.

Lately Steve and I have been getting Owen to go places by declaring that we'd get there first. In some ways, it works beautifully: he immediately insists that he will get there first and starts off. In other ways, it backfires: he stops to turn around and push on us to keep us from getting there.

Owen got upstairs first when Steve wanted to give him a bath. When he got there, though, he wanted books. A moment ago I heard Steve reading to him and thought, well, no bath yet. Then I heard splashing and discussion of mermaids. Owen got the best of both worlds!

6/12/12 (Tuesday)

This morning Owen wanted to play with guys, but we had to go. So I told him he could choose just one guy. This was an interesting moment of crisis for Owen. Which guy would he pick when he could only have one? He ended up with his new Mer-Man, which Uncle Jim got for him for his last birthday. I wonder if he intentionally chose the least beaten-up figure? Anyway, since he had him in the car, we accidentally discovered just how good Cara is at gurgling like Mer-Man. Her impersonation is wicked good.

Cara took Owen down to play with her after dinner. She is such a good helper for us. She really is a third parent, though sometimes without the foresight and logic one might prefer. She had Owen trying to do forward rolls in the dining room. He didn't get much past bending over and sticking his head on the floor, which is probably for the best.

6/13/12 (Wednesday)

Mer-Man took another trip in the car with us this morning. In the evening, we were back to playing guys again. Owen's guys usually have issues of ownership. "This is my dinosaur," one will say to the other. When Cara gets involved, it becomes an issue of behavioral control. Teela (with Cara's voice) explained to the other He-Mans that they had to be good, or they would get no presents from Santa at Christmas. Sadly, neither myself nor Owen were much motivated to stop the He-Mans from pummeling each other.

It was playdate night: Owen spent some time following after the other kids. They would wander to another room, there would be some distant thumping, but usually no tears. At one point Owen got a hold of some fuzzy flowers and was threatening PJ with them, making explosion sounds.

The little buddy is pretty whiny lately, which we're trying to curtail. It will be a while before we can tell if any headway is being made.

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