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Journal Key:

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

Today was the only normal day for Owen this week! Cara and I got him down to YBR around 9:20. He had no problem with going there, which sort of surprised me. What he did have a problem with was us leaving; a teacher eventually peeled him off of my leg.

Miss Sandi came over to see Owen and ask him about his big trip to Florida: "Did you see Mickey Mouse?" He just stared at her. Eventually Miss Vina told her that she was pretty sure we'd been visiting relatives.

The evening was not normal. I brought Owen home to find that Shannon and the twins were in mid-playdate with Cara! They were thrilled to see him. After a few minutes, he was happy to play with them, too. We got McDonalds for dinner, which Steve came home with pretty soon after Owen came home. We all sat in the kitchen, where Owen ended up between Cara and one of the twins, while the grown-ups were across the table. The girls took good care of "the little buddy." They put the straw into his juice box for him! We discovered this when he was partway done. Shannon suggested that we "open the wings" of the top flaps to give him more room in there if he squeezed it. Nothing bad ended up happening!

The girls all got the same Zooble toy, and Owen got a Pokemon. It was Pikachu, and it had a power switch. Figuring it would make a noise, I had everyone be quiet and pushed the button. His cheeks lit up. (We're very surprised and happy that he's a quiet toy!) Soon, though, the kids were all pretty sure that the battery was dead. It turns out that it's kind of a hard button for kids to press.

For the only time this week, Owen got to bed pretty much on time.

7/6/12 (Friday)

Apparently Owen and Audrey had a fight today at YBR. Audrey came over to Miss Vina, upset because "Owen said 'No' to me." Miss Vina asked her, "Who's the boss?" Audrey replied, "Owen." Miss Vina, having trapped Audrey with logic, said she didn't know what Audrey had to complain about then. When asked again, Audrey still thought Owen was the boss; Owen's opinion was also that he was the boss, but that "Audrey is the boss outside."

We had an exciting evening. Our 4th of July had been relatively quiet. Our traditional thing to do around this time of year is to go down to Middletown with the Loefflers on the third, have a big get-together with Grandmama and Grandpapa, and watch the famous Red Bank fireworks display. However, the big show was cancelled this year (boo), so we ended up with different plans. The four of us and Grandmama and Grandpapa met in Atlantic Highlands on Friday night, where they were having a Fireman's Fair. The first thing we did was go down to the harbor and have dinner outside at the kids' usual Atlantic Highlands place, Sissy's. We could watch the people and the boats and the birds ("I see a seagull!" cried Owen, pointing out a small brown bird). Owen continued his recent trend of not eating much, though he did have some of his fruity yogurt parfait.

Then, off to the fair! We usually go to about one fair/festival/carnival every other year or so, but this year we have already been to two, and I now see that they seem to stock the same set of rides every time. For Cara, this was pretty awesome. The grandparents got her a sheet of tickets and she went to town. She rode on or went through pretty much every ride they had to offer. This time she tried a type of ride that I think she had missed at our last festival: a spinny type of thing where everyone gets plastered against the sides of a big ring and it goes around and around, but also sort of up and down and side to side. She went on it twice. Then, when she'd gotten down to her last few tickets, she chose as her final ride the "Gravitron Extreme," another spinning ride which had the distinction of being completely enclosed, and where the floor actually drops out from beneath your feet as you spin around, stuck to the walls. Evelyn and I were horrified, and I think also that both of us were a little worried that Cara had finally found a ride that would scare her. But Grandmama didn't think so, and sure enough, she walked out grinning.

Owen, on the other hand, made several claims of wanting to get on rides, but would always change his mind before actually being taken onto one. He enjoyed watching Cara go on the swings ride. He liked the look of the carousel okay, and he came very close to getting into one of the flying elephants. He also liked pointing out all the paintings of dragons and such that were on the sides of the rides. He particularly liked the clown that was painted on the side of all the ticket booths--we had to go and check him out a few times.

Eventually he spotted a playground that was right in among all the fair games, and we took him there to run around a little. There were kids running all over it. Owen got up into the raised area where there was a steering wheel and tunnels and such, but he wanted his mommy. So Evelyn had to go up and follow him as he went around and around and through the little kiddie tunnels over and over and over again. What a good mommy! (He didn't ask for me, so I just watched.)

The fireworks were scheduled for 9:45. This was incredibly late for both our children to be up, but especially the little buddy. I had theorized beforehand that I would end up taking Owen either all the way home or over to Grandmama and Grandpapa's house, and let him sleep while everyone else watched the fireworks. Evelyn was pretty sure he would fall asleep in his stroller before the time came. As things fell out, however, he was still wide awake a little after nine, which was about when we started drifting over to the harbor where the fireworks would be going off. Evelyn got out the big pack of glow sticks she had thoughtfully brought along. Owen very much enjoyed the glow sticks. You can make them into loops, which can be earrings, necklaces, bracelets, belts, hats, or even sashes; and the big pack that we had also gives you the ability to string together a bunch of sticks into a glowing ball, which Owen loved throwing at people. Cara, in a very impressive display, actually strung together enough glow sticks in a long line that she was able to jump rope with them.

Evelyn knew that sometimes little kids are scared by fireworks. So, before the display started, she carefully explained to Owen what was going to happen. There was going to be a very loud boom, and it would be very pretty. When the fireworks finally did start going off, Owen was delighted. He kept sticking his arms out in a kind of cupping gesture, as though he was trying to catch the fireworks. He yelled "Yay!" and "Hooray!" repeatedly, and as more and more explosions went off, he would say "They did it again!!" over and over. So that was pretty great.

Owen was probably the one who most enjoyed those fireworks. Cara made it very clear to us that she was thirsty. And even for grownups (especially for grownups?), the display went on quite a long time: it's hard for me to believe even now, but I think they did actually blow up fireworks continuously for about forty-five minutes. But at last it was over, and we trudged back to our cars. The kids went off with their grandparents for what may have proven to be an interesting sleepover (since Owen was up later than he has probably ever been), and we parents went off to our house to go to bed.

Now, with a childless morning, I have finally had time to hammer out all this journalling and get caught up!

When we left Atlantic Highlands, I was a little worried that Owen would be upset about separating from his parents, and I was sure he would be asleep before we got home; wrong on both counts. The little guy was wide awake and perfectly content when we rolled up the driveway. He had a few stories and a snack before he willingly lay down in what he now calls "my bed" and went to sleep without a whimper.

7/7/12 (Saturday)

The next morning both kids slept 'til about 8 after their late night, and spent a relaxing morning in the cool house. In the afternoon, though, we ventured into the heat to see a neighborhood event in Bodman Park. As advertised, a fire engine was there, staffed by friendly firemen who allowed the little guy to sit in the front seat and pretend to drive. Owen accurately observed that his steering had no effect - it didn't work. However, he did sit way up high there, and received a plastic fire hat, for which he sufficiently overcame his shyness to say thank you.

The kids went to a neighborhood picnic with my folks today and came home with tattoos: Cara has an alien in the middle of her forehead, and Owen has a skull on his shin. Both, mercifully, are fading.

Cara and Steve went to see Brave this afternoon, so Owen and I went out for some fun, too. We went to the Woodbridge Mall, where Owen was delighted by the Reatrix pad. We stomped around and chased fish, and made fireworks in the sky, and chased basketballs. Owen was out of the stroller, so he walked along with me when we were done. First he held my left hand, but suddenly he let go and moved to my right. There was a line of darker tiles in the floor near the stores, and Owen carefully walked on it all the way to Tiny Town.

Tiny Town was mobbed. Most of the kids were bigger than Owen, and it seemed like all of them were running at top speed. It took a while before Owen got comfortable, but eventually he was ready to have fun. He really liked the little green slide, which isn't usually awfully crowded because it's only about a foot and a half high. Owen went down it a lot, but he saw other kids going up slides. I called him over to sit with me, which upset him very much: he didn't want to leave. Finally I convinced him that I just wanted to take his socks off, so that he'd have enough traction to go up the slide. He was proud when he could do it! Eventually he realized that it wasn't really much fun to go down the stairs, so he'd go up the slide and then turn around to go back down. He also crawled through the tunnel under the big slide and we did play in the boat, but then we were done.

We did groceries, with all of the understandable confusion that that entails, and we sang a lovely version of "You are my Sunshine" in the meat section. When we got home, Steve and Cara were there, too. The big news of the evening was that Owen finally decided to eat a full meal.

7/8/12 (Sunday)

Today we finally got down to see Grandma and Grandpa! It had been quite a while. Owen woke up when we arrived and immediately wanted to know where Rusty was. We were soon in his presence, and there was excitement on all sides. It also turned out that Grandpa had gotten a whole bunch of new Hot Wheels for us to play with! So we had a fine time with all the cars. I think that one of the best new cars, no question, was the one that looked like an alligator.

Old toys were also still popular: Owen went downstairs to play with what he called the "Fisherman" people (Fisher Price!). He spent some one-on-one time with Grandpa and the train set. Grandpa tried to get Owen interested in the iPad, but that was rather short-lived; Cara was more into doing the puzzle game on it than he was, strangely enough. The buddy did actually end up eating a pretty good meal--watermelon is very popular these days.

We spent some time on the sofa, where Owen repeatedly flopped onto me, as he has been in the habit of doing for some time. One thing that he has done in the recent past, espcially on the trip to Florida and a little before, but hasn't done lately: when I was holding him, he would sometimes look right into my face, touching nose-to-nose, and grab both sides of my head. Sometimes this would be accompanied by a growl or something. I really got a kick out of it, so I hope he isn't done doing it. And I don't remember having mentioned it before, so I thought I'd bring it up.

It looked like Owen was going to be pretty wired on the ride home--he was yelling things at me from the backseat and such. We all had to be scared because there was an Owen Monster in the car. But eventually he dropped off to sleep, a giant picture book still open in his lap. We didn't manage a seamless transfer into the crib, so I read him some books first, but now he is down.

7/9/12 (Monday)

Cara brought a book with her when we went to drop Owen off, so I thought that he had picked up a floor puzzle to bring just because he wanted something to have, too. In the car, however, he was disappointed because he wasn't able to open the box. Somehow, we survived without trying to do a puzzle in the car.

When we got home in the afternoon, he rediscovered the puzzle. It was the states one, which we'd been doing over the weekend. I helped him open the box and went off to move the laundry. When I came back, Owen had three pieces put together! It's not an easy puzzle. Cara came over and did part, but Owen actually got quite a bit of it put together on his own. Then he stomped around on it.

7/10/12 (Tuesday)

This morning Owen and I were playing with animals. He got out a bull.

Owen: This is a cow.

Me: No, actually, that's a bull. A bull is a boy cow.

Owen: This is Ferdimand.

Me: (thinking) Gee, he gets it, and he made a good connection!

Owen: This is Ferdimand. He's a cow.

The kids were outside playing when Cara and I arrived to get Owen. He was hard to spot; he was sitting at the picnic tables with the teachers, having a drink of water. He looked confused. Apparently he had noticed us before we noticed him, and he had promptly spilled his water all over himself.

And that, as much as anything else, led to my drinking problem . . .

7/11/12 (Wednesday)

Compared to packing for Florida, packing for Pennsylvania was a breeze! Instead of standing around screaming, Owen spent the morning doing his Spider Man puzzle, "the orange puzzle." Around eleven we were done and we all got in the car to go to the library. (We had to drop off some books, and Steve and I wanted a book on tape for the car.) Owen was, of course, delighted to go to the library. He and Cara went off to read books together while I handled the returns and Steve went for the audio book. I managed to grab a few picture books, including Herb the Vegetarian Dragon, before I got the kids and we went to check out.

Then we told Owen we were going to go have lunch. After lunch, we told him we were going back to Pennsylvania! We'd just gotten onto 287 when I suddenly realized that I'd foolishly allowed Owen to bring his lion, whom he'd been snuggling in the car, into the library and then forgotten to make sure he still had it when we left. In fact, he'd definitely left it there. Turning back would add almost an hour to the trip, so we went on.

It was a lovely, smooth, and yet surprisingly eventful ride. A couple of hours in, it occurred to me that my folks had a better chance of picking up a surrogate toy out in Pennsylvania than we did at a rest stop. When they texted me to let me know that they had succeeded, I had to let them know that I was cleaning out the car because Cara, having read in the car for over two hours, had succumbed to motion sickness when we'd gotten into the more windy, mountainous part of the drive. It was . . . dramatic. She felt much better afterwards! We ended up stopped outside of an outpost of the Pennsylvania Department of Health, and they lent us some disinfectant and a trash bag. When we went in to use the bathroom afterwards, they gave the kids little coloring books, "to remember Pennsylvania." They were about cute little anthropomorphized bees who needed to get their shots.

It was probably around five when we got to John and Theresa's house. We'd brought lawn games, so the kids and their grandparents got right down to work with the croquet while I cleaned out the car some more.

One of the great things about going to Pennsylvania is seeing all of the things that Theresa grows. Before dinner, she took me and the kids out back to see her dig potatoes. The plants had all died off, and she took a trowel and scooped through the dirt, finding a whole basketful of potatoes, some tiny and some huge. They seemed to be scattered all over, but a few were still attached to the roots of the plant and we got to pluck them out. We ate them, outside on the back porch, when they'd only been out of the ground an hour!

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