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| Previous Week | Back Home | Next Week | Journal Key: Green = Steve | George = navy | Janet = Purple | Evelyn = Black 9/20/12 (Thursday) Owen ran to me when I got to YBR, looking handsome in pants and a long-sleeved shirt. When he got close enough, I could see that he was also looking filthy. His hair was full of mulch. His hands were brown. His clothes were speckled with mulch. For some reason he wanted me to carry him up the steps, and it turned out to be quite handy. I stuck his head out over the railing and rubbed it vigorously; mulch and dust flew out into the sunshine in a cloud. It was very Pigpen. It took until he was getting back into the car at the Farmer's Market, where we'd stopped for apples after picking up Cara, for me to notice that folds in his pant legs had become pockets for mulch. His car seat is full of it. Before we got into the house I made him stand still on the sidewalk while I de-mulched his pants and took off his shoes and socks. When I got him into the tub, I looked down at his head. It was still filthy. Lathering him up, I could feel the dirt. I rinsed him off, and thousands of little black specks floated into the water. "It's diwty," Owen complained. Yes, it is! Generally I let him play in the tub while the water drains because he hates to get out, but this time I removed him, uncomplaining, from the filth. The tub, grey, needed an extra rinse afterwards. 9/21/12 (Friday) Owen had a morning that started out normal and ended up screamy. He really wanted one of us to play with him in the playroom, which is tough when we're getting ready for work. At one point, I realized that he was just standing at the bottom of the stairs, screaming up at us. I took him upstairs to the bedroom, because he really ought to be happy playing on the bed while I get myself set. "I want a piggy-back ride!" he screamed. I could handle that, I decided. I tried to piggy-back him to the living room, but that was no good. He needed a piggy-back ride to the play room. Tricky creature! Steve eventually took his cereal down and sat with Owen while he ate. He actually managed to bore Owen so thoroughly that he left and went back upstairs! The kids went for a Friday-night sleepover so that I could take Steve out to a concert for his birthday. Owen's skill with markers is improving. When I drew a heart, he carefully colored it in, staying inside the lines. He also mimicked my spirals with loopy circular squiggles of his own, and successfully drew with two markers together in one hand. It was a VERY splashy bath, and then, after the little guy was fresh and clean, he wanted more yogurt before bed. Oh, well. He seemed sleepy at bedtime, but then he perked up and began to figure out how to get himself sprung from imprisonment. I had carefully laid him down with all his plush companions; now he claimed he had to get out 9/22/12 (Saturday) This morning the little guy helped George and me hang laundry outside. At some point he really did put underwear on his head. In the end he was rewarded with a ride around the deck in the laundry basket. Whee! We met Grandpapa and the kids at a diner for lunch and then drove down to Grandmom and Grandpop's for a birthday celebration. Grandmom bought punch balloons! I love punch balloons. I tried hard to show Owen how to punch the balloon, but I couldn't get the rubber band into his hand. Somehow, I could get him to make a fist and to open his hand, and I could put the rubber band into his open hand, but he wasn't willing to let it be inside of his fist. He was more interested in the cars and little animals and things. He put two Ferdimands down my shirt. I put them down his shirt, but he really didn't like it. The evening ended, of course, with a rousing game of hide and seek. Griffin mainly hides by going into a room, closing the door, and then screaming when he is found. I like it when the two boys run into the back bedroom and stand against the wall, then run out screaming when I come in. Griffin was very interested in keeping track of where Owen and Cara were. Owen eventually discovered that he could climb onto the big bed in the master bedroom, and then he was pretty much done hiding. There were other things to do. 9/23/12 (Sunday) We spent a very lazy day at home. We've earned it--we haven't had a family weekend day at home since the 9th! Claire came up in the afternoon and we just all kind of hung around. At lunch, Owen decided to make polite conversation with Claire. "Do you know Big He-Man? Do you know Batman?" Cara got out her favorite doll, Shaun. I hesitate to call her a baby doll, since she's clearly a miniature little girl, but Shaun got to be a baby all day. Cara read her a story and put her down for a nap when I read Owen stories and put him down. Because of Shaun, Cara got out the little doll stroller. Before dinner, Owen brought it upstairs and would run, loudly, from kitchen to living room and back, making circuits around the table. I roasted a chicken and made biscuits and gravy. NO ONE helped me make biscuits, though several people had said that they would. Claire and I were cleaning up after dinner when Steve came down to announce that Owen had peed on the potty! Well, mostly on the potty. After only three months of sitting there, dry! He seemed somewhat concerned about the "not entirely on the potty" part. He was proud, though. While he was in the bath, I brought the phone up so that he could tell Grandmama. Me: Owen, tell Grandmama what you did. Owen (to the phone): I'm in the bath! I gave up and reminded him what to say, and then he said it. When he got out of the tub I was on the phone with Grandma Anne in Florida, giving her a belated happy birthday call. Owen came running down the hall, dragging his towel, naked, chasing Shelby. I caught up to him. Me: Owen, tell Grandma Anne. Grandma Anne: Owen, what did you do? Owen: (looks down, concerned.) Owen: (pees on my floor.) Then Steve took him off and diapered him and read to him and put him down. I'm reminded of how, when we bought the house, the upstairs carpets were really awful. They are light blue, with stains in the master bedroom that must have been from coke or coffee or something. I figured we'd replace them once the kids were done mistreating them. I'm thinking, that'll be a great thing to do when he starts kindergarten. 9/24/12 (Monday) Sometimes, when Owen and I get to Lindeneau to pick Cara up, she's up on the playground with her class. We park in the lot and go walking up the hill. Walking, walking. We stop to look at things. Today, Owen saw the tigers on the Lindeneau sign. Walking, walking. We look at our shadows. We see Cara in the distance, playing. Eventually, the woman in charge takes pity on us and brings Cara and the sign-out clipboard to meet us. Otherwise, it could take a good ten minutes for us to putter up to them. 9/25/12 (Tuesday) More conversations from the car. Owen: Mommy! Daddy and Owen went to the light store. Me: ?? Owen: Daddy and . . . Mommy! Daddy and Owen went to the light store. Me: You went to the light store? Owen, you can say, "Daddy and I." "Daddy and I went to the light store." Cara: I'm not sure he says "I." Me: Sure he does. Owen: Can I say, "I am a boy"? Me: Sure. Cara: Owen, do you want to be a princess when you grow up? Owen: No!!!!!! . . . Mommy, I want to be a princess when I grow up. 9/26/12 (Wednesday) Yesterday, Owen was still asleep when I left for work, after seven. Today, when I had off, he was up at six thirty. That was better than I had expected! I took him downstairs and put on the vampire episode of What's New, Scooby Doo. That's what he likes to watch these days. It has several redeeming elements. The all-girl rock band being menaced by the vampire are all dressed up as goth brides. Daphne had been hoping to be asked to be an extra in the video. When one of the gang has to dress up as vampire bait, Daphne is upset because Velma gets to wear the dress. Why? "Because," explains Fred, "Shaggy doesn't have the hips for it." Later, Shaggy and Scooby think that Fred has been turned into a bat. They follow Fredbat into a cave of other bats and have to try to figure out which one he is. One has "muscular wings," but another "looks like he's hatching a plan." The girls get to be funny, too, but Fred is probably the best part of the updated series. In another episode, he gets a catapult and flings Shaggy and Scooby against the wall of a medieval castle. "I'll aim a little higher with you, Daphne," he assures her. Steve is putting Owen through his bedtime routine tonight. When Owen is with Steve and I come along, Owen reacts instantly. "No, Mommy!" he says, or "Go away, Mommy!" Owen and I have a complex relationship. Or he just likes Steve more. | Previous Week | Back Home | Next Week | |