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Journal Key:

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

11/1/12 (Thursday)

Highland Park got power back last night, so Owen went back to school today! We got him packed up and out of the house rather later than usual, which was fine. They had a very slow start to the day. Many of the teachers were happy to be there because they had no power at home!

Owen was not happy to be dropped off. There was much hugging and much wanting to be carried. Eventually, though, he got distracted by a pile of books, let go of me, and walked over to look at them. While he was busy I alerted Miss Vina and started to leave. I heard him starting to come after me and being overtaken by her; she took him off to read him his book.

The grocery stores are still not stocked, and Route One is still basically two one-way highways. We're lucky to live next to an overpass. The gas stations are all roped off. I looked around after I dropped Owen off and again, in the afternoon, before I picked him up. I'm hoping to be able to buy milk tomorrow.

Usually, when Owen notices that I'm there, he's ready to go. Today, he had just picked out a book. It was Cinderella. He walked around until he found a good place to sit. "After I'm done with this book, Mommy," he said, "we can get my stuff." Then I got to chat with his teachers until he was done.

11/2/12 (Friday)

My parents came up to stay with us today, since their house was cold and dark. Cara had ballet, so Grandmama and I dropped her off and went to pick up Owen. I figured this would be a wonderful treat, because I know that when Cara was two, if Grandmama showed up I'd be a vague afterthought. Owen, as my mom pointed out, is different. As she predicted, he completely ignored her and was all over me! Grandmama attributes this to the one-hour rule. She noticed over the summer that Owen will ignore things like the ocean or the water park for an hour before being willing to try them out. He did have to show off to Grandmama, though. In the parking lot, we had to walk ON the little concrete barriers that we usually ignore.

At home, all we found was Aunt Claire. Grandpapa and Daddy had gone out. Happily, Owen had had his time to get used to Claire. He very much wanted her attention. She had been happily playing World of Warcraft, but she had to come and read to him and even go and play with him downstairs.

Grandmama won him over eventually. It was very important that she come upstairs when it was time for him to sit on the potty. Then they had a huge fight that went something like this.

Grandmama: Hawkeye.

Owen: No, Hawk-EYE!

Grandmama: Oh, Hawk-EYE!

Owen: No, Hawk-EYE!

And so on. Cara eventually explained that Owen was saying "Hawk-guy."

There were no hard feelings. When Owen did his usual post-bath, in-pajamas escape-from-upstairs, the two of them arranged for her to read him a story. She read him all of his books, including the little comic book that we haven't actually read to him for weeks and weeks. I've never actually read it to him. I've just sort of summarized and approximated. Grandmama, though, persevered, and Owen listened to the whole thing. It was astonishing.

After he was down we had chocolate fondue, which was my pre-real-groceries idea for Claire's birthday. One up-side of the storm is that it brought us all together on the actual day!

11/3/12 (Saturday)

Owen woke up at five, and Steve heroically went and changed his pajamas and his sheets and read to him and convinced him that it was time to go back to sleep. We got up around eight, and he got up a little after! Grandmama and Grandpapa had slept over.

I made crepes. Owen persevered in his refusal to appreciate them, so he ate a bowl of strawberries while the rest of us had the strawberries with crepes, Nutella, and whipped cream. He did a lot of running back and forth. My parents had gotten power back, so after playing with the kids for a bit, they headed home to take stock of things.

We hung around until lunch time, and then we got into the car to visit Grandmom and Grandpop in south Jersey. (An exciting benefit--no lines for gas! No rationing, either, so it didn't matter whether the last number in the license plate was odd or even.) Naturally, Owen refused to fall asleep until we were almost there. I napped in the car for a bit in the driveway with him.

Inside, he had a tough time waking up. Griffin was there, too, and the kids did some hide-and-seek and general running around. They played with the iPad. We're thinking Grandpop might want to start a daycare center.

Honestly, we were all pretty tired. Cara and I both fell asleep in the car on the way home, while Owen jabbered on and on for an hour and a half.

11/4/12 (Sunday)

The clocks changed today, so it was 6:30 when Owen got up at 5:30 (or something like that). We had really a pretty normal family day. Owen played downstairs with Steve and Cara. Upstairs, with me, he read books. He read me some touch-and-feel books, but he objected if I wanted to touch anything. He'd give me my own book and propose that I read it to him while he read me the one he had. This went on for a while. Sometimes he'd put the two books facing each other and they could read to each other.

Cara and Steve went out to the movies, so Owen and I were on our own for lunch. Putting him down for a nap was exciting. First, he spent at least ten minutes reading to me from his superhero book, which means that I had to sit and watch while he flipped through it a lot. A lot. Then I eventually was able to read to him and break his heart by stopping.

In the afternoon, we went out to a restaurant for the first time since last Saturday. We sat in a raised booth at Chili's (not our first choice, but other places were still closed), and Owen and I sat together. He sat on my lap at first, of his own volition, and colored. Midway through the meal he decided to sit next to me, and things started to deteriorate. He did a lot of bouncing around and sort of got acrobatic, which was a little scary because the booth was higher than a normal seat. I kept grabbing him, which he objected to. He decided his hand had gotten dirty and that we had to go and wash it, so I had to take him on a parade through the restaurant to let him stand on my knees and get his hands in the sink in the ladies' room. I tried to get him to sit on the inside when we got back, but that was not a compromise he was willing to make.

Fortunately, we were almost done eating and headed to Barnes and Noble. The first order of business, naturally, was to read as many Scooby-Doo books as possible. Cara and I went and had a cupcake, and Owen joined us. We had to sit on the stairs, because the cafe was completely full. The store was full of people charging their electronics at any outlets they could find. Owen took advantage of the opportunity to dive into my lap and stomp around on the stairs and generally be acrobatic. When we eventually ran out of Scooby-Doo books, we went and played trains. Owen does more with the trains and Legos at B&N than he does with ours here!

Back at home I talked on the phone to Grandma Anne and Aunt Nancy in Florida. Owen said hi to both of them, by name, and tried to show them a pen he was holding. They talked to him for a bit, until I told him to say goodbye. "BYE," he said, "miss you!" Then he made a kissy noise. Then he went on drawing. The kids played and had a snack and got ready for bed. Owen got himself good and overexcited, as I suppose we ought to expect from someone who's had such an exciting day and is, according to his own internal clock, up an hour late.

11/5/12 (Monday)

Today was the belated Halloween party at YBR. Steve got Owen into his Batman costume, complete with cape and hood. We didn't think it would last long.

When I got there to pick him up, though, there he was, hood on and everything. "I am not Owen!" he announced. "I am Batman!!"

It's just as hard to get a coat onto Batman as it is onto Owen.

When we got to Lindeneau, Owen announced to Miss Lisa, "I am Batman!" He had to say it twice, because the first time the door wasn't even open. After she'd heard him, then he had to hide. He doesn't usually talk to her.

He doesn't know enough to miss it, but I'm so sad that he and Cara won't be able to go trick-or-treating this year! Edison is holding it on Saturday, and we'll be in Florida.

11/6/12 (Tuesday)

Actually, we WILL be trick-or-treating, because the airline cancelled our flight in advance due to the nor'easter that's going to hit tomorrow. We're hoping that's the worst blow this storm will deal us!

We took the kids with us to vote today. The man working the sign-in book had fun asking Cara questions about alphabetical order, pretending not to know what came first. She got to vote with me and vote again at school, where Obama won her class in a landslide.

Steve and I are embarking on a new parenting campaign: we need to get Owen to sit nicely and eat his dinner. At least, we need to get him to sit and eat his dinner. No running around, no dancing, no leaving and coming back, no diving into people. Stay in the chair and apply that fork! I think we need to nip this problem as close to the bud as we can get it, though it's probably already started to bloom.

11/7/12 (Wednesday)

Yesterday Evelyn wanted Owen to come upstairs to look at a book on the potty. Owen was amused and excited, but a little disappointed when he got to the bathroom and saw that there wasn't actually a book sitting on the potty.

Today we all went back to work! Also, today there was a snow storm. Sigh. Anyway, Ev picked up the kids a bit early (even though they didn't have early dismissal), and I left work a little early so I didn't have to drive home through the wet snow with everybody else. Do you know what else today was? Playdate! Casey and PJ, who were very excited about the snow since it's the first of the season, arrived at our house with Em. The kids bounced around the house. We will have to leave our campaign of getting Owen to sit in his chair and eat his dinner until tomorrow. Things were too exciting tonight.

To clean up the house before playdate and to distract Owen from other things, Evelyn asked him to park his ride-on cars. We usually keep them at the far side of the playroom, by our side door that we never use. Owen, however, seems to think the perfect garage is right in front of the breakfront in the dining room.

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