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Journal Key:

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

11/8/12 (Thursday)

Edison and North Brunswick schools both had delayed openings because it snowed last night! We only got a few inches, but they were very wet and heavy and bowed the trees down. I offered to take Owen to YBR on my way to work, and he wanted to go and "make footprints," which he and Cara had enjoyed last night on the way home.

I put him into his boots (which we miraculously had in the closet for some reason) and coat and off we went. He gingerly stepped through the snow to the tree, where he stopped to touch the snow on the trunk. I showed him how, if you jostled a branch, you could knock snow off of it. I showed him deer tracks, but I'm not sure he understood what they were. Cara and Steve came out, and I had to cruelly drag Owen away and take him to school before the sledding started.

He walked through the snow next to the sidewalk in Highland Park, and he gleefully kept his boots on all day, ignoring the sneakers I'd brought him.

Owen had a (mostly) lovely evening of being (mostly) very grown-up about things.

When we left Lindeneau, while I was trying to get him to go and get into the car, he was distracted by a barrier near the street that had the Edison seal on it. He pointed to the second half of "Edison." "Look, Mommy," he said, "O begins with me!"

Cara had left her Halloween stuff out on the dining room table, and she ate a fun-sized candy bar. I let Owen have a tiny Hershey bar. ("I like candy!" he said. Surprise!) Afterwards, he took another. I told him no, he could have more later. Eventually he gave it to me, but then he had to lie down on the floor and wail. I went over after a bit and asked whether he needed to go to his room to cry. He didn't think so. I explained that his options were to go to his room to cry or to stay here and be nicer and find something to play with. He thought things over, picked up Lady and the Tramp, and headed up to his room to read it. He shut the door behind him, and I thought I'd get into trouble if I opened it, but I did anyway so that he wouldn't get stuck and upset later. He didn't notice when I opened it; he was in there talking to himself. Soon he came downstairs, perfectly fine.

I thought dinner was going to be a struggle. I got Owen's plate all ready and called everyone in. Owen sat at his place and ate his food with his fork. He got up once or twice, and at the end Steve had to move his chair closer and sit next to Owen, but mostly he sat and ate his food and made semi-lucid conversation. Day one of Project Civilized Dinner was a success!

Steve took Owen to the potty and left him there with a book for a few moments. "Daddy," called Owen, "I am making pee-pee!" And he was! Go figure.

11/9/12 (Friday)

Steve was working a full day, so I was in charge of picking up both kids. Instead of driving around while Cara was in dance, I got Owen first and we dropped her off together. Owen and I spend our time at Barnes and Noble. After being completely distracted by some Star Wars toys, we stopped for a cup of coffee. This turned into a cup of coffee and a brownie. Then, while we were ordering, Owen decided he was done. "I'm going to go read a book," he told me. And he left. I thought he was just testing his limits or playing with me, but off he went; he was halfway down the stairs when I managed to catch him. Fortinately, the brownie was on the counter, so I occupied him with bites while I paid. Of course, the cashier was apparently new and very slow.

Owen got to pick a table and pick his seat, and he got to drink water from a cup and use his fork himself. I have to work on getting him to pick something else, though; I don't like their brownies. Cara's cupcakes are much better.

After our treat we still had 45 minutes left to read superhero books. Then, though, it really was time to go and get Cara. Owen did not want to go. He wanted to read the next book. Once I'd gotten him out of my lap and put the book back, we did fine walking to the front of the store. Putting on his coat, though, was not something he wanted to do. Loudly. Then he went running off across the front of the store. Loudly. Finally, having wrassled with him and said my piece, I laid his coat on the floor, put him down on top of it, and forced his arms in. Then a salesman (a very nice man) I'd been talking to the other day came up to show me an exciting feature on the new Nook, while I managed to pick Owen up. As we left, we walked calmly past a couple getting their screaming son into his coat in the vestibule. It was quite a night at the Barnes and Noble. We were slightly late to get Cara.

We'd meant to get Taco Bell and Wendy's, but they were closed because of a water main break. The first thing I could think of was to have Steve meet us at Chili's. We got a very nice table--I'd forgotten how much better it is to sit at a table with Owen! He has much less chance to be acrobatic. He kept himself happy with my ID and the Nook until Steve arrived with better toys.

Finally, we finished eating and I took the kids home while Steve paid. Walking anywhere with Owen is a slow process. He sort of dawdles along, making interesting observations. I parked far from the restaurant. "Mommy," Owen said, when we got to the car, "this is the same car!" Yes, it is.

11/10/12 (Saturday)

Today was Edison's delayed trick-or-treating day! The timing was not good: Owen should have been down for his nap. After lunch, though, we got him and Cara both into their costumes. Hers involved a lot of hairspray and makeup. He was delighted to be Batman again. We took ourselves over to the Loefflers', where we joined a crowd that consisted of the regular Nancy Circlers plus some friends and Ron's niece Jillian.

At first, I thought we were going to have a hard time. Lots of houses weren't open, because people didn't know this was when it was or because they didn't feel like participating. Once we got going, though, we found lots of good doors to knock on.

Owen held my hand and carried his "Pooh bag." We were out for almost two hours, and he walked almost the entire time! This was not always a good thing, because he and Jillian were considerably slower than the big kids, who had to be restrained from running. Eventually I explained to Owen that he was allowed to run, and he started to. Sometimes, to my relief, he wouldn't notice if he and I missed a house the other kids hit, because that way we could catch up.

I was amazed at the way he went up and down stairs and onto and off of curbs and just basically kept on going. He said "trick or treat" and "thank you" to people. While we walked, he said things like, "I am not Owen, I am Batman!" and did his own theme music. For a few minutes, he kept exclaiming "I can fly" and going running up onto lawns. Sometimes, when people gave him candy, he'd say, "I like that!" He never actually recognized it, I assume. Several people said, "Hi, Batman!" when he came up their steps; he liked that. One woman asked him how old he was. "Two," he said. (How does he know?)

When we'd gone all the way around the circle and out to Silver Lake and halfway down Silver Lake and halfway back, Owen decided that it was time to sit down. He sat down on some steps right after people had given him candy. He wanted to eat some candy. I told him we'd sit down in a little bit. He sat on a curb. I carried him and let him have some m&ms, and he was happy. The other kids found some more houses to hit, but he was not interested. he was done.

I'm sorry we didn't get to go to Florida, but I'm so glad Owen got to trick-or-treat!

11/11/12 (Sunday)

Owen is very definitely Daddy's boy. There are lots of times when he wants Daddy and will tell me to go away. (This happens more inside of the house than outside.) I think it's partly because Steve is so much more fun and better at playing guys.

Last night the kids had a sleepover in Middletown, and we saw them again this afternoon. I was out when they got home, and it was nice that Owen was glad to see me when I got in. In fact, he was very snuggly and made me sit with him on the couch and eat some red pepper. He wanted me to read to him. We cuddled for a while after dinner, after he'd managed to fall off the couch. (He was standing up, putting a blanket over his head, and facing the back of the couch. He fell onto legos.) I take this as the result of the lovely time we had trick-or-treating together.

11/12/12 (Monday)

Owen is very good, now, at climbing into and out of the car. It's nice; I used the stroller to pick him up, and when we got back to the Buick I got him out and sent him to get in while I put the stroller in the trunk. When we got to Lindeneau, he climbed down but didn't come out; instead he climbed up between the front seats and, having tried both passenger doors, I ended up getting him out through my door.

This evening, after dinner, Owen happened upon Why a Duck, a book about the Marx Brothers, which has been sitting around the living room. He got Steve to read it to him. Steve does a mean Groucho. Soon, though, Owen wanted Steve to read him the Harpo parts.

11/13/12 (Tuesday)

I thought I would be leaving for work today without seeing Owen, but he woke up a little after seven. I got him out of the crib, and he wanted to go downstairs. First, he wanted to turn on the light. OK. I carried him downstairs.

Owen: No, Mommy! No, I want to walk down the stairs!

Me: OK.

He climbed back up to the top. I followed him. He sat down and bumped down the stairs.

Owen: Come on, Mommy! Like this! Mommy, you do this, too!

Fortunately, I was behind him.

11/14/12 (Wednesday)

Owen was awake this morning at five, when I got up and came into his room. "No, Mommy, no! I don't want you! I want Daddy!!!" were the first words he said. He said them for a little while. Then he let me get him out, and we went downstairs (I was allowed to carry him) and snuggled on the couch with Scooby Doo for an hour.

I've been enjoying Owen's current speech phase: he has no concept of appropriate cause-and-effect links. A lot of things are funny because he likes them. He told us on the way home that Dracula was at his school today, because he was scared.

Steve got stuck in traffic on his way home, so the kids and I had dinner on our own. I made grilled cheese and canned soup, neither of which attracts Owen whatsoever. So I got out leftover pasta and cut up a red pepper, quickly. He ate his curly pasta with a spoon, which basically means that he had to hold the pasta onto the spoon all the way into his mouth. He got up for a brief hoe-down with a fridge toy (he dances) and headed for the living room, but he actually returned on his own and was interested in soup. I heated up more pasta and gave some to each kid, with the broth left in Cara's bowl. I'm not sure how there wasn't a major disaster, but Owen happily ate soup for about twenty minutes.

It's really neat to see the kids together. When I got Cara some more grilled cheese, Owen asked, "did she say thank you?" No, she hadn't. They play off of each other, copying each other's silly things. They both did big dinosaur bites for a while. That's surely how the dinosaurs ate soup.

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