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Journal Key:

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

3/21/13 (Thursday)

When we got Owen his bed, I found myself somewhat at a loss as to what to do with the numerous small blankets that used to be either in the drawer under the crib or in the crib with Owen. I folded them up and put them on the floor at the foot of his bed, behind the glider. Owen recently found them there and got out several, which he very much enjoys. He's probably got one in his bed. One is on the couch. He likes to put a blanket around his shoulders and, holding a corner in each hand, run around with "wings." This is also a favorite thing to do with his towel after his bath. He came into the kitchen very distressed, earlier, because his wings "weren't working." Steve untwisted the blanket and made sure he had hold of adjacent corners, and off he went.

3/23/13 (Saturday)

Grandmom and Grandpop came up! There was much squeaking with joy. Grandmom brought some art paper, which we are always in need of. She and Owen made a picture (well, sort of) with tiny Avengers stickers; the very tiny ones are all that are left in his sticker book.

Owen did a lot of running today, generally beating his arms against his chest as he went. It's a little odd. It's odder when he beats them against his head.

Instead of putting Owen down for a nap, we let him and Grandpop and Cara watch Wreck-It Ralph. Owen occasionally ran into the kitchen, making strange noises, made sure a cabinet or drawer was closed all the way, and then ran back out.

In the afternoon, the four of us got in the car and took Owen to get a haircut. There was a bit of a wait, and Owen got to climb on the rides at the mall. He drove a fire truck, a train, and a race car. I'm not sure what he'd have done if I'd put money in and they'd moved. We also did some shoe shopping for the kids. There were, to our delight, many sneakers with superheroes on them. Owen first tried on a pair with many superheroes. These shoes came with a pair of superhero flip-flops. I'm not sure whether three-year-olds wear real flip-flops. The packaging presented a problem: each sneaker had a flip-flop attached to it. Eventually we got the sneakers onto Owen, who went stomping off carefully, with flip-flops flapping at his feet. "Come back," we called. "No," he answered. I went and turned him around.

Really, though, he preferred Spiderman. There were very ugly Spiderman ones, also with flip-flops. There were somewhat less ugly Spiderman ones, without flip-flops. I tried to ask Owen which Spiderman ones he wanted. I was unable to make myself understood. "This one," he'd say, "and this one." We bought the less ugly ones.

Before we left the mall, we got a snack and sat around on some armchairs to eat it. Owen got to wear his new sneakers, which, it turns out, light up. He looked very funny, with his new haircut all slicked down, my sunglasses on upside down, stomping along to light up his shoes.

He walks faster, though.

In the car, he examined the sunglasses. He noticed (remember, he wears them upside down) a hole between the lenses. "That's disgusting!" he said.

3/24/13 (Sunday)

Today was an eating day for Owen. When I got up, Steve was making scrambled eggs. We let Owen eat on the couch, sitting on me. He finished his eggs and asked for more, and then he added a leftover pancake. Later in the morning, I let him have some goldfish crackers for a snack. For lunch, I heated up leftover hot dog and pasta. He had some canned oranges, too, and then also a pizza bagel, then more oranges.

After his nap, Grandmama and Grandpapa were here! During a fun afternoon of playing, running, and squeaking, Owen ate a lot of crackers. He basically skipped dinner, but when we went to the Loefflers' for Em's birthday, he ate plenty of cake. After his bath, he wanted more to eat. He's having some chicken parm and bread right now.

3/25/13 (Monday)

This morning Owen was up at five, trying to rid the world of injustice. Well, I don't know what he was trying to do, actually. Until almost six, I got him to snuggle with me on the couch and watch TV. Then, though, we had to go play downstairs.

My plan was to do as little as possible. Soon, though, Cara came down, and she got out our I Spy game. It's a nice game: there are big cards, each with four objects on it. There is a little card with each object. Each player gets 12 big cards, and you take turns pulling little cards; everyone discards any big cards they have with the pulled objects. Owen wanted to play, too. What he ended up doing was collecting all of the pulled little cards. He and Cara took turns pulling, and he held them all. He very much believes that he was playing, too.

Several times, he was delighted to point out that "we have the same!" because I had a card with, for instance, the sun on it, and he had a card with the sun on it. What a coincidence!

We taught him to scramble the cards up, which he really likes doing. Fortunately, he also likes gathering them back together.

Instead of a stack of little cards, we have chosen to create a big mess to pull them out of. Owen carefully selects random ones, not just taking the closest.

We played for a long time in the morning, and when we got home from YBR in the afternoon we got in another half hour. After dinner, we played with Steve. Since we were upstairs, Owen took to running into the kitchen and back after he'd pulled a card. This was fine, except that sometimes we didn't get to see the card before he left.

Just as we'd sat down to dinner, Owen had claimed to have a poopy diaper. He didn't, but he was interested in sitting on the potty and reading a library book. On the way upstairs, he found the phone, which I had left on the steps. He took it with him. He insisted on calling Grandmom, whom he sort of talked to. Kind of. He told her he was sitting on the potty, and then he was out of news.

3/26/13 (Tuesday)

Owen continues to make Evelyn's week off interesting by waking up at five in the morning. "Hey!" said Owen when I trudged out of the bedroom an hour after he got her up. "What is that?" Evelyn explained that it was Daddy getting up. "Hey, is he going to play with me?" Owen's mother explained that Daddy was going to take a shower.

Cara and Mommy did me a favor this morning and drove Owen to YBR. Cara had a playdate with the twins, and Casey came over also (PJ had a manly playdate going on). In the afternoon, Evelyn and Cara went to pick up Owen and take him to the Barnes and Noble. They were busily reading lots of books and Owen was getting a Scooby story when I arrived. I was asked to finish the story, and then we were off to Chili's for dinner!

On the way into the restaurant (which Owen insisted was "the restaurant" and not Chili's), Owen told a story about how we went into the restaurant and PJ and Casey and Em and Ron were there. I assumed he was remembering some other occasion when we'd all gone out together. In an odd coincidence, however, when we got inside we found that PJ, Casey, Ron and Em were there! It was almost creepy. Ron was able to go out to his truck and get the sunglasses that Owen had left at their house the last time we were there; he promptly grabbed them and put them on upside down.

While we were there, one of the staff came by and asked us if everything was all right. I was glad that she walked away and didn't hear when Owen turned around and replied, "It's BAD!" He couldn't have meant it, anyway, since he actually did a good job on his food, and had his own meal planned out before he got inside.

3/27/13 (Wednesday)

Owen remains delighted with his shoes. The teachers at YBR said that he likes to tell people, "My mommy bought them for me!" He is also very invested in the Spiderman aspect of his shoes. If Spiderman is on his shoes, he is clearly Spiderman. When asked his name, he claims that it is "Spiderman Owen."

We colored eggs tonight! As usual, the goal was for the adults to get to play with the eggs while the children left. Owen mostly played with Steve, but eventually he noticed what was going on and wanted to participate. I let him put an egg into a color, using the blue egg holder that really works as a handle. He did a few eggs that way. At one point, a drop of dye got onto his finger and I was made to immediately wipe it off. We were all remembering how PJ, six years ago (wow!), had colored his entire hands green.

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