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Journal Key:

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

5/23/13 (Thursday)

Neither Ev nor I can come up with much for today's journal, so I thought I would mention something that Owen has said in the past which may not have been mentioned yet here. When he suspects he is alone in the house with just one parent, Owen will ask, "Is it just me and us?"

It was a lazy leftover night. Many Super Hero Scodds were watched. Owen is very much taken with a yogurt drink we have for the kids, and it was a great motivator for him to eat a reasonable amount. In the bath, we have gotten into the habit of "making soup." This involves filling a big plastic cup with water and mostly stirring it with your magic wand. The other night I tried adding some "seasonings" to the soup, by sprinkling water in it. "Seeds?" Owen asked. I also tend to stir the soup a little too fast, which somehow causes a lot of it to disappear out of the cup. In between finding this hilariously funny, Owen admonished me in a very serious voice to stir "very slow."

This weekend Evelyn will take a trip out to Pennsylvania to visit her Aunt and Uncle. The kids are stuck with their father!

5/24/13 (Friday)

Cara and Owen and I went to "the restaurant" tonight. This is what Owen calls Chili's, because, honestly, we don't go to that many other restaurants. We had a nice time, though eventually Owen pointed out that "Mommy isn't here." I explained she was on a trip. Owen was a little too crazy in our booth--really separate chairs around a table would be better for him. A booth encourages him to stand on the seat, or lay down with his head against my arm and his feet climbing the wall of the booth. He also has decided that, since I dip my chips in salsa, he should do it also, and was going across me to reach the salsa and consistently dripping it on my pants. But as I say, we all ate some food and all enjoyed ourselves.

Then, somewhat against my will, Owen convinced us to visit the book store while we were there. He always likes to have super hero books read to him, but another favorite is Scooby-Doo. Oddly enough, though they used to have a huge and easily-accessible collection of Scooby-Doo volumes, it was very hard to find them tonight. We did read about Scooby-Doo and the Rock and Roll Zombie, however.

5/25/13 (Saturday)

This morning, after rolling around a bit, I suddenly opened my eyes and awoke, remembering that I was a single parent. It was seven in the morning--not bad. Everyone had slept through the night. I heard a rattling sound, and realized that Owen was up. I waited outside his door while he laboriously worked at the knob until he was able to escape. Since I don't wear a diaper, the first thing I need to do in the morning is go to the bathroom, where Owen promptly followed me. When we exited said room, there was Cara, also awake. We all went downstairs and I made pancakes.

Once we were all up and dressed and ready, we packed ourselves into the car and went South. It was time to visit my parents, and it turned out Uncle Jim, Aunt Sarah, and Griffin came too! Griffin and Owen are having an interesting time together now, because they are butting heads a bit over toys. They wanted to play with the cars, except that it ended up with Owen hoarding a huge pile, to which Griffin of course wanted access. We'll be trying to figure this one out for a while.

The boys also both wanted to go outside and play with the rocks that surround my parents' shed. Owen I think is a bit more into this than Griffin, though Griffin was the one who brought it up this time. Owen went out and took some rocks, which he carried over to a table, telling me they were a face. It was really just a distribution of five rocks, arranged like the five pips on a die. Then he filled an entire bucket with rocks, which he carefully carried, hunched over and bow-legged, across the yard. Then there were leaves, which he handed to all of the grown-ups. I thought this was very giving of him, until five minutes later, when he demanded them all back. Oh, well; we weren't really using them anyway.

On the way home, continuing my tradition of being the good-times, lazy Dad that I am, I picked up Wendy's for dinner. I did actually give Owen a bath this evening, so at least I've got that going on. Cara promises to shower in the morning.

5/26/13 (Sunday)

Owen pretty much assumes when he wakes up that things have returned to normal. I think it was yesterday morning that he decided Mommy was putting her glasses on and wearing her pajamas. This morning I believe he had decided she was still asleep. He did get up before Cara, and we lazed around for a while. Then I took the kids out grocery shopping.

I figured because of the holiday weekend that it would be excessively crowded at the store, but in fact just the opposite was true. Which turned out to be a good thing, because Owen didn't want to sit in the cart. Instead, he prefers to stand behind it, all crouched over, and grip the very bottom horizontal rung (which may be the axle between the back wheels), and help push the cart along that way. I have to walk with my legs bowing out on either side of him. Sometimes this got tiring and he would walk slowly behind me, with Cara urging him to keep up; or run in circles around the cart. Were it crowded in the store, this would have been much more stressful than it actually was.

We also had to take a short detour to visit the lobsters. This is one of our rituals when we go to the supermarket. Today there were plenty of doomed lobsters hanging out in the clear tank, so we enjoyed waving to them, unaware of their fate as dinner for other shoppers.

Over the course of about an hour, I managed to get a fairly good lunch into the children, and then we headed down to Middletown to see Grandmama. Grandmama had a wonderful surprise for the kids--a huge pile of Scooby-Doo DVDs, picked up from a library branch that was closing. She had planned to get them outside, but after this revelation there was nothing for it but to settle in for a viewing of Scooby-Doo and the Ghoul School, a truly frightening film which actually seems to be the precursor to the Monster High phenomenon. The adults remained semi-subconscious until it was over, at which point Grandmama kindly took the children out to the park and left me to my own devices.

Owen returned brandishing a huge tree branch, which apparently he had carried almost all the way home. He wanted to bring it inside the house as well, but we dissuaded him.

A little while later, Mommy arrived! And Grandpapa! We had a very pleasant reunion, ate a nice big dinner, and made our way home. Owen had only slept in the car on the way there--a much shorter drive than his usual nap--and so was very quickly out again on the way home. We woke him long enough to pajama him and then his Mommy was happy to read stories to him again.

The little guy has taken to head butting me in the midsection, which he feels is very amusing, even after multiple assertions from myself that it is not.

5/27/13 (Monday) - Happy Memorial Day

Today our big event was getting to Aunt Claire's house in the afternoon for a cookout. The kids had a great time. Cara is very invested in playing in the water now that the weather is heating up (though really it was pretty windy outside today--but she'll take what she can get), and it so happened that Claire and Casey had just bought an outside hose. So Owen and Cara took turns spraying some of the plants in the back with the hose, also each other, themselves, the patio blocks, and (even though we repeatedly told them not to) sometimes their parents a little bit.

It turns out that Casey, who knits, had made a Batman mask! We got Owen to put it on, and he looked just adorable (pictures will be forthcoming). I think all of us, excepting perhaps Casey, tried it on at least once. In the evening we even got to make some smores over the remains of the grill fire. Owen was given a smore with no chocolate in it: "I have a sandwich!" he kept telling people excitedly. He ate about half of it before giving up.

5/28/13 (Tuesday)

Cara and I had a snow day give-back today, so we were off from school together. Steve left with Owen, and I felt a little guilty for not offering to bring him to school. Somehow, though (no one really understands this), Owen managed to fall out the other side of the car while climbing into his car seat. He was brought back into the house with a scratched and bloody nose.

I find it sad that just yesterday Owen said something really cute about how everyone has a nose. I think it was when we were drawing, because I tend to leave out the noses on my stick figures' faces. He remarked on the universality of the nose and then wanted to say something specific about his own nose, I believe, but he ended up just thoughtfully feeling it with his fingers.

I got to snuggle him and clean off his nose and then Cara and I brought him to school. We were softies and left him with his lion. He was fine though, besides having a very red nose! When I got back to pick him up, Miss Minal liked my Rudolph jokes.

It was a rainy day, though of course Owen got to play outside in the morning and therefore has gritty hair. The kids spent the evening eating a lot. Like, a lot. Then a snack.

5/29/13 (Wednesday)

There is always a moment, when Owen and I pull up outside Lindeneau, when Owen feels this is a good time to chat and I feel it's a good time to get out of the car promptly because Cara is waiting at the door with her teacher. Today, Owen told me about bugs at his school.

"There are bugs at my school," he said, "outside and inside. And they are itchin' in the kitchen!"

Having suggested in numerous ways that he get himself out of his seat, I pointed out that Cara and Miss Doreen were waiting at the door. He had to bend around to see them. Then he let me take him out. As we walked to the door, he expanded on his theme and revealed that the phrase "itchin' in the kitchen" is actually from a Scooby Doo.

At Cara's suggestion, we got out the sprinkler for playdate. The big kids, in their swimsuits, got right in. Owen, when I suggested it, was very definitely interested. He wanted his shoes off, but he wanted to keep his shirt on. I brought him outside fully clothed and carried him to a safe place (the sprinkler was on a little high and was hitting the door). He saw everyone else running through, and he tried it, too. He got wet! It was cold! I was very sympathetic.

He saw that the kids were crawling through the "tunnel" that was made when the sprinkler bowed down to one side or the other. Soon, PJ was holding the sprinkler in place to make a tunnel on one side while Cara crouched by Owen, who was on his hands and knees in the grass, saying, "come on, Buddy, just go through!"

Within minutes, he was completely soaked. He was covered with grass and also somewhat muddy. He was a very, very happy boy.

When I took Owen out of the bath later, he caught a glimpse of his face in the mirror. I guess that doesn't happen often. "Wait," he cried, "I have something red on my nose!"

It was really a lovely evening of three-year-old nonsense. Before I could put him in the bath, I had to wait: "I have to check the time on my light saber!" It was six thirty. Afterwards, I got out his "I love dirt" pajamas. He liked them. "Because dirt is for me!" Then he told me a story about when he went on a tractor. We were all there. Then we blasted off into space. We read stories, and then he tucked his light saber into bed with him. When it came time for lights out, he had decided he didn't really want to sleep with it. He did want to sleep with his new Batman hood, which I had noticed on his pillow under his lion. In fact, he wanted to wear it to sleep. Or not. Actually, I had to turn the lights on so that he could put his little guys into the hood, which was where they would sleep. On his pillow.

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