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Journal Key:

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

5/30/13 (Thursday)

Aunt Claire came up on a Thursday for a change! She and I arrived at YBR to pick up Owen only to be ignored while Miss Vina finished reading a book that seemed to be about penguins enjoying a fish-shaped birthday cake. Owen was sitting right next to her, watching and listening intently. Fortunately, she was near the end. After the book, he was quite happy to see us.

He and Claire played while I made dinner. He was feeling very bossy and kept assigning me or Claire his little light saber or a microphone. He also assigned her a pig puppet, which turned out to be a very naughty pig who ate his matchbox cars.

After dinner, Owen decided he wanted to watch a movie. He pulled out My Neighbor Totoro. He can't have had any idea what it was. Really, though, it's a perfect movie for him! He can relate to the little girl, and he loved the creatures. He was definitely, in a rudimentary way, following the plot. When I joined him, the little girl had just found Totoro sleeping in the forest. "Is that a hippomopotamus sleeping there?" he asked. He was delighted to see that Totoro is sort of a big cat, and he loved it when she climbed around on him. He was concerned, though, that she might get into Totoro's mouth. "Don't go into his mouth!" he kept telling her. I don't think he usually talks to characters on TV.

6/1/13 (Saturday)

In our bin of He-Man toys, we have a part that's actually from Voltron. Uncle Jim has Voltron, and Steve has remarked that we ought to return the part to him. Today Owen, who hasn't even read Lady and the Tramp lately, happened upon that part, and exclaimed, "Hey, we have to return this to Jim Dear and Darling!"

This afternoon, the four of us got into my car. We dropped Steve off at the tire place to pick up his car, which we'd dropped off earlier because it had a thorn in its paw. Having left him, the kids and I went out for ice cream. When we pulled up, Owen saw some people sitting outside, eating.

"Look," he said, "those people's daddy is having ice cream, and they didn't drop his car off!"

He had soft serve chocolate with tiny M&Ms in it, and he and I sat at a table and I fed it to him, spoon by spoon. I guess I should be trying to get him to eat on his own, but with the messy stuff I think he and I agree that it's much more efficient and less hazardous this way.

Owen spend much of the evening clutching a sword and a gun, which we had found in a box of old toys. "Oh dear," I thought, "he's a boy!" Then I got him upstairs for his bath, where Cara's old tea set was out. "We will have a tea party!" cried Owen. "And I will make tea for everyone!" And he did.

6/2/13 (Sunday)

This morning I heard Owen crying around twenty after six, but I was smart and let him work it out himself. Lately I've been going into his room when I first hear him, and he's never happy. I went back to sleep and, around quarter to five, he came bouncing happily into our room to announce that it was wake-up time! We went downstairs to play.

Cara's dance recital was this morning, so Owen got to stay home with Claire. He had a wonderful time. They watched tv. They played outside. He got to eat all of the panda cookies that were left in the box--Steve and I had been letting him have them one at a time for a couple of weeks. Finally, it was time to meet us at a resturant for lunch. They put Owen's sandals on him (much simpler than socks and sneakers!) and, in a delaying tactic, Claire let him pick out a whole bagful of toys to bring.

He was a very happy boy.

When we got home, he insisted that he wasn't tired. It was 1:30. I read to him and put him down. He got out of bed around 5:30. PJ and Casey were over! The highlight of the day, for Owen, I'm pretty sure, was having a light saber fight with PJ. They ran back and forth, from the kitchen to the living room, playing like, I have to say, real boys. I'm so glad Owen has someone to, err, hack at.

6/3/13 (Monday)

A new week and a very wet start to it. Owen helpfully yelled at me about all the puddles in the parking lot as I hurriedly carried him inside this morning. I don't usually let him bring any toys to YBR but he ended up with a "ninja" flashlight that we'd unearthed from an old box of junk. It is sort of L-shaped and it shines a reddish light instead of a normal one. This object was enough to get him swarmed with other children when we returned to the main room--"Give him space!" said the teacher. He was experimenting by flashing it onto his morning bagel when I left.

Tonight was awards night at Ev's school, so I had some time with the kids. I had to threaten Owen to get him to eat, but I did manage to get food into him. By contrast, after having eaten several other things Cara convinced me to heat up a leftover hot dog for her as well.

We had to have our tea this evening, after dinner. We got out the tea things and threw them in the bath. Then we had to put color tablets in the bath, because I think it's not really tea unless it's colored. Owen poured for me. Eventually he decided that he was going to drink his tea out of a lid instead of a cup. Then he decided that instead of pretending to drink it, he would sneeze as loudly as possible.

6/4/13 (Tuesday)

Yesterday Owen came home in someone else's pants. This is not totally unusual when you go to daycare during the day and your little shorts have the habit of sometimes getting wet. So today we brought back the replacement pants, washed, and discovered that Owen's spare clothes basket was filled with only shirts. Oops! Previously I have been very strict with the toys Owen can bring in the car in the morning: he can have two guys, and that's it. We never take them inside YBR. Instead, Owen gets out of his car seat and carefully lays the guys on the middle arm between the two front seats. Lately I have been getting lax, and today I drove around with four guys in the car all day. In the evening, Owen asked me if I had two guys in my car.

Tonight the kids, apparently without prompting, went outside and gathered some flowering weeds to give to their mommy. They are now sitting in a cute little vase in the middle of Cara's big flowers that she got after her dance recital.

We had a nice sit-down meal tonight, and the kids were very good and ate all their dinner. Even so, Owen is a creature of habit and insisted that he get Cheerios after his bath, because "that's for nighttime."

6/5/13 (Wednesday)

"Owen, your mom's here!"

The kids always notice and alert each other when parents show up. Owen emerged from a scrum around the giant hippomopotamus and started to run towards me. Then he stopped and turned around. He went back. He bent down and seemed to scramble around in the mulch. Then he ran towards me.

"Mommy, look what I have!" he cried. I was pretty nervous. I held out my hand. It, well, it looked like a chocolate chip. Fortunately, it was a sort of little seed pod or something that just looked like a chocolate chip. "Audrey gave it to me!"

It turned out that he was pretty sure it was an acorn. It is not an acorn. However, we have talked a lot about his acorn.

"Daddy and Cara will be so surprised that Audrey gave me an acorn," he told me. Also, "we get to take it home."

When we got to ABC, Em pulled up behind us. Owen immediately had to show her his acorn. He showed Cara. He showed Cara's friend.

On the way back to the car, he dropped his acorn. Although it looks a lot like a small rock, I did find it.

When we were almost home, there was an exclamation: "My acorn!"

That is how I found myself on my knees in the gutter, groping around under the driver's seat of my car while Owen, fortunately willing to be distracted, ran around and picked me some more clover from the yard. Yes, I found it again. Owen took it back, gave me the flowers, and headed into the house.

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