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Journal Key:

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

6/13/13 (Thursday)

When I came home today Owen grabbed me, like he does, to play with him. There were little guys and there was play food, and the little guys had to be individually placed in front of each piece of play food, to eat it. As is typical lately, most of the things I did were wrong. When I put a guy down in front of the play food, it was either the wrong food for that guy, or that guy was not the right guy and he was not allowed to eat the food.

Then we colored, some monster faces, which was pleasant, except that every once in a while Owen would declare, "You're done," and remove the crayon I was using from my hand.

Then we read books. He picked some off the playroom shelves, and we don't usually read those, so we ended up with some unusual ones. First there was the terrible, terrible, Barney lift-the-flap book that we still have because it was just so terrible that I had to keep it for sentimental reasons. But then he picked out Bread and Jam for Frances, which is absolutely on the opposite end of the spectrum. It's a wonderful book about a cute little badger who learns to eat different things by being made absolutely sick of eating her favorite food, bread and jam. It was somewhat appropriate for a boy who yesterday refused to eat his dinner.

You'll be happy to hear that our dinner went much better tonight, and Owen ate the things on his plate with little to no threatening. Then we had popcorn.

In the bath, Evelyn and Owen played happily with some bath toys that we haven't had out in quite a while. They are, in fact, officially bath toys: squeezy animals that squirt water. They had a lovely time together, and his mother even got him to stand up for a thorough washing.

6/15/13 (Saturday)

Owen generally favors Steve over me about 80% of the time, but for the past couple of days he's been very Mommy-clingy. It's nice! It's also good timing, since it's Father's Day weekend. I've realized, however, that part of this is that he seems to have replaced his "filler word," "kalaka," with "mamamamama." He's just saying it when he doesn't have much else to say. Kalaka was funnier!

Steve picked a really cool activity for today: we went to Rebounderz, a very local indoor trampoline arena! We all got special shoes to wear. Owen's looked . . . very much like his regular shoes. He was delighted with them. It was confusing for the shoe girl afterwards, when we gave them back. The kids got helmets, we got to see a training video, and off we went!

There is a big grid of individual-sized trampolines to jump on; Steve and Cara started off right away, and I introduced Owen to the concept. What he really wanted to do was to run around and fall down. He really wanted to run around and fall down. Cara and Steve were jumping and jumping; they even got good at rebounding off of the angled trampoline walls!

There was also a basketball bounce, where trampoline lanes led up to padded nets and you could (if you could) bounce yourself up and slam dunk! The nets could be lowered, fortunately. Steve and I each lifted Owen up to put a ball through.

The best fun, for Owen, was the foam pit. Two trampoline lanes led up to a huge pit of foam blocks, so two people could bounce up and jump in. He liked running on the trampoline, and he and I got into the pit a few times. He thought that was pretty funny. He didn't freak out, and he managed to do some climbing. What Owen liked the most was playing with the big blocks. He liked lining them up and throwing them in.

I'd been thinking about starting Owen back up in gymnastics. After seeing him on the trampoline today, though, I'm thinking that might not be awfully successful. So, we're at the drawing board: I want him to have an activity next year!

We jumped around for an hour, tuckered ourselves out, and came home for lunch.

After a lovely nap, we went out for a pleasant evening. Owen has a tube of tiny toy cats in his diaper bag, and that kept him very happy out at dinner. He colored a lot on his placemat, but he also lined up all twelve cats in various positions, meowing all the time. We considered having dessert. Owen thought that was a good idea. When we suggested Barnes and Noble instead, though, he threw his arms in the air and cheered.

6/16/13 (Sunday) Happy Father's Day!

I went out this morning and picked up donuts, which were a hit with most of us. Poor Cara wasn't really up for eating and, in fact, she seems to have a stomach bug! She had a quiet day on the couch.

Owen actually did eat possibly more than one donut: he likes them cut up, so that he can use his fork. Steve went ou midmorning to see Superman with his brother, so the kids and I hung around here. We decamped to the basement, where we watched Snow White. I think we watched it down there on some memorable occasion, so, when Owen sees that TV, that's what he thinks plays on it. We kapt it on while the kids played and I gradually managed to cut up the cardboard house we'd gotten for Christmas. It was a lot of fun, but it was definitely falling apart. Sitting on it was exciting, though, and Owen kept coloring on it until the end.

He's been starting to do some sort of interesting coloring. He likes to draw spirals. he also draws strange scribble shapes and has us look at them and we have to discuss them. He did some nice coloring on a picture at YBR for Steve. It's a famiy portrait consisting of four printed figures he got to color in. My dress has stripes, and I have a face. Steve's hair, which is in two parts, is two colors. Cara and Owen are basically orange, but Owen has, well, very nice rainbows next to his head. At least four colors. They look like striped pigtails. He says they're his ears.

YBR also did a little craft where they asked each child why he loved his Daddy. Owen loves Steve because he changes him. We had to think about that one.

After Owen's nap, when Steve was home, Owen and I drove down to Middletown. While we were gone, Cara and Steve kept things quiet and restful; they watched movies and read. There are, I hope, worse things than being home with a sick eight-year-old on Father's Day.

In Middletown, we had of course to open the pandora's box of Scooby Doo. There were other fun things to do, though. After we ate, Grandmama took Owen upstairs to do a special project. It turns out that she bought wooden letters that spell his name, and he got to paint them! This was fun. He painted the O; Grandmama and I each took a letter. Owen actually painted several letters. When he finished the O, he did the E. Then the back of the N. Then the back of the O. And so on. They're lovely. He'd like to paint them again. He may get to; we left them there. Perhaps they'll turn white!

A proposed walk around the block became a trip to the park. What Owen was interested in was the sand. Shockingly, some got into his sandal! We took his shoes off, and Grandmama had to teach him that it's ok to walk in sand. It took a few minutes. He was very invested in the idea that we should build castles so that he could knock them down. He'd ask very nicely, to convince us that we really wanted to. Soon, though, Grandmama had him not just walking in the sand but diving in it. His legs and arms were coated. Yes, it got into his mouth. He was quite happy.

We managed to get back to the house without the rest of us feeling too gritty, and he had a highly necessary bath. Once he was all shined up we helped Grandpapa open a present and hit the road. Back at home, Owen was put to bed by his daddy, a happy boy after a full day.

6/17/13 (Monday)

Last night I got to do some late-night fathering, when I went up to poor Cara, who was crying in her bed. We tried to cool her down, because she was feverish, and I read her a chapter of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. When I got to the end I was surprised to find that she was actually asleep.

This morning she slept late, which was excellent, and she no longer had a temperature. We drove Owen to Yellow Brick Road and dropped him off, and I spent the day with the little girl. She watched a lot of TV, ate some chips, stayed at a completely normal temperature and (best of all) did not throw up. So she will get to go back to school tomorrow, for which she's very very glad, because there are big parties tomorrow.

It was a nice sunny day for most of the day, except that when we went out to pick up Owen, when the sky opened up and the rain came down in gusty torrents. It was bizarre and a little creepy. Then as we pulled into the parking lot, the sun came out and the rain stopped. Inside, I spotted Owen, who smiled and began throwing his toys back into a bin. Sophia, who was nearby, showed me her boo-boo. I suggested that it felt better now, since it looked like it had been under a bandage; but she indignantly disagreed. Then Owen had to come over and show me his boo-boo, which I had already seen yesterday.

We got home just when Mommy got home, and then we played with toys. Claire arrived, dinner got made. Owen became a bit chatty at dinner: he talked about some things that had happened on the weekend ("We got donuts") and also told a somewhat disturbing story that involved Sophia taking three worms into a house and giving them sheets and blankets (which, he explained, were actually leaves).

6/18/13 (Tuesday)

It's very confusing that Owen's favorite nonsense phrase is now "mama." Tonight he told Cara that for dinner we were going to have "chicken, broccoli, and mama!" I'm also pretty sure that this morning he called me "Daddy mama."

6/19/13 (Wednesday)

When we drive home down the main street in Highland Park, we drive by the comic book store that has the neon Batman. Today, we also got a view of their neon Iron Man and Captain America shield. Owen claims to have seen Superman. He also saw a monster hand! There happens to be a manicure place next door. With some neon of their own.

Today was Cara's last day of second grade! After dinner, to celebrate, we had popsicles in the yard. Owen was far more dedicated to his than the other kids were. "Mommy," he reported, "the big kids are running with their popsicles." They went to play tag. Owen kept persevering. His popsicle, though, he occasionally reported, was melting!

After a long, long time, when there was just a little left, Owen experienced one of those milestone moments: his popsicle fell off of its stick! He was devastated. Steve comforted him and supplied another popsicle, which I admit I found frightening because the first one had lasted for a good half hour. Owen only got to eat part of this one, though, before it was time for his bath and bed.

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