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Journal Key:

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

9/12/13 (Thursday)

I've been talking with moms all day who agree that three is a dreadful age. Only four months left!

Owen has suggested that he might not have so many accidents if he got another big Green Lantern guy. We're tempted. He only had (only had) one accident at school today. At home, I was in the living room when Cara came up to tell me that Owen had gone to the potty; they'd handled it without me. I was pleased. I went downstairs and found Owen using the spare hand towel to mop up the dribbles from the floor. I think there were a lot of dribbles. His shorts and underwear were soaked. Sigh.

He was far more tractable tonight, though. I only had to threaten to put him in his room once. Well, actually, twice. But I didn't have to put him there!

I think the high point of the evening was how happy the children were that I was making broccoli. It's been a long week!

9/15/13 (Sunday)

We were all excited about driving down to see Grandmom and Grandpop's new house today! Owen stayed awake in the car the whole way down, but, mercifully, he was quiet enough for us to read Danny Champion of the World. I don't think that any of it really penetrated his consciousness.

Upon our arrival, my first priority was getting my dry little boy into the potty. This was not his first priority, but we managed. While we were in there, he looked around. "Mommy," he asked, "tonight will I swim in this tub or their other one? Do they have another one?"

When we got out of the bathroom, Grandmom showed Owen the closet where all of the toys live now. It's a wonderful big walk-in closet where everything is accessible, and we brought out a tub of guys to play with. Later Owen went back to bring out several other things, including a small plush hamster that he seemed to think was a puppet at first. When Grandmom and I took Owen for a walk, he brought the hamster. That was actually much better than the old rolling telephone that he had originally proposed bringing.

We walked along the street and down a path to see the other houses being built and to see the geese in the waterway that runs behind the house. Grandmom educated Owen about goose poop. This is a valuable thing to know. Somehow, though, Owen started monologuing about someone, perhaps geese, building a castle out of goose poop.

The three of us took a little ride to check out a nearby park, which has a very nice little playground, just Owen-sized. He ran and climbed and slid, and eventually he told me that I had to "go to the rescue," gesturing back down the path we'd walked in on. I had to go to the rescue back towards the parking lot, "while me and her stay here!" Owen had gotten his Grandmom to himself. Eventually they came after me, and when Grandmom suggested cookies we started back to the car.

On the way to the car, Owen spotted a caterpillar on the sidewalk. We got it to crawl up on a stick and a leaf, but Owen wouldn't hold it. He managed to pet it a little bit. We put it down and moved along. Well, Janet and I did. Owen, we found, had picked up the stick. He stood up. Then he decided he was done and abruptly dropped it. Ouch. Actually, the caterpillar seemed fine.

Owen started screaming and got left in his room three times today. Well, once was at Grandmom's house, when he didn't want to leave. Then, at home, when we went upstairs for his bath, I took his shoes off of him, playfully, and then I refused to put them back on for him to take off. Then, when he was in bed, I first got him water without him asking and then refused to go back downstairs to get another guy to augment the two I'd just gotten. His tantrums got shorter every time; the last time, I barely got downstairs! I wouldn't mind not having to deal with tantrums, but I'm pleased to see progress!

9/16/13 (Monday)

Occasionally, I speak to someone who expresses the belief that surely Owen knows some of his letters. Today, I found a very nice A in his box at school. I asked him about it. "We made that . . . we made that for . . . we made that for the alphabet." I asked him what it was, what letter it was. "Mommy, it's . . . what do you think it is?"

Last Monday, I felt that I learned a lot about what it will take to successfully get through our routine: I take Cara to dance, pick up Owen, bring him home and have dinner with him, and we get Cara at seven. The difficult part (well, one of them) was getting him back out of the house once he was in. I thought it might be easier if we went out to eat instead of coming home.

I proposed this to Owen as we got into the car after school: it was his choice whether we went home or to the diner. Home, he decided! No, diner! No, home! Well, diner. Relax, I told him. He could really decide when we were partway home. Fortunately, he did not change his mind again after I asked him for the final decision. We came home and had scrambled eggs. Owen may have also learned from last week. I very clearly explained to him that we were going to go out again, and he decided not to take his shoes off.

Fortuitously, Steve got home a few minutes before Owen and I had to leave. I let the boys stay here while I drove back down the highway. When Cara and I got home, Steve got out a potty prize for Owen for staying dry for two days. It is another transformer, slightly more complex than the other one he has. It was time for Owen's bath. "I want to go in the bath," said Optimus Prime in a fairly deep voice. Steve expressed the opinion that this would not be advisable. "I want to go in the bath," repeated the robot, though he was in truck form, "and my mother says I have to."

I believe that Steve has prevailed.

9/18/13 (Wednesday)

Avenger Hulk Toy: Hulk smash!!!!!! (Smashes the other Venger figures)

Little Guy Hulk Toy: Daddy, I don't like you! You smash other people! (Smashes "Daddy," knocking him several feet away)

Avenger Hulk Toy: Son, don't say that! (garbled) . . . take away your powers! (Smashes Little Guy Hulk)

Last night was Back to School Night, so Evelyn and I barely saw the kids after the morning. We went straight home from work and got back into one car and went to Lindeneau. Grandmama and Grandpapa nicely took the kids out to dinner. Both kids, apparently, knew ahead of time what they wanted at Chili's. While we were at Back to School Night, we had a chance to write a note to Cara that she would read the next day. She ended up putting the note in the front of her school binder. We saw that she had drawn a picture about her hero for school that got pinned up on the bulletin board in her classroom. She had chosen her swim teacher because "She would save anyone that was drowning." There was a wonderful drawing of the swim teacher doing just that.

Today I stayed home a little later than normal in the morning because Owen had an appointment at CHOP to check on his one remaining ear tube. The other one had come out last visit, but this was an important visit because if the last tube wasn't out after this one, Owen would need a "procedure" to have it taken out.

It was our best trip to CHOP that I can remember. First of all, it was our first ever I think with Owen wearing underwear. We got there later in the morning than usual, and didn't have to sit in rush hour traffic on Route 1. We colored a dinosaur picture while we were waiting, and almost as soon as we got in a room we saw the doctor. She looked in his ear (he didn't fight that at all), and right away saw that the one tube had worked its way out into the canal. With a little tool, she was able to quickly pluck it out, and we were done! No more follow-ups.

Owen knew the process by now and was ready to get his sticker as soon as the tube was out. We went back out to the waiting room and got a Spider-Man sticker. We used the potty there, for what was almost definitely the first time ever--and will hopefully be the last time.

Tonight was playdate night. For me, at least, it will be the last playdate for a long time, since I'll be taking a class Wednesday nights for the rest of the fall.

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