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Journal Key:

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

10/3/13 (Thursday)

So, the new school year has started, and YBR has started at the beginning of the alphabet once more. The first week went well; Owen could handle apple starting with A. The next week was a bit of a problem. Butterfly begins with A. So does bat. This week, well, yesterday Owen wanted to bring home his carrots. Miss Vina confirmed that they'd made carrots because carrots begin with . . . "B!" said Owen. They had made cake that morning, too, said Vina, because cake begins with . . . "C!" cried the other children. "B!" cried Owen. We headed to the car. The k-k-k-car. What does car start with? "B!"

Today, Owen was very excited about the cat project he had to bring home. What does cat start with? "B!"

We have tried to explain things. Miss Vina says she's going to have a talk with him about this tomorrow.

As we were pulling away, Owen saw a squirrel in a tree. He wanted to know where the other squirrels had gone. I had no comment. He concluded that they had turned into butterflies. I suggested that perhaps that was something caterpillars do, but he's pretty sure it's squirrels.

10/5/13 (Saturday)

Owen was overcoming fears today at the Monmouth Museum. First he perched at the edge of a rope bridge. He contemplated it for a while. "This looks like a web," he said. I said something about how Spiderman would love it, and Owen carefully advanced off the wooden floor and onto the ropes. Then he went a little further out, and then a little further. When he was nearly halfway across, Cara walked out on it to check on him; she then advanced to the opposite side, and Owen went a little further. The entire crossing consumed roughly six minutes, but he did it entirely on his own, without assistance of any kind.

He also went down the slide (not the BIG slide - I don't think he even knows it exists), and Cara coached him all the way to top of the hollow tree, and all the way down. He was gleefully triumphant up top, and a little cautious about descending, but she talked him through it.

On the big-kid side of the building he flirted with entering the storm tunnel, where a tornado is simulated, but chickened out. This, however, was a day for courage, so eventually he returned and let me carry him through. Victory! Nothing is more fun than facing a fear and discovering it to be harmless - we went through again! and again!

10/6/13 (Sunday)

The teachers told me this week that Owen has been on the "no nap" list for a few days. This weekend we continued that trend--in a rather pragmatic fashion, since the kids got picked up in the early afternoon for their sleepover on Saturday. By this afternoon he seemed pretty beat--we think he still needs his nap. Miss Vina has told me that he is very good during naptime, and lays quietly on his mat without making any noise--but he's awake.

This week Evelyn decided to give Owen a prize, and got out an old action figure that used to belong to one of her co-worker's kids. It is Juggernaut, a big hulking bad guy covered in armor who has a lever on the back that makes his arms twitch in a menacing manner. Owen was most pleased. This evening he tried to entice me to play with him by asking if we could go get more guys to "beat up Juggernaut."

This afternoon, the kids ended up with their mother at good old Barnes and Noble. Usually it is very hard to convince Owen to do anything but look at super hero books, but this time the display table at the front of the kids' section actually caught his eye, so they read some Halloween books. They left for a snack and came back, and it turned out that it was Story Hour! This would not do for Owen, however, because he was determined to finally return to his super hero books.

10/7/13 (Monday)

Another Monday is under our belt. Owen was telling me the other day that he didn't want to go to ballet because "it's so boring." I reminded him about that book he'd loved so much, My Pretty Ballerina. "It's so bo-o-o-oring!" he replied. Fortunately, this evening he was not troubled too much by the boredom.

I made the mistake of telling the kids, when we'd all gotten into the car, that there were new library books at home for both of them. As soon as we got home, instead of Cara having dinner and Owen, well, eating some more, they both went straight for the bag of books. I had to get Cara to read to Owen so that I could go and heat up some soup for her.

Owen found a post-it on the table, with some notes Steve had been making for work. He decided to read it. There was more on there than I'd thought. Apparently Steve was making notes about going downstairs to play with Owen, maybe in the basement, and the Super Hero Squad, and reading books, and having class, and lots of other things.

Once both kids had finished eating, we headed upstairs. I was disappointed to find that Owen was right; he had played outside today. I'd asked him, hoping that he hadn't because of the rain, but his shoes were full of mulch and I had to give him a bath after all. Then, well, we wallowed in books.

One of the books was about having a baby brother. Owen says that he will have a baby brother. I asked where this baby would come from. Owen is not sure how he will "just appear."

10/8/13 (Tuesday)

This was our first real Tuesday, with nothing weird happening to throw us off of our routine. Our routine involves Owen and me spending a lot of time together.

On the way out of YBR, I started to coach him on the letter D. Doggy starts with D. Um, drop starts with D. Um . . . there was another mother, whose D had just gotten ripped. She felt it was all right, since her son was pretty sure Daddy and Mommy both started with D. I told her that Owen had initially guessed that his D was an X.

We made more progress with D than we've made with other letters. I was glad to have been reminded that Daddy starts with D. While we were driving (drive starts with D), Owen, who was wearing his Flash mask, started talking. "Mommy, mask starts with . . . mask starts with . . . mask starts with . . " I mentioned the letter M. "But, Mommy, some other masks start with B! And N!"

When we got on the highway, Owen explained that we couldn't have the windows open because they might let in bugs, and that would be bad. Bugs do bad things. This led to bees. Some bees are very bad. They shoot goo at you. I attempted to clarify this. He's pretty confident, though. Some bees, he admits, are good.

"Mommy, I told you, some bees are bad, and some bees are good. I was just telling you in the car when I was going to school. (angry sigh) I can't tell you any more!"

I asked what good bees do. They smile at him and take his picture.

I explained what bees really do. Well, I said that bees help the trees make fruit. It was the funniest thing I said all day.

When we went and got Cara, we practiced with the D some more. We got home at the same time Steve did, and I told Owen to tell him, when he saw him, that Daddy starts with D. Owen climbed out of his seat, saw Steve, and told him, "Daddy, Daddy starts with B!"

10/9/13 (Wednesday)

We really are lucky: tonight I had conferences and Steve had class, so Grandmama drove up after working all day to stay with the kids. Steve picked them up and started getting supper together before he left.

When I got home, around quarter to nine, I heard Owen squealing upstairs. I got up to his room, where he was tucked in bed. "Were you a good boy for Grandmama?" I asked him. "No," he said.

In fact, he was not. He had a complete meltdown because he didn't get to pick a tv show. My greatest consolation is that my mother got to see just how much dirt comes out of his shoes every night! He gave Grandmama a nice hug before she left.

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