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Journal Key:

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

12/19/13 (Thursday)

When I'm reading a book to Owen, I can always tell when Steve has been reading it to him lately: Owen makes Steve's sound effects. There are a few, a very few, examples of my sound effects that Owen feels are necessary to reproduce.

We went to the Loefflers' tonight for a delayed Wednesday playdate. Owen had a lollipop from a goodie bag his teachers had given him. When he saw PJ, he had to run over to show him the lollipop. PJ, being an 8-year-old boy, had absolutely no interest in this. Seconds later, Owen remembered that he had a sticker on his arm. He's been putting them on his forearm, under his sleeve. He had to run back to show that to PJ, too. He got similar results, but he seems to have found them gratifying.

12/20/13 (Friday)

I've gotten the kids the last couple of nights and each night Owen remembers that Evelyn brought up the idea of doing a "light walk;" that is, walking around the neighborhood one evening to see all the Christmas lights on the houses. He wanted to do it, and I was willing to take him out for a short walk before Mommy got home with dinner. But then he decided that we were "too busy" to do that, and he would rather be in the house.

Owen has been going upstairs I think every day this week to hang out with the Lollipops. He seems to believe they have better stuff up there: he comes and says things like "they have guys!" or "they have Rescue Bots" and so forth. In the new year I think he'll be fully graduated to the Lollipops. I hope they can handle him up there!

12/21/13 (Saturday)

In the morning our big accomplishment with the kids was taking them to the library. It was a pleasant trip: we all went, and Owen got to read some nice books. The good place to read is right by some very low-level board books, which means I had to read one or two books like "Donald Duck's first Play Date," but Owen also found a nice Dr. Seuss book that I'd never read before.

We came home with a nice load of new books, and then Mommy went right back out to get some shopping done. I made an attempt to give Owen a nap, but it didn't work very well. He was down for a little while, but then got back up and asked for another story. Cara volunteered to read to him, which was a great relief to both his parents.

It was our evening to do gingerbread (actually graham cracker) houses at Grandmama's house with the Loefflers, so we drove down. Owen fell asleep at last in the car, and was not in a particularly good mood when he awoke. We managed to coax him into the potty but he objected to washing his hands and we had to have a fight over it.

Then, however, all us grown-ups except the grandparents ditched the kids and went out. According to Grandmama and Grandpapa, the children did build houses, but Owen required a lot of assistance for his, and actually ate many of his building materials instead of putting them on. He was also unreasonably upset by getting a small dab of icing on one of his fingers.

The kids actually spent a whole lot of time playing hide-and-seek, though they also managed to decorate the tree. When we finally got back, they were in front of the TV watching Scooby. Owen and PJ were having a great time tossing around the big square foam building pads that they have there, and screaming "Hulk smash!" PJ and Owen both have an incredible stamina for repetition when they find something they enjoy, so this went on for quite a while.

We did finally get in the car. But Owen was completely wired. He spent almost the entire ride babbling away. The main theme seemed to be a bid for control: he made many demands about being the boss and having all of us do what he said. But there was much more to it, as well: there were long, incoherent passages, often seeming to consist of long lists of things that he wanted to do. Occasionally he would pause and say, very threateningly, "Do you understand?!" Evelyn and I would mostly admit that no, we really didn't.

12/22/13 (Sunday)

Today was pierogi day! Grandmama, Grandpapa and Aunt Claire came to our house to help make pierogi for Christmas. It was an all day event. The children were happy and good, mostly, with all these people around. I don't know that Owen actually managed to eat much today, with all the excitement. He had another day without much of a nap. We didn't think he was really going to have one anyway, and we didn't even try to put him down; but there was one point in the early afternoon when he volunteered to nap all by himself! Evelyn went along with it and tucked him in. But as I walked by a moment later to go downstairs, he yelled "Wake-up time!" and got up again. Oh well.

His naplessness again seemed to announce itself in the evening. Admittedly he was put in a rather difficult position for a three-year-old boy: his mother closed the bedroom door and was wrapping presents. When he was finally invited in to "help," he commenced to throw things and make a mess. When told not to do this, he dissolved into tears.

Tomorrow he gets his last day of daycare for a bit.

12/23/13 (Monday)

As Steve mentioned, Owen didn't eat much yesterday. In fact, after he'd had his teeth brushed and gotten into bed, he immediately told me that he was hungry. At that point, there was nothing I could do but suggest a big breakfast tomorrow. Once I'd convinced him there was no option besides being read to, he was fine.

At three in the morning, he woke up and woke me up: he was hungry. I let him have a snack while I read to him, and then he went back to sleep. He slept late, Steve reported: I was at work before he got up.

In the car on the way home from YBR, Owen and I had a disagreement over whether he is older. When he was a baby, he did not go to school. When his teacher, Miss Mona, was a baby, she went to school. Owen is bigger now. I inadvertently used the word "older." Owen is not older. He is bigger. Bigger is not older. He already told me. And this is just a story about him and his teachers. And he is done talking about this.

Cara and Steve had put on He-Man when we got home. Owen watched a little bit and then insisted on going to play with his He-Man toys. Many toys were played with this evening. Eventually, though, Owen ended up watching a show on his Nook. Well, "his" Nook. After that, it was time to go upstairs for a bath. Instead, Owen started to play a game. We started to count to three. Around two, Owen put down the Nook and dashed for the stairs, yelling, "By the power of Gayskull!!!"

12/24/13 (Tuesday)

We had a nice slow day at home, which we appreciated, knowing that it would be our last for a while! Unfortunately, as soon as we'd put Owen down for his nap, the cleaners arrived. He'd just been in his room talking, so we let him out. They start upstairs, so they were right there, asking him whether he was excited that Santa was coming. He was shy.

I'd thought we'd all hang out in the basement, but Owen jumped onto Cara's bed, concerned that he'd be cleaned if he stayed on the floor, so the three of us hung out in her room. Soon, Owen had gotten over his shyness and was eager to tell the cleaner, when she came in, that he had a toy kitty. He had to go get it to show her. He did not get cleaned.

Soon after they left, we left, too. Steve had managed to bundle all of the presents (I went overboard this year) into the car, though Cara and I couldn't put our feet down on the floor, and we headed to Middletown. Owen slept in the car.

We missed Aunt Theresa and Uncle John, who couldn't make it back to New Jersey this year, but we had a lovely Christmas Eve. We had some new additions. Casie came, after church, with her boyfriend, Jason.

Grandmama had bought crackers, which turned out to be of higher quality than ones we've had before. They were too difficult for Owen to pull by himself, so teamwork was required. Inside were paper crowns, of course, but also jokes and prizes: we got tiny picture frames, a compass, measuring spoons, and a set of very tiny screwdrivers!

Opening presents was fun, of course. Owen naturally had a lot to open, but it took him extra long because when he opened something, he had to really investigate it before moving on to the next thing. He'd open a book, for instance, and have to go off and "read" it until we got his attention and convinced him to come back for more. He got a lot of things he was excited about, particularly the "guys." The best present, though, was from Casie. She'd asked Claire what Owen liked. Claire told her that Owen likes smashing things. She bought him an inflatable wrestler, a "bop bag," whom Owen can punch and tussle to his heart's content. She included a set of Socker Boppers, "inflatable boxing pillows" which one wears on one's hands. We all enjoyed hitting the wrestler, especially Owen. Upstairs on the carpet, he moved on to full-body tackling, the two of them rolling on the ground. We left the wrestler in Middletown when we left the next day, just because of space in the car, but we look forward to getting him home.

I took the kids outside on the porch to throw magic reindeer food. I stood by the railing, holding Owen, who managed, every time, to throw it about six inches, so that it all fell right next to the porch, behind the bushes. This did not bother him a bit. When a few flakes of oatmeal fell on the railing, even though Cara and I pointed out that that would show the reindeer where to go, it did bother him.

It was very, very late when both kids were tucked into their beds upstairs.

12/25/13 (Wednesday)

The house was quiet when Steve and I woke up. I snuck to the car to bring in a last-minute gift, and then I tiptoed upstairs. I heard Owen crying in the kids' room! When I went in, it turned out that he had woken up and said that he wanted to go and see Santa. Cara, quite correctly, had told him that he would not see Santa. I brought him down to see what Santa had brought.

There were more guys! Once again, Owen made his very slow progress through his gifts. He was excited to get a pair of slippers. I threatened to put them on. "They are for boys!" he told me, "not for womans!" We had a leisurely breakfast and got to play for a while before we packed up and hit the road.

Christmas with my family was at my cousin Andrea's house. Everyone was already there when we arrived. I think one of the most intriguing things from that day was one of Lily's toys, a game called "Doggie Doo" which involved just what it sounds like it involves. There was a plastic weiner dog who got fed and then you pumped a trigger until the food passed through his body and plopped out the other end. It was yellow and gooey and icky and the children loved it.

It was too exciting for them to eat all that much, though there was plenty to eat. Lily also had a little ride-on toy, which Cara liked to drive. For a while, Cara was driving the thing around with Lily on the back end, happily playing on her mother's phone. The boys got more toys, and sort of played together. They shared well.

Lily was very excited to get everyone to do a "craft" that she had. In the event, Griffin never showed up, and Owen quickly got distracted and wandered off. Lily and Cara stuck it out, though, and had little reindeer jingle ball necklaces to show for it.

It was another late night for the kids. They wanted to eat more when they finally got home. But everyone was satisfied, and it was nice to put them into their own beds at the end of it.

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