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Journal Key:

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

2/6/14 (Thursday)

Owen's very good friend Emilio hopes that Owen can come to his birthday party. Owen hopes not to go, because Emilio "wants [him] to do bad things. Emilio does bad things, and he wants [Owen] to do them with him, but [Owen] won't, because [Owen] is a good boy." Owen has not been able to explain what bad things these are. Usually he accuses DJ of doing bad things; this is a change. When I pressed him, he informed me that people do bad things to him and kick him and punch him. He hasn't mentioned this since last summer, when he was also telling us that he got time-outs every day.

In the car on the way home, Owen told me, appropos of nothing, "When we have a bear hunt, and the lights go out, I turn myself into Batman when I touch my neck, and I say da-nanana, da-nanana, Batman." He did that a lot today. This evening, he refused to demonstrate: there was no bear.

2/7/14 (Friday)

Owen likes to have snacks from his lunchbox on the way home. Unfortunately, he dropped it onto the floor in the car and couldn't reach it until we got to Lindeneau. He brought it in with him. Cara was washing her hands, so he settled in at a table and unpacked the entire lunchbox. There were a few pieces of pepper left, which he offered to Cara when she got back, claiming to have saved them for her. He was disappointed because every other container was empty.

We've been having many lunchbox-related adventures at ABC. A couple of days ago, he came in eating a cheese stick, which he finished. He had the wrapper. I suggested that he run and put it into a trash can across the room. As he ran over, I worried: would he be able to reach? It was a big trash can. It turned out that it only came up to his nose.

2/8/14 (Saturday)

Grandmom and Grandpop came up today! It was a wonderful way to persuade the kids to get dressed. After lunch, Owen announced that it was time for books before bed. He got Grandpop and Daddy to read to him in his room. Then, having backed out of the nap that he had proposed, he had Grandmom read to him in the kitchen.

Later, while some people watched the Olympics, Owen got Grandpop to play games with him. We found the old Do You See What I See game, and Grandpop and I got ourselves set up with our big cards while Owen piled up his little ones. Things started out fine; Owen pulled cards, and we turned ours over accordingly. Soon, though, he decided that instead of pulling more cards, he would rather line up all of the ones he had with great precision. This took quite a while. We attempted to intervene, but there was no help for it. When we eventually were able to finish that game and get new sets of cards, having been joined by Cara, Owen refused to turn any of his cards back over but instead continued to line them all up.

Finally, we went and played Lost Puppies instead. That went better.

In the evening, we were going to go and see the Lego movie with Aunt Claire. Owen, having missed his nap, was tired. He decided not to go, so he and I stayed home. He spent a long time resting, snuggled up with a movie and a blanket. We made brownies together, and we had dinner. By the time Claire, Cara, and Steve got back, he was bathed and in his pajamas and ready to command people to read to him.

2/9/14 (Sunday)

Owen and I hung around a lot today, because Cara and Evelyn went out to the mall. It was a heavy Nook day, but he was a good boy: he did a good job on his lunch, and then we followed through on the post-lunch books even though we both knew there was no way he was going to have a nap. Afterward he came out with me to the supermarket. It would have been a lot easier for us if he had been willing to ride in the cart, but he refused to do so, and spent the whole trip walking very slowly next to me. He stayed with me, though. He was invested in the shopping and there were several things he wanted to buy, very few of which were candy-related. In the produce section, he desperately wanted both a watermelon and a cantaloupe--though he had to ask me what the cantaloupes were. Then he said he needed one "because I love them." I was willing to buy him the watermelon.

We also had to go back and visit the lobsters. We looked at them for a while and then waved goodbye.

At dinner Owen got a little crazy. For some reason he decided it would be an interesting experiment to drink a little bit of juice and then spit it out onto his plate. Ew. Not sure where he got that idea from. Then he cackled madly for a while, possibly because he thought he had hiccups.

For the last few days, Owen has wanted his mouse at bedtime, but we haven't ever been excited about finding it, especially right at his bedtime. It is a tiny green mouse and there are many places where it could be. But this morning--possibly as an excuse to organize the toys a little--Evelyn decided we would look for it. We dug through a lot of bins but came up empty. We had a mystery on our hands, Owen decided. He also said, from time to time, that the mouse was crying for him. However this evening Evelyn did finally find the mouse, sitting in a green garbage truck that is stored under our coffee table. Then we lost it again almost immediately, and found it again. No doubt the saga of the mouse will go on.

2/10/14 (Monday)

Picking Owen up takes a while. He was cleaning up a ladder toy when I arrived, but he insisted on building another to show me. Then he wanted to show me a scary book. Then he said, "Come on, let's go, Mommy." What a good idea.

On the way to the car, he told me that when we got home he would tell me about his day and his friends. (He has not.) I mentioned something about tomorrow, but he objected.

Owen: We've had lots of tomorrows. Let's have another day.

Me: What day do you want?

Owen: . . . a day where I don't have to go to school.

2/11/14 (Tuesday)

I totally tricked Owen. He doesn't like driving down to Milltown to drop Cara off or pick her up; he complains every week. Today, as we were getting into the car, I told him I had an important job to do and I needed his help. He told me he would be a good helper. My job, I revealed, was to go pick Cara up. He was a good helper.

He told me that when we got home, he would tell me his day and his friends. I pointed out that yesterday he had not, so we talked about his day in the car. When we had been home for a while, he came into the kitchen and said, "I have to tell you my day. I played, and I did a project, and I didn't take a nap . . . and that was my day."

He made a piggy for the letter P. We talked about P. Many things start with P. Owen told me piggy, pizza, and pie. I suggested popcorn and pretzels. He agreed. I asked, just to check, whether watermelon starts with P. Yes, it does, and he wanted some for dinner.

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