| Previous Week | Back Home | Next Week |

Journal Key:

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

3/6-9/14 (Thursday-Sunday)

Another weekend where we didn't manage to do much journaling. For Family Fun Night, the kids had Wendy's and we watched a movie. On Saturday, Cara had her first real dance competition! It was a very long day for Cara and Evelyn, because they left in the morning to drive down to the competition, Cara did her dance, and then they had to stay on for hours while all the other acts went. Cara's group won three awards!!

Meanwhile, Owen and I got ourselves out and went to see Uncle Jim, Aunt Sarah, Griffin, and Xavier. We had a nice time playing. Actually we went to a diner for lunch, where Owen spent most of his time claiming to be sleeping in an empty booth. He did eat some of the soup that came with my meal, and a cracker. He also happily accepted a lollipop afterwards.

The day was nice enough for us to actually play outside, which is excellent because of the very nice playset that Griffin has in his backyard. Jim got out the swings--put away until now due to the endless string of snowstorms--and the boys had a nice time swinging next to each other. They didn't actually ever kick each other in the head, which was a plus. Periodically, Owen would order me to go and play with a ball while he was swinging, presumably so that he would have something entertaining to watch.

We had a fun day and then, since Ev and Cara were near Aunt Casie's new house, and she was willing to have us come over, we all converged there. Aunt Claire was there too! Jason has a gigantic stuffed Sonic the Hedgehog, who became a big favorite. Also there was a gigantic bean bag, which was just as good, if not better. The kids watched Phineas and Ferb and ate pizza and got to stay up quite late.

On Sunday, our exciting weekend continued. It was Grandpapa's birthday! Or at least we were celebrating it. We drove to Middletown and Owen demanded to watch Scooby-Doo. Since he was at his granparents' house, he was given Scooby-Doo. (We would have done it too.) I think he ate some yogurt and I'm not sure what else we managed to get into him.

3/11/14 (Tuesday)

Monday was right after we had changed the clocks ahead an hour, so both children slept in. Owen slept in so much that I had to roll him out of bed and get him right into his clothes. Strangely enough, he didn't seem to mind all that much. In contrast, this morning he decided to get up a considerable amount of time before my alarm usually goes off. Evelyn bravely tried to keep him occupied so that I could go back to sleep while she was in the shower, but alas, it was not to be. On the plus side, we all got to work/school on time.

Tonight was weird because Evelyn had to stay late at school for conferences. I rushed home to get Owen, who it appeared was waiting to show me something he had drawn on a sort of etch-a-sketch thing that they have at YBR. "It's a star with a lot of eyeballs," was I think how he described it. I told him it was very cool. Then he erased it. We jumped into the car and arrived at Cara's dance school just a few minutes after her class ended. She was already all packed, so it was quite nice for me.

It was a beautiful day, the warmest one in quite a while, and the kids had big plans about playing outside. Unfortunately for them, it was already past six, their father was very hungry, and Cara had tons of homework to do. So instead of enjoying the outside we went in, had dinner, did homework, glimpsed one or two TV shows from across the length of the house, and then it was time for Owen's bath.

Owen, I suspect, is somehow having recreational bowel movements. He was in the bath for a little while and then told me that he had to make poopie, which I'm sure he was doing so that he could get me to read more books to him instead of washing him. I did wash him, very quickly, before putting him on the toilet. He did in fact make poopie, while I read him two books, so he's not just making this stuff up out of whole cloth. When I suggested he should be done, he said that he still wanted to "make the little pieces."

Once he was all changed into his pajamas and had his teeth brushed, we sat among the scattered toys, strewn-around books, and rumpled blankets on the floor of his room and read The Berenstain Bears and the Messy Room. The irony was, naturally, completely lost on him.

3/12/14 (Wednesday)

Well, maybe the Messy Room has had some effect on Owen: this evening, after playdate, I told the kids we needed a clean living room. Owen went right to work. He brought action figures downstairs. He put away toy dragons. He got all of his stuffed animals into his room. At that point, having folded the blankets and tidied the pillows, I was satisfied. Owen, however, insisted that we needed a cleaner room, and he made me sort out and put away the last few things that were on the coffee table. It looks very nice.

I've been wondering whether Owen sleeps in the dark. It's hard to tell. When we leave him, he's generally in his bed, with a book, reading it with his night light/flashlight. In the morning, the night light/flashlight, still in his bed, always seems to be off. He must turn it off when he's done reading. He may have accidentally weaned himself from the night light! This could be an unexpected benefit of his bizarre reading in bed.

| Previous Week | Back Home | Next Week |