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Journal Key:

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

5/22/14 (Thursday)

Today was special: I picked up PJ and Casey and Cara from school, and Steve got Owen. The six of us had a fun evening. The girls mainly played together, and PJ and Steve got to play video games in the basement after dinner. Poor Owen sat in the playroom, calling, "Daddy, I need you to come play guys with me!"

Eventually the girls went out into the yard, and that was more interesting than the possibility of Daddy.

5/24/14 (Saturday)

Aunt Claire came up! She was very much in demand. Some of us had to go to the Farmer's Market. Claire suggested that she and I go. "No," said Owen. "You have to stay here with me. Mommy will go, and Daddy, and Cara." Actually, Steve and I went, but both kids stayed here.

Later, we went out to dinner. I managed to get Claire out of having to sit in the back seat with him by promising she would sit with him in the restaurant. Fortunately, Cara decided that having both parents to sit with was pretty good, too.

Washing him in the bath is going too far, but at bedtime, she read to him.

5/25/14 (Sunday)

What a beautiful day! We had planned to go out on the boat, but that got called off. However, Grandmama and Grandpapa had been promised a cookout in exchange for babysitting, so we all hung out at the Loefflers and let the kids run around in swimsuits while we had a lovely, leisurely meal.

It was too cold for the pool, which was around 64 degrees. Well, it was too cold for normal people. It turned out to be great for the three older kids, and Owen didn't try to get any adults to take him in. He did put his feet in a lot, and I got wet from sitting with him, but it was warm enough that that was very nice. He sat at the stairs and "fished" with a noodle. The adults' job was to take the "fish" off. We had to pull really hard.

He also hung out at their tiki bar, where he made Grandmama (she's so helpful) bartend. The other kids joined in. I get the impression that it was some sort of ice cream bar.

We'd started out the afternoon with the slip n slide, which Owen managed to sort of go on once or twice. Still, he was busy and happy all afternoon, and so were we!

5/26/14 (Monday)

We took a family trip to Wheaton Village, with a stop to have lunch with Grandmom and Grandpop. Owen chose to order chicken fingers, which is what he orders everywhere. He rarely actually eats them. However, these came with spaghetti. He ate that. Grandmom twirled it for him; she was clever enough to put the twirled pasta on his spoon for him to eat, which went much better than leaving it on the fork. I'm sold.

At Wheaton Village, we made it through the museum. Cara's old enough to really want to look at things, and Owen is not. Steve and I tried to keep him occupied, but sometimes he felt that he really needed to show things to his sister. He'd follow her, whining, while she read the little signs and studied the displays, until finally she was ready to come see what he'd found. He did like the paperweights and some of the glass things shaped like animals.

Finally, we let him lead the way out. At the door, he turned back. There was a display that was a huge pile of colored glass bottles. "Hey," he said, "that looks like bottles!" He's so perceptive!

After a snack from the general store (gummi bears for Owen and worms for Cara), it was time for the glass blowing demonstration. With the help of his gummi bears and our bottle of water and his own patience, Owen sat through the whole show like a trooper. I'm not sure that he got anything out of it, but I did explain things to him.

They also have squirrels at Wheaton Village. That was exciting.

In the gift shop, Owen picked up the Worst Possible Toy. It was a little plastic phone that made lots of noise. Then he changed to something else. Then something else. Then, finally, a jump rope. Everyone was relieved.

5/28/14 (Wednesday)

It's a crazy week this week, what with having Monday off and then Cara's dance class yesterday, and she has a long dress rehearsal for her big recital tomorrow night that will make things weird. Tonight was playdate night, which is normal. I didn't get there until everyone else was already sitting down at the table, eating dinner--which is also very normal.

Partway through our meal, the grownups were in the middle of talking about something or other, and Owen up and said, "Yeah so can you stop talking because it's my turn? Today at my school upstairs, [name of other boy that I can't remember] brought in puppy cookies!" Ron then questioned Owen closely about the puppy cookies: were they real? Owen assured him that they were the kind that you could actually eat. What shape were they? This was a tough one, which involved a very curious description about them not being round, but having "lines," which basically I think meant that they were rectangular rather than circular. We also determined that they were chocolate chip. Afterwards he turned to me so that he could also tell me about the puppy cookies. It's always wonderful when he gets into these talkative moods, because most mornings when I bring him into school he doesn't even want to say hello to people.

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