Week of April 23, 2003
Easter was April 20, and sucker that I am, I made Owen a little Easter basket. Mind you, I grew up with a Mom who made up Easter baskets and Christmas stockings that were unparalleled. For an atheist, she was a sucker for seasonal details. Items were always carefully chosen and exquisite, and I don't think I can ever compete with her creations. She set such a high standards, I'm not sure she wanted to compete with her creations after a while. I suspect she was very relieved when I grew too old for them, but it was sad missing out, they were such a creative marvel.I designed Owen's basket to be particularly low key, he's a toddler after all. A little metal pail, green tissue paper, extra sturdy plastic eggs filled with nothing very evil. Owen wasn't much impressed, but we did have one thing that caught his eye: The DVD of Percy's Chocolate Crunch. We've seen all the Thomas videos and DVDs many times, and Scott and I were as excited for a new one as Owen was. (We ration them, but there are only so many out there. Owen has them committed to memory and knows every scary part by heart. That's sorta scary by itself.) Sadly, our new DVD did not live up to the high standard of Salty's Secret. I can at least admire the quality of DVD, and the wonderful joy of not having to rewind anything. Now if only DVDs didn't take so much time to get through the intros.
Owen received a couple of bunny cards for the holiday. One he ran around the apartment with a few times, shouting "mine, mine" until he collapsed with it in a heap. He's always had a fondness for bunnies, perhaps because one of our nicknames for him is "Bunny." He likes his bunny books, bunny pictures, bunny stories, and he loves his stuffed bunny that he sleeps with at night. Easter seems particularly good for bunny themes, although no stuffed bunnies were forthcoming.
His grandparents also created a little pail for him, and inside was a large ball-shaped chick who peeped. All three grand children received them, but we got their first and lay claim to the purple one (rotters that we are, purple seems to be a universal favorite color). There was also candy. Owen instantly learned another new word: Peep. He started using it immediately upon tasting his first one. He was addicted. His cousins then proceeded to tear 4 or 5 into little bits and feed them too him, as he followed them around like a good addict following his supplier. In between, he'd plaintively say "Peep, peep, peep!" until they tore off another bit. We finally had to cut him off, and I'm surprised he didn't have the jitters after all that sugar.
We brought the remainder home and each time we presented him with a peep, he was filled with joy (chanting "peep, peep, peep!"). His love for eating them is ironic, give the little board book we have called "Owen's Marshmallow Peep" - in that book, the little Mouse Owen reveres his yellow Peep and saves it on a shelf. Our little Owen would not give it the same mercy. So Owen got all the peeps, Scott enjoyed the chocolate bunnies we received, and I settled for enjoying the chocolate/toasted coconut nests we had purchased from CVS. I love those things, and we set aside two to split for the holiday.
Owen's vocabulary continues to explode. I don't think I can even keep up with all the words he's adding. He's carefully listening to what we call things and I think understands what something is as soon as he hears it once. He can use the words also, but offers them up more slowly. He still is mainly using single syllables for everything, but there are a few exceptions (kitty cat) and he's beginning to put words together. He's delighted when we understand him say things, and that's encouraging him greatly.
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