Week of July 23, 2003
"(Bir)dies run away"Owen's fixation fascination with Henry and the Elephant continues to lessen. I can't tell you how grateful we are. It's wearing to see the video several times, and then having to read the story several times in a row. Scott and I know the story so well that we'll just start telling it to Owen when we're out and about, just to see him break out in a wide grin. He'll regularly chant phrases from the story while he's playing, so we know it's still taking up space in his brain. It's just taking up less space.
He's taken to choosing other stories from our Thomas compendium. The first time, we were really confused about his intentions because what else could there be, besides "Hah El" Perhaps we were also confused because it's not always easy to tell what he's saying, especially when it's something new. He knows what he's saying, but it takes us a while to catch up. Sometimes we just stay baffled, and Owen looks annoyed with us. In an effort to narrow the field, we'll graze the book so that he can see the pictures as we give him the title. We've read some unlikely stories about Stepney, and Percy and George. He seems to be giving us definite assent when we ask him if that's what he wants, but it's strange that he would so adamantly choose a story about Stepney and the Bluebell railway. Ah well, at least it's a change. This book gets a lot of hard use, I can see one copy may not get us through! The spine has separated from the binding, and the pages are looking well-loved.
We went to visit friends this weekend, and Owen did his usual sleeping thing. He slept well until 12:30, and then he was up until 4 a.m. He was so exhausted by that point than when he finally nodded off at 4, he matched his record for sleeping late: 7 a.m.! I'm not sure that counts for late if he's up for hour in the middle, but it was something. At home he's normally very good about getting himself back to sleep when he wakes, but when we travel it's another story. I don't know if the portacrib is too small, or if it's the knowledge that we're in the same room, but either way, when he wakes we're screwed. He cries, he yearns, he keeps us awake. Waiting him out just makes it worse, as his cries escalate, so now I'm inclined to take him into bed with us once he's woken up and started crying. This worked well once, and he fell right back asleep. What bliss! But the last few times, it's been awful. He cries and thrashes and really seems to want to get up and start his day, so it's a kind of torture to be sharing space with this unhappy bedhog.
It's tempting to choose not to travel, but it seems like the wrong decision. Up until now, we've never been away for more than a night or two, but the Lee family reunion is fast approaching, and that will mean 5 nights away from home. Will they be sleepless nights? And what will my brother and his family be saying, if Owen's wailing takes a toll on their own sleep? We're sharing the house with them because they too are parents of an early-rising toddler. I'm confident however that despite their early rising, they expect to be sleeping in the wee hours of the night. I'm practicing a certain amount of groundless optimism that it will unfold smoothly, that some how, "It will all work out!" (Did I mention it's a house on an island, without running water and electricity? I don't think I can point that out too often.)
Anyway, after one night of sleeping only three hours this past weekend, we were practically prostrate. How quickly we got out of the sleepless habit! I'm really used to getting my 7 hours now, and while I know there was a time when I dreamed of four hours in a row of sleep, it's really hard to remember what that self was like. Bleary I think. Desperate. Out of it. By the time Sunday wound down, I think we were all ready to collapse into our familiar beds.
Owen events:
Owen's been more willing to have some slow mornings. Hard to say if he's beat, or just better able to appreciate a stroller ride or, gasp, hanging out next to the table outside at the cafe. While many days he's still a whirling dervish, running around non stop during our coffee runs, it's no longer 100%. He's an energetic little guy, and that's more the norm, but the fact that hanging out is ever an option amazes us. Wow. This morning, not only did we hang out, but once Owen asked to get down out of the stroller, we still pretty much hung out near a bench. And when we asked him if he wanted to go to Diane's, he actually walked with us across the way to the car, and happily got in. Scott and I were aghast - was this placid child ours? He may not reappear for a while, we have rational expectations, but we're still basking in the glow of a quiet morning.
He continues to talk up a storm. In addition to repeating many of the things we say (and filing the information away), he's also quite able to generate new sentences. He's also doing better with his colors, although I find it's primarily in the context of the colors of cars that we pass by. Red car. White car. Blue car. His longest sentence, "I want go outside, in the rain." Wow.
He's also getting savvier about how to manipulate our actions against us. Not maliciously I think, but in a way that shows he's using our behavior for his own ends. We're spending a bit of time explaining that he must stay on sidewalks and away from parking lots and the street. When he's run in the parking lot, we end our outside excursions and force him to go inside. At one point when we were outside, I swear he said "I want inside" but I thought it unlikely he really wanted to go inside. Next thing we knew, he ran into the parking lot. I think he just upped the ante to get to his goal. Yikes.
Other phrases: "I want two" and "have two." Owen's taking great pleasure in really knowing what two is, I think he gets it from his early food habits. He's always been one to need something in both hands - when he asks for food, it's always in pairs. I think even more than wanting something to eat, he just likes carrying things around. The comfort of knowing he has something if he wants it, perhaps? If he's really hungry, he'll open his mouth so we can feed him a 3rd. But each hand must be full, the power of two must be preserved. So it's not a surprise to see two taking a prominent spot in his vocabulary.
And just to remind us he's not one to settle down for long, he's been running around furiously in the mornings, chasing the squirrels and the birds. When he was hanging in his stroller, he was pretty excited to have a close up view of the sparrows eating crumbs beside him. But when he's out and about, birds ("dies") are for chasing. The squirrels know to run when they seem him, but for the sparrows, the temptation of muffin crumbs wrestles with their urge for safety. You can see them struggle, finally gambling on a quick grab and flight with their beaks full. We reward their tenacity when Owen's not looking, with extra crumbs.
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