13/100

I. More Profanity
James has apparently given up on the F-bomb, but Owen has discovered it in a rapid way. I think that James knew there was something different about that particular monosyllable for the entire time it passed into his awareness. Owen, who yammers away constantly and doesn't particularly bother with pronunciation or intelligibility, is just delivering his usual half-understood commentary on the world. It comes up when he says the word "look." He gets the K sound at the end very strongly. The U vowel is short. It's the L where he gets in trouble. Something about the way he moves his lips when he's talking fast makes the L come out, instead of a "Y" sound, as a Ph or hard V. When we were driving back from my concert the other day, he was yelling at the top of his lungs: "Look, Mommy, Look! Look that! Look that tree! Ah see it! Look, Mommy! Look! Look!"

His other problem word is "Percy." Percy, of course, is the green engine number 6, one of Thomas' best friends. I sort of think that Percy was James' favorite train when he was Owen's age and into Thomas. Owen isn't as interested in the colors and personalities of the trains. He just likes to say Choo-Choo Train! and find all the pictures in the Look-and-Find book. Or, as he calls it the...well, you get the idea. But he makes, instead of an "er" sound, an "uh" sound in the middle of Percy's name. So it sounds bad when he goes on like this: "Mommy, ah' see Percy! Look, Percy! Percy 's geen! On tack wiv Percy!"

II. Skipping Grades
The Pearce nursery care system splits kids into three or four different age levels, and of course James and Owen have always been in separate classes. James, this year, is in a four and five year old class, and he's one of the older kids in there. Owen graduated from the baby room, and was with a class of other two-year olds. Apparently Owen misses James. He told the nursery workers who were looking after him a few weeks ago that he really wanted to go see his brother. And he told them again and again, and eventually talked them into it. So, when J went down to the basement to pick up the kids, there was Owen in the four and five year old room, happily playing along with James. Last week he did the same thing. They were having story time in a circle, about a dozen four and five year olds sitting quietly and listening to the Bible lesson, and Owen, also sitting quietly in the circle, except that he was sucking his fingers and holding his ear. She asked James when Owen had talked his way over, and apparently it was pretty early. He thinks the older kids have better snacks.

III. At the Concert
The kids came to hear my Cirque show this weekend. I was excited to have familiar faces in the audience, and I was pretty sure that they would love the acrobatics and the music. I took them up to the balcony to help get them seated, then made my way down to the stage and warmed up. The program started with Festive Overture. It was greeted with warm applause, at the end of which I could hear a voice yelling "Yay, Daddy! Goo' job, Daddy!" James, who was still convalescing from the weekend, mostly stayed huddled up in his seat, and asked to go home. Owen, on the other hand, apparently clapped vigorously at the end of, and sometimes in the middle of, every piece. He told J about how he knew the music was from ROAD RUNNER very loudly and multiple times during the Smetana Dance of the Comedians, and bounced up and down with the acrobats during the Ride of the Valkyries. And of course, during the Waltz from Swan Lake, he was moved to the point of joining into the performance, contributing Jingle Bells at the top of his lungs.

He had a great time.