1) Owen getting better at crawling. A few days ago J set him down in the living room surrounded by some favorite toys so she could finish James' bath. A few moments later, a little blonde head peeked its way around the door...
No place is safe anymore. He routinely crawls over to the radiator vents and disassembles them. He climbs on and off the mattresses on the floor, and is especially interested in any books, shoes, or power cords that might be lying at infant level.
2) James' room is a baseball stadium. He runs the bases. (Making an L shape around the bed and frequently hopping over the younger brother who's crawled in to see what he's doing) and keeps up a constant stream of color commentary. George is most often the other player, although he's also sung the Take Me Out to the Ballgame tune using only the word Owen.
3) Throwing rocks in the stream. This is sort of the meaning of life for a little boy as it involves all five of the major elemental forces of little-boy-hood. (1-Throwing things 2-Getting dirty 3-Causing big noises/crashes 4-Climbing 5-Getting soaked). Today I only took James, but a few days ago Owen came along as well. He thought it was great fun, but for every rock he actually threw in the stream he tried to put two in his mouth.
4) Pearce sing-time. James has declared that Owen's room is "Pearce." He goes in, stands on the bedframe, sets up George and Steven, and then sings Sunday School songs to them. This would be really cute just on its own, but you have to know that for months and months James has resisted participating in the sing-time when he's in the church nursery. Some sweet woman comes in every week and sings to all of the little 3 year olds in the nursery, and J tells me that inevitably when she walks by there's a group of kids sitting at her feet and singing the songs enthusiastically while James stands off in a corner alone playing with George and Steven. She took to asking him whether he was singing along with the Sunday School songs or not, and James always made a point of proudly telling her that she refused. In fact, he even began to answer the question before it was asked. (She would pick him up at the nursery and he'd declare as soon as he saw her "Hi Mommy! I didn't sing today!") I don't know what clicked when we arrived at camp, but he suddenly decided that he was going to set up his own "Pearce" and has faithfully held singing sessions for George and Steven (none of the rest of us are allowed in) where he sings close to a dozen different Sunday School songs, all memorized, some of which we've never heard before.
5) James' crush on Lizzie. Lizzie is nine, and is still a little too young to be at camp. Her family started sitting with us during mealtimes, and she condescended to play with him. Now he constantly asks about her. "Hey, when we go to the music building will we see Wizzie?" "Hey, is Wizzie going to be at wunch?" "Where does Wizzie wive? Does she wive at 3-0-6? Can we say hi to her?" "Mommy, what do you think Wizzie is doing?" If you ask him about her or about what he thinks about her, he'll either run into his room and hide or he'll lie down on the floor and bury his face in George and Steven. And then, if he sees her on campus, he'll just about walk into traffic with distraction. This afternoon she was crossing into the cafeteria with her parents and James whispered "Hey Daddy, who do you see?" "I think I see someone we know...who is it?" "Can you tell me?" "You know who it is...who is it?" "Can you tell me?"
6) James' room is also a tractor store. There are tractors for sale, and the tractor is displayed up on a kitchen stool. Owen isn't allowed to play with the tractor, but he can come and visit the tractor store. Do you want to buy a tractor?
7) Owen's social graces. We love camp, and we love the people at camp. It's always a mix of some people we know fairly well and some people who we don't know, but suspect we'd probably get along with nicely if we sat down and had a conversation. But even with the people we know fairly well, conversation for J and me is always a deliberate effort. We weigh our words, we speak carefully, and we're socially self-conscious. We want to connect and make new friends, but the inner voice of our introverted selves would be fine to just keep to our own business and read quietly in the flats all afternoon. Not so with Owen. He smiles at anybody and everyone who passes by him, often smeared in cafeteria food and brandishing whatever utensil was carelessly left within his wingspan. All the little girl campers stop by and giggle at him, and he delights them each time with a goofy grin in return, completely happy to be the center of their attention.
8) James' room is also a recycling truck. Since the water here is so nasty we always bring an enormous pack of bottled water to keep in the fridge. By several days in we'd already nearly filled up the recycling bin in our room with empty water bottles. Yesterday I walked by the bin and noticed it was empty. J said she hadn't taken in out. James, sitting on his bed, declared that he was driving a recycling truck with George. I later found every single empty water bottle in the underwear drawer of his dresser. In fact, I think he's started to ask for new water in his cup just so he can have another empty bottle to put "on his recycling truck."
9) Visits from friends. Pax, K, and Abby stopped by yesterday afternoon, and we got to see a personal demonstration of Abby's new skills. While they were visiting the Shewans also dropped in, and we had a lovely (albeit very warm) time catching up in our apartment. In fact, since we've been down at camp I've seen everyone in the family except Sam. I don't remember the last time we did that much visiting in one week.
10) Ice cream at every meal.
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