Welcome to our world

We have taught Owen that, when Abby is threatening to do something like knock over his train set or turn off the television (she likes buttons), he is to call one of his parents rather than forcibly eject her from the room.

The result is that the day is broken up by intermittent cries of "Help!" from Owen, at which point we trot into the room and resolve things.

But Owen has begun to try to cut out the middleman, and he is finding that, by golly, one-year-olds are not so good at following instructions. Yesterday Abby was crawling with a head of steam toward Owen's trains and he tried telling her to go in the other direction.

"Abby, go this way!"
(No response)
"No, Abby, this way!"
(Giggle, continues in same direction)
"Abby! Listen to me!"
(No response.)
"Oh, you little rascal."

Pucky, we hardly knew ye

I'm not sure exactly when, but at some point when Owen was a baby he grew quite fond of a little stuffed blue dog. It lived in his crib, and Owen would often drift off to sleep while playing with the dog's ribbon or rubbing it against his face.

When Owen learned to talk, he named the dog Blue Puppy, which came out of his mouth as Blue Pucky and eventually just Pucky. This was convenient because the dog was really no longer blue and had faded to a mottled grey.

Pucky has been through a lot, as the photos attest. When Owen was in daycare as a one-year-old, Pucky went with. This meant Pucky often was dragged, literally, through the mud as Owen and his fellow charges travelled about the neighbourhood. Owen was also pretty aggressive about snuggling Pucky in his bed, so the thing has eroded to the point that it is really not recognizable as a dog.

But these are sad times for Pucky. Owen's interest in cats is, as has been mentioned before, a bit nutty, and he now likes to carry them back and forth from his bed to the family-room couch. Sometimes Pucky is brought along, sometimes not. And recently, when Owen's friend Justin slept over, Owen put all of his stuffed animals in Justin's bed. Including Pucky.

But not the cats.

Sue was a little teary-eyed on Pucky's behalf.

Slumber party

Owen is pretty good about going to bed when told. Going to sleep is another matter entirely. He will often spend up to an hour playing in his room, depending on how tired he is. This sometimes means that a tidy room will, by the time he has passed out, appear as though it has been struck by a significant weather event.

In other instances there is method to his madness. He will suddenly be overcome by the need to, for example, line up all of his Hot Wheels cars. So we'll go in to check on him and find that he is sound asleep, and there is a line of 30 wee little cars in the middle of the floor, as though they are awaiting inspection.

And sometimes he will elect to bring certain toys into bed with them. Recently this included all of his Rescue Heroes, and a handful of large vehicles. These are not soft items, and yet he managed to go to sleep next to them.

Notice in the photo that his cats remain out of the fray. And, yes, that is a small tent that is shaped like a cat, is in fact intended for cats, and Owen often treats it like it IS a cat. So it is also in bed with him too.