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7/26/05

It's been a long time. I have an awful lot to cover, and I'm not sure where to start.

Last Thursday, Steve and Cara and I drove up to Newark Airport and parked in the Economy parking lot, which meant that we had to take a bus to the airport. The bus was pretty full when we hoisted our stroller onto it, and when it got more full we had to pull the stroller farther back and up a couple of stairs to stand almost on people's feet for the rest of the ride. It was kind of cool.

We were traveling with my parents, Claire, and my Grandma Emily. On the flight down, we had all been assigned seats completely separately, although my mother had been told that we would have three consecutive seats only the day before, when she bought the tickets. I was assigned a seat between two women in row 24, I think. When I got on, my mom offered to switch with either of them. You'd think that anyone would either want to help out or at least to get away from the crying baby, but they both refused to switch with her! Then, the people she was sitting with refused to switch, not wanting a central seat or to move back in the plane! However, two women in a completely different row heard her explaining the situation and gave her and me their seats, kindly taking our seats and separating for the flight. It was really great that they did, because it is hard to handle the baby without another pair of hands for that long. I could never have gotten through that flight, stuck between two strangers!

In Florida we got into our rental car and headed down to Grandma's house. We stayed there with Claire and Grandma from Thursday through Sunday. My folks and Grandma Emily stayed over at Arnie's house. Including Arielle, my cousin, there were ten adults around. It was a busy weekend. The funeral was Friday afternoon. The chapel was full, and I think Cara was overwhelmed by meeting so many people. It's possible, though, that she was just mad because we had put her in a car and taken her to yet another unfamiliar place. Steve very obligingly took care of Cara so that she did not disturb the service--of course, as soon as he took her out of the crowds she went to sleep and stayed that way until it was over, so he COULD have attended instead of just listening over a loudspeaker. There was another baby there, and I kept turning around to look whenever it made noise, convinced that Steve had brought Cara in and she was disrupting things, until my dad told me it was a different baby.

After the funeral a lot of people came back to the house. That's what the picture of Steve and Cara, in which she is sitting in her rocking chair and he is dressed up, is from. After a while she got a little bit overwhelmed by the crowd and we took her back to our bedroom. She had a lot of time, though, when she was at least quiet and polite when company was over.

It was wonderful how many people had already seen pictures of Cara and heard about her trip down to see her great grandfather. It meant an awful lot to me to know how much that meant. The picture of Cara and Fred is the last picture of him, and it may have been the last time he sat up.

Even though she was very busy, Grandma Anne had time to hold the baby. She danced with her and sang to her--one morning, she played the piano for her! I don't know how she can remember how to play baby songs after all these years. We got a nice picture of her with Cara.

It was great having so many hands to hold the baby. Cara slept fine at night in her play yard, but she really didn't sleep much independently during the day (until Saturday, which she pretty much spent asleep either on people or in her little rocking chair), so it was wonderful to have my mom around. Cara slept very happily on her, just like last trip. I got a nice picture. Actually, I took about five of them and we picked the best one to post. I always have to take five pictures at a time, because I'm not awfully good at using the camera and I never know whether it worked. I also got five pictures of Cara asleep in her daddy's arms, completely limp and in a very funny position.

Grandma Emily was also a huge help with Cara. At least twice she got her to sleep, and she played and walked with her a lot.

One fun thing was getting out my Burl Ives CD, because it is not just a relic from my childhood but also from my mother's childhood. Everyone remembered the songs and got a kick out of hearing them again.

On Sunday we had to say good-bye and head for the airport. Strangely, every time we've gone to the airport except last Thursday, it's been time for Cara to eat and she has taken a bottle in the car. I sat in back with her this time, and she took about four ounces very nicely and quietly. The seating on the plane was much better; Claire and Steve and I got to sit together by switching just one seat, and Daddy and Grandma were right behind us. Cara was good; once again she slept through landing. The exciting part is, she finally got her wings! I don't know why it took four trips, but now we have a little Continental badge to put in her baby book.

Steve and I were exhausted on Sunday night. Cara was very happy to be home, all smiles for quite a while, but later in the evening she began to really scream very very hard. It was scary. Just about when I was wishing my mother were there, the phone rang. It was my mother. She said what I had figured she would, that it was probably Cara's ears. Thank goodness, Cara got calmed down and went to sleep in my arms. We talked to Mom again in half an hour, confirming that Baby was okay.

Yesterday, Jim and Janet came up. Cara played nicely with her grandma, who took her outside to look at trees. She took a bottle from her grandpa. I fed Cara around four, after they had left, and Cara accidentally went to sleep for the night. I put her down around six, assuming that she would wake up soon. Around nine, I went up and trimmed her nails and bothered her ears with a Q-tip (a safety one, of course), figuring that that might wake her up. She slept on. We got up around two, though, as I had figured we would. She did go back to sleep, though, thank goodness, and slept until about eight.

Today I went to the doctor and my dad came up and baby-sat. When I got back, he was playing piano with Cara, who was drooling and watching. "This baby sure takes a lot of rattling!" he said. For a second I wondered why and how hard he was rattling my baby, but it turned out that he meant that she liked having rattles rattled at her for a very long time. She sure does!

In Dear Abby (or one of those columns) today, a wife wrote in because her husband, instead of playing with their nine-month-old, just parks it in front of the TV. That is particularly interesting because, when dinner was ready, Cara was fussy. She did not want to sit in the kitchen in her bouncer, so we put on Baby Beethoven and parked her in front of the TV. We were able to eat, and there was not a peep out of her. She was awake through the whole thing, I think, because she was up when Steve went out there when it was done. I have many thoughts about the issue of parking Cara in front of the TV, but I think I will save them for another day. This seems like plenty!

7/27/05

Last night, Steve and I had a lot of success playing with Cara. I lay her down in her crib and started her fish mobile spinning above her, and she had a wonderful time, talking to her fishies and pushing with her legs to kind of make a bridge with her back. It gets her pretty close to rolling over; she may have wanted to show the fish that she could do it. I'm not sure what they were discussing, but the conversation certainly went on. Steve played with Cara with her little lamb toy (yet another plush animal that rattles); when he put it sort of in the way of her hands, she grabbed it and managed to repeatedly put it in her mouth! It got very disgusting when she had spent several minutes sucking on each of its back feet.

This morning Cara was going to have a bath and go to her grandma's house, but she got sleepy after we played for a while, so I just tossed her in the car and headed down, saving the bath for later. Cara talked to my mom for quite a while, and then we put her in her swing while we ate lunch. I put her lamb on top of her, and it was in her mouth in just a few minutes! We went to the mall and Cara had essentially a very long nap while we shopped.

Back at home, Cara's been a little fussy. I stopped for groceries on the way home, and she kept smiling and laughing in the grocery store, but hasn't been all that happy here. Steve put her in her bouncer on the table during dinner, and that went pretty well. He did have to keep shaking her lamb at her the whole time, but it was probably the best arrangement we could have had. (It was fine for me, you'll notice; I just watched and ate in peace!) This evening Cara had a very nice bath and then took a nap with me in the glider. She may be asleep now in her crib, but probably I'll feed her again before she really goes to sleep--otherwise, who knows when we'll get up!

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