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7/28/05

Cara went to the Kids Klub at LA Fitness today for the first time. I had an appointment with a trainer from 9:30 to 10, so I dropped her off in the little room at the front of the club. There were two women there, one young and one older. When I left, the younger one was playing with Cara. I brought her lamb and a little blanket as well as her panda popper, which I realized belatedly I had not shown to the women.

Kids Klub appointments are usually for an hour, I've been told, but I went back to check on Cara at ten. She was very upset. Apparently she was fine for a while, playing with her toys and having her feet tickled by another baby, but then she decided that Mommy should really be back by now. I went and got my stuff and took her, which didn't really help at first. See, when you're with somebody else you cry because it's so awful, but when you're with Mommy you cry to let her know how awful it all was! She did cool down in a few minutes, though. The women told me that she was a "very smart little girl" because she can already put toys in her mouth. They deal with older babies who don't do that yet. Her lamb was still all wet. I have a feeling that it will pretty much stay that way for a while.

I had to stop at the pharmacy and then we headed home. Cara had calmed down in her car seat, and I planned on taking her for a walk as soon as we got home. Then I realized that, since we were already in the car anyway, we might as well go to the park--why waste an opportunity? Since it was so nice out, finally only about 80 degrees today, I took Cara out to the park and we had a very good walk.

We spent the afternoon playing, eating, and napping. I took some pictures of Cara with her lamb in her mouth, which I will try to get Steve to post soon. Cara had a good time playing with her toys on her changing table. I have an arch with a toy sea horse and crab hanging from it, and Cara has been batting at them for weeks. Now, though, she grabs the sea horse by the tail and pulls to try to get it into her mouth. This, of course, doesn't work. By the time I get the velcro detached, she's distracted. It's plenty of fun, though!

Cara spent dinner today on the table, just like yesterday. This time we turned on the bouncer's vibrator, and the whole table got a massage. Steve put her popper into her hand, and, ironically, she did not try to put it in her mouth. She did manage to pass it from one hand to the other, though, which takes talent and hard work. Right now, Cara is drooling copiously on Steve's shirt.

She certainly talks a lot, now. She'll just look you in the eye and babble and smile and laugh! It makes me really wonder how she thinks. I mean, she has no words. I guess all she has is feelings, needs, and images. I wonder whether she knows what talking is for or that words mean things. Soon, at least, she ought to figure all that out. I was looking on the web at some baby development charts, which I take with a grain of salt, and one said that she would learn her own name in a month or so. She definitely doesn't know it now. She's making such fast progress, though, that I'm astounded!

7/29/05

Today I spent a lot of time toting Cara around in her car seat. I've decided it really is simpler to carry the thing when I'm just running in and out of a place than to get out the whole stroller, but it really is quite clumsy to carry and she IS getting heavier. Her Grandpa George (men always carry her for me, when they're around, and I'm not ashamed to take advantage) was wondering whether she'd hit fifteen pounds yet. It's possible.

My mom and I went to the sidewalk sale in Red Bank today, and we took Cara. She sat nicely in her storller for much of the time, but two big, loud fire engines went by and made her very, very unhappy! She also got to be carried around by her mommy and her grandma, so she was largely a happy baby. She got a present from her grandma, a new outfit that she can probably wear in October, 2006. It's red and cute.

When we ate lunch, Cara sat in her stroller. She had one foot up in the air, and she may have been watching it. That could lead to interesting things, if she has discvered her feet.

Okay, baby started making noise just now, so this is Steve taking over. Evie got home and put down her stuff and had to handle the baby, because Cara always "goes off" when she gets home from a car ride. This car ride, in particular, seemed to make her mad. Daddy got home early from work and found Evie and Cara in the nursery, Cara still making noise. However, eventually she got herself calmed down and we had some nice play time for a while, but she's been somewhat irritable this evening. We tried having her on the table in her bouncer while we ate dinner, but she wasn't having that, so we popped in the Baby Beethoven video again. This lasted her for quite a while--it really holds her attention and makes her quiet. Then Daddy held her for a while for the end of the video, then we went upstairs and I tried to put her on my knee and various other tactics that didn't really make her happy, so now it is feeding time.

Anyway, we got an interesting email from the old alma mater today (TCNJ): apparently someone there is looking for babies in Cara's age group to participate in some kind of study where babies get to have toys waved at them with one parent in the room and other interested viewers watching through a one-way mirror. Sounds intriguing! Perhaps we'll try it. But what if we only get one try and Cara is in a bad mood? Well, we'll think about it.

7/30/05

Today was the weekend, but I still spent most of the day alone with Cara because Steve had a lot of chores and errands to do. We had some good playtime, and Steve did get to see how well she plays with her sea horse on her changing table, but I also felt like I was feeding her every hour or so! It does make her happy, so I guess it's okay. It was a nice day out, so I took her for a walk in her carrier. I put a sun hat on her and everything! She didn't fall asleep at all, though that's what she has done in the past when in that thing. She spent the entire walk looking around; basically she's held so that her head is up against my chest, facing me, so she can only look to the side. She was very thorough, though, and was constantly turning her head from side to side to try not to miss anything! I was afraid her little nose would get chafed. I was also afraid my chest would get chafed, but we both turned out okay.

When we got back from our walk, I turned Cara over to her daddy and collapsed. Then I took a shower, because we had our Big Night Out last night. My parents turned up around four to baby sit, and Steve and I went out on our Hot Date. We've been planning it for weeks. Steve started laughing halfway through, though, because for our Hot Date Away From Babies, we played mini golf, ate at Friendlies, and saw Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Now, we hadn't PLANNED to eat at Friendlies, it just kind of happened, so we're not really that bad.

We got home before ten. Cara was in her sleep sack, watching her Baby Beethoven video. My mom admitted that it was not her first viewing of the evening; baby had had some good, playful time but had also been fairly kvetchy (I like that word and may continue to use it). My parents, I was pleased to see, were very impressed with the magic that is the Baby Beethoven video. It IS astonishing, really, that someone who is only a few months old can have her attention held so well be a machine.

They had also taken Cara to the park. I left my car and gave my daddy directions, but, touchingly, he thinks that when I say Third Street I'm NOT really talking about Third Avenue, so the directions didn't work and they never got to my park. Instead, they found a much better one! I may get Steve to take me and Cara out in the morning and try it.

7/31/05

Today we had a nice day. Steve and I took Cara out to the park my folks found yesterday; it is really super! It is much bigger than the other parks we've found, and it has all that they do and more. There are vendors selling Italian ices, cotton candy, and pretzels, and there is a zoo. It's a small zoo, but it's pretty cool, I think, to have a zoo in a public park ten minutes from your house. I'm not sure whether she was paying attention, but it's not our fault of Cara didn't see her first coyote today. There were also foxes, ferrets, peacocks, and plenty of goats. You could buy animal food for a dollar. We had a picnic and a nice walk; Cara fussed and then fell asleep. I theorize now that much of her fussiness is just anger because she's tired. I don't know whether this theory will hold up, but it seems pretty sound. Just now I ate some salad while Steve dealt with the fussy baby, but now she is asleep while he is eating so I get to write this entry.

I'm wondering, irrelevantly, whether (since we plan on having another baby at some point) we'll be able to tell which baby picture is of which baby. I was looking at Cara's face and thinking about how well I know it now and wondering whether that would last or would be sufficient or whether they would look a lot alike anyway. I asked Steve what he felt. He thinks it depends on whether we dress them alike. The clothes hadn't occurred to me. I never thought, when my parents look at pictures of me or Claire, that they were looking at what the baby was wearing! Then Steve and I got to discuss hand-me-downs.

I tricked Steve this morning. He was playing with Cara in her room, and I went in and took the sheet off her bed. I said something about it being tough to get new sheets on, and he offered to switch jobs with me. Poor man! he had no idea how he would suffer, trying to get those sheets on the bed. All I had to do was shake a hippo for a while. It was nice.

8/2/05

I forgot to do the journal yesterday; I remembered it after ten o'clock, and I had a headache and gave up on it. Yesterday was a nothing kind of day. I was feeling down, and I didn't get much done. Cara and I went out to lunch at the mall, though, and we did some groceries. I had had to get up at an outrageous hour to drive my parents to the airport, so I was tired. Cara, like a good baby, slept through the whole thing, as did Steve, pretty much. I was home before six, having stopped off to buy some cereal. After lunch, Cara and I did some groceries and came home.

On our arrival, we met a young man from Oklahoma who suckered us into subscribing to Parenting magazine. We can write it off on our taxes, though, and he was awfully nice, so I didn't mind helping him out. He was very polite and friendly and charming. He was working hard to win some sort of contest; he said that young housewives with babies adored him, but the grandparents didn't like him. He had an earring. He showed me a picture of his year-old niece, whose mother he had upset by getting the baby's ears pierced and buying her $400 diamond earrings. He just seemed like a very sincere, affectionate magazine-selling puppy dog.

I was very down and weepy in the evening, and I predicted to Steve that there was a possibility that I was getting sick. I wasn't sure, because usually I just get very nasty and mean. However, I woke up in the night with a fever, and I was very achy and couldn't sleep. Of course, Cara woke up around four. She had wet her outfit, which always wakes her and makes her mad. Steve and I got up, changed her, and fed her. She didn't fall back to sleep, so eventually I just decided to leave her in her crib with her popper, her fishies, and her classical CD. We went back to bed and everyone went to sleep.

I spent as much time as possible sleeping this morning, and gradually felt better. I got nothing at all done today--Cara and I made the bed around four, and I showered around four thirty. I ate around three, and Cara was very good and amused herself in her bouncer the whole time. She started to cry, and it turned out that she had gotten herself halfway off the seat! I put her back, and she was happy again. She was very mobile today; I kept having to move her back to where I had put her down. She scoots around by pushing with her little legs and arching her back.

I must say that Cara is a much better helper than Shelby is. When I make the bed with Shelby, she stands on the sheets. I propped Cara up against a pillow, and I made the sheets billow up to amuse her. I think, though, that she was more taken with the ceiling fan than with anything I was doing. It all worked out, though.

I spent most of the day reading Little Women and crying over it. Cara is very alarmed when people blow their noses, but she'll have to get used to it.

When we're sitting in the glider, Cara persists in scooting her head over past my left arm and looking at the mural. She smiles at it and talks to it. It is very strange. The part she is looking at is pretty much just trees, but she really seems awfully fond of it.

On Dr. Spock's advice, I have decided to bring the play yard back into my living room and start putting Cara into it. She needs to get used to being in it, so that she won't protest horribly later on. Also, I think I need to play with her less. She needs to be left to her own resources, so that she develops the ability to amuse herself. Spock says so. In a way, it makes good sense. How will she learn to be independent, if we're constantly shaking her hippo for her. On the other hand, I'm not really sure how she is supposed to amuse herself at this point in her life. I guess that it will encourage her to develop her skills. Millions upon millions of other babies have done it!

8/3/05

I was out late tonight. I had to pick up my sister from the airport; she was returning from LA. (My whole family is taking really fun, exciting vacations. I get to drive to the airport.) She brought Cara a really cute little fish, a bathtub toy that squeaks. It came free with her hotel room! She sure knows how to pick a hotel.

When I got home, Steve was standing in the living room holding a sleeping baby. He looked haggard. She's fine, he said, as long as he held her just like that. As soon as he put her down, she would scream. We took her upstairs, since it was ten o'clock, and I laid out her sleep sack. "Now watch this," said Steve, and laid her down. She woke up and started to get upset, but I said hello to her and she calmed down. Steve was understandable disappointed. It seems astonishing that Cara would want her mommy that much, and that we would be able to perceive her desires. However, in a relatively short time, she'll be a real human being who can do all sorts of even more amazing things!

Earlier today, Cara had a fun time with her grandparents. Jim and Janet came up and installed blades on the fan in the kitchen, which I'm sure Cara will appreciate, and they took some pictures and movies, too. Next time, I want to tape Cara on her changing table, playing with her sea horse and crab. Someone cleverly attached her kitty cat wrist rattle to the arch that they dangle from, so this cat face is looking down at her. I didn't even notice it until I saw that she was staring! The whole thing is very interesting for her. Her grandma also gave her a nice bottle, which she took all of! She seems, at the risk of jinxing the whole thing, to be getting better about bottles. Steve gave her one while I was out in the evening, too.

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