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8/25/05

Cara and I had a very busy morning. We went to the gym at 9:30, and Cara was a good girl in the Kids Klub. I met someone I knew, and Cara smiled nicely at her. Then we went to Linwood, because I still have a lot I want to do in my room. We spent about an hour there, during which I changed Cara, gave her a bottle (in at least three installments), walked around with her in her carrier, walked around with her out of her carrier, sang to her, and roller her back and forth in her stroller. She was not a happy baby. Basically, I think she was sleepy but wouldn't go to sleep. When we stopped in the main office on the way out, Cara screamed at the secretaries. Alas.

I had wanted to do some errands, but Cara didn't seem in the mood. I had a hunch that she would fall asleep, so we got in the car and I drove the long way over to the store; sure enough, she was nice and sleepy. While successfully accomplishing what I wanted to accomplish, I met three (!) other people I knew, and my sleepy Cara blinked nicely at them. Of course, the people I'll see most often are the ones she'll scream at! I guess that's okay, though, as they'll probably get to see her again and she'll be nice then.

I took some nice pictures of Cara during her tummy time today. Steve put them up already; my favorite is the one above the one that he says is his favorite. We'll have to get some prints. During her other tummy time today, Cara rolled over again! She had her right arm out straight and she pushed with her left and fell over. I admit that I coached her a little.

I'd like to say a few things about the videos I took of Cara with her jungle friends. The clicking noise is the strange zebra creature trying to turn but not being permitted to. At the end of the second video, Cara pulls the arch right down on top of herself and I laugh. I just want to clarify that she was very happy to finally get her monkey into her mouth, and I took it off her right away; that's why the film ends. Her only reaction was to go after that poor monkey again.

Cara's getting very good at sitting up when I prop her in a chair, and she's also good at sitting when I pull her by her arms. She comes up openmouthed, however, because she sees it as an opportunity to get my fingers into her mouth. She basically just sits up to impale her mouth on my digits. It's rather funny, especially when she can't decide which finger to go for and has to keep switching back and forth.

We took Cara for a nice walk this evening to look at the trees. She fell asleep at the end, and, to my surprise, she stayed asleep. She woke up and I fed her for a while, thinking that then we would hang out and later I would put her to bed. She went back to sleep in my arms, and at about 9:20 I got up, held her on my shoulder and spread out her sleep sack, put her on it, put her arms through the holes, lifted each of her legs into the sack, and zipped it closed. I dimmed the lights and shut the door. Now, we'll just wait and see.

8/26/05

Well, Cara slept for about twelve hours, then woke up to be fed, then slept with me in the glider for another two hours. We slept in the glider for another couple of hours in the afternoon and then another one in the evening, so now we are testing Steve's CD of sleepy music. Will it lull the alert baby to sleep? She certainly doesn't want to sleep with Mommy in the glider!

We went to the gym today. For the first time, I got paged to come to the Kids Klub; we've heard lots of other parents be requested. Poor Cara was in her stroller, red as a beet but much louder than one. The woman who was taking care of her said that she would have picked her up, but she was leaving at noon. I picked her up; Cara was happy as long as she could see what the other kids were doing. We're going again tomorrow, and I plan on putting her in a swing before I go work out. That might help.

Cara did really well on tummy time today. She did five minutes in her crib with her fishies, eight minutes on the floor with her mirror, her mommy, and her little computer/alphabet/counting toy, and six minutes on Mommy's chest. It was a weird perspective for both of us. Yes, I got drooled on. It was fun.

One thing I forgot to point out about those pictures of Cara on her tummy is that you can see a cat toy under the dresser. They have several under there. One day, I may retrieve them so that the fun can continue.

8/27/05

The whole family went to the gym this morning; it was Steve's first visit to the Kids Klub. We settled Cara in a swing and left. When I came back, in about half an hour, she was screaming in the woman's arms. She said that she had been good for a little while, but then she just wanted her mommy. Poor baby. She does really seem to enjoy the other kids, and they're usually curious about her, too. They talk to me sometimes, which is fun. Often, they are able to dispense baby-care advice.

Poor Shelby came into the nursery this morning when Cara and Steve and I were on the floor. She came gingerly up to Cara and sniffed her hand. Unfortunately, at that very moment, the hand moved! The poor little kitty was terrified and left quickly.

This afternoon, Aunt Claire came up and we all went to the park for a picnic. Cara had half a bottle to bring along, because she refused to finish it nicely with Daddy at home. She enjoyed looking at the trees while we ate, but then she got fussy and I gave her her bottle while I finished my sandwich and she looked at the trees some more. Then we walked and she took a nap.

Claire and Steve went out to see a movie, and Cara and I stayed home. We made a quick trip to the supermarket and then took a nice nap in our glider. This evening we got takeout food (my bribe for staying home while they went to the movies) and Cara had another bottle battle. Eventually, the bottle won.

8/28/05

Today I managed not to leave the house at all. For the first time in weeks, Cara woke up before Steve and I got up, before seven. We just had a sort of lazy day, eating yesterday's leftovers and keeping the baby happy. Cara and Steve went out to the store, but I stayed here being lazy and indulgent.

Cara was wonderful for her tummy time today. She spent ten minutes straight on the floor. She also got back in her exersaucer for the first time in about a week; we had kept her out of it because it seemed to frustrate her and we wanted to give her a break. She was in it a few times, for a total of about an hour.

Cara has been awfully vocal lately, making a whole lot of noise of various sorts. She talks to us as well as to her toys. I took some pictures of her with Leroy and Marty, her crab and sea horse. I'm not sure when they'll be posted.

Shelby is still scared of Cara. She comes into the room, tentatively says hello to me and Steve, then sees the baby and sneaks away. The vocalization doesn't help. We also vacuumed, which scared Shelby more. Her life is pretty tough.

I cleaned out my closet to try to get ready to go back to school (I wasn't wearing my normal clothes last year, so I needed to see what I had), and Cara helped. She lay on the bed, and she got a little fussy. I gave her a popper and she liked that, so I put a nice slippery pair of pajama pants over her. They happened to be handy, and I think she likes to have a blanket or something on her. So Cara went to sleep under my pajamas. She looked like a little limp puddle of baby, and she stayed like that for a couple of hours.

The other interesting news is that all of my jeans, which I thought would be too tight, fit.

8/29/05

If I wrote titles for my entries, today's would be, "I'm talking, and I can't shut up!" Cara was quite vocal today. I gave her a bottle in the afternoon, and one of the difficulties she had was that she was trying to talk through it. She sounded quite gurgly. This evening, Steve and Cara sat on the sofa and he gave her a bottle, and the same thing happened, only with less gurgling. She just kept talking and talking. We're not sure whom she was addressing. Really, at this point, it could be anything.

We had a lovely little fiasco this morning. It's not hot out, really, but it is awfully sticky and nasty. Cara and I went for a walk. When I was about 15 minutes from home, Cara decided that riding in the carriage was not for her. Now, there I am, walking along with my carriage and a screaming emanating from it. How could any mother be so cruel to her baby? What she really wanted, of course, was to be carried. Somehow, we made it home, me pushing the carriage with one hand and struggling to hold her with only one arm, while my sweat runs down my face and probably onto the baby, who is perfectly happy as long as I don't put her back into her very nice carriage.

Steve and I have a problem that I don't think the parents of our generation had. Please correct me, if I'm wrong. At least, its extent has grown. The problem is, Cara has lots of toys with on/off switches and batteries, and we're forever leaving them on! There are four major toys with this hazard, and we're going to have to make a habit of checking every evening to make sure we've turned them off. I'm hoping that I'm annoyed enough about it that I'll remember.

I took more Leroy and Marty pictures, and Steve and I whittled the collection down to eight and posted them. There were about 25 of them, partly because I have a habit of just snapping away, since I don't really know how to use the camera that well and I want to make sure I get some pictures.

Again, great tummy time today, and good times in the exersaucer. The saucer has a turtle toy that has four rubber flippers (flappers?) on ribbons. It started to drive Cara nuts. She was leaning back and looking around, and then she decided that she wanted to get it in her mouth. Her technique for getting things into her mouth, when she's not flat on her back, is to just kind of loom at them with her mouth open. It didn't quite work. She wound up working on different flippers with her mouth and her hands, and pulling them away from herself. She got frustrated and has been put to bed.

I bought baby food today, in little jars. I may try some tomorrow. I did more rice cereal today. At first, she seemed quite enthusiastic, opening her mouth up and waiting. The only problem was that her hands kept getting in the way. She kept doing what Steve calls a baby jig, when she looks as if she would be dancing if she were able to stand. Her whole body gets into it. Soon, though, she decided that enough was enough.

Tomorrow, Cara's South Jersey grandparents get home. Soon, we'll see them again!

8/30/05

Grandpa Jim and Grandma Janet are home, and they got to hear Cara babble while I was on the phone with them. Then my Grandma got to hear Cara babble while I was on the phone with her. While I was out at the doctor's office, my dad got to hear Cara babble for several hours. He made a couple of recordings of her, which may be posted soon.

Since Cara hasn't been appreciating her rice cereal, my mom has been encouraging me to start her with sweets. I was resisting, not wanting to encourage Cara to develop a sweet tooth. My mother said, "Oh, I know you're trying to be so healthy . . " and I had to remind her of how she raised me and Claire. There was never candy or soda in the house, and we didn't know what Twinkies were until we hit kindergarten. "Oh, yeah," said Mom, "I was really strict. It really IS different with your grandchild."

Anyway, since Spock said it was okay, today we started Cara on banana baby food. See, last night she woke up around quarter to two. It's the first time she's done that in about six weeks, I think. It could be because she was hungry (I read that somewhere), but it could also have been because her usual night light burned out and we had to leave a different light on. When she wakes up in the night usually she just puts herself back to sleep and nobody knows about it, but maybe having a different light upset her. We got her a new bulb, but, to leave no stone unturned, we also fed her.

Thsi evening I heated up about a teaspoon of banana goo, we put a cute bib on baby, and we stuck her in her bouncer and went to town. Banana is definitely better than rice cereal, hands down! Very very little came back out of her mouth. She got this surprised look on her face, and she opened her mouth up like a little bird to let the spoon in. She kept kicking her legs with enthusiasm, and she grabbed my fingers with her hands. Yes, I let Steve take a turn, too, and I took a nice picture which he may post. I just hope that the sugar (natural fruit sugar only, no added sugars) doesn't make her hyper!

8/31/05

Brief notes today:

1. Cara likes her left foot more than her right foot. She enjoys grabbing it.

2. Bananas are good.

3. I can't figure out how to conveniently get Cara into her towel when I bathe her in the bathroom. Neither can my mom.

4. This evening, Steve set the baby on the couch, sat down with her, and thumbed through a magazine. She was fascinated.

5. Cara (A) likes to pinch and (B) needs her nails trimmed.

Good night.

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