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10/20/05

My dad had today off, so my wonderful mother-in-law came up to stay with Cara. She arrived last night, and so we all had a good time together. Steve and I gave Cara a nice bath, and I nursed her to sleep. She was down by ten of ten. I announced my retirement and went to bed. In the dead of night (I have since been informed that it was around eleven), Cara woke and yelled. I refrained from responding. I know Steve and Janet showed up, and Steve got her back to sleep.

In the morning I left before anyone had gotten up. I got home around three thirty and found Cara in her swing in the kitchen with her grandma. They had had a nice day playing together. They went to the park and Cara got to wear her little Winnie the Pooh sack thing, so I know she was cute. She was good the whole time, even popperless. The remarkable thing is that Cara rolled over from her back to her tummy for the first time! I'm very proud of her, and I wish I could have seen it. She wasn't even upset when she wound up on her tummy.

Janet stayed for dinner, so all afternoon it was just us girls. We had a lovely talk, with Cara contributing as much as anyone, and we played in Cara's saucer as well as in her room. When Steve got home his mom left and I soon managed to foist the baby off onto him. We played together in the hall with Cara in her jumper (she can still bounce!), the cats watching eagerly, and Steve and me rolling the jingle ball back and forth. Steve gave Cara some butternut squash, and now they're playing the piano.

10/21/05

Cara went to sleep last night by quarter to ten, and she slept through the night.

I got home today around 3:30, and my dad told me that Cara had been very cranky all day. I changed clothes and he handed her over. I think he said that she'd had a three-hour nap, but I really couldn't hear him over the screaming. Cara and I went upstairs and I fed her. We took a nap in the glider for a while; I couldn't really see the clock. I heard Steve get home and was horrified; we'd slept for over two hours! Fortunately, it turned out that he'd come home early and it was only five o'clock.

Cara stayed kind of cranky for a while, but then she changed her mind and we had a nice evening. While Steve went into the kitchen to get himself dinner (it's leftover night!), Cara stood in her saucer and watched him. It was cute. We had her in her jumper for quite a while, too, and she was very good. She's really a good little jumper, it turns out. I brought Cara over to where Steve was combing Buster as she sat in his lap, and Cara got to touch the kitty. She grabbed a nice handful of fur on Buster's head and had to be restrained. Cara sat in her bouncer and we all watched a little bit of preseason Nets basketball.

I am dealing a little bit with working-mom issues. Everyone I talk to says, "oh, it must be so hard to leave her!", but I don't feel that way. I'm glad to get out and have my own life. I guess it's partly because she's with my father, so I don't have to worry; maybe I'd hate to leave her at a daycare center. Nobody ever says how hard it must be to work AND take care of a baby. I sort of resent that. However, mostly these people don't have any children and don't know how much work it is, so I have to forgive them. Other moms I talk to agree that it's great to leave the kids at daycare and get out! I guess people are all different. My mom and Steve's mom both stayed home with their kids for years, and they loved it, I think. I don't know how they did that. I love Cara like nothing else in the world, but I cherish the time that I have in the adult sphere. I'd probably go crazy, otherwise. I feel like I'm taking the easy way out.

I wonder whether people say things like that to Steve.

Cara's Grandma Janet bought her a present. It's these two feeding thingies; they are knobbly rubber spoon/space ships. They're not really designed to look like space ships, but that's how I think of them. The theory is that the baby can stick any part of this thing in to the food and then into her mouth. We're supposed to feed her with them to get her used to them first, and my dad did that today. I was wondering how in the world he figured out what they were for, but it turned out that Steve told him. I don't know how it went, because I really couldn't hear a word he said, but maybe Steve and I can try it this weekend, too.

10/22/05

Steve here: welcome to a massive journal entry! First of all, just a quick note that the introductory paragraphs that used to be sitting on the home page have now been relocated to a "preface" page, which you can get to by clicking on the link with that name at the top of the home page. Also there are new pics of Cara up from earlier this month.

Last night baby went to sleep at a good time, but woke us all up some time past 11. I got up to try to deal with matters, which I had been successful at the last time I'd tried. This time, however, I was too impatient and did not put Cara down gently enough once she had fallen back to sleep, and she re-awoke and re-commenced bawling. At this point, not looking forward to having to go through the whole procedure over again, I was relieved to be relieved by Evelyn, who nursed Cara for a while. Cara did not become the least bit sleepy, so Ev just gave her her popper and went away; Cara decided there was no use fighting it any longer, and finally went to sleep.

Today, Evie and Claire went out to have pedicures, and I got to stay with baby. The idea was that Evie would have a nice "day" off. We still took turns dealing with baby and showering in the morning, but Ev left at a bit before 10 and then it was me and baby until around 1:30 in the afternoon. I hung around with baby for a while, then started my breakfast with her in the swing--then I finished my breakfast with her in my lap, eating with my free hand. Then I tried to give baby the morning nap that she usually seems to have with George. I put her in her crib with her popper, turned on some sleepy music, and baby accidentally kicked on one of her fish toys and was quietly distracted by it while I crept out of the room. This worked much better than I had expected--Cara was quiet and possibly even slept for the next half hour or so. After that, we had a nice bottle.

Then I decided to actually really use the "Baby Play" book that we have, and I opened it up to a page in the six months section. I tried to do a few of the activities it lists in the book, with what materials I had available. This resulted in me first shining my little light-up keychain at Cara's toys (the idea was to surprise her by changing the color of her toys with a colored light, but Cara immediately looked at the source of the light and went after my keychain), then up-ending her little barrel that holds different shaped blocks and using it as a drum and trying to get Cara to drum on it with a wooden spoon from the kitchen (this ended up working well, not because Cara actually learned how to drum, but because some of the time Cara put the spoon in her mouth, and the rest of the time I amused myself to a great degree by drumming on the barrel--to show Cara how it was done, you understand). I also tried a trick involving getting her to pull a scarf-like object through a tube, but she was not very interested in that activity. We moved onto her jumper toy, which is fast becoming one of the best baby toys in our household. Cara jumps around in it for all the world like a baby that already knows how to stand, and it is very hands-off for Daddy, so he doesn't get tired.

Anyway, eventually Mommy and Claire came home and baby was whisked off on a food shopping expedition, where she eventually fell asleep. Ev and Claire had some cooking to do, so baby spent some time in her saucer and watched a bit of Fantasia, which seemed to go rather well. She babbled contentedly at the "Pastoral Symphony" section, which involves little unicorn ponies and flying horses cavorting, and centaur boys and girls hooking up with each other (not exactly what Beethoven had in mind, but good fun all the same).

Evie and I tried to do another of the activities in our baby play book, this one involving wrapping one of the baby's toys in bright colored paper and letting her unwrap and "rediscover" the toy. As Evie predicted, this totally didn't work, because all Cara wanted to do was eat the wrapping paper, and hardly noticed that her rattly lamb toy (one of her favorites) was hidden in the folds. However, we tried! And surely it will be a valuable game for another day. Later in the evening, Cara had another fun session in her jumper while Claire and Ev taunted Shelby.

We did a lot of playing with Cara today, so I have hopes that she'll sleep good tonight. She managed to roll herself from her back to her tummy tonight, and I've found that when I sit her up she really wants to go places--she'll lean forward and reach out her hands like she's ready to crawl out of my lap and get to what she wants. She also has learned to stick her hands inside the Fisher Price barrel and pull shapes out of it (though she does not seem interested in putting them back in).

We tried Cara on peaches this evening but I don't think she was in the mood just then for solid food--she does this thing where she just keeps her mouth open with her tongue sticking out if you give her food and she doesn't want it. She's quite good at dribbling it out of her mouth at other times, but when she really doesn't want the food in her mouth, she doesn't seem to know how to go about ejecting it. Well, after that we gave her a quick bath and now she is up with her mommy, hopefully going down for a full night's (uninterrupted) sleep. Tomorrow, Cara will be going to visit her relations in Middletown.

10/23/05

Steve again:

Cara had a good day today. She went to visit her great grandma, where she was introduced to a wonderful little Sesame Street train toy which can be pulled around on a string. Mainly she ate the string. But the thing that I think is very cool about today is that we've discovered that with assistance (mainly, if I hold my hands behind her feet and she kicks out with her legs while on her tummy), Cara is capable of very slowly creeping along. I'm very happy about this! Of course, she has yet to independently crawl or creep, but she is taking definite steps towards moving by herself. I talked about her trying to get out of my lap yesterday; today when her grandma Janet was holding her near a fish tank, Cara started bouncing herself in her impatience to get at the fish, just like she bounces in her jumper. Cool stuff!

Cara took a lot of car rides today, but she was good for all of them, and friendly with everyone she met (including her great Aunt Theresa and some friends of Aunt Claire around for a pumpkin-related party). For her last ride home, however, Cara decided she'd had enough and got a bit screamy. We think she may actually be evincing some fear of the dark, because when we took her in the house the lights were off and she started crying. So we got those lights on! We tried Cara on some solid food, which she was not in the mood for, and then tried to get her to sleep, which she was also not in the mood for. Instead, for about an hour or so she was riveted to a Sherlock Holmes mystery on TV, then Evie took her and is currently trying to get her to go to sleep.

10/24/05

Last night, Cara didn't fall asleep in my arms. Around ten, though, I put her down, gave her a popper, and left. From bed, I could hear a few whimpers. They were intermittent and soon subsided, and Cara sort of slept through the night. I was up around one, and I think I disturbed her a little bit. Steve and I both went into her room; we turned on her music and put in a popper. I don't think, now, that she was actually awake, I think she was just crying out in her sleep.

When I got home today, I heard a muffled shrieking from all the way outside the house. It wasn't as bad as I thought, though; Cara was right inside the door, having her jacket put on for a walk. She was perfectly fine, except for the fact that her grandpa was trying to put her jacket on her. She objects to being clothed. My dad said that Cara had been terribly good today, and I guess she was. Since Steve and I have been home, she's been rather cranky. I think she used up all her good time on Grandpa.

Cara really wants to move. I think she's shrieking (not clothing-related shrieking, now) in frustration. She loves to be put into her jumper, and she jumps around like anything, but then she also shrieks. I think she'd really love a walker. I'm just not sure at all what to do with her. I suppose that her shrieking may be tooth-related, since she's drooling plenty, but she's always been a big drooler. I'm just glad it's almost her bedtime.

In my last entry, which was a while ago, now, I was talking about balancing work and baby. What I think I didn't say, though, was how happy I am with the arrangement I have now. I don't have too much of either thing, if you know what I mean.

10/25/05

George here.

Cara is having her 10 A.M. to whenever nap right now. Yesterday and today, I noticed still another change. Just last week, if I wanted to quiet her down, I could put her on her back upstairs, turn on some music and shake the rattle over her head. This was a form of heaven. But yesterday, this changed--she kept right on complaining as I went through the now familiar preparations. I agree with Evie and Steve, she's frustrated because she's not moving around.

On this nasty rainy morning, we didn't have our usual walk outside among the deer and the antelope in the back yard. Instead, I took her up to her room and sat her up, supported by the boppy pillow. Seated in this fashion, she took an interest in the rattles and other toys I passed in front of her face. Usually that interest was in how these things taste or how they fit into her mouth.

So that's the news: she wants to be vertical, not horizontal. She wants to move, instead of sit still.

Also, Cara has I think got the hang of 'How Big Is the Baby?' When I say SOOOOO BIG, Cara puts her two arms out real wide. Evie is upstairs confirming this discovery.

Steve:

I didn't hear about the how big is the baby thing until reading this! I hope it's true. Baby was very good for George today, and fairly okay for us. She had some nice time in her jumper, as usual, and enjoyed it. She watched her zebra movie and was in her Saucer for a good while. She did very well with some nice pears (which in a way I regret, because I myself like their taste the most of all the baby foods I have sampled), and it was even fine that I forgot to put a bib on her, because we managed to avoid dribbling it on her outfit. The main reason why is that she leans forward very far to meet the spoon, thus anything that drips falls on her tray--but she liked the food so much that not much of it even ended up there.

I very much like Cara for always enjoying it when I sing to her. Even my a capella rendition of "Under Pressure" while she was in her high chair left her mesmerized.

No tooth yet.

Cara does not seem to want to go down tonight, which isn't a big surprise. She was very good last night; Evie put her down and she slept through the night. I think lately (and perhaps in the past as well, without my realizing it) Cara has been waking up in the morning, looking around a bit, and then going back to sleep. There have been a couple of days now when I've thought I've heard her while I've been getting ready for work, but when I go in to check on her before leaving, she is out.

This evening I realized that Cara can pretty much stand without my support--I held my hands under her armpits merely to keep her balanced. Of course, this doesn't last too long before her knees buckle underneath her, but I still find it quite impressive.

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