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11/3/05

George here.

Ran Cara ragged today with a trip to the RiteAid to drop off prescriptions and then the supermarket. Cara held up well until halfway through the supermarket when, as one lady said, she needed a mop to dry her tears. As we're arriving home this happens: I'm carrying Cara in one arm, the groceries in the other and somehow the carriage and Cara's carrier in the other. I open the door to the house and Buster escapes! I scoop her up with my other arm and fling her into the house. What a bad cat!

After a half hour's peace, Cara and I get back into the car and drive down to the RiteAid. Cara endured this trip with good humor, even falling asleep for a few minutes on the ride home.

When I woke her in the room downstairs, she had to shake herself to get her bearings. What a trooper! Then we went to yell at the cats.

Evie:

Today I felt somewhat better than I had for a couple of days, and Cara happened to stay awake and cheerful through our four o'clock feeding. We played for a while in her room with her toys, and then she sat nicely in her high chair while I messed around in the kitchen.

I'm concerned that perhaps Cara's spoiled. Steve and I certainly have not been leaving her alone at all, unless she's watching her baby movies while we eat dinner. Dr. Spock says there's no way to spoil a baby under six months old, and ours is almost seven! Whether or not she's spoiled, she certainly needs to learn to be by herself. I put Cara in her saucer in the living room, turned on Burl Ives, and explained to her in a firm voice that Mommy needed to make dinner. Then I went and made dinner. There were some bursts of crying, but they mainly subsided. Once I went and gave her her popper, and that helped. She got all the way through Burl Ives, which is over half an hour. Once I peeked at her, concerned because it was so quiet. She was mesmerized by the computer's screen saver. Unfortunately, the screen turns off after a while.

When Steve got home Cara watched her movie while we ate. It was about seven, so I gave her a bottle. It was then that I made what I now know was a poor choice. It doesn't really count, though, because I was basically asleep. Cara got sleepy with her bottle, and so did I. We napped for a little while, and then she woke up. I asked Steve to take her for a while so that I could continue the nap, and he reasonably asked me to wait a few minutes while he cleaned something. I then, in my happy stupor, bored a cheerful child back to sleep. We slept till eight, when Steve showed up. I went off to sleep more, and Steve had to wake Cara up. She was somewhat put out.

I just tried to put Cara to bed. She wasn't all that interested, having just had a nice hour-long nap. However, I gave her her popper and put her in bed and she seems to be taking it very politely.

11/4/05

George here.

Steve and Evie have been somewhat polite in describing Cara's behavior lately. I will add that in the last week I have heard Cara scream. I mean really SCREEAAAMMMM. Cara is going through a 'sensitive' phase. She's mostly okay if you're carrying her around. Sometimes she's okay when you put her down and pay attention to her--but this afternoon that didn't seem to work at all. If you leave her alone, that's when the soundworks start.

Of course, she's teething and it's frustrating not being able to crawl or move around. Her food requirements are growing--today she ate more peas and next week I'll make larger portions.

Today we met a little boy who seemed very well behaved. He's eight months old and has three teeth--his mother said the last couple of months have been heck--that's what Cara is going through now.

Evie:

Somehow, we had a really nice evening. I fed Cara when I got home, and then I stuck her in her saucer with Burl Ives and went upstairs to finish my book and do some chores. Cara was very good until her daddy got home; then she was still good, but her picked her up. The three of us went out to the store and picked up dinner, which we ate while Cara watched her movie. Then Cara got a bottle from Daddy and he played with her for a while. We all watched the Nets.

Around eight I made Cara a bowl of bananas. At first, she seemed really to be against the whole idea. In any case, she was much more engaged with her little rubber creature that's attached to her tray. Somehow, with patience, I got the whole bowl into her!

Now sticky, Cara certainly needed a bath. Of course, it was hard to get her to sit down, even though I told her that everybody else (almost, that is) sits down in a bath. Once she sat, she had a great time with a rubber duckie. She picked it up and gnawed on it. In the middle of everything, Shelby Foote came along and hopped up on the toilet so that she could see. Cara broke into a huge grin! Once we were done, it was hard to get her out, since she was still playing with her duck. Steve got her dry and clothed while I changed out of my wet sweatshirt, and then I put her to bed. Altogether, it's been a very pleasant night.

11/5/05

Today we called my Dad, who is home alone at the moment, and convinced him to come to Edison and hang out with baby. We had another fairly nice day--baby went for a nice walk to the park and got on the swings (pictures are already available!), and met some other nice babies who were slightly older than her but also fit in the kid swings. Cara also spent various amounts of time in her bouncer, her swing, her saucer, her jumper, watching movies, playing with her shapes and barrel, and eating. Grandpa Jim gave Cara a nice bottle and she fell asleep on him and trapped him on the couch for a little while. Then Cara and her Grandpa and I went out back and Cara and I watched Grandpa climb up on a very tall ladder to look at our roof (don't ask). Cara was in her car seat and was fairly good, though I resorted to swinging her in the seat a lot and eventually carrying her a bit. Then Grandpa had to go.

This evening, Cara was being somewhat crabby, and it had been long enough since her last feeding that I figured I'd try some solid food on her. So I helped her polish off the last remnants of a jar of squash. Then Evie heated up the rest of a jar of peas, which I also gave her. Then, not having used a bib for either of these things, I changed Cara into a new outfit, and Evie decided to also try some peaches on Cara, which she also ate, this time while I was holding her instead of in her high chair. It was a great night for solid food. I think maybe part of what was bothering Cara about the feeding at other times was that we were all (naturally) trying to feed Cara by sticking the spoon in her mouth. But tonight I tried a more passive method of bringing the spoon within her view and at close proximity, and letting Cara take the last step of diving onto it with her mouth. This seemed to work very well. Of course, Cara may still be deciding to eat solely based on her mood, and the next time I try this it may not work. But for now I think Evie and I are quite pleased.

The other thing we tried on poor Cara today was a prescription of eye drops, because she seems to have a problem with crud buildup in one of her eyes. Fortunately for me, Evie has taken over the task of administering the eye drops, and boy, does Cara hate it! Hopefully it will do some good--we'll have to see how George fares trying to do it, since she is supposed to get the drops three times a day until they run out!

Baby required a lot of attention as usual today, but she was really quite good, even if we were just nearby and she had some toys to play with. She is having a nice time with her plastic shapes that go in the barrel. She takes them out and puts the lid in her mouth, and picks them up and puts them down. She sits up very nicely while she plays with it. In her jumper in the evening, I gave Cara her caterpillar, which she proceeded to absolutely soak by sticking every part of it in her mouth (in between dropping it on the ground, sometimes onto her Mommy's head). We tried several times to watch TV with Cara today, and were once again shown that this is not what Cara prefers to do. Still, it was a good day all in all. Cara and her Mommy are now both in their separate beds, and as soon as this Nets game is over, I will do the same.

11/6/05

This is Steve speaking, as it was yesterday. I'm considering coloring the text based on who's speaking and putting a color code key at the top of each page, so we don't have to keep announcing ourselves. What do you think?

Tomorrow Cara is officially seven months old. Wow! When Cara was much younger than she is now, there were a few days where she always seemed to be crying when I had to deal with her, and it got me down. Lately, Ev and I have both noticed the way she smiles when I come home from work. Today, I found that if I just looked at her and said "Hi!" in a certain way, she would break into one of her toothless grins (yes, still toothless). She was giggling gleefully in her jumper this evening as I watched her, and then I took her out of her jumper and she held onto me as I held her and we both looked into the living room. She was smiling and making her little happy noises that she makes sometimes. It was very nice. I hope I can continue to have this power over her for at least a couple of years.

Cara had a nice day today. It did not start out so great, however. We had a good night's sleep, and baby woke up at 7 am. I've decided that on the weekends I will make a bottle the night before, so we don't have to go scrambling around while she's crying for food. She had her bottle, but was somewhat crabby for the next couple of hours. At one point we tried putting her down and trying to make her "nap," with disastrous consequences: screaming and screaming ensued, until one of us (me, in this case) broke down and picked her up to calm her.

(A wonderful moment from this morning: I was changing Cara, and as she is wont to do lately, she stuck her foot in her mouth and was sucking on her toes. I had to take off Cara's diaper, so I needed her leg down far enough so that I could undo the tabs. Cara did not want to give me her leg. There we were, having a tiny tug of war over her leg, she holding onto it with both hands. She never let go of the leg, but I was able to pull it far enough away from her mouth to undo the diaper.)

After another bottle, she was in a better mood, and I took her for a bit of a spin around town. We visited the bank and the book store, where I was trying to find her a new Burl Ives album (we're still using the old one, but I think we would all like an alternative to the "Lollipop Tree" and the "Lavendar Cowboy"); I had no luck, but instead picked up a "Baby Mozart" CD which will probably be nice.

On the way home, baby fell asleep and I took her for a swing around the neighborhood so she could enjoy somewhat of a nap. Then we got home and packed up for our next car ride, out to visit the Smugas for Aunt Claire's birthday celebration. Once there, Grandma Janet was particularly helpful and generous in taking Cara off our hands and entertaining her in various ways. Cara got to see the fishies in the fish tanks, but also had a nice walk outside, where she apparently met a little yapping dog which she found very fascinating, and a bunch of fallen leaves which were just as interesting. Later, Claire took her for a walk and Cara developed an unfulfilled desire to eat trees.

While at the house, baby got a bottle from George and magically fell asleep, and he walked her upstairs and laid her on the bed, and she magically had an hour-and-a-half nap (something she never does for us--note our failed attempt from the morning!). Meanwhile, the rest of us watched football in contentment.

Eventually baby got tired and so did we, so it was back into the car and back home, where baby managed to polish off some (though not all) of a large serving of peaches. We also watched a little of Who Framed Roger Rabbit? which was nice. Baby had a bath, where she spent a lot of time gnawing on her rubber ducky while making a sound that was kind of half-raspberry, half-spit, and can perhaps be transcribed as "Vvvvvv! Vvvvv!"

I have some nice pictures of Cara playing with the toys on her high chair tray, which I will hopefully get up on the site tomorrow night. Claire also took a nice video of baby sucking on Grandma Janet's shoelaces, which I also hope to get onto the site if we can all figure out how. Right now Cara is down in bed, but has been making some noises. Hopefully she will stay down, and we'll have another good night.

11/7/05

George here: Cara is seven months old today! My high point of the day was our trip to the swings. Today's temperature is in the low sixties and it's windy. But I took Cara out and she bravely worked her way through the blowing wind to have a good time in swings. Evie gave her a nice colorful hat to wear and I noticed that as we were walking home the hat was getting lower on her head but I didn't correct it because of the blowing wind. By the time we neared home I saw that she was sound asleep, with the hat completely covering her face. I doubt she'll think this is very funny when she reads this twenty-two years from now, but it was cute for a few moments. (We reach, really reach for amusement around here.)

Green = Steve

Unfortunately, poor Evie isn't feeling well; but fortunately, she has the week off and her parents are going to help out with baby, so hopefully she'll get a rest and some kind of medicinal aid. George was kind enough to stay into the evening today, so he was here when I got home. Due to circumstances I will not go into, Cara has now eaten the corner off of a greeting card. Mmmm. Fiber. She also had some peas, which George heated up (we all do it in the microwave now--so much for my being all brave and heating it up on the stove!), but which I gave to the baby, because I felt like it. Baby watched her zebra movie, and then was a tad crabby, so I gave her a small bottle, and then she dozed off. I actually tried to put her down, even though it was only a quarter after eight, but it didn't work, which is probably just as well. She had some play time instead, then some jumper time, and then we gave up and Evelyn is hopefully seeing Cara off to sleepyland right now.

In other news, I have had positive response to my color-coding idea, but the writers involved have to put their heads together and decide which colors they would like. Actually, perhaps I'll just let them do it as they come in, and I'll start the ball rolling by choosing my own color.

11/8/05

George = navy

Janet spent the first few hours of the day with Cara. For me, the highpoint of the day was when I walked into the living room and Cara lit up with happiness!

The other day, I did something which reflects badly upon me as an intelligent human--so into the journal it goes! It was early in the morning and I had to change the baby. I put her on the changing table, unzipped her, took off her diaper, put the dirty diaper into the champ, wiped her with a wipe, and had almost put her clothes on again when I felt something was not quite right. She seemed more--naked than usual. Eventually I realized it was because I had neglected to put a new diaper on her!

This evening, Cara was a good baby. She sat up and played with her toys very nicely on the floor of her nursery while I had dinner, and then she watched her baby movie while Evie had a little something. Then Cara had some nice pears (after some coaxing--actually I had to sneak the first spoonful into her mouth, but after that she went after the spoon without any prompting), and then Daddy took her upstairs and back to her toys. While there, we had a laughing battle. She laughed at a funny face I was making, and then I laughed, which caused her to laugh more, and so on. It was--well, I find I can't think of an adjective that adequately describes it. It was very nice.

I think it was actually the night for Cara's bath tonight, so it's a good thing she actually had one. I decided to take a crack at bathing the baby, and discovered that holding the baby in the tub and trying to wash her with one hand is just as difficult as I had anticipated it would be--Evie does a great job! I managed to rub Cara with a washcloth a bit while she was distracted putting her rubber ducky in her mouth. Then it was off to bed. She seems to be down now; I know I'm going to regret saying this, but lately we have had a nice string of nights where baby went down and stayed down all night. Tomorrow, I am staying here a bit later than usual into the morning, and have cleverly made a bottle already for when baby wakes up. I'm looking forward to thanking myself tomorrow morning.

11/9/05

Well, it's another day and baby has been taken care of by a slew of people. Her Grandma Janet and Grandpa George were in and out throughout the day, and Evie was of course here--though she did take a trip to the doctor and got some meds which with luck will help her out. I (as I mentioned yesterday) stayed into the morning and gave baby a couple of her bottles--the first at 7 am, when she awoke. The second one I gave her knocked her out good--this was around 10 am, George's Magic Nap Time. Evelyn convinced me to actually try putting baby down in her crib, and it actually worked. I left at 11 and baby was still asleep, and George arrived around noon to find a still sleeping baby! I got home late, past 6:30, and didn't end up seeing much of Cara, as others kept her busy while I made dinner and cleaned up and did other chores. She seemed very happy though, and gave me a few grins as I peeked at her from the kitchen into the living room.

Janet and I went through the Baby Night Time Routine and then Evelyn came in to get baby to sleep, but it was an aborted attempt. We broke it off and baby had more time down in the living room watching the Nets. Evie is now on the second attempt, which seems much more promising.

Baby lately has been showing a tendency to really try to sit up when she's on her back--she lifts her head up like she's doing a sit-up. Also she has been having a lot of good times sitting with her Mommy.

Also, I've watched baby watching her Einstein movies lately, and I've noticed that when the company logo (which consists of a little computer-generated caterpillar coming on and blinking and smiling at the screen, and then a camera zoom reveals the logo) comes on, she breaks into a happy grin.

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