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Journal Key:

Green = Steve | George = navy | Janet = Purple | Evelyn = Black

1/5/06 (Thursday)

I was hoping to make Evie to the journal tonight, but she seems to be asleep in the glider again, so I'll have a go. Today Cara was doing a lot of standing up. I did all that talking yesterday about how Cara's new toy which we bought for her to stand up on was something she'd need time to grow into, and today (with Evelyn) Cara spent a part of the afternoon pulling herself up and standing using the toy. We have also watched her several times tonight get back to a sitting position from being on her tummy. She stood up from the changing table by pulling on the window ledge. She stood up in the crib by pulling on the side of the crib. She has yet to figure out how to sit up by herself while laying on her back, but she's trying like heck and it should happen any day now.

Also Cara has added a new sound to her babbling vocabulary: "Ma." Don't get excited, she's not talking about her Mommy, she's just making sounds--but as Ev said to me tonight, she has doubled her vocabulary! Actually Cara says "Mahh, Bwahh, Bahh, Ahh, Hahh," though the last one probably only has the "H" sound because it's kind of a gasp. She also makes sounds with her lips together, like "mmmmm" or "bbbbbbb." She still does not have anything practical to do with these sounds, since she does not seem to recognize any word, even her own name. She does seem to recognize tones, though, because if you call her she'll look at you.

We have noticed the past couple days an unfortunate consequence of Cara wearing pants: they make her diaper slip down. So far there have been no messy results, but we have been seeing a lot more baby butt crack than usual.

After having interacted with PJ and heard about the "let them fall" technique, we have decided to be worried about spoiling again. The consensus seems to be that Evie and George can manage to leave Cara alone to let her figure things out by herself, whereas I have some adjusting to do. Spock says that you can begin the spoiling process as early as six months, just by holding the baby a lot or picking them up whenever they make a noise. I think that as Cara works on her standing and sitting and crawling and walking, we parents will be working on our parenting--knowing when to hold them, when to fold them, and when to let them fall.

Mainly we played with Cara's console toy this evening (I really have to get down in the basement and read the name of the toy off the box, because "console toy" just doesn't roll off the tongue!), and I got to see Cara in action with it and we took some pictures; also after the big people dinner I gave Cara a lot of bananas, which she was very excited about and ate with her head leaning far forwards and her feet kicking away. And tonight was also bath night (somehow I almost forgot! probably because I'm changed out of my soaked T-shirt!). Baby is learning that when she bends over in her bath, she gets a face full of water. This is a hard lesson for her. She has gotten water up her nose the last two baths, and has been very unhappy about it both times. She likes to stand up in her bath as well--really I spend most of the bath trying to get her to sit down in the tub.

Tomorrow I will barely see Cara at all, because it is the return of Date Night! Instead of baby watching, Ev and I plan to watch a giant ape (King Kong). Cara will get more practice sleeping away from home. In preparation I have burned copies of some of our sleepy CDs.

1/6/06 (Friday)

Through the magic of email, here is how Cara's evening went:

When I got home, around 4-ish, Cara was a bit discontent; she wanted her bottle and a nap.

Since then, refreshed, she has mostly been a happy baby. She sat in my lap and we read through the little dinosaur book together twice! She has spent most of her time pulling toys out of the basket and playing with them, standing at the coffee table and watching our baby Einstein Video, which was a hit this time. She responded with little happy noises and shrieks, and sometimes looked at us as if to see whether we liked it too. Aunt Claire has carried her around the house; I think they did the complete fishtank tour. Great Grandma Emily was here for a few minutes to admire her as well.

At present, shortly after 8, Cara is dressed in her pj's and hungrily sucking down another bottle.

And later:

Cara is sleeping sweetly in her bed; it is not quite 11 pm. First we got her ready for sleep - sleepsack, sleepy music (supplied by Steve), popper, darkened room - and by 9:40 we tried putting her to bed. No luck. So I held her for a while, and sat her up to play in the crib, and finally cuddled her in my lap until she drifted off.

Good night.

1/7/06 (Saturday)

The baby slept peacefull all through the night. At 6 a.m. I let the cat downstairs to be fed, and found she had rolled onto her side. By 8 a.m. she was on her back again, and I had a bottle ready to go into the warmer. By about 8:20 Cara woke. She was happy just to look all around while her bottle warmed; when it was ready she took about half before other distractions took priority. So she played for a while, then remembered she was hungry enough for a couple more ounces. She seems happy, calm and refreshed by her night's sleep.

I'm awfully proud of my parents for being able to take care of Cara so well, and I'm proud of Cara for being able to be so good away from her parents!

It's been a while since I've written anything, because journal time comes late in the evening and somehow I've managed to be asleep every evening for days and days. I've been having a lovely time; Cara and I have been sleeping happily together in the glider for about an hour every night.

I have to say that the baby butt cleavage (that's a much cuter way of referring to it than "baby butt crack"!) is adorable; however, I have solved that problem. If Cara wears a onesie under her outfit, it will hold her diaper up, hold her pants up, and keep her shirt from riding up and displaying her baby belly, of which we have also been getting an eyeful. Cara has been looking adorable in the outfits that her grandpa has chosen for her, and I'm looking forward to choosing what she will wear tomorrow.

Cara has been working very hard on learning to pull up, holding on, balancing, and generally developing important baby skills. She's so interested in standing, and she really is starting to cruise (I think that's what it's called when they hold on to something and walk), so I think maybe she never really will get the hang of crawling at all. I know I'm waffling on this. Spock says that babies who are good crawlers have less motivation to learn to walk, and Cara certainly is not a good crawler. We'll see. She's working on that, too.

She is still babbling up a storm, and I'm very excited about her "ma" noise. She started doing it on Thursday, and I didn't want to tell Steve, in case she stopped doing it or he didn't think she really was. I wanted to see whether he heard it, too. He came home and came into the kitchen and picked her up. I was at the sink with water running, so I couldn't hear her, and he exclaimed, "She said 'ma'!" I was very relieved.

I think Cara impressed Steve today with how independent she can be. They were in the living room, and she was able to amuse herself for at least twenty minutes. She scooted herself around, banged her toys, almost wound up under the couch, and generally kept busy. She loves to play with the radio toy Grandpa Jim and Grandma Janet gave her for Christmas. We don't turn it on for her much, because she doesn't press the buttons, but she just loves to grab the handle and swing the thing around! It has a couple of toys that work without the batteries, and she can handle those, too. She likes her sippy cup of water, though we're not sure she gets anything out of it.

We lowered her crib some more today. Actually, I started to do it, because it was easy, then I found that I couldn't handle it and made Steve do it. I find that that's a good way to get things done. The high ends of the crib had been high enough for her to stand up on them but too high for her to grab. Anyway, it wasn't safe for her to stand there by herself, since the other sides were low. Now the sides are a good height for Cara to pull up on, and she has a nice, soft place to practice falling on her tushie. That is something she really has to figure out, because I think she feels stuck when she stands up. When she falls, she gets upset. We need somehow for her not to need a hug every time! I know we have to just let her figure it all out, but it's really tough! Naturally, the first time she tried it in the crib she hit her forehead on one of the bars.

We had a fun bath. I pitched in this time and let Steve just hold her while I washed her. It went well. I got her top half, including her little noggin, and then I asked Steve to hold her up for a minute so I could get her little legs. Of course, this was just what Cara wanted. She got to stand up in the bath. I had realized, but somehow it hadn't clicked in my brain that this was just what Steve had been trying to talk her out of every minute of every bath. She was very, very happy and expressed her joy by jumping up and down. It was a dream come true, clearly. I thought it was pretty funny, but I'm not the one who had to try to get her to sit back down afterwards. We took her out pretty soon.

I'd just like to add one or two things. First, that Cara is definitely building confidence in her standing up abilities. Second, that today when we had her on the bed for a little while she rolled over twice in a row: from her back onto her tummy and then from her tummy onto her back again. She's never done that in succession. Third, we managed to feed baby some stage 2 veggies today, but I'm not sure she really likes them.

Oh, and fourth, her "console toy thingie" is called the Learn Around Playground. Evie has put it against the wall in Cara's nursery so that it doesn't slide away when Cara leans against it, and Cara once again put in some good hours on it today.

1/8/06 (Sunday)

Today Cara went down to see her South Jersey grandparents, and Evie went off to Aunt Sarah's house to have a seafood party. I took baby along with Uncle Jim. Cara was very good for a long time playing with her toys on the floor. She did some good standing up against the ottoman my parents have, and my Mom put a pillow behind her on the floor, which was good, because when she fell/sat down it was very gentle. I was particularly glad of this because Cara needs to work on her sitting down--as Spock mentions, babies can learn to stand but often need more time to learn to sit, which can be quite frustrating for them. Cara also had some juice from out of her bottle, which is a nice first step down the road to more interesting food experiences. At first she made her "yucky" face at the new taste coming out of her bottle, but after a few tries I think she didn't entirely hate it.

Actually I didn't spend a whole lot of time taking care of baby--we had lunch and Cara watched her nice zebra movie, which she likes very much (especially the part where the zebras dance around the maypole), and later in the evening Jim and I played old video games on Dad's giant screen TV while the grandparents tried to keep baby entertained. The old video games were part of a load of old toys that came out of the parents' attic (they are trying to get rid of all the old stuff). Some of the other toys included some nice big trucks. I guess I'm sexist, because it didn't even occur to me that these would be toys for Cara--I took them, but only to offer to boy babies. Since there are two trucks, maybe I will keep one for Cara-boo. I'm sure that girls like trucks also, because I just recently saw a bumper sticker which said: "Silly cowboy! Trucks are for girls."

As the evening wore on, Cara got a tad crabby. At around six we packed up and said goodbye, and I drove Jim back to his house. It's not a long drive, but by the time we arrived the baby was totally out. She was so asleep that I totally unstrapped her from the car seat without her waking up--something I don't remember happening before. This was ashame, as I would have to wake her up and give her a bottle before sticking her back in the car for another hour and a quarter. But that was just what we did. Baby did some crying in the car, but Claire was a trooper in the back seat and plied her with poppers and toys, and eventually we decided to turn the overhead light off and put on a CD, and that seemed to quiet her fairly well.

Cara was very happy to get home and had some nice Playground time and then some very exciting minutes in her jumper toy. We think she may be teething again. She was rather screamy today and did some latching onto people's shirts with her mouth--admittedly, she does this rather often most of the time, but it still seemed a bit more purposeful. Plus she was drooly in the jumper, and now that I think back she hasn't been very drooly for a while. Maybe one of those top teeth will sprout out soon.

I think ever since we started lowering the crib Cara has done much better at working her aquarium toy. She works all the switches on it, and she doesn't just mess with one thing and then switch to another thing--she will work one part and then work the other part with her other hand, and back and forth.

Baby is just developing all over the place. Just looking at her from day to day, she seems more and more like a real little person.

1/9/06 (Monday)

Another spectacular day of growth. Today, I gave Cara a piece of bread, following Evie's suggestion. At first, Cara batted it around for a while and then I left the kitchen (she was in her high chair). When I returned, she had begun working on it, just like Dr. Spock said she would.

Second, I hear her say 'ma ma ma', so that means she can make the sound, now the association will follow someday soon.

Third, playing upstairs on the floor, Cara needed to move but when she tried to crawl, she went backwards. I think that means she knows that somehow her legs will play a part of this crawling thing but she can't quite get them to function correctly.

In other ways a nice day. It is sixty degrees today so we went down to Johnson Park and saw the very active goats, met a couple of nice little girls and otherwise had a nice time in the stroller. Also, today I replaced Cara's backward facing car seat with the spiffy new forward facing one, which Cara seemed to like very much.

I had a nice afternoon and evening with Cara. I saw the piece of bread she had been working on; it was still quite wet and extremely gross. I'm very happy about it. I made her another one and we tried putting her in the high chair with it while we ate dinner, but it didn't work out. She went off to watch her movie, which she wound up doing from the side because she got herself out off the carpet and was sitting by the computer. She also likes to pick up the corner of the carpet and wave it gently through the air while watching the movie.

Cara had a great time playing with her Playground, although she does seem to get upset because she doesn't know how to sit down. I decided to put a nice, soft blanket behind her to cushion her, and I think it helped. Good thing I heard about Grandma Janet and the pillow!

Cara played in the living room on her own for almost half an hour while I got things done, and then I moved her onto the kitchen floor with several toys. I alternated between cooking and playing with Cara, and it worked out well. Usually, Cara maneuvers herself onto her tummy and gets mad. On the kitchen floor, she can slide around better. I think that that amuses her. I had brought Cara's knobbly purple ball into the kitchen, which I actually had thought was a pretty silly idea. However, I got down on the floor with her, got her to pay attention to it, and rolled it to her. She hit it. We tried this a lot, and she really thinks it's cool! She doesn't always get the ball, and I don't always manage to roll it to her, and she's not always paying attention (her eye is not always on the ball), but it's a good game.

I tried playing the piano with Cara today, which is something I hadn't done for a while. I can tell I hadn't done it for a while, because Cara now insists on standing up. She still wants to play, and it doesn't seem to bother her that she really can't reach the keys while standing. Apparently that's not a problem. She was ready to keep trying, but I decided we'd better do something else. Steve tried it with her later, and he may have had more success.

One really nice thing is that Cara reaches for us now. She reaches to be picked up, certainly, but I think that sometimes she just wants a hug. That may be silly, but I like it and intend to keep thinking it. She also often kicks her legs when we pick her up. I think that this is a form of jumping, which is how she expresses joy.

A couple more interesting things: first of all, Cara actually managed to pet the cat rather nicely today. Buster of course was the subject, since Shelby is just too flighty. The other thing is that Cara now seems to know how to drink out of her sippy cup! She's been playing around with it for a while, but it's been very low on water. Tonight I filled it up and she was playing with it while on her back, and eventually stuck the business end in her mouth and was shocked to find what happened. She kept going at it, though, and was quite mad when we tried taking the cup away from her. So that's cool stuff.

1/10/06 (Tuesday)

Last night, Cara woke up. However, I had already discussed with Steve the fact that I had decided that we ought not to get up with her. I wasn't sure he really agreed, but we tried it out last night. I was kind of in and out throughout, but Steve sat up for a while. He says that the session lasted for about an hour. Poor baby! I hope that she gets the hang of just putting herself back to sleep! I'm not sure Steve can take it.

This afternoon, Cara and I went back to the gym for the first time since the end of August. The girl at the Kids Klub remembered us fondly, and Cara was good. Now that she's such a big girl she's able to play in the exersaucer they have there, from which vantage point she can watch the bigger kids play. She can also watch TV, which is OK. There was a cute little boy there. When I asked him how old he was, his hand shot out with fingers extended as he yelled, "four years old; gettin' big now!" I asked him his name, which I knew because I'd heard the girl talking to him, but he was too shy to tell me.

I had a nice workout, and Cara was just starting to get cranky when I got back. She got to meet a couple of my friends, and then we went off to the pharmacy. Being ambitious and daring people, we then did the groceries. Cara was good in the cart, of course. I bought some new poppers, since we seem to have a shortage. Now there ought to be one for each of our cars as well as one each for the changing table, crib, and glider.

Cara took a short nap in the evening, and since then she has been a little bit of a "crabby patty," as Steve calls her. She has had on her screamy face. She's mostly good, though. Tomorrow we are going over to PJ's house, so I hope she does better then!

1/11/06 (Wednesday)

Yesterday, Cara reached a watershed of sorts, one that has ramifications for me. I left Cara alone in her room for a while and then heard her start to cry. I was slow to get upstairs, figuring that she was simply annoyed at me for not being there. But when I got upstairs I found that Cara had wedged herself, bottom first, under the glider! Certainly there was no danger to her but it means that I'll have to be watching her more closely while she's playing; the kid can move!

Today Cara and I went on a shopping trip that involved me carrying her around for over half an hour, and, boy, are my arms tired! After that Cara spent quite a while on the kitchen floor, scooting around on her tummy or her tushie. She got herself over by the table and chairs, and I attached her little vibrating bug toy to a lower rung of the chair and let her play with it. She was really good and kept herself occupied for a very long time. She tends to bang her head on the seat of the chair, which is of course right at head-knocking level for her, but she didn't really get upset.

After dinner, we went over to PJ's. We all settled down on the floor, and we offered Cara one of PJ's toys, a musical octopus. She liked it and started waving it around, and PJ decided that he liked it, too. He decided to take it. Any toy Cara got, PJ was also interested in. I'm guessing that Cara didn't do this last week, when PJ was over here, because she's just younger and hasn't noticed that anyone is messing with her stuff. Last week, over here, they really didn't cross paths at all, but tonight they interacted a lot! It was very, very funny to see them fight, and neither of them got upset at all.

PJ has a toy that is sort of a console with a steering wheel and other car-type things on it. For a while, both babies were playing with it simultaneously, messing with different parts. He also has a musical keyboard that you stand up to play with (if you are about two and a half feet tall, that is), which Cara was happy to latch on to. She stands up very solidly and hangs on with both hands, playing with the lights and sounds. PJ came up behind her and actually used her overalls to pull himself up--it's a very good thing that he's better at standing up than Cara, because she pulls so hard that she'd knock any baby over! He stood next to her and they looked at each other.

PJ looked at Cara, who was looking at his toy. He noticed her ear, this interesting-shaped thing on the side of her head. It was fascinating. If you flick it, it goes right back to where it was. If you pull on it, it moves a little but doesn't come off. Cara must have noticed that this was going on, but she was more interested in the toy than in her own ear, which wound up very red by the time we all stopped laughing and removed the little audiologist.

A few more times PJ pulled himself up. Twice he and Cara both fell backwards, like some sort of tiny human chain. Once he got up there, I noticed him at least once trying to take her hands off his toy. I don't think she noticed. She was busy. I was proud of her because she didn't get upset when she plopped down on her bottom. Instead, she just reached up to pull herself back into position.

It is, again, really educational and fascinating to see PJ. He can really stand up, and he is extremely mobile. He can bend down to get a ball and then stand back up with it to put it into a chute. He is awfully close to just being able to walk! It's cool to see the next phases that Cara will go through, but, on the other hand, it's easy to see how different from each other all babies are, so who knows what she'll do!

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