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Journal Key:

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

2/2/06 (Thursday)

Since I didn't see my dad today, I have no idea how Cara's day went before he dropped her off at the gym at 4:15. When I do know is that she's been cranky ever since. She has spells of sunshine, but she's just basically in a bad mood. I had to give her a bottle at six, and she fell asleep; I had figured that she was probably tired. She was up again a little bit after seven, and she just continued being cranky. Changes of venue help. After a while, though, she just gets cranky in the new room. She is continuing to crawl, cruise, and chatter like a good little thing, though. She's climbing around all over us, and she got a handful of poor Shelby. She pulled a blanket off of a shelf, and she may be talking to that baby in the mirror. Of course, she also talks to those zebras in the television.

2/3/06 (Friday)

What a week! This is the first complete week in which Cara can move. So, yes, she needs more watching because of the trouble she can get herself into but the major issue for me is that she can follow me around and whenever I sit down, she comes over and cries, wanting to know why I'm not picking her up and when I do pick her up she cries because she wants to know why I'm not walking around with her.

In addition, Cara's food needs are changing. She's still mostly on the formula but we're trying hard to get her to eat finger food, giving her cheese, veggie puffs, cheerios and yes, banana slices. We want her to pick them up using her own little hands and she's partly successful and getting better at it every day.

By the way, yesterday's big event happened in the early morning when we went for our morning walk. Down at the end of Lloyd Ave., past Easy Street, we looked down into the ravine and there, lo and behold, were three deer that spent whole minutes looking at us (a two-headed monster) and determining that we were harmless.

Today, we're off to Middletown and I look forward to Grandma Janet having Cara climb up her leg!

It's past 10 pm, and George has attempted to intimate to Cara that it is bed time by playing one of the soporific (to me) Life of Birds tapes, yet she remains happily babbling on his lap. She has had a delightful bath and a bottle, and is in every way ready for sleep, except that she is not the least bit sleepy, albeit very pleasant about it. I guess this means that George gets to watch the end of whatever game is currently on.

Earlier today we visited both the backyard park and the mini park, each of which is equipped with baby swings; Cara liked them both and George got a video of us on his cell phone. On the walk home, near the house, we found the Schmutz, who happily approached us, to Cara's intense happiness! I would say the most intensely joyful moments of her day ensued, as I held her with her feet on the ground and let her try to walk up to the cat, who finally retreated up the crab apple tree, where he remained, apparantly sulking, until Claire coaxed him down after Cara was safely in the house.

After our expedition we thought the baby might be hungry. While the bottle was fixing I fed her a bit of a slice of American cheese. We think this may not have agreed with her, as she took only half the bottle and experienced what appeared to be several bouts of indigestion; she was unhappy and working as if to force a bowel movement, but only passed some gas. In the midst of this struggle, she wore herself out and had a nap, which may explain her current wakefulness. Since then she has been playing happily.

With her new mobility, she likes to crawl over to her office and pull herself up to stand beside it. When she makes it play music her little tush bobs up and down and she looks at me to see if I am also dancing. In the bath, for the first time, she played with her Baby Einstein caterpillar. She was really intrigued in some of his body segments, but found that only his head was easy to grasp; those antennae make good handles, and they're good to chew on as well! After a while I removed her, but she protested, so I put her back in; she had unfinished business. She had neglected to chew on the heads of the rubber duckies.

Anyway, it's time to put on the special sleepy music and try to hypnotize the baby!

2/4/06 (Saturday)

Cara was delivered safely home this morning before nine. She had woken up early and had a nice bottle at Grandma's before being whisked away; we played with her for a while and then hoped she'd take her nap at ten. Of course, this being a weekend, she felt that she did not need her nap. Around four in the afternoon I managed to put her down for about 45 minutes, but that was really it for the day. Since she was up quite late last night and early in the morning, she really must be quite tired!

My mother said that she had heard clacking from Cara's mouth. When Cara got here in the morning, I took the first opportunity I saw to stick my finger in her mouth. Sure enough, she has a top tooth! It's still hard to see, but it's definitely there on the top on the left (her left). It was great to start the day off with such a milestone. My mother must have superhuman powers, because I don't think I've heard anything clacking.

It's been a busy day. Cara got to help her Grandpa Jim on a household project. She played with his level and a big rubber mallet. At the same time she demonstrated that, like the silly cats, she would be very happy to eat the poor spider plant for which I have not found room on a shelf. The cats have trimmed most of the leaves, and Cara helpfully pulled out one of the longer ones.

Aunt Sarah and I went out shopping with Cara in the afternoon. We very much enjoyed our time at Barnes and Noble and Michael's, although Cara decided to be carried for part of the time. We tested out a variety of pop-up books and found that some really were not up to our high standards.

Cara seems fascinated by her Aunt Sarah. She stares and stares when Sarah talks to her, makes funny faces, and plays with her. Unfortunately, Sarah has offered her niece some dubious business deals, and I know for a fact that Cara has already run into some gambling debt. She also encourages Cara to pull on Uncle Jim's beard, which puts Cara in a delicate moral position. I may, however, be making too much of this, as Cara clearly has no qualms about grabbing the cats and pulling. (Just picture Jim sitting there, as terrified as Shelby, as Cara crawls closer and closer . . . )

I fed Cara some yogurt today, and she accepted it eagerly from the spoon. Halfway through, she did grab the spoon; I just got another and we continued with moderate success. Cara ate a small bowlful of yogurt and a lot of puffs and Cheerios. She did spend some time today being awfully cranky, but I'm hoping that I can attribute that to fatigue rather than to intolerance of yogurt or anything more serious. Perhaps she's working on yet another tooth!

Cara's playground toy has three plastic balls and some tubes that they are meant to roll through. They land in a tray at the bottom. Today, Cara did two things we hadn't seen her do before. Earlier, she was sitting near her toy. She picked up a ball from the tray and deliberately stuck it into a hole in the tube, then picked it up again and almost duplicated her feat! This evening, she was standing up and bent all the way down and picked up a ball! I'm very proud of her.

2/5/06 (Sunday)

Yesterday Cara had not had a long sleep the night before and had not napped much at all, so it was an easy job putting her down. Tonight--not so easy. Cara and family had a nice morning playing with toys and eating various things and harrassing cats. Cara did very well with some stage 3 food--oatmeal and pears with cinnamon--and also the obligatory Cheerios. She will be happily sitting on the kitchen floor, perhaps producing some ruminative "Baah bah bah" or "La wa mah" noises (her gibberish is sounding much more multisyllabic these days), but if a kitty comes into view, it's "AAhh!!" and she starts crawling. This morning she followed Shelby out of the kitchen and to the stairs in the living room leading up. Shelby's tactic was to go up a few steps and lie on her back looking stupidly upside down at Cara (presumably she thought the altered viewpoint would help). Cara meanwhile started out fairly determined and I thought for a moment she was going to start climbing stairs. She did get both her knees up to the first stair, but they slid off and she lost her passion for the thing.

Also today I was sure I spotted a partner to her first upper tooth. It would have made and even two pairs, a set in the bottom center and one in the top center--but it seems to have disappeared again. Evelyn is sure, based on similar testimony from Em down the street, that the tooth has surfaced but then retracted again into the gum. We'll see what happens.

Cara had a typical fun shopping trip, riding in her cart and staring at people, several of whom commented on her cuteness.

At some time past noon Cara had her second bottle of the day and then we packed up and were off to South Jersey for my parents and a Super Bowl party. We arrived early and watched Cara play. It was a totally new experience, as this is the first time we've been to my parents' house since Cara learned to crawl. She enjoyed going over to an end table where there are lots of family pictures within easy reach--one of the many things that are not for babies. She also liked going over to Rusty's basket of dog toys, and for her pains (and to Rusty's evident consternation) received one washed squeaky dog toy, which she proceeded to gnaw on for quite a while. Later in the evening, she also inherited a dog toy at which Rusty had turned up his snout.

Rusty and Cara have an odd relationship. It has mutated again since she's become mobile. Rusty seemed to want to lick her a lot when she first came in--and possibly nibble a bit on her flappy ears. Cara was uncertain as to how to react, perhaps a bit alarmed at first, but never really afraid, and eventually she seemed to decided he was funny. There were still one or two moments when, presented with his face, she leaned towards him with her mouth open.

Cara got to see Aunt Sarah and Uncle Jim again as well. Fun was had by all. We fended off her hunger for a long time with Cheerios, but eventually gave her a bottle. She had lots of cruising time on the ottoman and couches, and lots of play time. She was good for a while when most of us were eating, just sitting in the living room with her South Jersey toys (this time a nice ferry with car-riding passengers). Eventually we had to leave and packed her in the car again.

On the way down we were amazed when she seemed to stay awake for most of the trip, especially since we had purposely skipped her nap in the hopes of her getting one in on the car ride. For the ride home she was awake for a little, grumbled for a little, and slept. When we got home she was asleep, and usually it makes her very mad when you take her out of her car when she's asleep. But somehow this time she was very happy to be home and to see us, and kept grinning and rubbing her face on her blanket.

Now however we have run into the problem we normally have after a long night time car ride--Cara does not want to go to sleep for the night. Well, time will win out eventually...

2/6/06 (Monday)

I arrive at 7:20 A.M. and Cara is awake upstairs; Steve is making a bottle. I start the day with Cara very early--sleep patterns are truly askew. While Cara is on the changing table, I notice one and then two tiny slivers of upper teeth.

Today I put clothes on Cara, not leaving her in her sleeper all day as I do ordinarily. After the morning 8 oz. bottle, Cara wanted more food so I gave her some finger food. Afterwards, I set Cara on the floor of the living room. Once she crawled away from the spot where I placed her, three cheerios appeared on the carpet as if by magic!

One amusing tale from the afternoon. We're in the car headed to Woodbridge Mall. Frank Sinatra is playing. singing about the love he found down Mexico way. He sings "Ay Ay Ay AYYY, Ay Ay Ay AYYY". From the back seat, I hear "Ay Ay Ay AYYYY". Very cute.

I got home in time to give Cara her third bottle of the day at four o'clock. We had a wonderful time playing with her playground upstairs, and I got out the video camera to record this phase of her life. She stands up and cruises and bops her little tush around, and she is very, very vocal. She talks and laughs. I am very proud of her strength; she can bend over to pick things up and then stand back up without falling down. She bends down several times on camera to get the balls from the base of the playground, and then she hits things with them. She is starting to try to put them into the holes they're supposed to go into; that is a skill that is coming fast. I got a very long movie, some from the back and some from the front. I only stopped when I ran out of tape and Cara decided to go and try to destroy my cookbooks. I'm not sure when he'll have time, but Steve will post the video soon.

Downstairs, Cara had fun in her walker in the kitchen. She is very happy in it, eating Cheerios and spreading them around the kitchen. She is able to deliberately steer herself around, I think; my evidence is that she kept charging right into my legs.

In the living room, we put on a new video. A friend at work lent me a Curious Buddies DVD about farms. Like Baby Einstein, it features a group of hand puppets. These puppets are on the farm in this episode, learning about animals and plants and singing songs like "Old McDonald." Cara finds it hysterically funny, a real knee-slapper. I also enjoyed it very much, all three or four times we went through it.

We have some toys from Steve's childhood, including two large, steel trucks which we intend to pass along to PJ. We haven't been in a hurry to give them to him, since they're really for older children. Somehow, Cara has started to play with the trucks, and she loves them. She rolls them back and forth and winds up taking them apart and turning them over. They are full of hard edges and sharp corners, and really I never thought this would happen, but it is going quite well.

I have a few notes about yesterday. My favorite Cara/Rusty interaction was when Rusty was locked away behind the baby gate. Cara took herself over to him, stood up, and got licked in the face. She did not object. The top of the gate wound up wet, but I think it was from Cara's mouth, not the dog's. She may have tried to grab his nose. Later, Janet was playing with Cara with a dog toy. She rolled it along, and Cara crawled after it as fast as she could; they went round and round.

Last night, Cara was up till eleven. No one was happy. She is really cute, though, when she finally gets put down. She turns on her side and hugs her blanket. This morning, around 6:15, I heard jingling from her room. It was her hippo, who lives in her crib. Things got quiet again, but I think Steve was lucky that she made it through to seven.

2/7/06 (Tuesday)

Cara's ten month birthday!

The high point: she and I shared a banana. I sliced her a piece and had some myself then continued the cycle. She had about five or six small pieces, which I fed to her.

She's teething--in late afternoon, she refused an entire bottle of formula which awaits her in the refrigerator.

Daddy dropped Cara off at the gym for me; the first time I saw her today, she was sitting on the floor playing with a little girl a few years older than she (they were well-supervised). When Cara saw me, she started to cry. I think she just wanted to make sure I knew that she had been working awfully hard. We went home and I gave Cara that bottle, which she was quite enthusiastic about. It put her just about to sleep, but she woke up when I put her down. We made dinner together; she had a great time in the kitchen in her walker, eating her puffs. She must have gotten through 80 of them--that's a serving size!

I went back to the gym in the evening, leaving Cara with her daddy. When I got home, I fed her some oatmeal and pears, which she loved. She finished it and wanted more, so I made more. Steve says that that never works; by the time it's made, she doesn't want it. He seems to be right. We took her to the living room and she and I both ate an awful lot of Cheerios.

I'd just like to add that when I was with Cara she wandered around upstairs a bit, and crawled into the bathroom to the tub and stood up on the rim to look in. She has done this a couple of times now and I'm beginning to wonder whether she doesn't want to have a bath. Then she spotted a kitty. I decided to hold her hands up and let her walk after the kitty. She proceeded to stomp her way down the hallway at a surprising pace, all the way into our bedroom! I was impressed.

I barely remembered it was Cara's ten month birthday! She celebrated it at just past midnight by waking up, but Evie went in and was able to get her to go back to sleep in the glider. The bottle I had prepared to get her back to sleep was put in the fridge, and I assume George used it during the day.

Cara is getting better at mimicking things, which is cool. It's odd that pretty soon the stuff that I think it's absolutely amazing that she can do (crawling, cruising, making word-like sounds) she will be doing all the time and it will be old hat. When she's fourteen, I probably won't even clap anymore when she walks across a room without falling over.

2/8/06 (Wednesday)

This morning Cara decided to wake up with her Mommy, at 5:30. Mommy tried the glider, and then I tried a bottle on her while Mommy took a shower, but baby was still fidgety. She probably would have gone back to sleep if I'd taken the time and had the patience to wait her out, but we needed to go to work, so Cara went downstairs and Ev took the opportunity to have a nice breakfast at home.

George came to rescue me right after Ev left, and a bit later in the day my mother came to rescue him. This evening Cara ate well, having lots of Cheerios and puffs and a good dish of some kind of granola concoction (stage 3) which Evie gave her while I was finishing my dinner. Then it was off to PJ's for a night of crawling around and playing. Although PJ is nearly beyond crawling--if given the incentive, he will stand up and take steps on his own! They are very faltering steps and he still prefers to crawl--quite naturally since he's a very swift crawler--but any day now he will be zooming along on two feet.

I had a little while there when Cara started crawling where I was perfectly satisfied with her progress and wasn't worried about a thing. Now though I see all the things PJ can do and I admit I am a little anxious. I have to remember that Cara was a premie and is six weeks behind anyway.

Ron tried turning Cara upside down, which is one of the things he does with PJ which PJ loves. Cara stared back at us all with her upside down face, perhaps smiling a little but unsure of how she really felt. She was given a nice Nerf ball, which she gnawed on. She did a little bit of pushing on the shopping cart walker thing that they have (there's a picture of her using it from a few weeks ago). We gave PJ one of the old toy trucks we have and he seemed to enjoy it--he was mesmerised by the turning wheels.

After 8:30 both kids were starting to get tired and cranky, so we packed Cara off. It was time for her bath, and circumstances converged so that I was the one who gave it to her. It's been a long while, and I was apprehensive because the last one I did required Evelyn's assistance. But it went well. Cara doesn't wriggle as much as she did a few weeks ago, perhaps because she's realized there is a slight danger of sucking up a nose full of water. We had a nice time getting soaped up and playing with the bath toys. Cara does not like to be laid down in the water to get her hair rinsed--it worries her very much. But then she got out of her tub and got her night time bottle, and now Ev and I are waiting for our late night laundry to be done (as are the cats).

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