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Journal Key:

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

5/25/06 (Thursday)

For the record, Cara woke up in the night. We made sure she hadn't gotten herself stuck in the crib slats or been attacked by wolves or anything, and we put her back down. She started at one, and I'm sure she was still crying at 1:45. Eventually she went back to sleep, though. This is about the fourth Wednesday night in a row that this has happened, and in fact I told Steve in the evening that it would happen. He did not believe me, but I was vindicated. I theorize that either Cara's overexcited by her playdates or the neighbors are running some kind of smuggling ring that operates at odd hours on Wednesday nights and is loud enough to wake Cara but not us.

Today Cara and I went to the vet in the afternoon to pick up poor little Buster, who is finally a full quadruped once more. I took Cara in without her stroller; I let her walk a lot today. She kind of sort of walks with me, and she sometimes will hold my hand. When we get to a place which she finds particularly fascinating, I do end up picking her up and carrying her a little bit. At the vet, Cara wanted to go in the out rather than the in door, so she made her entrance in my arms.

When we all got home, Buster lurked around, limping a little, so Cara could just about catch her. We went outside to play. Cara played in and around her little house, and she demonstrated once more that she can get into and out of her car. She likes to sit and turn the steering wheel, but she cannot operate the horn. Now that we have a nice, safe gate across the stairs down from the back yard, Cara is very interested in going up the brick stairs to the driveway. We spent some time on the driveway and I cleaned out Cara's wagon (my wagon?), which was full of pollen and leaves and things from trees. Then I put Cara in and we went around the block a couple of times.

Cara got cranky while I was making dinner, so we were upstairs playing at 5:50 when Steve called to say that he had only gotten about five miles! Cara and I made dinner and ate together. We both had some melon, some broccoli, some chicken, some potato, some corn bread, and some water. Cara also had some cheese. Cara likes to have one piece of food in each hand (both of the same sort) at all times, and when she sees something better coming, she'll drop both pieces off the sides. The floor got two pieces of melon when the broccoli came along, two pieces of broccoli when the cornbread came, and plenty of cornbread when the cheese showed up. I did pick things up as we went along, but the amount I had to pick up afterwards was quite outstanding.

We managed to clean up and were out for another walk when Steve got home. She wanted his attention while he was eating, so Cara and I went out again. This time we didn't take a wagon; we walked around the block. Truthfully, Cara walked most of the way. Sometimes I carried her twenty or thirty steps, but she did a great job keeping up and staying mostly on track. It was very nice. She did carry along two sticks, but she changed them out for two clover flowers, and those eventually were abandoned for a dandelion. Most of the time, when Cara stopped walking, it was because she had dropped her flower. She probably could have picked it back up, but I decided to get her flowers for her. I know it's inevitable, but I hate to think of those little fingers scraping along the sidewalk. Anyway, Cara did bring a flower to her daddy, who was waiting at the door with the cat. She may have brought it for the cat.

Steve made pop-tarts, and I tried one. Cara, who had climbed into her stroller, very much wanted to try it also, so I gave her a little bit. I tricked her into letting me put the messy thing right into her mouth, but she tricked me right back by taking it out and putting it back in again. I had some more, so so did she. Cara finished the evening with a nice, chocolatey face.

5/26/06 (Friday)

For once I was here before George and Cara, so I witnessed her arrival. Cara entered joyfully and began immediately to tear around the house and rediscover her Middletown toys. It was nice to see that she was right at home the moment she came in.

She has developed a charming habit of hugging a thing tight to her chest and sort of twisting her upper body back and forth as if in an ecstasy of delight. Of course, in the next instant she may drop the precious object to the floor. She did this with her kitty-cat blanket and with a new pretty pony that Emily brought her.

Hide-and-seek has her laughing out loud, as does a merry chase around our kitchen-dining room-living room area.

When asked where the fishies were, she ran to the tank and pointed up at them. She definitely is saying something like "cat" when she sees the Schmutz, and something that might be "grandpa" when she approaches George. We played in the house most of the time, but took one walk with our stroller. We let her out once to chase an innocent rabbit across a lawn. Great-grandma Emily fed her yogurt, bread, apples and nalizniki at supper time.

Even without an expedition to the playground, this is a tired little girl. As soon as I finish this mail, I will give her her bath and get her ready for sleep.

5/27/06 (Saturday)

When I put Cara into her bath last night, she sat and dipped her little face to the surface of the water. Then we looked each other in the eye, she pleased and I astonished. Then she did it again, and this time I heard a little slurp. She had found a new way to drink the bath water! George was appalled; I was amused. She did the same thing a few more times, before she reverted to the easier method of shlurping it out of the hair of the troll dolls. (Ugh! Now that's appalling!) George got her to look up during the rinse phase of her shampoo, so I think every bit of soap has been thoroughly rinsed out. A good time was had by all, and then we had our most contemplative time of the day.

Every time I take Cara out of the bath, we like to spend a few minutes together, just quietly. She is wrapped only in her towel, and she rests in my arms, gazing at her own reflection in the big mirror, a sleepy, comfy little girl. Then, while I get her into her jammies George prepares the bedtime bottle. She lay in my lap and sucked it all down. After it was gone she seemed a little sad. I laid her in the crib even so, and she hardly uttered a peep before she was sound asleep. That was at about 8:40 and she wasn't heard from again until 6 this morning. Ê

At 6 I found her standing in the crib with a troll in each hand. At first she wanted to be held a lot, and then, after her bottle, she was happy to play some more while grandpa ate breakfast. The green yoga ball was loose, and she was pleased to find she could make such a large thing roll across the floor. I offered her some melon, which she declined, and some peach yogurt, of which she ate about half the carton. And now she is on her way home.

Indeed, Cara's slurping of her bath water and her much cuter habit of hugging things and twisting back and forth are both things that we had noticed her do, and I'm glad Janet mentioned them. The first thing Cara did tonight when I put her in her bath was to bend over and dunk her face underwater to slurp. Disgusting? A little, but one has to draw new lines--I'll be happy if she gets through her day without eating a stick.

I actually got home early from work yesterday and was happy to have a little time to see Cara before her Grandpapa whisked her away. The reason she was still there at around 2 pm was because of her new nap schedule. Today, since Cara was up a bit early, we put her in her crib at around 10:30 and she slept for almost exactly two hours before waking, and then she polished off an entire jar of stage 3 granola baby food.

We also had a nice morning with Cara. She came home to us wearing the cutest little pink romper (that's what Evie called it, and I assume she knows what she's talking about), which left her legs completely bare--a good idea considering what a hot day it ended up being. We decided to take her out for a walk and both of us were thinking there was a good chance that she would skin her knee. And, true to our predictions, she did. So baby had her first skinned knee--we got a picture of the band-aid. This did not slow her down very much, though, and we finally put pants on her and took her for a nice morning walk, and had some good play time.

In the afternoon Cara's Middletown grandparents came up to see her again! Cara showed them her new slide toy which is near her toy house and her toy kitchen in the back yard. I had already shown her in the morning that she could slide objects down the slide, like rocks--she displayed this trick for her grandparents.

To back up a bit, one of the things that I most enjoyed about the morning was that Cara was clearly saying "Daddy," and may very well have known that the word referred to me. She has, I think, been working on this word for a few days, and still very heavily repeats the early variation, which sounds something like "Dah-nnn!" In addition to the word development, we (or at least Evelyn) are fairly sure that her eighth tooth is coming in!

For dinner, true to Memorial Day weekend, we cooked on the grill. The fare included hot dogs. Cara's Grandma decided to try one on her, and started cutting it up into little bits and feeding them to her one by one. By the time Cara finally lost interest, she had eaten almost two whole hot dogs!! It was very impressive. And this was by no means the only food she ate at dinner--there was also a cheese stick and some fruit, among other things.

By the time dinner had ended and the Grandparents were making their departure, Cara was clearly tired. Her parents were also, but we took her out in her wagon for the second time that day, to pass the time until her bath and her bottle. When we got back, I decided to jump in the shower and Evie was sitting in Cara's room, watching her. Cara walked over, turned around, and plopped down in her Mommy's lap, and had books read to her. This is something Evie has been hoping and wishing that Cara would do for a long time now, so it was another very nice moment.

Plenty of other things happened today, including a trip to the park and a trip to the mall for Cara, and of course she had her bath tonight as well. Tomorrow she will go down to see her other grandparents.

5/28/06 (Sunday)

Once again, we are indebted to Ron and Em. Em mentioned the idea a few weeks ago that there ought to be books in a child's crib, so that he or she can look at them when waking or falling asleep. I have finally come through and put one of Cara's books into her bed. It's a woolly book about a young lamb, so I figure it's good to sleep with. Last night, Steve was giving Cara her drops as usual. He gave her her fluoride drops, which are quite innocuous, and then he told her that he was coming over with her "nasty, horrible" other drops, her vitamins. Cara quickly turned around, sat down, and opened her book, much too busy reading to take any sort of drops, thank you! We've never read her this book very much, because it has more words than she's quite ready for. Now, Cara opens it up for herself and really does spend time looking at it.

We spent today in South Jersey, where Cara got to play with everyone, including her Aunt Sarah and Uncle Jim as well as her Great-aunt Sally and Great-uncle Ron. She ran around and chased the dog and was knocked over by him a couple of times and bothered him a few times. She toddled all over the house and there was always someone happy to follow her and look at things with her. Her Grandma Janet brought out a baby-sized rocking chair, and Cara had fun climbing into and out of it. Cara has lots of toys down there, and she got to hold a pair of men, apparently construction workers, and later a cow and horse. It was a big decision, sometimes, when she was in her highchair, whether to hold them or eat.

We played outside. Grandma brought Cara a bucket of water and two measuring cups, and Cara had a good time getting all wet. Rusty had a good time drinking all the water. Cara's favorite part was watching Rusty run around. She loved seeing him charging around the yard with his ball, shaking it fiercely in his mouth! Grandpa got good pictures.

When we got home, we had a message on our machine inviting us to an impromptu barbecue at PJ's house. We went over and Cara got to play with PJ, his toys, a few dogs, and (alas) BJ the dog's very favorite and most precious toy, a little stuffed creature that he carries around and had not destroyed, even though he's had it a year. Cara dropped it into his water bowl. Cara had another hot dog, which she enjoyed very much. The kids played together with a few issues. Here's a scenario: PJ has a little toy pig. Cara likes it. PJ takes it and runs off behind the furniture. Cara goes and takes it from him. He pushes her. She falls down. She cries. Who is at fault? We'd have to ask a jury of their peers, who would conclude, Em theorizes, that toy pigs taste good.

I got to take home the leftover hot dog, but I got one other thing from Em. She gave me the phone number of the woman at whose house PJ goes to day care. She charges exactly what I pay my dad, and we're considering sending Cara for at least a day per week next year. It doesn't hurt to check it out.

Today Cara woke up at about 8:30, and I went in and got her. I picked her up and snuggled her and carried her downstairs, where she was very happy to see her daddy and had to go to him immediately. Basically, that's been the story of the day. She says "daddy," and it might mean Steve, but she says it to everything. However, she does love her daddy. Steve is nice enough to speculate that he might be more exciting because he's around less. I don't know, I think he's pretty cool, too.

5/29/06 (Monday)

Today was Memorial Day, so we all had off, even George. We woke Cara at around 8:30 and took her right downstairs to share our breakfast of eggs and pancakes--she did not have her morning bottle, and she was fine with that. In fact, Evie thinks she was even a little excited to be getting right to the breakfast. She has been going without her midday bottle for a little while as well, so today she is down to only one bottle--the one Evie just gave her (it is now a quarter past 9 pm).

Cara did many funny things today--she's just a funny baby. Mostly it's the babbling. For some reason she particularly loves to say "Daddy" in the game room. We have some photos in there of various people and family members, including photos of me, and she points to them and says "Daddy! Daddy!" She also points to all kinds of other things and says "Daddy"--I theorize it may mean "I want that." Lately she has been sticking out her tongue and babbling, kind of a "blahh la laa gaahh" thing. I have been instigating this by doing it myself, so that she does it. When we laugh, she laughs--it's pretty great. There are also other times when she will find something funny and we will never know what that thing was.

Cara today started an interesting habit: when she is sitting down, she will take her leg (I think it may always be her left) and lift it up, and put her arm under it. I have no idea where she got this from. She was even doing it in her bath tonight.

It was very, very hot today--Cara still got a quick trip to the park with her Mommy, but they came back soon. We spent a lot of time inside trying to keep cool. Cara was content for quite a while to play around in the dining room and game room while we lazed about and even read to each other. Even inside it was uncomfortable (we have not yet broken down and turned on the A/C), so Cara ran around in just her onesie for the second half of the day. Before that, she was wearing some adorable shorts for a little while. In the evening when it had cooled down some, Evie and Cara went out for a long walk about the neighborhood. With all that time spent indoors, though, by the end of the day there were objects strewn all over the living room and dining room, not to mention Cara's room.

Cara ate a lot of food today--she really tore through her sweet potato veggie puffs, but also had quite a few other things. There were some baby food bananas, some yogurt, some cheese, chicken, pineapple, watermelon, strawberries, many cheerios, and even some pie left over from yesterday.

It was a long day and by Cara's bath time she was fairly exhausted, but still wanted to run around naked. She decided to pick up one of her stuffed teddy bears, the one that's about the same size as her, and carry him around the upstairs hall. Whenever she stopped, she would lie down on top of him for a few seconds. Then, back to running.

5/30/06 (Tuesday)

Because we only used two of our three built-in snow days, North Brunswick schools were closed today. I had a dress rehearsal for the summer!

Cara doesn't seem to miss her morning bottles at all, which is nice. Maybe I'll take the bottle warmer off my counter, finally! She had a nice, messy breakfast in her pajamas, and then I put her into a really cute little outfit. It's a pale green romper with little bows and just barely a skirt; it was practical, comfortable, and adorable. Then she peed on it. Actually, I'm getting ahead of myself. Cara has some sort of heat rash across the back of her shoulders, and it looked pretty fierce this morning. I decided we'd spend the day hiding from the sun. We didn't go to any parks or for any walks today.

In the morning, we headed up to the Woodbridge mall, which honestly is so big I lose my sense of direction in there. Cara's been much more often than I, lately. We went to Stride Rite and bought Cara some cute little white closed-toe sandals. They are comfy, roomy, and tough enough to wear pretty much anywhere. They're also easy to get on and off. I didn't bring the stroller to the mall, so Cara had a great time toddling around, trying to grab things. Stride Rite has toys mounted to the backs of the benches, and she enjoyed them after I talked her out of leaving the store.

My dad had mentioned a play area in the mall where there were things for little kids to climb on and run around surrounded by a bench for the mommies to sit on and watch. I found out later today that he hadn't taken Cara in before; she spent about an hour there today. Cara got to run around with all the bigger kids (nobody was much bigger than about six, I would guess) and climb through and around things. Her biggest accomplishment for the day, a dream come true, really, was that she managed to climb up one of the slides and then, holding my hands, walk down the stairs. I can see going there in the summer, when it's brutally hot again.

Cara has a diaper rash. It's not really bad, in the grand scheme of things, but it's the worst that she's had. It's probably from sweating. There are patches of it on her sides where the diapers rub her. It's not really kosher, but I put some talcum powder on it this afternoon. I also let her run around without her diaper for a full two minutes, which is how long it took her to pee on her outfit.

Cara and I hung around the house for most of the rest of the day, except a quick trip to the A&P. I finally found my Mother's Day present, a hydrangea, and Cara kept ripping leaves off it while it was in the cart behind her. This evening Steve planted it for me.

At dinner, Cara had her first ear of corn. It's really Ron's fault; on Sunday he asked whether we'd seen a baby with an ear of corn, and he suggested that is was very very funny. I gave Cara an ear of corn, and I really didn't think she'd do much with it. Steve and I were talking, and all of a sudden I looked over and she was taking a bite! That went well. She put it down. When she picked it up again, she held it as one would a banana or a popsicle. That did not go as well, but it was not a disaster. Unfortunately, the corn was not put right again. It was pretty funny, though.

One thing that has eased my mind is the fact that Steve lowered the crib to its final position, as low as it can go. The bars are up about to Cara's armpits again, and I'm sure she can't get out. At least, now I'm not worried anymore.

Now that it's hot, Cara can wear the light pajamas Steve bought her weeks ago. They're cute little short-sleeved tops with light pants that have ruffles on the bottom, and they fit her perfectly. I may take pictures.

5/31/06 (Wednesday)

There's a lot of communication going on. Driving here this morning, I heard a report about how toddlers can benefit by being taught sign language. I think Cara might, but she's getting very good with words. The high point of the day for me was in the afternoon, when I was sitting on the couch and she was ripping through some of her usual books. I said "Cara, if you bring me that book, I'll read it to you." She and I were both looking at the same thing, one of her usual books on the other side of the room. She immediately toddled to it, picked it up and brought it over. This would have been perfect except that when she extended the book to me, I couldn't quite grasp it and so it fell on my foot! It hurt but the little pain was well worth it. She understands a lot!

Today, Cara still has a little bit of her rash on her back so we didn't go anywhere special and just hung around the house. Somehow, we were interested all day and both happy when her mommy and my daughter came home. This was a very nice day.

It's good to hear that Cara was a good girl today. This evening she had dinner with us as usual but did not seem to have a huge appetite, but it can be hard to tell which things get eaten and which get squished into tiny little pieces and scattered around. It was Wednesday, so she raced around with PJ in the evening. Actually, when he came in, she went right for him and seemed to want to touch him, but PJ skirted around her and went straight for the old playground toy. They kind of worked in concert tonight more than arguing with each other, though. For instance, I was handing things to PJ and Cara was then taking them. This did not bother PJ, in fact he took it as what was supposed to happen and eventually started handing them over to her! They also both were chasing around the cats, and came close to trapping poor Buster under some chairs in the dining room. Right before PJ had to leave, both children were enjoying slapping at the keys of my keyboard.

Cara is getting quite good with her walker toy--she used to just push it into a wall and then give up, but she has learned how to steer fairly well, and is also sometimes able to back it out when it gets wedged into something. Another thing that Cara is very fond of playing with is straps. She loves to play with the straps of her stroller when she climbs up into its seat, and will often go over to her wagon when she's outside, just to fiddle with the straps. We are considering getting her some backpacks for her next birthday.

Sometimes when you hold Cara still, she will patter her feet up and down like she's tap-dancing. She often does this on the upper floor of her slide toy. Tonight in her tub, after splashing to great effect with her hands while in a sitting position, Cara stood up, grabbed hold of a handle above the soap dish, and danced up and down with her feet in the water! It was very cute.

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