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Journal Key:

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

6/1/06 (Thursday)

A strange morning. Cara awoke at 8 A.M. Once downstairs in her high chair, she scratched and then kept scratching the back of her head and the nape of her neck. This became alarming to me as I saw that a relatively small region of heat rash had extended onto a large portion of the back of her head.

I put on an ointment and called the pediatrician; the receptionist got me in at 11:30. By then Cara was more comfortable. The ointment and some distractions toned down the considerable redness. By the time Dr. Weiner came in Cara was feeling okay, alternately teething on a small penguin and a purple godzilla that various drug companies gave to the good doctor as forget-me-nots.

Dr. Weiner said it was heat rash. A small percentage of the time it's a reaction to tent caterpillar larvae. He thought for about a second and said that the tent caterpillar rash is usually at the neck area, as Cara's was, but it never goes into the hair. So it's definitely heat rash--a 1% cortisone cream should take care of it. Bang, boom, done at 12:15 P.M.

By the time I saw Cara after 6:30 pm, the rash was back to being light and small again. Putting on the air conditioning helps as well, because it has been getting good and hot in here the last few days, and Cara has no concept of slowing down just because of a little heat--she continues to toddle around everywhere.

Thursday night we sat around and watched muppets in the evening, and then Cara got her bath. There was a big thunderstorm going on, with major rainfall and incredibly sustained bursts of lightning, none of which had much of an impact on Cara--she just didn't really notice. We didn't try to point it out to her. I did turn off the computer, which is why I am finishing Thursday's entry on Friday morning. Cara slept fine, although unfortunately I think I can hear her a little in her room now, so I'd better run and take a shower!

6/2/06 (Friday)

Cara's rash is nearly gone and she's feeling much better today. It's much cooler in the morning so we walk out to Lloyd Street and then head out to Johnson Park which remains very wet but has the one advantage I'd hoped for: the rain washed the walks clear of bad things. The walkway at the zoo was so clean that I let Cara walk near the baby goats.

Cara, however, is hardly interested in the baby goats. A class of tiny little kids is nearby and all her attention is on them and any other people who come by. Then Cara starts to push the stroller and it's fun watching her struggle. We walk all around the zoo and then to the playground where we find there's no one to play with and the seats on the swings are wet so we decided to call it a morning.

On the way home I stop for ice cream. Cara has four or five little bites but then loses interest. I am forced to eat the rest of the medium-sized cup. I tell the lady in the Corner Confectionary that Cara is a very nice girl and that she'll ALWAYS be a very nice girl. She doesn't disagree with me. Cara is happy looking at the teddy bears and the various candies in the eclectic place.

Cara will wake up from her nap sometime about 2 P.M. and we'll head down to Middletown where her grandma and great-grandma await her with open arms.

Despite the chancy weather, Emily, Cara and I made our way to the playground, stopping at the baby swings for our usual good time. Cara always likes the playground best when other children are present. Today she got to join a bunch of 6-year-old girls who were using leaves to wipe the rainwater off the slide; she held a leaf and wiped vigorously, if less effectively than the rest. After that she spent a lot of time just studying the older children. We had begun to play in the sand and get really gritty when Emily noticed a cloud looming in, so we went home.

In the backyard Cara got to touch Schmutz a couple of times, although he fled in terror when she ran at hime shreiking, both hands in the air. Imagine it from his perspective! Later on, though, in the house, she cornered him and he put a small scratch on the side of her face. He was immediately booted out of the house and she was comforted. He has not done this before, and I had hoped he would refrain; now we will have to doubly vigilant to keep them apart. Cara is not helpful in this regard; even after her scratch, she still wanted to play with the cat.

Speech development: when I complimented her pretty shoes, Cara looked down at her feet.

Cara has had her supper, as have we. We've been watching the Muppets for a while. Soon it will be time for the bath and bed.

After our trip to the playground both Cara and the trolls badly needed their bath; among other things she had rubbed their hair in the sand. As the water ran into the tub, she industriuosly tossed in all the bath toys, one by one, and the wash cloths. I always use two - one for her and one for me. She kicked and played happily for a while, and was rubbed and scrubbed, and then she simply stood up to be taken out. She was a tired little girl, and she knew it.

She lay in my lap while she took her bedtime bottle. When it was done, I held her while "Blackbird" played and laid her on her back, a troll in each hand and her kitty cat blanket beside her. She sat up right away, but I left her alone in the dim light, with the music playing, and she never cried at all. Later on, George snuck in to make sure she was covered, and found her sound asleep on her tummy.

6/3/06 (Saturday)

More language development: when I came to pick her up in the morning, the trolls were lost beneath the blankets. "Where are the trolls?" I asked, and she immediately began to look for them. She is not using words much yet, but she clearly understands them.

Every week I am a little sad when it is time for her to leave; this morning she seemed sad too. When George was ready to carry her to the car, she leaned back into my arms. I played peek-a-boo with her through the window while George buckled her into the car seat, and then we waved at each other while the car slowly backed out of the garage.

I haven't gotten to write in the journal for a while, so I haven't had a chance to report on Cara's dental development. We've been a little lax in that regard, anyway. She has eight well-developed front teeth now, but few days ago I thought I spied a tiny molar poking through on the top on her left side. It was during a diaper change; that's when I get the best views. I immediately started calling her "Nine-tooth Nixon." Nobody else has seen it, and I didn't get any repeat viewings, no matter how hard I tried. This evening, though, holding Cara in her towel after her bath, I saw it again! No more Nine-tooth Nixon, though. When I felt her little gums, something she hasn't let me do in a long time, I found that there was indeed a molar coming in up there. However, there is also one just poking through on her right. I can't think of anything particularly funny that rhymes with Ten-tooth. We'll see. I offered Steve a chance to feel her teeth, because she was apparently so relaxed, but he declined. Strange.

Starting on Thursday night, my right elbow has been extremely sore. I've had great difficulty accomplishing things that are part of my daily routine, like opening doors or driving, and I was sure I'd not be able to pick up the baby. Somehow, though, today has gone well. My arm has been feeling better, and I can pick her up with my left arm, using my right only for balance. The only thing I think I've had to ask Steve to do, in particular, is to cut up a tomato. I hope I haven't overdone things! Typing hurts!

Cara's Grandpa Jim and Grandma Janet were here when she woke up from her nap, and she leaned right over into her grandma's arms. She wasn't sure about Grandpa right away, but she was almost willing to talk to him. It was a good visit; Cara was very happy to see them and asked them both to pick her up several times. We all went out to lunch (ribs!) and Cara got a meal of her own at a restaurant for the first time. Her daddy and her grandma fed her her macaroni and cheese as well as some fries and grandpa's corn muffin, and she got to wave around some long sticks of celery and carrot. We're not sure she ingested any of those, but they were fun. When we left the restaurant, Cara had two long, red straws crumpled in her hands.

We headed to the Home Depot, and Cara was turned loose in the store! She had a wonderful time looking at things and walking around with her straws in one hand and either her grandma's hand or mine in the other. She looked at a lot of shiny, enticing things, sometimes running off up an aisle with one of us after her. She came upon a big bucket that was full of hardware. She peered in. It was full of giant nut and bolts. Swiftly, Cara dropped her forgotten straws and grabbed a big bolt. She soon had one in each hand, like a set of dumbbells, and was walking away, happily chattering.

Back at home, upstairs, Cara showed her grandma how good she is with a shape-sorter. She took her alphabet blocks and had about five of them through the square hole before we even noticed! She also does circles.

Having had a large, late lunch, Cara only managed to eat a cup or so of Cheerios, a container of yogurt, a banana, some cheese, and a few tortilla chips for her dinner. The whole family was tired, and Cara was in bed early tonight.

6/4/06 (Sunday)

Cara woke up in the night--Evie changed her diaper and put her back down and she went back to sleep with a minimum of screaming. In the morning she woke up about 8 am and actually wandered about for a while and got clothes put on her before we took her down for breakfast. This did not seem to bother her at all, which is good. She had some bread pudding for breakfast, and seemed to enjoy it.

Cara has developed a habit of pushing her stroller. The stroller is like a large version of her little walker toy and her car toy (which she has also started pushing around), so it makes sense, but is silly-looking all the same. Especially because she seems to prefer pushing it backwards.

At around 11:30 she got put down for a nap, and while she was still alseep her Aunt Claire arrived. When she awoke we took her out to her favorite restaurant (or at least the one she's been to the most times), On the Border. She enjoyed waving to various people, but was not happy unless she could eat part of what everyone else was eating. She got a lot of that, including some quesadilla, and the floor around her was surprisingly clean when she was taken out. I stayed behind to pay the bill and when I came out found Cara climbing down some stairs outside--apparently she had seen a cat.

When we returned from our outing, we found that our neighbor across the street, Gene, was tilling or tearing up his front lawn to put in new grass seed. Gene is Cara's friend, and she loves to wave to him. He was outside in clear view from her bedroom window all afternoon and into the evening, so that whenever she got her diaper changed she took some time out to yell at him from the window. He appreciated this.

In the afternoon we watched a lot of Muppets and let Cara run around on the living room level of the house. Cara tried some brownies, and to go with them she actually drank milk! This is a bit of a breakthrough, since in the past we have had little luck getting her to drink milk out of anything but her bottles. Today she drank it cold and out of a glass, just like everyone else (of course, the glass was applied to her, she did not hold it herself--that is still a ways off).

After a healthy dose of muppets, Cara went out with her Mommy and Aunt Claire to do some grocery shopping, where, I am told, she waved at some people (only some deserved a wave). Cara had a light dinner consisting of stromboli and yogurt, which was an interesting combination if nothing else. Then Claire had to go and Cara needed her bath. Instead of picking up some nice bath toys which were offered to her, Cara decided she needed to run around with a big stuffed giraffe and stuffed elephant. Unfortunately, any toy which she runs around with at this time needs to be thrown into the tub. Before Evie could stop her, Cara managed to get a stuffed lion sopping wet, but Mommy bravely stood guard at the tub and managed to save the giraffe and elephant, who were merely laid upon by Cara in the hallway.

There were several times today where Cara looked at me happily and said "Daddy!" which was very nice. There were other times when she looked at something else and said "Daddy!" Still, I hope that it will eventually dawn on her (and may be slowly dawning on her now) that there is only one Daddy for her, and it is me--whether she likes it or not.

6/5/06 (Monday)

I was at work until about 5:30 today, I hardly saw anything of Cara! It's very strange to miss those two hours together in the afternoon. I did manage to observe a few fun things today.

Cara's ball-popper is a favorite toy. It often pops balls right out, and Steve and I have remarked before that he and I certainly get to have a lot of fun chasing them. Today, Cara finally joined us. She's enjoyed the popper for a long time, but she's never gone out of her way to retrieve strays. Today, she did. She crawled several feet away to get two balls, one of which she held in each hand. She then spied another that she wanted to bring back. She went for it, but she was crawling and already had both hands full. She knocked it further away. She knocked it further away. She dropped one of the balls she had. She got the third one. It went on like that for a few moments; then she got distracted from her goal. She found her elephant toy and started putting the balls into it. She managed this quite successfully.

It was recycling night, and Cara helped. The bin we have for paper and cardboard is similar to a laundry basket, and Cara helped her daddy push it across the dining room and out the front door. Barefoot, she was then allowed to accompany her daddy (who carried her) as he brought it out to the curb.

That toy Cara has where you push the buttons to open the doors where the characters are is also fun to push. It has made several circuits of the room, Cara bent over behind it.

Gene is still Cara's good, good friend. After her bath, naked, she insists on standing up and looking out the window, calling and waving to him. He waves and talks back to her, a delightful interchange, while I put her diaper onto her.

I'd like to add that when I came through the door this evening, Cara was standing at the gate on the living room level and had a full view of my entrance. She cried "Daddy!" very excitedly and, while gripping firmly the bars of the gate, stamped up and down with her feet like a little lord of the dance. It was a wonderful greeting to come home to.

6/6/06 (Tuesday)

One cute thing that happened yesterday: as part of her lunch, I gave Cara half of a banana. She held her banana half in her right hand and watched me as I took a small bite from the other half. She kept watching me. She kept watching the other banana half. She wouldn't begin eating. She began to seem kvetchy. Then I recognized what was wrong! I gave her the other banana half and now she had a piece for each hand and was happy.

When I got home I brought in the now-empty recycling container. Reunited with her toy, Cara happily pushed it away. It was only a few minutes later, when she went off pushing another toy in the same direction, that I saw that she was apparently herding them all into the downstairs bathroom.

This afternoon, Cara and I went to the gym for the first time in weeks. I put Cara down in the Kids Klub and off she toddled to rock a big ride-on toy. She didn't look back. After my workout I got to see the swath of destruction that she had created. Numerous items were scattered on the floor. Someone's sandals were wet from having been sucked on. (Personally, I don't mind. I just hope that other little girl's mother doesn't.) Cara was standing at the activity table with several other children. After a few moments of prompting and my calling her, she turned around to see me. She was glad but not desperate. We're going back tomorrow. In the car on the way home, Cara studied how to remove her sandals. Actually, I don't think she knows yet that she could remove them.

We did a few groceries, and when I got home I thought how lucky I was that Cara can walk. I got her out of the car and picked up my bags. We walked together down the front walk. Cara got distracted, then, by her friends the rocks. I had to leave the bags outside the door to follow her up the driveway. She dropped a rock in order to pick up a half-ripe mulberry. I kept taking them away from her, but she was quick in her desperation and got one into her mouth. I can only suppose that it was terribly sour, but she did not react at all and in fact swallowed the thing. We then proceeded, now each carrying one rock, down the block the distance of about two houses. I picked her up and turned her around and coaxed her home, walking most of the way, without letting her eat anything else. Fortunately, her daddy got home while we were halfway there; he was an added inducement.

At dinner, Cara had another ear of corn. She did a lot of end-on work, but she managed some normal bites as well. It ended up on the floor, but she did eat maybe a fifth of it. She also ate some pieces of a chicken burger, the rest of which she can have for lunch one day.

This evening, tired, I lay down on the floor in Cara's room and rested my head on her toy penguin. She saw me and, with a cry, rescued it. I tried her giraffe. When she took that away I took back the penguin. It didn't work. I had to give up.

A few unrelated final comments on the night: Cara's reach has become so long that we are going to have to change our habits of keeping things in the centers of our living room tables to keep them from her. When we went up to the bathtub, we found five items in it, with some of which Cara was overjoyed to be reunited. It seemed that Gene was done outside, but he took some trash out and Cara did get to say hi to him. All evening Cara wanted to put her books down the stairs; there are now two on the top step.

6/7/06 (Wednesday)

Ev took Cara to the gym in the afternoon. Cara enjoys her stays at the Kids Klub and I have heard that she will even consent to sit in the laps of the women who work there! She displayed her wonderful language development when Evie returned to pick her up and Cara smiled and cried, "Daddy!" Errr....

Evie is a bit sick today, and spent some of the evening watching muppets with Cara. When I got home Cara shared some wonderful pizza with me. She shared the pizza with her nice jacket, which I should have taken off of her before putting her in the high chair. I had to take it off afterwards and put on a sweater so that she could make the epic journey to PJ's house for her playdate.

PJ and Cara had an uninteractive evening, but it was very nice for me. It's amazing how low-maintenance Cara is when she is in a different place. I was able to sit and chat and every once in a while look to see the source of the many interesting noises the kiddies were making with their toys. She did not get cranky or want to be picked up, but quietly played for an hour. Both kids can work PJ's push popper toy very well--there was a small incident in which PJ took the toy from Cara and she came over to me, upset. Actually this is usually PJ's reaction in the reverse situation and I wonder if she's picked it up from him.

Anyway PJ was getting woozy and it was time for Cara's bath, so back we went. While I was running her tub the family were all hanging out in Cara's room. Cara has a lovely stuffed octopus toy whose eight legs each honk a different note when you squeeze them. It's a good toy in and of itself, but also makes an excellent doorstop for Cara's door. She walked to her doorway, snatched up the toy and waddled out of the room. I watched in suspense--if she turns right, I thought to myself, it's still OK. But instead she turned left, into the bathroom and the waiting expanse of her slowly filling tub. "No!" I cried, and raced after her, just in time to save Mr. Octopus from a watery disaster.

My parents watched Cara today and got some nice pictures, which I'm now going to put up on the photos page. Oh and by the way, Cara is fourteen months old today!

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