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Journal Key:

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

6/29/06 (Thursday)

Today was the first day of my summer vacation! I was thinking back a little bit to last year, how I used to do the journal sporadically through the day. I was also thinking of my resolution to do things around the house every day. I did some today, as you will see shortly. It was a long, full day, so I will relate some highlights.

The basement is a great attraction to Cara. It is where the cats live, and she isn't really allowed down there. Recently, I was looking in the basement for one of Cara's toys, and I got out several little foam balls that the cats had lost under the furniture. They were clearly delighted to get their toys back, because they are assiduously carrying them upstairs to the dining room, where Cara will happily play with them, given a chance. Before I put her down, I kick them downstairs. Steve doesn't, but I'll have him write up his adventures later.

I decided to give Cara a thrill and bring her down to the basement. I wanted to start a load of laundry, and I also had some things from school that needed to be stored there. Down we went. I just let Cara loose. Now, Em and Ron have a dog, and I've heard that PJ tried some dog food. He was horrified by it and hasn't gone near it since. My confidence was bolstered by that and I also felt that forbidden fruit tastes sweeter, so I didn't do anything to keep Cara from the cat food. My mistake suddenly flashed into my mind as soon as she squatted down next to it. Offered a handful of Cheerios, Cara can't take just a couple. She has to take them all. She took two huge handfuls of cat food and toddled off. Cat food was all over, all around the dish. It got into the cats' water pump. It was all over the carpet. She crossed the basement and helpfully put some into my nice, clean laundry basket. I did get her to put some into the garbage, but she also tried putting some into the handle on the door of the drier. Gravity prevented her, but now only time will tell whether I have cat food under my appliances. It was basically spread across the whole room. I believe she did try some, but I didn't note any particular reaction. After I put Cara down for her nap, I vacuumed the basement and cleaned out the water pump. It was very fulfilling.

Cara still seemed a little bit less than 100% after her illness, so we watched some TV in the morning. We watched Sesame Street! It was very cool. I sort of snoozed a little, but Cara watched the whole hour. We also watched Boohbah, the show that that cool website is based on. It really is a very good show for kids Cara's age or a bit older. Teletubbies came on afterwards, and we enjoyed that, too. I do not intend to make a habit of this.

We went for a bit of a walk and Cara skinned her nose for the fourth time. It's not bad.

We went to the mall in the afternoon and Cara got to play on the playground. She climbed around in a fiberglass boat, getting onto and off of all the seats. She considered getting out, but she's about two inches too short. I tried to show her a little baby crawling around, but she was too busy to notice. Lots of other parents pointed Cara out to their children, "Look at the baby!" Cara tried to take lots of people's shoes and strollers. She toddled all over, sort of went down a slide twice, and fell down on and was helped up by several toddlers somewhat older than herself. I was talking to another mom, and Cara was about ten feet away. A little boy, probably four months older than she (I guess, but I really have no perspective) came up behind her and grabbed her around the chest and shoulders and almost picked her up, then left. I don't think she really had any idea what had happened. She righted herself and continued on her way.

My final note for the night: My computer has been acting up, so there is a spare monitor on the floor in the office upstairs. Cara finds it quite interesting. I saw today that she can actually get her whole self, on hands and knees, on top of it, and also get down gracefully.

Well, Cara certainly had an active day today! As Evie says, though she is mostly back to her old self, she is still a bit more sensitive than usual and her appetite is still not back to normal (I think things must still taste funny to her). We did some things this evening with the cat toys. I showed Cara that they were toys for the cats and demonstrated by throwing the ball near Buster, who obligingly swiped at the toy a few times. Cara seemed to get the idea and kept either giving the ball to me to throw, or carrying it over to the cat. Either she wanted to give it to Buster personally (not being an excellent thrower yet), or she was using this as a flimsy pretext to get close enough to Buster to grab her and carry her around like a stuffed toy. We'll never know, since Buster intelligently ran away whenever she came near.

6/30/06 (Friday)

Cara slept until 8:40 this morning, and got to have her usual weekday morning routine with George, who watched Cara while her Mommy went to the dentist (nothing bad!). Cara got an egg cooked for her and everything. Unfortunately, in a predictable turn of events, Mommy has caught Cara's sickness! She was running a fever today and had a sore throat, and very little appetite. Janet was coming over anyway in the afternoon, as the plan had been that the wife and I were to go out and see a movie. However this plan was sensibly scrapped and instead we stayed in and Janet ran around with Cara. Cara had a great time playing out back in her house and on her slide and in her car. She collected sticks and so forth. Unfortunately her little house has a table, and the table had rainwater pooled on it, and Cara contrived to slurp the water up! Another thing to add to the list of things she should not have put in her mouth.

For dinner we had some nice Chinese food and Cara diligently sucked down quite a bit of lo mein. After this she was clearly tired. We tried to put her in for a very early bath, but she wasn't having it for once, so into the crib she went, without even her horrible toothbrushing. I guess she can tell that things aren't normal--or she was just really tired.

Unfortunately, I also seem to be running a temperature, so it may be a tough couple of days! Hopefully Cara's parents will not be entirely incapacitated. I have a four-day holiday weekend now, so there's that. Fortunately Cara has her loving grandparents, who have already been a great help, but we want to try to keep germ exposure to a minimum from here on in.

7/1/06 (Saturday)

It's been a long, long day here on Nancy Circle. Steve and I are both still sick (I got up to 102.7 this afternoon, and Steve was over 100), and Cara is just not quite herself. There is about 300% more crying than she does on a normal day. She woke up early and cried for a while. She cried through her bath and through my drying and dressing her. Her temperature is normal, though; I checked. She cried through that, too. She has done a lot of crying. Last night she cried for a long time, and we had to take her downstairs and watch the Muppets. Then we put her in bed and she cried. Enough complaining, though. There've been good parts, too.

One of my theories, which I don't really think holds up, is that Cara has serious cabin fever. In any case, she enjoys playing out back. We spent quite a bit of time out there today, mainly because we really can't go anywhere else. I feel kind of like a leper, with all my germs. Cara got in and out of her car, ran around her house, and enjoyed splashing in all of the rainwater, before I dumped it out. I also sang "The Wheels on the Car" to Cara, because she really liked it when my mom did that yesterday. What a smart Grandma; Cara was enthusiastic! I had to make up some verses. She tries to honk her horn during the horn part, because her daddy showed her, and she tries to say "beep." At one point I was holding her, and I asked her a lot of questions: Where's Daddy? Where's your car? Where's your house? Where's your ball? She looked at the right thing every time! I am fairly certain that she doesn't know Mommy, so I didn't try that. She also clearly demonstrates that she knows "sit" and "walk." On being invited, she will sit right down wherever she is. When she's being held, if I ask her whether she wants to walk, she bends to be put down.

Cara has been mooching my food. I suppose she couldn't if I didn't let her, but, still! Last night we got Chinese, and I had Wonton soup. I broke the noodles up and fed them and the broth to Cara. She had about half of it. This evening I got out a little dish of Jell-O. I let Cara try a tiny bit, and I thought she didn't like it. Soon enough, she was back. We were watching the Curious Buddies, and I was sitting on the couch, so she had to keep turning around and around, unsure which was more important. It's probably really not a good thing to let Cara share my germy utensils, but the damage is done. Besides, we got this from her.

I mentioned before that Cara could climb onto and off of the spare monitor in the office. It turns out that that is not the end of her ambition. Really, that was just practice. The real goal is to stand up on top of it, not holding onto anything. In case you're wondering, no, this does not work. Monitors are fairly adjustable, alas.

Cara's other new accomplishment is something she's been working on for months. She can now stack blocks. She is able to put one of her alphabet blocks on top of another, finally. She kind of tries, but she really can't do a stack of three. Also, she is very interested in standing in the wagon her blocks live in.

I always take away the cat toys that Cara tries to play with, but Steve has been letting her play with them. It turns out that this is a pretty good idea. (She doesn't get the gross ones.) Buster and Shelby have always loved their small, foam soccer balls, so they bring them upstairs and Cara gets them. She was waving one around today, and she had her toy thermos. She stuffed it inside. It wouldn't come out, even when she shook it. Her daddy got it out for her. You guessed it, she put it right back in. She's having a good time chasing the cats, who may possibly also think it's a game. I'm not sure. Anyway, they can always escape onto tall furniture. Buster, particularly, is getting mellow around Cara. She is willing to sit quite near her, and she doesn't jump out of the bay window as soon as we put Cara in.

We've kept the TV to a minimum today, but we did put on the Curious Buddies this evening. We were all tired. Cara lounged on her daddy and almost fell asleep. Her nap was only an hour long, and she did a lot of running around. Steve, who somehow got Cara to stop crying, reports something cute. After her drops and before her bottle, Cara indicated that she wanted her lollipuppets. She had one in each fist and wouldn't give them up. They are kind of like large flowers, and she grasped them by their stalks. She kept them through her bottle. When she was done, she instantly turned her face to Steve's chest and covered it with the flowers. She was determined to avoid getting her teeth brushed, and she wouldn't let him pull them away! Clever creature.

7/2/06 (Sunday)

There was one thing we forgot from yesterday. There was a fly buzzing around in the kitchen while we were all sitting down to eat, and I tried to get it by clapping my hands together. This sudden clap confused Cara, so Mommy explained that I was just clapping for joy. Cara joined in by clapping her hands together!

Last night, the family all finally got a good night's sleep. We all woke up feeling a bit better, I think. Cara slept until some time after 8, and then we got up and had some play time and then some breakfast. At some point we were in the office and Cara found the cord to a spare keyboard we have laying on the floor. She took the plug on the end, held it up to the side of her head, and started talking. I realized she thought it was a phone! It was very cute. Also Cara really loves it when her Mommy reads her the Dr. Seuss alphabet book we have--you've probably heard us mention it before. She had it read to her several times today and at the end of the day she picked up the book and started trying to chant the rhythm of the words to herself--of course, since her vocabulary is incredibly limited, it sounded mostly like "Beee, bee bee, beee-bee bee beeeee."

We had a nice morning playing around out back, and then Cara and Evie went out with the wagon while I mowed the lawn. I had just stepped inside when I heard our local ice cream truck making the rounds--for once I decided to indulge and I went out and got us some ice cream. Evelyn got what I think is called a firecracker. Basically it's a popsicle with three different flavors in red white and blue. I got an old school ice cream bar on a stick. Cara enjoyed both, but particularly enjoyed my ice cream bar, and soon her mouth and hands were chocolate and ice creamy. (Evelyn adds that she's not really sure why she thought a brightly-dyed popsicle would be better for Cara than anything else.) We got the hose out and convinced Cara to dabble her hands under it, and this cleaned her off quite nicely. Fun was enjoyed by all.

After this Cara had a nap which lasted into the afternoon, and then we went off to Em and Ron's barbecue party! They nicely agreed to let us come with our germs and all, as long as we promised not to spit on anyone. Cara was probably quite hungry when we first arrived, and boy did she get upset for a little while there! She wanted to throw things into the pool again, and she was quite hot and pink from being out in the sun (even though I myself had put sunblock on her earlier in the day). But finally we got her a hot dog bun, which she ate nicely, and a banana, which she exuberantly picked up and then threw onto the ground. She also got some corn on the cob, which she ate in her wonderful way (even though she got to watch PJ learn how to eat it horizontally, the way it's supposed to work), and some bits and pieces of a few other things, like cake and dessert things. PJ dropped a chunk of corn cob and BJ the dog came over and impressively started eating the whole thing, cob and all, in the process breaking it up into a bunch of little pieces that Cara was trying to eat up off the floor for the rest of the day. What she probably had the most of was watermelon--she was convinced that she could eat the rind, but was foiled time and again.

We brought Cara in a swimmy diaper, but she didn't go in the pool, though at one point Evie took her in her lap and they both kicked their feet in the water, and Cara didn't hate it at all. However, she did somehow manage to soak herself and needed to be changed while there. At some point also her pants came off and she was wandering around in a shirt and a diaper. She got to see lots of older kids have tons of fun in the pool, which hopefully helped convince her that it is not a place of horror. Meanwhile, when she got to really eating that watermelon, the juice just poured down her shirt, down her bare leg, onto her shoe, and onto anyone who was holding her. She was very sticky.

Em and Ron have a lot of little rocks around their pool, which Cara loves to play with. She tried at one point to put rocks down a long flexible tube that was lying by the side of the house--I used gravity to get them out again. Later she found an empty bucket and (first looking in to make sure there was no disgusting water for her to slurp out) started collecting rocks in it. I am unclear what she intended to do with them once she had enough, but it may have involved the pool in some way. Cara also wanted very much to play with other people's goggles and face masks, and was very very upset when they were taken away from her. We also went inside the house for a little bit and had fun running around in there and playing with PJ's toys (he was not there)--even his fridge magnet toy which involves you having to match two halves of an animal. Cara also wanted to be held by, and subsequently was held by, our neighbor Julianna and Ron (whom she seems to have a special affinity for). They had the stereo on out back and there were a few songs (though not nearly every song) that Cara just had to swish her little hips to.

One thing I noticed today was that Cara does not seem to be able to drop something from one hand only--it has to be both, even if there's something she still wants in one hand. So she has to drop everything and then pick up what was still good. Another behavior she has developed is a come-hither gesture with her hand, which she got from her Mommy, who uses the same gesture to get Cara (and the cats) to come. It doesn't work on any of them, but Cara uses it to great effect!

Eventually the evening wore on and the skies darkened, and it was time for little girls to go home. At least, we thought it was; Cara apparently thought it was time to wander all over the neighborhood, as long as it was in a direction away from the house. But eventually she got inside without being struck by lightning, and had a more proper, sit-down meal of lo mein and cantaloupe (mmmm). Then it was off to the races again. The family had a great time running around upstairs, before and after Cara's bath (which she had early since she was absolutely disgusting!). Cara was so hyped up tonight after the barbecue, it was amazing. She was bouncing and jouncing in her high chair. Then we were upstairs and Evie was doing her usual "I'm gonna getcha!" routine. Cara added a bit of a new dimension by running forcefully into her. (I should mention that now when Cara runs and she is happy, she makes a kind of bouncy "Didda-didda-didda-didda" noise, the kind of noise you'd make if you were humming and someone was patting you on the back.) Then at one point Evie was lying on the floor in the hall and I told Cara, "Go get Mommy." She proceeded to run over and flop her body down on top of Evie's face! She got her all right.

We realized at some point in the middle of all this playing that it was probably not a good thing to be doing right before bedtime, but we were all enjoying ourselves very much. Eventually it was time and Evie gave Cara her bottle, administered the tortuous teeth-brushing, and even performed an unplanned diaper change. Still, when Cara got put down her crib, she did not do any complaining--just rolled over and gave up.

7/3/06 (Monday)

An update: with everything I had to write about yesterday, I managed to forget one of the more momentous events, which was that in the evening Cara successfully opened our coat closet door!

The closet door has one of those nice knobs that's really a lever, so it's easy to open. We have a few others, but most doors in the house will present more of a challenge. However, on to today!

I don't really remember the morning, possibly because Steve did most of the parenting required while I cleaned the house. We put Cara down for a nap before one, and she slept until 3:30. At that point, Steve fed her while I quickly did a couple of errands and then we jumped in the car to head down to Red Bank for the fireworks.

At this point I have to apologize to my very dear mother-in-law. She told me over a week ago that she bought Cara a wading pool, and we just haven't gotten down there to try it. We were going to go on Saturday, but we were all sick and germy and no fun. Even though that should have been Cara's first time, today was. My mom went out and bought an inflatable wading pool. I know it doesn't really matter who's first, but it seems a little bit unfair.

The pool we had looks like a turtle. If you hook up a hose to his head, it's like a fountain. We did not try this. The biggest job was inflating the thing, but my parents managed it magnificently. Actually, the biggest job may have been getting Cara into her swimsuit, battling both its size and hers as well as the fact that she was very interested in everything but getting into her swimsuit. I may award myself a medal.

We got the turtle and the baby both outside and filled one of them with water. Actually, Cara climbed into the turtle while he was empty, and her grandma ran some water in. Cara was not happy and we took her out. She can almost climb in and out by herself, but she still needs to be steadied. Once there were a couple of inches of water, grandma took her shoes off and climbed in. Cara climbed right in after her! They both danced for a while, and then Cara sat down. From then on, she was right at home in her pool; I think she must have gotten in and out fifteen times.

Now, I haven't wanted to be one of those moms who's always interpreting meaningless babble and coincidence as words, but I have to admit that at this point I do think Cara talks. I got out some bath toys, and she definitely said, "duck" while heading for her rubber duckies. I guess I have to open my mind a little bit. She gets it. She talks, and she understands a lot. She probably does even know, "Mommy."

Steve has just reminded me: Cara was holding the turtle's head and looking past it. I hunkered down on the other side and played "Where's Cara?" with her, pushing the head left and right. After I said "There she is!" Cara said, "There she is!" We all heard it.

Grandpapa, meanwhile, got out the sprinkler. Seeing the water shooting out, Cara wiggled her little tush in her pool. Grandma, never one to shirk her duty, ran through it. Cara was elated. I joined in, and Cara had such a good time watching that she wanted to participate. One or the other of us would hold her and run through the sprinkler while she scrunched up her face and laughed. When we were through, she would point at it so we would go again! The afternoon passed that way, with a few trips through the sprinkler and then some time in the pool with the ducks. Steve videotaped us, so he managed to keep his dignity and stay away from the sprinkler. It was fun, though.

Around a quarter to nine, we picked ourselves up and headed out to the fireworks. We went to the park behind my parents' house and sat (in our chairs) on the basketball court. There were maybe about thirty other people there. At this point Cara was well past her bedtime, but she showed almost no fatigue. She loved the basketball court; she ran and ran. She visited a few friends, who gave her a macaroon to make a mess with. She saw the other kids with glowing necklaces and bracelets, and she wanted them. It was a fight to keep her away, once she figured out who had what she wanted.

When the show finally started, Cara watched it. She didn't sit and watch, but she did watch. She wouldn't even be held and watch, she had to run. My mom and I agree that each of us saw about half of the show. It was worth it. The magic moment was when I was chasing Cara and a little boy came up to us and gave her a glowing bracelet. She was in awe. She didn't know what to do. She was thrilled, of course. Soon she ran to where he was sitting, either because she thought he wanted it back or because she also wanted the necklaces he had on. He may have given it to her to stop her from constantly coming over to him, but it certainly backfired, in that case! It was really wonderful of him, and it made her night really magical.

After that, my mom chased Cara for a while, and we could watch the glowing circle bobble along. Steve got the fun job of carrying Cara back to the house; she wasn't really ready to settle down. We brought her inside to run a little bit, and then we tucked her in the car to head home. In an amazingly perfect grandma act, my mother put the child into the car with a chocolate chip cookie in each hand. I kind of dread to see what my back seat looks like tomorrow. Actually, Cara was great in the car. She didn't sleep, which her father and I think is good. We remember previous trips, on which she has been furious when we awakened her by removing her from the car.

It was after eleven when Cara finally got to bed. After these amazing days, I can hardly imagine what we can do with her tomorrow.

7/4/06 (Tuesday)

Cara slept nice and late today, and did not awake until 9:30 (just when we were starting to consider how late we should let her sleep). We had planned to hang around and have a relatively quiet day with Aunt Claire, but this was postponed, so we decided that we would finally get down to my parents' house. We packed up all kinds of snacks and clothes (Cara helped by pulling the bookmark out of the book we're reading to each other) and set off. Cara did not sleep in the car, even though she had been up several hours, and got a bit annoyed near the end. But then she was at her grandparents' house, with her grandpa and grandma, toys that she doesn't see very often and a silly dog.

Rusty and Cara made an amazing discovery about each other today, which we have all been waiting for with varying amounts of dread. Cara discovered that if she has food in her hand and lets it hang too low, it will disappear. Rusty discovered an incredibly rich new food source that excited him so much that his "Daddy" couldn't even get him to go downstairs and eat his dog food! Future meals at the house will be interesting. Meanwhile, in related language development, we asked Cara where Rusty was and she looked at the dog. I also think I've been hearing her try to say "doggie," and she was definitely saying "ball" today, although her version of each of these words sound more like "dow-dee" and "bah!" respectively.

The big thing for Cara though was that she finally got to go in her South Jersey kiddie pool. Since yesterday she had already been introduced to the concept, there was very little hesitation today, and she pretty much went right over and got put in, sat down and started splashing. She had lots of nice little toys in her pool, and big grown-up feet splashing in it, and people were blowing bubbles past her head, and there was a water gun, and my dad got the sprinkler out. It was fabulous. First Cara got to laugh as various people ran through the sprinkler, then she got run through it. This time her Daddy participated in the splashing fun, and got himself well soaked.

Cara also performed a feat today by climbing up unassisted into a normal beach chair and sitting herself down! This process had, of course, to be repeated many times. Cara is more willing lately to climb into a seat and actually sit down for a while--she did this nicely on the couch in the living room as well. Her climbing proclivities have also increased, though, since today she repeatedly climbed on top of the activity table toy my parents have.

Eventually it was time to go home, and back in the car, Cara finally had her nap for the day. It was only about an hour long. When we arrived home Cara had some sit-down dinner. Then Evie took the famous glow-stick from yesterday's festivities out of the freezer where it had been waiting, and gave it back to Cara, and we went outside to see some of the many, many fireworks being shot off by our neighbors. Now Cara very much liked the ones that she saw yesterday, which were very far away, but these nearby and much louder fireworks seemed to scare her a little, and she was also getting quite tired. Her nice Uncle Ron lit up some sparklers for her to look at. But Cara was clearly ready for bed, so into bed she finally went.

7/5/06 (Wednesday)

Cara slept until around nine today, and then she had a breakfast consisting mainly of cantaloupe. She ignored the nice toast I made her and kept shoveling in the melon. On Sunday I had seen PJ attacking his food with a fork, and, even though I'm not sure how successful he really was, I figured I'd better get back up on my horses and give Cara one, too. I got two toddler forks and speared some cantaloupe on each. I handed them to Cara, who happily ate the melon. One hazard was her eagerness to eat off of her forks, which sometimes caused her to overload her mouth. She does understand how to use them, definitely. She tried to get her own melon onto her forks, and she tried to pick up a Cheerio with one. She tried later, at dinner, and was successful but unfortunately not hungry, so she just shook the food off again.

One of the ways I've seen Cara change lately is her ability or willingness to stay still. Since she was sick, she seems to have figured out how to watch television. I'm not saying that this is a wonderful thing, but I suppose it is a mature skill. We watched half of Sesame Street this morning, Cara sitting beside me and slumping lower and lower over my arm. She also periodically lies down on her tummy for a few seconds, which is very cute and makes her look like a big girl.

It was an ugly, rainy day, and I thought of something that might be fun. I remember playing with couch cushions as a child, so I brought some of ours down to the game room and built a fort. Actually, my first attempt was really an arch or, at best, a cave. My next one was more like a tunnel or an even smaller arch. I got Cara to go in and out a few times, but she was not terribly excited. Shelby the cat, however, lounged precariously on top of my original edifice, and I snapped a few pictures. Only one is really cute; the others are boring or out of focus. I think that that's a game of which Cara's appreciation will gradually increase.

Aunt Claire came and we went out to the diner for lunch. While we waited for our food, I had to give Cara small spoonfuls of my tea, because she so hates for anyone to have something she doesn't get to share. Cara wound up eating about a third of my waffle. We headed home, Aunt Claire demonstrating an extraordinary willingness and ability to handle the car seat buckles. She handled them almost exclusively all day. Back at the ranch, I said good-bye to Aunt Claire and took Cara upstairs. Downstairs, Aunt Claire opened and shut the front door. I put Cara down for her nap. I went down to hang out with my sister for a couple of hours. Was the ruse necessary? I don't know. I do know that Cara hates to miss anything exciting, and company is exciting.

When Cara woke up, I tried to give her some yogurt. She definitely liked it, but she kept staring off to the right. It turned out that that Aunt Claire was making funny faces. It was hard for me to catch her. Cara was very appreciative and may have tried to make faces back.

We all headed out to the mall. Cara ran around at the playground, climbing through the boat and investigating various other playthings. There was one boy there, older than Cara, of course, who was running around, knocking over littler kids and running into everyone. He didn't get Cara, but he did almost knock me down! Some parents got very angry, quite rightly, and told his parents how bad he was being. They really weren't paying any attention to him at all, but then the father had the mother collect him and they all left. I realized afterwards that I have met the kid that that kid will grow up to be in eighth grade. It was the most drama I've seen at any park.

I got to talking to a nice dad as we were taking Cara out. His little one was adorable; I thought it was a girl, because it had long hair, but it was a boy. I had thought she was dressed funny! The 22-month-old started talking to Cara as she, oblivious, wandered back to one of the slides. Cara talked me into holding her hands and helping her walk up it, and then I helped her new friend, too. Cara bumbled around up there in the tower, and he bumbled with her, explaining things, no doubt. She started walking down the stairs, holding my hands, and he started going down by himself. She sat, and he was clearly trying to teach her how to get down on her own. He was really the cutest kid you could meet.

It's Wednesday, so after dinner Cara and I headed over to PJ's. Steve stayed home to work on capturing video, some of which should be posted tonight, I think. PJ and Cara had a great time, some of it together. They both kept heading out into the pool room and banging on the sliding glass doors together, and they seemed to take turns holding a golf ball in one hand. That really makes your banging more effective! They also seemed to be working together at one point to give CPR to a toy frog. I was proud of Cara for one thing, though. PJ has a small toy bucket. Cara took the bucket and put in a little toy cow, which she then carried around. I've been trying to teach her how to use a bag, since she has a little one here, but she has insisted on carrying her objects herself. Cara very much enjoyed crawling behind the fireplace and getting filthy. At one point, trying to distract PJ from something, Ron asked him about a ball. "Ball," I heard from the pool room. Cara appeared at the door, saying "ball" and carrying a beach ball!

We were there a long time, and leaving was hard. "Come on, Cara," I said, "let's go see your daddy." Cara looked around, confused. Where could he be? She had no idea. I picked her up. The hard part was that I had to carry Cara past the dish of dog food. She squirmed and writhed! I dragged her outside and put her down on the front walk. She turned around and headed up the stairs. I had to capture her and remind her that she was going to see her daddy.

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