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Journal Key:

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

8/17/06-8/19/06 (Thursday-Saturday)

Baltimore!

The Cast: Mommy, Daddy, Grandmama Janet, Grandpapa George, Cara

The Word of the Trip: UP!

The Word We Tried to Teach Cara But Made No Progress: Down

Skill Most Developed: fork usage

The Latest Night: 10:45

The Earliest Morning: 3:45

The Thing Mommy Forgot to Pack: a bottle

The Favorite Souvenir: two hard plastic sharks (one for each hand)

I got up very early (5:30) on Thursday so that I could have a leisurely breakfast but still get Cara up early; we wanted to have her sleep in the car and if you wake up at eight and leave the house at nine, that doesn't really make sense. I woke her up at seven and we all had a good breakfast and went to play outside. The family took a walk around the block with the wagon, which Cara helped us to push. Finally, around 9:30, Grandmama and Grandpapa showed up!

Some of us had our doubts, but everything fit into the car beautifully (I have always believed that my father is the best trunk-packer in the world, and nothing so far has disabused me of that notion.). Grandmama and Grandpapa brought their stroller, because it is lighter and folds up smaller than ours. We brought our Noah's ark, some stuffed animals, and a lot of books. The men sat in the front seat, Cara sat between me and her grandma, and we were off! First we read a lot of books in the car and played with our toys, and Grandma shared some very nice lotion with Cara. Cara is kind of learning to rub in lotion, though I certainly wouldn't leave her in charge of any quite yet. Soon enough, Cara fell asleep.

After more than two hours on the road we stopped at a nice rest area in Maryland. Cara woke up, of course, and we headed out. There were sidewalks to walk on, a ramp to go up, benches to hit, and kiddie rides to climb on! One of them was Dino, from the Flintstones, and Cara liked petting him. The other was the Batmobile! She's only sixteen months old, and she has driven the Batmobile. They grow up so fast! Well, actually, we didn't put any money in or anything, so I'm not sure I can say she's driven it. She's sat in it. We had lunch at Roy Rogers, because you don't find them too often. Cara enjoyed some chicken, a few French fries, and I'm not sure what else. I think she had a little bit of fruit. She also, I think, got her hands on a fork for what proved to be the first of many, many meals. Cara really wants to do with a fork what we do with them, and she is starting to be able to. Sometimes she puts things on the fork with her hands, sometimes she takes off what's on the fork and puts it in her mouth with her hands, and sometimes she just kind of flings things around, but she's making real progress. The next challenge we faced was getting Cara back into the car, but we handled it. I think I made Steve do it.

Very soon, we were in Baltimore. Grandpapa's heroism really showed; he got us an amazing hotel literally across the street from the Inner Harbor itself! We parked and checked in. While Grandpapa was at the desk, Grandma took Cara on the best ride ever: there were escalators in the lobby. We went up and down them many, many times, purely for recreation. Cara muttered "up, up, up" the whole time she rode. She would mutter "up" while we rode down, too. This lead to my mother and me standing there saying, "down, down, down" all the time, like some sort of lunatics. Cara didn't seem to notice. In a few minutes, we headed out. We didn't even have to cross a street, because there was a walkway from the hotel right over to the shops and restaurants! We left everything behind and walked to the aquarium.

Unsurprisingly, The aquarium was crowded! At first it was just dark and full of people, and you could barely see the fish. Cara really liked the pictures lit up on the walls. They were very bright and colorful, and she would walk up to them and point them out to us and talk to them. There was one wall with pictures displaying rain forest inhabitants. It had a diagram in the middle showing how fast things were becoming extinct. The pictures around the sides went dark when they became extinct. There was poor Cara, pointing out pictures, and it seemed that as soon as she crowed at one, it went out!

The aquarium is laid out very simply. You go up (up, up, up!) escalators and escalator-ramps from floor to floor, looking at displays, and then you move over and get to walk down a big ramp through the center of giant tanks of fish. Somewhere in there, probably at the top, you get into a big, glassed-in rain forest with birds and sleeping sloths. The first few floors were crowded, dark, and discouraging. After that, things somehow thinned out. Cara was thrilled with the escalators and ramps, of course. She was perfectly ready to get right back on them, and she really didn't believe us when we told her they were one-way.

We put Cara down in the rain forest and let her run. We also took some nice pictures with the family. I was in charge of the camera for much of the trip, and it was a lot of work. Steve doesn't really approve of the way I take pictures. I take many, assuming we'll just delete a lot later. Steve is the only one who knows how to delete, and he doesn't seem to enjoy doing it. Anyway, Cara pointed out a lot of birds for us and enjoyed exploring the paths.

We got to the big ramp. This is what my mother had been thinking of when we talked about the aquarium; it is several stories long. I reassured her that Cara could walk on it just fine, but I really don't think I had remembered just how big it was. Cara was in heaven! One of her hobbies, of course, is Walking on Uneven Surfaces, so this was great! We showed her the water on the other side of the railing, but the exciting thing was running down, down, down and then up, up, up! It's really a one-way ramp, but I think that's just because nobody really feels like walking up it. Except us. Several times. She didn't go the whole way in one shot, she would go about one floor at a time, and in about twenty minutes we were at the bottom. Occasionally, on her journey, Cara noticed to her surprise that there were fishies there! Go figure.

My mother tells a story about me when I was a baby. My Uncle Arnie was a lot of fun, and he got me so excited one time he came over that I woke up in the night and my folks had to walk me around the house to prove to me that he wasn't downstairs waiting to play some more. This trip, my mom has shown that she has about that effect on Cara. Cara loves her grandma! She's her favorite. Grandma will always pick you up, and she'll always run around and play and be wonderful! Wow! Eventually I asked, just to make sure, whether my mom would be as much fun if she were Cara's mommy. Thank goodness, she said no. You can only be that much fun for a day or two at a time. I was starting to worry that I wasn't doing my job!

Tuckered out, we stopped for a snack. I got an ice cream popsicle for Cara, which I fed her with a spoon and her favorite implement, the fork. She didn't get to practice much. Soon, though, she felt better. We went off towards the dolphin show. We thought we were early, but it turned out that half an hour early was on time. The whole crowd seemed to be there already, waiting to get in. We went up, up, up and found seats kind of away from the crowd, though things filled in around us as we waited. This would be Cara's first live show!I Cara has many skills, but waiting patiently is not one of them. I gave Grandma a break and had fun in the theater with Cara. The dolphin show is held in a big concrete auditorium with lots of (guess what) stairs! We went down, down, down, muttering "up, up, up." At the bottom, there was a roped-off area where there were some dolphin toys, some big balls and things. Well, the rope was above Cara's head and she was heading in! With some difficulty, I got her away. We went down some stairs and got really close to the dolphin tank, and Cara got to see them swimming right above her. I was impressed! Then we headed up again, on a different route. We found grandma and grandpapa and daddy, but then we had to go up, up, up and down, down, down again. The show started slowly, with some preliminary material and some video screen stuff, and we went up, up, up a little more. When the show actually started, Cara took her grandma and went down some stairs which, fortunately, dead-ended at a railing with a good view. There Cara stood and Grandma sat on the stair for the show. Cara did watch, and she applauded when everyone else did! Her first live show went pretty well.

That was about it for the aquarium, so we went and found our rooms. Cara had fun exploring ours. I babyproofed it by putting the bathroom trash can on the counter and moving some literature onto the desk from low shelves. Otherwise, I let her go to town. Cara helpfully pulled out the doilies that had been used to line the bottom of the room trash can. She waved the remote control. She moved some pillows. She took the phone off the hook (I couldn't babyproof that phone, but it never became a problem). We looked out the window for a few minutes; we had a great view of the tennis court and the pool, and there were people playing tennis. Daddy brought our bags up, and we unpacked. When Cara was clearly absolutely sick of the room (it may have been half an hour), we found grandmama and grandpapa and went out to dinner on the Inner Harbor.

We had selected a tapas restaurant, a Spanish place where you order many small dishes instead of each getting a big entree. This was fun! We ordered about twelve things. Cara was allowed to play with Grandma's water, and the glass was left too close to her; she spilled it, miraculously missing herself, and our reaction upset her. Grandma took Cara for a walk while we waited for the food. They looked at some nice ceiling fans, I believe. When some garlic bread arrived, and Cara got a chunk of it, she felt much better very quickly. Her crankiness dissolved. Cara got to try lots of food; what I can remember is the potato (not exciting) and some fried eggplant. It was a wonderful meal.

In the evening, we went back to the aquarium. This was genius. There was almost no one there, and we could walk right up to tanks we had passed in the morning because there were so many people. It was like a different place! Cara walked from tank to tank, pointing out the fish to us! They were beautiful and she was wonderful. We could do whatever we wanted. When we got to the ramp, Cara's daddy took over. Well, Cara took over, and he went with her. Off they ran, and they didn't come back! Peering down, we could see them in the distance. Cara ran down the entire ramp, almost without pausing. Then she went up again. She may have conned us into carrying her. Down again. At the bottom we stopped to look at the ghostlike rays in their big tank. Cara discovered a bench, and she got on and off of it a few times. Finally, we were done. Cara is usually bathed and in bed by nine, and we left the aquarium at 9:15 at the earliest to start our walk back to the hotel. It wasn't a long walk, but the little girl was up late.

We walked through the fountains on the way back. The fountains are a big, sculptural, complex set of stairs that I thought would be great for Cara to play on. They were great when I went to Baltimore as a kid, and I was looking forward to letting Cara play on them. After all, they're stairs! Somehow, it never really worked out. The stairs lead right to our hotel, so walking that way made sense. In the room, Steve gave Cara a nice bath and we watched some TV quietly for a few minutes and then put her down. It wasn't much after ten, and she went to sleep pretty quickly. None of us slept at all well, and you'll see what happened next. I'm just going to say right now that I ended up enjoying the morning very much.

Cara was very tired and had seen and done a lot of new and interesting things that first day. So her going to sleep was not a problem. However, when Cara awoke around 3:30 AM, she was in a weird place and could not go back to sleep. Also the walls of our room, as in any other hotel, were not soundproofed, so we did not feel able to just let Cara cry it out a little and fall back to sleep. So at around 3:45 AM we were all up. Evie was ready to take Cara down to the lobby in the stroller and walk her around for a few hours, but while she was preparing to do that I turned on the television. This proved a nice alternative. We watched the local PBS station for a while, as it was showing various kiddie programs of varying quality (most disturbing: Jay Jay the Jet Plane; those are creepy-looking and badly animated planes!). The TV proved to be our friend in these situations, as Cara was not a big fan of being in our hotel room (though Evie and I thought it was gorgeous). Anyway, we managed to keep Cara calm and quiet and fairly happy on the bed until around 5, then we showered and went down to the little coffee cart thing they had on the second floor. My wife told the man who had opened up the cart at 6 AM that she was very glad he was open! He gave us some free milk for Cara, some of which she drank from her sippy cup. Meanwhile Cara's grandma, who was up for an early morning workout, once again helped out by playing around with Cara (they chased each other around some well-placed pillars) while Mommy and Daddy had breakfast. That over with, grandma went off and the three of us crossed the street to the fountains.

From the fountains we continued on to the inner harbor area and actually had a very pleasant walk to the far side of the harbor, where Grandpapa joined us and we continued on to Federal Hill. This is a big mound with historical importance which was fortified during the civil war and has a great view from the top. Cara saw the dizzying set of stairs which wended its way up the side of this hill, and with her Mommy holding her hands she excitedly cried "Up, up, up!" and proceeded to mount all the way to the top without stopping. It was amazing. At the top, we met a man with a small dog. The dog was a cardigan corgi and was afraid of Cara, which (frankly) is the way she likes it. Further along the hill we met a whole bunch of dogs (perhaps as many as a half dozen) who were all romping pleasantly with each other, and Cara was happy to see them, but not so sure that she wanted to play with them. Still we had a nice visit and then came around the other side of Federal Hill, which is level with the street, and so were able to follow the sloping sidewalk back to the harbor without going back down the huge flight of steps.

This was still early morning on Friday! We returned to the hotel to reunite with grandma, who got to have breakfast with grandpapa. By this time, Cara had fallen asleep in her stroller, and I walked her about the hotel grounds a bit. Eventually it was time for our day to actually begin, and we all walked a few blocks inland to a children's museum called Port Discovery. This was a place we found on the internet and it was a fantastic place to take Cara. It is a very interactive, physical place with great things for little kids to do. There were scratch and sniff pictures at the very beginning (which we actually never tried), a cute little soccer field with an inflatable ball which Cara enjoyed immensely, and a nice little toddler type of room with a playground contraption, books, building toys, and a tiny tub of balls for little toddlers to climb into and mess around in. In this room Cara got to meet a few other kids near her age and had some nice interactions. She did go in the balls thing and had fun swiping her arms around in there. The hardest thing about Port Discovery was convincing Cara to leave what she was doing to go on to the next thing. There was a little train which Cara got onto where you could make it whistle and turn a little crank, and a market with fake vegetables (which she of course attempted to eat), and a wonderful exhibit with tons of stuff all related to Mr. Rogers. Of course Cara has no idea who Mr. Rogers is, but that didn't matter to her, while it did make the experience meaningful for us older people.

One funny thing I remember was that while we were purchasing admission tickets, Cara wandered off in the lobby area and found a big rolling tub which museum employees must use to transport piles of things. She pushed it all around the big open floor. She did this mercilessly with the stroller when given half a chance--it was bad because she always ended up making very hard turns with it, and she is so short that she can't see where she's going at all. Sometimes Cara would take a moment to peer through the translucent window in the back of the stroller to get an idea of whether she had a clear road ahead, but most of the time she kept her eyes to the ground and pushed like crazy!

Evie reminds me that one of Cara's favorite parts of the museum was a little dump truck toy which she found and pushed wildly halfway around the building before crashing it and forgetting about it--her grandpapa eventually had to walk it back to its origin point.

Anyway after Port Discovery it was time for lunch, which we eventually ended up having at an outdoor table at a nice seafood place on the inner harbor. Not for the first or last time, Cara enjoyed watching the inevitable pigeons bopping around. Mommy gave her a show by tossing the odd bread crumb to the ground nearby so that a pigeon would come over and peck it up. Again not for the first or last time, Cara got a children's activity place mat and crayons, which she did in fact use to color the place mat a little before trying to put in her mouth. Her coloring skills are growing with her fork use. Everyone donated food to Cara during all of our meals, though her grandma probably did the best job of keeping her fed. Cara had her first scallop and her first calamari--she liked both of them. She enjoyed her grandpapa's pickle and some shrimp. Cara's grandpapa was also thrilled to see her reaction to an onion that he had plucked out of his sandwich. George does not like onions. Cara put the onion in her mouth, made a horrified face, and threw it away. Just as it should be!

After this it was clearly high time that Cara had some kind of nap. She had been lightly dozing a bit while we searched for a lunch destination, and was by all rights exhausted. What ended up happening was that I took Cara into our room, turned on the TV, and sat with her on the bed until she fell asleep in my lap. We stayed that way for two hours, while the rest of our party managed to get some time in by the hotel pool and do some shopping. When Cara woke up it was around 4 PM and we needed to start thinking about dinner. I stepped out of the picture at this point to do my own swimming in the hotel pool.

I gave Cara a snack and then Grandma and I took her out on the town! We went to play at the fountain, but Cara didn't feel up to going up, up, up. She wanted to be carried. We carried her through the fountain for a while, and we explored the square in front of the fountain. There were pigeons to chase, which was enough to get Cara out of Grandma's arms for a little while. There were also large, complex metal sculptures that we examined. They turned out to have identifiable sea life depicted in them, so Cara was able to point out the fishies. I did get some good pictures.

We crossed over to the Inner Harbor and continued to explore. Cara got down to meet a very, very cute puppy. The tiny puppy was friendly and licked us, which is not the reaction Cara expects or really wants. She was a little bit shy of the puppy. She sat down and the puppy came up to her and Cara tried to brush her away. She was intrigued but intimidated, and she wanted to be the one being friendly. Steve is right that she seems to expect some fear in animals.

The next thing that happened was that a nice man gave Cara a balloon animal! It was a lion head on a stick, essentially. It had eyes, a nose, and whiskers drawn on in marker. Cara loved it. She could show us the nose and the eyes but would not identify the ears. She would show us our own ears, though, if we asked for ears. She loved waving her balloon around, happily bopping me in the face. She also enjoyed putting parts of it into her mouth, which added some dramatic tension to our perambulations. My mother reminds me fairly often (and I like to tell people) that I swallowed a balloon as a small child and that it was no big deal, but the idea of Cara popping one with her mouth is still fairly exciting. Eventually, she actually did pop it! Because it was screwed up so tightly, only part of it popped at a time. Soon Cara had a lion with only half a nose, and it just gradually got worse from there. Somehow, she was not traumatized. The pop was not dramatic, I guess.

We headed into the mall to check out some restaurants for dinner, and we took Cara to the escalators. Up, up, up! That was still a hit, even though that little girl was so tired she was just a ghost of herself. At the top of the escalator is a clothing store which happens to have as part of its decor two large stuffed dogs. I believe that they are chocolate labs. They are about three inches shorter than Cara. She saw them and ran to one. She hugged it. She patted its head. She hugged. She petted it. She loved it. It was much better than a real dog! With a cry, she ran to the other dog. She hugged it. She patted it. You get the idea. We were there a while. Then we went down, down, down, and then up, up, up, and then we hugged the dogs. I admit that I'm a sucker; I looked at the price tag. I don't think my mother did. I knew it would be silly in every way to buy it , but I did surreptitiously check.

For dinner, we ate at a fancy seafood place. Cara tried her first clam, which she quickly rejected. What she liked a lot, though, was playing with the clam shells. She took the pairs of shells apart and banged them and tossed them and for some reason slurped at them. Perhaps there was some broth, though I'm a little surprised she'd like that. Anyway, she played with them with forks and scattered them all over. I had forgotten to mention it, but I believe that it was at the tapas place that someone tried giving Cara the lemon wedge from a glass of water. Strangely, she enjoyed it. At subsequent meals, she was allowed lemon wedges. I'm not really sure what Cara ate, because I had a lobster (hurray) and was busy. She didn't get my shells, though in retrospect I think she might have enjoyed them. She did get a lot of ice cubes. The first one or two cubes she managed to eat somehow and enjoy, but after that they kept slipping out of her hands for a while. Then she got one in her mouth finally and found that it was very, very cold! So there was a humorous but slightly gross pattern for a while: grandma gives Cara an ice cube, it goes in her mouth, she makes a horrified face, grandma sticks her fingers in Cara's mouth and pries out the ice cube.

In the evening, we split up. Grandpapa and Daddy and Mommy went to see a baseball game, and Grandma and Cara went back to the aquarium. Grandma had to carry Cara most of the time, I think, but they had fun and saw all of the big attractions again. That means Cara got to go to the aquarium three times! On the way back, Grandma had a stroke of genius. She got Cara a hot dog. That made Cara a much happier girl! When we got back to the hotel, probably a little before ten, Cara was bathed and in her pajamas, lounging on the bed with the TV on. She was very happy. She was quite awake.

Steve and I got ready for bed while Cara played. I had brought her a big pretzel from the stadium, because I also thought she might want to eat something. She did, joyfully, but Daddy and I got some too. One thing was really good. Steve and I were both brushing our teeth, and we gave Cara her toothbrush with a little water on it. She stuck it right in her mouth and moved it around. She tried to brush mine, too, but they were busy. We all snuggled up on the bed in the dark with the TV on to try to go to sleep, but Cara was all over. She was friendly and very snuggly and happy, but she couldn't settle down. Finally, at about 10:45, Steve just put her in her crib and we went to sleep. He was right; Cara quieted down and fell asleep in just a few minutes. It seems, given her previous wakeup time of 3:45, really good that she slept until seven, but really she didn't get a full night at all. She already had missed quite a few hours the previous day, and she usually sleeps from nine at night to about eight in the morning! She had a good night, but it really wasn't good enough.

We went down to the lobby for breakfast. Cara and I headed out first, and other family members gradually joined us. We played on the escalators and among the columns some more. Cara had a fairly good breakfast. Grandma brought her a nectarine and I got her a croissant. She ate some of both. Soon we headed upstairs to pack up. Cara got to play in the hotel room for the last time; we got some cute pictures of her with the toilet, of all things. Steve took her picture playing with the dresser, but really he just wanted an excuse to take a picture of the television. When we were ready, we packed up the car and drove to the zoo!

The Batlimore Zoo is a few miles out from the inner harbor. Evie and I had been there before on a previous Cara-less vacation, and had very good memories of it. It turns out they are majorly renovating and have moved all their exhibits a long way from the main entrance, so that we had to go very far before finding any animals other than squirrels, topiary animals, and a model of a turtle. Cara didn't care: she didn't know any better and very much enjoyed the turtle. She was rather tired that day, though, and was carried and strollered pretty often around the big zoo. The first actual animals we ended up seeing were a bunch of parakeets. It's one of those deals where you go in a little house and all the birds are there just flying around, and you can buy a little food stick and they will land on you (Cara had experienced a similar thing at the Philadelphia Zoo). Cara was very unsure about the birds, especially because one of the first ones she reached for nipped her very lightly on her finger, and another very big one landed on top of her head! She really didn't like that. But generally she was curious and happy.

We saw many other animals at the zoo, including rhinos, an ostrich, elephants (who were being fed by trainers when we arrived), swimming penguins, giraffes (which Cara pointed at happily), a leopard, a cheetah, chimps, a lion, gazelles, polar bears, and many birdies of various shapes and sizes. We also had the opportunity to take pictures of Cara at two more of those things where you stick your head through the hole and it looks like your head is on the body of some other critter (in this case, I think it was a lion and a penguin). We saw a lot and it was a good time (one of Cara's favorite parts, rather inexplicably, was crawling into a big metal tunnel which we believe to have been a model of a polar bear trap! in the same area, she also enjoyed sitting at the controls of a supposed polar bear-watching vehicle), but Cara was truly exhausted by the end and Cara had had nothing to eat at the zoo except for some energizing M&Ms.

Tired and hungry, we drove back to Baltimore for lunch. On his morning run, Grandpapa had happened on a really cute little shopping area that was full of restaurants. We had a lot to choose from, but I had explained that, as a tradition, Steve and I find an Indian restaurant on each of our vacations, if it's possible. (We've only ever failed at Lake George, where Mexican was as exotic as things got.) We found a beautiful Indian restaurant with a gorgeously carved door. There was a lunch buffet that we all enjoyed. The table was topped with glass, so we had to curtail Cara's fork-banging habits a little bit. We didn't give her a fork, as a matter of fact, but she handily reached behind her and grabbed one from another table. It was a small restaurant. The fact that it was a buffet allowed us to try things we don't usually get. Cara really liked the tandoori chicken, which we never order because it's not really interesting. However, it's really good. When she was done with her meal Cara explored the place, going up, up, up the stairs and then down, down, down. She also made the rounds of the kitchen, as far as she could.

Grandpa went to get the car, and the rest of us hung out in the cute little square. Cara enjoyed pushing the stroller around, but it really was not designed for her. She had nothing to hold onto but the cargo basket, and that was so low she walked bent double. Now, she's a very good walker, but in that position she does fall. She wanted very much to push, push, push, but it just wasn't a good idea. She had a scab on her elbow already from Thursday or Friday's pushing, and I was relieved when she decided to just run around with her daddy. I got us some lemonade to share, and we watched the town crier give us the news of the day from August 19, 1814. Soon Grandpa drove up, and we all piled in.

We had planned on hitting another museum, but it was almost two o'clock and Cara was done. It was a good time for a nap, so we headed straight back to New Jersey. Cara fell asleep, I know I fell asleep, and I think Grandma fell asleep a little bit, too. I was relieved, because I had the camera in the back with me and so there was no chance that there would be a follow-up picture to one of me and Claire asleep in the back seat when we were tiny. I did hear my father mentioning the great photo opportunity. I guess we were cute, because the car seat was convenient to lean on.

Was Cara happy to get home? I think so. She got to see her kitties and her toys, and it was good to eat in her own kitchen, in her own chair, again. One thing I'm sure of, though, was that she didn't want her grandma and grandpa to leave. She didn't want the fun to end. I would write about Saturday night, but I don't remember much. We cooked dinner and ate, Cara consuming one and a half hot dogs and a cheese stick in addition to some tater tots and bread. We played. Cara went to bed, and Steve and I wrote a lot of journal. We looked at the 174 pictures we took. There were about twenty others that we deleted right away because they were no good; the 174 is our final count. I'm not sure when or how we'll post them!

Cara is, conveniently, not old enough to understand souvenir shops, but she did get a few things. I bought her a foam book with a crab, a fishie, a starfish, and a seahorse that pull out. They are brightly colored and interestingly textured; she has a couple of books like it, and she likes to play with them. We played with her new one in the car on the way home, and she had fun throwing her new animals around and offering them to us. The best things she got, though, are the sharks her grandma got her in the aquarium on Friday night. She has one for each hand. They are perhaps eight inches long, including their long, pointy tails. They are made of hard plastic, and they are great in the bath. Grandma reported to us that Cara has a shark noise. Sharks go "whoo whoo." Having seen her take two subsequent baths with them, I can confirm that they do indeed say "whoo whoo" as she moves them around. I'm not sure that she has any other toys with their own specific noises. Last night we tricked her into letting go of them, because they seem terrible to sleep with. She was devastated.

8/20/06 (Sunday)

After a good night's sleep, Cara felt better. She had some bread pudding, with a fork. She sort of eats with one. I'm willing to give her one to play with, now, with many meals. We read a lot of books today. We read a lot of Curious George books today. A lot. All of us.

Grandpa Jim came up to work in the basement. Cara got to show him how she goes down her slide outside, I think, and we got to show him our monolithic picture collection. Cara was, of course, extremely interested in what he was doing in the basement. I took her down there, and she didn't do too much damage. The most exciting part was when she stuffed some (unused) ear plugs into her mouth and of course ran away. She shook her head, no, no, no, you can't have them. Daddy caught her, and I got two of them out. Steve was right, though, there was a third. She was really having a good time.

When we were playing outside, Cara wanted to play with the squirt bottle of water I have out there. She carried it around for a little while, and then I showed her how it worked. She tried, but she couldn't squeeze the trigger fast enough. Daddy and Grandpa came out to work, and we were talking. Cara laughed. We looked at her, and her romper and her face were wet. She had squirted herself in the face! She thought it was wonderful. Later in the evening I took her out again, and she just ran around with the squirt bottle pointed at herself, laughing, squealing, and squirting. Steve could hear her from the kitchen.

At lunch, Cara had some blueberries, part of my calzone, and some of Daddy's cheese fries, which she specially requested. She asked Daddy to turn on the fan, by showing him that it goes around and around. While we were eating, she laughed and started playing with Grandpa. She pointed at him and laughed. He pointed back at her, and she laughed. Eventually, they pointed at us and laughed, too. It was quite rowdy. Cara also tried to show Grandpa how much fun it is to eat with your head sideways, but he didn't buy it.

I put Cara down around 1:30, and she napped for slightly over three hours! We got a lot done while she did; I now have a complete wall, with a door, in my basement, giving me a separate laundry room. I went outside and patched the driveway. I was amazed that I was able to finish it, but Cara slept a long time! When she woke up, around quarter to five, she was happy to see me. She pointed at the pile of Curious George books on the floor, and we spent the next 45 minutes or so in her room, on the floor with the monkey. With great affection, Cara took turns having Mommy and Daddy read to her.

After our big lunch we ate in shifts tonight, scrounging for ourselves. It's great to be home, because Cara can tell us when she's hungry by going to her chair. It's much, much easier than guessing. In the evening Cara and I went over to Julianna's non-child-proofed house to give her some chocolates we picked up for her. (She took in our mail, and, besides, we certainly owe her for all the clothes and toys and fun!) Cara brought Shelby's foam ball with her, but she soon found other things to play with. There were porcelain boxes on the coffee table, some of which had dried flowers in them. This was great! I spent a lot of time removing Cara to the kitchen, where Julianna had a shape sorter for her. Cara has become almost expert with her circles and triangles and she is pretty good with her squares, but this one has stars! She can handle it, though. After going up, up, up the stairs once and down, down, down some other stairs, we removed ourselves.

Cara had a nice bath with her sharks, and she came out with her tongue out. I believe she has forgotten how to blow raspberries. I'm fairly sure she once knew. Anyway, she found it very amusing when I did it, and she kept putting her tongue out and concentrating, though nothing happened. Picture Cara in her crib, half-pajamaed, with an eight-inch shark in each hand, tongue out, dancing. Is she sleeping with her sharks tonight? I'll wait to find out in the morning.

For the record: yes, she is sleeping with the sharks.

8/21/06 (Monday)

Cara woke up today with a shark in either hand. She did put them down for breakfast, which was some nice chunks of bread pudding, eaten with a fork. At least, she ate some with her fork. Anyway, we had a busy morning. First thing, we went to the gym. When I came to pick Cara up, I couldn't see her. Finally, I spotted her off in the far corner, behind the slide. I'm sure she was absolutely happy. When she saw me, she called "Mama" and ran over with her arms in the air! (She's been getting good at "mama" lately. She started calling me Mama, but then in Baltimore she called Grandma "Mama," too. Yesterday, when Steve came downstairs after his shower, she leapt up to greet him, calling "Mama!") I was informed that she had banged her head getting off of a little chair, but she was clearly okay, since they hadn't had to call me. They put ice on it, tricking her into sitting still by letting her draw with markers. I was surprised to see a big red bump on her forehead, a little smaller than a quarter. She's never had such a bad bump before! Now, though, in the evening, I don't think I can see it any more.

After the gym, we went to the park. It was such a beautiful day, I hated to waste it. Cara approached the playground cautiously, but then we had a good ride on the swings next to a boy who was about three. He and his mom were speaking Russian, which I enjoyed. I could pick out several words, but I certainly couldn't make sense of any of it. They were friendly, and later they let Cara play with the toys they had brought, including some shovels, a bulldozer, and a little car. The playset itself was fun; Cara went up, up, up. She liked walking on the curved bridge; a few weeks ago she couldn't handle it, but now it's a draw. There are two big-kid slides, one of which is an enclosed, curvy tunnel. Cara got onto that one, and I quickly jumped down to be at the other end. I stuck my head up the slide and encouraged her, and she came down! It was her first time on a big-girl slide be herself. I thought she was going to try it again at one point, but she changed her mind. Another little boy came along with his daddy and a big kite shaped like a dolphin. He loved his kite, so much, in fact, that he would not allow it to be flown but preferred to carry it about. Cara liked the kite, too. She followed him while he carried it around.

After the park, we headed for the mall. We had serious errands to do! For the past sixteen months or so, I've had a problem. Now, I've solved it. The problem was, when I bend down to pick up my child, my pocketbook, if I have one on my arm, slides down and hits her in the face. Well, it doesn't really, but almost. It's annoying and hard to handle. I finally realized that I need a different style of purse. I need one that's like a backpack. I went to Macy's. Cara was tired. She didn't really want to run around in the mall, so I had to carry her. I found a nice new purse, so I had to carry Cara, my purse, and my new purse in a bag. We all went on to our next stop. I had to go to one of those horrible stores where preteens shop for jewelry. I knew that that would be a good place to get hair things for my little girl. Cara's hair is really coming in now, and it's fine and straight. I'm really not sure what to do with it, and she fights me when I try to doodlebop her. I bought a selection of cute barrettes and clips, and we'll see what happens. I bought myself lunch, of course, and Cara played for a few minutes on the rides. Finally, I took the poor thing home, gave her some lunch, and let her go to sleep!

Cara had a nice long nap, then read some Curious George. Not finished with my errands, I packed her back up and went out. We hit Babies R Us, where we returned something and bought some of those disposable stick-on placemats for restaurants. I want to keep some in my new purse, which I have stocked as an efficient diaper bag. We walked over to Walmart to pick up photos from our trip, which I spent a lot of time uploading. Unfortunately, the machine was broken! Half of my order was ready, so I got some pictures. I had done them in two shifts, some before Cara got up in the morning and some during her nap. We'll have to wait for the later half.

We went home and cooked dinner. Cara was somewhat impatient, so I was happy when Daddy got home to read to her. We had turkey meatloaf, salad, and finger noodles with onions. Cara liked the meatloaf, like a good girl, but she really loves finger noodles! Who wouldn't? After dinner I took Cara out for a walk so that Daddy could post some pictures. We ended up at PJ's house, where the two toddlers gleefully ran back and forth together. PJ generously lent Cara a book he's been seeing an awful lot of lately. I may reciprocate with the First Thousand Words, though I really haven't had to overdo that one too much these past few days.

When we got home, Daddy was still working. We watched a short movie to keep him company, and then I proved my worth as a parent by giving Cara a bath. I haven't done it in months and months! I was relieved that it went well. Steve got to be the one who dries her off and pajamas her. Role reversal is fun!

8/22/06 (Tuesday)

Cara was up at 7:30 today, and as soon as I got her out of her crib she wanted to get down and read her Curious George books! I changed her and we went through three of them. Pretty soon, though, Grandpapa arrived to look after Cara while I went to a class.

Cara and her grandpapa went to the park and the mall today, and Cara had a nice nap. My dad reports that he offered Cara a choice: he held out her sandals and her sneakers to her, and she selected her sandals twice. That's nice to know. At the mall, Cara did not get to run around. Grandpa doesn't understand the current expert opinions of Cara-management. Experts agree (meaning, I think) that expeditions can have one of two main goals. The first goal is to get something done that is important to the adult in some way. The alternative goal is to tire Cara out. I never put her in the stroller anymore unless there's something I want to get done in which she would hinder me by walking. Oh, well. Grandpapa will be back on the job in a couple of weeks, and he'll come up with his own expert opinions.

Cara and I played outside this afternoon. First we went out and she promptly fell and skinned her knee. She was okay, but I brought her back in and stuck her in her high chair so that I could wash the blood off. As a treat, I got out my favorite cookies, these long, rolled wafer things. I split one with her. She wanted both halves, so I had to eat mine quickly. I would have done so anyway. When she was done, she started pointing to the cabinet and crying. Offered anything else, she shook her head. That girl likes chocolate! I took her out of her chair, and the tantrum continued. It was low-intensity, but I still think of it as a tantrum. I went downstairs and started reading, with considerable interest, the First Thousand Words. Fairly soon I was joined by a little girl with tears still on her cheeks.

Soon we went outside again, and this time we made it beyond the front walk. We went out back and I gave Cara the squirt bottle. She spent about half an hour running around, laughing like a little lunatic, squirting herself in the face. Her shirt gets wet, but there's no other damage. Fortunately, she has not realized that she could squirt anything but herself. Also, she hasn't really got the coordination to do so. She's figured out the exact hand motions to spray things at herself, and that's it. Actually, she sat in my lap for a few minutes and demonstrated that quite a bit of the water does in reality go over her shoulder. I obediently laughed like a maniac. Alas, we went for a walk around the block and brought our squirt bottle. Cara carried it, and I was carrying her, and she dropped it. The first time, it cracked. The second time, the bottom broke off. No more squirt bottle! I just hope I can find another that I like. This one was purple.

At dinner, Cara's fork usage continued to show progress. I made her a pork chop, and she ate a few pieces with the fork. She really liked the corn, too, but she isn't ready to use the fork with a scooping motion yet. She did try. Most of dinner was spent by her in pointing at things that she wanted and squeaking until she got them. My only worry is that she doesn't get enough to eat because she's concentrating so hard on using her fork. She can tell us when she's hungry, though.

In the evening, the family went for a walk. Unfortunately, these days all of Cara's walks seem to lead up PJ's driveway. PJ isn't necessarily available, so there's some catching involved. We got her home this evening by swinging her between us, which she loved.

Steve and I have decided to change Cara's bedtime routine. We have been dimming the lights, giving her a bottle, brushing her teeth, and putting her down. We want to let her brush her own teeth, and she'll sort of do that if we are brushing ours. Therefore, we can't really do it in her room with the lights dim. We sort of did our new routine tonight. I guess we'll fine-tune it as we go along. After her bath, I gave Cara her bottle with the lights bright. Then we all brushed our teeth. Cara stuck her little toothbrush right into her mouth and messed around for as long as we did. She spent some of that time sucking on the toothpaste, but I know that the brush touched most of her teeth. I figure that that is good enough for the first few days of her being on her own. Afterwards, Steve dimmed the lights, leaving on the little reading lamp on the post of the big bedroom lamp. He read her a few books (she really wanted Curious George, not her bottle, earlier) and put her down. It went well.

8/23/06 (Wednesday)

Cara was up in the night, twice. First her daddy went and read her a couple of Curious George books, offered her a drink, and put her back to bed. An hour or so later, she was back up. I changed her diaper, gave her a pretzel, and showed her a Curious George book. I couldn't read it, because without my contact lenses I couldn't see the pictures, much less the words. Anyway, I didn't want to encourage her. I put her back to bed with the next Curious George book in her hands. She slept with it.

She slept with it until nine in the morning. I admit, I also took a nap while waiting for her to get up. Of course, we read some Curious George when I got her out of the crib. I managed to doodlebop her hair today! I got one while she was on the changing table, by singing "the Itsy-Bitsy Spider" a lot. I got the other while she was in her high chair, by brute force. The second came out better. I dressed her up cute and out we went. We had a special mission.

Today, we went over to Susan's. Susan is the woman with whom Cara will be staying for two days every week once school starts. Actually, Cara will start next Tuesday. I wanted to go over earlier, though to check things out. PJ has been staying with Susan since he was a baby, and we hear a lot of good things. She has a curriculum and does projects with the kids, and this year Cara and PJ can really start to be a part of that.

I found a nice back way to Susan's house, which is about five minutes away. It's a nice old house with a beautiful yard. When I pulled up, the kids were playing outside. PJ ran up to me with his big smile. I brought Cara out to play, and after a little hesitation, she jumped right in. All the other kids were older, but that will change. The two big kids are going to start kindergarten, so there will be PJ, Cara, a boy who's about two and a half, and two infants. What a handful!

Cara, strangely enough, climbed onto all of the ride-on toys. She managed to fall over with a couple of them on top of her, but she was okay. She seems to be starting to be interested in riding on things, because she tries her little car at home, too, once in a while. Cara investigated the driveway and the garage, and then she moved over to the toy section on the lawn. There's a pebbly area full of slides, a house and climb-on types of things, and there's a nice sandbox with toys in it. Cara checked it all out and even climbed up some of the slides, sort of. I had to leave to move my car, and I don't think she noticed I was gone. A couple of times she came to me and whimpered with her arms up, and I delayed for about half a beat, and then she went away and kept playing. I was proud of her.

When it was time to go inside, Susan said she needed help cleaning up. The big kids started pushing the toys into the garage, and PJ also pushed something away! He's only six weeks older than Cara, remember, and he was cleaning up. Now Cara can be trained, too! inside, Susan has a whole room full of toys and games, including some big dollhouse types of things. The house is clean and toy-free, which is very impressive. I'm excited about Cara spending time there!

We went to the mall and Cara got to go up, up, up and down, down, down the escalator. She got to do lots of walking around, and she did quite a bit of it holding my hand. I like that, for lots of reasons. By one o'clock, we were home and Cara, having had a little lunch, was in her crib.

She woke up around three and we went to the gym pretty soon after that. She hasn't been there in the afternoon in a long time, so it's a while since she's seen that staff. They were impressed with how she's matured. After the gym we did a couple of errands. After last night, I decided that I wanted some Curious George books I could leave Cara on her own with. Fortunately, I found several Curious George board books. I also got two Berenstain bear books, because I like them and they were on sale. They're cute and different, and they may be a little beyond Cara right now. There's a lot of rhyming, which is cool.

Cara had a big dinner. I finally found a way to fix chicken that she likes, and she had plenty of veggies and a few tater tots. After dinner, she had one and a half fig Newtons. After dinner, she was very greasy. Her poor hair!

Cara then lost her mind. I have rarely seen her so hyper! She sat on her little chair, bouncing and making noise and waving her shoes, which I had just taken off of her, in the air. She just kept bouncing! She ran around and around, making noise. She was insane. Then PJ came over. They ran around together. Casey came, too, and Cara identified her as a baby. PJ was interested, tonight, in sticking things into ball chutes, which he did very well. Cara was interested in running around. At one point, they sat on the two little chairs at the little table. I ran and got them a snack, a little dried fruit. They stayed put, amazingly, while I got it, and then they had their first snack at the table! We got a picture. Later, they lounged together on the folded-out Elmo couch. We didn't get a picture.

Cara was hyper before her bath, and she was probably willing to continue being hyper after it, too, but we went with our new routine, all brushed our teeth, read some books, and went to bed.

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