| Previous Week | Back Home | Next Week | Journal Key: Green = Steve | George = navy | Janet = Purple | Evelyn = Black 9/14/06 (Thursday) When I picked Cara up today, she and Susan were exploring the storage room where Susan keeps all of the toys. Well, Cara was exploring and Susan was putting things back after Cara took them out. Both were happy. Cara was busily putting a toy cow on top of the dollhouse. When we got home, I performed an experiment. I unstrapped Cara and let her climb out of the car by herself. She got out of the car seat with no problem, and when I gave her my hand she was able to get down to the ground. She probably would have figured it out by herself, but it seemed a little complicated. We had fun running around a little bit, and Cara managed to sit down in some mud and coat her pants with it. I couldn't pick her up without getting dirty, so I had to coax her into going into the house on her own. The cats are a big draw. We had a couple of hours to play together. Mommy wanted to roughhouse, but Cara wanted to read books! We compromised. In our playing together, we spent a lot of time with the big pink ball. Cara made Curious George sit on it, so I gave him a nice, bouncy ride. He liked it very much, apparently, so I tried giving Cara a ride, too. She also enjoyed it. Cara is really into puppets. We played with the dog guy we have downstairs; he ate lots of things. In her crib after her bath, she made me work her monkey puppet. For some reason, she really wanted him to hug her little baby doll. I guess they both had a good time. 9/16/06 (Saturday) I sat down to read the Baby Blog, as I do every morning, and realized it's up to me - I have to write it! So, here's my account of Friday night: It rained all day, and I knew our usual occupations would be off-limits: no park, no playground. No return to the thrills of the football game. So I did not hurry straight home; I hurried straight to Target to supplement our toy collection. We have a lot of baby things, but our girl isn't a baby any more. She needed new stuff. When I did get home George and Cara were in the middle of a messy diaper change. The moment I walked in, my hands full of interesting bags, Cara get restless. I quickly pulled out two plastic horses - one for each hand - and restored tranquility. She loved the horses. She made them run on our glass-topped table. We examined their feet, their tails and their noses. She brought their noses together and made a kissie sound. Clearly, the horses liked one another. With our new horses and our old friends the Trolls, the afternoon passed quickly. We did some roughhousing on the bed and on the living-room floor, some reading, some playing, and before we knew it, supper-time had arrived. Cara could not be conned into eating spinach, but she did enjoy a lot of grapes (hey, they're green - don't they count as a vegetable?), some bread and some of a hot dog. To her great annoyance, she was not allowed to leave the high chair with a piece of hot dog in each hand. After supper we began to unwrap our major new purchase of the day: a Little People A to Z Learning Zoo, which features 26 plastic animals (one for each letter of the alphabet. I'll end your suspense - the X is an X-ray fish.). There is also an interactive mat that speaks the name of each animal and plays the sound it makes when you press the letters of the alphabet. And - some assembly required - the animals have a plastic landscape the includes a tree with a swing, a waterfall, fences and some other kind of platform. There are lots of places for the animals to sit and tunnels for them to pass through. The unwrapping was a dazzling experience for Cara. She and I sat on the floor together while I freed the 26 (count 'em) critters from their wrapping. One after another they arrived in her hands, more and more of them, until she was surrounded by her new menagerie. Meanwhile George manfully assembled the rest of the stuff. Cara quickly grasped the waterfall and began making critters slide down it. We shifted the assemble first to the large, square coffee table; then we saw that Cara couldn't reach it from all sides, so we scooped it up and shifted to the narrower wooden table - perfection! Great-grandma Emily had turned up in the midst of this chaos, and soon all of us, child and adults, were playing with the toys and the mat. Cara soon found that we could play peek-a-boo by peering at each other through the tunnels and doorways in the tree, etc. We could place the animals in interesting spots, play their sounds - it went on and on. Suddenly our little girl got tired. She sat in my lap and rested her head on my shoulder. We put on the DVD that came with the toy and watched 5 short vignettes that teach lessons about the alphabet. (I have some high school students who need to see the one about capital letters.) Great-grandma kissed us all good-by and went home. By about 8 o'clock Cara was enjoying a bath with her new ostrich and flamingo, who float really well. I think she made them kiss each other too, and they have traveled home with her this morning, where they will probably have a great time meeting their buddies on Noah's Ark. She was in bed early, at 8:35, accompanied by a generous selection of Alphabet Zoo animals, all of whom also needed to go to sleep. Although she seemed tired, she was also excited, and cried for several minutes after being put in her bed. My limit is 10 minutes; before that was reached she had shifted from crying to a lengthy conversation, presumably with the animals, who were found spread all around the crib this morning. That good little girl woke at 7 on the dot, having slept the whole night through, and just about the time she was dressed her mommy and daddy showed up (with more toys!) and we all went out for breakfast together. At the second annual Fred Zusselman Memorial Pancake Breakfast, Cara ate eggs, pancakes, and potato, and she had a couple of spoonsful of my tea in an attempt to keep her amused while we waited for food. She was a good girl; her grandma took her for a couple of walks before the food came, but once it was there she sat and ate like a little angel, assuming that little angels eat. After we got out, Cara didn't feel like getting right into the car. She ran over to the nearby bank and very carefully backed up five feet to sit down on the stairs. We hung around the house all morning, and then I put Cara into the car and headed out. We were meeting Aunt Claire and her friend, Casey, at Wheaton Village for an Italian Heritage Festival. We're not really Italian, it just sounded like fun. Steve had to stay home to get some work done for work. Cara and I got there ahead of Claire, and eventually we went on in. Cara had napped in the car, and she was still kind of sleepy for the first twenty minutes or so. She just wanted to be held. Gradually she perked up, and when Claire got there Cara was running through the bushes and holding three itchy balls in her hands. I'm not sure what they're really called; they're those spiky balls that fall from some trees. I showed her Claire walking toward us, and Cara ran for her. We went and watched some Italian glassblowing. It was very cool, but Cara was having a great time running around the viewing area. Back and forth we went, in front of people and behind them (mainly behind them), up and down the stairs. Running, running, running. Eventually she dropped her itchy balls near the work area; I'm wondering how they'll think they got there. Cara got to run with Aunt Claire, too, and Claire agrees with me that Cara is getting better and better at walking on stairs like a big girl. The stairs were low, but even so Cara is distinctly improved. We had a snack after that. Claire and I got the bruschetta and some pasta fritters. Claire tried feeding Cara some tomato on a fork, and I assumed that Cara would be horrified. Of course, Cara loved it. She ate up all the tomato Claire had been hoping to nosh on herself. Later I got another plate of it and fed most of that to Cara, too. She's never liked tomatoes before; it must be the garlic. Next it was on to the museum. Cara had fun running through it, for the first ten minutes. Then she decided she'd rather be carried. Then she decided that that wasn't that great, either. She and I went on ahead; we played for a little while and then we sat in the lobby. She was tired! I certainly hadn't expected that. When we were done with the museum we got some dessert. We adults had cannoli, which were not as good as the ones Grandpa Jim gets and so I have to admit that he's absolutely right about that and therefore probably about lots of other things. Cara had a nice chocolate biscotti, of which I put half into each hand. She sat nicely on my lap for a while, but then she got up and walked a little bit away. I didn't feel like chasing her, so I asked her to dance. There was music, after all; there was a band playing! Cara waggled her hips, which was as adorable as ever. I'm pretty sure a couple of people took pictures. Her dancing, however, has evolved. There is now some kicking and stepping, and she may have been trying to incorporate her jumping as well. To our astonishment, Cara spun in circles! It was hard work. We did some shopping, but Cara really didn't belong in the stores, especially as she had now decided that she really didn't want to be carried, after all. She and I hung out outside, which was where she wanted to be, anyway. Eventually everything kind of closed up; we lasted through the whole festival! Cara and I had a long ride home; she was awake the whole way and was not particularly happy. She was happy, though, to get home and see Daddy! We had a good time before her bath. Steve and Cara were in her room when she picked up a teddy bear and said, "bear!" Now, because that went so well, she seems to be calling all of her stuffed toys bears. She was running around with two stuffed animals, and we wanted her to put them down, but not in the tub. I told her they were tired and had to go to bed, and she ran into our room and put them on the bed. She left them for about thirty seconds. Finally Steve picked her up and asked her to put them down, which she did. That was easy! 9/17/06 (Sunday) At long last, I have the chance to do a journal entry! In fact, I am coming back in a big way, because I spent the whole day with Cara and did many things with her. This morning Cara's Mommy decided it was time to seal our driveway. Naturally we both could not do this at the same time, the kitties not being particularly good at child care, so Cara and I hung out in the morning. Ironically, Mommy was outside slaving away on the very day she had chosen to go off with her sister and have fun (what I dubbed "Lady Day"--it is really just turnabout for "Man Day," which was scheduled first for me and my brother, but which has yet to occur). Eventually Evie would go out on the town and have a full day of it, but meanwhile she was outside putting nasty black gook on the driveway. Cara could not stand to watch her Mommy do this without joining her, so I stuck her in the car and we went off to the grocery store. I made the terrible mistake of not bringing a toy for Cara to occupy herself with in the shopping cart, but it went okay anyway because it was a quick, short trip. Back at the house, I tried playing with Cara for a while, but eventually it became clear that she wanted to go outside and help Mommy, and we could not allow that to happen. So I did what I had planned to do anyway that day (just a little earlier than intended): stuck her in the car again and went off for the parents' house. Cara did not go to sleep for a long time in the car, but she was quiet and good and eventually did fall asleep. When she awoke, it was to witness a strange thing; a few miles from my parents' house, I was stopped in a line of traffic at a stoplight while an endless line of motorcycles drove by! It was a motorcycle parade. Cara was not happy to be stuck in an unmoving car after having awoken from her nap. Eventually I took her out and walked down to the cross street to watch the motorcycles. By the time I walked her back and strapped her back in, they had finally all gone by (there must have been hundreds of them!), and in a few more minutes we were with Cara's grandparents. Cara was an angel for most of the day. She was very happy to be there, played with all her regular toys, and had a nice big lunch with a lot of pasta and some chicken and grapes. She even had a cookie, and some cold milk from an alternate sippy cup which she was kind of able to tip back and drink from. She was happy to wear a nice Eagles hat on her head (we were watching a football game for most of the afternoon), saying "hat" to herself, perfectly aware that we all thought she looked adorable. We went out back for a couple of very short periods, and Cara got to play with several balls. All the time she was holding them she had to say "ball, ball, ball!" very loudly. She was also overjoyed to watch Rusty the dog run violently back and forth across the lawn, vainly attempting to catch some strangely indecisive squirrels who had spent some frantic seconds running back and forth across the top of his fence. Cara once again loved Rusty and thought it was very funny when he went to hide under the kitchen table. She tried several times to go over and hug him like she hugs her stuffed animals, but he was not at all interested in having this happen to him. She did instead get to grab and carry around a nice green teddy bear, which she was able to correctly identify as a "bear" (although her pronunciation sounds more like "bay-uh"). Later in the day, Cara had some pizza. The impressive part was that she ate this not at her high chair, but while sitting in a normal kitchen chair like a grown-up person! This didn't last for a particularly long time, but she did like sitting in the chair and asked to be placed in it several times. She wanted to gather up her little pieces of pizza and carry them off to eat elsewhere (as is often her wont after having sat still for about ten minutes at meal time), but Grandma was very strict and made her put them down before running off (partly because she did not want pizza smeared on her carpet, I'm sure, but also because Rusty the dog would almost certainly have eaten it out of her hands). I was very glad that Grandma enforced this level of food discipline--and even more glad that I didn't have to be the one to pry the pizza from her fingers! Eventually Cara showed signs of fussiness--perhaps partly due to the fact that we wouldn't let her play around outside as much as she wanted to (too many mosquitos!), and also would not let her dabble her hands in Rusty's water dish as she wanted to. I got all packed up and ready to go, and then turned to find Cara happily playing again. So we stayed for a bit longer, and even explored the front yard for a change. Cara found a nice tree stump to stand on. Then Cara got kissed goodbye from both grandparents (she stood it from them better than she usually does from me), and off we went again. This time Cara fell asleep quicker and stayed out for pretty much the whole ride home. She actually woke up once and then went back to sleep. When we got home at almost 7, Mommy was still not home! So Cara and I had a small snack and watched some TV and played a bit more, then it was bath time, then it was bottle time, then tooth-brushing time (which we did in the bathroom, with me holding her up and both of us looking in the mirror), then book time, and then bed time. The end! Oh, and then Mommy got home. Ha! 9/18/06 (Monday) Another peaceful normal day. Cara went to the supermarket in the A.M. where she got to show off for the cashier and then after a short nap, she went to Donaldson Park for the afternoon's festivities. There she played with several little girls and their mommies, handing them gifts of mulch and following them around. Cara likes to make her way up the steps of the playground equipment and then tease me into thinking she's going to slide down one of the sliding boards. When I get into position to catch her at the bottom, she stands up and runs away! We went for a long walk trying to catch up to some of the hundreds of geese that frequent the park. On our walk, we saw a beautiful motor boat slowly making its way up the mighty Raritan River. Cara and I stood for several seconds watching the boat and the ducks and the gulls--a rare moment of tranquility. Otherwise our walk was spent with me chasing Cara while she would stop and roll around in the mud. Then I would clean her off and then she would roll around in more mud. We met a man who might be the coach of the Highland Park High School tennis team and I thought to ask (but didn't) of the right age to start a girl on her tennis career--it's eighteen months, right? Good luck with that, Grandpapa. I got home a little bit after four. I had been planning on going to the gym, but I decided on the way home that it was too nice out for that; I wanted to take Cara to the park! We went back to Donaldson Park and went to the far playground. Curious George had come and we pushed him over to the slides. Cara then abandoned him and went up, up, up. There was no one else on the playground, so Cara had no one to give mulch to, but she did, as Daddy said, fake me out on the slides. I'd get ready to catch, and she'd be halfway across one of the bridges! Soon someone showed up; it was a Mommy I'd met before with her three-year-old boy and new infant. I met them on her first day out with the two children, and now the little girl is four months old! Cara helpfully gave her some mulch. She wanted to give her a lot of mulch. I had to pick some off her. The baby was very excited, but I couldn't guess whether she was happy to see us or was babbling for rescue. I'm really not sure what's happened to Cara, because the last time I took her to a park there was none of this mulch-giving or slide-faking. Cara identified the baby as a baby. A group of girls was playing soccer nearby, and Cara identified the balls they were playing with. She says "up" when she goes up. She says "sit" when she sits. She also can say "uh-oh," "hat," and "bear." She has at least a six-word vocabulary, since I'm not sure "uh-oh" counts. It must count. Cara may have been faking me out on the twisty slide a lot because she was scared of it. When she saw the three-year-old go down it, though, she had to go, too. She loved it; she ran around to go again. Once she kind of ended up upside down when she came to the bottom, but she kept going three or four times. I caught her at the bottom at first, but then she showed that she wasn't going fast when she got there and could get down herself. Cara's other big project for the day had to do with stairs and the walking up of them like a big girl. She had been trying it at home earlier, Grandpapa reported, and fell down. At the park, I got to see her carefully holding the railings and walking up all by herself! She did great. To my surprise, Steve told me as we were getting ready for Cara's bath that she had walked up by herself from the playroom to the living room. She just put a hand on the wall, and up she went! What an amazing day! We got home at about a quarter to six, but instead of going in to cook dinner we went next door to see Julianna. Cara helped her sweep her driveway. We played for a long time, and then I received some hand-me-down plants from another neighbor. I brought the red wagon over, and Cara helped me by pushing it. When we finally went into the house, it was after six thirty. Soon Daddy got home, and I made a quick dinner and then went out to plant my new plants. Cara stayed in to make a mess. She had a great time heading for bed. She got to play on the bed a lot, and she got to ride in her laundry basket. She also got to give some things rides in the basket. She enjoyed her bottle; halfway through she took it from me and gave it to herself. She did that on Saturday, too, and I think it's awfully cute. Anyhow, it was an amazing day, and I'm awfully proud of Cara for walking on the stairs. The mulch habit, though, I could give or take. 9/19/06 (Tuesday) Cara and her daddy had a good morning; Cara ate her whole waffle, and they didn't even have to have recourse to the television. I got to pick Cara up late, around a quarter to five. She and PJ and Susan were playing outside. Susan reports that Cara is a good eater; she had pizza and orange slices for lunch. She ate so much that Susan found herself checking the floor to see whether she was just dropping things. Cara only had a little bit of tomato sauce in her hair. Susan also reports that Cara is the only child she has ever dealt with who has tried to crayon her own head. I theorize that this is related to Cara's habit of rubbing her food in her hair. Cara and I hit the grocery store for broccoli and bananas, and we had a good time in the parking lot. I drove the cart fast, swerving back and forth, and Cara thought that this was hysterical. I thought it was pretty funny, too. When we got home, PJ, Em and Casey walked over. Thank goodness Cara got to see PJ again, because it had been at least half an hour and things were getting desperate. They walked around aimlessly and picked up things they oughtn't to have had and spent a few minutes walking into the street, which delighted their mothers. Cara and I went inside and read books until Daddy got home, because the family had a dinner date with Julianna. Cara was hungry, but when I asked her whether she wanted to go out with Julianna she stood up and ran to the door. She was clearly surprised to have Julianna in the car with her, too. We went to the diner, where Cara waved at the waitresses, the hostess, and the busboy. She was very attentive and friendly to the entire staff. They liked her, too. Julianna and I kept busy keeping Cara fed; she had part of a roll, a half a pickle, some soup, her own hot dog, her own French fries, some bacon, and some guacamole. She didn't get to feed herself with a fork much, but she certainly ate well. That seems to be the theme of the day. Could we be heading for a growth spurt? 9/20/06 (Wednesday) I put Cara in for an early nap which I thought would be very short; instead it lasted for two and a half hours. Afterwards, I fed the hungry girl and then we got in the car for a trip to a new place, Buccleuch (sp?) Park in New Brunswick. Cara had fun riding on the horsey-swings and running around in the sand. Unfortunately I made a slight error when at lunchtime I put jam on her toast. At the park, Cara had sand sticking to her everywhere. Fortunately I brought a wet washcloth and crisis was averted when I cleaned her face and hands. At the park, Cara very much enjoyed the stone lions in front of the gazebo, the drain pipes, and then later, running through the rose garden at the mansion--and she wasn't jabbed by a single thorn. I gave Cara a nice snack of cheese and brought her to the gym. She has started throwing tiny tantrums every time I put her in the car, because she wants to climb around and explore. Perhaps it wasn't wise of me to let her do this. It's all because she started getting out of the seat by herself after I unbuckle her; before it didn't occur to her that she could get around in the car! Now she likes climbing up into the front seat, walking around in the back, getting all over the place. She doesn't want to get into her car seat or out of the car afterwards. She yells and stiffens her body so it's hard to buckle her in; the tantrum lasts about ten seconds, though, and then she's buckled in and okay. When I unbuckle her, if I let her, she'll climb down and then refuse to get out of the car. I let her play in there when we got home, and she climbed to the front seat and found a bottle of water and a nickel. Holding her booty, she was then content to climb out. Soon, I was relieved to see, she dropped the nickel in the grass. "Uh-oh!" Poor Daddy was very late getting home, so Cara and I ate dinner on our own. She wanted to carry some food away, but I told her that she'd have to put it down if she wanted to leave, and so she did! Parenting works! Cara and I left Daddy here and went over to PJ's house. I put Cara down to walk, and she started to really run! Then she fell in the grass and decided to moderate her pace. The kids had a good time and we had some cookies. Cara took mine. Ron showed the kids a very simple picture book, and Cara showed him how well she can identify pictures. She pointed out the cat, rabbit, truck, bird, balloon, and sun. Ron was very impressed; he guesses that girls really are smarter! Soon enough it was home and to bed. | Previous Week | Back Home | Next Week | |