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Journal Key:

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

9/28/06 (Thursday)

Cara had a lovely day at Susan's, and we played there for a few minutes before I took her home. The slide is the big hit there, of course, so she shows me how she goes down it. It is a nice plastic slide, about as high as my waist. The new development of the day was that Cara decided to go down it headfirst, while Susan and I watched. She actually did it very well, gliding down with her hands out to catch herself. Having seen this I don't worry at all, but I think it is pretty funny that she's sliding face-first into rocks. She was quite graceful.

I had gone to the gym in the afternoon, so I was looking forward to getting into the house and changing my clothes. When we got home, though, Cara didn't head for the door. She climbed into her wagon, which is still kind of dirty from when I used it to move plants. She sat there very happily while I put my stuff in the house, and then I came back out and pulled her around the block. She rode nicely the whole time, but I did remind her that she didn't usually really enjoy riding in her wagon.

After dinner we ended up over at PJ's house, where I sat with the two toddlers while Casey was fed. We had fun building arches of blocks and looking at each other through them. PJ played peek-a-boo by holding a block in front of his eyes. I couldn't see him at all, but when I asked, in astonishment, "Where's PJ?" Cara helpfully pointed him out.

By the time Ron came in, PJ had decided I was pretty cool. (I think is was those block arches that did it.) I got hugged and wrassled with, and Cara got jealous. The children began to fight over me, which didn't go well. Remember, since we started having playdates PJ had been getting jealous because Ron plays with Cara. This was only fair. Em came down and I got to dance with Casey. Ron put PJ in the office chair and spun him, which looks like a fun game. Cara got a turn, and then Ron left with her still in the chair. PJ went over, and he spun her! It was adorable.

9/29/06 (Friday)

On this cool and rainy day, I put Cara's cute new and very stylish (it's too big) pink sweatshirt on and we go outside for just a few minutes. Cara is disappointed too that our walk has to be cut short. When we're back in the house, Cara points to a book that's placed on top of the dining room table. It's Gyo Fujikowa's Oh, What A Busy Day, a book that Evelyn and her sister enjoyed very much when they were younger. Cara points to it and after a bit of confusion, we sit down with Cara comfortably in my lap.

Usually we're rereading books and Cara has a very short attention span. Sometimes she grabs a bunch of pages and moves us ahead and then flings the book away, looking for something else. But with Fujikowa's book, Cara sat still as I read. Maybe it was the newness of the book, the size of the children in the book, but Cara paid attention to the entire book which is beautifully illustrated. It's a wonderful thing to have that bright child so caught up in the action of a book!

When I got home, it was wonderfully quiet in the house. That was because Cara and her grandpapa turned out to be in the back yard. I went down the stairs and Cara spied me, peering through the round window in the back of her little house. We hung around for a few minutes, and (I believe my presence somehow inspires her to do this) Cara began to go down her slide headfirst. It went fine, but somehow it was more difficult for her to get up afterwards than it was at Susan's. It was messier, in any case. She got her jeans, sweatshirt, and face all very dirty. Grandpapa went home, and after a quick change of wardrobe Cara and I went to the gym.

We got back around five fifteen and played with Julianna. We visited with her and ran around outside and inside and basically waited for Daddy to get home. He hit traffic and didn't get here until seven, at which time we were over at PJ's house. Cara had run over there for a second time, actually running the whole way, and she was lucky enough to find Uncle Ron in the garage. She had fun; when I sternly pulled both of her hands out of the dog food, she just stuck her foot in.

Now that we were all assembled, the three of us piled into Daddy's car with Julianna to go out for Indian food! Cara likes riding with Julianna in the car to play with her. It's cute to hear them back there. At the restaurant, as the evening wore on to and well past Cara's bedtime, Cara did some eating, some playing, and some running around. We all took turns chaperoning her. When we were getting done with our meal, two other families came in with tiny kids. One was a baby in a high chair, and another was about fourteen months old. He had a big smile, and we played with him. Well, he got to follow Cara around. She was too busy to really notice him. She had her playmobil people with her, and she had the grandma in her mouth. Suddenly, I noticed that she was gone. I looked around and even crawled around in the floor, but the grandma was nowhere to be seen. Sure enough, Cara had carefully placed her on one of the tables as she went by, standing her up by the very edge.

We got home well after nine, and Cara was hyped up and ready to run. She had a good frolic upstairs, a quick bath, and a nice bottle. Steve ended up lying on his back in the hallway while he brushed his teeth, and Cara climbed up on his chest and played while she brushed hers. It was awfully cute; I think she must have somehow tricked him into lying like that. I was relieved that no one choked.

9/30/06 (Saturday)

Today I decided to sleep "late," which means I did not get up at six in the morning. I was awakened at around 7:30 am by my wife, who walked in with Cara in the hopes of a nice snuggle in the bed--unfortunately, this situation was so far outside Cara's usual experience that it seemed to upset her. Daddy? Asleep?! But we took her away from this and eventually she went downstairs and had some nice eggs for breakfast. She communicated to me using our very special father-daughter bond that she wanted to watch TV. This she did by walking over to the TV, pointing at it, and saying "Uhh!" very forcefully. So we watched a few cartoons. I went off to take a shower and returned to find Cara comfortably arranged by her Mommy on the couch watching some show or other.

Cara and I found ourselves outside at around 9 and had some fun. Cara has figured out that we chase after her when she goes into the street. Now normally chasing after Cara is a great game, so Cara has decided that it is fun to run into the street. Not good!! When she becomes a bit more verbal we will have to try to get this across to her. For now, I simply grab her a lot. There were some men a few houses over going up into a gigantic tree and starting to chop branches off of it, and we watched that a little. We also went out back, where Cara demonstrated for me her face-first sliding method. After seeing this once and remembering how dirty it made her on previous occasions, I suggested to Cara that she might slide down sitting instead. Since "sit" is one of the words she understands, this worked. Many of the plastic items she has outside also went down the slide, accompanied by a "wheee!" We also ran around her house a lot. When Cara first learned to walk, it was great fun to be chased, but if anything it has become even more fun as her running skills have developed.

Soon it was time to jump in the car and head down to Middletown, for apple-picking! We drove to a nearby farm where many other people, including families with children and cameras, were out with big rolling carts and bags picking apples off of rows and rows of trees. The carts unfortunately had "NO RIDERS" printed on the inside, but Cara still managed to have a good time. She was not quite strong enough to actually pick a full size apple off of a tree without assistance, but she was very good at taking them and dropping them into the bags we held open for her. She also had some very optimistic ideas about carrying pumpkins. Though it ended up raining in the afternoon, the weather while we were out apple-picking was beautiful. All the apple trees somehow must attract butterflies, because I found myself pointing out several of them to Cara, and afterwards felt that it was an almost magical experience.

We soon picked an adequate cart-full of apples of various colors. We successfully kept Cara from picking up or eating any rotten apples. She did try to bite into several good apples, with no success, until she found a tiny baby apple on some tree or other. This she clutched in her hand for most of the ride back, and after an hour of gnawing had managed to eat perhaps half of it. We stopped at Delicious Orchards (a fancy produce food store) before driving back to the Middletown house, Cara babbling in the back seat all the way. She had not slept a wink in any of her morning car rides, and it was now well past her normal nap time. Severe measures were necessary, so Grandpapa George set up the Pack n Play in the master bedroom and plopped her in. As Claire and Evelyn cooked with apples and I made feeble attempts to assist, Cara made some unhappy noises, but was quiet within ten or fifteen minutes and probably had a good two-hour nap.

When she awoke, the child had some food (though, ironically, she did not eat anything apple-related at all after her baby apple). At some point Evie decided it was time she went outside, and her Mommy and Grandpapa and I went out with her to Bodman Park. We did some happy swinging in the swings and running. Evie and I also held her hands on either side and swung her in the air a few times, which is always good. There was a little league baseball game going on, which Cara watched a very small portion of, and then we walked on over to the playground equipment and Cara did a whole heck of a lot of sliding. She also tried to climb up the metal ladder thing with U-shaped rungs, which is like another one she climbs on back home, but this one was bigger. Though Cara was undaunted and clearly had every intention of doing it until she got it right, we grown-ups eventually all agreed that our nerves could not stand the strain. Meanwhile a 5-year-old boy had popped up who, once George struck up a conversation with him, was more than willing to tell us about his siblings and all about the varying qualities of the various slides. Cara watched him climb up and along the top of a tube, and then of course tried to do it herself, crying "Up!"--fortunately she was much too short to pull herself on top.

It had started to darken by this point and was getting late, so we headed back for the house. Some of our indoor playing included Mommy placing some stuffed jingly ring-shaped toys on top of her head for a hat (another word that is part of Cara's limited vocabulary). At one point when she was wearing three or so of these, Cara ran over and for some reason decided the best thing to do in the situation was to stick her hands on Mommy's face! It was funny. Also at one point for no good reason I was flipping through a coupon book that I had found lying on the coffee table. As Cara was standing nearby, I read aloud the name of one of the stores mentioned on a coupon: "Best Buy Liquors." Cara immediately and with no hesitation said "best buy," followed by a bunch of babble. I could hardly believe my ears!

It was nearly the time when we are usually putting Cara in bed before we finally packed her into the car and started for home. Cara kept a perfect record that day and did not sleep at all in the car; when we arrived home, she had clearly reached her "up late and crazy" stage. She was quite mad. She was babbling and running and laughing and grabbing at everything. But we managed to bathe her and bottle her and give her a toothbrush and now her Mommy has put her to sleep. A good day! One last vocabulary note. Cara plays with her shark toys in the tub, and they go up, and Cara says "up, up, up." I have been stressing to her that when they go back into the tub they are going "down, down, down." Tonight Cara clearly started saying her own version of that word, hers sounding something like "dow-ooo."

10/1/06 (Sunday)

Today I managed to get up slightly before Cara and went to see her in her own room when she woke up. We had a nice morning and Cara and I had a piece of a bismarck for breakfast. If you don't know what that is, it's a sort of buttery, eggy type of dish. Cara rubbed the melted butter into her hair and I dubbed her Greasy Joe. I did at least wipe her hands afterwards.

In a little while, Cara's South Jersey grandparents arrived! We had many household chores to do and the grandparents helped immeasurably. Grandpa Jim again spent a large amount of time in the basement, but still found some time to play with Cara. Grandma got to read Cara a lot of books. While Grandma was reading one of them to her, Cara's Mommy crept in and cut her bangs! It went very well, with no struggling or fussing, and Cara is just as adorable as ever, if not more so. Evie theorizes that the butter helped.

At one point in the morning I stuck in the DVD Claire had made for us of the footage we took of our apple-picking adventure. Cara watched also--it was interesting to watch her watching herself. She was amused, and did some clapping, I think when the girl on the screen managed to get the apples into the bag.

Cara went down for a nap and we had lunch, then I went outside to mow the lawn. As I passed by our bay window, there was a child smiling out at me. I also met her out back, where she had gone to play with her outside toys. Cara may have had a little bit of a frustrating day, since many of us were trying to clean or work in the basement or work outside, and she was not involved. But there was always someone around to play with her.

Eventually it was time for grandparents to go--but not before installing a pet door in the door leading down to the basement! This will change things a little, because it means we won't have to use the baby gate in that door as much, as long as our kitties figure out how to use the pet door. Meanwhile, I had had a long day and decided that I would stick in a DVD. I put on an old Sinbad movie with Ray Harryhausen creature effects, and the rest of the family settled down with some popcorn. Cara was very into the popcorn and also helped her Mommy by shoving gobs of it into Mommy's mouth. But I was a little surprised to discover that the parts of the movie with big scary monsters actually scared her! I hadn't noticed this really happening to her at all when we'd happened to have scary things on in the past (not that we make a habit of it), and am a little surprised that she is able to process what she's seeing on the screen to the extent necessary to be scared by it--if you know what I mean. So for the second half of the movie Cara and Mommy went into the game room and looked at books instead.

For dinner, Cara consumed large amounts of meat sticks, while I looked on in half-concealed horror, periodically fishing another stick out of the jar for her. Meanwhile, we decided it was time to try Cara's Halloween costume on her. I was tricked by Cara into opening her "light-up trick sticks," which are these plastic wands with circular halloween symbols on the ends (there are two, one with a pumpkin on the end and one with a skull), and they light up when you stick in the batteries. They were supposed to be for when she went trick-or-treating, but she's been carrying the package around for days, and I thought I'd give her a thrill. I tried to just take one of the wands out of the package and give it to Cara, but she insisted quite firmly that I take out the other one as well. When she finally got both lit-up sticks in her hands, and we turned off the hall light, she pronounced a very appropriate "Woooowwww." Then her mother managed to cram her into the "Li'l Monster" outfit that was bought for her. First she was wandering around with just the monster head on her head, while her Mommy explained to her repeatedly that it was a "hat!" Cara was perfectly happy to wear it, and while I was doing something somewhere else, the rest of the monster body got put on her.

Unfortunately it doesn't really fit! We'll need to get a new one. But Cara looked really adorable in it. I'm hoping they have it in a larger size, but it seems unlikely, since this one claimed to be "12-24 months." (Whatever other costume we get will surely have to have a tail, like this one--she looks very cute with a tail.) The little monster feet were dangling somewhere at Cara's shins, and I don't think it would have been possible to snap the monster head onto the monster shoulders. Evie eventually took off the hood and unsnapped the top half of the outfit so that Cara could have a bit more to eat, and then when the little girl got out of her chair she trudged around the living room with her monster costume drooping around her knees. By a cruel twist of fate, our camera is currently not working!!

Anyways, by this time it was getting awfully late and past Cara's bath time, again (this happened because I am slow to begin anything, and because Evie forgot that we moved bath time to 8:00 instead of 8:30). So we shuffled her upstairs and somehow got her into the tub. Cara managed to bring her pair of Noah's Ark giraffes into the tub with her, and was making them wander all around the tub, with accompanying noises (mainly "whoooo"; the same noise sharks make!). Eventually one of the giraffes decided to wander onto my shoulder, then past my chest. I asked Cara, "Where is that giraffe going? Is he going to go in my shirt?" Cara promptly pulled open the neck of my shirt and stuck the giraffe down it! It was very funny.

So that I could do another journal entry, Evie read Cara her bed time books. I have to admit I'm getting tired of reading the same old books every night! Evie thinks that she might get out to the library tomorrow and find some new material. Tomorrow I will be taking the day off, but using the time off to work from home (!), so I won't be seeing much of my little girl. The type will be back in black tomorrow!

10/2/06 (Monday)

I think Steve was under-enthusiastic about the haircut I gave Cara. She looks very different and really cute with bangs! I think I got very lucky; I sort of made one snip, and then I was done. If our camera worked, we'd certainly have pictures up.

Cara and I went out a lot this morning, because Steve had work to do. We went to the gym, where Cara got to see some staff members she hadn't met since the summer, because they only work in the mornings. I left Cara for almost an hour, and when I came back she was happily standing at a little kitchen toy, putting play food into play dishes. She was absorbed, but she was happy when she looked up and saw me. Rebecca reminded me that Cara had brought a little toy penguin in with her; no one knew where it was. I said we'd just pick it up when we were there next, but then I spotted it. Cara had put it away neatly in a shoe cubby on the wall!

We got groceries and brought them home, and then I wanted to go to the mall to pick up lunch. Cara, however, wanted to read her books. For some reason (or perhaps for no reason) I decided this morning to take all of Cara's books and pile them up on the floor in the playroom. I guess I thought there was some reason to sort them out. Anyway, the floor was covered with them! Cara and her daddy read for fifteen or twenty minutes, and I got ready to go. When I was about to leave, Cara ran to me. I took her along.

At the mall, I let Cara hold my hand and walk across the parking lot. She swaggered. She did a lot of running in the mall, mainly in the right directions. She may have finally noticed the Disney Store, which she's never been into. Cara had a good lunch and then a good nap, while I finished sealing the driveway and Steve kept working.

In the afternoon, the three of us went out to Donaldson Park. Curious George also came, in his stroller. The first thing Cara did was to put her two giraffes down the little slide. They had a good time; it went much better than when her penguin went down the little slide in the back yard. Cara and her daddy got to go up her ladder together; Steve agrees that it's nerve-wracking. For some reason, Cara wasn't going down the big slide today. She'd sit at the top and get ready and then turn around and leave. A few days ago, she was fearless! Cara was allowed to play with someone's ride-on toy, because she tried to trade Curious George for it. The daddy showed her that Curious George wanted to ride in the storage compartment under the seat. It turned out that Curious George wanted to do all sorts of things at the park. That reminded me of something cool that happened yesterday. Grandma and I took Cara for a walk, and we got all the way around the block. Cara took Curious George out of his stroller and brought him over to a tree, which she put him against, saying "up, up." Curious George climbed a tree! At the park today, he wanted to go up that big ladder. He didn't get to.

For dinner, Cara ate a lot of asparagus and resolutely ignored some fish. While I heated up a treat from Julianna for dessert, Steve put on a tape of Curious George shows that his dad recorded for us. It was sweet to hear Cara laugh. During one episode, George opened a lot of presents. She thought that that was very funny, and it was! It's wonderful how she's starting to get things. Looking at a book, I asked her who was upside-down. She pointed to the character doing a somersault. At the toy store where we stopped today after the park, Steve put on a little monster finger puppet. Cara thought it was scary. She's becoming more and more of a real person!

10/3/06 (Tuesday)

I really messed up today; I was so late that Ron ended up bringing Cara home from Susan's. We had a nice evening, though. Cara, besides reading many books, got to watch part of Beauty and the Beast for the first time. She loved the musical numbers, and we had a good snuggle. A few times, Cara grabbed the remote control and turned off the VCR, but we managed to convince her to give it back. I fast-forwarded the scary parts, thinking of Cara's reactions to things lately. She found the fast-forwarding only mildly interesting and had to amuse herself in the meantime by doing other things, such as finding her belly button.

Looking at a picture in one of her favorite books, Cara can point out to me the child who is upside-down. She can show me who is reading a book. She cannot show me who has a hat on.

The only other thing I remember (well, Steve reminded me) is that Cara has continued to say "how, how, how" a lot. It may mean hello. It is definitely what dogs say, though, in some foreign language, instead of woof, woof.

10/4/06 (Wednesday)

Today was a much better day. I got home around three thirty, and Cara and her grandpapa were playing outside. We played peek-a-boo through the windows of Cara's house for a few minutes and then we went inside. Cara and I had a playdate. We will be seeing the twins on Wednesday afternoons from now on, which makes Wednesdays double playdate days!

We got to the twins' house around four, and Cara turned a little bit shy. The twins were really happy to see her, though, and tried to play with her and even hug her. Eventually we all settled down. Shannon and I talked and the children all played independently and occasionally interacted with us. Everyone was content. The twins are, of course, much faster at finding things in books than Cara is, and I am realizing that my whole book-reading philosophy will have to change soon. Instead of asking Cara to point things out, I will need to point at things and ask her what they are. That will be interesting.

Cara ate a huge dinner of asparagus and tortellini, and then she played with Daddy while I cleaned up. She got his tie and they came into the kitchen. Cara smiled at her daddy mischievously, and then she ran away. She had clearly decided that this was a chase. Daddy was not a very enthusiastic chaser, but she did go a few lengths of the house, pitter-pattering at her top speeds.

Next we headed to PJ's house. Really, the most efficient way to get Cara out of the house is to ask her whether she'd like to go see PJ. She'll run! Em baked cookies, and the kids enjoyed them. They both got horribly chocolatey. This led to conversations like the one reconstructed here.

Adult 1: What happened to her toe? (Adult 1 is Ron. He tends to notice things.)

Adult 2: Where? (Thinks that perhaps it's a freckle. Adult 2 has a toe-freckle and, while we haven't noticed any on Cara, Adult 2 speculates that they might be hereditary. Adult 2 says nothing out loud about this. Adult 2 is me.)

Adult 1: Is it a boo-boo?

Adult 3: No, it's chocolate.

Adult 1: Are you sure?

Adult 3: Yes, it was, like, three times bigger before.

The chocolatey children also hugged us, which gave us all chocolatey shirts. Ron's shirt was chocolatey on the back, because PJ climbed on him.

After a brief cookie-related dispute, the kids were really good this evening. They both got rides in the office chair, and PJ helped spin Cara. Both of them held things on their heads like hats, and they also both got to wear PJ's paper hat from daycare. The hat is too big for Cara, and eventually it ended up around her neck. Cara tried to climb into an armchair, and Ron boosted her so she made it. PJ climbed in, too, and they sat together for a minute. They actually did this twice, but by the time Ron got the camera they were done. Both kids had a good time with ride-on toys this evening. One kid would get off, it seemed, and the other would get on! Cara likes a dragon puppet that PJ has, and she made it ride his ride-on. It spent quite a while driving around. When the dragon was done, a fire engine and school bus took a turn. Cara's biggest goal of the evening, though, was to climb into a fairly small box that she had found. Eventually, after many aborted attempts, she made it. Her knees were against her chest, but she was sitting in her box. Ron took a picture of her, and we tried to trick her into wearing the lid as a hat. We had to hold it on; she was too smart for us.

All too soon, we had to go home and get ready for bed. Don't worry, we got to play chase for a while before Cara got into her bath. In the tub, Cara has a new goal. There is a soap dish built into the wall, and she is trying to pull it out. She just grabs that bar and hauls away, her little tush waving back and forth through the air. She's been working on it for a few days, so it must be almost out by now!

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