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Journal Key:

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

10/19/06 (Thursday)

Cara is sick this morning and didn't go to Susan's; she's listless, crabby and doesn't know what she wants to do with herself. When I arrive she's been awake for only a few minutes. We spend two hours (!) watching TV with both of us nodding off occasionally. At ten A.M., we go downstairs and Cara stretches out on her Elmo couch. That's enough signal to me and I whisk her upstairs to her crib.

As far as her illness goes, I think (though I haven't checked her temperature) that she's slightly feverish. She's had some Tylenol and it's very good at taking care of the symptoms. Her nose is not running, she's not sneezing or coughing. She's merely listless, and sometimes but not always she seems warm.

In the early afternoon, we watched the lovely Disney version of Winnie the Pooh. Cara kept good attention while I kept her warm next to me. She particularly liked TIGGER, whose face is made out rubber, his tail is made from springs. Sometime during these festivities, Cara began to get well again.

By three P.M., Cara was very close to being the Cara that we know and love. I think that tomorrow she'll be fine.

When I got home around five, Cara was carrying her baby dolls around. She was almost her normal self, as Grandpapa said, but we mainly sat around for the afternoon. He said Cara had been eating sort of randomly, so I made some microwave popcorn for us to snack on; it was fun. Cara liked picking kernels out of the bowl, and she enjoyed herself even though she didn't get to dump the whole bowl on the floor.

Cara started to get warm again in the evening, and she really just wanted to lie on either my chest or Steve's and watch the TV. We gave her Tylenol, and then when we took her temperature it was 103.2! She was not a happy girl, especially when I gave her a cool sponge bath, but the temperature went down pretty soon. By the time we were ready to put her in bed, she was downstairs insisting on being read to, pointing out things in books, and being very judgmental about which books we selected to read. We let her have a good run and then Steve put her down. I didn't hear any protest.

Cara seemed to like playing with her baby dolls today, which was nice. She hasn't paid any attention to them in weeks, to my knowledge. One has a bottle, which she can feed it. It's the kind of doll whose eyes close when it's held horizontally, and this afternoon Cara was carrying it like that. I asked her whether her baby was sleeping, and she became curious about the eyes. Again, this evening, she poked at them for a while. Those eyes, I think, are one of the mysteries of her world. Steve hopes she doesn't try to poke the eyes of real sleeping babies; I hadn't even thought of that!

Last night, Cara woke up around three for a drink and some Tylenol. She snuggled up to me and stared at a book for a while, and then I put her back in her crib. She was happy and went back to sleep. We'll see how tonight goes.

10/20/06 (Friday)

Fortunately for all of us, Cara slept through the night. She woke at around 6:30 am today, but we parents were all awake already anyway. She was very hot again and seemingly achy. Evie unzipped her pajama suit halfway and I believe we must have given her some Advil. Then she took turns laying on either of our chests and watching TV. Her Mommy had to go off to work, but I took the day off today for reasons entirely unrelated to Cara's sickness. However, it gave me the opportunity to spend some time with my poor little girl.

We watched a lot of TV in the morning, but eventually Cara started moving and looking around herself. Her temperature had gone down and Little Einsteins came on. She has learned to appreciate this show more than her parents. There is a part in every episode where the little children have to get their rocket ship to take off, and for some reason this involves patting their legs. A few weeks ago we learned that PJ really enjoys doing this, and now Cara has taken to patting as well, enthusiastically--and not just during that show, but during some of the other shows that came on afterwards.

Soon Cara was off, wandering around and climbing onto things. I had changed her into some comfortable clothes and given her a waffle. She was more interested in my pop tarts, but ate very little of either. As is her usual custom, she clutched two pieces of waffle for a very long while and eventually managed to eat some of it. Then the climbing began. She managed to get herself onto the kitchen table and even stood up on it, but when she started reaching for the window sill (where we keep some fragile objects) I pulled her down. We went downstairs and Cara climbed into the bay window and had fun there. We played on the keyboard and played a little with her baby dolls. We looked at some books and when I asked her which character in a Richard Scarry book was underwater, she successfully pointed to a repairman standing in a filled bathtub, then to a poor plumber up to his neck in water in a flooded basement. I theorize that she may be trying to say more words/phrases, such as "That's good." Also when I opened a book she has with bears doing exercises, and pointed to a bear putting his arms up, she put her arms up. Then I pointed to a bear touching his toes and asked if she could do that--and she did!

Cara was back to her usual self pretty much, running around after kitties and such. She still sneezed from time to time, but there was not much spraying going along with it. After one sneeze, she seemed to be trying to wipe her nose on the cuff of her pants. I got her a tissue and gave it to her, and asked if she could wipe her nose. She could, and did! Later in the morning I sat her down with a container of yogurt and gave her a spoon (and put a bib on her!) and she went to town. Eventually I even let go of the yogurt container. Cara fed herself completely solo! I estimate that she ate more than half of the container, though of course quite a few blobs ended up on her shirt, bib, and pants. As she sleeps now up in her crib at noon, she is still wearing the shirt, which I wiped off mostly.

It's been a nice morning. Hopefully Cara's temperature will stay down into the afternoon, but the Advil seems to help a lot if it goes up. I will be leaving in the evening for a concert with my brother, but before then I think that Grandpapa George will be swinging by to pick up the little girl for the usual Friday sleepover.

Or not. Sick little girls really need to be kept quietly at home, Grandpapa and I agreed, so Cara and I had an evening at home alone. Cara did pretty well through most of it; as Steve said, the kitchen table is starting to be a problem. Cara gets up there and can reach all sorts of things. I found her busily shaking salt onto a plate. I know someone at work who tied her chairs to the table so that her little twins couldn't pull them out and use them to climb, but I hope we don't have to do that!

For dinner we got Chinese takeout, and Cara enjoyed her lo mein. She also fed herself a little yogurt. I bought Pedialyte ice pops, and it turns out they're really good! That is, I think they're surprisingly tasty. Cara doesn't know how to suck on an ice pop. I do think she's somewhat dehydrated, but I'm doing my best! She seems to be getting better, though she's not 100% yet. She was up to about 101 tonight. (I'm the only one who can take her temperature, unfortunately.)

Cara seemed to want to eat more, but nothing I gave her did the trick. I think she's on the road to recovery, and tomorrow I hope she'll be more herself.

10/21/06 (Saturday)

After I put Cara down last night, I spent a while cleaning up the house. Eventually I got back upstairs and got ready for bed myself. In the upstairs hallway, I heard a strange noise. It seemed to be a sort of scraping, and it was coming from Cara's room. I went quietly to the door to peek in and see what she was doing. Cara was asleep, it turned out; she was snoring!

Cara slept almost through the night. She was up around 4:30, but I gave her a little Advil and put her down. She was restless, but we made it through to seven. Cara's temperature has been normal all day, even without medicine. She is eating better, though not heavily. She is running around making trouble, her normal self.

We read books, had breakfast, and ran around downstairs. We played chase. Cara got out all her toys. She climbed up to and down from the bay window, playing the piano in both directions. We got out all sorts of things we don't usually play with. The ball popper, for instance, was fun. Cara also played with her elephant pull toy, which is basically a blue elephant standing on a red platform. It goes with the peek-a-blocks; you pull it around and any block sitting on his back pops up into the air as he rolls. Cara has never been able to pull him before! he fell over and his blocks fell out. She put them neatly into the hole formed by his legs, his tummy, and the red base. Then she picked him up and set him on his feet, leaving the blocks behind. She was quite surprised.

Eventually I decided to take a shower. I thought of this as an intelligence test for Cara: A smart little girl would recognize a chance to do things her mommy wouldn't let her do. I moved the mugs of tea and hot (now cold) chocolate from the kitchen table to the counter, out of reach. I pushed in the kitchen chairs. I closed the door to the downstairs bathroom to protect the tissues. I moved my glasses to the very back of my nightstand. I got into the shower. At first, Cara stayed close and played with my pajamas. Eventually she left. When I turned off the shower, I heard clinking. It sounded like a spoon in a mug. I couldn't think how, but I imagined Cara having spilled the cold chocolate or tea all over herself, sitting there playing with the empty mug and the spoon. Soon, though, I figured out what was really going on. Taking a chance, I called to Cara to get off the table. I went downstairs, and my suspicions were confirmed. Cara was sitting on the table, happily spooning sugar out of the sugar bowl. She was sprinkling it around the tabletop, on my magazine and the placemats and whatever else was sitting there. Like any other responsible mother, I took pictures.

Cara was overjoyed to see her father when he got home a little after ten. She showed him how she could dance in the bay window, and he decided she needed her nose wiped. He handed her a tissue and asked her to clean it. She turned around and started wiping the windows! I think she was just playing dumb; she knew what needed to be done. Pretty soon we picked ourselves up for a trip down to Middletown to go pumpkin-picking with Aunt Claire and her friends. Cara snored happily in the car, and when we arrived she was shy of the guests who were already there. When Daddy put her down, she ran to me and hugged me. She stayed there, with her arms around my neck, for a long time. Gradually, she got more comfortable and friendly.

We went to a local garden place for pumpkins. After a brief initial exploration, we went on our hay ride. Cara liked climbing on the hay bales and looking out of the wagon, and she sat nicely for the ride, possibly watching the tractor that pulled us. Next, it was pumpkin time! Cara enjoyed exploring while Daddy got us a good pumpkin. She found several gourds that she liked to carry, and she happened upon an empty metal plant stand and carried it around, with great effort.

Cara had a nice afternoon. She and Grandpapa went to the park, and later I accompanied the two of them on a walk to meet my mommy and grandma! Cara got to explore Grandma's house and play with all sorts of things she oughtn't to have had. She showed everyone how well she can climb onto chairs and how well she can eat yogurt. Everyone was impressed by her natural cuteness, of course.

We left around a quarter to seven, and Cara snored loudly all the way home. Steve compared the noise to the sound that you get when you stick something into a fan. She was very sleepy and out of it when we got home, and we watched TV for a while before taking her upstairs and getting her ready for bed. She was upset, so I made one final attempt to figure out what she wanted. It turned out that lo mein was acceptable, where so many foods had been rejected! In her pajamas, Cara enjoyed a fairly full meal. We would have just stuck her in bed after that, but she headed downstairs and the three of us ended up having a long, insane play session. There was chasing, there was climbing. There were baby dolls and horses. There were books to read. The fun could have gone on and on, but eventually Steve took her upstairs, read to her for a good long time, and put her into bed.

10/22/06 (Sunday)

Here's what my mom had to add about yesterday:

Your baby blog entry is wonderful, but it doesn't mention my thrill of the day, which was Cara's attempt to mimic the gestures for the Eensy-Weensy Spider. When this happened, she was sitting in my lap facing me. We don't usually sit that way, but she had a takenÊtight hold on my necklace while I held her in my arms. She had been having a lengthy conversation with the necklace and singing it little songs. After a while I got tired and sat down, carefully. Cara continued to hold the necklace. I began singing to distract her. When she heard the song she smiled and her head nodded a little, but she still held the necklace. Since she seemed to like the song, I tried again, this time with gestures. Sure enough, she brought her hands together and twisted them, and when "Up rose the sun" she raised her hands over her head. I was singing very slowly, which probably helped. I sang the song again, and she made the gestures again. You've got to try it!

I have been trying that song all day, and I see the wheels in Cara's head turning, but I have seen no results. Cara slept very late today; I woke her around 8:30. We basically spent a quiet day at home, leaving only once for a quick trip to the Home Depot. Cara got back onto the kitchen table again and went after the sugar again, but I managed to thwart her. This evening, while she was brushing her teeth, Cara managed to do something we had been hoping she wouldn't. She got up onto the chair by my computer in the office. This is one of those fancy chairs that spins, and between that and her newfound access to my computer, we're not pleased.

Someone else who had adventures today was Buster the cat. She has decided that the Elmo couch, which is folded out to make a little bed and which has on it one of Cara's soft, fluffy blankets, is where she really wants to sleep. She's determined. She had a nice half hour on there with me in the morning, but then Cara came along and Buster left. Cara wandered off, and Buster settled again, this time alone. I would say that Buster was chased off and resettled at least seven times today. She didn't always run as soon as Cara entered, either, which is where the adventures come in. Buster was hugged twice. She was offered a cookie, warm from being carried around in little hands. She was almost fed with a spork. A purple hippo jumped up and down on her. She was petted several times. Cara has a pink bear toy that I was putting on my head and calling a hat. ("Is my hat pretty?" I asked. "Nao," said Cara, shaking her head.) I also put it on Cara's head. Cara put it on Buster's head.

For a snack, Cara had some yogurt. I put a dish towel on her lap and a bib on her first, so it was low-risk. Afterward, I gave her two pretzel sticks to work on. I got out some little plastic cups and filled one with orange juice, which I invited her to drink like a big girl. She sort of did! There was some dripping, but she drank it. She also enjoyed dipping her pretzels in it and sucking the juice off. This was really horrible, but she seemed happy. Eventually she did up-end the glass onto her tray.

For dinner, Cara and I had fish sticks. We ate a lot. She watched me dipping mine in tartar sauce, and she stared at me until I gave her some. She enjoyed it. Her appetite is clearly back; she ate about five fish sticks, some broccoli, some quesadilla, and part of a fig newton.

On the language front, Cara was saying something like "now wah nuh" a lot today, which we theorize means "I don't want to" or "no want to". If so, I think she got it from PJ, who can already say something of the kind. She was also saying "Mama" in the bath a lot tonight. She still likes to dance, and also seems to like to pat people on the back. I played with her using a hand puppet we have, which is always a big hit. In fact, she was so pleased with the puppet that she both hugged and kissed him! Even though this was a bit awkward, seeing as how what she was really doing was hugging my arm and kissing my hand.

Later, in the tub, she managed to get in with one of her stranger toys. It looks for all the world like Battle Cat, the helpful pet and mount of one of my own childhood heros, He-Man. It's a large tigerish type creature with lots of hard edges and a big plastic saddle and helmet on. We did not purchase this toy: it was merely found near our house. We don't usually have it in the main toy rotation because it seems so inappropriate for a little girl, but we happen to store it with the bath toys, and for some reason Cara took a shine to Battle Cat tonight. She hugged him (pointy armor, hard edges, and all), and then proceeded to kiss him multiple times! Maybe she was thinking of Buster.

10/23/06 (Monday)

Cara slept until 7:55 and for the first time this semester, her daddy had gone to work and I was there when she woke up. She still has signs of her cold--her nose is runny but she does have an appetite and she continues to climb on every chair in sight.

She's still at it tonight: I had to lift her off the table as she climbed from a chair three times this evening. Each time, I removed her as soon as she got up there, and I said "No," very firmly. It's the same thing I do with Shelby. No, it hasn't worked with her, either.

We didn't have an awfully exciting day. I got home late, and Cara and I went out to the farmer's market for veggies. When we got home, Cara decided it would be fun to stand in the back seat and look out the back windshield at the neighbor across the street. It was nice and warm in the car; it was cold and windy outside, where I got to stand! Soon Julianna came over with some clothes and lots of books! We got several new Sesame Street books and a few about dogs. Now that I think about it, there are at least four about dogs. That's odd.

After dinner, Cara got into trouble. I was bundling newspapers for recycling, and she took the string. She and the cats had a wonderful time. She ran back and forth, trailing the string, laughing and wrapping it around herself. It got awfully tangled, and she screamed when I took it away! I'll have to be careful not to let her see me use it again, until she's at least fifteen. It was when I took her up to the kitchen to distract her from the string that we had our up-on-the-table episodes.

Later, we all had some pumpkin pie. Cara liked it a lot, despite the fact that she said no when we asked her whether she did. I wish I could have recorded her sitting there in her daddy's lap with one foot on the table, one hand in the pie and the other clutching a fork. I went to run the bath, sensing that it would be needed. When Cara came up, she still had the fork. That hand was pretty pumpkinny. Gradually I realized that the other hand was tightly clenched, holding some precious pie, doubtless with the idea of eating it later.

Cara really enjoys brushing her teeth. She doesn't do it particularly well, but she takes a long time. Is she done? No. She went on and on tonight, and Steve went downstairs and left me. Soon he was back, with Cara's baby dolls! She dropped her toothbrush to hold them, overjoyed to see her babies. While Steve went to clean her toothbrush, I was allowed to hold a baby. I always get the tiny one with the rabbit-eared hood. Cara keeps the big, lifelike one. Soon, she needed the other back. Cara and Daddy settled down to read, though, and she stuffed her babies into a hole between his knees and tried to stomp them down. Heartwarming! She may sleep with them yet.

10/24/06 (Tuesday)

This morning I ran very late getting Cara to Susan's. I went up to wake her at some time past 7:15 I think. The cats had already been to visit her, something which usually wakes her up, but it hadn't happened. When I went in she was fast asleep. I was able to pick out her clothes for the day without her waking up, and was forced to call to her and rub her back to get her up. We had a rushed breakfast and then got into the car. I have to get better at dressing Cara for the cold weather!

I understand that Cara's nose was quite runny in the morning. Evie had lots of work to do and Cara got to watch lots of TV in the afternoon. I, unfortunately, am coming down with something (could I have caught what Cara had?), and so was not a very good playmate for Cara. She seemed to sense this, or maybe had some problems of her own, because she spent a lot of time in the evening clinging onto me and making unhappy noises. I was trying to get her to play with her toys but didn't have a lot of luck. Cara did eat a very nice big dinner, however, and very much took to some seasoned green beans that Evie made. She also had a lot of cocktail weenies (mostly minus their shells--her good Mommy shelled them for her), and several other things that I can't recall too clearly.

Cara was not happy after her bath, not happy at all, so we went back downstairs and watched some Curious George episodes, then her Mommy took her and read her some stories and put her to bed. Either Cara was very tired today, or she was unhappy with my being sick, or she may still have some kind of sickness of her own--or some combination of the three. She had her normal moments, but a lot of crabby ones. Hopefully a good night's rest will recharge her.

10/25/06 (Wednesday)

Cara is over her cold, I hope, and into all sorts of mischief. Here is how the day began: at about 8 A.M., I hear her stirring in bed so I go upstairs. I reach into a drawer and pull out a gorgeous red sweater. Holding the sweater up to her, I foolishly expect agreement with my choice, she looks me right in the eye and says "No."

After dressing her, we go downstairs and have a nice breakfast. Afterwards it's downstairs to the playroom where she plays with some toys, carries others around, destroys some things. I trail around behind her and watch as she goes into the bathroom, finds the tissues and grabs a handful, then waves them at me in triumph. Later, I leave her for a minute (giving her a head start for destruction) and then find her on top of the kitchen table where she's found the salt shaker and has poured out a whole heaping handful onto the surface of the table, a few fruit puffs, and a grape which was left over from breakfast.

We didn't get far on our daily walk since it was chilly. When I brought her inside to bundle her up some more, she showed no interest. Those deer are going to have to wait another day for a visit from Cara!

I'm glad Daddy mentioned the salt shaker thing to me, because if he hadn't I would have been very confused when I opened Cara's snack trap to refill it and found the inside coated with salt.

I thought that I had no funny stories from yesterday, but I was wrong; Susan told me one. She has a toy house with a slide in it. You put the people in through the chimney, and they slide out the door. Somehow, it has become broken and the people can only go in headfirst. Cara and PJ were trying desperately to put them in, and of course it wasn't working. "Put them in on their heads," Susan told them. Cara and PJ both looked at her, holding the toy people to their heads.

Cara hasn't seemed happy outside for a couple of days, and I think it's because of the cold. The poor kid needs more sweaters! I took her out in her winter coat today for the first time. It's really hard to get the car seat to buckle over it.

Cara's kissing is developing. She made me put on her favorite hand puppet, and she brought him various Playmobil figures. She's always been amused by him eating things, so he was trying to eat them. Finally I noticed that she was making kissy motions; she wanted him to kiss them. Then she wanted him to kiss her! She gave him a lot of nice hugs. She will kiss her puppet, but she will not kiss her mommy. Buster the cat was not left out. She was offered a toy horse to kiss, and she was in turn hugged and kissed. I believe that Battle Cat was kissed in the bath.

We went to the grocery store today. When we left the checkout, I asked Cara to say good-bye. Sometimes she waves. Today, she actually said "bye"!

I made a good dinner and PJ, Em, Ron, and Casey came over. Cara was really cute with Casey. Cara was getting a little loud after dinner (How's that as a euphemism for a tantrum? It wasn't a big tantrum.), and to distract her I asked her whether we could go see Casey. Cara walked away, and I got distracted for a moment. The next thing I knew, Cara was walking into the kitchen with her pink, fuzzy jacket. She held it up to Casey and then left. She came back, patted Casey, and left. She did that again. Then she returned with her new Minnie Mouse dress, which she tried to give Casey. It was much appreciated, of course. Actually, Casey is getting much more aware of what's going on around her, which is really cool. She has two wild toddlers to watch!

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