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Journal Key:

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

11/16/06 (Thursday)

Susan says that when she walks up stairs with the kids, she always counts. No one generally responds, but, today, a certain someone chimed in on "two"! Cara also brought home a charming painting of corn. Susan has these painting gloves that are sort of like bubble wrap; the kids can kind of finger paint with them, without horrible consequences. You can see the circular pattern of the gloves in the painting. The corn itself is orange, and the husk is green; Susan must work awfully hard to get them to paint in the right places!

We had to stop at Pathmark to get more yogurt, but first we went over to TJ Maxx just to hang out and explore. In a bin, Cara found a big stuffed toy tiger. She picked him up and hugged him and kissed him and walked all the way to the front of the store with him. I'm not sure how far she would have gone, but she was wandering very casually toward the front door. When I picked her up and carried her back to his bin, she put him down at my direction. I think she was planning on picking someone else to replace him, though.

I regret to be obliged to report that Cara has developed a definite television addiction. She goes over to the TV and pats it, to tell us to turn it on. Grandpapa and I have both been noticing this growing, and we have decided to try to break the pattern. It was tough, but we did not turn that box on tonight. I don't know how this will go; tonight I didn't need a lot of time for cooking dinner.

Cara had some yogurt when we got home (surprise!), and then we read books and played until Daddy joined us. Dinner did not go well. Cara got food on her plate and just started swiping at it with her hands, making a big mess. Usually she does that when she's done! We took her out of her chair and let her wander around and make trouble. Eventually, I made her a couple of hot dogs. She was funny; as I was cutting one up, she grabbed the end and started eating it. She soon conceded that it was a better idea to eat the little pieces and let me cut the rest up.

We got Cara to clean up her Playmobil pieces tonight. We pretty much had to prompt her on every item, but she seemed to get the hang of it. I think she's better about cleaning up grown-up stuff than toys. She was playing again with Steve's silver dollars, and she put them back all by herself.

Getting ready for the bath, Steve started trying to get Cara to say "three." That does seem like a logical next step, but it was quite funny to be in another room; all I could hear was him saying "three!" every few moments. I thought I could do it much better, so I joined in. In just a minute or two, there I was exclaiming "three!" with gusto, on cue.

11/17/06 (Friday)

Cara slept until 8:30, fitting in perfectly with our new 'less TV' regime. Picking her up from the crib, I changed her diaper and put suitable clothes on immediately. She watched me make her scrambled egg and then ate it with gusto.

We went for our walk and I've decided that Cara is getting a bit heavy. She's certainly a well-proportioned child but she has to be closing in on thirty pounds. Here are my resolutions: I won't carry her for more than forty-five minutes at a time. When she wants to be picked up I'll be reluctant. I'll hold her hand as she walks so she doesn't go off the tracks. These are serious ideas--as I'm carrying her along on Lloyd Street telling her these ideas I find myself humming the Mickey Mouse Club song.

In Johnson Park, I meet a mommy with a heavily bundled child and say 'what a cute little boy.' She says 'it's a girl.' I point to Cara's pink socks and inform the mommy that you must give people clues.

It's a bright sunny warm day and Cara wanders off in the empty parking lot and notices...her shadow. At first she thinks (you can see this) 'what's that?' and then she starts to play with it. It's fun to watch. Later, after I carry her around the enormous enclosure (about a fifteen minute walk) at the Johnson Park zoo, we're sitting watching the geese float around in the pond. Cara laughs out loud as they flip themselves over and splash each other. Then she looks on as a small flight of geese lands directly in front of us. We meet an enormous St. Bernard who comes over to the walking Cara and gives her face a good lick which Cara takes in good humor.

Back at home, Cara inhales a strawberry yogurt container and is in for her nap at noon. We'll head down to see Grandmama Janet, Great Grandmama Emily and Aunt Claire later. Who knows what adventures await!

11/18/06 (Saturday)

We have been granted exquisite weather once again - so mild for mid-November! - so our visit began with a dash to the park to enjoy the swings and the playground before autumn's early sunset would send us indoors. Cara laughed and squealed on the swings and narrated her own adventure on the slide: "Wheee! yay!!" Each time she went down she happily applauded herself at the bottom. Great-grandma met us on our way back to the house and had a turn pushing the swing too.

Back inside, Cara started to push her highchair into position and tired to help assemble it. Offered blueberry yogurt she at first declined, then took a cautious, tiny taste, and then chowed down enthusiastically. I guess the color threw her off at first.

One of my small thrills was to hear her say "yes" and mean it when offered some grapes. Most of the time, though, George is practicing sophistry with her by phrasing his questions so that "no" will be the desired response, e.g. "Do you want more?" instead of "Are you done?" when we think she is finished.

For some reason on this visit Cara was intent on feeding me things. I had a large bowl full of sugar snap peas on the counter and she returned to it again and again, asking to be held up so she could grab some pea pods and push them into my mouth. She tried some as well, but they are still a little tough for her, at least when raw as these were. At supper she carefully fed me some of her hot dog and in the morning she speared her toast on the fork and offered it to me, as well as some of her eggs. Perhaps she thinks I am a large pet.

Our nighttime routine went beautifully: a delightful bath followed by a cover-to-cover reading fo the big book of stories, games and rhymes. She did make a few feeble breaks for freedom, but I could tell she was also very tired. When the book was done, I carried her to the crib. There I carefully kissed each of her Disney figures goodnight and placed it down, and followed by doing the exact same for her. I don't think she even tried to stand up. I did hear a couple of token cries as I tiptoed upstairs, and then nothing. That was at 9:30 and she slept 'til just past 7 this morning, and woke up happy.

As always, I have thoroughly enjoyed these hours and feel incredibly fortunate to have this time with her.

I hear that Cara also had a good time last night sharing Aunt Claire's nachos; poor Claire not only has to give up half of her food, she also had to work hard to give Cara chips that didn't have anything too hot on them. Cara seems to be developing a pattern of stealing things from Aunt Claire. Maybe next time there's something Cara won't eat, I'll just hand it to my sister.

Cara has, mysteriously, stopped eating yogurt. Twice today I have put it in front of her, when she had seemed to want it, and she has eaten none at all. I guess she's just had so much of the stuff in the past week that she's done with it for a little while. I hope she decides to eat it again soon; I have eight cups in the fridge!

We all played outside in the morning and Cara sort of helped us rake leaves. For some of the time Steve and Cara went inside and read books. For lunch, Cara wolfed down some chicken fingers and orange slices. I bought canned orange slices, which had never occurred to me, because Susan gets them. It was great!

After her nap, Cara went outside with her daddy and her stroller. Of course, she headed right to PJ's. Steve had considerable trouble getting home. While pushing her stroller, Cara says, "why", or something like that. She's telling her passenger that he or she is having a "ride"!

Around 4:30 Steve left for a concert and Cara and I stayed home. We played inside for a while and then went over to PJ's house. The kids were mainly very good, running around all over the place all evening. During dinner, they took turns fussing, it seemed. Tag-team toddlers!

Cara and I got home pretty late, at a quarter to nine. I thought I'd skip the bath, but Cara climbed into the tub, fully clothed, and put the plug in the drain. I didn't wash her hair or anything, but I did soap her up a little bit and let her play. We had fun with her rubber duckies. There were two. We counted them frequently to make sure. They went into and out of the tub.

I eventually got Cara into her pajamas and into bed, but it wasn't easy. She didn't want to read or to sit or to go to bed. She wanted to run and play. She cried for a long time, and I went back. For the first time, Cara threw up! I don't really think she's sick, though. She still just wants to run and play. I sat down to read with her, and she went to the door, said "bye," and left, closing it after her. She returned and repeated this several times. I got things cleaned up and eventually just had to put her back in bed, protesting loudly. I'm going to finish this quickly, get my laundry and put the cats away, and then check on her again. I'm hoping for the best, but I may end up waiting up for Steve with Cara.

11/19/06 (Sunday)

Well, I hurried through everything while she screamed, and then I went in and got her. Once I got her out of bed, she was perfectly happy. I mean, while I folded the laundry she played with the basket, running around and giggling. She helped me by pushing the basket with the towels and her stuff to her room (never take a ride if Cara offers you one: she dumps her passengers at the end!). We went downstairs and put on Curious George, and she bounced and laughed, a truly happy toddler. I dozed a little bit, but she didn't want to snuggle or fall asleep. She watched her show, she ran around, she brought me her shape sorter. She drank several ounces of water. She wanted to share her water. Finally, at midnight, I turned the TV off and put her in bed. She struggled and cried. Soon, though, she was asleep.

Steve got home some time in the night; now it's six in the morning and Cara is whimpering and a little restless, which is why I'm up. I think she's still asleep. I absolutely cannot explain last night. I think this morning may explain some things. Is she sick? Did she just want to see her daddy? Was she that overstimulated? Is she crazy? Am I crazy? I guess we'll see.

(P.M. installment)

You know, yesterday really was a great day, mostly, but I couldn't write it up well with all the screaming. The only interesting thing that I remember, though, is that I did a hip-hop version of the Berenstain Bears books. It was very easy and worked great; it was fun. I don't think I have ever done a hip-hop version of anything before. I doubt that I will again. Cara seemed to appreciate it; at the end she broke out into applause. Today Cara seemed fine all day. She slept until eight. Steve has pointed out that she's a little congested, so I think that perhaps this is all a teething issue: she doesn't like lying down, so she hates to go to bed.

I took Cara out this morning while Steve vacuumed. I wanted to go to Target, but Cara brought out her stroller, her horse finger puppet, Curious George, and her toy giraffe, a big stuffed animal. They all went for a ride. Surprisingly, we went right by PJ's house. Cara gave them a ride very far up the block. We went by a fence where there are often dogs who bark at us. "Hi!" Cara brightly said to the fence. Grandpapa must have taught her that. She went and peered through the cracks in the fence, but there was no one there. On with the ride. Cara stopped somewhere on Woerner or Meeker, pointing at a man with a lawnmower. "Uh-oh!" she said. She abandoned her stroller and played with a stick, eventually handing me all of her regular passengers and giving the stick a ride. We soon got ourselves turned around and headed toward home. I convinced her to let the animals ride.

Of course, we couldn't just go by PJ's house again. We saw Uncle Ron in the window, and after a brief conversation we went inside to play. Cara and PJ headed upstairs, where they found the Munchkin box from last night. Soon Cara was running around with four Munchkins. She eventually ate at least some of one; I think BJ got the rest, one way or another. When we left, we went out the front door. I set Cara up with her stroller and let her go. She went right into the garage. I got her out. She went back in. I got her out. She went back in. Eventually we were on our way. Ron had watched the whole thing from his window, probably very amused. Gene was outside raking his leaves, and I asked Cara to go say Hi to him. She, however, wanted to be carried; she had decided she was shy. She kept putting her head to one side, hiding against my chest. This, of course, is the man to whom she used to yell out her window, standing naked after her bath!

While Cara was down for her nap, Heather and Aunt Claire came over. Cara slept for about three hours, which she probably needed. When she woke up, she sat in her crib talking to herself. I went in and she carefully handed me all of her stuffed animals to kiss and then asked to be taken out. She had been put into her pajama pants to sleep, and I took them off her. Bediapered, she ran off. From the top of the stairs, she saw all of the company in the kitchen. She wasn't nearly as shy as I had anticipated. Perhaps she just woke up in an awfully good mood. I got her pants onto her in a couple of minutes, and we went downstairs. Basically, Cara flirted with Heather. We were watching a movie and Cara went back and forth between me and Steve, snuggling, but she kept looking at Heather, smiling. She gave her things. She laughed at her jokes. It was nice.

Claire figured out something we hadn't: Cara is saying "Winnie the Pooh"! I tried singing the theme song to her this evening, and she's definitely trying to sing it herself. It's unfortunate that neither of us really knows many words to it. I have tried to get her to say "money," because she plays with those silver dollars. After all, she can say "ma" and she can say "honey." This evening, it worked! She put together the sounds and said "money." It's certainly an accomplishment, though I'm not sure I'd have put it on my list of words I'm anxious for her to learn. I was very happy this evening, too, when she cried, "Mommy," and ran at me.

11/20/06 (Monday)

Here's a change: Cara played by herself for possibly an entire half-hour! I could hear her downstairs in the playroom going around, singing and having a generally good time. I didn't want to go downstairs to interrupt her so she just went on and on. Then, as if waking to the unusual event, she brought the hippo figure and the daddy figure upstairs to me. This act was full of symbolism but I don't know what it means.

We spent about ten minutes outside, Cara all bundled up. She didn't seem interested in our walk. In fact, at least twice in tne morning she lay down on the floor and looked like she was going to sleep but then grabbed hold of herself and got back into serious book-reading and playing.

Cara has a nice set of chunky, washable crayons. They're in a nice plastic case that she seems to need help opening, and she likes to take them out and put them in. She has always enjoyed putting crayons in her mouth, and we generally stop her before this gets far. The worst she has ever done is to bite the tip off a few times. She frequently has to spit wax. This afternoon, I was on the phone and I looked down to see Cara spitting. She was spitting red. She had quite effectively chewed up her red crayon, and she had spat it out onto the floor. Her mouth was covered with red drool, which had also run down her sweatshirt. She looked like a little vampire. I got her cleaned up, but I have since noticed some red on my jeans and on the comforter on my bed. To cap things off, Cara put a few of her crayons into the kitchen trash. Cara had a nice set of crayons. Now she has an empty box.

This evening we went out to the mall and met Daddy for dinner. Cara loved the trains, of course, and then we went into Tinytown for the first time in a while. She went right up the stairs of the biggest slide and went back down it three or four times, and then she went over to the tower slide and spent some time there. She was peering into empty shoe caddies when her daddy came up behind her; she wasn't as excited as I had hoped, but she was happy to see him.

We got Cara boots (size seven medium; it turns out they don't come in wide, so maybe we didn't really have to go to Stride Rite after all), and she ran around in them for a little while, looking very funny. Our next stop was a toy store, where Cara got a balloon. She let it go a few times and we got it back for her. Once we held her waaay up so she could grab it. We got some cute toys for PJ, Casey, and Cara.

At home, Cara was delighted to be reunited with her balloon. She had her balloon, her necklace, and her boots; what more could anyone really want? She walked upstairs with one of her hands in each of mine, holding her balloon in her teeth. She took it and her necklace in the bath with her. They're very happy together. She's in bed now, I think, singing "we-we-pooh."

11/21/06 (Tuesday)

Cara made a turkey at Susan's today! Susan traced Cara's hand and Cara colored it in. Then Susan attached a paper cupcake wrapper to the palm, and Cara got to glue in some kernels of corn. Cara likes the glue, Susan reports, so they are well-fastened. They are not so well-fastened, though, that little girls cannot pry them out. Fortunately, little girls are not allowed to spend much time with their completed art projects.

Drinking from my water bottle, Cara spilled cold water down her front. I decided that this had earned her a change of clothes, so we headed upstairs. It was after five, so I thought I might just put her into her sleeper. Wouldn't it be nice to spend the evening in warm, snuggly pajamas? Cara was horrified! She quickly grabbed her shoes and tried to put them on. Rather than fight, I got out some daytime clothes that didn't scare anyone into thinking they were going to bed.

Shod and clothed, Cara headed downstairs. She got out her stroller and indicated a firm wish to go outside. I was supposed to be cooking dinner. It was 40 degrees out. It was very dark. We went outside and played with that stroller for about twenty minutes, running here and there but not, somehow, to PJ's house.

While I made dinner I put on Winnie the Pooh. I figured she'd be excited, since she'd been singing the song so much. She was thrilled! She danced, laughed, and pointed. The best part was when she started saying "nump! nump!" and jumping.

Today, Cara has been especially good about offering to share her food and drink (would anyone like a swig from my sippy cup?). Every time she's eaten something, she's reached out to one of us with something in her hand. Do baby animals do that? It's possible that she's just being polite; I've been saying things like, "no, you go ahead," and then she'll eat it herself.

Our most dynamic playtime seems to be right before the bath. Cara and I were in my bedroom. "Bye!" she told me, reaching up to the knob and closing the door as she left. I knocked on it, and she opened it again: "Hi!" This was a lot of fun, so we did it several times.

11/22/06 (Wednesday)

I left Grandpapa George this morning at around 7:45, and Cara was still in her crib. I could hear her beginning to get chatty, though. Ev and I both had short work days today on account of tomorrow being Thanksgiving. We happened to both arrive simultaneously at around 1:30--Cara was down for her nap. In a little while she was up and playing. Evie left to do some shopping, so Cara and I hung around. I decided it might be nice to go outside, so I convinced her to put her shoes on, even though they were the pair she doesn't like (she seems to have a strong affinity for her nice brown shoes, which are not appropriate footwear for outdoor play), and got her into her coat, and convinced her with very little coaxing to take her little stroller out the door (it happened to have her big jingly giraffe toy in it at the time).

I soon realized my mistake: it was gloomy, cold, and slightly wet outside. But Cara barely noticed. Every time I suggested to her that maybe we should go back home, she would go partway there and then turn around and run away laughing. She went up PJ's empty driveway several times. I explained to her that there was no one at home because Em and Ron had to work a full day and PJ was at school. Maybe she just liked to go up their driveway.

Eventually I ran her back inside and we had read a couple of books by the time Mommy got back. I've found that Cara seems more interested in looking at books by herself lately. Not that she has started to dislike it when we read to her--far from it--but she also likes to look and point at the pictures while holding the book, and tries to find good pages by flipping through in her own awkward way. This may come partly from a general sense of independence and partly from the fact that we will often leave her with a book to look at while she's in her car seat. A reading-related note: I showed her the cover of our copy of Hop on Pop and Cara pointed at the poor guy on the cover and said "Pop!"

Mommy had to make dinner, and Cara was, as usual, strongly against it. I tried various tactics including taking her downstairs to play, taking her into the living room to play, and sitting her at the kitchen table so she could see what was going on. Nothing worked, so I gave up and turned on Winnie the Pooh. That worked for about fifteen minutes, and then Cara had to go and grab Mommy's legs again. Still, the TV was undeniably helpful in that instance. Pretty soon Em and PJ and Casey and Ron were piling in for dinner/playdate night. Dinner was enjoyable for most of us, but PJ has taken to screaming at mealtimes. Cara got let out of her chair before the grown-ups were done and started wandering about. We had stationed Casey on Cara's comfy Elmo couch, which we brought up into the kitchen. Evie had pulled out a box of smaller-size diapers in the hopes that they were Casey's size. They weren't, but this didn't stop Cara from picking one out and laying it on top of Casey! She even tried to open it up, but then just sort of handed it to Casey, perhaps in the hopes that Casey has learned a skill that Cara does not yet possess. Cara also tried to apply Casey's pacifier.

All too soon Cara was discovered to have a dirty diaper, so it was bath time. PJ very much wanted to get into the tub, and both toddlers dabbled their hands in the water as the tub was filling up. But PJ did not get a chance to peek at Cara naked, and was held downstairs until the Loefflers departed.

In the tub, Cara had multiple little duckies which we tried to count. She has not yet figured out how to say three, but I have a feeling she's realized that the word sounds a lot like "wheee." I think she has been saying "one, two, Wheeeee!" Cara was her usual wild self once we got her out of the tub and dried off--we could barely pin her down to get her pajamas on her. Evie finally took her away for the bedtime reading, but she has been out of the bedroom several times to check on me and to take various forbidden objects off of our dressers. I believe though that a determined reading of Donald's Fantastic Fiesta will soon end and the little girl will be put down in her crib.

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