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Journal Key:

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

12/21/06 (Thursday)

On emergency backup duty again. Cara seemed okay yesterday when I left and through the evening. But Steve reports that the baby was up at 1 A.M. and didn't get back to sleep until 7 A.M., her cough was back and she was uncomfortable trying to get to sleep. This morning while trying to give her a piece of his bagel, Steve saw that she was groggy while sitting up in her high chair. So he carried her up to her crib. Right now (at 9 A.M.), she's been asleep since I got here (at about 8). I'll call the pediatrician and see if they think a visit is worthwhile.

Yes, the visit was worthwhile.

At 12:30, Dr. Weiner found that Cara has an infection in her left ear and a small related infection in her throat. He prescribed amoxicillin and at about 1:30, I gave her the first dose. Since we got back home, Cara has been cranky, the only time she's been quiet is when taking her medicine. At about 2 P.M. I checked her diaper and then tossed her lightly into her crib where she's been yakking it up with the stuffed animals--but now (at 2:09), it's quiet.

Wow, it's a good thing Grandpapa took Cara to the doctor! I wasn't really sure she needed to go, but I was wrong.

Cara was asleep when I got home; she woke up around four. The poor thing was a little bit hot and a lot snuggly and limp, but soon she started to perk up. She really likes her tool kit; she and Grandpapa had been playing with it, and she soon went back to work. She picked up the box it came in, which was open at both ends. I held it in my lap and showed her that it was a slide for Curious George. The little monkey with the red shirt could slide right down. Whee! After he had a turn, Cara optimistically got the bigger, giggly George. As long as he went in headfirst, it was fine. (Sort of like giving birth.) Each monkey took several trips down that slide.

Soon, Cara and I got in the car and went to the Woodbridge Mall for her first haircut! We ran a little late and I didn't know exactly where the place was, so I was distractedly carrying Cara up an escalator when she indignantly struggled out of my arms. We found Kidz Kuts, waited for a few minutes, and were summoned in.

To my disappointment, Cara did not get to sit in an airplane or a car. Her seat had a seat belt and a steering wheel, though, and it had big tires down much too low for Cara to see. There was a TV on the counter in front of her, but she was distracted by watching all the other kids getting their hair cut. Cara didn't scream or cry or struggle, though at the end, when the hair drier came out for a second time, she leaned away from it a little bit. Cara's hair is shorter and a little layered, which may make it look fuller. The stylist blew it dry, as I said, giving it a little bit of curl with a brush. She put a little barrette in, but I know Cara won't put up with that for long. It looked very pretty, though. I took before and after pictures.

The salon gave me a little card; it certifies that Cara got her first hair cut today and says where and by whom. It also has a little plastic bag attached, and inside it are several tiny blonde curls! The picture on the card looks like something out of my baby book; it's very retro and cute. I like it.

This evening, we opened up a gift from my friend Ida. It's a big cardboard kitchen backdrop, basically a picture of a fridge, a sink, and a stove. On the other side is a garden. There is a window to look through. There are five panels, and it's considerably taller than Cara. She persists in knocking it over. She likes to crawl on it and through it when it's on the ground. When it's standing up, she likes to close it around her, saying "bye!" When I knock, she says "in!" It comes with stickers, and Cara and I had fun putting them on. I did some stage-managing, so the worm is in the garden and the spaghetti is in the kitchen, but otherwise I mainly let Cara determine their placement. The milk is in the oven and the pan is in the fridge. She seems to like stacking, so there are some multi-layered places.

Now Cara has had her second dose of antibiotics and is off to bed. We're all hoping for a good night's sleep.

12/22/06 (Friday)

Cara slept through the night. I woke the soundly-sleeping child at eight and had breakfast ready right away. But Cara had little appetite though after a while she returned and ate her toast while leaving her eggs alone. She had several good play periods but her nose remains runny and she coughs. I gave her the amoxycillin upon waking and later I gave her the runny nose/cough medicine.

Two highlights of the morning: 1)Cara is playing with her new wooden tool set. I want to wipe her nose so I take out my neatly-folded handkerchief. She stops playing with the tools and starts playing with the handkerchief, unfolding it and unfolding it putting it at her waist, then at her neck, babbling away. I'm reminded of the scene in the movie Airplane 'A broach, a pterodactyl'; 2)Cara shouts at me 'Read! Read!' as I paw through her book collection. She settles down and listened attentively as I recount the Richard Scarry version of road building and bread making. Fascinating stuff, at least today.

At elevenish, I gave her yogurt (peach--her favorite) but she only managed half of it and then, I carried her struggling up to bed--really fighting, not wanting to go at all. After I put her in the crib, she ceased her struggle and now, a few minutes after being placed into the crib, all is quiet in Cara's room.

It was a half-day at school, so I was there when Cara woke up. I brought her downstairs and showed her the mess: I took everything out of her toy bins, spilling it in a big pile on the floor. I had brought some boxes home from work, and I put a lot of toys into them. One box has stuff in it that she really isn't ready for yet. Another has baby stuff in it. A third has things she just hasn't been playing with lately, including her Noah's arc. Cara rediscovered some things she had forgotten about, including a couple of balls I put into our ball bin. I got everything that was left organized and put away, and then it was time to go to Susan's.

Cara was pretty confused when we pulled up. It was the evening. Why would Mommy leave me at daycare? Mommy wouldn't! It was the daycare Christmas party. Em and Ron and PJ and Casey were there, and so were a few other kids. More and more people showed up, until there were ten children and about as many adults. A few of the kids have older siblings who came, and a few of Susan's former children came back.

The kids sat at the table and had ice cream, cookies, and chips. They were all good; Cara enjoyed her ice cream very much. Periodically, throughout the evening, she returned to the table to graze. (Just like her Mommy!) All of the kids got presents from Susan, and everyone watched them open them, usually with some help. PJ got an airplane, which is perfect because he always points them out. He does this to such an extent that now Cara does, too. The toy airplane has two little men in the cockpit. There were two, so soon they were in Cara's hands. Cara got a little bit shy when her gift was opened. It was a vacuum cleaner! It talks and makes motor noises, and when you push it, yarn swirls around in the middle. Once I wrestled it out of its package, it was a big hit with boys and girls alike.

Susan also put together presents from the children to the parents. Each child had a little bag to give to Mommy and Daddy. The tags on them had fingerprints for signatures, and the names were written on the back. In the little bag Cara gave me was two picture frames, decorated by Cara with little foam stickers, in which there were pictures of Cara. One was from Halloween, and she had on her princess costume. The other was a pretty picture from playing out in the yard. Cara helpfully started peeling the decorations off.

We got home around five thirty, finding Daddy, who hadn't made it to the party because of work, at home. Cara showed him her vacuum and generally hung around until dinner. She then got so covered with yogurt that we decided to remove her shirt and stick her in the tub early!

Probably because I got everything out this afternoon, Cara has rediscovered some old books. She picked one up and quickly identified the animals she saw: a monkey, a bear, and a kitty--really a tiger. We also got to show her Moo, Baa, La La La and One, Two, Three to the Zoo. She can identify lots of animals, and she can tell us that some are asleep.

For me, it was a nice roughhousing night. I gave Cara a ride by lying on my back, holding her hands, and picking her up on my shins. It got kind of wild, and she sort of flipped off. I was worried, but she loved it and got right back up for more! In the living room, Cara's cardboard kitchen stands. She may be calling it a house. We chased and chased each other around it, Cara saying something that Steve realized was "Get you!"

12/23/06 (Saturday)

The morning started early--around 4:30 am--when Cara woke up and stayed up. I groaned about in a daze for a while, slowly becoming used to the idea of being awake and having to stay that way. We decided to go out for breakfast, and at around 6 am we were showered and Cara was dressed and we packed into the car and went to the Edison Diner. It was a short enough drive that Cara did not fall asleep in the car either way. We ordered her some nice eggs and toast--the eggs she ate some of, but the toast she kindly left for me to eat. Actually we had a lovely time. I am reminded of Cara getting us up incredibly early when we were in Baltimore; it ended up making for a nice early morning walk and I remember it fondly.

Back at home, it wasn't long before we saw that Cara was ready for her nap. She was put down at around 8 am and then Evie left to go to the gym. Cara (lucky her) went back to sleep and stayed asleep until something like 11 am! Her Mommy and Daddy got a lot done for themselves, which I found quite satisfying.

Cara awoke and we played around a bit, then packed ourselves into the car again to go grocery shopping. Our intention was to visit the fancy Wegman's, but after taking a look at the parking lot we went to a different--but still interesting--supermarket. Cara pointed out the Christmas tree set up by the entrance, and was entranced by some giant stuffed bears set up at the end of some aisles. She also very much wanted a small balloon in the shape of Bert from Sesame Street (whom I am fairly sure she identified as "Ernie"--I get them mixed up too!).

Home again; eventually it was getting on for 3 pm and Evie decided it was time to clean the kitchen floor. I popped Cara into the car and we went to Johnson Park. It was a surprisingly nice day, so this was not as crazy an idea as it might sound, and Cara had a good time playing. She climbed up the big ladder with her Daddy's assistance (though she didn't seem to think it was required), and went down all the slides that weren't coated with mud. After a bit of that she was captivated by big chunks of a fallen-down tree which had been cut up. She wanted to pick them up and carry them around, but no matter which piece she went too, it was always too heavy. Cara's method for attempting to move something heavy is to lightly place her hands on it and go "RRMMMM!!" with the sound of great effort. We spied a slightly older girl balance-walking along a very big section of trunk, and Cara imitated the motion by balance-walking along the strips of lumber framing the play area.

Cara spotted a big gazebo thing near the play area. The last time I remember being at a park with her (and Mommy and the little stroller), we had lots of fun running around in one of these. Cara may have remembered this as well, because she ran to the gazebo and had lots of fun running around the empty space and stomping her feet in a very thin puddle. She wanted to climb the railing and she very much enjoyed being swung around in a circle. She also very much wanted to run straight into some very watery patches of mud on the way back to the parking lot, but I grabbed her away in the nick of time.

She really is her usual self, but she has a runny nose and after the roughhousing we did at the park she was coughing a lot. I had intended to go check on the animals but instead I ended up sticking her in the car and driving her back home, where the clean floors were still drying. We managed to keep ourselves occupied in the downstairs room (Cara washed her hands with Mommy's help). One of the things that Cara has really enjoyed doing in her play room lately--especially very late at night and very early in the morning--has been coloring. Evie had the fantastic idea of taking some of the printouts she got from the Disney channel web site and taping them to Cara's table with masking tape, two sheets at each seat. Cara has been scribbling away like never before. I've been helping her to color Daisy, Goofy, Minnie, and especially Donald, whose name she can pronounce in the cutest way imaginable.

Also we have had our stockings out in preparation for the gift-giving soon to occur. The best way for us to describe them to Cara was to tell her that they are socks. Cara loves the socks and likes to collect them all and say "socks, socks," and carry them about with her. We try hanging them up, but she insists on having them down so that she can put them all in her hands and do absolutely nothing with them.

In case you were wondering, Cara is fully able to identify her parents by the appropriate appellations, and has been doing it more often lately. Sometimes (usually when she feels I am not paying enough attention to her) she will turn to me and start saying "Daddy? Daddy?" This evening in the bath she yelled basically right in my face: "Daaaaaddy!! AHHH you?" [Where are you]. She likes saying that.

In the evening we all cuddled up and found something to watch on TV: Mary Poppins. Yeah, that's right. I hadn't seen the movie since I was a very little kid, and it was about as new to me as it was to Cara. I am happy to say the entire family enjoyed it immensely. Cara especially liked the animated sequence, which featured singing farm animals and a team of waiters who also happened to be dancing penguins. She also adored the number near the end with the dancing chimney sweeps: she stared and laughed and stood up and shook and clapped her hands and said "Dance! Dance! Dance!" It was fantastic. And it's a movie all about a father who is so obsessed with his job that he doesn't pay enough attention to his children. The magical nanny title character was merely a side-plot, if you ask me.

After a very long day, Cara has been plopped into her crib. I have a theory that her sleeping alternates: last night she did not get a good night's sleep, so tonight it will be good.

12/24/06 (Sunday)

Cara started her day at five in the morning, not really a bad time. We had a quiet morning at home. We played with our toys, read books, and chased each other. Cara went down for her nap around ten thirty, and Steve woke her around two. At four o'clock, we were all dressed up, packed up, and in the car heading for Grandmama and Grandpapa's house.

Everyone was busy when we got there, working in the kitchen to get dinner ready. Cara, a tired little girl who is a little bit under the weather and hasn't been eating quite right today, was not particularly happy. She was hungry, I think, but she didn't make it through dinner. First Grandmama and then Grandpapa sat downstairs and read to her. I went to take my turn, and of course she decided it was time to run around and play and make trouble. We ended up back upstairs.

Soon enough it was time for presents. Cara ripped the paper off her first gift, which was a Playmobil truck and driver. She meticulously sat the driver in the truck and ran him around on the table. We got her distracted enough to open her next gift. It was books! Cara's favorite. Well, she had to sit right down with her daddy to read! Beside her mountain of unopened gifts, the little girl wanted to be read to.

It took us quite a while to get through everything. Cara got a nice Weeble knight, ogre, horse, and tower set, which we took out to play with. Steve and I got her Weebalot, the Weeble Camelot. We left that in the box. She also got several very nice outfits, more books, and an adorable plush reindeer. She may be calling it a bear.

After this, Cara was in a much better mood. At dessert she stayed at the table and played with her new truck, using it to transport fruitcake around her tray. Afterwards she tried to force-feed me some candied orange peel. She cornered me in the kitchen and kept trying to shove more and more into my mouth, which was full from the first mouthful. I called my mommy to come save me, so Cara started to feed her, too. She did that thing that people do when feeding babies; she opened her mouth when she wanted ours open.

For the rest of the evening she was wonderful. She read books, played chase, and was generally cute. We got all packed up and into the car by nine fifteen, so Cara was up nice and late!

We got home a little before ten, and I left Steve and Cara inside while I made another trip to the car to fetch things. When I got back, they had opened Weebalot! That wasn't what I expected. It was fun, though; we got it put together, and Cara loved it! She liked putting everyone down the slide, and she opened and closed the drawbridge and let the people ride in this spinny thing at the top of a tower. It was twenty after ten by the time she was torn from her new treasure and tossed, protesting (but grateful inside, I know), into her bed.

12/25/06 (Monday)

Merry Christmas to all! Evie and I got up before Cara did this morning and dispensed with most of our own gift-opening. Then Cara got up and we took her to her pile of gifts, and had to distract her from each new discovery with the next box to be ripped open. She got many nice things (as did we), but after a little time to admire them we had to start all getting ourselves ready to go. We managed this in somewhat good time and piled into the car at around 11 am, where a tired-out Cara soon fell asleep and nicely stayed that way through most of our long ride. She was extricated by her Grandma! and brought into her Great Aunt Sally and Great Uncle Ron's house, where it was almost immediately time for her to rip open another huge mountain of gifts. There were cute clothes, nice books, intriguing CDs, a lovely stuffed Winnie the Pooh and Tigger who I'm sure will become her very close friends, and of course her big play kitchen, the centerpiece. Cara was a bit shy of all the people and was perfectly happy to quietly play with her kitchen and toys until it was time to eat.

We were (or at least, I was) a bit worried about Cara's eating, because she did not have much of an appetite yesterday and had not eaten much at breakfast. However, the first course of the evening was a particularly excellent batch of vegetable soup (with chicken meatballs), which Cara devoured with gusto. She was fed by her Grandpa, and then by her Mommy, and a little by her Great Aunt, and a lot by herself. A great deal of broth went down the front of her dress, but the great majority of four bowls worth of vegetables and chicken went into her! It was astounding. We would think she was full, and Evie would take the bowl away, only to hear her asking for more. With nearly every spoonful she made a contented "Aaahhh!" sound, and spent the intervals smiling and laughing at everyone, and kicking at the table. I hope that she managed to charm everyone--she was certainly a good source of mealtime entertainment--and she managed to display some of her vocabulary to everyone, more extensively than she had last night.

After the soup, we snapped some quick family photos, and then Cara got out of her sticky soup-dress and into something more casual. She then spent most of the rest of the evening running around like a maniac. She was chased by many, and she offered bottles of water and her stuffed Pooh dolls to anyone in the vicinity. She also was very attracted to the impressively tall staircase in the house, which she climbed repeatedly (against our wishes). Finally I followed her to the top and supervised her exploration of the upper storey. There was an open area with a television, which Cara promptly walked over to and sat down in front of, staring at the lifeless screen. I explained to her that the TV was off, and she stood up and immediately found the remote and started trying to push buttons. She did not find the power button, and so the upper floor seemed to lose any attraction it may once have held, and she went downstairs for good.

Cara did an excellent job of cheerfully wearing herself out, and was I think quite ready to get into the car when it was time to leave. She again slept for almost the entire ride, only awaking near the very end, quite unhappy. It seems that whenever we have a long car ride home at night, Cara awakes very unhappy, and tonight was no exception. The sure cure for this is putting on a Curious George episode. Evelyn quickly turned on an episode that Cara must have seen, by now, about twenty times--but let me tell you, this time it was even better than on the previous nineteen viewings. She was back to her usual happy self until I plucked her out of the living room and stuck her in the tub. This she did not like at all, but we made it a short bath and Evie read her a nice book before even putting her diaper on, to make her happy again. Then, having decided that it was perhaps not the right time to try putting her in her crib, we took her back downstairs to play with her toys. Very happily, Cara loves her Weebalot castle playset, especially the spinning moat which makes all the Weebles wobble around nicely. Now (around 9:30 in the evening, well past her usual bed time) she is downstairs playing with toys with her Mommy. Soon we will put her down, and so Cara's second Christmas will be over. All in all, a very good one.

12/26/06 (Tuesday)

Yes, Cara's second Christmas was a very good one. I'd like to hit one a few things I didn't mention in my journal and which Steve didn't touch on either. We were both tired! At my folks' house on Sunday, Cara was mysteriously struck dumb. She would barely speak, but instead would make a funny noise by sticking out her tongue and wiggling it around. It was so bad that people were impressed when she said Daddy. Yesterday, at Aunt Sally's, Cara was quiet and shy at first. When dinner started, she wouldn't even get into her chair. I think that the prospect of looking all the way down that long table scared her. I held her in my lap and let her try the soup. She liked it, and she was so determined to get at it herself that she was willing to sit by herself. She went right to work. The spoon was a little bit bigger than she's used to, which may be why she developed a strange two-hand backhand sort of technique. It was a bit odd. Soon, she figured out that everyone was looking at her, and apparently now that was okay. She became a clown, sticking out her tongue for everyone and making faces. She put the soup away, too. She finished her own and Daddy's and then she got another helping. When I asked her whether she wanted more, she actually said "More!" At one point, she finished her soup and I put it on the table in front of her. She sat quietly, babbling away. I heard the word no and something about sheep. Eventually it dawned on me that she was quietly lamenting: no soup! I went and got her some more. It was a three-course meal, and when everyone was done, Cara was still eating soup. She was on at least her fourth helping.

Our night, after Steve wrote the journal, was not so jolly. It's not really surprising that Cara was pretty overexcited. All of our usual techniques for getting her to bed were to no avail. We put her down around ten, and she screamed so hysterically that we got her up and watched some Curious George. That's usually calming. I was bad and dozed on the couch, but Steve made sure she wasn't hungry or thirsty and that there was nothing really wrong. We put her back down around midnight, and she became hysterical again! We were pretty desperate. Finally, around one, I just took her and held her in the glider and she went to sleep in my arms! I haven't done that with her in months and months; it was actually really nice. I waited a few minutes and stood up. She was absolutely limp. I put her down and we could all finally sleep.

Today Cara's Grandmom and Grandpop came up to work on the basement. As I expected, Cara had a great time showing her Grandpop her toolbench. They worked at it for quite a while, and it's now been put together in ways I never would have imagined. Both of them were impressed by Weebalot, which seems to be the current favorite toy. Janet and I sorted out all of Cara's books, which was quite a job, and we got the playroom rearranged to best accommodate her new things. The best new thing is her kitchen, which is exactly the right height. I have it in a corner near the cookware and play food. I expect to enjoy many delicious plastic meals there.

For lunch (non-plastic lunch), we had pizza. Cara eats this cut up in squares, which she picks up with her hands. She enjoys pizza, but, unfortunately, she also enjoys high-fives. Somehow, in the middle of the meal, she decided she needed high-fives. She got one or two from Daddy. She got a few from Mommy. That really wasn't good enough. She held her hand out toward Grandmom, grunting. Grandmom had to get up and come around the table to high-five Cara. After lunch, Cara and Grandpop went to play with the tool set some more. Then they went downstairs. "Weebles, AHHH you?" we heard Cara calling. The two of them played and played, but eventually little girls had to take a nap.

It was a late nap, and Cara slept until five. It's been a mish-moshy evening; we've done a little of everything. Cara had some good ravioli for dinner, with tomato sauce. She sent her Weebles down their slide. She did some coloring. She has started to say "boo" for "blue." She's not really clear on which color blue is, I think. I changed the pictures taped to her table, because the old ones were so covered with crayon. She had a good bath with her new Curious George scrubby pouf. Now she's in bed, but it's time for me to go take her out again. It's going to be a tough evening, perhaps, but it can't be like last night!

12/27/06 (Wednesday)

Well, last night, once again, Cara did not go to sleep when she ought. She got up again, but I got her down by eleven. I stayed in her room and held her in the glider, physically restraining her, and she snuggled up with me. She couldn't go to sleep like that, but she kept popping her head up and then letting it flop back down, so after half an hour or so I put her in the crib and she was able to go to sleep.

This morning we went down to Jenkinson's Aquarium with PJ and his family! Cara and PJ both loved looking at the fish; they spent a lot of time pointing things out for us. They both ran around and had a great time. Cara giggled at a lot of animals. PJ liked to stand up on the ledges right by the glass tanks, but Cara didn't. When we stood her up there, she leaned back against us. Being so close seemed to scare her a little. As soon as she was a bit farther away, she would start showing us fishies again. Both kids liked climbing the big stairs, and they liked running around upstairs. We got another picture of Cara sticking her head through a hole. PJ really liked seeing the water running into the seals' tank.

We had lunch nearby. Cara had some hot dog and some of Daddy's pizza. The kids ran around and looked out the window at the beach. PJ showed me some seagulls. Cara showed me that the letter "i" in the "Jenkinson's" on the glass was a ball. We were very, very lucky, because there was a bar right next to us, and either kid could have easily run under the counter and gotten in amongst the bottles, but neither did. It would have been tough to extricate a toddler from that!

We went back for a second run through the aquarium, which was nice. I got to hang out with Casey downstairs. I strolled her by the fishies and she looked at them. She's five months old today. The kids got to see the seals being fed, but by then PJ was tired out. Cara, somehow, was just hyper. It was a struggle to get her into her coat to leave; she took it into her arms instead of putting her arms into it, and she walked away purposefully.

A little bit after two we got home, and we took a picture of Cara limply asleep in the car, sort of slumped like she was when she was a baby. She only slept in the car today, which means she got two very short naps of less than 45 minutes each.

PJ, Em, Ron, and Casey came over to see Weebalot. Cara very much did not want to share her toys. PJ was, of course, immediately interested in anything she had, so there were a lot of fights and a lot of Cara crying. We went to their house for dinner (it's playdate night), and the same thing kept happening! There aren't usually so many fights, so I attribute it to there being so much new stuff. PJ got these cool drawing things; they're plastic screens in which you can draw with a special pen or make marks with special stamps. They're magnetic. There were two, so in theory both kids could play at once. PJ also got a doctor kit, and Cara wore the stethoscope around her neck and sucked on the other end, the end you'd put on your patient's chest. Whatever it's called, it's soaking wet now.

It was Casey's cupcake party this evening, and Cara ate her cupcake nicely! Instead of breaking it all up, she held it in one hand and took bites. She only ate about half of it (she likes icing), and her hands were coated with chocolate, but there wasn't much more mess than that! She did a good job.

When PJ was over Cara held one of her balls in her mouth and shook it around; I told her she was playing dog. In her bath tonight, Cara did something else a puppy would do. She tore a nice chunk out of her bath pouf with her teeth. It was kind of impressive. As Dr. Spock tells us, children are all scientists, continually exploring their world.

It's 9:15. Could Cara possibly be down?

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