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Journal Key:

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

12/28/06 (Thursday)

Last night was Cara's first normal night in what seems like forever! I woke her up a little bit after seven, dressed her, and brought her downstairs. She ate a good breakfast; her daddy gave her some cantaloupe and then some toast. She enjoyed both. When she was done I put her in the car and took her to Susan's.

Steve and Uncle Jim picked Cara up. Susan reports a good day. Sarah, Jim, Steve, and I sat around with Cara and played. They were, of course, impressed by Weebalot. Cara sort of shared things with her aunt and uncle, but she was a little shy. She would sort of say Jim, but she shook her head at saying Sarah.

My big idea for entertainment was to get out our ancient video game system and let Cara watch some racing games. She liked that; she and I did a very poor job getting around a track once. Things got really exciting when Daddy put in Donkey Kong. Cara loved the monkeys! She giggled and bounced and thoroughly enjoyed herself. After we turned it off, she asked us to turn it back on; she hasn't asked for the television in weeks!

None of the adults were really hungry, but Cara impressed everyone by putting away two hot dogs in record time. She also neatly ate some yogurt and then shared some cheese with us, sometimes having to take it back from one person to give it to another. After company left, we were sitting downstairs. "Sarah!" said Cara, "Sarah, Sarah, Sarah!"

Cara and her daddy did a lot of cooking downstairs tonight. They made a hamburger and some eggs. Cara likes to make eggs in the oven. She likes to drink out of cups. She isn't bad at cleaning up, either.

After the bath tonight, Cara found a plastic spoon in the bathroom. She held it while I dried her and dressed her. She put it into her mouth. "Mmmmmm!" it was delicious. Everyone had to try it. "Mmmmmm!" It was the best spoon we had ever tasted. Cara let me brush her teeth pretty well tonight, possibly because I made funny noises. Getting her to let me do that is one of my many goals. Daddy read to her from the big Richard Scarry anthology we got for Christmas, and now Cara is in her crib. We'll see how things go.

12/29/06 (Friday)

As for last night, Cara was a bit tough going down, but she did quiet without our having to go back in there, and slept a long time, until rather late in the morning. Our plan for today had been to have a playdate with the twins (it would have been my first time seeing them since Cara's first birthday party!), but unfortunately this morning Evie found that the cold we have all been sharing back and forth with each other has hit her again. The playdate was cancelled, and instead we decided to go out and do errands with Cara. First we went to Home Depot, which didn't excite Cara very much. Then we went to Target and got her a new pair of sneakers! They may not be quite so expensive as the Stride Rite kind, but they look stylish and they seem to fit okay. We also found at Target that it was impossible to purchase mittens without also purchasing a hat, and that the mittens either had no thumbs and were too small for Cara, or were much too large.

Once out of Target we were walking to our next stop and Evie pointed out our shadows to Cara. The shadows were waved at. We went into Staples, where Cara found an ugly little calculator which she immediately stuck in her mouth. Since she is still fairly germy, Evie decided the kindest course was to purchase the calculator. The cashier got the situation reversed and thought Mommy was concerned about her baby picking up germs from all the other people who had previously handled the calculator, and gave her a nice antiseptic wipe to go with her calculator. Ha!

When we finally got home we tried to give Cara some lunch and tried to put her down, but neither of them really worked. Cara got back up and toddled insanely about the house, "helping" to put away the Christmas decorations. Evie tried to get Cara out of the way by getting me to fire up the monkey video game from yesterday. This did very much excite Cara for a few minutes, as before, but the main upshot was that Daddy got stuck playing his video game while Mommy went downstairs and played with Cara. Oops!

Eventually though Daddy put his foot down and stuck Cara back in her crib, some time after 2. She did not get back up until after 4, but by then our plans for the evening had solidified. We were going down to Middletown for homemade pizza! Cara needed a little bit of television first to help her come awake and get into an agreeable mood, but then she put her new shoes on and we jumped into the car and zoomed off. We were only about a half hour late in arriving.

Cara had a wonderful time at her grandparents' house. She got to do some coloring on the papers still set up from Christmas Eve, and read some of her Middletown books. She also had the chance to meet her Grandmama's World of Warcraft character. This is a video game lady with a long dress whom Cara declared (I think) to be "pretty." The character ran out into a field and met a bunny. Cara accidentally found the keyboard button that made her jump! We explained to Cara that the character could also wave--Cara began waving at the screen and saying "Hi!" Soon Grandmama got the nice video game lady to wave back at her. It was an interesting moment.

Cara had some nice pizza and berries and cheese and such, and had some nice playtime while some of us watched the beginning of a movie. Then we packed her back into the car. Evelyn has suggested that we be careful of using "the W word." The W word is, of course, "Weebles." In Cara's case it might sometimes be referred to just as accurately as the B word ("Bee-bulls", "Bee-boos"). Cara had a conversation with herself in the back seat on the way home which involved the Weebles. Evie sneezed and Cara started having a conversation about Daddy saying "bless you," and then she started doing fake sneezes. "Choo! Choo!"

12/30/06 (Saturday)

I don't know why, but we had a horrible night! Cara woke around three and we made sure she was okay (offered her a snack and a drink) and put her back down. It didn't take, so I got up with her and we snuggled in the glider for a while. She found the mural quite distracting, but she was calm. I put her down, but she wouldn't go to sleep. I was content to let her cry, but Steve was much nicer and let her play in the bedroom for a long time. He reports that she left the room a few times, once saying "Mommy sleep," but came back quickly, probably because of how dark it was out there. Once she took a washcloth and went off to the bathroom. In a few minutes she returned and put her washcloth back away. Steve got back to bed around 5:40, and I got up at six. Cara was asleep, so I thought I was due for a couple of quiet hours while she caught up. No such luck; she was up by six thirty! We shared my bagel and had a nice morning. Poor Daddy got up soon, too. We really don't know why she couldn't sleep. Was it because of being up late last night? Was it too much sugar? (She didn't have much, I think, but who knows?) Was it overexcitement? Was it a full moon?

We had a really nice day, anyway. Steve's folks came up, and Cara was thrilled to see them. She was ready for hugs right away. Grandmom brought her two coloring books, which are both very simple and attractive. One is Curious George, and the other is all animals. I like them both very much. Cara, Grandmom, and I got to do some coloring. The books came with big, chunky crayons that are two colors each; there is a point at either end. One is green and blue, one is red and orange, and the other is yellow and brown. It's nice to have crayons with points, but these are not washable. The other potential drawback is that having two colors in one crayon can't possibly help Cara learn colors! She is not progressing particularly well in that regard. She often says "boo" or "een," but she cannot really identify either. During her bath tonight Steve tried to teach her yellow, which she is willing to say if prompted but not spontaneously. Her inability to say yes is another impediment. She cannot reliably answer questions like "is the duck yellow?" possibly because she automatically says no to everything.

Cara got a kick out of lying down on the floor and peeping at Grandpop and Daddy through the cat door. When she got into the basement, she started pointing out the hammer before she was all the way down the stairs. "Hammer," she told us several times. "Heavy," she added, picking it up to bring it to Grandpop. She brought him all sorts of tools and was very helpful, telling us what was heavy.

After her farewell tour of the basement, I put Cara down for her nap. Surprisingly, she took a nap of normal duration. When she woke up, Grandmom and Grandpop were still here! She spent a lot of time clinging to her grandmom. Cara was very snuggly after that nap, content to lie there in one of our laps. We were watching a DVD of clips Grandpapa took of Cara and copied for us, so it was nice to have her just sitting there. It's always nice when she's cuddly, even if it is a little strange. Today, perhaps, it had to do with the four hours of sleep Cara cheated herself of. We put on the monkey game after the DVD, and that gradually perked Cara up. It's perfect for her, really. It's all action, no words, and lots of cuteness.

Company had to go home, so we were on our own. Cara had a snack. (Today she has called them both "fishies" and "crackers.") We piled into the car and went out for a night on the town. The first stop was Barnes and Noble. We had two books to exchange, of which we had doubles. Cara got to play with the trains for a long, long time while Mommy and Daddy picked out a calendar and found her some other books. I picked the books. They're all things I had! It's hard to find new good books, it seems. I guess I might do better if I didn't have a toddler with me at the time. We got Strega Nona, Bedtime for Frances, and a collection of the Babar stories.

Our next stop was Panera. We ordered our meals and a cup of broccoli cheddar soup for Cara. A lady in line guessed that Cara was two and a half or three! At the table, Cara tried my diet soda and didn't like it, I'm glad to report. I had brought Cara's big plastic bib with the pocket, so we got her as waterproofed as we could and let her rip. For the first few minutes, Cara held the spoon at the perfect angle to let soup drip out the other side as she slurped it. Soup ran down her bib, soup fell onto her leg, soup dripped onto the floor. I got the pocket of the bib to stay open to catch what it could. It took Cara a minute or two to get going, but then she decided that this was Good Stuff. There was a lot of "MMMMM"ing. Steve said that when I went to put back our dishes and Cara was still finishing up, she tried to say "MMMMM" really loudly so that I could hear her. "MMMMM soup!" She loves soup. She finished it. She continued discussing it for the rest of the evening. The mess wasn't really too bad. Cara's clothes absorbed most of it, so it wasn't a disaster. I bought a couple of loaves of bread to take home, and unfortunately we had to wait for it to cool. Cara ran and ran through the restaurant, turning around to hug my legs when she got shy. She was just settling down to read Babar on the floor when it was time to go. Oh, well. As we walked past the book store, Cara kept calling "teins, teins!" Steve figured out that meant she wanted to go back and play with the trains. Unfortunately, it was time for a bath and bed.

I thought a couple of weeks ago about updating my list of Cara's words, but now it's really both pointless and impossible. I did it to make sure that she was making adequate progress, and she was. I don't need to continue. Also, there's no way to keep up, now! She's repeating all sorts of things. For instance, tonight she said "bathroom"! On any given day, I know she's said all sorts of things I can't even remember to record here.

Cara got her last dose of antibiotics this evening. "MMMMM, soup!"

12/31/06 (Sunday)

What a joy Cara has been today! She and I both woke up early, before six, and went downstairs to read books and play. She really loves One Fish, Two Fish. When I decided it was time for breakfast, I put on Winnie the Pooh and we enjoyed some entertainment, a little bit of bagel, and the newspaper. Daddy joined us before long, and we had a nice, lazy morning. Cara did like looking at the comics, I think. Steve narrated them for her.

Cara's favorite game today has involved three things: Curious George, her stroller, and the papasan. She pushes George around and around, and I chase her! Sometimes I run, sometimes I crawl, but whatever I do, it's fun. I find it funny that she sometimes pauses to grab George by the face and settle him much more firmly in his stroller. We spent a lot of time like this this morning, and this evening Cara continued.

My wonderful husband decided to take the family out to lunch today, so we ended up at a diner on Route 18. It has occurred to me that Cara won't have nearly as good a view when she's out of the high chair, because now she can see much more that's going on than we can in our booth. She still loves to watch tables being bussed. She can say Hi to all the other little kids who walk by. She gets to watch the door and see who comes in and out. Today she let us know ("Uh-oh! Uh-oh!") when someone's straw wrapper fell on the floor. Eventually Steve just had to pick it up. Partway through the meal a family with a little girl was seated at the next table. Cara got to wave and say Hi to the little girl (younger than Cara) in the next high chair. Uh-oh! That little girl dropped some puffs on the ground! Cara fell asleep on the way home and Steve was able to transfer her from the car to her crib, which rarely happens. She sort of woke up, but she was so happy to be asleep, I think, that she was able to go right back down.

For our New Year's celebration, we went over to PJ's house! There was plenty to eat. Cara impressed the whole company by feeding herself refried beans with a fork. As far as toys went, two things stood out. One was the collection of noisemakers, hats, and balloons I had brought. The other was the crawl-through tunnel PJ just got. The balloons were Casey's favorite thing. She lit up when she saw one, and she got to play with the string, all by herself. The toddlers liked the balloons, but soon they moved on. They liked the squeaky hammers more. They also spent some time wearing hats, some time ripping them off, and some time fighting over them bitterly. The tunnel was great. It led to the best interaction I've seen between PJ and Cara, possibly. Crawling through a tunnel is great, but it's better if you're chasing someone or someone is chasing you! They were really playing together, laughing as hard as they could (without falling down, that is).

Around nine we had dessert and gathered together for a toast, complete with hats and noisemakers. Cara amused everyone by dancing to both the radio and the noisemakers. She was really friendly and sweet tonight, a delight to be around. We were proud of her. We have plenty of pictures, but, alas, there is no video of the dancing!

And now, good night! Good-bye, 2006!

1/1/07 (Monday)

We have had a wonderful start to the new year. We all slept until about seven thirty and had a nice in-our-pajamas morning. Cara has made an astonishing verbal leap: she now says "yes" reliably! I had to stop reading a book to her this morning so that I could turn off the kettle and blow my nose, and when I went back downstairs I asked Cara whether she'd like to see the read of the story. "Yeah, yeah!" she said. As I picked her up, she said "Thank you, Mommy!" All day, she's been saying yes to things; what a dramatic change! She is also making long sentences. In one Curious George book, George, a naughty little monkey, is being taken away in a cage. Cara pointed to him and talked a lot. I guessed at what she was saying, and she shook her head. Eventually we were able to agree on "People help George."

I forgot to mention Cara's milestone from yesterday. Yesterday, for the first time, she got into her chair in the kitchen and asked for a food by name! "Mannas" is what she wanted--bananas. She ate and enjoyed the whole thing. She did the same thing this morning, eating two and a half bananas for breakfast. She has also asked for crackers specifically. For dinner this evening we had spinach pasta, and Cara ate two plates of it. Still hungry, she pointed to the oranges we had out for her. She loves those canned oranges, but she really oughtn't to eat a whole can at one sitting. (Last time that happened, we got a really astonishing diaper later.) I put them away in the fridge when she was more than halfway through, but when she said "rahnge" I had to let her have some more.

There were so many leftovers that everyone went to PJ's house for brunch. It was kind of wet outside, but Cara insisted on pushing her stroller over. It is fortunate that it was empty, because we left it outside the house and I think it got kind of damp. Cara got to play with some legos; "build" is a word she's been using lately. PJ was ready to play in the tunnel some more, but Cara wasn't up for that. She did enjoy reading some of PJ's books, though. Around 1:30 we came home, Cara pushing her stroller despite being very, very tired, and put Cara down for a nap. She woke up, giggling, three hours later.

Since that nap was so long, I have been trying to tucker Cara out. We've been running around and around the papasan, taking turns pushing George. We gave treats to the kitties. That's an adventure in itself. The cats need their treats put down and left alone so that they can eat them. Buster in particular needs things to be just right because she's physically not very good at eating. This results in Cara running after her, holding out a treat at arm's length as the kitty flees. We've read some books. The books have all moved now into the game room; they are on a cute little shelf that's low enough for Cara to see, and they're closer to the couch so that grown-ups can sit like grown-ups to read. The puzzles are now in the former book basket. Cara demonstrated that she knows the word "animals" by exclaiming it as she took out her animal puzzle. She can also sort of say "ostrich."

Tomorrow it's back to routine!

1/2/07 (Tuesday)

The recycling truck was going around when Steve and Cara left this morning, so Cara got to say "Bye truck!" twice. She's always polite. Cara was a big girl for Susan today. Instead of sleeping in a crib, she had to take her nap on a mat on the floor. Not only did Cara go to sleep like a good girl, she stayed on the mat after she woke up! When Susan went to check on her, she was sitting on her mat, probably talking to herself. She also made a lovely snowflake mobile. Susan claims that she just helped a little bit and gave some artistic guidance; I find that astonishing, since the glitter glue is applied to the paper in patterns and even circles!

A friend at school just became a father for the second time, so Cara and I stopped by the party store to pick up some decorations for his room. When we had gotten in the car at Susan's, Cara was talking about the moon. Upon getting back out of the car at the store, I asked her to find it. It took a few moments; I could see her carefully considering the streetlights, but she found and identified the moon with great emphasis. In the store, I let Cara down. She marched away with confidence, and I trailed along behind her. She identified animals on lots of decorations. I was perfectly willing to buy her something, but I think Cara is used to putting back the things she finds in stores, and that's wonderful! Of course, she may just not have found anything she really loved. Back outside the store, we talked about the moon some more.

At home we had some independent play and some snuggling until dinnertime. Cara really enjoyed green beans tonight, which was fun. She and Daddy went downstairs to play while I cleaned up, and I heard him hooting on one of the New Year's horns. They were playing chase. When I joined them, I was given the job of pushing George, Cara would chase me, and Daddy had to go "beep, beep."

Before bed Steve has been reading the Babar books to Cara. They sound like a lot of fun, and I think they both are enjoying it.

1/3/07 (Wednesday)

It's been two weeks since I've taken care of Cara and the changes have been very large. While she's speaking and communicating much more than before, the independence that she's demonstrating is the major change I've seen. Previously, I couldn't leave her before she'd come and track me down. This morning I left her once and she didn't notice. Other times, she followed but at greater intervals.

This independence is joined by her willingness to play with things. She'll play with her blocks and then find an animal puzzle, then her crayons which she uses to scribble with in her coloring book. Then she'll get out of her chair and push Curious George in her baby stroller for a few minutes, and then back to the blocks.

When hungry, she continues to point a lot but she does call some things by name--'fishies' for her GoldfishTM. When I asked her if she wanted yogurt, she marched over to the refrigerator. I set her up in her highchair, complete with bib and spoon and she ate unaided until the container was nearly finished. Then she wanted some 'juice juice' so I got her some orange juice.

Amazing to me also is how I just put her in for her nap. She's downstairs after finishing her yogurt. I say "Cara, it's time for your nap." I say this conversationally. She looks at me and allows herself to be picked up. I give her a plush monkey and she plays while I change her diaper and put on her pajama pants. I lift her into her crib, she reaches for some other toys, then allows herself to be covered with a blanket and appears to settle down as I walk out of the room. Not a cry or a peep!

It was such a wonderfully nice day outside that Cara and I spent an hour at Johnson Park this afternoon. I asked her whether she wanted to see the goats, and she practically ran all the way over to their enclosure! She was not interested in the exotic birds at all, but she did pause to harass a goose, running alongside it on the other side of the fence. There were other people seeing the goats, but some came over to Cara and me quickly. We both picked up some appetizing brown leaves from the ground and fed the goats. There were several of them, and there was some butting and arguing. Cara loved it. She was happy to be with the animals and with other people, too.

Eventually I decided it was time to go to the playground. I convinced Cara of this ("yah!") and off we went. Unfortunately, the path was not a direct line to the playground, so we did some off-roading. Cara easily crawled under the fence, but I had to clamber over it quickly to keep up with her. When we got to the puddled, muddy field, though, I put my foot down and made her walk on the pavement. At the playground, we went on the swings. It must have been a while for Cara; she loved it! There was loud enjoyment. I was wearing my slacks, my cute little shoes, and my dressy coat, but we also went down the slide together several times. It really was fun. The challenge was the arguments over how to get back up to the top. Cara likes climbing dangerous ladders, and I like walking up nice stairs. Cara did tucker herself out, which was an advantage. Cara took a couple more turns in the swings, and I gave her a nice concert. I performed the Winnie-the-Pooh songs and eventually went through several stunning renditions of "Bingo," with Cara clapping along. We went for one last trip down the slide and then another last trip down the slide, and it was time to go home.

Cara played downstairs by herself long enough for me to read Grandpapa's entry about how independent she is. That inspired me, and I made dinner without putting on the television. It went well; Cara played on her own a lot. I think one reason why she harasses me is that she's hungry! She had some snacks while I cooked.

PJ, Casey, and Em came over for dinner. The kids shared some oranges in addition to their chicken, and between them they finished the can. Steve held Casey while everyone relaxed in the living room with the TV on. The kids played independently, with almost no fighting over toys. After PJ went home, Cara got her bath. She was funny running around in her diaper! She pranced around with her sippy cup and her crack showing. After the bath, when she was pajamaed and happy, she got to get up to bounce on the bed three times. Now, right on time, she's been put to bed.

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