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Journal Key:

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

2/1/07 (Thursday)

So we enacted Em's advice last night and gave Cara a dose of Tylenol before putting her to bed. In the morning, I had to rub her back and call her name several times in order to wake her up! Susan reports that sleep makes all the difference with our little girl, who was very good and talkative all day. Cara helped make a little boat as an art project today, by glueing some blue rice (the ocean) and sundry other objects to a paper plate. It is lovely. She very happily waved bye to the other kids being picked up.

We were off our normal routine today because Evie is unfortunately not feeling well. I picked Cara up a little before 5 and drove her home, and pretty soon after that I tried to give her some dinner, which she was not particularly interested in. She watched her Curious Buddies DVD ("Buddies!!") while I had a small meal. Cara spent almost the entire length of the video laying on her Mommy. Then we two trotted off to PJ's house ("PJ's house!!") and watched PJ's Wiggles DVD, which is one of the few DVDs that I don't even own but am already getting tired of watching. Cara was even reluctant to mooch dinner from Em, and only had a very few cherry tomatoes. Later she pigged out on puffs and goldfish crackers.

They had their usual sharing issues, but with a little monitoring and doling out of attention things weren't bad at all. For instance, at one point I was alternating handing out bunches of puffs while the little kiddies crammed them into their mouths as fast as they could.

Cara meanwhile demonstrated her singing skills for Em and PJ. Lately she has been singing the Happy Birthday song to herself. Her version sounds kind of like "Bithday you, you!" We theorize that she must have picked this up at the last cupcake party she attended. Also now Ron is just "Ron" instead of Papa. (She picked up the phone tonight and was having an imaginary conversation with a "Papa," but I'm not sure which one. Then when Evie was on the phone with my mother later, Cara was asked if she wanted to say Hi to her Mama. Cara waved at the phone.) I want her to call him "Uncle Ron," but she has a little trouble with "Uncle." She still can only say "wee" instead of "three," which is probably why she usually skips it when counting. This evening I was trying to make her say "one, two, three," but instead when I prompted her by saying it, she took it a step further and said "four!"

Before we started our bedtime reading this evening Cara made sure to say "'night, Mommy! See you!" We also have developed a routine of saying good night to the froggies which Aunt Claire painted on the section of mural by the glider. A strange routine, perhaps, but any routine is comforting...

2/2/07 (Friday)

Once again on Friday afternoon we met at the library. This time we spent much of our time reading books, although we did not fail to visit the program room for another cut & paste activity. Glue sticks are a wonderful invention! And when we were done, Cara once again carried the scraps to the wastepaper basket. High-fives!

Her use of language continues to grow. At home when we draw together, she demands pictures of specific things. My rendition of Pooh is improving but my Piglet is a clumsy charicature. She asks for cats, sometimes by name, and yesterday she requested a tiger. She looked around for a missing toy, "Where mouse go?" She sang a recognizable version of "Itsy-bitsy Spider," complete with hand gestures. When she referred to Schmutz as Shelby and I told her his name, she promptly began to call him "Mutz."

We played with our zoo and had rides in the wagon. Supper was (of course) soup; she also consumed some bread (dunking it in the soup is great), a few blackberries and a lot of cheese. When she was done, as always, she meticulously cleaned the tray of the high chair. After supper we saw some vintage Blues Clues starring Steve, and we had some apple pie, inspired by the Three Little Kittens.

Taking my cue from Steve, I let Cara help undress herself for the bath. I also seized the opportunity to play "this little piggy," which elicits delightful giggles. Bath time was a period of discovery. For the first time Cara tried pouring water from one cup into another, over and over. She also stood and raised a cup of water in each hand to watch it pour out. She washed her own tummy and face. We let her play in the water until she was tired of it and then commenced the bedtime routine.

Cara went to sleep like an angel for us. She brushed her teeth and we brushed her hair. We read the bedtime story book from cover to cover while her sleepy music played softly. She was hugging a sock monkey while we read; when we finished I asked, "Does the monkey need to sleep with you?" She nodded. I laid them down on the giant doggie and covered them together, kissed all the toys and Cara goodnight, turned out the lights and left. Not a whimper was heard. In the morning she woke before us and we heard her happily talking as we descended the stairs.

2/3/07 (Saturday)

Usually on Saturday mornings Cara protests greatly against being put in the car. This morning she got her wish - she got to stay and play after breakfast, instead of being whisked away. We ran, we danced, we rolled on the floor. We observed all the fish and looked at some books. Cara found a photo of her mommy and kissed it several times. When it was finally time to go, Cara scampered right into the car and climbed up into her seat, a happy little girl.

2/4/07 (Sunday)

Yesterday Cara had a nice morning with her Middletown grandparents and a nice afternoon with her South Jersey grandparents. In the evening Cara went out with me to Wendy's and we were listening to The Beatles in the car, a song which involved the refrain "Oh yeah" (I believe it was a demo version of "I've Got a Feeling," if anyone was interested). So there was Cara singing "Oh yeah!" in the back seat. Later Cara was upstairs in her pajamas. When we get her ready for bed we gate off the top floor so she can't scamper downstairs. Cara reacts by going over to the gate, gripping the bars like an unruly inmate, and hanging back with all her weight, groaning "Pullll!" She was doing this last night until the force yanked her free of the bars and sent her down on the floor on her bottom. She looked about, amazed, saying something like "Fall!" And then it would happen all over again, to her Daddy's great amusement.

Today I got Cara dressed and took her out to the Lube-it-All, where we managed to have lots of fun climbing around on all the chairs in the waiting area and periodically peeking through the windows at the men working on our car. I gave her a running commentary on what was happening, which due to my utter ignorance of the inner workings of an automobile ended up sounding like this: "And now the guy is pouring blue stuff into that thing. I think it might be antifreeze." Cara also got a look at the tip jar and said "Money! Money!" Either she was trying to make me feel guilty for not tipping them or was suggesting petty theft.

Back home, I told Cara we were going to go see her Grandma and Grandpa today. "Nounstairs!" she commanded. Then it was "Coat!" and "Outside!" She didn't understand that I had meant we were going to see them later today. She was quite adamant that we leave at once, so I put our stuff in the car. Mommy explained that Cara would get to see the dog, Rusty. "See Rusty!" Cara yelled. I gave her a dose of tylenol before we left which I am convinced helped her to have a nice nap in the car, and fortunately she woke basically of her own volition right before we arrived--a perfect trip.

Cara in fact got to see not only Rusty but her Uncle Jim (who I believe she referred to correctly as "Jim" on at least one occasion), her Aunt Sarah, and their greyhound Floyd! We had one brief period of complete ecstasy when we got to go out back in the cold and watch Rusty and Floyd frisk and run around. Cara also got to see the train set go a little bit (my parents had purposefully kept it up and running after the holidays so that Cara could see it again--awwww), and she got to play with my old Matchbox cars and a wonderful playset which was a kind of town with a big ramp running through it, and an elevator and several garages, and a gas station. There were also her hundreds of other toys, none of which were overlooked during her long stay.

Cara loved the dogs because they were dogs, but also because they were still unsure of her and a little frightened. This is perfect dog-Cara interaction. She also got to watch dogs and kitties on TV; today was Super Bowl Sunday, but it was also the day of the third annual Puppy Bowl on the Animal Planet channel, featuring dogs running around a small-scale football field, and an incredibly lengthy halftime show with kitties frolicking to disco music.

Much snack-type food was devoured by Cara, while her Papa got her to pronounce the word "nuclear" to prove she could say it better than President Bush. Cara was in high mimic mode today and was repeating almost anything anyone said to her. (Cara's initial pronunciation of nuclear sounded something like "keer," but upon hearing about this in the evening Evie made Cara say the word again and the first syllable had been added in.)

I was glad that Cara managed to stay mostly awake during the drive home, and I did not have to wake her up mad after her car ride. It was late so we skipped the bath and after some extended messing around (during which Cara did a lot of pretend-sleeping--she has a very good fake snore!) we finally put her to bed.

2/5/07 (Monday)

I have at long last crawled out of bed/off the couch and begun to be a mommy again. I wasn't ambitious; I'm taking things slowly. The first thing I did was to bring down a bag of potato chips. I selected one for Cara. I selected one for Grandpapa. (It's okay for me to do that; I'm a mommy.) Cara took her chip, climbed onto a chair, and ate it. She got down. She got a chip. She climbed up. She ate it. She got down. She got a chip. It went on and on. I spoiled my dinner; Cara did not. Grandpapa was finally able to go on with his life.

Soon, it seemed that George needed a chip. Fortunately, Cara ate it for him without much prompting. She took him over to her table, and we decided to have a tea party. I'm very pleased about this because I'm a tea drinker, but I've had more pretend coffee with Cara than I have ever had in my life. George got a plate and then we looked for food. I got out the big canister of fake food and suggested cake, but Cara searched for and found a half of a plastic hamburger bun. This has been her favorite piece of fake food for a long time; it's been baked in her oven and sautéed on her stove several times. That's what George got to eat. A little stuffed pink bunny was found along the way, and it got to eat, too. Eventually the cake came out, and we all enjoyed it. The "munny" was the only one to drink any tea. I'm sure we can do better next time.

It was catch-as-can night here, and Cara caught two hot dogs, some cheese, and a few grapes. We relented and put on a movie for her while we ate. I had some soup. Cara ran in once in a while, and sometimes she just had to say "hi, Mommy, Daddy," but sometimes she drank a spoonful of miso soup and them ran off, refueled.

We had a weird night last night. Cara was up around three-thirty, and I took care of her for a while. I held her in the glider and she went right back to sleep in my arms, but as soon as I put her down she cried again. I held her again, and she slept. I put her down, and she cried. I even tried standing there and rubbing her back, but nothing worked. I gave up in defeat around five, and Steve got up with her, turning off his alarm and everything. Cara was happy to go "nounstairs!" We've bundled her up for tonight, so if it was the cold that bothered her, we may be better off. She's had her Tylenol, but she had that yesterday, too. We'll see how this goes.

2/6/07 (Tuesday)

Cara had a good day at Susan's. Her language is "exploding"; she was talking about pandas and everything. I assume that there was some context for this. She made a cute little rowboat. Susan claims that Cara is very good at doing crafts involving glue and paper. There was some action to the day, though. Susan came in to find Cara jumping on the couch. She explained that we don't do that here. "No!" said Cara. Susan took her down. Later, Cara tried jumping on a chair. When Susan told her not to, Cara folded her arms, looked stern, and refused! Surprisingly, Cara did not win that fight, either. It's interesting that she really doesn't do that at home. We just get the waterworks!

After a cup of yogurt, Cara was ready to wait for dinner. While we waited, we did a lot of dancing. Well, Cara went around and around. We did "The Wheels on the Bus." Her puma danced. While I was in the kitchen, Cara brought her daddy out to the living room. She pointed to a spot. "Daddy. Round and round!" She's a choreographer!

Downstairs, we had a tea party and a coffee party and possibly some soup. There was a wonderful demonstration of the difference between boys and girls--men and women, that is. Daddy had the spoon and the mug, and there was a pretty, fluffy, snuggly pink bunny. If I had been in charge, the bunny would have had a nice sip and enjoyed it politely. As things were, the bunny guzzled the whole mug violently and ran away. Cara had no reaction.

She has figured out that the tickle-and-giggle Curious George is meant to be tickled, so Cara wants to tickle him. She finds all kinds of fluffy, feathery things and waves them in his face, trying to get him to laugh. Unfortunately, George is a very concrete learner.

Cara loves to play on our bed in the evenings, and she has gotten so confident that now she is dancing on it! This is scary. It has occurred to me that parents who are proverbially strict about jumping on the bed may be worried not only about their mattresses, but also about the skulls of their offspring. We are debating whether to become restrictive or to become human safety nets.

The evening's milestone: Cara said "eight." She and Steve are working very hard on counting, which inevitably skips some numbers and repeats others. At one point, she started with "eight, nine, ten!"

2/7/07 (Wednesday)

We went to see the twins today! Cara talked much more than she ever has at their house; she loved a Diego playset (Diego is some sort of male counterpart to Dora the Explorer) and kept exclaiming about "iego!" It was a cool playset, but we will not be getting one. It talks. The twins have a very nice dress-up set, and they tried to dress Cara up. She would have none of it. I, however, look great in a backwards tiara. Cara was very happy running around and playing mainly by herself; when she needed help, she often came to Shannon to fix things instead of to me. When it was time to go, Cara carefully avoided eye contact and stayed very busy.

At home, Cara ate three cheese sticks. Our evening playdate was off, so we had nothing to do but to wait for Daddy to come home. We read for a while; Cara is great at recognizing her books. We went through a half dozen little golden books and were halfway through Busy Timmy, which Cara can identify, when Daddy arrived. Cara, being full of cheese, didn't eat much dinner. When we were halfway done we let her loose and sent her off to play downstairs. She wanted company, but boredom convinced her to be independent.

I was going to say last night that it was okay for Cara to dance dangerously on the bed as long as she couldn't get up there by herself. This evening, of course, she did! It only happened once, though, and she certainly seemed to be trying hard. There was much delay on the way into the bath; many books were read on the potty for no particular good reason. I headed downstairs during the ablutions, of course, but I responsibly returned just as Steve was getting ready to get Cara out himself. "Uh-oh, Mommy coming!" It seems that my services are not preferred.

With great joy, we all took turns wearing Steve's flip-flops tonight. Afterward, Cara put them away: "One, two!"

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