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Journal Key:

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

3/15/07 (Thursday)

It is so nice now that Cara has shaken off her stomach bug and we are heading towards the end of Winter. Getting her up a week or so ago was hard work, but this morning when I pulled the blinds up in her room she smiled happily and said "Cars out there!" Cara continues in her toast obsession and had two or three pieces for breakfast. I left to put my things in the car and when I came back Cara was calmly lying down on the rug in the living room. "I lying down," she told me.

I came home early from work--it was just Cara and her Daddy for the evening, as Mommy had to go back to school for conferences. We looked at some books happily (Curious George books are coming back into favor--for a while it was only the TV show that would do), and when I asked Cara if she was hungry she said she wanted hot dogs. I suggested pasta, which was also acceptable: Cara went upstairs and climbed into her high chair, ready to receive pasta. Unfortunately the rotini in the box were a little too crunchy, so while I was heating them up (to make them mushy, I explained) we watched an episode of Blue's Clues. Or rather, it was on--Cara watched some of it but came to visit me often, though she was not particularly clingy or unhappy. We had our pasta, which I gave to her in a bowl with sauce and a fork. She still is not totally won over to fork-using and ended up with some saucy hands and a nice red triangle around her mouth.

After dinner we watched the second episode of Blue's Clues on the tape. Buster was resting on the couch and she and the child had some nice moments of peaceful coexistence. Cara does not think it is good enough to just sit and watch TV and wants to be read to also, or play with her cardboard house. I convinced her to go upstairs for her tub by telling her to bring a book she had selected up with her, so we could read it later--when we finally got to our bedtime reading, she found the book immediately and climbed into the glider. She also firmly decided that she wanted penguin stickers as a reward for brushing her teeth tonight. She calls them "pens." I put one penguin on her sheet and asked her to pick a second, which she did with great care and all seriousness. While I was busy trying to empty the tub of all the toys she had thrown into it, I asked her to go into my bedroom and count the big dollar coins that are sitting on my dresser (this is one of the more harmless things she gets into in our bedroom)--she obediently did so.

Cara has been a joy to be around for the last few days, but putting her down has been very difficult. Last night she made so much noise that we went back in just to make sure she had not injured herself or perhaps made a poopy. She was fine, just didn't want to go to sleep. She has figured out our weak spot and when we come in will almost immediately tell us she is hungry ("I hungee!") so that she can be brought noun steps. Tonight she was also quite noisy (even though she got an extended story time when her Mommy came home). Susan reports a unique event from today's nap time. Cara did not want to go down and sleep on her mat. Susan put her down and was off doing something else. She looked up to find Cara's head peeking around a doorway: "Hi Susan!"

Notes from Mommy: While I got Cara into the car at Susan's, she and I had an interesting discussion. "I Tawa," she said. I agreed. "You Mommy." It did not occur to me for several hours that we ought to have been in the jungle, wearing animal skins and swinging on vines.

I was happy, when I got home after nine tonight, to get to read Curious George with Cara. We enjoy Curious George Gets a Medal. Cara was very into the book, answering questions and mimicking my hand gestures. "Curious George get pump over there," she explained. A few pages later, George let all the pigs out and the farmers had to catch them. I like to ask Cara questions, which she usually answers very seriously with a yes or no but which she does not necessarily understand. I asked her whether she could catch a pig. Yes. She reached out her two hands and clapped them over a pig!

3/16/07 (Friday)

Given the icy sleet, we opted not to go anywhere at all, but spent the afternoon snugly at home. Of course, Cara was interested in the snow and wanted to go outside, but she obediently waited in the living room while I scooped up a bowl full of snow for her. She sat happily mushing her icy snow until it was mostly water, at which point Grandpapa wisely concluded that her little hands must be freezing and tried to take the bowl away. Noooo! She needed more snow! As I can refuse her (almost) nothing, I refilled the bowl. Hey - it was free and it was harmless.

Cara seemed more than happy to rediscover her Middletown toys and pursuits - especially pursuing me (or am I pursuing her) around and around the kitchen and living room. She identified the cat by name: "Mutz." She was a little shy of Moira, but became incessantly chatty as soon as Moira disappeared upstairs with Claire.

Cara has become a bit of a drama queen. Deprived of the opportunity to play with the garbage pail, she dashed to a corner and wailed. Most of the time, though, she was in high spirits and cheered for everything: dinner, Yay! Bathtime: Yay! We did LOTS of drawing and coloring. Cara carefully took her crayons out one by one and carefully returned them to their box, one by one. She seems able to identify colors. As usual, she ordered me to draw; in addition to the usual assortment of cats and dogs, this time she was really interested in circles, and we discussed the different sizes; "BI-I-IG circle!" "Mall circle." She also challenged our ability to draw Curious George. We came sorta, kinda close.

After her bath she objected strenuously to having her hair brushed, although she was willing to do it herself, and she was very happy to find that her own personal toothbrush was right there where it should be.

I almost laughed out loud during our bedtime stories. Whenever I sang a nursery rhyme, Cara vigorously nodded and swayed to the rhythm. Since my singing is weak, to say the least, the effect was totally incongruous. Partway throught he book she was ready to be sweetly tucked in with all her bedtime toys: the Big Doggie, Micky, Minnie and Donald, the sock monkey, Puma and Bear.

3/17/07 (Saturday)

She woke at about 7 this morning, happy to help me release Schmutz from the basement and feed him his yummy, yummy food. We woke Grandpapa and he fixed her a yummy breakfast. Concerned about our lack of cinnamon toast, I spread some with cinnamon sugar, but she was perfectly happy with plain toast. We relaxed for a while and away she went, cheerfully calling out "Bye!"

This morning when Cara got home from her sleepover, we decided to go right outside and play in the snow! It was our first time really trying this. We got Cara into her flowery snowpants, and put on her boots, and her coat, and finally her mittens (which were much too big for her, but they worked okay anyway), and even after all that she was still excited to get outside and commanded us to open the door. The snow was very hard outside and we were worried about her slipping down the hill, so at first we played with her snow-filled wagon. Cara got to pick up handfuls of snow and throw them. Since she really did want to go out back, we went down the stairs into the basement and came out that way. Cara had lots of fun getting into her snow-covered slide and her snow-covered house. Evie took out our bottle of bubbles and tried to get frozen bubbles (as seen on an episode of Curious George), but unfortunately the experiment was inconclusive.

While Mommy manfully shoveled our walk a bit and slowly but surely uncovered our cars, Cara and I played and played in the show. We threw the snow up in the air and watched it break into pieces when it hit the ground: "Pieces!" Cara cried excitedly. I showed Cara how chunks of snow could be thrown at trees. I sat her up on the railing and she tossed pieces of snow down: "Moom!" (her version of Boom). We stomped on the snow and smooshed it: "Step, step step!" Cara tried to cook some snow in her kitchen. She also eventually discovered that she could eat it. She got a bit bored with anything else and was just standing there nibbling on the end of a hunk of snow. I cajoled her: "Are you just going to stand there and eat snow?" So she sat down to continue the feast.

Cara still thought it was worth a "Whee!" to slide down her slide, but even with most of the snow uncovered it seemed a bit too short and sticky. We went up the hill (very carefully) at least once to check on Mommy, and said hello to Juliana (Cara reminding her: "I Cara!"). Because I was afraid to take her down the hill, we went back in through the house. She disliked this intensely, I think because she thought we were going back inside for good. The next time she tried climbing up the hill, she started saying "Whoa!" a lot, because she realized it was slippery. I decided to go with it and I let her slide down the hill quite a few times on her bottom (the snowpants gave me confidence). It was not quite as slippery as I expected and to get her going I had to grab her legs and pull her down, but it was still tons of fun. Each time when she was done she said "More more more," and when I picked her up she gave out a little scream. It was a great first playtime in the snow!

Soon Daddy left for his day out, and Cara and I had grilled cheese for lunch. After a little bit of coloring and some play with her pretend food, I put her down for her nap.

Cara slept until quarter to four, when I sat in the glider and called her name a few times. She sat up. I asked whether she wanted to go play outside with PJ. She did. She reached for her favorite toy. "Puma go outside too." Okay. I carried Cara downstairs, because, despite her acquiescence to my suggestion, she was having a tough time waking up and in fact did some crying. I got our gear together and found her lying on her back with tears running almost into her ears. In spite of this, I got her snow clothes onto her and got us out the door. She was happy to see PJ and Casey and Ron, too. She still has no name for Em.

PJ looked really cute in a hat and mittens that had dinosaur spikes on them. He loves dinosaurs. Em got out a set of beach toys, and I showed the kids how to pack the pail full of snow and then upend it to make a castle. "Dinosaur!" PJ yelled, stomping it out. This was a good game; we did it about a dozen times. Cara's favorite thing was the pinwheel we had. She liked sticking it in the tops of the castles. She also made me wear a small bucket on my head for a hat.

When Cara was cold, we went inside to have hot chocolate. Em got it ready for us in big mugs, and I was horrified when she got it for the kids in little mugs. I would never have risked that! I had her get Cara a bib. "PJ wear bib too?" asked Cara. She was terribly concerned. To my astonishment, after PJ had been given a bib, too, Cara picked up her mug and drank the hot chocolate! She barely spilled a drop! I never would have tried that.

Cara really likes Ron. Whenever he walked in, she said, "Hi, Ron! Hi, Ron!" Then he had to reply, "Hi, Cara! Hi, Cara!" I thought that that was pretty funny but also possibly tedious for him, and then I realized that I have to do it all day, too.

The kids had some good times and some bad times playing together. PJ was doing some shoving and slapping. The most unfortunate incident was probably when he slapped Cara on the shoulder and I snapped, "Cara!" We are all chronically mixing up all of the kids' names; I think we should have just given them numbers. They had fun together, too. When we were all still eating dinner, both of them were running in and out of the kitchen. Then they were both crawling on the floor. We have no idea what they thought they were doing. Cara found a lollipop, which I declined to open for her. She put it in her mouth for a while anyway, and eventually I took it away and threw it out. This was tragic. To keep them both happy, I grabbed two fortune cookies. I opened one and had to split it between them. Therefore, it was their joint fortune: "Romance is on its way!" The next cookie was also split between them. It had the same fortune. I wondered whether the rest of the cookies all said that; they didn't. It's clearly a prophecy.

We adults were upstairs cleaning up from dinner when both kids ran up the stairs. They wanted more cookies; they were obviously ganging up on us. They must have discussed their plan in advance. They did get one more cookie, whose fortune said something about their fortunes coming true. (I don't really remember the fortunes exactly, just the gist of them.) We relaxed and watched TV. Casey jumped in her jumper. PJ pushed her a bit and gave her a ride. Cara stood nearby and tried to jump, too. Soon it was bedtime, and Cara and I headed for home.

3/18/07 (Sunday)

For no particular good reason, though I can think of several bad ones, Cara was up in the night. She was very loud in her crib, but once out of it she just wanted to play. We have tried hard today to make sure she's good and tired for tonight!

It wasn't very early when we got up ourselves; we slept until almost eight! However, we soon woke Cara up as well. She brushed her teeth and got a nice sticker, and then she put away three pancakes. We hung around the house all morning, chasing each other and reading stories. Our most exciting activity was baking banana bread. Cara helped Daddy peel the bananas: "Pulllllll!" She only ate a very little bit of one of them. Then she and Daddy mashed the bananas up. It was time to put the other ingredients in. We tried to let Cara pour in the milk, but instead she put her hand in. When we didn't like that, she put her hand into the milk. After Daddy put in the milk, I took care of the other things. Cara persisted in sticking any utensil she could grab into the batter. Because she was so interested in being an active participant, she was removed from the role of observer and taken to play elsewhere.

Aunt Claire came up to play with us today! Cara often and very accurately told us all who we were. We went out to lunch, and then we put Cara down. Two hours later, I woke her up. I tried a new method. I lowered the crib railing and bent over. I woke Cara by lifting her in my arms. Since she went right into a snuggle, she didn't even get started with her woken-up crying! We went downstairs and I held her until she felt like getting up and exploring. She found our Uno cards and got them out of their rubber band. She picked up a handful and carefully handed one to me, one to Daddy, and one to Aunt Claire. Then Aunt Claire got another. Then Daddy's was taken away. I wanted to try to do some matching or color identification, but Cara ignored me.

Soon, the three of us girls went out. I wanted to go to Barnes and Noble to play with the trains, but now I'm afraid to say that to Cara, because she would hear "trains" and think we were going to see PJ. However, getting to go out with Mommy and Aunt Claire sounded pretty exciting and was enough motivation for Cara to put up with a necessary wardrobe adjustment.

Barnes and Noble was crowded! We really only spent a few minutes with the trains. Cara met several stuffed animals she liked very much. At one point, she had three Backyardigans in her arms. Two were identical. She had to put them all down when she found another that she wanted even more, apparently. She stamped her happy feet on the floor in ecstasy. That pink creature was soon forgotten, and in a few minutes more she found the thing I thought she was really going to try to get to keep. It was a monkey. She found it on the floor. She hugged it and danced. I read a story to them both as they sat in my lap. She carried it all the way across the children's section, but eventually she put it down to use both hands on something else, and I whisked it away.

When we got tired, we headed to Michael's, two stores down. I wanted more stickers! While I picked out some good ones (Winnie the Pooh, Mickey Mouse, farm animals, and some trains for PJ), Cara and Claire took a walk. Cara returned eager to show me her green bucket, into which she had put a shamrock decoration she'd found. Hoping she'd put it back, I asked her to show me where she had gotten it. We started off purposefully, but Claire reported that the bucket had been found in a place where it clearly did not belong, and the shamrock had been found on the floor. We wandered through the store happily. Cara found many things she liked very much but was not allowed to have, and Claire and I discussed arts-and-crafts projects for the birthday party. We bought our stickers and headed home. Cara carried the stickers to the register, and she held them afterwards. I told her we had to go show them to Daddy. As I carried her to the car, she seemed to be having one side of a telephone conversation. "Yes, Daddy. Stickers. I coming."

It was seven o'clock when we got home! Claire headed out and I threw together dinner for the three of us. Cara almost had a fit in her high chair as I microwaved her hot dogs much too slowly. I gave her a fig Newton to tide her over, and she told us that Daddy wanted one, too. She ate her two hot dogs and asked for more, so I made her a third. After she ate that, she put away a quantity of broccoli and even a few little pieces of carrot. It was impressive.

Cara was very glad to have her daddy with her for her bedtime routine. Everything went smoothly; after the bath I got her into her pajamas, and then she wanted to brush and get a sticker. She got two. Both were Mickey Mouse. When she was sure she wasn't getting any more, she turned to Steve. "Read story, Daddy?" What a good little girl!

3/19/07 (Monday)

I brought groceries home with me today. I put them in the kitchen and snuck up on Cara, who was watching Blue's Clues. I tickled her, and she was surprised and happy to see me. I didn't get a hug, though. It was right down to business. "Read story, Mommy?" she asked. "Read Ham?" She got out Green Eggs and Ham. She has developed a habit of asking for stories while watching TV. If you try to read to her, she doesn't really pay attention. Cara wandered into the kitchen and came back with strawberries. I let her snack on them while I put everything else away. She took one downstairs with her, which made me a little bit nervous. She did help, too. She found a cucumber. "I eat pickle, Mommy!" I tried vainly to wrest it from her grasp as she struggled to sink her teeth in. It's mainly okay. I got out a real pickle and bit off half so that I could give her a manageable piece. She said something like "down steps with me," and took off. In a few minutes I followed, searching for floor pickle. I found Cara sitting in her stroller, finishing her snack.

Our adventure of the afternoon was going to the library. I brought back all of our library books except the moose book, which is a big hit. In the car Cara played with a bath toy, a goldfish. She found its eyes for it, then its ears. Ears? Cara held my hand while we walked in, going past all the big kids, middle or high schoolers waiting for rides home. We explored a lot and ended up taking out about seven books, most of whose authors' last names begin with A or B. That was the aisle we were happy in. We got two Babar books, one Jenny Linsky book, and one about Paddington. I also searched out and found If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, which I had never read before. We picked out Lazy Cat, too. Cara carried that one around for a while. My personal favorite may be the one about a bear who gets a clock for his birthday and then has to flee his house when it turns out to have an alarm, which goes off in the night.

We had pasta for dinner and Cara ate an alarming amount. "With your fork, Cara," Daddy reminded her. "With my hands," Cara replied, stuffing it in. When she slowed down, she ate by bulldozing one finger across her plate, then putting it in her mouth. She offered me some: "My finger?" However, I had fingers of my own. We had strawberries for dessert. Daddy hulled them, and Cara made sure he shared with me by grabbing one and handing it over. (Serves you right, Steve.)

3/20/07 (Tuesday)

Susan reports that she could not get Cara to stop talking today, even to read a book! While I was there, Cara even tattled on PJ! He went into the dining room where Susan couldn't see him and started climbing. "PJ on chair," Cara observed helpfully. He'll have to coach her a little better in the future.

Cara's favorite part of dinner was the rice. She kept asking for more and more, and then she kept reaching for what was on our plates! That may be partly because we had given her what we had originally because it was cooler, but she knew it was ours! "Mommy rice," she said, reaching her fork over my plate.

We still have some very icy snow outside. It is like a hard shell over much of the front yard. When I get Cara out of the car, she runs into the yard and stomps around on it in glee. After dinner, we decided to go back out. We needed our boots. "My boots! Mommy boots!" We found them in the closet. We put them on. "Mommy coat! Where my coat?" Cara turned around and around. Outside, we gleefully ran and stomped. We left footprints. Cara slid down the front yard on her tushie, when I pulled her arms. Things are slipperier over on the side of the house. Cara fell onto her back, and I held her feet and slid her in a circle, around and around.

Ron came out with Casey in a stroller, and then PJ and Em joined us. Cara ran to them: "PJ, I have fish!" She had brought out her rubber fish from the car. Earlier, concerned about things I'd heard her saying yesterday, I had asked her where the fishie's ears were. It had none, fortunately. We walked around the block. Both kids helped push the stroller. Cara kept up a running chatter of commentary. Soon it was almost bath time, and we headed for home, looking for Daddy.

Cara has been delighted and excited by even little things today. She ran down the hall at top speed when it was time to brush her teeth. "Daddy, Daddy! Oh, Daddy sit on chair! Yay!" Steve got applause when he was ready for story time. Cara has been exciting and delightful today.

3/21/07 (Wednesday)

Sometimes it seems as if we've banded together to bring up this glorious child. Her wonderful parents and grandparents, friends and neighbors have all contributed to the frequent smile on her face, the way she runs, her friendliness, the way she shows signs of being able to talk up a storm.

Today is the first day of Spring and I look forward to taking her to Johnson Park or to some other outdoor destination.

On these chilly days our mornings all seem the same: Cara watches TV until 9 or so. Then there's playing and reading until about 10. Then we're in the car to the Woodbridge Mall with our destination TinyTown, the place where she runs without shoes on a rubberized surface and plays on objects designed for someone her size. By now she's one of the more competent kids, running and laughing between the familiar playthings. She's good at telling me when she's through running around. Sometimes she finds her shoes and brings them to me. Once her shoes are on, she has a climbing session on the mechanized cars (luckily for ages 3 and up). Then we're back in the car for her lunch, yogurt or oranges or bananas.

By this point, she's dragging but after I wash her hands and check her diaper, she resists going in for the nap. Once I put her in, she wails for a minute or so until all is quiet.

Cara and I went to see the twins today! Cara was excited about going to "Lina house." "Play Lina Sarah," she said. She and the twins played with their tea set; Cara poured "more!" for anyone who needed it. She also had a very good time with their doll house. I do think that she would love to have a doll house of her own. When Linda and Shannon asked her, Cara was able to tell them that one baby was wearing blue and the other pink. Perhaps she is learning her colors!

When I say goodnight to Cara, I blow her a kiss from her doorway as she's reading with her daddy. She blows a kiss back, basically kissing her hand in my general direction. We read a Five Little Monkeys book at the twins' house, and the monkeys say goodnight to their mommy. I asked Cara to say goodnight to the mommy. She kissed her hand at her.

Playdate was at our house tonight. When they finished eating, Cara and PJ were both released into the wild. In a few minutes, Ron finished and went after them. He turned and motioned us to follow him. Curious George was playing on the television. Both kids were lying on their backs on the floor just in front of it, on the comfortable hardwood, staring up. PJ had lion in his mouth; Cara had a sippy cup in hers. Their heads were tilted at the same angle. After we turned away, we heard a thumping noise. They were both kicking their feet against the floor.

Later, PJ was standing in Cara's cardboard house. Cara came to the window. "Hi, PJ, I Tawa," she said. She went inside. It's quite cramped in there. She looked shy. She gave PJ an air kiss.

When they were getting ready to leave, I asked Cara to give PJ a kiss. She kissed her hand to him. He was standing by the door. Em and Ron asked PJ where Cara's kiss was. "Yay, PJ give me kiss!" Cara ran over to him. PJ was shy; he was leaning against the door, clearly thinking, "Ok, Daddy, open the door and let me out of here!" Girls have cooties.

One other charming thing that Cara has been doing lately is requesting songs. It's become one of our new nighttime activities. She really enjoys hearing us sing. Days ago she surprised me by saying "row row boat" as a request for "Row, Row, Row Your Boat." This evening, she said, "Wonder what are you?" for "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star"! She wanted that one a couple of times.

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