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Journal Key:

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

4/12/07 (Thursday)

Cara had a good day at Susan's, but she was probably still tired because of her shot. She was up in the night a little bit, I think. I went in and held her for a while, but she went back to sleep really fast so I don't know whether she was really up because I didn't have my glasses on. Anyway, she was good for Susan. She made a picture that shows how seeds go under the ground and become plants. There are seeds glued on it.

When we got home, Cara had to go play sand. I had been talking about cheese sticks with her, because I had finally bought some more and I hoped that that would get her into the house. It did, but only after about twenty minutes. She plays really well independently, so I am able to run the groceries into the house. When I came out, I found some strange, dark masses in the sand. It was gross. I scooped them out. I couldn't imagine what they were. Was something growing there? Soon the mystery was solved. Cara took her shovel and headed over to an empty pot where she started to gather more potting soil, wet from this morning's rain. I guess I have to move that!

Inside, we had a cheese stick, Cara helped me put away the groceries, and we went to play downstairs. We practiced counting the ten coins that came with her new piggy bank. Cara understand that you point to things in sequence and say numbers, but she sees no reason to do these with any correlation. She'll point to six coins and be on number two. The coins have animals on them. There are five pairs of coins, one large and one small, in five different colors. On the large coin is the image of an adult farm animal; on the small coin, a baby. Cara has no trouble identifying them, except the cows. She was unable to make clear to me which coin she thought had the mommy cow on it; she really seemed to think that it was the small one. It turned out that the big coin showed the daddy cow. I didn't get into that one.

I got out the Playmobil mommy and showed Cara that she could jump from coin to coin. Cara grabbed another figure, our black female veterinarian. She could also jump. Soon Cara used them to act out the drama she enjoys. The baby asks where the mommy is, and the mommy responds. It turns out that the vet is the baby. For a change, I took the mommy and jumped her inside the piggy bank. The baby rescued her several times, and then they were both trapped. Cara is doing their dialogue very well.

There is sand all over my house. Cara got onto the couch with her sandy shoes and danced all over it. I used a lint roller, but it didn't get it all. It's also on the floors. It's also on the carpets. I think we may have to institute a Susan/Grandpapa procedure in which Cara has to take her shoes off when she comes in, but then she wears slippers to keep her from sliding all over the place.

In the bath last night, Curious George the tub toy was wrapped up in a wet wash cloth and went to sleep on the rim of the tub. This evening, when I was called upstairs, a shark was receiving the same treatment. She even sang "Twinkle, Twinkle" for it.

4/13/07 (Friday)

This week we varied our routine with a trip to Jenkinson's to see the fishies. Grandpapa and Cara picked me up at North the moment school let out, even though I had warned him about the traffic! We drove directly to the aquarium, where Cara was so entranced with the dolphin stamp on her right hand that we eventually returned to the desk to ensure symetry with an identical stamp on her left.

At first she was too excited to really look at anything, and we simply rushed from one exhibit to the next. Feeding time for the penguins was announced, bringing us perilously close to the gift shop. As a result Cara acquired a pair of squishy, wiggly dolphins, the twin delights of her heart for the rest of her visit. They bathed with her, they slept with her, and accompanied her everywhere. She frequently clutched them to her chest and wriggled to demonstrate her deep affection for them. To our consternation, she also chewed and sucked on them a great deal. Being uncertain of their safety for this usage, we intend to disappear them for a while.

Back at home, Cara was the first to finish supper. As we ate, we could hear a reassuring amount of clatter from the kitchen. After a bit, George got up and got some photographic evidence of her activity.

At our house painting has become Cara's top priority. "I need brush," she tells us, and makes a bee-line for my art room. We are ready for her; I have brushes in the kitchen and Claire swiftly provides a huge sheet of paper. She is learning the practice of getting the brush wet and then getting color on it. We also spent time coloring with crayons downstairs; these activities completely supplanted previous pastimes such as DVDs or playing with the zoo.

Thanks to the wiggly dolphins, bathtime was totally engrossing and Cara was thoroughly washed from top to toe. She played and played, and then she said, "I be kitty." This is her signal that she is done; when she comes out of the bath, I still wrap her in the little pink towel with the animal hood. It's actually meant to be a bunny, but if she says it's a kitty, who am I to correct her? So, I wrap her in her hooded towel and let her see herself in the mirror, rosy and cozy, my little kitty.

During her bedtime story she asked to see the photo portrait of her mommy and daddy. I took it down from its high shelf and placed it on the coffee table. She sat herself solemnly in front of it, waved and said, "Hi Mommy. Hi Daddy." I asked if she missed her Mommy and Daddy; she nodded. I told her that she would go home to them in the morning, and we went on with our snuggly bedtime routine. By 9:30 she was safely laid to sleep with all her toys and without a protest.

4/14/07 (Saturday)

She woke up happy. We had to gather a lot of toys to wake up! Mickey, Minnie, Donald and Puma all had to get out of bed. The dolphins were clutched to her chest. We let Schmutz out of the basement and Cara helped feed him; she went directly to the cabinet under the fish tank and got out two cans of food - one for each hand - which she carried up to the kitchen for me. What a good girl!

At breakfast Cara declared she wanted honey on her toast. We did an especially thorough cleanup afterwards, but that sleeper may want to go straight into the wash!

At first she resolutely refused to brush her teeth, even for a sticker. I carried her upstairs and let her watch me brush my teeth. No dice, but she was attracted to the colorful array of toothbrushes and wanted to hold them. We violated fundamental rules of hygiene, but she proceeded to do the most thorough and prolonged toothbrushing I have ever seen. We had to delay getting her dressed because she was so intent on brushing her teeth. Sadly, her own personal toothbrush never did become part of the process.

Cara had not forgotten my promise that she would go home to Mommy and Daddy. As soon as she was dressed and we mentioned going home she ran to the door, eager to be on her way.

We were happy to see our little girl when she got home! She was glad to see us, but she was also glad to get down and play. We have had all sorts of toys out today.

Daddy was reading to Cara when Grandpa Jim arrived to visit! He was immediately invited to join in the reading. Cara helpfully pulled lots of books out and told us which ones to look at. In a few minutes, though, we had to go out. We went to Toys R Us to exchange a birthday present and pick out some new things. I knew I wanted Elefun, but we had to spend some time exploring to find other things. We selected two sets of toy dinosaurs. Each consists of a mommy, a baby, a big egg to hide the baby in, some food, and a caveperson.

We went out for lunch and I opened a set of dinosaurs. We have decided that the mommy is actually a daddy. I remarked that he was a single father dinosaur, and Cara solemnly echoed, "single dinosaur." She swiftly learned how to operate the egg and played very happily while we waited for our food. She tried to share with all of us. She shoveled in an entire bowl of soup, not spilling very much, and then picked at her pasta. Finally, she concluded the meal with a brisk run around the restaurant, including a stop in the bar to sit on a stool.

We hadn't even pulled onto Nancy Circle when Cara started talking about playing sand. She was in the wonderful state of knowing that it's really nap time and therefore finding everything much more fun. She played sand. She scooped and sifted. She drove her cars around. They kissed each other. Grandpa showed her how the dump truck works. She ran around the tree in the front yard, giggling. She went down the stairs to the back yard and ran around there, giggling. Eventually, though, we really had to put her down for her nap!

When Cara woke up, a little bit after four, PJ and Casey were here! We have started Saturday night dates, trading off which couple takes the kids. Of course, we really won't end up doing it every week, since one or another family is bound to have plans. Cara was in her not-really-happy-to-be-awake phase, which makes her very delicate. She sat in our laps and was unhappy for a while before she perked up and started playing.

We had out all the Weebles and all the Playmobil and the play food and the foam blocks and the ball popper and a puzzle and a couple of books and the play medical stuff and the stacking cups and a rubber duck and the balloons and the bubbles and a tambourine from new Year's and I don't know what else. We cleaned up periodically, so no one drowned. Cara still likes biting chunks out of the foam blocks. PJ still loves the ball popper. Casey still loves the doorway jumper. (She's crawling, too, which is fun!)

When we'd been hanging around for about an hour, I got out Elefun. Actually, both kids came downstairs with me to get it. Fortunately, the box was exciting enough to get them back upstairs. Somehow, we got it assembled. Each of us (except Casey) took a net. We turned it on. Slowly, the butterflies began to fly out of the little elephant's four-foot trunk. In subsequent games, it got faster because they were stirred up better. It really is cool to see them floating out and down; they're kind of hard to catch. PJ and Cara were thrilled! When the butterflies were all out we took the top off, and the kids put them all back in so that we could play again. PJ doesn't really try to catch them. He stands there, very happy and excited, his eyes lit up, holding out his net. If I put a butterfly into it, he shakes it out quickly. Cara attempts to catch the butterflies simply by saying, "catch, catch!" It is not a particularly effective technique, either. However, they are both very happy.

Cara and PJ helped me make dinner. Each sat in a chair and put chicken nuggets onto the baking sheet. Each nibbled on a cold (but fully cooked) nugget. Then they went off to play while I tried to feed Casey. She took advantage of the situation by largely refusing to eat anything but Nilla Wafers. I got a little bit of food into her. Cara and PJ played with the doctor's kit. At one point, PJ headed upstairs and Cara, wearing a stethoscope, called, "PJ, come back! I doctor!"

Dinner, unfortunately, was eaten in a perambulatory manner. We had put on Curious George, and the kids would run in and grab something to eat and then run back out to watch. I definitely have to clean the floors! We were all cleaned up when Em and Ron snuck in and waited for PJ to notice them. We got to tell them how good their kids were, especially PJ. He was a good sharer all day. He didn't earn a single reprimand. Ron says that when they take Cara, he promises they'll tell us all good things about her, no matter what. We all agree that our preschoolers are on better behavior when away from their parents.

4/15/07 (Sunday)

I was awoken this morning a little after seven by Cara and her Mommy coming into the bedroom. Cara was about as nonverbal as I usually am when I get up for work during the week. We went downstairs and turned on Disney while Mommy made pancakes for us. We knew it was going to be a rainy day, so Evie had purchased a few things, all of which were played with today. One of these was an additional set of dinosaur toys (as described in yesterday's post), which Cara was glad to have. The dinosaurs and their caveman friends migrated over to the Weeble house of the three bears--the adult dinosaurs did not fit well in the house, but the babies did okay, and the cavemen were juuuuust right.

Another thing we got out was Play-doh. This was a big hit. Cara is not really sure what to do with it, but she likes to have the different colors (which she seems to be able to identify fairly well) and watch us play with it. Something she's been doing lately is telling us what we want: "Daddy, you want green!" she would say, instructing me to take the green Play-doh. This is her way of sharing, I guess.

After her nap, Cara went through a slow waking up process, but once she was pretty awake Mommy took her off to PJ's house. I stayed behind to finish up some video editing of Cara's birthday party (movies are now up on the movies page!), but eventually came along as well. A couple of times Cara and PJ would sneak upstairs so they could stand side by side and jump happily on PJ's new fire truck bed. Cara became very upset about a toy airplane--it is filled with passengers, but there's no way to extricate the people from the plane, which seemed to be her main source of distress. She played fairly well otherwise.

We actually went home with the intention of having dinner by ourselves, but received an invitation and quickly returned to Em and Ron's house. We had begun watching our pal CG (that's Curious George), and in order to avoid too much unhappiness we brought the DVD along with us and had it as after-dinner entertainment. Cara did not eat a whole lot for dinner--PJ probably did better, which does not happen often.

When we got home, walking in the dark through the rain, Cara still hopefully asked us to "Play sand with me?" It was not the first time that day, and of course we had to refuse her. Then it was "Curious George please?" which we also couldn't do, because it was bath time! (Her saying please is a fairly recent and very welcome development--she also has started saying "Thank you very much" every once in a while, instead of just "thank you.") After that Cara found the Play-doh and went so far as to bring a container over to her high chair and climb in, all ready to sculpt. Poor girl. Fortunately she had a very nice bubble bath. Cara was really entranced by the bubbles--there were lots of them this time and she spent a lot of time picking bubbles up and putting them on her arms, or on her head, or on my head or Mommy's head. I was able to wash her hair very thoroughly without a word of protest.

We also have a fun game we play in the tub, where the Curious George bath toy runs along the edge of the tub and does fancy dives into the water. Tonight I added exciting monkey sound effects, and Cara was overjoyed (she laughed at George while holding her hands over her mouth for some reason). Another odd behavior she has picked up in the tub is holding her nose and roaring like a lion. I don't really know how she made this connection. There was one night when I held my nose for some reason or other, and showed her how your voice sounds funny when you talk like that. I encouraged her to try it herself, so she held her noise and immediately started saying "Roar!" Maybe she was thinking of the sound I make when I blow my nose.

Evie decided to move Cara's Elmo couch up into her bedroom today. One of the things Cara did this evening after her bath was to pretend she was going to sleep on it. She pointed and commanded me to sleep next to her.

Counting has become very interesting. Cara is very consistently counting one, two, three, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve. She sometimes even goes to thirteen and fourteen. I find that if I prompt her with "four" at the right moment she will often naturally move to "five," but it always goes to eight after that. She has enough number puzzles and toys now that we should be able to fix this problem. For now, we are witness to humorous displays like that of this evening, when she started counting some coins on my dresser--by the time she had gotten to the second coin she was already up to nine!

4/16/07 (Monday)

Due to the torrential rain and horrible storm that started to taper off today, I had a bonus day at home with Cara! We started off our day, after breakfast, of course, by looking online at Play-doh projects. We saw several that looked like things we might be able to do, like a caterpillar composed of a line of balls in alternating colors. The front had a face. Well, we picked out some colors and I rolled some balls. Cara helpfully mushed them right together. She really concentrates when I show her how to roll a ball; I can see that she wants to do it, but she just doesn't have the coordination yet. When I got out the white clay, Cara happily picked it apart and piled it up in a big mush. She really loves playing with that stuff, even though she can't accomplish much.

It really wasn't raining hard, and local roads were okay, so we went to the mall. Cara rode in in her stroller, and we headed right for Tiny Town. We were pretty much the only ones there, and Cara finally got to run around! Rainy days are tough for her. She went down all the slides and climbed on all the vehicles. She wanted me to join her, but I'm too big. I explained this to her, and then she explained it to me.

Something terrible happened in the Disney Store. Everything was going as planned. Cara was gathering and carrying large handfuls of pens or pencils and then either abandoning them or being persuaded to put them back. I was looking around at things, particularly things on sale. I wanted to buy Cara something. Usually we don't spend any money at all on a trip to the mall, but today for some reason I was ready. Eventually I picked up Cara and we were looking at some toys. "Mommy, I get this? I get this?" Cara asked. She has never done that before! I had been feeling very lucky because my child never asked me to buy her anything and in fact did not yet realize that she could ask me to get her things. Now, somehow, the whole playing field has changed. I couldn't get it for her. If I had, what would I do the next time she asked for something? We had to leave. Cara wasn't unhappy; on the way out she stopped me, got down, and went into a little tent.

Downstairs, we ran around for a while in a sunken area with fountains and lots of stairs. Cara liked running down a ramp and then up the stairs beside it, at the top of which she had to walk under a barrier rope. I'm not really sure at all why that rope was there. She just had so much fun I couldn't stop her. She went around and around and around. When we passed by again on our way out, she went around and around again.

We went to the Playmobil store, where Cara played for a long time. She loves the castle, of course, but she also likes the soccer game that's set up. She can't make the little players kick the ball, but she likes messing with it. I thought hard and selected something to buy Cara. It's a (relatively) big boat with a man in rain gear and a killer whale. I thought a boat would be good because she likes her outside boats, who so far have sailed only through sand. She sings to them, "row, row boat!" I showed it to her and asked whether she wanted it. She did. She carried it to the register and I showed her whom to give it to. She did, and then she took it back in its bag. She said "thank you" to everyone and then ran out of the store, dragging the bag. "My boat!" she cried.

We stopped at the Reatrix pad on our way out. We were the only ones there! Cara is really good at the games, now. I mean, she doesn't understand the goals or how to score on the scoring ones, but she sure can pop that popcorn! When the car race comes up, she just runs around and around the track with the cars. She also, for some reason, frequently got down on the floor and "rolled" around without ever lying all the way down. Her legs and hands are really all that touch the floor. She rolled pretty far. Soon another little girl came along. It was just like all those times when we've been there and everything has been dominated by an older child. This time, that child was Cara. She was gleeful and exuberant, and the other girl was clearly new to all of this. When she started to get into it and tried stepping on the monkeys, Cara always seemed to get to them first. When the fireworks appeared around the rim, Cara ran in a circle and set them all off! I pulled her away a little bit. When we were on our own again, frogger came on. I said something about a frog, and Cara started hopping and ribbitting!

The boat was a good motivator. We had to go home to play with it. Cara held it in the car, in its packaging. She got to play for a few minutes before having lunch and going to bed. She stayed awake in her crib for at least an hour, so she didn't get up until quarter after four. I had made cookies, and I gave her one with a little plastic cup of milk. She knows to dunk her cookies! I wonder where she picked that up.

We went downstairs to play with the boat. I spread out a blue blanket to be water and we put it on. This lead to Cara saying, repeatedly, "I walk on water!" She also sang to her boat. Lots of the Playmobil animals and people like to go in the water, it turns out. It was a nice multicultural gathering; we had the Weebles' houses out, the Playmobil people, vehicles, and animals, the cavepeople from the dinosaur sets, and eventually Noah's Ark. A good time was had by all.

We took a quick trip to the grocery store, where Cara walked and I carried my few purchases in a basket. It took me a while to figure out what she was saying, but Cara told me, "I walking on squares!" She also got to sit in the ride, a dilapidated helicopter, on our way into and out of the store. I guess she doesn't usually ask because she's in a cart. Maybe she can't see it! Before we went to the store it wasn't really raining, so we got in a few minutes of playing sand. Thank goodness it was just a few minutes.

For dinner I made linguini with scallops, asparagus, and tomato. Cara loved it! I'm always happy when I make something unusual and she enjoys it. I knew she'd like the noodles, but she picked out the scallops to eat specifically and then asked for more. It was gratifying.

I learned from a picture on the packaging that Cara's boat is a bath toy. She was excited about taking her new stuff in the tub; she carried it all the way upstairs. She was much more invested in getting herself into the tub than usual. Interestingly, Curious George was not allowed to ride in the boat. He did get to do some diving, so I don't think he was very upset. The whale is interesting; it had a movable weight inside that allows it to float either on its belly or standing up. The man fell out of the boat sometimes, and Cara exclaimed, "Oh, no, my fisherman!"

A few weeks ago, when it was warm, we tried putting Cara in lighter pajamas, a set with regular pants and a top. She would not go to sleep. She didn't think they were pajamas. She felt, I construed, that we had betrayed her by getting her dressed and then putting her down. This evening, in her diaper, she ignored the sleeper I'd set out and opened her pajama drawer to pull out those very pajamas. She wanted to wear them! That's great, I thought, she knows they're pajamas! I told her it was too cold and she had to put on her sleeper first. She was upset but willing. She ended up in a yellow sleeper; blue pants with stars and Blue, the dog, on them; and a purple shirt with a ballerina on it. I don't think she thought they were pajamas. She went right to the gate. "Go nounsteps with me?" She crumpled when we explained. She cried real tears! However, we got through brushing our teeth and she was happy when Daddy read her to bed.

4/17/07 (Tuesday)

Today at Susan's Cara painted a picture of worms. She is very proud of it and will show "my worms!" to anyone. I think that it's bird week or something.

Instead of going home, Cara and I went to the library to get books. Cara was very very excited, when we got there, about sitting on chairs. I got her to sit on one where we could do a puzzle, so we did two puzzles. One was about hats and was a little bit abstract. The pictures under the hats were of the role of the hats' wearers in society, not the hats themselves. It was tough. The next one, a straightforward puzzle about firemen, was quite easy in comparison. We grabbed some books and did some running around. Cara is definitely testing out what it's like to go farther from me. I'm glad she's doing it at the library instead of the mall! It's a much safer environment, which I think she senses. We took out five books, most of which I'd hardly looked at!

We played with Play-doh for a while, effectively mixing four colors together inextricably. Oh well. I made Cara Play-doh bracelets, which she liked. After a while Cara was done with Play-doh, and she and her daddy went downstairs to play. They spread out the water again and played with the Playmobil boat and animals. An extended narrative was created. Cara likes the parts where individuals pull other individuals to safety. She also likes telling them they're bad.

Cara ate plenty for dinner. I made tacos, and Cara may have eaten half a can of refried beans. I was very relieved when she stopped, because I was having visions of myself in the future having to make two cans at a time, which I think is just wrong. At the very least I'd have to portion it out carefully to individual family members, to be fair. When Cara saw us putting jalapenos on our food, she wanted some. "I eat square!" she said. She had her shapes slightly mixed up. Steve, quick-witted as ever, gave her some lettuce.

Cara also got in plenty of running tonight. She ran back and forth downstairs. We took her with us to vote, and she ran around inside the first aid station. When we were done, she ran around outside for a few minutes. When we got home, she ran around the front yard. She went along the sidewalk, down the driveway, past the front door, past the tree, and around the end of the fence so that she could go along the sidewalk . . . .

I ended up getting to read Cara to sleep! Despite two trips downstairs to get water, she got sleepy and cuddly. We read our five new library books, and, miraculously, they were all good! Frankly, I'm astonished. I got a Bear Detective one and The Little Engine that Could, which I thought were reliable. The Bremen-Town Musicians may take some liberties with the original story, but it's fun to make the animal noises. There's also one about a dragon which is about fire safety and therefore could be horrible, but it rhymes! That makes it good. I got one about a giant whose pet hen is stolen by a little man named Jack. We read that one twice. When I told Cara it was time for bed she wanted more books, but she was definitely sleepy. I haven't heard a peep.

4/18/07 (Wednesday)

The only reason I can think of is that it was I who put her down: Cara woke up at 3:30. I waited a few minutes and Steve got up! I was happy. Soon things were quiet. He returned. Things got loud. I got up around 4. She had gotten herself into that hysterical crying where it takes a few minutes to calm down. When she eventually did, she wanted her giraffe and camel, her Playmobil animals who had gone to bed with her. I had not, of course, put my glasses on. I moved things around in her crib and asked her whether they were there. We found one. I looked under the crib for the other and had Cara look too, because she at least could see. She agreed without enthusiasm that he was there. I pulled the crib out from the wall and got behind it, feeling with my feet. I gave up and we went and got my glasses. There was nothing there. I picked up the blanket in her crib and found the camel. The four of us snuggled in the glider and Cara got nice and sleepy. I was back in bed at 5. I got up at 5:15. Every time I put her down, this happens!

The big news this morning was the man downstairs installing the linoleum at the entryway. I had the pleasure of being on the phone with the people at the flooring company demanding to know when the installer was going to show up ("I've already wasted one day waiting!") when the guy on the phone, with infinite patience in his voice and no doubt other thoughts in his mind, said "please open your front door, sir."

Cara was wonderfully curious about the man and his work. At first, she stuck with me as we played with Play-doh, painting, the Weebles castle and most important the Grandmama (or Grandmom) Playmobil figure. Then clutching the important figure in her fist, or putting it into her mouth and drooling on it, she approached the open door at the top of the steps and said "hi!" and "hello man". The installer himself responded politely and in an amused friendly fashion. Then Cara would come back and we would read a book or two. Then back to the top of the steps for another conversation.

This went on for a long time. I managed to get lunch into Cara and together we played in the game room but the attraction, the thing Cara seemed most interested in, was the man installing the linoleum.

When he was finished and walking by her, carrying tools back to his truck, Cara actually broke down and cried, loudly and with real tears! Hard to tell why. Did he ignore her on the way past? Was some of her curiosity unsatisfied? Or was she just plain tired?

I put Cara in for her nap an hour late--at 1 P.M., and for the first time that I can recall, she went down without a peep.

I got to be the one who was there when Cara woke up from her nap. She sat up and revealed that she had three Playmobil people in her hands. She told me to take her camel and giraffe, who were lying nearby in the crib. "I take puma," she concluded. The eight of us headed downstairs.

On a foray into the basement, Cara found a little wooden dog with wheels, a pull-toy whose string is only a few inches long. We decided he was hungry. I put out a bowl from Cara's kitchen set, and then I headed upstairs. Cara joined me in the kitchen, carrying her dog, his bowl, and several spoons. I had to help her get into the booster seat. She spread her gear out on the table and began feeding her dog with a spoon, lovingly. She made eating noises. "You feel better, dog," she repeatedly told him.

We went to the supermarket, where Cara was very friendly. She waved to lots of people. She watched other children with a sideways head. While we were on line, she showed her toys to the man behind us.

Playdate was here tonight. Cara continued to live up to her reputation: Em says she's a parrot. (A Carakeet? A Carrot?) She is swift and fairly accurate. Earlier, she spoke to Steve on the phone. After "Hi, Daddy," I asked her to tell Daddy when she had played with upstairs in the kitchen. Instead of "Play-doh," she said, "I play upstairs--kitchen!" "Poor PJ," Cara told us when we heard cries as PJ had his diaper changed, "he go sleep." The kids played nicely together, mainly. We had some cookies. I'm hoping that the chocolate chips won't keep anyone up.

Cara had lots of fun after her bath. She walked around in her diaper, her pink hat, and my shoes. She added her three strings of beads to the outfit. She found her flowers, She found her old book of jigsaw puzzle animals, which she insisted on playing with. She is not quite up to a four-piece jigsaw yet. She wants to use it so much, though, that I have now hidden it where it will never be found!

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