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Journal Key:

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

5/10/07 (Thursday)

Yesterday morning I had to wake Cara up because she was trying very hard to sleep in. At breakfast she tried to touch some syrupy pancake after I had wiped her hands and I said "No!" She became so hysterical that I just had to hold her for a few minutes until she calmed down. Clearly waking up in the night is not good for her. Last night we had quite a battle getting her to go to sleep--possibly because it was hot in her room--but she did finally sleep through the night, and as far as I know she had a lovely day. When I came home she was over at PJ's showing off her new bubble-blowing equipment that Mommy got for her. She had to take about five or six bubble wands into her tub, and then into her crib, with her. She hasn't eaten a whole lot that I've seen today, having been distracted by television at both meals I was here for, but she has been very bouncy and giggly.

She decided one of the bubble wands, a big yellow one with a kind of honeycomb shape at one end, is the "sharing" one. She is willing to give this one to people--PJ, Mommy, and myself. The other ones are not for sharing and cannot be had for any price. Also when Cara decides to share, her generosity can be very forceful. Even if, for some reason, you might not want to take the yellow bubble wand when she offers it, you will have to take it eventually. I tried multiple times to put it down, but it was always pushed back at me with a "Dere you go Daddy, dere you go."

There's a reasonable explanation for everything. I bought a lot of bubble stuff because I was at the Dollar Store and, after all, Cara did carry home most of PJ's bubble stuff last week. We've given it back, but there's always room for more! I bought two of most things, planning on getting Cara to share with PJ. When we got everything out, I spent some time asking her whether she wanted to share with PJ. She did. I asked her what he could have. Well, he got the yellow one. It's a nice, big one. I got to play with it, too. Cara had the nice big green one and the two extra-long butterfly-shaped ones and the little tiny pink one.

Strangely, none of them were particularly good at producing bubbles. There are a number of factors that might have contributed; we'll withhold judgment for now. PJ and I were allowed to share the yellow one. He was very happy with it. I really wanted to try the butterfly ones, but I was not given a chance. I did get to hold them, but not for long. I am very happy that they all went into the bath, because now I know the bubble solution has been rinsed off.

This morning, by the way, Cara found her bead necklaces. She shared them. I got a nice blue one which coincidentally went with my shirt. Cara offered me the purple one. "No, thank you," I said. She fell flat on her face, screaming.

5/11/07 (Friday)

This blog is a wonderful thing - thanks to recent entries, I was smart enough to pick up some soap bubble stuff before Cara arrived. Before her Mommy had gone, we were outside blowing bubbles; Evelyn managed to get Cara's attention long enough to say good-by, but just barely.

Cara had wonderful success making bubbles with a large, multi-hole wand she could wave around. She made lots and lots of them! She chased them and tried to catch them. G-G came along and got to make bubbles too. Neither G-G nor Cara can catch a bubble in her hand - go fig. Cara is less successful with bubble pipes, possibly because she dips the wrong end in the bubble solution and then puts it into her mouth - yuck! She does blow, though.

All the while we were blowing bubbles, Cara was also watching for Grandpapa's car to arrive. "Papa?" she asked whenever a vehicle passed. At last it was him! (My own appellation seems to have evolved from "Mama" to "Namama.") Papa and G-G had something to do inside the house; Cara was not going inside - it was too nice out! We brought out her little wagon and made a journey up the sidewalk. Sometimes she rode, sometimes she pulled or pushed it. When we headed for home she wanted to be carried, which left me in the absurd position of carrying both the child and the wagon. Soon enough we caught sight of G-G and Papa walking towards us - "Run!"

Reunited, the four of us set off for the mini-park. It had poured rain earlier, so I figured the usually playground would be a soggy mess. At the mini-park Cara thoroughly enjoyed the swings, shrieking and kicking. Everyone had a turn pushing her. I swung on the big swing next to her, and added thrill. Cara enjoys leaning back in her swing and letting her head hang back. I tried it too - this move gives me motion sickness. I am proud and pleased to say that our little rascal had the wisdom not to slide down the wet slides, even though she was tempted.

Cara wanted to swing more and more, but eventually we pointed out her wagon and got her to ride home. Well, she rode for a bit, and then she wanted to be carried by people who wanted to carry her. It was a satisfactory arrangement all around.

We played outdoors for so long, it was about 6:45 by the time we had supper. Then a small crisis emerged - we had no sippy cup. I suspect our cup has migrated north to Edison. Instead we gave Cara water in a plastic novelty mug - it lights up when liquid is in it! Cara could drink from this pretty well. She could also dunk her food into it and fish it out again; I begin to see the real advantages of sippy cups!

We did some painting before supper. Afterwards we went pretty quickly to Blues Clues - it was late and our little girl was tired. We barely watched a single episode before we started the bath and bedtime routine. Cara was eager for her bath this week - she tossed in her toys, pulled her own shirt over her head, and tried to climb into the tub when she was naked. All the toys got washed and so did she, from head to toe - and she needed it after our busy, active day!

Even in her new, special pajamas Cara went sweetly to sleep and slept the whole night through.

5/12/07 (Saturday)

In the morning she wanted to explore my bedroom and enjoy all the wonderful interesting things she could find - I think she has gone home with a pair of clip-on earrings attached to the pockets of her jeans. She had pancakes for breakfast with real maple syrup, and went happily to the car to be chauffeured home to Mommy and Daddy.

When Cara got home, I had just come out into the driveway to wash off Cara's "newly recycled" toys. Daddy and Uncle Ron went out last night to Big Trash night and came home with a tiny picnic table and a bouncy horse for Cara. The horse in beautiful condition, and Daddy already had it all set up for his little girl. While I scrubbed the table, Cara got right on! Actually, Grandpapa helped her. "Doot-doot, doot-doot!" Away she galloped. She was on the horse for at least fifteen minutes, rocking, bouncing, and almost jumping. She really, really, really loved it.

I was impressed to see that Cara was wearing, in addition to the clip-on earrings on her pants pockets, about eight strings of new Mardi Gras beads. They rattled against her horse. It's wonderful to have a lot of something. Today I have worn several strings. Steve has worn them. We have buried small toys in them. PJ has worn some and in fact been allowed to take some home. Casey has played with a few. The horse has worn a few around his neck and a lot around his tail. Thank you, Grandmama! We all had fun.

While we were still outside and Cara was still on her horse, PJ came over in his Thomas pajamas and his sneakers, a good look for anyone. The challenge for the adults present became distracting whichever child was not on the horse, because they were convinced to take turns. PJ kept startling us all by getting off the horse by himself when we weren't looking; he would just suddenly be there at our elbows. (By now, Cara has really mastered getting on. She can sort of get off by herself.) We played sand and PJ rode Cara's bike. After PJ, Em, and Casey went home, Cara, from horseback, pointed to her bike and said, "That's PJ's bicycle." Well, he is basically the only one who ever rides it.

We barely got Cara into the house this morning. I think I took her in to change her diaper, and that's when she was reunited with her bubble wands. We got some of our heavy-duty bubble equipment and headed back out. The bubbling was much more successful today than it was on Thursday. We used better solution, I think. As my Mother's Day gift, Steve and I cleaned out my car. (Hmmmm . . . ) I opened all the doors and took everything out, and then he vacuumed the inside. While I was taking things out and Steve was inside the house, Cara called me. "I stuck!" She was standing happily in the trunk. I lifted her out and she climbed right back in. I'm going to hope very hard that she forgets that she can do that. She also enjoyed climbing around in the car, which she hadn't done for months.

I went inside for a minute and when I came out Cara was lying flat on her back on the driveway with her eyes closed. I was astonished. She sat up. She had a pen in her hand. "You draw me!" she cried. Aahh. She lay back down and I drew her. It didn't come out very well, for some reason.

After Cara's nap, she went over to play with PJ while we went out. She brought him some necklaces, to go with the ones we had let him take earlier. She gave him one as soon as we arrived, even though it was the only one she had on. Later, Em told us some highlights. They played trains. The track made a circle. "Round, round, rosy!" said Cara. When they went upstairs to wash their hands before dinner, PJ decided to brush his teeth, too. Cara wanted to join in. She now has her own toothbrush at PJ's house. After dinner, everyone went for a walk around the block. Em asked us whether we often walk around the block. She could tell we didn't, because Cara had spun around and around, saying, "around the block, around the block!"

It was around seven when we swung Cara home. Predictably, we went to ride the horsie instead of going into the house. This morning, Cara rode her horse while Daddy mowed the lawn. This evening, she rode her horse while he whacked the weeds. I told her what he was doing, but when he stopped near us, he said, "This is my weed whacker." Cara was very, very upset. "Daddy take my cheesepacker!" It's hard when things don't belong to you.

Last night I got to see PJ and Casey take a bath. PJ has a nice, wide-mouthed container to use for pouring, and he has begun to pour it on his own face and try to rinse his own hair. I want to try this with Cara! I did her bath this evening. I had not gotten a new container, of course. However, I did get her to float on her back, which is a very good way to get her hair wet and rinsed. It really worked well this time. She actually floated, too, except for my hand supporting her head. I have been showing her how to wet and rinse her face with her hands, which helps, but tonight I asked her to dip her face in the water. She tried it! She just gets the lower half, but it's a good start. She also got both me and Steve to dip our faces in.

The other night, Steve was wearing Cara's cowboy hat when he fake sneezed, and he sneezed it right off of his head. I sneezed it off my head. Cara put it on. When she sneezed, we knocked it off for her. She put it back on, fake sneezed, and reached up and knocked it off herself! This evening, she kept putting it on, saying "ah-choo," and trying to get it off. It was fun.

5/13/07 (Sunday)

Cara was making noises in her crib at some time past ten, and I went in. I was surprised to find that she was not at all interested in getting out of her crib and just wanted to go to sleep--she was barely awake as it was. I comforted her a bit and she quieted. Evie got up and did something very similar at around midnight or so. When Cara awoke in the morning we soon found the reason for this: she has a runny nose. We watched lots of TV and she had some cherry tylenol and felt better. We finally got ourselves up all the way and packed and into the car to go to a Mother's Day brunch at Aunt Theresa's house! (On the way there, Cara was saying something that might have been "Happy Mother's Day" or might have been "Happy Birthday"--if it was actually "Happy Mother's Day," she was inspired/prompted by a pair of monkeys on the Disney Channel.)

Two things I need to mention before we get to brunch. The first is that Mommy broke down and opened her Mother's Day present that Susan sent home with Cara--it was a framed picture of Cara wearing a giant sombrero. The second is that Mommy broke down and opened the My Little Pony toys she bought yesterday. The ponies themselves are very tiny, and they can inhabit an ice cream shop which comes with various tiny accoutrements. There is also a swing just the right size for tiny ponies, and a hat that does not stay very well on tiny pony heads but is meant for them nonetheless. Cara was pretty well enchanted and they were packed into the diaper bag that we brought to Theresa's. This kept Cara occupied at the house, although she did wander about a little and for some reason went into the bathroom and climbed into the bathtub. She grabbed various items and was at one point scrubbing the tile walls with a bar of soap.

For brunch, Cara had some biscuits but generally was not interested in eating--this has been a theme lately and may be a symptom of her sickness. Instead of sitting and eating she was taken outside and run around by her Grandmama, her Mommy and her Daddy (on separate occasions). After the meal we all ventured outside to go to nearby Deep Cut Park, a beautiful landscaped area where Evie and I had had some wedding pictures taken. Cara had been there before and was happy to be there again, but had not yet had a nap that day and was incredibly exhausted. She was carried by various people and kept requesting that someone else hold her, though her Grandmama will probably have the sorest arm of all of us.

We went back to the house and hung around a little longer before getting into the car, where Cara quickly fell asleep. It was not as long a ride home as we had hoped (Ev and I were both hoping, strangely enough, for heavy traffic, not only so that Cara could have a good nap but so that we could get farther in the book we are reading), so when we got home Evie stayed in the car with the sleeping girl while I went inside and put things away. We've never to my memory done this before.

Cara eventually awoke on her own, still not having had a very full nap. It was also a late nap and she was typically irritable on waking up. PJ, Em and Ron came by, but Cara just moaned the whole time and was not up for playing--on the up side, PJ got in some good uninterrupted horsey riding.

We went inside to cure the crankiness with Curious George. As usual he did the trick. Mommy went out shopping and Daddy was tired, so he decided to continue the TV spree with some Blue's Clues. Cara had other ideas and selected a golden oldie: the Curious Buddies "On the Farm" DVD. We used to show this to Cara all the time but it's been quite a while since she's seen it, so it was interesting to see how much more engaged she was in the teaching or interactive parts of the show. This has become true of her Disney channel viewing as well. Now when she watches a show that asks something like, "Do you see the sheep?" She will say "Yes!" and point to it. With the Curious Buddies show she was identifying animals and vegetables correctly and quickly. It was cool.

Daddy made dinner, which went about as well as could be hoped in the circumstances, though Cara continued in her meager appetite. Soon we were heading upstairs for the bath. The My Little Pony playset began to pose a problem. Cara had carried a good deal of the pieces upstairs with her and when it came time to put her in the tub, I did not want every single little piece be dunked along with her. So I waited until she only had the two ponies in her hands and grabbed her and put her in the tub. Disaster! She wailed through the whole bath. Even though I would say something like, "Can I wash your belly?" and she would obediently stand up and let me wash her belly like a very good girl, she would continue wailing through the whole process. Somehow we made it through and she was reunited with her ponies' swing and cash register and I don't know what-all. But if anyone asked to hold them for her or suggested she put them down for a moment so that we could dress her, she would break down again.

Needless to say, she is currently sleeping with a large collection of My Little Pony memorabilia. She has had some nice grape-flavored medicine and some good books. Before we got to story time, she was sitting in her little couch in her bedroom and spontaneously said, "Aunt Theresa!" very clearly. She was remembering her day, with happiness. Happy Mother's Day to all mommies!

5/14/07 (Monday)

All the mommies and daddies dropping kids off at Susan's today were apprehensive and warned her that their children were likely to be terrible, but everyone except one of the babies had a wonderful day! Cara's nose was runny, but she was fine. She was happy to see me; she wanted to go home to her bubble wands.

At home she had some special purple medicine and played Play-doh while I put away groceries. She made me make her two people out of clay, and then she wanted more. "Do they want to play with a soccer ball?" I asked. They did. "We want soccer ball," they said to me. I gave them a ball to kick around, and they were fine for a while. It turned out that the orange one was the baby.

Soon, with plenty of bubble wands, we were outside. Cara wanted to go on her horse, but she could not really ride it, with so many things in her hands. We soon headed for PJ's house. I got to carry the bubble wands. I gave PJ his yellow one, which he requested, and then Casey got its green counterpart. Cara announced that she wanted to ride PJ's horse. We all went into the back yard. Without her wands, Cara was able to ride the horse, climb up the ladder and go down the slide, and ride on the seesaw. She also, oddly enough, climbed into and out of an old, pink walker that has been sitting outside for a long time. It looked like a car.

As I was carrying her off, Cara said to me, "Mommy, I want be shoemaker." I have no idea what she was talking about. It was very clearly pronounced.

Everyone came over for dinner. Neither preschooler ate well. Cara had had some cheese and crackers before dinner, and PJ ate some strawberries afterwards. He found Cara's bears and brought her one. This, of course, just reminded her that he had the others. I took her out to the car, where we found the actual complete set of counting bears that I had bought today. (The three we had belong to the twins.) Everyone had fun. Cara had many bears in a cup. PJ had many more bears and four cups. Casey got to wave the box around. PJ told me several times that he had the yellow cup. He poured the bears from one to another, which Cara also enjoyed when I stole her a second cup.

PJ saw Shelby upstairs and told us. "Kitty!" said Cara, sounding confident. A moment later, of course, she asked me where the kitty was. Well, I picked up Casey and we all went upstairs to find that kitty. We looked all over, and all we could find was Buster, back down in the living room. Privately, I found Shelby under the bed, no doubt horrified at having so many little ones looking for her.

Before bath time, Cara and I played outside. She tried to go on her horse with a cup full of bears, but it didn't work out. We played sand. Her bears played sand. She liked spilling them out in the sand and then bringing them back to the picnic table and putting them into her cup. She shuffled like a robot. Later she hopped down the hallway; she is experimenting with silly walks today. I started lining the bears up by color. She sometimes seems to pick up all blue ones or all red ones; it's interesting to see her sorting things out.

We had most of the fifty bears on the bed. I asked Cara to clean them up, because she was upset that they had spilled. We went back and forth, telling each other to clean up. I got out the five cups, and Cara put all of the blue bears into the blue cup, and so on.

I'm glad I bought the bears. I think they're getting her to think in different ways. Even so, I resolve to stop buying her things, at least for a little while!

5/15/07 (Tuesday)

What a day! Cara got up a little early and I got to get her dressed. For the second day in a row, I put barrettes in her hair. I don't get them in particularly well; Susan fixes them all day and generally does it better. We haven't found a style of barrette that we actually like. They're all cute but difficult. Cara had a good breakfast with her daddy. She got her ponies all into her hands, but when Daddy said it was time to go to Susan's, she went and put them away without being asked!

We came home and, once I got Cara to come inside, were eager to play with our counting bears. We poured them all out and then sorted them into their correct cups. Then Cara picked up as many as she could, two cups in each hand, and directed me to bring the green cup. The green cup is mine. We would walk to another place in the house and start all over again. Cara is a wonderful sorter. In a way, it's like she's been training for this; she's always holding tiny things. We sorted our bears on my bed, in the upstairs hallway, in the living room, outside the kitchen door, and in the playroom, in two places. We also stacked the cups in interesting ways, including on my head, and poured lots of bears from cup to cup. I lined some bears up, which was in interesting idea. I counted some bears. Cara also imitated this. She counts steadily, but she puts out bears more slowly. She can get to fourteen on just six bears!

Cara, of course, wanted to play outside. We took eight bears. It's hard to ride your bouncy horse with eight bears in your hands. The bears had fun in the sand. They were all dumped by Cara's dump truck. They had a conversation with my car (my toy car). Cara introduced herself to the car several times, even though it had just said, "Hi, Cara." She invited it to come play at her little table, so the car did. It got to play with her bears. Cara introduced herself again.

I was grilling dinner. I could tell that Cara wanted to go play with PJ, but I kept the gate closed. She repeatedly told me she wanted to go "up, up, up!" She expressed concern about the gate. I was very relieved when Daddy came home. He and Cara went for a walk around the block while I cooked dinner.

Again, Cara did not eat well. It could be partly because of her cold, but it could also be because she is not in growth-spurt mode. It could also be because she had other priorities. She wanted to go "outside, Mommy, outside!" She ended up sitting in my lap, head against my shoulder, desperate. She switched to begging to hear a story, but it was all a ploy. She wanted to go outside. Finally, I took her. We took her stroller, which her eight bears got to ride in, and we went around the block. She ran a lot. Finally she came out and told me she wanted to go to PJ's house.

On the way there, we agreed that Cara would share her bears with PJ. He could play, she said, with the blue ones. We arrived. No, PJ could not touch the bears. Even so, they were happy. PJ had been asking to see Tawa since the truck had pulled in to the driveway. They ran all over the house. In their running, an interesting thing happened. Cara was wearing an adorable skort. Like most of her 2Ts, it's a little too big around the waist. All afternoon I've been pulling her pants up. Finally, it just fell down around her ankles! She had too many bears in her hands to do anything about it. She was definitely perturbed.

After the bath (thank goodness!) Steve noticed that Cara, who was wearing nothing but her diaper, was making a poopie. We whisked her onto the potty, and Cara made a poopie on the potty! We were so excited that we had to call Grandmama and tell her! Cara told my mom twice that she had made a poopie. She listened attentively, nodding as my mom talked to her. Then she got distracted. When Papa got on the phone, she told him that she had bears. I'm sure he was impressed.

5/16/07 (Wednesday)

I picked Cara up early today because the twins were coming over. Cara had a band-aid on each knee, but I did not hear how they came to be there. We were in a hurry! It was a beautiful day when I got to Susan's, but it was dark and windy when we came out. When we got home, the rain was almost starting. It was supposed to be a bad storm, so playdate was canceled. It was just me and Cara.

We had to stay in the house! That was tough. We watched the storm. We had some popcorn, which is hard to eat with seven bears in your hands! We read some books. We played with the bears. We drew. We played with ponies. Finally, after an hour, I decided it was dry enough outside for us. We got our shoes on. We loaded the ten yellow bears into the stroller for a ride. We headed out.

First we walked around the block. Cara still loves to run with her stroller. There's a part of the sidewalk that's very badly warped; Cara has to go over that part twice, because it's like a hill. However, it was cold. It was raining a little. We decided to hurry home. That got us past two more houses. Then Cara found a stick. Then she found a stick with lots of leaves on it. We had to pull them all off. Then someone walked by. This was fortunate. She showed him her leaves, which he ignored. "We all walking," said Cara, walking towards home. We got to Gene's driveway and crossed to ours.

There was a lot of water in the gutter. Cara ran right into it. She stomped around. She was delighted. "Nump, nump, nump!" she jumped along. She ran. She bent down and splashed her hands in the water. She found a speck in the water (one of many) and lifted it up on her finger. "Mommy, I caught ant!" She frolicked back and forth. I had to stand there for quite a while. She was so happy, I decided to let her get filthy. She did, too. Even when she agreed that she was cold and wet and wanted to go inside, first she had to run the length of our house and the neighbors', splashing all the way.

Inside, I got her sneakers off. They were sopping wet and horrible. I will have to wash them. I got Cara to come upstairs and I popped her into the bath. I was very efficient and even got her hair. She was in her pajamas, with her hair brushed and clipped back, in fifteen minutes!

I made tacos for dinner and had to keep telling Cara she could have beans when PJ got here. When he did, I still had to hold her off a little. She ate up a few helpings of beans and a couple of slices of the quesadilla I made her, and then she left. PJ ate pretty well, and they were off.

They shared some things well and others badly. At one point, Cara ran back to the kitchen in distress to tell us PJ took her . . . something. We could not figure out what. Finally Ron asked her what color it was. "Purple!" Then something clicked in my head and I knew it was her stroller. Em pointed out that the stroller is pink. I sometimes have pink/purple arguments with Steve, so maybe it's genetic.

After company went home we played for a long time, since the bath had already been done. We played Play-doh, and I made, as usual, two people and a ball. "Hi, I guy," one of them said to the other. I also made a duck, which I was very pleased was recognizable and which turned out to be very popular. Cara got me to get out the Noah's Ark. She shook out all the animals, closed up the boat, and stuffed them in the windows. She was still asking us to take her outside. Finally she got two stubby pieces of red crayon, which she moved around on the boat. It turned out that they were a daddy and a little girl, and they were either going outside to play or not being allowed to go outside to play. They sure talked a lot!

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