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Journal Key:

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

5/31/07 (Thursday)

It was hot today! I hadn't yet dropped off a bag at Susan's with swimmie diapers and a towel, so I was very relieved when I showed up and saw Cara running around wearing nothing but a borrowed swimmie and some sunscreen. I brought the swimmies and the towel, and I will probably drop off a swimsuit later on. That will be for special occasions, because Susan doesn't really need to always be putting five or six kids into swimmies and complicated swim wear! Today they had the sprinkler out and were very happy with that. Cara made a picture; they colored in a butterfly. Susan showed her how to color in the sport, and Cara clearly made an effort to do so. She played happily with it in the car; there was a butterfly decal which she pulled off and occupied herself with.

When I got around to her side of the car, Cara pointed and said, "Mommy, I go on my slide, say 'wheee'!" So she did. She also helped me set up the sprinkler and, inside, helped me bring the laundry upstairs. Unfortunately, in the basement she's still looking for her "guys," so she also took some things out of a cabinet. This was exciting for Shelby, who got to go into the cabinet, so it wasn't really bad. While I folded laundry, Cara looked out the window for Daddy, played with the singing Easter bunny toy, and read Busy Bear's Day, a truly terrible book which she loves and searches anxiously for. "Oh, no, Busy Bear anywhere!" I cooked dinner with Cara sitting at the table with her dinosaur matching game and a plastic cup of water with a lid and a straw.

Because I was out last night, tonight was playdate! Cara, who had been saying, "It's Em!" whenever a car went by when we were outside, was happy to see Em, Casey, and PJ when they arrived. I was impressed when PJ poured her bears from their bucket, and Cara merely told us, "He get out my bears." Daddy got home soon, and Ron joined us for dinner, too. We had tacos, so Cara ate plenty of beans. Em slapped together a quesadilla, and Casey and Cara pretty much finished that. Cara had also gotten two cheese sticks before dinner, so I was impressed.

Downstairs after dinner, Cara started to get upset. PJ had the big pink ball, and he was rolling around on it. Cara wanted to bounce on it, and he wouldn't give her a turn. Eventually I got him to, and I bounced her up and down. She was happy, but PJ was jealous. He wanted to be bounced. I told Cara it was PJ's turn, and I took her off and bounced him. The whole time he was on the ball, she cried. Soon his turn was over, and I put him down. "No!" He kept trying to stick his seat back onto the ball. She was wailing. He wasn't sharing, either. I took it away. Then they were both upset. It was definitely time to go outside and have ice cream cones!

Both of them were very excited about ice cream. Each got a cone, spent three minutes with it, and went off to play. We all enjoyed ours. After PJ went home I had to bodily haul Cara against her will for her bath. She had a great time once we got here. She poured water into my hands again and again. She got out her squeegee, "I cleaning--just like you!" Then she held her squeegee against her upper lip and tried to remember the word "mustache." Once we worked that out, we got to talk about everyone in the family, with regard to whether we had mustaches. I believe she really answered correctly that Grandpop has one. She also gave facetious answers about herself, Mommy, Daddy, and GiGi. She grinned at herself; what a funny girl!

I took her out and wrapped her up in a towel like a baby, which she likes. We went to see Daddy, and Cara got him to give her his belt. After I diapered her she went running around with it and got me to put it around her. It goes around twice and buckles, as long as it's sitting below her belly!

Steve forgot to put this in yesterday: he got her all ready for bed, and then he sat in the glider and held his hands out for her. "I get it, Daddy!" she said, running off. She came back with his story hat. She's a good girl.

6/1/07 (Friday)

I found an idyllic scene when I arrived at Susan's; Susan sat in her back yard surrounded by children basking on towels spread on the grass. Cara arose and ran joyfully to leap into my arms - what a happy reunion! Susan said she had napped well, but would surely be hungry as she had eaten little for lunch. Cara told Susan that she was going to swim in a turtle - I was surprised that she had remembered her turtle-shaped wading pool from the previous week.

At home we did fill the turtle with water, and played there a little. The heat seemed to have wilted Cara a bit and she still had no appetite. Inside she happily explored her dress-up stuff and tried walking in the treacherous high heels. She sat in her new rocking chair and rocked; then she pushed it around the room. Eventually she managed to let me know that she wanted bread; she pronounces it "bed" so it took a while to penetrate, but she did get to chow down on a slice of my homemade bread.

By and by Grandpapa came home - another joyous reunion! And so did Aunt Claire. We had considered the Red Bank jazz festival, but the heat seemed so oppressive we opted to stay home and eat take-out food instead. Aunt Claire fetched Cara's lo mein and our orange beef and General Tso's chicken just about the same time that GiGi stopped by with her guest, a cousin who had just arrived from Poland.

By the time our guests had left and our supper was finished, it was rather late. Cara's energy seemed to revive. Lacking a Blue's Clues DVD, we watched dance numbers from Oklahoma. When Will jumped through his lasso, Cara jumped right along with him, announcing "Nump! Nump! Nump!"

By the time we had run a bath Cara had become quite energetic and resistant to the bedtime routine. However, we finally captured her and removed her pants in mid-air. At this point she agreeably went into her bath after all, where she had - guess what - a wonderful time. Oh, that slippery soap!

During the story period she transparently worked all the tricks in her repertoire to stay up late, with some success as I was highly amused by the entire performance. She needed bread, she needed water, she needed more bread - say what? - Okay, she retracted that request and went with another round of water. Finally we had read through all four bedtime books (ironically, one was Don't let the Pigeon Stay Up Late) and Cara was tucked in bed, where she slept sweetly and peacefully until 7 in the morning, when I heard her happy voice and went to lift her from her bed.

This morning was different from all other Saturdays. Cara was eating her eggs and toast as usual when her face lit up - her mommy had arrived!

6/2/07 (Saturday)

Today was a special day; I drove down to my mom's house this morning and snuck in the door while Cara, in her pajamas, was having breakfast. She was very happy to see me and tried to climb out of her high chair, which was not a great idea. In the course of the morning she suggested several times that she was going home and wanted to see her daddy, but she also was very enthusiastic about being with Grandmama, so it all balanced out.

I got Cara dressed and took her to the park. There was another little girl there who turned out to be three and a half. "Hi, I Tawa, I playing at park," said Cara, waving. Soon the other girl got friendly, too, and we ran around together. Her daddy got a towel from his car and dried the slides so that we could all use them. We took off our shoes and walked around in the sand. The girl showed us "magic": she put a stick down in the sand, buried it, and produced it again with a flourish. Cara was fairly confident that she had mastered this. Both girls liked hanging from the bars; I held Cara up, but she really can just about support herself. She is also excellent at climbing ladders now. She managed, though, to conk herself in the head, which scared her. It was time to go home to Grandmama's house, though our new friend insisted that it was NOT time yet.

We explored in Aunt Claire's room and Claire let us look at some books and play with her toy kitties. We went downstairs and "chooed" our hats off. We bounced on the big ball. We painted. Grandmama expertly made elephants out of Play-doh. We took a brief trip to the mini-park and went on the swings. Cara ate a piece of bread, and it was time to go to GiGi's house!

There were a lot of people there; Grandpapa's cousin was visiting from Poland, and we also saw Ted and Carol, Zygmund and Renata, and Tony and Dolores. There weren't enough chairs! Cara was shy, but soon she warmed up. She liked climbing on the tiny step ladder I sat on for dinner. She got to sit on a high stool from the kitchen, which was perfect for her. She went upside down and I had to pick up her feet. Everyone applauded her for standing on her head, so we had to do it again and again, and then Grandmama had to hold up her legs later, and then GiGi had a turn.

Cara is making big progress in hide-and-seek. She hides her face and counts, and then she comes and finds me. We played again and again. Then Grandmama took Cara to hide while I counted, and I got to find them. I don't think she could do that part on her own yet.

She was a good girl, but Cara was definitely tired and cuddly. A little after three I started to get us ready to go. She sat in a chair between Ted and Tony and showed them her bunny toys. Ted asked the name of the one she handed him, and she decided it was "baby." The other was the daddy. They came with her in the car, and I heard parts of their conversation. "'What you want eat?' 'I want TOAST!'" Then I missed something important. "'I want EGGS!'" She was reenacting her mornings with Daddy!

She fell asleep soon, and when we got home, around four, I brought her inside and put her in her crib. A little after five we went in and waked her. Daddy made pasta for dinner, and Cara ate an entire bowl full. It was really full. I think she ate more than I did. She hadn't had much, earlier, possibly because of the excitement. She made up for it.

We went outside after dinner and Cara went on her slide. Soon PJ, Em, and Casey came over. PJ ran across the street: "Dara!" Cara ran up the driveway: "PJ!" At the top of the driveway they met and sort of hugged and sort of grappled each other. They were definitely both participating in a physical and enthusiastic greeting. They hadn't seen each other for over 24 hours, after all.

Inside again, it was time for Cara's bath. She was in evasion mode. Steve reminded her about her toys that would be in the bath. Up she got. "I baby. . . [something unintelligible here] I do it myself!" Off she went to put her toys into the tub. Steve has noticed that she often precedes statements of this sort with "I baby." I asked her just to make sure, and she confirms that she is a big girl.

6/3/07 (Sunday)

This is going to sound weird, but something really cool happened this morning: Cara's diaper leaked. She woke me around a quarter to six, and she was barely awake herself. She did not want to be awake. I changed her diaper and gave her new pajama pants and put her back down, only to discover that her sheets were wet, too. (Yeah, my brain was working that fast. Give me a break. It's been a while since this happened.) I took her out and we sat in the glider, both wanting to go back to sleep. Then I had an idea. She sleeps on a mat at Susan's. I put her onto her unfolded Elmo couch, gave her her puma and platypus, and told her to turn on her side. I left. It was seven thirty when she woke us up. I had closed the gate at the top of the stairs, and I heard her running back to her room, crying because she couldn't get downstairs. I don't think she even came into our room, though the door was open.

We were bad parents this morning. We got donuts. Cara was excited about them and actually ate a lot more than she usually does of dessert-type stuff. She gradually worked her way through two chocolate ones. She helpfully tried to give more to us, though we were supplying ourselves quite competently. Later in the day, she had most of another. In the bath, she announced that she needed a donut. This is something we do every couple of years or so, and I think that that's probably a good thing.

The big event of the morning was going to the fair with the Loefflers. When we arrived we saw big inflatables waiting to get pumped up, so we went to walk around. We saw a fire truck, which the children were reluctant to explore. Cara and PJ both got nice hats, though. They were excited when they saw a box holding giant banks shaped like crayons. PJ took one out, but for some reason it wouldn't draw. We took a break from the humidity in an ice cream parlor, where the kids picked at and squabbled over some ice cream. PJ has started to actually say no to Cara, which upsets her. We're working on appropriate responses.

They also got to climb on some stools and dance to the music, which we adults were also enjoying. We decided we must be the target audience for whatever station was on, because it was all stuff we remembered. At one point Cara tried dancing with another preschooler who was coming through. She held hands and danced with her daddy, which I wish I had a picture of. Steve noticed a head-through-the-hole photo opportunity, and we naturally took it. It was a two-person one, so PJ and Cara went at the same time. After ice cream the kids had some pizza. Then we headed for the rides.

There were three inflatables. Two were just big bouncy rooms, and the other was a big slide. There was a big line to go with the slide. We headed for a regular bouncy one, but there were big kids in it and it was too scary! PJ and Cara both decided they wanted to go on the slide. Despite their being technically under the height requirement, Ron and I spent a long time in line with them, while they cried over not being on the slide. (While we were on line, PJ started saying, "Dara! Dara!" He was pointing. "Cara's right here," Ron told him. "No! Dara!" There was a little blonde girl bouncing nearby.) A year or so later, we got to the front and got on. I had to go with Cara, because she was not going by herself. PJ climbed up, and we went after him. I held Cara in my lap and held PJ in my arm, because it was a little scarier than they had imagined. Down we went! Cara was immediately ready to go again, but PJ stood at the bottom of the ramp. Ron had to climb up with him. At the top, Ron realized it was a lot higher than it looked. I wondered how high he had thought it looked. Cara and I went down again, and she headed back up the ramp. I followed her, and at the top was a little girl, far older, of course, than Cara, who was stuck. I took her down with us, too. At the bottom, I had to wrestle with Cara to get her off. She immediately began to wail, wanting to keep going over and over. Fortunately, there was a garbage truck to go look at.

At home, we put Cara right down. Strangely, she did not go to sleep. She was fine in her crib until a little after three, when we went in and found out that she'd dropped some toys over the side. We basically bummed around the house for a while, and then we went over to PJ's. They're really cute together. They chased each other into and out of his tent again and again. They climbed up on the pool table together. Cara sat on a stool to play with the unplugged arcade machine, and PJ climbed up beside her. They banged away at the controls, but then they started looking at each other, shaking their heads again and again and giggling.

Cara had an OK dinner at PJ's house, some noodles and corn and pork--I think she mainly stuck with the noodles. She should have been absolutely exhausted but did not seem to be particularly. I should add that before having dinner both children convinced their parents (who should have known better) to take them out back in the rain and let them play on wet things. They were convinced to wash their hands when they got in--PJ seemed to be very entertained by watching Cara wash her hands. After dinner they wandered downstairs and played, mainly I think with the train table. I had a lot of fun staying with Casey, who is quiet but mobile, agreeable, and just a little cutie. She had some time pushing around a little cart-type toy which I think was one of the very first toys Cara tried at one of her first visits to PJ's house, before she knew how to walk. We all look forward to the time when Cara will not be afraid of Casey and the two will be very good girl friends, and justify the adults' habit of constantly getting their names mixed up.

Eventually we could no longer avoid bath time and there was a tearful fairwell. Tearful mostly on the part of PJ, who was probably wailing because he had to take a bath. I had brought my umbrella and held it over Cara and Mommy's heads as we walked back home. Cara had a nice bath with her Daddy, where she mostly wanted to pour water from one container into another, which for some reason she was convinced had to be done through squeezing. Out of the bath she was given two cheese sticks. After eating them she decided she needed to go on the potty--it was a non-productive trip, but we congratulated her anyway, so hopefully she will keep trying until she gets it right. After a few more attempts to delay story time, she settled in the glider with her Mommy (whom she requested). She was soon back out of her room again and coaxed a third cheese stick out of me, but this was her last successful attempt at stalling. She should sleep tonight!

6/4/07 (Monday)

I got to put in some extra Daddy-time today. When I went in to wake Cara this morning, it was very difficult to get her up, and I found that she was hot and sneezing. I called Susan, who was amused at my saying "I think Cara is sick." Cara and I polished off the last of the donuts and began what was to be a record-breaking marathon of Curious George episodes. We went through three complete DVDs today. We took a break in the morning and I managed to read her a few books before she lost interest. We also played with her Playmobil toys a little. She has very much taken to one imaginary scenario I came up with where an animal gets stuck up a tree and needs to be rescued. She gets very insistent about it and even if one animal is quickly rescued he quite often gets himself stuck again immediately.

Cara was fairly normal but was more willing to sit still and watch TV than usual. She is also more willing to wipe her own nose when it gets messy, which is a nice development. Quite often she will sneeze and immediately say, "Daddy, I need tissue!" For lunch she had some nice leftover pasta from last night's dinner, which she wanted so quickly that some of it she managed to eat without it ever getting into the microwave. She has taken to using grated cheese like her Mommy and Daddy and will often ask for more even when she already has a pretty good amount. After the pasta she weaseled a few more Curious George shows out of me and I managed to get her to eat a portion of grapes. Then it was time for her second dose of Advil (part of which she dried to drink with a straw--too thick!) and her nap.

Now yesterday Cara found some bendy magnetic monkey toys which we quickly realized were no good for her, and her Mommy responsibly put them away. Today, Cara soon started up asking for her "dancing guys," and I knew from her various vocalizations in the back seat of the car yesterday that this was her way of describing the monkeys (at one point one of them was even described as a "superhero"). Daddy was a big pushover today (just today, mind you!) and let her have the monkeys back. To be honest, when she got very emotional about it, I even let her get into her crib and start her nap with one monkey. And when she kept crying, to be completely honest, I gave her the other three monkeys as well. She had a nice, full, three-hour nap with her bendy magnetic monkeys, and no one got hurt.

I think her nap could have been even longer, but when the third hour was done I went into her room and sat near her until she got up. She was disoriented and sweaty. She was barely verbal and I was a bit worried about her until I mentioned Curious George: then she was immediately bright and awake and ready to watch.

I've probably said this before recently, but the way Cara watches shows has definitely evolved. She is more likely to laugh at things and understand what's going on to the point of being able to tell me ("He running so fast," for instance). We were watching an episode during which characters get very excited about fish crackers (my parents will know the one!), and Cara decided she had to have her goldfish crackers. This is what she was carrying around when her Mommy got home.

Cara was glad to see her Mommy and allowed us both to hold her, but it was interesting to see that she preferred to be with me. For the past week or so it has always been Mommy that she wants to go to when given the choice, but after a day with me giving her whatever she wanted, she must have gotten a different idea of where her bread is buttered.

For dinner we had takeout, which Cara didn't eat very much of (this didn't bother me because I thought she had a nice lunch), and then--since Cara and her Daddy hadn't been outside all day--we were both convinced to go outside and take a walk with Em and PJ and Casey. Cara decided to stock up the stroller and promptly dumped all of her counting bears into the bottom compartment. She ate lots of berries which Em had brought along and wanted me to push her very fast in the stroller.

Back home she had a nice quick bath with her Mommy and then got me to read several books to her. She got very goofy and was pulling her shirt up to get tickled and doing all sorts of silly things, but I finally put my foot down and got her in the crib. Sleeping has not been a problem lately but we'll see how the night goes--she was warm off and on today but she doesn't really seem to be in bad shape and I hope to be able to take her to Susan's tomorrow.

6/5/07 (Tuesday)

Cara was fine today at Susan's. She was a little crabby, but that's to be expected when she has a cold. She was very helpful in telling Susan when she needed her nose wiped.

As I was putting Cara into the car, I said, "Mommy is going to buy a treat for Cara." (Yes, I really talk to her that way. How insipid!) I could tell that she was thinking about it. "You buy me treat? You buy me chocolate!"

We went to a toy store. I really don't like her attachment to those monkeys, which have very strong magnets that she has already demonstrated she can get out. To distract her from them, I had decided I would get her something else. It had to be small and cute. There had to be more than one. In the bargain bin outside the store, we found our answer: Polly Pocket. We selected two sets, each of which contains a doll ("girls," "ladies," or "mommies") and one or more pets. The dolls are perfect; they're like Barbies the size of my finger. When I took one out, I discovered how strange they are: they wear rubber clothes. Their clothes come off, and they come with other outfits, all of this squishy rubber material. It's very weird. It's got to be easy to dress them, though. Things just slip right on and off. The cats and dogs also have sweaters to wear. Most of their tiny accessories have been put away securely, to be doled out as we see fit. Cara just has the two dolls and one cat. She's very happy with them.

Something rather astonishing happened in the car today. Cara called for help and held out her hand. I noticed a nail that was jagged. "Do you need help with your thumb nail?" I asked. "Yes, Mommy, yes!" I told her we'd cut it when we stopped driving. She remained anxious and I heard some babbling on the topic of scissors. As soon as we pulled into the parking lot, she was ready to be helped. I made her wait until we parked. I found my nail clipper in my purse and went around to Cara's seat. She held out her thumb and I trimmed the nail. She had me do a few others as well. I was astonished. She was very happy about it. Has, as Em suspects, Susan been cutting their nails? I will have to investigate.

We went over to see Juliana when we got home, and Cara had a very difficult time letting Juliana hold her new toy kitty. Eventually she was able to hand it to her, but then she started crying from the effort. Since my plan was to have the new toys overshadow the Monkeys of Doom, I was fairly pleased. The "girls" had already had an extensive conversation in the car, and the little cat had apparently been doing something with their feet. I really don't understand half of what goes on.

The Loefflers came over for dinner. While the adults were finishing, PJ and Cara went downstairs to play. Then we heard the front door open and shut. Ron and I dashed downstairs; both kids had left. We found them on the side of the house, playing on the slide. We hauled them back inside, and I explained to Cara that she had to ask Mommy and Daddy if she wanted to go out. So she asked. So we went out. Casey came, too. Everyone played great! While Em and Ron were watching them, Cara and PJ had an entire conversation consisting of fake sneezes. Then, they started being froggies while playing on the slide together. One froggy said, "ribbit, ribbit!" and the other said "One, two, six, nine, eight, ribbit!"

General PJ news: His vocabulary is growing. It is fun to figure out what he's saying. For instance, the word that sounds like "cheese fries" really is "butterfly."

6/6/07 (Wednesday)

This morning, Cara made an interesting discovery in the living room. She found Steve's tie, the one he wore yesterday and left downstairs. She brought it to him in the kitchen and pointed to the one he had on: "You have to take this one off!" he explained that he wanted to wear this one today. She ran back to the living room, crying.

She had a good day at Susan's. They're learning about the fair, and she colored several small fair-related pictures, which have been stapled together into a "ticket book." Susan denies ever having mentioned nail clippers to the kids, who have both suddenly decided that it's okay to use them. We asked Cara about her trip to the fair on Sunday, and she agreed that she went to the fair. It was at Susan's house.

At home, we had to play with Cara's girls. While I was upstairs getting laundry, Cara discovered the set of accessories that I had decided she could play with. They have their own cubby in her storage rack. The set includes another kitty and a doggy, as well as some furniture. The doggy is mine. Cara gets everyone else. They had a lot to do; my dog hid in a closet, the girls went to sleep, and everyone got a bath. I washed their ears. Cara lay on her stomach and found that the mirror above the tiny sink reflects her face; she's very amused.

I am very intrigued by the rubber clothes. I couldn't resist undressing my dog, who was wearing a sweater. It was easy; it slipped right off. Cara saw me. She wanted her kitties undressed. The clothes lay on the floor, and Cara picked them up. "I clean these up. I take them upstairs . . ." I followed her, curious. ". . . put them in trash!" She did. She was very pleased with herself. When she returned to her kitties, I pulled the clothes out and washed them off. In a few months they may seem attractive. Maybe. Later I started messing with a doll and she saw me almost undress it. She wanted their clothes off, too, but I drew the line there and impressed upon her our standards of decency.

Through poor judgment, we took a bucket of bears over to PJ's house. Cara didn't mind him playing with them, but we are now down one red bear. Cara won't care, but I will! We had pizza for dinner, which Cara ate like a big girl. We cut the pieces in half the long, skinny way, and she ate three of them. She doesn't eat the crusts, but it's a decent meal. She doesn't seem to be in growth-spurt mode.

After dinner, we went outside to play T-ball. PJ proved to be a natural, knocking ball after ball out into the street. When Cara finally got a turn, she did two things: she put the small end of the bat to her mouth and made trumpet noises, and she held the bat by the big end and used the small end to very precisely push the ball off that pole. We're not sure what sport she was playing; it may have been pool.

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