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Journal Key:

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

6/7/07 (Thursday)

Cara always runs to greet me when I arrive at Susan's; she's thrilled to see me: "My mommy here!" Then she tells me who else is there, and we have to go see them. Today, I put her down and Cara said, "Come see what I made!" At the picnic table, the kids were playing with Play-doh. I'm not really sure what Cara had made, but she was quite happy. We stayed and played for another ten minutes. When it was time to go, Cara put her Play-doh back into its container. She closed it. She put her cookie cutters and other utensils back into the bin. She cleaned everything up! PJ, whose mommy was not there yet and who was not leaving, helpfully cleaned his stuff up, too, to Susan's dismay. She's trained them too well!

We went to the park. Cara was excited about going on the swings; she pointed the playground out to me as soon as we saw it. She got to swing very high for a long time. A little boy, who will be three soon, came over and swung next to her, and Cara answered all the questions his baby-sitter asked him. When Cara got off the swing and went to the playground equipment, the boy followed her. Apparently this is what he does, at the park. They played Follow-the-Leader for a while. Cara did not go down a slide. The boy did. Then they went back on the swings. We swung for a long time. Finally, some other children showed up and needed turns. Cara screamed when I tried to take her out, so I told her she could have five swings more. She counts much faster than I do, but I gave her a full five trips back and forth. Then it was someone else's turn. Cara climbed the stairs and ran over the bridge. She went down a slide, and I got her to come around and climb the plastic wall. Finally she hit her stride and started running around, climbing and sliding. We spent a wonderful hour out in the fresh air.

Dinner was pasta. Cara ate hers from her bowl and, when she wanted more, reached out to use the serving spoon herself. She didn't get much. Neither did I; she helped me to a tiny piece of tomato. Afterwards, it was outside to play. Between them, Cara and PJ have gotten plenty of sand on the blacktop. Cara and I used our broom to sweep it into pretty patterns. She played on her slide. She sat under the slide and looked out at me. Daddy came out and he and Cara played sand. Cara made a road in the sand with her little rake, and all the cars had to drive on it. Cara did not want to go inside. Steve wisely said something about mosquitos, so I cautioned Cara that they were here. We explained what they were, and that we did not want them to bite us. Cara took my hand and we walked inside. "We don't want itching, yes."

Strangely, Cara pulled out her old animal train books. She gave me one and kept another. She opened hers up and told me what the animals were, and we also had to drive the books around. "It super-train!" A lot of things have been super lately.

While Cara was in the bath, Steve was singing to her a lot. Finally, she put her face to his and said, "Stop." She had five bears with her, and I heard Steve introducing the idea of a roll call. "Present bear!" I heard her shouting. When I went up to get her out, I had to say, "present." All five bears were and are present.

Cara got to wear her fairy princess ballerina pajamas tonight. She was dancing in her room, when Steve and I heard a big thump. We went in and found her on her knees, crying! I held her while Steve went to get her boo-boo bunny, a clever ice pack Cara's clever grandmom got her a long time ago. By the time he got back we were reading a story but Cara was still cuddly and a red spot was evident on her face, on her right cheekbone. She likes her boo-boo bunny. She explained to us that it was a bunny, and she told us about all its features. It has ears, a tail, eyes, and a nose. We told her to hold it on her boo-boo. She put it to her leg. We redirected. It spent some time on her actual injury, but we figure that it really did its job. Cara will be sleeping with it tonight.

While Steve was reading Corduroy to Cara, she kept mentioning an alligator. She may have meant an alligator, one of those sets of stairs that moves.

6/8/07 (Friday)

Cara had a tough morning and a long nap; Susan woke her up when I got there, around quarter to four. She was cuddly and groggy and happy to go home. There was no date night tonight, so Cara and I got to spend the afternoon together.

It was very, very hot out, so I was happy that Cara was content to play inside. We got out her girls and her bears. To my surprise, Cara told me she needed a new diaper. We went upstairs. She protested, but I changed her. It turned out that what she had meant was that she would need a new diaper. She was ready to make a poopie. She got onto the potty, then off, then on again. She pooped on the potty! It was mildly traumatic for her, because she wasn't really sure she wanted to be on there, but overall it was a good experience. Afterwards we washed our hands, and Cara got to play with a new washcloth she found in a drawer. It had Nemo on it. She also used my blue washcloth. Soon both, sopping, were sitting on the rim of the sink. Cara got her shirt wet. "I dry it this towel," she said, picking up the blue washcloth! I offered, afterwards, to change her into dry clothes, but she was content as she was.

We got to snuggle and read some books, which we haven't done much lately. We changed the clothes on one of her new dolls, because her outfit was just ugly. Then Cara wanted to change more clothes, and I suggested that we put clothes on the kitties. Cara headed upstairs. "I get them from trash." I redirected her swiftly and she has not seen all the goodies in the Forbidden Polly Pocket bag, but the five cat-shirts I gave her were enough to placate her.

Cara was hungry before Steve got home, and I let her have some pasta, leftover from last night. Letting it heat in the microwave for a full minute was torture! (Imagine living before microwaves!) She ate most of the pasta and probably one of the strawberries I was hulling. She nibbled a few others. She had me feed her. Soon we were up and about, but I thought I had better plan ahead. Steve was bringing home Mexican takeout for himself and for me, so I suggested to Cara that we make a quesadilla. We marched right back up to the kitchen. She played with a pot and wooden spoon while I tossed one together. Sure enough, Cara got back into her chair and ate three quarters of it. She hasn't been eating astonishing amounts for the past few days, so it was nice to get back to routine.

After dinner I grabbed the ice cream, the cones, and a big spoon. Cara put on her shoes, and we headed outside. "Yul-i-ana!" called Cara, running along the sidewalk. We all had ice cream cones on Juliana's porch. Cara actually ate half of hers before I accidentally said the word "slide" and she had to go and play. By that time she had a nice chocolate mustache, though Steve had wiped off the spot on the end of her nose.

While Steve and Cara were playing, Cara suddenly took command. "Daddy--you Dora! I Boots!" Unfortunately, Neither Steve nor I have ever seen Dora, so we are unable to replicate any storyline. We tried a little later. I know that Diego, who is part of the Dora universe, rescues animals. I called, "Help, Boots! I'm stuck on this horse!" I sat sort of on her bouncy horse. Cara slid down the slide and "pulled" me off. Then she took a turn. I thought about having a wounded paw and letting Boots fix it, but I decided that might be too abstract.

It was really bathtime already when Em called us and invited us over for a quick dip. We went fully dressed, figuring we'd just get our feet wet. Well, all except Steve's feet, which were still in their work shoes. Soon, of course, Em and I, both in shorts and T-shirts, were standing in the pool. Cara, who will take anything Em offers, was wearing PJ's swim vest, which is just like the one she has at home. PJ and Cara, also both dressed, though PJ's shorts were probably trunks, were both excited about getting onto the first stair. They liked being held and dangled in the water.

PJ rejected the float that he had helpfully found somewhere. "Who wants to get in the dirty old float?" Em asked. It did look kind of yucky. "I want get in dirty float," piped up Cara. (Really, any time Em phrases a question like that, Cara volunteers.) She got into the dirty float. She still had the vest on. She had all of the floaty things in the pool. She LOVED the float. I got to pull her around. I could let go and she was fine. "Mommy, I floating away" she told me once, and I came and got her.

It was a lot cooler out by this time, and Cara was chilly. She emphatically did not want to get out. She was very definite about that. We got her out of the float, but she still wanted to be in the water. She liked splashing with PJ and being spun around by Mommy. I put her on her tummy in the water, with my arm under her chest, and spun her around: she was swimming! It was hard getting her out, but then she was fine again. She wanted to go swing. She and PJ swung on his swing set, both pretending to fall asleep. We all had to keep waking each other up.

Dripping, I carried Cara home. Steve had gone ahead to get the warm bath ready. I dripped in the hallway as we got our wet things off, and then Cara, instead of getting into her bath, got distracted. I had taken down her light-up turtle, whose shell projects the stars onto the ceiling in different colors. He works much better at night. We got her into the tub by bringing the turtle into the bathroom, too. Cara had a starlit bath, with the lights off.

We played more with the turtle afterwards, and in fact we had to turn extra lights on in her room before storytime, instead of dimming them. Cara found her boo-boo bunny in the glider and very responsibly held it to her face, where she got hurt last night. I had forgotten about it, because there's no bruise. She couldn't blow me a kiss when I said good night, because one hand held her sippy cup and the other was "icing" her cheek.

6/9/07 (Saturday)

Cara woke up in the night a little--I was barely conscious, but Evie says it was because she was too hot. She got changed into lighter pajamas and slept very late into the morning--it was after nine before she got up. It was so late that Disney was already well into their second Mickey Mouse Clubhouse episode! Cara and I hung around and she had some toast while Mommy ran out to do some errands. Cara requested more toast, and I tried to convince her that I couldn't just give her a piece of frozen bread, because it wasn't actually toasted yet and was cold and hard. The end result was that she ate half a piece of slightly-thawed bread.

Mommy returned (having gotten a pile of new, wonderful library books which I am looking forward to reading to Cara) and we quickly got ourselves packed into the car to go to Grandmama and Grandpapa's house in South Jersey! Cara was excited at the prospect and did not sleep on the way down, which was perfectly okay. She had a very nice day, as is usual when she is with her grandparents, and it seemed as though she didn't need a nap at all. She played with Play-doh, which she requested upon arrival (fulfillment of her dream was slightly delayed by the fact that we wanted to eat brunch first). It's funny how she does very much enjoy the Play-doh, but she will often wander off and leave many of the adults still engrossed in sculpting and using cookie cutters--it's very therapeutic for people of all ages.

Cara also got to go in a kiddie pool! Her Grandmama gave her another new set of toys, in the form of 10 rubber poison dart frogs and six rubbery turtles, who all live in a clear plastic tube. Cara loved them all, naturally, and they also got to go in the pool. She was very possessive of the frogs for a long time and wouldn't let anyone touch any of them, but her control relaxed a bit as the afternoon went on, and we were able to hop them around and put their little froggie footprints in the Play-doh. Cara found all the bubble equipment but again did not really want anyone to blow bubbles--she just wanted to tote around the bag with all the wands in it. Eventually we convinced her to give up some of the less desirable wands so that bubbles could be blown.

Grandpapa, it seemed, wanted the six turtles. He had to have them pretty often ("You put them in your hands!"). He also got to help Cara put together a very impressive Mr. Potato Head who, nevertheless, had his nose on upside-down. Many other toys were gotten out, too, until the living room was a veritable sea of toy cars, stuffed animals, puzzles, books, frogs, and poor Rusty barely had a spot in which to lay down and chew on his bone. But when it was time to go we all pitched in to clean up. Cara was happy to carry her tube of frogs and turtles out to the car.

She napped good on the way back home and, as usual, awoke unhappy. We quickly applied Curious George and food, and the crabbiness went away quicker than usual. After a lot of convincing we got Cara out of her clothes and she had another starlit bath, courtesy of her astronomical turtle. (I pulled the dastardly trick of yelling excitedly, "Who wants to get in the tub!" to which Cara reflexively replied, "I want to get in the tub!" She immediately realized what she had just agreed to and began crying! We did manage to get her to go in of her own free will.)

Bed time has been very very late recently, and tonight was no exception. I wanted to brush Cara's teeth but she kept munching on puffs while Mommy read her some of her new library books. We had to cut off the puffs with a final bunch of five, and then Mommy read to her in the glider and put her down. Cara is still happily chatting away now at 10 PM, but will probably be dropping off at any moment...

6/10/07 (Sunday)

We stayed in our namas this morning and had pancakes; Cara ate a Mickey Mouse and a no-man. She was very busy in the living room for a while, taking the pillows off of the love seat and spreading them around in the floor. Then she could jump from one to another, crossing the room. I thought it was very industrious of her.

All sorts of toys got taken out, too. Now that we're home and Grandpapa is not here, I am designated to hold the six turtles. It's my job to hold them in my hands. We got out the Playmobil set, and Cara demonstrated that she remembers the original family we bought; she gave me the mommy and, when she found the daddy, she ran upstairs to give him to Steve. This was a good thing, because Steve is much better at playing Playmobil than I am.

We made a wonderful mess in the game room, because Cara opens up a cabinet and takes things out. I've probably said this before, but it's interesting to me to see that babyproofing is not a one-shot deal, it's an ongoing process. For a few weeks, we couldn't keep anything on the kitchen table because she'd climb up and start spooning out the sugar or shaking out the salt. Now, that's not an issue anymore. The game room cabinet, though, is becoming one and probably needs to be changed. Cara keeps taking out my jigsaw puzzles, which we can convince her are not fun. She's found the playing cards, though, and those are sort of fun. They're fun to scatter. She had two packs out this morning and had one on the floor of the bathroom; she was talking to them about all going under her step stool. One day I may take the things from that cabinet and put them away, then stash some actual toys in there. I think she'll be very disappointed.

It's been fun reading the new library books to Cara. I got one called Cinderella Penguin which I like very much. It's really an all-penguin Cinderella, down to the little glass flipper. The mice who turn into horses are penguins. The coachman is a piece of cheese. Cara likes this book very much, requesting "Cinderdella" periodically. It's advanced for her, I think. She's unused to books in which there is actual conflict between characters; most of the conflict she's used to is situational, if there is conflict in the book at all. She always notices when one stepsister cries at the end, and I'm pretty sure she doesn't understand why. A very fun page, though, is the ball. It's a costume ball, so there are lots of penguins in funny costumes. I pointed out several to Cara, and she remembers them. She showed me the ghost on our third time through the book.

I also managed to find Garth Pig and the Icecream Lady! Claire and I loved Garth Pig when we were little, and we were talking about it a couple of weeks ago. Neither of us could remember what it was called or anything, so I've been searching for it in a very random way, considering asking the librarian whether she knows of an old book involving some pigs and an ice cream truck. I got very lucky and happened upon it. I'm not sure that Cara appreciates Garth Pig yet, but I'm certainly enjoying it.

We went over to PJ's house very briefly. Cara brought Cinderella Penguin. We got part way through it, and then everyone got distracted, of course. Cara found a ziplock bag containing a matching puzzle and held it tightly. PJ, who never shows any interest in the puzzle, kept grabbing it from her, and they were both quite upset. When we came home, I took Cara into the basement and searched through my three boxes of toys down there. Most of them are baby things, but I also stuck in things she wasn't ready for, including her matching puzzle. I found it. We took it upstairs and she climbed into her booster seat to play with it at the table. We spent about four minutes with it and then Cara headed off for other things. She is not ready for that puzzle.

We went out to lunch with Juliana! Cara got soup, which was too hot for her for a long time. She did eat the whole bowl, eventually. For her meal, for a change, we ordered her two mini-cheeseburgers. Cara took a small bite from each. They'll be dinner one night. On the way out of the restaurant Juliana picked up mints, which of course Cara could not have. She was upset, so we had to give her a treat. I had left a bag of gummy bears in the car, so I made a major sacrifice and gave it to her. About a fifth of the bag was left. I've hesitated to let Cara have gummy candy, because I want her to still like her gummy vitamins. What if the candy's better? She loved her gummy bears. She and Juliana talked about them the whole time we were in the car. Most of what I heard Cara say involved the phrase, "in my mouf."

After lunch we went to the Home Depot to buy flowers. Cara rode in the shopping cart for a while, and then she and Daddy went and sat on some benches. I walked around with her, while Daddy waited on line. In the parking lot, she dropped her bag of gummy bears. I put her down to get it and then picked her up. A lady warned us that she had the bag upside down, and I tried to get her to turn it over. She was upset when I tried to touch it, so the final five gummies fell on the ground. Cara attempted to retrieve them, but she was stopped.

I had brought Cara's girls to the restaurant, and they were by now in Cara's other hand, opposite the gummy bear bag. On the way home, Juliana named them. The redhead is Ruby, and the other is Lily. Cara may be remembering those names, which is pretty cool. When Juliana asked her their names, she originally replied, "girl." Cara had some time to explore them and found where their shirts are open in the back. They just slip on and off. When we got home, Ruby's pants had come off. As Em reports that she got to help Cara "strip a doll" at Susan's on Friday morning, I'm sure that this is just the beginning.

After her nap, we brought Cara over to PJ's house for date night. We brought Elefun, too, which thrilled PJ. ("That one! That one!" he shrieked when we brought it in.) He and Steve got it out and started playing with it, but Cara hung back. Eventually PJ came over to her and gestured to the game invitingly: "Cheese-fries?" Tennis, anyone?

While Steve and I were out, fun was had by all. Em came downstairs to find Cara in the walker. She and PJ both like to climb into it and pretend to be babies. Em asked Cara what she was doing. "I pooped. I dirty. Need new diaper." Instantly, PJ claimed to also be dirty and need a new diaper. Strangely, it turned out that he was and did. Outside, Cara went running down the street. A truck was coming, and Em did not want Cara to cross. She turned on her demon-mother voice and yelled, "Cara, stop!" Cara did. It works! I think you only get a voice like that when you become either a mother or a teacher.

6/11/07 (Monday)

This morning Cara was awake and happy when I went in to get her. She enjoyed her leftover pancakes. We had a conflict when she wanted to take her froggies to Susan's. I made her put them down and that was that. Susan was concerned last week because she felt Cara was whiny. However the report today was that she had a good day. One of the other kids had her daycare birthday party and Cara got a goodie bag and a juice box. The latter item she was very excited about when her Mommy picked her up, and wanted to have it right then and there. Her Mommy convinced her to have it at home and they drove home discussing the juice. At home, though Susan and I have had independent occurrences of Cara successfully drinking out of juice boxes, this time Cara squirted herself repeatedly and requested that Mommy wipe it up. (When I got home the same thing happened: Cara squirted juice out of her juice box, and would have continued to do so had I not taken it out of her hand, and then she told me I had to clean it up; further, when I cleaned the puddle on the floor, she directed me to the smaller puddle on the kitchen table.)

Mommy decided that it was a good afternoon to relax with Curious George. She was so tired after a busy day that she got very comfortable and would have had a nice nap--except that her daughter kept interrupting her. "Mommy, wake up!"

Cara had a pretty good dinner, though she was once again ambivalent towards her leftover cheeseburger. I think she liked asparagus better! She got a container of yogurt which she was excited to eat, not having had yogurt for a while. After dinner it was time to go out walking. Ron got on his bicycle, which has a little bell, and periodically rode by to visit us and tinkle his bell. There was a clearly visible and very beautiful rainbow which we pointed out to the children. PJ definitely noticed it and kept yelling "Dee-boh! More dee-boh!" Cara we're not so sure about. She probably saw it but it wasn't as exciting for her. Near the end of our walk we were all excited when it began to pour rain! Cara had the canopy up over her stroller but it made little difference--the heavy shower lasted only a few minutes but by the end of it we were all soaked. Afterwards Cara and PJ were very happy to splash around in the puddles by the curb, and Ron showed them how pieces of grass could float down into the sewer grate. The children got some mud hosed off of them and we somehow managed to get Cara home.

Cara and I did her bath without Mommy, who was outside doing some planting in the front yard. I remember that I thought Cara was doing very funny things in the bath, but in retrospect I have no idea what they were. When we went into her room to put on her diaper we could see Mommy out the window, so Cara shouted many things to her. One of them was, "You need more water!"

Evie read many books to Cara, who is definitely testing our limits lately, especially at bed time. Last night I read several more books than I had intended to.

I'm glad to hear that Cara tries that with Steve, too. It was late, so I read two or three and said that that was that. She wanted to hear the Pigeon. She was wearing a necklace, which I then took off of her and, to placate her for its loss, I started to read Don't Let the Pigeon Stay Up Late. Well, she got up and started playing with her turtle. I switched the lights and picked her up. Protesting, she was put into her crib. Thinking quickly, she politely told me, "Mommy, I need my counting bears." I told her that it was time to go to sleep and left. I'm proud of myself. The only thing I have to add about today is that I made my little toy dog bark. "Good woofing, Mommy," Cara said. Also, I may have been sleepy, but I also managed to get dinner ready.

6/12/07 (Tuesday)

It was another good day at Susan's. When Susan asked Cara to tell me what she had made today, Cara of course replied, "a bumblebee!" It turned out to be a traffic light. All the way home, we were discussing what red and green meant.

Cara went inside and I brought in all the groceries I had bought before I picked her up. We spent half an hour putting things away. The first thing Cara asked me to identify was cat food, so she thought everything was cat food. She kept trying to give Shelby the tortellini. She also spent quite a while climbing up and down the stepladder I had left open.

I made pizza, but, before it was ready, I put out carrots, celery, and dip. Well, Cara grabbed a carrot and began to dip. She doesn't get much on, but then she sucks it off and goes back to work. It took a lot of demonstration and encouragement to get her to crunch up a carrot or two, and she also only liked to use one for a while! Several were sitting in the dip, discarded. Cara likes to eat her pizza like a big girl now, so I only had to cut up the end because it was too hot at first.

We had some discipline issues this evening! Cara refused to pick up her bears. We tried a lot of tactics, and it just did not work. We got her to pick up the yellow and purple, but then she dumped them again. She also threw some. Steve and I finally cleaned up, and the bears have been put away. Cara has been told that she will not see them for a few days. We'll see whether that works. The other thing she did was to open the drawers of my night stand, which she knows is a no-no! Shocking.

I helped out and gave Cara her bath. We carefully folded up all the turtles and frogs in a washcloth. I got her to look up and squeegee some very high tiles, so I could dump water on her head. She helped me wash her arms. Altogether, it went pretty well. Afterwards, we narrowly missed performing some astonishing slapstick. Cara almost managed to put her pants on upside-down. She grabbed the cuff and went to work, disregarding my suggestions about starting at the other end. She got one leg all the way up, but the other was too twisted to get over her ankle.

Cara is very excited about the sticker book she got from Aunt Linda the other weekend. She likes to stick the stickers on her legs. As a reward for brushing her teeth, she has just gone to bed, I believe, with two nesting dolls on one shin and some bananas on the other.

The Monster Manners book I got is quite popular. This evening, we hit a snag. You see, when monsters borrow, they sometimes forget to give things back, but they sometimes return them with an extra little snack. In the picture, the monster returns a hat with bananas in it. Bananas. Manas. Manners? I'm not really sure what she thinks the book is about. Cinderella is still going well, except for that stepsister crying at the end. I just can't explain that, but it's okay because everyone's happy on the very next page.

I read Cara three books and then put her down. She wanted her frogs. Since they comforted her when she woke last night, I went and got them. She lay down. She had her tube of frogs and her puma, and she asked me to put the blanket over her. It was very sweet.

6/13/07 (Wednesday)

This morning Cara awoke asking about George Curious Monkey. We ended up watching most of an episode before leaving for Susan's. When I got home that monkey was on the TV again. Mommy had to go out tonight, so she and Cara had had dinner before I got home. I had some dinner as Mommy left and Cara watched George. While she was watching Cara decided to do something she's done before: take the cushions off of the love seat and arrange them on the living room floor, in what I think she called a "path." She requested juice, having seen some on television, but was unhappy when she tried the juice we had (some white grape juice). She asked to be sat on the kitchen counter more than once, and found the dry erase marker, which she used on the kitchen floor (wipes right off with a wet paper towel!).

Eventually I managed to turn George off, with no tears, and we went downstairs and played a little. Buster was hanging around and Cara tried to give her a kitty toy by driving it up in a Playmobil dump truck driven by a monkey. It did not entice Buster. Cara also put on her firefighter hat and I told her Buster was on fire, so the kitty got patted down.

Soon it was time for the bath and Cara eventually followed me upstairs when I started running the tub. At one point she yelled up to me, "Uh-oh! Something's wrong! Something's wrong, Daddy!" I hurried downstairs and she gestured to her little table in the play room, but I could find nothing out of the ordinary and I think it was merely a ploy to get me back downstairs.

After her bath it was teeth brushing time. Cara continues to fight the toothbrush and I find I have very little disciplinary power other than patience. I tried to use a strict, commanding voice and it had absolutely no effect. I need to work on that. In other disciplinary areas, Cara noticed that her counting bears had been removed, and later found them in our bedroom. She reached for them but I moved them away. Earlier when I tried to explain why the counting bears were gone, she said "Oh!" in a surprised sort of way, but probably she didn't understand me.

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