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Journal Key:

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

7/26/07 (Thursday)

This morning, Steve got Cara up while I was in the shower. I found her on the couch, happily munching on what turned out to be frozen cinnamon bread. I was a lazy mom and, except for brushing her hair and putting in pigtails, I did nothing productive. We sat and snuggled on the couch, and she said, "I wuv you, Mommy." Well, how can you hear that and then say, "okay, let's hurry to daycare"? She didn't get there until after 8:30. She was hungry. As soon as we got into the car, she had started asking for crackers. Oh well.

When I arrived in the afternoon, PJ, Cara, and Casey were in their swimmie diapers, slathered with sunscreen, and coated (partially) with sand. They were very happy. I got her cleaned up before we came home, of course, but Steve found sand in her hair when he washed it.

We're watching our Wiggles, in preparation for Sunday, so it's interesting to talk about them. I asked Cara whether Henry was her favorite. No, it's Wags the Dog. We'll see, I think, at the show, whether she has a favorite character. While dinner was cooking, I got Cara and a bucket and went outside. We picked the ripe cherry tomatoes and brought them in to have with our meal. Of course, I forgot to take the bucket from Cara, so she ate them. I made turkey burgers, and Cara ate one! I made her a little one, which she naturally wanted in a bun, so she ate it surrounded by roll.

During our usual end-of-dinner-wander-around-session, PJ and Ron knocked at the door! They had come over to play. The first real attraction was the bucket of plastic food, which PJ dumped. Ron told him not to, but I told him that if he dumped it he had to put it on his head. He did. We all enjoyed that. Then Cara put it on her head. It's not as good a fit; her nose presses against the side. Still, it was funny. Next, Cara decided to put it on my head. She really pushed! Not funny. Okay, maybe.

The foam blocks are a great favorite lately; it was urgent that we get them out. It was so urgent that they were willing to help clean up the play food first, just to get to the blocks. Many towers were built. Many towers were destroyed. Cara built something rather wide and decided it was a slide for a ball. I didn't see how that turned out.

In the interest of avoiding the tub, Cara picked out a book: What Will I Be? It's about baby animals. I carried her upstairs, and we agreed that it would be read in the "story chair." When I sat down, Cara cried, "Mommy, get out!" Haven't I heard that before? Well, after she got out of my lap, I got up. Cara climbed back into the chair and read her book to herself.

I don't know what happened in the bath, but when I got her out she said something to me that Steve explained meant that she was a monkey. (duh) Then she said, "Mommy, you daddy monkey!" I inquired about Daddy. He was a daddy monkey, too. I offered to be the mommy monkey. Apparently this was a novel and welcome idea. We all got to make monkey noises and talk about climbing trees. Someone else came in: "Shelby, we being monkeys!" Cara was off like a shot.

For a while, Steve held Shelby in his lap and we all got to pet her. This was good experience for Cara, who needs to learn about only going front to back! It was story time. Poor Steve! The biiiiiig book is still in nightly demand.

7/27/07 (Friday)

Lately, Cara has been very affectionate. She often tells us that she loves us, and we get lots of hugs. If we tell her we love her, she says, "I wuv you, too, Mommy!" In other abstract topics, we also talk about how happy we are. Once in a while she just tells us, "I happy." Lately, when we're about to get her out of the bath, she tells us that she's happy. She says that I'm happy, too. The whole family gets to tell each other that we're happy.

This morning, I think that I saw the beginning of the end of the complete domination of the "girls" over every other toy in Cara's life. We started with them, naturally, but then she got out her bears and started pouring them into the moat at Weebalot. A ray of sunshine broke through the clouds. When I packed our toys to take along today, though, I packed plenty of girls.

Cara was less excited and more comfortable at the chiropractor's today, because it was her second time. She likes sitting on chairs in the waiting room, but she never gets much time there. People are eager to be friendly to her, but Cara just stares at them. I brought what I thought were pretty good toys, and they kept her amused. We also, while I lay on the table with a heating pad on my back, read her book, Peek-a-Who. "Mommy, we leave this room?" Cara asked, but, alas, we were not done yet. When we did leave, Cara got another lollipop. She unwrapped it herself. I'm not sure that's a good thing. She ate it while we rode in the car down to Grandmama's house.

Cara and her mommy showed up shortly after 11 a.m. to whisk us all away to Jenkinson's, all of us being George and me. The first order of business, after parking, was lunch. Conversation with Cara:

"Are you hungry?"

"No."

"Do you want a hot dog or pizza?"

"Pizza."

After lunch we made our first swing through the aquarium. We all got our hands stamped so we could come back later; in the interest of symmetry, Cara got both hands stamped. Inside, she happily identified Nemo and admired the sharks. She dashed upstairs to see the seals. She definitely did not want to touch anything from the touch tank. She did want to run around the open space gleefully; in her haste she missed half the exhibits.

We exited via the gift shop without aquiring any new toys, and without any tears, and made our way down the boardwalk to play miniature golf. Cara made some attempts to hit her golf ball; she also made the course more challenging by posing an additional obstacle. To her credit, she almost never picked up any golf balls that were still in play. A good time was had by all.

We also played a couple of boardwalk games. Cara caught a fish with a magnetic fishing pole; naturally, she wanted to keep the fish, but, alas, it had to be turned in for a prize. She also got to capture rubber duckes from a pond. As a result she has a new plush lizard, which she hugged affectionately and slept with at night.

We were hot and tired, but made a second tour of the aquarium; this time through our little girl could slow down to examine the sea horses and laugh at the marmosets.

Cara's nap (and mine) took place in the car on the way home. That proved to be just about the right amount of sleep for her. When we got home she quickly perked up and we went out to the park. By then the afternoon had begun to cool and there was a delightful breeze to temper the heat. Cara ran and walked all the way across the park to reach the playground; going home, though, the tired child was grateful to be carried.

At the playground Cara realized a lifelong dream - she easily clambered up the slides! Again and again! Up and down! She was so delighted with this ability, she hardly did anything else. A couple of 5-year-olds came along who intimidated her a little, though they certainly didn't intend it. Under stress, Cara stepped back, put her hands over her face, and made crying sounds; I patted her back and told her she was ok, and she stopped.

Back at the house, GiGi stopped by with fresh cherries just in time for supper. Cara had some soup, half a cheese stick and part of a sandwich - not a lot of anything, but enough to satisfy her. When she said she was done, we cleared away the food and let her wipe her tray clean before we set her free to play.

She did remember the tin of tiny cookies, and asked for one. By and by she requested "nudder tookie." In the course of the evening she had a few - they're very small. We watched Blues Clues, all of us helpfully shouting out information for the befuddled Steve. Then GiGi went home and it was bathtime. Cara refused for a moment, but remembered her special soap and ran to the tub. She wanted her counting bears so she could wash them again; they weren't available, but a couple of the "girls" filled in nicely. Meanwhile, I found the the hand-puppet washcloth could elicit a LOT of giggles while effectively scrubbing every bit of Cara.

With her namas on, that good little girl allowed me to scrub all her teeth, bottom and top. We read all three books her mommy had sent, and then a couple more, and still she was sweetly tucked in by 8:45, with an assortment of her favorite toys. She declined the offer of Claire's toy cat, however, as it belongs in Claire's room!

7/28/07 (Saturday)

First thing in the morning, at 7 a.m., Cara was very eager to ensure that Schmutz was fed - "He need FOOD," she piped in part of a very long speech having to do with Schmutz and his morning routine. Cara herself wanted toast, and did not bother with her eggs at all, even though she had watched while grandpapa prepared them.

Soon enough she was dressed. Her teeth were thoroughly brushed again, and she climbed into her car seat to return to her mommy, her daddy, and her counting bears.

The only thing I have to add about yesterday is that, when we got back to Grandmama's house and we had to wake Cara up, she was very groggy and sleepy and unhappy. She lay there on the couch making unhappy hoises and saying, pitifully, "Need tookie! Need tookie!" No matter what anyone did, even when Aunt Claire came in, Cara just needed a tookie. I was very relieved to discover that there were some in the house.

I had made a bread pudding this morning, and Cara was happy to have a second breakfast. We also of course played girls and hung out. It was a little after ten when PJ and Casey came over to spend the morning while their parents got ready for Casey's birthday party. Of course it was messy and chaotic, but there were several cool parts.

A few days ago Cara convinced me to bring up her old red car from the basement. PJ started riding it; he really loved it and decided it was his. Because he and Cara weren't cooperating well, I called him over to build a foam block tower with me. He drove over. We built a tower. He rammed it with the car. We did that a few times, and then it occurred to me that we could build a wall across the doorway to the game room. I sent PJ for more blocks. He brought them two at a time, because he couldn't hold more than that and still drive. Eventually I showed him his car's storage capabilities, and that helped a lot.

I decided to read Casey a book, 123 to the Zoo. I sat down with her in the papasan, and we invited the other kids to join us. Soon I had three kids on top of me! We read the book. Cara got down. We got her to get back up. We read it again. Cara left. Casey left. PJ was still there. I offered to read it again, but he was very disturbed by the girls' defections. "Dara, book!" he kept yelling, pointing to where she should be sitting. I think she said, "PJ, I tired reading that book." We got a different one, but he really just wanted that one again.

Casey, Steve, and I were upstairs. PJ and Cara were downstairs. I heard something falling down.

Cara: (makes crying noises which indicate to parent that child does not need immediate attention)

PJ: You otay, Dara?

Cara: Yes, I okay. (continues noises for a bit, just for good measure)

I went downstairs, curious. Each of them had one of Cara's little stepstools. They were getting onto them, then falling off, and they were laughing their heads off. Cara, less agile than PJ, had to step off of her stool and then fall down. It's the thought that counts.

I need to just mention that off and on lately, Cara has taken to calling me "Steve." I came down the stairs to the play room at around noon and Cara greeted me with a hearty, "Hi, Steve!" I suppose she hears other people call me that and decides to parrot it. Other times she is perfectly happy to call me Daddy. However, I don't think she has ever called her mommy "Evelyn."

Soon PJ's mommy came along to pick the kids back up for their naps, and Cara very unwillingly was taken upstairs for her nap. She was still asleep when we decided we really needed to head over to Casey's birthday party, so I went in and got her. Fortunately she was not quite as unhappy as she can sometimes be when woken from her nap.

The party was nice. There was not really enough room in the air-conditioned house to contain all the kids and guests, so we were forced into the hot outside, but everyone was happy to jump into Em and Ron's pool. PJ found new confidence in the pool today and Evie spent a heck of a lot of time pulling him through the water in his swim vest. Cara also got turns. We would throw their spongy pool toys a few feet away and then race through the water to pick them up again. There was also a lot of jumping on the pool ladder. There were lots of other kids there, and Cara and PJ had fun watching them splash and jump into the water.

A lot of the party was spent in the pool, but another large portion was spent swinging on PJ's swingset. Whenever one child was swinging, another wanted to swing also, and then there was the slide to go down. The children call the playset a "castle" and got into fierce arguments over ownership of the castle. PJ loves to say that things are "mine!" and Cara is very easily drawn into a back-and-forth shouting match: "No, it's mine!" We tried very forcefully to convince them that the castle belonged to them both (and Casey), but I doubt that the message got through.

It wasn't all fighting and a lot of the time they were good at taking turns. They also did some good bouncing on PJ's seesaw, which was very cute.

We stayed at the party all afternoon until well after 7, so Cara was good and tired at bath time. At story time, much to my chagrin, I was once again forced to read from the "Big Book," which truly is big and long and features lots of one-page explanations of lists of words with very little narrative. I much preferred reading The Cat in the Hat, which she eventually allowed me to render in my most dramatic tones. She was very happy to find her little baby doll with the pink bunny pajamas in her crib--I think they will have some wonderful adventures together before Cara falls asleep.

7/29/07 (Sunday)

Today we saw the Wiggles! We drove up to the Continental Airlines Arena, where we met up with PJ and his family. The kids were excited to see each other. They ran up to each other and weren't quite sure what to do with themselves. "Give Cara a hug," said Ron. So, they hugged. And PJ put more enthusiasm into it than Cara did. And they fell over with Cara on the bottom. And she klunked her head on the sidewalk. So Cara was still crying on my shoulder when we got to the gate, and the woman taking tickets thought she didn't want to come in. No, we explained, she was the victim of a tragic hugging accident.

Inside the arena, Cara perked up. While the daddies bought popcorn, Em and I took the kids to our seats. I got to walk down the stairs holding PJ's hand and carrying Cara, which was a little bit exciting. (I had never been downstairs before!! It was thrilling.) When we sat down, I opened my bag and got out two pictures Steve drew this morning. Cara's was a rose, and it said "For Dorothy." PJ's was a bone, and it said "For Wags." I gave each of them a crayon, and they went to work. It isn't easy to color when you're holding the paper in your lap, but they managed. PJ scribbled enthusiastically in yellow and then in blue. Cara seemed stunned by where she found herself; she colored very little. I had given her pink, which is definitely her favorite color. I suggested that she do the stem in green, but she firmly rejected all but the pink crayon.

The kids were thrilled by the show. At first, I think Cara was just stunned. The pictures show her looking kind of blank. When Dorothy came out, Cara asked me for her picture. She stood up. She held it out. "Dorothy! I bring fower for you!" PJ, with his picture, just said, "Wags! Wags!" The Wiggles dancers came around with baskets to collect the children's gifts, and we, alas, missed the one who came to our section. My heart is kind of broken, but the kids, fortunately, are pretty oblivious. We had no trouble with Cara sitting through the show. She got up and danced. She clapped along. She sat in her seat and stared. She also took turns sitting with each of us. The popcorn was popular. When it was over, she waved good-bye.

For months I've been saying that I don't really understand the Wiggles. Of the four of us parents, I'm the one who's had the least exposure to them. They just didn't make sense. Well, Em lent us two dvds last week, and I watched them. Now, I'm hooked. It still doesn't make sense, but it's fun. For no reason at all there are four guys in different-colored shirts who sing and dance and sleep and eat fruit salad. They put on a show and bring their friends: a dog, an octopus, a dinosaur, and a pirate. There are some other dancers who show up. What I love, I think, about the live show, is the casual tone that is struck. These guys are heading into middle age, I think, and they are still touring the world, putting on shows for toddlers. They jump off the stage and come into the audience and wave and smile and people get to take their pictures. They clown around. I really can't tell, either, whether some of the jokes are part of the act, because they seem to enjoy them so much. Like, they have to remind each other of things and chuckle about it. They had a whole list of celebrities from NJ, and I guess the banter must all be planned, but it doesn't seem like it. Steve says, I think, that his favorite part of the show was when Murray played "Stairway to Heaven." I read up before we went, and people said parents, not just children, enjoyed the show. I have to agree. I would go again in a heartbeat.

Cara was very tired. She did read her Goofy book in the car for a while, and I know I've said this before, but it really looks like she's reading it. I find it very funny. It amused her the whole way up and for a while on the way back. Finally, after about ten minutes, she fell asleep. We managed to transfer her to her crib, where she slept with her shoes on in the same position in which I put her down. After an hour or so we woke her up, just so that we could maintain our evening routine.

We all make mistakes. Steve, unfortunately, made one today. He repeatedly said to Cara, "I messed up." This evening, while he was playing Donkey Kong for Cara, he, well, made a mistake. "You messed up, Daddy? You messed up?" He may be hearing this for a while.

One really cool thing happened this evening. Cara seemed mildly distressed and grabbed at her shorts. We got her onto the potty, and she peed! She has to have waited until she was on there, because we were not particularly quick. I think that was a big step. Every other time she's peed, it's been just after I woke her up.

After that we let her run around half-naked while her tub filled up, and I ended up playing "Ring Around a Rosy" with a pantless child and a Henry the Octopus doll I bought at the concert. It's easy to hold hands with him, because he has so many. I'm so brainwashed by the Wiggles that I almost don't think Henry looks weird anymore.

7/30/07 (Monday)

Cara and I started out our morning by getting into my bed and repeatedly waking up and going to sleep. "It's a lovely morning," said Cara. It was. I was able to give her leftover pancakes, which she probably prefers to the fresh ones because they're so much quicker to make. Unfortunately, I had errands to do. We played for an hour or so, and then we had to get in the car.

We went to the bank first, and Cara was put to the test of being patient for almost five minutes. She got a lollipop. "Mmmmm, this good lollipop!" she told me in the car. At the grocery store she was also patient. I was very responsible, except for one frivolous purchase which I will reveal later. At the bagel place, Cara was shy. She would not talk to the owner, with whom I've been discussing Cara and his daughter for a long, long time. He would have given her a cookie, but I thought it would be too much, on top of the lolli. He promised her one, next time she comes. Cara spent the whole was home asking for her cookie. She needed it!

Later it sounded like she was waking up from her nap, but when I went in Cara was sound asleep on her back. It was time, so I picked her up and sat with her in the glider, where she snuggled right up and went on sleeping. She woke gradually, and was still clingy and nonverbal when Grandmama showed up! I had to go out, so my mom came to baby-sit.

While I was gone, Cara and Grandmama played all over. They played sand outside. They played girls downstairs. They were upstairs reading and playing with the giant crayon when I got back and surprised them. Soon my mother confessed that one of the tiny yellow shoes was missing. No, I told her, it was a green one. It had been missing all day. Okay, she said, she'd thought it was yellow. Well, when I got downstairs, I found that a miracle had occurred: the green shoe, which I like and whose loss I had lamented, was back, and the yellow shoe, which never really stays on the dolls' feet anyway, was gone. I am perfectly content.

The silly purchase I made today was some color tablets for Cara's bath. I was overwhelmed by the assortment of products to choose among, so I grabbed this one. It has red, yellow, and blue, so you can mix your own colors, and it makes the water a little bitter to discourage consumption. I not very confident and thought that perhaps it was not a wise thing to have purchased, so I was delighted when Steve seemed to think it was a good idea. It was a wonderful way to distract Cara when Grandmama left!

We asked her what color she wanted, and she chose purple. I fished out red and blue pills, and Cara got to put them in. Soon, color was billowing into the water. Sure enough, her bath was purple! It was very easy to get her into it tonight; she even ran to me to let me take her clothes off! Once in, of course she had a great time with Daddy. They played and played and played . . . and washed. Cara is learning how to rinse her own face, somewhat reluctantly.

We are striving desperately to get Cara away from the "biiiiiig book," which she made me show her earlier and which Grandmama also had to look at with her. It's just not made for sustained reading. Maybe I'll move it downstairs and let her have it on her own.

Cara does, of course, continue to be awfully sweet and cuddly and wonderful. She tells us all that she loves us. A quote from the end of her bath: "You are happy, Mommy. And Daddy, you are happy, too. And my tub . . . is very . . . purple!" After her bath, she went into Daddy's closet and found a pair of slippers, which she brought to him and laid at his feet for him to step into.

7/31/07 (Tuesday)

For most of Cara's life, her Aunt Claire has been bupping her nose. Until recently, Cara has made very little reaction that I have noticed. However, now bupping noses is very funny. In fact, for the past few days, Cara and I have been bupping each other's noses very frequently with our fingers and with our noses. It's a joke that never gets old! Try it. Just reach out, push someone's nose, and say "bupp!" It'll be fun.

Yesterday, we bought cat food at the supermarket. I asked Cara what the kitties would say. "They say, 'meow, fanks!'"

Cara didn't want to go to Susan's today. "No, we go home we house!" she told me in the car. When we got there, she walked in under her own steam. She let me take her shoes off. Then she hurried off to play, not even saying goodbye or noticing that I left. She had a good day, constructing a sunshine tambourine made of a folded paper plate, colored yellow and stapled shut, which has beans inside it. There are also orange streamers to simulate sunbeams.

We went to the park for a quick run before going home. We hadn't been to Donaldson Park in a while, so it was nice. In addition to going very high on the swings, Cara got to climb around and go down slides. A bigger girl wanted Cara to come and watch her ride her scooter, but Cara was shy.

At home with Daddy, we had a love-fest. I've said that Cara has been lovey lately, but this was even more extreme. She doesn't just have to say "I love you, Mommy," she has to say, "I love you, too, Mommy," after I reply. She had this exchange with each of us at least thirty times this evening! It's wonderful, but, even so, it's a little much.

Sitting has become an interesting issue. She likes to have me sit on her Elmo couch with her, and yesterday Grandmama had to sit there, too. The chair downstairs, though, only fits one. I admit that I have a habit of sitting in it. Coincidentally, whenever I do, Cara suddenly really wants to sit there. Sometimes she thinks we can share it, which is impossible, and sometimes she just tells me to get out.

Grandmama has been telling me about how much fun Cara has with a bar of soap on Fridays, so I got out an old set of soaps shaped like pigs. Once again, Cara could not wait to get into her bath! She had to wash her froggies and turtles. My mom warned me about how murky the water would get, but it was still impressive. Steve did try to curb Cara's excesses, but I'm not sure how that went. One thing I hadn't thought of was that she got soap in her eyes! Soon she was okay, though.

We got our pajamas on and we brushed our teeth and we turned down the lights and then, of course, Cara helpfully found the "big book" which someone had put away on a shelf in her room. Now, why would someone have put that away?

8/1/07 (Wednesday)

We went to the zoo with Grandmama! It was hard to wait until she got here. We got ready, and then we went outside. We couldn't play, because we were so anxious, so we went for a little walk to look for her. We were talking to a neighbor when Grandmama pulled up.

This time, Cara announced our arrival at the zoo when she saw the ZooBalloon in the sky! She continually astounds me. We wandered through in a different direction from the way we usually go, so we saw the capybara early on, then the zebra. We found the polar bears, one of whom was in the water. We looked for regular bears, but they must have been sleeping somewhere cool. Cara and Grandmama did find a very neat fountain, where Cara managed to get her whole front wet. "Oh, on a day like this it's nice to be wet," said my mother. Then Cara asked to be picked up, and she had to put her money where her mouth was.

The first real thing we did was to feed the lorikeets. We got two tiny cups of nectar, and of course some birds landed on our hands. Cara was very tickled, just as she was in Florida. We headed for the big cats, but first we found the face painting station! This time, Cara was ready to look at the pictures and decide which one she wanted. Grandmama made sure Cara saw all of her choices, but Cara kept coming back to her first one: the bunny. "I be pink kitty cat!" Apparently the towel in which Cara becomes a kitty on Friday nights is also really a bunny. When it was finally our turn, we explained to the girl what Cara wanted. Cara sat, tilting her face up obediently, and became a pink bunny-cat. It's astonishing to see her sitting and holding still like that! Finally she got some glitter on her nose, and she was done.

We had a walk through the big cats exhibit, and then we ate lunch. Cara had chocolate milk, which spilled on her and predicated a wardrobe alteration. After lunch, of course, is the treehouse. As usual, it was wonderful. When Cara saw it, she started running. She wasn't as taken with the beaver dam slide this time; she only went down it about three times. She did take us all the way up and all the way down the tree, jumping on the way down. She slid, she crawled, she climbed. I suggested that we go see the dinosaur, and she ran to it. "I wuv you, dinosaur." It got a hug. Then we helped her "climb" up it so the she could "slide" down its tail. She sat in the flower solo, and then she invited Grandmama to sit. Grandmama was not really invited to sit with Cara, as Cara swiftly left. Eventually, with no discussion and possibly accidentally, though possibly not, Cara ran out of the treehouse and down the walk. We were done.

Our next stop was the children's zoo. Cara found a set of stairs to climb, though, and we went up and had ice cream! Cara wanted pink. We got one scoop of some red and white stuff that seemed to be vanilla mixed with cherry ice. I got a cup of chocolate, as a precaution. Sure enough, after one bite, Cara gave me hers and took mine. She ate some, and then naturally got distracted and was ready to go. For the first time, we went into the petting area of the petting zoo. It was great! We had no food, so the goats weren't at all aggressive. Cara petted several of them, going from one to another. Soon we noticed that there were brushes, so Cara got to brush the goats! She mainly went in the right direction, too. She also found a pile of gravel she liked, so she spent a few minutes playing with tiny white rocks.

Grandmama suggested the pony ride, though neither of us thought Cara would do it. We went over, though, because Cara was certainly willing to pet the pony. She said she would ride it, too. We all stood there. The girl talked to Cara. The pony's name was MacGuyver. We all stood there for several seconds. Finally, Grandmama picked up Cara and handed her to the girl, who popped her onto the horse. To our utter astonishment, Cara rode away on her first pony ride! The kid leading the horse was very good; I could see him talking to her. We went back along the fence to watch. She came around the turn, pointing at us. She held on to the pommel, but she wasn't scared. Cara loved riding a pony!

After we washed our hands, we went to see the ducks in their pond. We splurged and got food for them from the machine, and Cara got to throw it into the water and watch them eat. Grandmama got pigeons to land on her for some food, but Cara objected to the idea of their getting any of the ducks' dinner. She yelled at them when they went near her food.

Finally, it really was time to go. Cara slept for much of the ride home, but I still decided to try putting her down early. We went over to show PJ Cara's pink kitty cat face. Would he laugh, I asked. Yes, Cara decided, PJ would laugh. Actually, he just stared. "Look at Cara," said Ron. "Is she a kitty cat?" "No," said PJ, "she's a pink." They were both right. After some pasta and a little bit more playtime, it was time to start the bedtime routine. This time I told Cara what I was doing when I cleaned the paint off her face, and she wasn't upset when she saw herself. Actually, I had made sure to avoid mirrors with her when we got home, because a lot of her kitty face had smudged off. The butterfly worked better, in that respect, because it was all away from her mouth! Anyway, we are about to get our little girl into bed, and it's about 40 minutes early. I hope that helps make sure tomorrow is pleasant.

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