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Journal Key:

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

8/23/07 (Thursday)

We had an interesting morning. Daddy gave Cara breakfast, and then she and I went downstairs to play. She rubbed her eye. Then she rubbed it some more. Then some more. I asked whether it itched, and she said no. It looked kind of pink and puffy. Uh-oh! I thought. Should I leave her hair down in the hope of hiding it from everyone? No, I wanted to get a good view myself. I put it up. I wasn't sure. I called Susan. She asked about any oozing. None. The kids weren't going swimming, so she figured we'd try it and see what happened. Of course, by the time we got to Susan's, Cara was fine! My paranoia gradually faded over the course of the day.

Everyone was outside playing when I arrived. Susan brought out today's project, an elaborate 3D campfire built on a paper plate. Neither child could explain what it was, though they were both excited. Susan asked Cara to help PJ put away the bikes. Em and I watched in amazement as the two kids put away all the ride-ons that go in the garage! We attribute their behavior to good mothering. When I had left in the morning, Cara and PJ were playing with two trains. When we were getting ready to go, the trains were still in their hands. I was very impressed when I learned that they were PJ's, that he had brought them and shared.

We did not come inside when we got home. We got out our bike. I had to push while Cara went up the driveway, but then she rode all the way down the block to the open space without stopping! We briefly visited PJ, and then we rode over to Juliana's. That's when things got weird.

You have to understand Juliana. She has a beautiful yard and beautiful flowers, which the deer want to eat. She strings fishing line across to stop them. She hangs up CDs to scare them away. She added garlic. Now, she covers them all with curtains every night. That explains why there were a lot of curtains on chairs on her porch. Cara busily dumped them all on the ground. She "slept" on them. Then, we played dress-up. Juliana put a curtain on Cara's head and tied it under her chin. Then she put one on her own head. I had to put one on mine. Then--and this was all Juliana's idea--we had to play "Ring Around a Rosy." With curtains on our heads.

After we put the curtains down, we went for a walk around the block. We stopped in front of our yard, and Juliana pointed out deer footprints and places where the deer had eaten things. Cara ran around the fence to see. "Those deer eat my flowers!" she cried. She was very distressed. I predict that in two years she'll be hanging out garlic, too! Cara was great on our walk. She mainly either ran ahead or held our hands. She did stop to explore a fire hydrant and some tree roots. Juliana found some maple seed pods and we made funny noses, which Cara made sure to remove for us.

Twice this evening I had to speak a little sharply to get Cara out of the street. Both occasions resulted in her carefully flinging herself down on the grass to wail.

Daddy made spinach pasta for dinner, and I got a little nostalgic afterwards at the amount of cleanup we had to do on Cara. There was pasta everywhere! I remember when we had to do that every night. They played girls downstairs, and when I joined them a miracle occurred: my girl got to wear Cara's girl's outfit! I put it on very hesitantly, expecting at any moment to have my orders rescinded. It got all the way on. Then we took it off, but not in a punitive way. My girl, by the way, is also a working girl.

Cara decided we should line up all the pants. She was comparing two pairs, and she concluded that one was a boy and the other a girl. Soon we had a mommy, a daddy, a boy and a girl. Then my girl got to ride the baby giraffe, and they met a pair of pants, who ran up my arm and tempted them to follow . . . him? her? I don't really know. Then the pants got down, but they couldn't. They were trapped, but Cara rescued them.

I love the way Cara says giraffe. "This my baby djaffe!"

8/24/07 (Friday)

I love it when I'm playing with Cara and I can sit back and let her take over the narrative. It usually has to do with people (or things) being friends, people riding on animals, people getting stuck and needing help, and people sleeping and being woken up. This morning we had out the girls and all of the Playmobil animals; the floor was thick with toys and the air with possibilities. The grandmama and grandpapa are still favorites. They got to ride their horses all over.

We went to the chiropractor. Cara was great; she played for a while, and then she let me read to her. We brought The Gingerbread Man and Clifford. I also brought our toy Clifford, who has magnets in his paws and keeps his hands together almost as if he is praying. Cara decided he was flying, so he got to zoom around a little. When the doctor came in, Cara was very friendly. She showed him her toys and told him all about them. It's too bad, now that she's finally gotten used to it, that school's about to start and she won't be back! There was a scale in our room this time, so Cara hopped on. She liked jumping off it, but we also measured her. With her clothes and sneakers and diaper on, she's 30.5 pounds, 36 inches tall.

Next was the park. We ran around and around on the playground, following each other up the ladders and down the slides, calling, "wait for me!" Cara decided to "hide" by going under the platform, so that I "couldn't see her." I went under while she was on top, and she found a leaf which she delighted herself by shredding and pushing through. We didn't even go on the swings until the end!

We headed to the Farmer's Market, where we met Rich. When we had our corn, we went out to lunch (breakfast for him!). Cara was even friendly there, showing him Clifford and her dragon. Clifford got to dance. Cara had chicken soup for lunch, and she ate it very nicely, using her spoon 90% of the time. When she was done she climbed into the booth with me and was very snuggly until we left. She thinks Rich is funny.

Daddy was home when Cara got up from her nap! After a period of being delicate and sensitive, she headed into the kitchen and we got out the Forbidden Art Supplies. Cara picked out a lot of pink pompoms and pink pipe cleaners. We had a little tube of glue, which we have used up sticking the pompoms to some paper with no particular end in mind. Cara may have made several caterpillars. She was very happy working on it, though, and we had a hard time getting her away to go to dinner.

We went to Friendly's. I brought along our animal-shaped foam stickers, and Cara and Daddy played with those and the crayons very happily. My contribution was drawing houses for a few of the animals and one palm tree. We got cheese sticks, and as usual Cara finished the marinara sauce. For dinner Cara had clam chowder. "Do you want grilled cheese or a hot dog?" I asked her. "Soup!" she cried. She dipped crackers in it and spooned it up and had a great time.

Jenny's Birthday Book, about the shy little black cat Jenny Linsky, has what to my ears is a very strange version of "Happy Birthday" in it. Cara has been singing snatches of it lately, so I told Steve in the car on the way home that Cara has been singing the "natal celebration song of the feline with the scarf." I like using euphemisms as an alternative to spelling, and I didn't really want to set her off. Soon we heard a little voice piping from the back seat, singing "cewebation song, cewebation song!" Steve started Jenny's birthday song, so they sang that for a while, and then we got to enjoy a medley of familiar favorites.

It was dusk when we got home, and we went over to see Juliana. Cara pushed Daddy George in his stroller. She was in a chasing mood. We got out her bike and she rode a little, and then PJ & co. came down the street. After some discussion, Cara gave PJ a hug. Twice while we were hanging out, Cara took off down the sidewalk towards PJ's house, running at full speed. She got very far. We're really not sure what she was doing, but it was good exercise. When it was time to go home, Em instructed PJ to give Cara a kiss. She was down the driveway. "Dara, kiss!" he called. She started running, and he started chasing her, all over the yard! Afterwards he did get to give her one. We went inside. Cara sat in her chair. "PJ give me kiss. Casey not."

8/25/07 (Saturday)

The weather continued incredibly muggy today, so we did spend much time outside. Cara had hot cocoa for breakfast, which she decided she wanted after seeing my mug of coffee. She dipped a few pieces of French toast stick into the cocoa, but didn't eat a whole lot. There was lots of Disney in the morning, followed by lots of playing with girls and such. Because we were stuck inside a lot, lots of toys came out--the foam blocks, for instance, with which we built roads for our car toys to drive on.

Not too far into the morning, Grandma and Grandpa from South Jersey showed up! Cara was very happy to see them and Grandpapa was enlisted to do many things, some of which he could do (he was offended when his reading of The Color Kittens was summarily cut off before the exciting conclusion). Cara remains convinced that we grown-ups can jump into her dog ball pit with her.

We went out for lunch, where Cara was good and had more soup--this time broccoli. She was kept occupied again with foam animal sticker things, and crayons. She had a very full diaper which required a wardrobe change before she went down--very unwillingly--for her nap.

Having one's grandparents in the house is not conducive to napping. Neither is pooping! We all listened to Cara cry and coo and chat to herself for quite some time, and when it began to get rather late in the afternoon and the nap did not seem to be forthcoming, we went up and got her. It turned out she required yet another wardrobe change: in fact, she got an early afternoon bath! Grandpapa stayed to take a picture and Grandmama got a kiss, and then they departed.

Usually when I give Cara a bath at an unusual time of day, it disturbs and upsets her. Fortunately today she thought it was a blast. When she got out, I put her in a yellow shirt (which she had rejected during her previous wardrobe change) and some overalls--the result was very cute, and I was quite proud of myself. She even managed to keep it on for the rest of the day!

You might think that with no time outside, no nap, and two full wardrobe changes, we would have had an awful day. But in fact it was lots of fun. Cara made us read many books to her (though since she can't read the spines before she pulls them off the shelf, she ended up picking some pretty awful ones!), and we all had fun playing with her many toys.

Lately Cara has been making efforts to cheer people up. When someone is sad, she says she will make them happy. Her method involves jumping up and down and yelling, "Ooh ooh aah aah!" like a monkey. When for some reason in the afternoon we decided I was sad, Cara jumped up and yelled, "Surprise!" Short pause, then: "Surprise! It's your birthday!" I told her this was indeed a surprise to me. We considered having a party, which was a very exciting prospect, even if nothing came of it.

We also got a short visit from Casey and Em, whom Cara was very happy to see (she asked where PJ was: he was in bed! also had napping troubles). She was happy to see them, but she carefully took all her girl toys in their little plastic bucket and carried them into the other room. We suspect this was so that Casey could not take any of the toys, though Evelyn optimistically points out that Cara was babyproofing.

In the evening Curious George got put on TV and stayed on through almost an entire DVD. Aunt Claire came to visit us for dinner! Cara likes to show Claire things. She has also already learned the trick of asking other grown-ups for something if the first one says no. I think this is very intelligent of her, if not exactly desired. We ended up having a late dinner of Chinese food, and Cara enjoyed yet another helping of soup (if you've been following her meals for the last few days: that's a lot of soup!!). It was very fortunate that I had already given Cara her bath earlier, because it was very late when we finally got her upstairs for her bedtime routine.

Tonight Mommy put her to sleep and all is quiet.

8/26/07 (Sunday)

Cara was tired last night; she slept until almost eight! We had our typical Sunday morning of pancakes and playtime. Cara and her daddy got out the "water" blanket and all of the Playmobil boats. I added a white blanket as some "snow." Two girls (mine, who seem more adventurous) went down the hill in "sleds," stacking cups that they promptly fell out of. I wonder whether it was because of that snow that Cara decided to go sledding in the basement. She got out a pink snow hat and a big scarf, which we had to wrap around her, and then she knocked over the cats' scratching post and straddled it as a sled.

Outside Cara worked on her sandcastle technique. She is starting to be able to pack a cup with damp sand then turn it over and make a castle. She drove the cars around on her own a lot; they often said "excuse me" to each other. She also rode her bike and pushed her monkey puppet in its stroller.

I made Cara some wonton soup for lunch and then got out some leftover pasta for myself. When the microwave dinged, Cara called, "Mommy, my pasta's ready!" So she ate that, too.

We baby-sat PJ and Casey this evening. Everyone got to jump into the ball pit. Cara also jumped from the couch onto a big pillow; for a while Steve worked on having PJ and Cara jump simultaneously. Mainly this failed, because Steve would count, PJ would jump, and Cara would say "one, two, three, four!" and then jump. They got it right a couple of times. PJ and Cara had a tea party and I got out the animal crackers I'd bought for our big "party" the other week. I really should have sorted them out first to make sure they got identical animals! Fortunately, though children are not ready to understand the truth that there just is not another zebra in the box, they are easy to lie to and ready to believe that tigers are zebras. We also played outside in the sand and on the bike, and Juliana came over.

One more cute thing: PJ reported a "booboo" on his foot. I asked him whether it needed to be kissed better. Yes, he said, and lifted up his own foot and kissed it. All better.

When we came in, Steve decided to put some "green" on his bug bites. It was bath time, so I asked Cara whether she wanted some green, too. Yes, we headed upstairs. Steve got out the aloe. Cara opened her shirt drawer and searched until she found a long-sleeved, light green shirt. She was ready to melt down when we didn't want to put it on her. Finally she took off her shorts and had us take off her shirt, and then I did put that green shirt on her. She wanted green pants, too. I consider it a minor miracle that she was excited enough about taking her bath to let us take that shirt off her again ten minutes later.

8/27/07 (Monday)

Today we went to the zoo, zoo, zoo! When Cara and I went downstairs to play, we agreed to make a zoo. We got out all of our blocks and all of the Playmobil animals, and we built a house for each animal. Some got very small houses. The pig, for instance, could barely turn around in his. I'm sure he was very happy, though. Some animals got arches they could go in and out through. Soon, though, we had to go get ready. I didn't have any trouble getting Cara to wear clothes today; she ran upstairs!

In a little bit we got everything, including Cara, into the stroller, and headed out. We met Juliana, who walked with us down to PJ's house. Last night we had moved a third car seat into Ron's truck, so we wouldn't have to take two cars. Today, though, Ron wasn't feeling up to going. Juliana, who had already admitted to me that she had nothing to do today, still gets credit for an admirable show of flexibility in agreeing to go with us! The three kids got strapped in, with Casey in the middle, and we three ladies piled into the front, with me in the middle! We were off to the zoo!

The kids were good in the back together. They played some sort of hysterically funny game that had to do with blowing raspberries, but whenever we looked back, no one was doing anything. Very suspicious. I brought the Goofy book for Cara, but I'm not sure she read it. She did sit with it open for a long time.

Equipped with stroller, water, and diaper bags, we headed into the park. Our membership got everyone in! We saw hippos, rhinos, elephants, peacocks, lions, pumas, leopards, and (almost) polar bears. We saw zebras and giraffes. We saw geese. At lunch, Cara managed to eat her hot dog in the bun without eating the bun. We got extra cups and juggled liquids back and forth, in and out of sippy cups, managing to keep the kids happy with what they were drinking and yet spill-free.

We had to wait in line a long time to get our faces painted. Cara was determined to be a pink kitty again! PJ agreed to be a yellow leopard, but later he decided to be a green dinosaur. After a long, long wait, Cara got up into the chair and told the nice lady what she wanted to be. When she saw her pink kitty face in the mirror, she had no reaction at first. Of course, though, she really was very happy. PJ, sadly, declined to sit and let anyone do anything to his face, though he thought it was a good idea for Mommy to get hers done. She did not.

It was great to have PJ in the treehouse! of course he was ready to jump right in, literally. When he and Cara crawled down the log tunnel, he noticed a big hole in the side. When he got out, he ran around to the hole and dove back in. I tried for the rest of the trip to get a photo of the back half of one kid or the other disappearing, but I think the best I got was Cara's feet sticking out of the hole. They both loved the beaver dam slide, naturally, and I ended up alone with them when they went exploring and headed down the other slide. That one's tougher for the adults, because the bottom is down a small flight of stairs. Fortunately, they both came down. Then, they headed up the stairs into the treehouse itself! PJ ran ahead, and Cara held my hand. I spent most of the climb calling PJ back. Going down was easier. Cara jumped down from step to step, saying "a-one, a-two, a-three." So PJ, who got behind us, started saying, "a-choo!" Soon, I was chaperoning two sneezing, jumping children. We tried to get some shots of all three kids together, but I don't think they ever all looked the same way. They all climbed on the dinosaur and they all climbed into some eggs; I think I got some good shots of PJ and Cara jumping together. They went into the flower individually. Oh well.

It was well into nap time and everyone was tired; it was time to get back into our strollers. One stop on the way out: ice cream. I got a cup of chocolate for me and Cara, and after a halfhearted request for "pink ice cream" she put it away. We had a long hike out of the zoo. When we walked by the Zoo Balloon, it was high in the sky. "Look, Dara! Balloon!" When PJ saw it, he wanted to make sure Cara did, too. He's a good friend. We watched it come down.

In the car, each child got a cuddly toy to snuggle down with for a nap. I consider myself very fortunate because puma is not pink now. PJ fell asleep first. Cara helpfully started to try to wake him, but we talked her out of it. He was also the first to wake up, but they all woke well before we got home. Everyone was cheerful. It was a great trip.

The little kitty and I played outside in the sand and inside in her room. She frequently had to go stand in front of the mirror in my room to look at herself. Outside, she sent puma down the slide and then followed him. I guess she landed funny to avoid stepping on him, because she tumbled over and scraped her chin. I washed it off very carefully to help her stay a kitty cat.

Tacos for dinner. Cara ate some corn, too, but mostly she ate beans. When her own got low, she began eyeing mine. She's ruthless!

When we were coming back from our walk, we saw a cat. It hurried off across someone's lawn as Cara, a fellow-kitty, held out her arms and cried, "I'll save you, kitty!"

We had a tough time getting her to let us wash the kitty paint off of her face. I made the mistake, when I came later to get her out of the bath, of calling her "kitty cat." Then she was sad. We convinced her, though, that she could pretend to be a kitty without the face paint. Daddy can really purrrrrrrr, but Cara and I both have to just say "purr."

Story time seems to always eventually get around to If I Ran the Circus, which is Cara-titled The Circus McGurkus. That particular phrase is used numerous times in the course of the story, and I conceived the idea of getting Cara to say it whenever it came up. Tonight I put my idea into action, and was surprised to find how easy it was; in almost no time, I was pointing at her at the right moments and she was crying, "The Circus McGurkuuuuusssss!" The only problem was that it took her so long to say that it was hard to keep the rhythm going.

8/28/07 (Tuesday)

As far as I know, Cara was wonderful all day. In the morning, she was more interested in playing than in breakfast. She finally requested "hot cocoa." I do not know why she calls it that, when I call it hot chocolate. She was dressed in a pink skirt and her pink cow shirt, which I think is her favorite. Of course, she spilled on herself. Fortunately, we had pink shorts I could get her to change into. The shirt stayed.

I have a theory, by the way, that I think is correct. When she bows, Cara says, "ga-bow!" I think that this is because of the Little Einsteins finale song, in which one line is, "come on, take a bow." I am reminded of a Ramona Quimby book in which Ramona suggested that the family get a "dawnzer" to improve the lighting in the house. She had been learning the national anthem.

When we got so Susan's, I had to wait a little bit for Cara to finish reading Goofy. It's quite engrossing. Then I got her out of the car and she walked up to the house, waited for me to open the door, and headed off to play. Then she came back to let me take her shoes off for her, and then she really headed off to play. She's a happy girl.

On Tuesdays, Juliana works at her church's thrift shop. Therefore, I was not entirely surprised to see clothes on the bushes by the door when we got home. The culprit was outside, so Cara sort of headed, as directed, over to say thanks, but then she ran for her new stuff. She was delighted to have two new pairs of warm, cuddly fleece pants, in blue and pink. The other treasure, though, was several new books! We sat down on the sidewalk to try them. Juliana sat down, too, and we did read a couple before the grown-ups decided it was time to move. Cara, of course, was perfectly comfortable on my lap and didn't see why we would want to go anywhere else.

Lately, when Cara says something I can't understand, I've been saying "huh?" Steve does something similar. I have realized that we MUST STOP. Cara has started saying "huh?" When I read to her with Juliana, I asked Cara lots of questions, things she should have been able to pick up. Instead, she kept saying "huh?" It was as if she had suddenly become hard of hearing. It was VERY ANNOYING. That is why we must all stop.

We had leftover Chinese for dinner. Cara enjoyed her lo mein and then repeatedly asked for samples of mine, which I admit she spat out as soon as she got them into her mouth. She didn't even taste them! Then she tried a bit of Steve's rice. When he looked up again, there she was with her mouth wide open, waiting for more! They also shared some crunchy noodles.

We went for a walk again, and I don't think I've ever seen Cara so happy in her stroller. She babbled and giggled and said hi a lot. She kept herself entirely amused. She started rocking back and forth and claimed to be "doing the rainbow dance!" Soon there were arm movements, too, sort of repeated punching. I demonstrated how to make a rainbow like the Doodlebops, and Cara clearly tried hard to copy. It didn't quite work.

Cara continued doing something she did last night: she chants, "We going to the park-a!" Tonight, we were early enough that we did. "Good idea, Mommy! Good idea, Daddy!" she congratulated us. First we went on the swings, of course, but then peer pressure took Cara once again to the slides. The whole family raced up and down, up and down! It was hard to tear her away. She was happy again on the ride home, though, especially when Daddy pushed her very fast!

8/29/07 (Wednesday)

I left Cara with Em and the kids for a while this morning, and when I got back it was arts and crafts time. Em had gotten out big paper and traced each of the children. Cara, of course, was traced in pink. I was surprised to see that Cara had scribbled a recognizable face onto her outline! It's probably the first time she's drawn something.

Em had gone through some hand-me-down clothes she got somewhere and found a very pretty summer dress for Cara. It's a size 5. I was very pleased with Cara's outfit today; it's a blue shirt with a khaki skirt. Of course, Cara, who never wants to wear a dress when I ask her, decided she had to wear her new dress. So we put it on over her clothes. It didn't look too bad.

Eventually we got ourselves over to the mall. Last year when we did that, before Casey was born, we sat in traffic on 514 for a long, long time. This year, we turned off at Plainfield Ave. because traffic just was not moving. When we finally got there, all the kids were happy to ride in their strollers. "Go! Go!" PJ cried. He does seem to be picking up Cara's speech patterns, as Ron has pointed out. He also kept wanting to go to the mall even after we were inside of it.

First we went shoe shopping. Cara is a 7 and a half medium, which means she has a lot of options. None of the shoes were really what I wanted, though, so we will probably look elsewhere. The shoe store lady did tie the sash on Cara's dress into a nice bow, which I had not done. Bad Mommy! Casey got her first big-girl shoes! They're cute. They are white baby shoes with little pink flowers on them! PJ got nice manly brown shoes, which he specifically came over to show me. "Diane, look!" He picked up his foot and everything.

PJ got a haircut, which is torture for him (and Em!). Cara sat in an airplane while she waited, and then she sat in another seat with a steering wheel. She was perfectly content. While Casey got her first haircut, I took the other two away in the twin stroller. We walked around for a few minutes then went into the Disney Store. After some internal debate I decided I was not dumb enough to let them both out to run around. I steered them close enough to play with a few toys, then I steered them out again. When we stopped to look down at the carousel and then a fountain, they discovered that they could reach out, grab the bars of the railing, and pull themselves closer to it. Then they tried to put their heads through, with no success.

We were all ready for lunch, so we headed for Friendly's. Cara wanted soup, so PJ also wanted soup. He got a kiddie meal with a cup of chicken soup first. He tried it a little, but he was not enthusiastic. While we waited for our food, we did a lot of toys-needing-to-be-rescued-and-then-getting-help.

It was quite late when we got home, but Cara was raring to go. She ensconced herself among her Playmobil toys. Picking up the daddy, she coughed a couple of times. She picked up the veterinarian and her medical bag. "Oh, you have cold! I give you medicine." She put the doctor's bag to his mouth and tilted. "Mmmmmm, yummy!" Then the daddy lay down on a bed, apparently to recuperate. Then I grabbed Cara and hauled her upstairs, where I took her dress off of her and put her down to spend a pleasant hour and a half in her crib not napping.

We hung around for a while, but then Cara heard PJ outside and we had to hurry to get our shoes on and run to him. His scooter was also outside, and Cara got a turn. For the first time, she managed to ride it. She's awfully slow, but she perseveres and went a long, long way. When she and PJ got distracted and left, Casey wanted a turn. I held her hand as she made her way over, then I held the scooter while she climbed onto it, sat on it, and stood on it. Just like a big girl!

Tonight was our special dinner out at Benihana. The occasion? A coupon. The kids ate free. It was tough waiting, which we had to do for quite a while. There was a fountain and a fish tank to look at, though, so we made it. Then we had a really special dinner; everyone ate a lot, and it was a great show! Cara and Casey both like shrimp! Casey ate Em's, and Cara ate Steve's as well as her own. They also got special drinks, virgin strawberry daiquiris, which came in cups that had dragons and wizards and princesses on them. Cara was a little bit frustrated because she wanted to use chopsticks, but she got over it. It was funny to see how serious she looked, watching the chef cook our food. She missed the part where he flipped the shrimp tails into the air and caught them in his hat!

Cara was very tired and very hyper when we got home. It was exciting to have to catch her anew for each step in her bedtime process. We're trying something special tonight, though. Whenever I go to get Cara, she is sleeping with her blanket and stuffed animals bunched up under her head. This afternoon, I found her a pillow. I hope it helps!

A mystery solved: Lately, Cara has started saying "yE-e-e-ss!" in a very high-pitched voice. It turns out that that is how Mistress Mouse answers Mister Mouse when he proposes to her in the Big Book when Steve reads it.

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