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Journal Key:

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

9/27/07 (Thursday)

Claire reported that Cara was good this evening, during which we went off to see a concert. Claire is one of Cara's favorites and our girl had no problem staying with her while we left: "Goodbye Mommy, goodbye Daddy!" she said, with no problem at all, as we walked out the door. The little girl was charming enough to get to stay up all the way until 9:45, by which time she was crying "Just one more book!" with her eyes half-open.

9/28/07 (Friday)

The first words out of the little girl's mouth when she woke up were "Where's Caire?" She was disappointed when I explained that Claire had to go home. Grandmama Janet picked her up from Susan's that day and they had their usual sleepover, which I believe went well. Cara has finally shaken off her cold that she's been hanging onto for the past few days, so I think she was back to normal.

9/29/07 (Saturday)

After a breakfast of toast Cara was whisked back to her Mommy and Daddy, and was very happy to see them both (as we were her, of course). She did some playing outside in the morning, including a ride on her bike and I think some time at the old sand table. We were outside to see Grandpa Jim when he showed up! Cara ran to him happily. We went inside since it was a tiny bit chilly, and Mommy (who has been waiting anxiously for the least opportunity) finally got out some bribe toys which she had purchased. They were for Claire to use, but Claire did not feel it necessary to resort to them.

The toys are both Polly Pockets. One is a kind of a double-decker pool or tub thing, with a pair of little monkeys, some bananas, and of course a girl (in swimming suit). The other is a girl (who apparently is the very same girl, since they have the same name on the packaging--though they look pretty different) who drives a car! This is nice to have, since none of the other girls had vehicles and had to walk to their castle to slide. Unfortunately, Cara is very strict and does not let any of the old girls into the car, which is a blue convertible (Grandpa Jim made Cara practice saying "convertible," I think because it sounds very funny when the little girl tries to say it). This does not bode well for the old girls. They also are not allowed to use the pool toy, although Cara does seem to be getting more lenient with that one. Cara seemed convinced that Mommy had even more toys and kept asking for "Another girl." Hmmm.

For lunch we went to our usual place where we take Grandpa Jim (Houlihan's), where Cara charmed the hostess by saying, "I need a high chair!" She also later tried to show off her shoes to the hostess, and almost fell over. Cara requested macaroni and cheese (which I suspect she may also have had for dinner last night, since she usually asks for foods she's just had), and amazed us all by eating up the entire plate! This was unusual. Cara was a very good girl at the restaurant and we barely needed to get out any toys.

In the afternoon, we felt it best to skip her nap. Instead, Ev and I went outside to waterseal our back fence while Grandpa stayed with the little girl. I know that they played with Play-doh and did some painting with water as well. As the afternoon wore on, I returned inside to play with Cara, Grandpa Jim left to feed Rusty, and Evie continued to work very hard outside. For a while Cara and I played with the new girls. Then when she followed me upstairs and caught me checking email at the computer, we had a long session of looking at photos. Cara was only interested in seeing herself (perhaps because about the only photos we have on the computer are of her) and whenever I paused she would request to see herself again. This did not seem to tire her and I was the one who decided it was time to stop. Eventually we resorted to George, and this was how Mommy found us.

We did have some more play time outside, at the sand table and on the slide, and Juliana came over for a few minutes to see us. As the evening progressed, Cara became pretty crabby and was clearly tired. After a short dinner, Mommy made the wise decision of pushing up bathtime. Cara and I managed to have a good bath. The mermaid toy was still in there and she amused Cara by talking to the various frogs. Cara also discovered that if she dumped out the water cup into our soap dish, it made a kind of waterfall that was very exciting. I washed her quickly, though, and Mommy read her some nice stories.

9/30/07 (Sunday)

It's a while since I've been on, so I have lots to report. Yesterday, for instance, two toys who had seemed forgotten for weeks suddenly became very important. Cara found her plush horse and repeatedly fell on it in enthusiastic hugs. Curious George (Baby George, not Daddy George) got to take a ride in the stroller, and then I brought him out to lunch with us. Cara carried him herself. While we walked to the restaurant, I asked her to hold Grandpop's hand. "Oh!" she said, and carefully moved George so that she was holding his hand. She offered his other hand to Grandpop, and the three of them walked in together. I believe they even swung George, which I'm sure he enjoyed. I was reminded of this today, when I lay down beside Cara and her horse, who were "sleeping." The horse's legs splay out limply, and I was directed to "hold my horsie's other hand!"

I got to watch Cara wake up this morning. I took her out, when she stood up (not before, because she's getting too big to lift like that!), and we snuggled in the story chair. Then I got to see what a good job Steve is doing in getting Cara into a morning routine. I asked her whether she could use the potty. She got up and walked into the bathroom. With a little help, she had her pajamas off. I put her on, and she peed. Naked, she then walked back into her room and lay down for a diaper. I was ready to put her sleeper back onto her for a lazy weekend morning, but she got up and announced that she had to pick clothes. She did. With a little help and direction, she was dressed. I know that it never, as Steve says, runs so smoothly on weekdays, but it's clearly sinking into her head!

We spent an awful lot of time playing with our toys today. I'm very disappointed about the girls. I had been looking forward to giving them rides over to the castle to slide, but it turns out that only the new girls are allowed in the car! Even the monkeys can't have a ride. On the other hand, now I can dress the girls however I want. The new girls are not at all interested in clothes. They don't even care about shoes! Cara doesn't even seem to have noticed that a girl is missing. When Steve and I got home on Thursday, Claire showed us the redhead, my favorite girl, whose pelvis had tragically split in two in an unforeseeable dressing accident, leaving her in five pieces. Claire thinks we can glue her together. I don't miss her too much, since I've now been promoted, it seems, to the plastic-haired girls.

The monkeys are a lot of fun. They are holding their arms up so that they can swing on a little swing, but they are mirror images. That means they can dance. I stand them up together on a little platform in the castle, and they dance as it rotates. Then they fall over. The only old girl Cara is not ignoring is the princess. She was at the top of the castle while the monkeys were dancing. Cara picked her up and performed a monologue, accompanying it with appropriate actions. "I hear something downstairs! Oh! There monkeys in the castle! I go tell the Weebles. Weebles! There monkeys in the castle!" She had gone over to the bin where the Weebles are stored. The Weebles chose Driggles the Dragon as their representative to investigate this intrusion, and he accompanied the princess when she returned. There were, indeed, monkeys in the castle. Driggles, the princess, and the monkeys all danced together. Driggles got to slide, but the monkeys were not allowed. The princess, forgotten, was dancing in the moat, lying face-down.

We had the pillow from the papasan on the floor, and we got out the doctor's kit and took turns being sick. It got very elaborate. Whoever was doctor had to put on the doctor's coat, which is awful. It's very stiff. Cara cleverly lies down on top of it and slides her arms in. Then the doctor had to wash her hands at the toy kitchen. Among other things, the patient was listened to with one or two stethoscopes, given multiple shots (Cara likes symmetry), and eventually given some yummy medicine which effected a cure. Then the patient became the doctor. Over and over and over.

We went to the park this morning. I was disappointed when I saw that other children were there, but it turned out to be really great! It was a family we've met before. A big boy asked whether Cara would play tag with his little sister, who was shy. This resulted in, basically, an hour-long game of chase. Cara was not nearly fast enough to catch the little girl, who is at least a year older, but that's okay. Everybody chased everybody. In the middle of it, a car pulled up. It was PJ! (With Em and Casey.) The kids (and I) all climbed all over everything. Everyone went down all the slides. PJ is still an amazing climber, but Cara went up everything, too. When the little girl had demonstrated, we were even able to go up the weird triangle thing that I've never understood. After that, the little girl got bossy and wanted to show us how to climb everything, no matter whether we knew or not! I had fun playing chase with her. Once in a while she would just tell me, "Stop!" so that she could climb something without being caught. After PJ left, we stayed for a while. I played chase with the little girl. The boy played chase with his mom. Cara played with daddy, but I did hear her asking, "Where's that big boy?" We all ran around a LOT. Cara was exhausted when we left, and so was I.

We've been practicing a few questions this weekend, and Cara's getting good at them. She knows that the car is a convertible. Converdibidible? Something like that. She knows that Daddy works with computers. She knows that mommy is a teacher. This afternoon, she added that Susan is a teacher, too!

I'm very excited about Cara's potty-training progress. Not only did she use the potty in the morning, she went before her nap, too. Then, while she was in the bath, she told Daddy she had to go. He put her on, and she did! I don't think she's ever gone twice in one day before, let alone three times!

10/1/07 (Monday)

Cara was a good little girl this morning, we had a good time. She made her pee on the potty, and fortunately picked out appropriate clothing (I checked the weather before going up to her room and suggested she choose pants and a long sleeve shirt). At breakfast she was very strict. The napkin holder had to go back on the window sill. I needed milk for my cereal. I really should be using a spoon to stir my coffee, NOT a knife. She explained that I had to go put my stuff in the car (which is what I usually tell her). I thought we would make good time getting out of the house, but I just barely beat Em to Susan's house (I don't really know how I beat her at all, actually, since she started out in front of me). She said that PJ's first word of the day had been a plaintive, lovelorn: "Daaara!"

It's career week at Susan's! Cara, who spent a long, long time playing doctor yesterday, got to color a doctor's kit and stick cotton balls, Q-tips, and tongue depressors to it. There was a discussion of several jobs, including teacher. Cara, who volunteered the information yesterday, was, like the rest of the children, struck dumb when Susan asked them what she did. Finally, after some prompting, Avery was able to tell everyone that Susan was a teacher. (It's a lot of responsibility, being the oldest one!)

For me, the most exciting thing that happened before Daddy got home was that one of my girls was allowed to ride in the car. She was very sad because she wanted to go slide on the dinosaur, but it was too far to walk. I repeated that several times, and then Cara's girls got into their car and mine was able to lie down in the back. When Cara put the top on, she had to really lie down, with her feet by the windshield. No one objected. Cara's girls dropped her off by the dinosaur, and they seemed a little sad. She invited them to stay, and they enthusiastically accepted. Then the monkeys came to ask those girls to come back and play with them. We invited the monkeys to stay. They were happy. Everyone got to slide.

Cara, of course, finished dinner before Steve and I did. Her daddy was nice enough, though, to cut his own meal short in order to take her out to the living room and show her pictures on the computer. They looked at pictures while I finished eating, joined them, went back and cleaned up, and came back out again. They looked at pictures for half an hour!

We were happy to go downstairs and play. We got Cara to play with her puzzles, which was refreshing. She's pretty good at her numbers one. She gets most of the numbers, and her mistakes often make sense. She was clever enough to fit the 9 into the 19 and the 2 into the 12. She can do her animal puzzles fine. There is one real jigsaw-style puzzle, which really is still beyond her. We basically did most of it, though Steve walked her through a couple of pieces, and then she got the final two by herself.

I bought Cara her own bubble bath with Big Bird on it. She was excited. In fact, she impressed all three of us by climbing into the tub by herself! After a gleeful bath and some running up and down the hall in various states of undress, Cara has put on her pajamas (she gets the pants by herself), brushed her teeth, and said good night. She is still making Daddy read to her up there.

10/2/07 (Tuesday)

When I arrived, Susan and Cara were clearly conspiring. Cara turned around, wearing a tinfoil star on a yarn necklace. I was supposed to guess her career. It was clearly very exciting, but I drew a blank. A policeman, Susan told me. Oohhh. Well. Cara actually had a tough day today. Susan wonders whether she has allergies or something. I asked Cara, on our way to the car, whether she had had a good day. "Yes," she said, then "I cried." Why had she cried? "I cried for you, Mommy. And for Daddy." While that is touching and somewhat plausible, it also sounds like a possibly made up answer. I just don't know.

After dinner, we all played together downstairs. Cara is great at cleaning things up! When she knows she has to clean up in order to get out another toy, she throws herself into the job, going farther than we ask her to. She cleaned up her bears, her girls, her magnetic girl, her doctor kit, and her Littlest Pet Shop animals, though not all in one shot, of course! Things are getting back to normal with the girls. The new girls are not interested in dressing up, but Cara is now able to pay attention to her other girls, who certainly are interested in what they wear! Stealing one of Daddy's plot devices, Cara had a girl steal the car. Then the new girls told her to give it back, and she did. Cara has noticed the missing girl, and she is (fleetingly) very distressed. I am sure we will repeat that scene a few times.

Usually, Cara dresses her magnetic girl up and that's that. Today, she dressed her and then changed her clothes! She changed them again--into the first outfit. Then the girl went for a walk and visited the little turtle, who was in his house. She admired his house. Cara voiced the turtle, the girl, and then herself, as she burst into the conversation to show the girl all of her new animal toys! (New as of a couple of weeks ago; I'm not that toy-happy!)

We played doctor a lot on Sunday and a little yesterday. Today Cara cleaned everything up and got out the medical bag again, but I think we are definitely bored with it. Time to play Weebles!

I did buy Cara something new today. It's a giraffe hand puppet washcloth! I know it was exciting, but I hope it was also helpful.

10/3/07 (Wednesday)

It was a good day today. While we rode home, Cara talked about going to her house. "You can come in my house, Mommy," she reassured me several times. Finally I asked her where I live. "In your house! My house, I mean!" We also talked about her name. We've never really reinforced the idea of her last name with Cara. I'm not sure I've really mentioned it before. So, I told her her name and asked her to repeat it. Whatever she said ended with "Enano."

We played at home for a little while, and then it was time to go to PJ's. Cara saw her chocolate milk when I was getting her water, and she wanted it. I let her have it, but when I tried to get her to leave it here instead of bringing it, she fell down, crying. I tried pulling a Susan. I told her she needed to stop crying and tell me what was wrong. She did! I'm awfully pleased. Now I want to use that all the time. I tried it once or twice later on, and it may really work.

My playdate evening had two high points. One was when I was downstairs with all three kids sitting on my lap while I sort of read them a book. It was a book with a squeaky elephant embedded in it, so they were taking turns squeaking him. The other was when I was upstairs with the three kids, who were jumping back and forth between PJ's fire truck bed and his crib, from which the side has been removed. Casey believes that she can jump from one to the other just like the big kids, and I am very proud of the fact that, while I was there, she was not disillusioned. I caught her every time.

PJ tried to put Cara's shoes on, but I don't think they fit. Cara wanted to climb into some boxes, but she didn't make it. Ron says PJ gets into them all the time and wants help to get out. The big items of contention this evening were the bead maze, which I love, too, and can see fighting over, and Casey's dollhouse, which Casey herself almost never gets to play with.

Cara came home willingly and got some more chocolate milk. Then she washed her hands in the kitchen sink, as a treat. We asked her her name and she said it perfectly: Cara Genzano. She went downstairs to play and didn't want to come up for her bath, but eventually she changed her mind and came to find us. We lead through example and had been waiting upstairs. Now she is in the tub, singing "Dah dah dah dah dah dah dah dah, wah wah, wah, wah, wah, wah, wah, wah, wah, wah!" at the top of her lungs. Sometimes she manages to have that end in a squeak.

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