| Previous Week | Back Home | Next Week |

Journal Key:

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

 

12/6/07 (Thursday)

This morning Cara and I had a typical morning. The variation was that I found pancakes in the freezer (ha ha) and Cara was very happy about them--so happy, in fact, that she didn't have her gummy vitamins.

Apparently at daycare today Cara had the kind of "number two" that I hope very much to avoid, the kind that requires a complete change of clothing. Susan, I am sure, handled it effortlessly and without batting an eye. I'm sure that she was not even fazed by the fact that the only spare outfit she had for Cara was one we had supplied in the summer, a skimpy, very orange Minnie Mouse ensemble that was totally unwearable. Did this stop Susan? Not a bit. She simply found the spare outfit of another girl named Chloe who no longer goes to daycare there, and put it on Cara. True, the pants were far too large, but this did not stop Susan either: a quick safety pin to the waistband and there you are.

Cara was still wearing this emergency outfit when I arrived home. We then went immediately out to the diner with her wearing it. While waiting for the high chair, Cara slipped into a big person chair, and stayed in it for the rest of the meal! It was nice, and the high chair was a good place to store Mommy's bag while we ate. On the way out of the diner, Cara held our hands and decided to jump along--not a good idea when you're wearing pants that are far too big for you. There she was in the parking lot of the diner with her pants down around her ankles. After I pulled them up, she went right back to jumping. Then it was Mommy's turn to pull the pants up.

Now, by special request, Mommy is giving Cara her bath. This is because she made as if to cry when I tried to bathe her. Last night Cara was, I think, very excited that Ron and PJ were coming over, and instead of getting my usual happy greeting, I saw Cara start crying bitterly when I walked in the door. Tonight, perhaps out of habit, it looked like she might start crying again when I got home. I will try not to take this too much to heart. I did get a spontaneous hug at the diner, and I got to read her three of her Little Golden Books in a row tonight.

12/7/07 (Friday)

It's pretty ironic given my last paragraph from yesterday, but Cara had a very Daddy-filled day today. While she and I were having breakfast this morning at around 7:30, Mommy called to say she was coming back home from work sick. She was running a temperature and just not feeling good. We tactfully set our schedules so that Cara would not see Mommy coming home and get all excited.

I would have picked Cara up from Susan's as well but I hit traffic and Mommy dragged herself over there and back. We had Chinese takeout for dinner (after Cara had had several snack traps full of pretzels) and watched a lot of Dora, Diego, and Backyardigans (who Cara referred to as the "Yardigans"; this reminded me of her habit of calling a hippopotamus a "Pottamus"). Poor Mommy just wanted to go to sleep, but Cara wanted her involved and kept getting over to lay next to her. Eventually and with surprisingly little fighting I got Cara to come upstairs and get into her tub. We had a very quick nighttime routine, much quicker than usual, perhaps because Cara knows I'm much more boring by myself. Now everyone in the house is asleep or put down except me. It is very peaceful.

12/8/07 (Saturday)

The evening did not turn out to be as peaceful as I had anticipated. Cara did not sleep well in the night and a somewhat sleepless Mommy got up to give her medicine. In the morning it became pretty clear that both Ev and Cara had the flu. I went out to get some medicine and juice and silly food, and after that we spent the day hanging around the house. With the exception of a few very short trips downstairs to play a bit with toys, we spent the whole day watching TV. Cara did get a very long nap in the middle of the day, which is really the best thing for her, and Ev got some rest, though she was still periodically bothered by Cara asking her to move to the other side of the couch or to sit up or come and play with her.

There were times during the day when Cara's temperature went down and she would get very energized, and then her purple stuff would wear off and she would be back to laying on the couch. She spent the whole day in her pajamas from the night before, onto which she had convinced me to pin her kitty tail from Halloween. After her bath (which was a splashy bath involving the two sharks and the mermaid), I was afraid she would want to go back into the pajamas. Instead she got the perverse idea that she wanted to wear "clothes," not pajamas. She emptied her drawer of too-big clothes and decided that she had to wear a blue T-shirt, a pink skort, and a pair of blue jeans. I was very proud of her because she managed to put the T-shirt on herself with no assistance! Other than that I was exasperated. Eventually the time came when I just had to grab her and change her into her pajamas.

Cara has a way of remembering wrongs done against her and reciting them back to us. For instance, when I first saw Cara after she'd woken from her nap, she immediately had to recount to me how, right before Mommy took her upstairs, she had been watching Diego and I turned it off. This evening when I was trying to read stories to her she started talking about having been put down for her nap: "Mommy put me down and walked away!" But then this evening when I told her it was time to go to bed, she said that puma wanted to jump into the crib, and allowed me to put her in without protest.

12/9/07 (Sunday)

Steve did not recount my most meaningful parenting contribution of the day yesterday. Now, I'm sick. I've been pretty much a big lump all weekend. When it came time to go upstairs for the bath yesterday, Cara decided it was time to go downstairs to play. "Cara," I called, "Can you take me upstairs?" She came over to the couch, took my hand, and led me upstairs. Bath time!

I was still sick and useless today. Steve's been doing 90% of the work. Cara, though, woke up without a fever and stayed clear all day! I went to the doctor and have antibiotics for a throat infection.

Highlights from Cara's day:

After her nap, she told me "there was a mouse and I saw a cat and the cat had something in his mouf." I asked her where she had seen this--was she asleep? Yes. Then it was a dream. She also dreamed about Puma.

Cara had some m&ms. She shared one with Steve, telling him to eat it with his sharp teeth that he has in his mouth.

12/10/07 (Monday)

Steve relates a scenario from last night's bath, involving Cara's portable shower head, which we bought in a fit of optimism. It's supposed to attach to the wall with a suction cup, and there's a spray head on a stalk and a hose that descends into the water to pick it up. On the end of that hose is a ball-like thingie with holes in it. The entire contraption is pretty useless, but Cara does like to play with it.

She treats the little ball end like a microphone. She was sticking it up to her mouth and saying "This is Cara Genzano, coming in!" She sounded like she was talking trucker CB talk. Then she just started in with "Cara Genzano, Cara Genzano, Cara Genzano..."

I stayed home again today and still felt really rotten, but I think that this evening I turned a corner and started to come back to life. Cara went to Susan's and was fine all day, but she did take a very long nap. We are all keeping our eyes on her.

I haven't eaten much over the past few days, so I decided I could have what I wanted for dinner. I wanted IHOP. We went. I reminded Cara about her face pancake, and she was enthusiastic. She explained to us that we all wanted pancakes with faces because we love faces. Actually, it turned out that they have a new variation. The smile is made of banana slices, the eyes of strawberries, and you get a tube of strawberry go-gurt to decorate it with!

The decorating was more fun than the eating. Cara ate some of her pancake, some of Daddy's, and some (a safe part) of mine. When she got bored, she rediscovered the yogurt. We squeezed out the rest, and then Cara started getting the remnants onto her fingers and licking them clean. Finally, she let me use a spoon to feed her some, which I had tried to do earlier. She pretty much ate it all.

Getting back into the car, Cara found a washcloth, that toy of toys, on the floor. We played peek-a-boo a lot, and she was also excited about washing the windows. We had many long and strange conversations. I asked her how old she was. She didn't know. "Four?" I suggested. Yes, and PJ is four, too. We tried to convince her that she is two, as is PJ, and then Steve mentioned that PJ will be three in a few months. "Why!?" I, by the way, and thirty five, six, seven.

I read to Cara this evening. She requested her Dora the Explorer book, and I decided to explain what an explorer is. It's someone who looks around and finds new places. I like to be an explorer. Does Cara? "Yes, and I like to be a kitty, too!"

12/11/07 (Tuesday)

Just to be safe, I took Cara to the pediatrician this afternoon! In the examining room, Cara very industriously took all of the blocks out of their crate, then said, "I did it! Yay!" and clapped for herself. She also stood on the scale several times and asked me to exercise her. I am not really sure what that meant. When the doctor came in she examined Cara, let her "blow out" the tiny light on her examining thing, and took a culture of her throat, just to be sure. Everything looked fine. Cara does seem to be developing a cough, so we'll just watch that.

The doctor also gave Cara a sticker. Cara and I had discussed this possibility in the car, and Cara had insisted that there would be two stickers, which she would put on her gloves. Cara got a large Diego sticker, which might have fit onto the back of my hand. She promptly put it on the back of hers, where it was far too big. Fortunately, after getting her throat swabbed, she got another. It was also a large Diego sticker. It went onto the other hand.

When we got back into the waiting room and I put Cara's coat down for her to flip on, she neatly pulled off one of the stickers and held it out for me. I took it. She gave me the other. I asked her what I should do with them, and she told me to put them into my pocket so she could have them back when she got home. I got her to let me put them onto her coat, where they may last longer.

Actually, one of the most exciting developments of the day happened on the way to the doctor's. Naturally Cara had to have on her gloves. She had a few finger-placement issues, though. She asked me several times to help her fix them, but eventually I convinced her that I could not do so while driving. I said we'd have to wait until we got there. "The doctor will help me!" OK. Cara continued to work on her problem. I heard her muttering about two fingers being in one place. Eventually, after several other suggestions, I told her to try taking them both out and putting just one back. It worked! She fixed several errors all by herself. I am very proud.

When we got home, Cara just wanted to watch Diego. With me. I wanted to go get the phone to return a call, but Cara grabbed my hands to keep my arms around her and me on the couch. We snuggled up, me and Cara and Puma. It was nice. "I love you, Cara," I said. "I wuv you, too, Mommy, meow!" said . . . Puma? We actually had a long, mushy, lovey conversation in which I'm really not sure who said what, unless I was speaking.

Cara got her snack trap of pretzels, and Puma was also hungry. It turns out the the snack trap, which is just a little cup with a rubbery, partially open lid, will fit snugly on Puma's muzzle. I think it may be the funniest thing he's ever done. I just never know what Puma will think of next. Meow!

I want to cut down on the TV, but maybe I've reached a compromise. It seems like Cara really likes some snuggle time when she gets home, so maybe we can watch one episode of Diego (currently it's "The Great Jaguar Rescue" every time) and then go play. It worked out this evening.

We had a big mess to clean up before we could get out the big pillow to play doctor. Cara cleaned up the girls, and she was done before I was halfway done with the foam blocks. She helped me, then. Motivation really helps. At bedtime, we're still struggling to get her to clean up little things.

Puma and Cara both got to be sick and to be doctors. I just got to be a doctor. I had made up a cool game that involved kicking the cats' toy balls into a bag, and Cara did two. When I put mine down, it turned out that Puma wanted to play, too. He can even kick with his tail. Later, we used Puma to get Cara out of the bath. Once we had established that he could not join her IN the tub, he was sad because she didn't come out. I'm mildly annoyed with myself for doing that, because we've just about broken her of asking ME to be sad and pretend to cry. We decided that that was not a good technique.

When Steve played with Cara after dinner, the big, round, white pillow became the moon! The Playmobil family went there on vacation. Then they climbed into plastic Easter eggs.

I think Steve has been feeling like a lonely and rejected Daddy sometimes lately. Well, not necessarily lonely. He didn't get a big reaction when he came in today, which surprises me. I don't know why that was. He got lots of attention tonight, though. In fact, Cara spontaneously lay down on the floor, cuddled up to him, and said, "I wuv you, Daddy!" Without even a meow.

12/12/07 (Wednesday)

This morning when I came in to get Cara up and ready for Susan's, I found a hot little girl. I decided Cara wasn't going to Susan's today, and that I wasn't going to work. We stayed home together.

Like usual with her illnesses, Cara was up and down throughout the day. I would give her Tylenol, in an hour or so she would perk up and be running around, then a few hours later she would be hot and lying on the couch. We had a nice day together, though. In the morning we watched lots of Disney Channel, including a Christmas special of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse in which Mickey saved Christmas with two pieces of ribbon. It was very special. Cara is starting to figure out about Christmas and Santa Claus and is clear on the fact that she likes to get presents. Today I stepped over something in her room that made a jingling noise, and she immediately reacted: "I think that's Santa!"

We watched Disney until "Handy Manny" came on, at which point Cara decided she had had enough, got up and turned off the TV. We did some good playing today. It was Cara's idea to move the Weebles' treehouse and all the Playmobil things upstairs to the living room, where we put them on top of the dark blue blanket that usually signifies a body of water. Puma also joined in; Cara is really growing very attached to Puma and he often speaks for her, though not in a creepy way.

I had eventually convinced her to eat toast while she was sitting on the couch, even after she had steadfastly denied any interest in it, so I had some hopes of getting her to eat lunch even after she told me she was not hungry. What she ended up eating mainly was the two clementines I had put in my work bag for my lunch. These were, I believe, her first clementines, but she went right to town on them--I only had a few little wedges myself, and she also helped me to peel them. After that she had some leftover pasta, too, so it was a good lunch.

The Tylenol kicked in nicely after lunch and she made no protest at all at being put down. She didn't have an incredibly long nap but it was pretty good. We spent the afternoon playing computer games until Mommy came home.

Mommy has recently become a very valuable commodity, what with her being sick and unavailable for so long. So as soon as Mommy came home, it was made very clear to me that my services were no longer needed. Cara specifically requested that I not come into the living room to watch TV with her. Mommy had to do the bath and Mommy had to read stories. I am not at all hurt. [Sniff, sniff.] No doubt she will be stuck with Daddy all day again tomorrow, so she will just have to grin and bear it.

Cara is fairly good about using tissues, or at least asking for them to be used on her instead of using her fingers. Every time we wipe her nose she says "Thank you."

| Previous Week | Back Home | Next Week |