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Journal Key:

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

12/20/07 (Thursday)

Cara's definitely drinking again and sort of starting to perk up. She had a tough day at Susan's, and we did spend a lot of time cuddling in the living room this evening. We spent time playing, too, though. Cara's excited about Christmas cards, and she ended up opening a few pieces of junk mail, claiming that "Cara, you openen it," was written on them.

12/21/07 (Friday)

It was Susan's holiday party today! Everyone had a good time. The kids got to sit at the kitchen table and eat donuts, cheetos, and fruit while the grown-ups got some more grown-up snacks. I snuck a cheeto or two. The kids all made presents for their parents. We got two cute picture frames with pictures of Cara in her Halloween costume.

Cara's present was a baby doll who is being potty trained. She has a little potty, a diaper, and underpants! She also has a bottle and some clothes. On the way home, we talked about the doll. I said that she liked to sit on the potty. "Just like me!" said Cara. The doll also came with a small cardboard box that putported to be for wipes. It was empty, so I stuck in a couple of small pieces of tissue paper that were floating around. "Uh-oh! last one!" I kept hearing kids saying.

PJ's present was the best one. He got a barbage truck! It's big and fancy and it makes lots of noises and it works! Em and Ron kept it in the box at Susan's, and PJ would not let it leave his sight. In fact, he would barely leave its side. He pushed and carried it everywhere, playing with it even with the box still on. He carried it out to the car at the end.

Everyone came over here for the great Nancy Circle gift exchange. PJ brought his truck and opened it here. Cara got several exciting things, but her favorite was probably the bag of gummy bears. She was delighted. Absolutely delighted. I had to get out bowls; thank goodness she wanted to share! All three kids loved them. A few mummy bears got to ride in PJ's truck. They went into the trash can, which rode up the conveyor belt and dumped them into the body of the truck. I'm sure they enjoyed it.

We got takeout barbecue for dinner, and Cara ate her macaroni and cheese. Soon we're really going to have to start weaning her off of the booster seat. Casey is not excited about sitting in the high chair. Cara does sit in a regular seat sometimes, just not at home.

Em got Hullaballoo for Cara! It's a cool game from Cranium. There are about 15 pads that you scatter on the floor, in several colors and shapes and each with a unique picture on it. There's a little console that, when it's on, gives you directions about what to step on. I know that the twins love it, and Cara had us get it out after everyone went home. She's kind of almost ready for it. It's going to be a great game, and it's a great thing to have put away somewhere and get out once in a while.

The evening ended in a total meltdown. Why? Well, Cara got a few presents. That was pretty exciting. Also, though, she might not be feeling great yet. Another very likely reason is that she's been getting her way about a lot of things lately, since she's been sick. Steve pointed that out, and he's probably right. It's time for some normal days.

12/22/07 (Saturday)

On Saturday the day started with some Disney--Mommy had the privilege of seeing the Mickey Mouse Saves Christmas episode. Then I went out to do some Christmas shopping and Evie watched Cara until nap time. When we woke up Cara it was time to get ready and go down to Grandmama's house! I'll let Janet take over here:

This was an exciting visit for Cara. After two weeks away, she got to rediscover many of her favorite things here, plus there was all the added thrill of Christmas.

The first thing she noticed when she arrived was a very large, elaborate snowglobe. "I see Santa," she said, peering in at him. Her daddy kindly turned it over to make the glittery snow fall and the music play. Eventually we examined it from every angle and identified every detail. Santa is portrayed in his workshop, surrounded by toys and elves and a very long list. I told her that was the list of all the good children who would get gifts; Cara worried whether her name was on the list.

In fact, that is an issue of some concern to her, and we discussed it again in the morning. Her little shoulders hunched up with anxiety as she expressed her fear that Santa might not bring anything to her. We explained that Santa will not bring the gifts until tomorrow, and that when she arrives here she will certainly find her gift right under the tree. The thought of the tree cheered her immediately, and we had to go right downstairs and admire it.

[Incidentally, I think some of Cara's anxiety has to be blamed on the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Christmas episode. At the end of the show, Donald Duck has a short moment of disappointment: he is under the mistaken impression that he will get no presents from Santa because he has lost his Christmas wish list.]

I had prepared some holiday activities for Cara. I had a simple gingerbread house ready to be decorated; truth be told, Steve and I put on most of the candies, but she did supervise and add a couple herself. She requested a door large enough for the gingerbread man to pass through, which I fashioned from M&Ms.

I also had made some ornaments from baker's clay (flour and salt dough), which I thought Cara could paint. She did paint a couple. Gigi, mommy and daddy painted a lot more. The water colors didn't really shine on the doughy surface, so I brought down some glitter to brighten things up. We grownups squeezed out the glue, and Cara poured on the glitter, to her father's mild consternation. Surely, she hasn't as finely controlled a hand as an adult, but she did manage to dump the stuff in the right place without emptying the while bottle, and each time she did she announced, "I did it!" with obvious pride.

Those ornaments served their intended purpose: they allowed Cara to participate fully in decorating the tree. She could confidently pick them up and hang them herself, without anyone cautioning her to be careful! Sometimes an adult lifted her to hang one high up, and each time she laughed a delightful little chuckle. Of course, we do have quite a lot of them down below knee-level. Martha Stewarrt, eat your heart out - this is the way a Christmas tree should be.

Cara also rediscovered my exercise mat; she loves to fling herself down onto it and kick her feet in the air. She had to have her shoes off, and so did I - "G'amama, you take you shoes off too." She demonstrated stretching and jumping. I challenged her by spinning while I jumped. She spun around too. She wolfed down her macaroni and cheese, but only toyed with the idea of eating any fruit or vegetables at supper. We read a few stories even before bathtime. In fact, she was so busy all evening, she only watched a portion of a single Diego episode.

Bathtime was delightful, what with new duckies plus all the fishes. Cara asked for her "ballerina" soap - it's the pink bar of soap, which once had an impression of a fairy on its surface, and she carefully washed her own belly with it and then put it into a plastic cup for safekeeping.

She wore her new pjs and took her pink medicine, and then came the pre-bedtime delaying tactics. We read many many stories - it's a good thing I like them. Honestly, who could resist the opportunity to hear Cara's pronunciation of "pi-wow fight" when we get to the pillow fight in "If You Give a Pig a Party?" She finally cried hard for a solid 3 minutes when, at length, I laid her down to sleep.

12/23/07 (Sunday)

Come morning happiness was restored. She has come to expect toast with "prinkles" on it when she breakfasts here. This morning I treated her to some hot chocolate as well, hoping the hot liquid might ease her cough; she ate it very neatly, with a spoon, and pointed out with pride that she had not spilled any.

Cara arrived at our house happily. After an hour or so of togetherness Mommy went out for some grocery and holiday shopping so Cara and I spent the remainder of the morning together. When Mommy left I was reading Cara How the Grinch Stole Christmas. I think this is a wonderful book and I love reading it because I always remember the way Boris Karloff reads the lines in the old animated version, but Cara is not quite ready to understand what's going on. Still, even though she seemed a bit bored while I was reading it, she immediately suggested we read it again when it was done. Instead we read a succession of other books pulled out of our downstairs bookshelf. We don't usually read in the game room and some books we hadn't seen in a while got read, which was nice.

Then it was time for lunch. Cara and I had a very nice lunch together--she got to have macaroni and cheese, again, and was happy about it. Once or twice she bent over to hug my arm in appreciation. Often when we sit at the table together Cara will look outside, gasp, and say: "I see a squirrel!" Sometimes she actually does see one. We watched one today climbing around on our nearest tree, pausing often to scratch himself. Cara decided that he was going to go back into his hole to see his two friends--it was not totally clear to me, but I got the impression that she gave them names. She started pushing her remaining macaroni and cheese to one side of her bowl: she was going to feed it to the squirrel, she explained. I suggested that squirrels might not like macaroni and cheese. They prefer nuts and seeds. "Acorns!" Cara said. What a smart little girl.

After lunch it was time for a story and the nap, which went off without a hitch. She had a nice long nap.

Last night when Cara was having her sleepover, my wife enacted the first step in a plan to rearrange the furniture in our downstairs rooms. The upshot was that the cushions were taken off of the sofa in the game room and piled to one side. Cara eventually saw this in the morning and was distraught--they needed to be put back! Given this reaction, I was a little uncertain how she was going to react when she woke up from her nap and went downstairs, because while she was sleeping her parents had moved around all the furniture.

Actually it was lots of fun for her. She was excited by the new layout of the rooms and spent some time running around in them. The couch is now in her main play room, conveniently located next to her books. The dining room table is now in the game room, with chairs set up on one side and her art supplies ready to use on top. We did some nice reading on the couch and some nice coloring on the table. We had a lovely afternoon. For dinner Cara was persuaded to eat a hot dog for the first time in quite a while.

We managed to avoid any kind of television until almost bath time, when Cara decided she wanted to see her zebras. Almost as soon as it was turned on she decided she wanted to read a book. We did a shortened, well-edited version of her zebra movie and eventually convinced her to come upstairs for her bath.

During the evening Cara wore underpants. She wet herself multiple times, never managing to produce anything while sitting on the potty. The breakthrough did not occur until the bath. Cara asked to sit on the potty and successfully made a poopy on it! I hope we praised her as much as she deserved. She got extra stickers for it and is no doubt well on her way to her next potty-training prize.

We are still not a totally healthy family but Cara is pretty much back to normal and we are looking forward to the holidays very much.

One more thing to add: over the past few days, Cara has periodically exclaimed: "I heard Santa's sleigh!" A few weeks ago she said something similar when I accidentally stepped over something jingly in her bedroom. I think I recounted this story to Evelyn in Cara's presence, so she knew we thought it was cute. This probably explains why she continues to hear Santa.

12/24/07 (Monday)

Our Christmas Eve started like any lazy weekend day. Evie made pancakes for breakfast, something Cara has been wanting for a little while. She had a few with us and continued periodically snacking on more pancakes throughout the morning. Evie reports that at one point Cara wanted a fork and was told that she could use her hands. "Thank you, hand," Cara told her hands at intervals. The hands said, "You're welcome!"

After a rather lengthy nap, we awoke our little girl and told her it was time to go to Grandmama and Grandpapa's house for presents. She was certainly happy at the prospect but was very slow to recover from her nap and was very shy to find so many people at the house. To "take the edge off" her holiday present-opening desires, Grandmama let Cara open one of her presents almost right away: it was a fairy costume! It had a crown, wings, a magic wand, and a frilly tutu. She put it on for a little while and was quite happy.

She had an okay dinner, made special by the fact that she sat at the table in a big girl chair instead of her high chair, and it went fine. She soon departed and spent a lot of time playing with Grandmama. When present-opening time came, Cara was given the job of gift-distributor, which she performed in her quietest, most solemn manner, still a little shy. Then she got to start opening all of her own presents, though, and that certainly made her happy!

Among other things, Cara got a set of cushy pads that can velcro together and be built into tunnels or forts, and a cardboard castle that she can draw on. The velcro pads got taken out right away and Cara was happily hiding away and giggling in no time.

She got lots of hot chocolate and was out of her shell by dessert. Evie cleverly got her changed into pajamas at the house, so that when we got home we were able to move straight into the bedtime routine.

12/25/07 (Tuesday)

Christmas Eve night Evie and I had carefully set up all of the stockings downstairs in the play room. We had explained to Cara that Santa was going to come (only if she was asleep!) and that there would be more presents on Christmas day. Fortunately she does not yet have enough of the Christmas jitters to wake up incredibly early so she can open her presents. I was up first and had time to arrange a string of lights across the back of the couch, so that when she came down I think she was nicely surprised.

She got some very nice things to open, including a very cool geography pop-up book which will provide fun for years to come (providing I can keep her from ripping it to pieces, which is what I did with all of my pop-up books). We decided to put together her coloring castle that she'd gotten the previous night--this was a big hit and she was soon running in and out and we were all scribbling on it with markers. I'm happy that she enjoyed the little stocking stuffers that I had purchased for her at the last moment: one was a dinky toy I found in a drugstore, a wind-up game with little magnetic fish and magnetic fishing poles. The other toys were animal figurines: a jaguar and a tiny lion cub who made a very passable baby jaguar. Cara's hero Diego is good friends with a baby jaguar, so I thought she would get a kick out of these, and she definitely did--they did a lot of jumping around on the coloring castle.

We had a nice breakfast and had some time to do some playing with various toys before we were all ready to go to Grandmom and Grandpop's house for Christmas. Unbeknownst to Cara, her big Playmobil dollhouse that we bought and assembled was hiding in the trunk of the car. When we arrived at the house, we sneaked it in and she got to walk into the living room and see it sitting there. Then Grandmom and Grandpop gave her the presents they had purchased: furniture and people to occupy the dollhouse. I was relieved that she really did like it and played with it often throughout the day.

Of course there were lots of other toys to open, and books to read, and food to eat. Cara very much liked the ham that we had for our main course and had quite a few slices. Later in the day she got to watch a Diego Christmas episode. When it was time to go, she got into her pajamas and into the car, and her long-delayed nap started just a few minutes into the car ride home.

Recovering from the nap was hard, and we watched a lot of Diego and Dora. Cara did a lot of snacking on the couch and then we had no choice but to put her to bed. She really doesn't want to be in bed and is making a lot of noise up there. I think Ev and I both knew that Christmas had to end this way! But we all had a good day. I go back to work tomorrow but Evie will have the day to play with all the new toys.

12/26/07 (Wednesday)

Cara slept very late this morning and came down groggy but ready to play with her dollhouse. We didn't have too long to do that, because we were going to the mall with Ron, Casey, and PJ! Em was at work, like Steve, which confused Cara very much.

In many respects, this was just like the mall trips we've made with Em. There was no construction on Woodbridge Avenue, but we were stuck behind a big truck and crawled the whole way. We got there a little before ten, and there were no hair cutters there yet. We went to the Disney Store, where we wandered around and Cara and I argued about whether I would carry her. Ron got upset because we were looking at princesses and made us go look at Cars stuff.

We went back to the hair cut place and, at PJ's direction, Casey went first. She sat in the chair and was fine up until the final 45 seconds or so. She was a good girl. I think her hair cuts take longer than Cara's, because she had more hair! While she was getting cut, I got change for a dollar and bought m&ms from a machine for the kids. I put Cara's in her stroller's cup holder and held PJ's in my hands. While he eats faster than Cara, it was not fast enough for me. When he finished his, we pushed the strollers over so that they could watch the TV in front of Casey. Cara still had some, so she gave PJ m&ms as he asked for them, one at a time. She gave me the green ones.

I have to confess that I spent the whole morning giving the kids candy. I'm not really sure what came over me. I spent the whole dollar. They all like m&ms, and Cara made me buy these other things that I've never tried. They're sort of jelly-like, with a candy shell. She thought they were gummy bears. Cara didn't like them. Casey did. I did. They also each had at least one lollipop. All of them got blue and turned their mouths blue.

Cara got her hair cut next. It's much cuter and neater now. PJ's haircut was his best yet. He did tell the stylist several times to "go 'way!" but he sat on his own and he looks great.

Next was lunch. We got "our" table. I used my cell to take photos of everyone pointing up, but I basically had to take separate shots of the different kids. They all pointed, though! We did really well and actually had dessert, which we don't usually make it through. The kids got cone heads, with soft ice cream, which I think is a great idea. I mean, I personally would not order it for myself, but they can eat it with spoons! It was nice. I got to eat the fudgy part of Cara's cone.

Ron and PJ went to pay, and we girls put all the toys back in my bag. Casey helped. Then I turned around for a second when Ron came back, and she was halfway into the kitchen! It wasn't the kitchen proper, but just a sort of back hallway for the staff. I chased her right through.

PJ pushed the elevator button on our way up, and Cara got to push it on the way down. She loved it! She's never done it before, which, now that I think about it, is pretty ridiculous.

Cara took a very long nap. That is, she played in her crib for a long time and then took a normal nap. Afterwards, she was very reluctant to wake up. It was almost five when I went in to get her! I carried her, all cuddled up, downstairs to her dollhouse. What really startled her out of it was the sight of PJ's saxophone toy, which he had forgotten in the morning. Once she'd decided we had to give it back to him, she was awake and okay.

It being Wednesday, everyone came over to have dinner. The kids really love the castle. Everyone's been in and out of it, but the high point may have been when Cara dragged out a blanket and pillow and asked PJ to go to sleep with her in it. PJ also really liked Cara's tiny magnetic fishing game. He's decided that the yellow rod is his, the pink is Cara's, and the green (sigh) is Diane's. He objected heartily when Ron tried to use one. Casey, for a few glorious minutes, got to carry around six or eight markers. She got the cap off of one. I personally walked by her doing this and thought nothing of it, but Em decided it was not a good idea.

Cara loves her matrushkas. Claire gave her three, all beautiful. One is bigger than the two others, so it is the mommy. Cara just needs someone to open the first doll, and she can pop all the others open, down to the tiniest pieces. She then holds these in her hands and carries them around. She is getting good at putting them back together, but it's really just so that she can take them apart again.

Grandmom bought Cara some candy cane bubble bath. I mentioned that this evening, and Cara helpfully cleaned up a few toys as we asked her to, then headed upstairs ahead of us to look for it. Steve gave her a bath and read her stories. It feels good to get back to routine.

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