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Journal Key:

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

12/27/07 (Thursday)

Today was Cara's day to go to daycare. I had a little bit of a tough time in the morning, getting her to get dressed and go, but really Steve has her routine so well established that it runs smoothly. I did tell her I was going to work. She ate a good breakfast and we talked about all the things she had to tell Susan.

When we arrived, four other kids were already there. Susan was working hard, opening the new dress-up outfits she got! There were two veterinarians, a chef, and a couple of pirates. All of them had plenty of accessories; the vets even had tiny puppies to doctor. Cara, of course, was a little clingy, but soon she found something she wanted. It was a big pair of red-and-white striped pants. I was relieved to learn that they were pirate pants, not clown pants. I got them onto her, gave her a sword, and left.

PJ was also a pirate. Casey was being a chef when I left, but when I came back to pick Cara up, she was a veterinarian. She sort of looked like a hairdresser. One of the highlights of my picking up Cara is getting to see Casey and PJ. Casey is a wonderfully smiley, friendly little thing! Cara had had a good day and a long nap. All of the kids had been tired, after their long weekend of excitement. Cara was a pirate all day, though.

For dinner, we scrounged around for leftovers. One of the things I got for Christmas, though, was a bag of gingerbread-man pasta. It's been sitting out, and Cara has been fascinated by it. I had to make some for her dinner. It has some red and some green pieces, and all the pieces are shaped like little men or like houses. Cara loved it, and we all were invited to join her and eat off of her plate, which we did. She really likes to have company when she eats, though usually not quite such intimate company.

We had a laid-back evening playing at home. She really loves her nesting dolls. We took them apart and put them back together, which she's getting good at, at least five times today. Cara carried her doctor's kit upstairs and we all got to be sick, which of course was fun. When it was time to go upstairs, I again mentioned Cara's candy cane bubble bath. Immediately, she was ready to go upstairs! We called her back to clean up, and she swiftly put away all of her medical supplies. It's a miracle!

12/28/07 (Friday)

We didn't leave the house and Cara wore underpants all day! Here's our system. We put her on the potty as often as we think it's necessary and can get her to go. If she sits on the potty, she gets a sticker on her little sheet. If she produces anything, she gets another sticker. As we make progress, we can make it harder to get stickers. Today, Cara got 16 stickers. She gets a toy after getting ten, so it was a very exciting day.

She was in her pajamas until noon with no accidents. We got her onto the potty twice, and she peed both times! The pajamas are new from Christmas; they're blue with kitties and hearts. They're footie pajamas that zip up, so every attempt at the potty required a complete strip. Cara did not have a problem with that.

Grandmom and Grandpop came up to play. When I told Cara they were here (it was a surprise to her), she dropped the marker that was in her hand and ran to the window, thrilled. She showed them all of her new toys. She showed them her new books. We all looked at her pop-up geography book. Now, this book is really too advanced for Cara, but she is learning. She knows that the earth goes around the sun. She knows we live on earth. She may be learning what animals go on what continents.

Having Grandmom there was a big help with the potty. It was easier to get her to go. Janet and I also picked out a very nice outfit to get Cara to wear, which I immediately regretted, sure it would be wet within the hour. It wasn't. It lasted until almost six, in fact. We all played with the dollhouse and the nesting dolls, and we all colored on the castle.

We were on the potty a lot today, so we ended up moving it downstairs, just for variety. Cara, after using the potty, decided to hide in the shower, which she loves to do. It lasted a long time. I had to close the curtain, and then I got to find her. I chanted the Five Little Monkeys rhyme, and then I sang the Five Little Ducks song. No matter what number of ducks went out that day, I found Cara when "one little duck came back!" it was so popular that I had to do it again, by request.

Cara had no nap today, so we had a relaxed evening with a lot of TV. Steve and I are developing a rating system for cartoons. Diego scores high on goodness. Steve points out that it's not about not being bad, as many others are, but about actively doing good. It scores low on adult willingness to watch it without children. The Backyardigans scores high on adult willingness to watch. (We have very involved conversations about the Yardigans. It's definitely my current favorite.) Little Einsteins scores low on both and also scores low on education and logic, because it teaches irrelevant things like obscure musical terms and has meaningless problems and solutions. Diego also scores low on logic sometimes. He also scores high, though, on a category I just invented: bad guys. The bobo brothers are not bad, just irresponsible and silly. On Little Einsteins, there's a bad guy who's just bad for no reason. Dora also scores fairly low there. There are no real bad guys on Backyardigans. I like that.

When we meet socially with people who are not parents of young children, they often have conversations about grown-up shows and commercials that are just as involved, I think, as our analysis here. So, I don't think we're weird.

I think that Cara is growing to appreciate The Backyardigans. As she ought. We went on Wikipedia to read about them. You should really check it out. They're also on Youtube.

12/29/07 (Saturday)

It was a day of odd but not unpleasant occurrences. We started off with banana bread. Cara doesn't really eat the banana bread, but she evinces interest. Yesterday she tried buttering her own. Her spreading is pretty okay, but her method of getting butter onto the knife is to stab the knife into the tub of butter, then use a sort of levering motion. The spread now looks like some sort of war took place. Cara butters with great enthusiasm and then leaves. It's not really surprising that this is happening. PJ's been doing it for a long time, I think. Another new thing is that Cara asked to drink juice, "just like PJ!"

When I got out of the shower and came downstairs, something very odd happened. Cara announced that she needed to get dressed. Usually, she fights to get to stay in her pajamas all day. We went upstairs and she picked out clothes and got into them.

Claire came to play with us! We went out to lunch and had a good time. Cara sat in a booster seat. There were three boys at a table nearby, and Cara spent as much time as possible turned around, watching them.

When we neared home, Cara expressed a hope that we would play with her nesting dolls. I was reluctant, but we told her that we'd play a little and then she'd go and take her nap. We settled with the toys and talked about the nap. Cara was concerned because she felt that Claire needed to go home to Grandmama's house to take her nap. Claire explained that she would take her nap on our couch. Okay, Cara said. She said something incomprehensible and then got up and headed upstairs to take her nap, leaving me and Claire sitting there, stunned.

She did not actually sleep during her nap. I have taken the precaution of removing the baby and mommy jaguars and giraffes from her bed, to detract from its entertainment value, but it has clearly been ineffective. We had a quiet evening. After dinner, we all helped to bake cookies! I had explained to Claire that PJ was usually a much better kitchen helper than Cara, but Cara stayed and helped through the whole process! Perhaps having Claire there made it more exciting. Cara mixed up the dry ingredients. She scooped them into the creamed butter and sugar. She scooped in the chocolate chips. She also helped eat the cookies, and she made sure we helped, too. She's a good girl.

Potty training continues. This morning, I tried running water when Cara was on the potty. It did not make her want to pee. It made her want to wash her hands.

12/30/07 (Sunday)

Juliana came over this morning!! She's just back from Pennsylvania, where she's been for about a month, recovering from surgery. Cara woke up in the morning sure that Claire was still downstairs. (When I explained that she was not, Cara moved on to her next priority: getting a cookie.) We hung out and played and danced a lot to the Wiggles, and then, while Daddy was out running errands, I told her that someone special was coming over. Claire! No. PJ! No. We'd have to wait. In a few minutes, I saw Juliana on the sidewalk. I pointed her out to Cara, who leaped off the couch and ran to the door like lightning.

Of course, then she turned shy. We showed Juliana all of the new toys; she and Cara played with the nesting dolls. Juliana also tied pretty bows on any toys that had ribbons dangling messily. She found plenty. It was great to see her again.

In the afternoon, after Cara's non-nap, we headed down to Grandmama's house. Cara finally slept a little in the car, but she woke up without any crankiness and came into the house smiling. Grandmama brought out a shrimp ring. Grandmama ate a few, and I recall seeing Cara giving one or two to Grandpapa. Cara ate the rest. Literally. She finished it. I'm pretty sure she also ate breakfast and lunch today.

We had brought some things to show off, including her nesting dolls. When I showed them to Cara and told her to take them to show Grandpapa, she literally danced with joy. Everyone was impressed by how pretty they are and how tiny the littlest pieces are. Cara does a great job taking them apart and putting them back together, and she even turns the pieces so that the paintings line up. She wasn't doing that, the first few days.

For dinner we had chicken and Cara had some cold leftover ham. Even after the shrimp, she stayed at the table for that. We adjourned to the downstairs eventually, and Cara decided that Claire would read to her. She snuggled right up to her aunt and they read at least three books with great gusto.

Cara stayed awake on the ride home, playing with a paintbrush she'd found in Grandmama's art room and been allowed to borrow. When we got here, she wanted to paint. We told her Puma was very tired and had to be taken up to bed. Astonishingly, it worked. Once she's up there, Cara is willing to go into her routine. Daddy is reading books to her right now. Puma is already asleep.

12/31/07 (Monday)

Potty training continued today. Cara is still having accidents but is also still enthusiastic about wearing underwear, which is a big plus. We had a pretty lazy morning and another long non-nap in the afternoon. Cara was very happy to be finally rescued and she and her Mommy made some brownies for our New Year's party, which was to be (of course) at PJ's house. We were able to stave off the very strong temptation to eat the brownies by repeatedly telling Cara that they had to be taken to PJ's house for the party. Then she was excited and everyone had to get their coats on and go.

Cara had a nice time at PJ's house. It was a bigger crowd than last year's party, with some older boys who didn't interact with Cara at all (though she was satisfied to watch them from a distance). Cara did a lot of jumping on PJ's fire truck bed, and when he happened to be there also she often said "PJ, we have to go to sleep!" so that they could pretend to be asleep in the bed. Casey caught on and joined in, so several times all three children "went to sleep" in the fire truck bed. There was also a very long peek-a-boo session in the fire truck bed with Casey and Cara being hidden under the sheet.

At around 9 pm we had a New Year's toast and opened some crackers. There were party hats and little silly noisemakers and sparkling cider. And brownies, of course. The kids were very happy about the whole thing and Cara did not want to leave. We ended the evening up in Em and Ron's "secret room" (their recently-added master bedroom), watching television and crawling around on the bed. Cara kept getting me to read books to her in the same way that she does when she doesn't want to go to bed. Eventually, though, we really had to go, even though PJ suggested that he could come with us over to "Cara's house."

With a big party and no nap, Cara is now very quietly up in her crib. She did not want to get into her pajamas at all, so we got into ours. Then, like a charm, Cara immediately cried, "Now I have to get into my pajamas!"

1/1/08 (Tuesday)

Possibly because she was up late last night, Cara got up early this morning. We both shot out of bed when she began wailing at 6:30, but it turned out she was fine. She was just awake. Steve changed her and then I held her in the glider and she went back to sleep on me for another 45 minutes or so. I dozed. It was pleasant. When we all got up again, Steve made pancakes!

Highlights of the day: We listened to the Wiggles some more. Cara has a favorite song which she calls "the loud song." We have to listen to it over and over and dance wildly. I have to give her credit; it's a good bouncy one with plenty of Feathersword. Cara played with her balloon from last night. I love how she says balloon. "Badoon." It's similar to how she pronounces the color bdue. We put away most of the holiday stuff. Cara saw our Hanukkah things again and wanted to put candles in our Norah.

For the first time in a long time, Cara had a really good nap. I managed to wake her around 4:30. She woke slowly and was a little delicate, but she was very happy with the idea that PJ would come over. I had to call Em to set things in motion, and Cara wanted to call PJ. Not on the phone or anything, but with a PJ call. We considered it.

Everyone had a good time. The kids played downstairs. PJ got to play with the dollhouse. He had a kitten get stuck in the chimney and call for help, repeatedly. Whenever any dolls came to assist, the kitten was pulled away. He also got us to get out Elefun, which he played with. The girls were not interested. We had a good collaborative dinner (they brought some leftovers) and then all enjoyed some cookies.

Okay, here's the interesting stuff. Cara had no accidents today. She did not wet her diaper during her nap, and after I woke her up we got her onto the potty in time. She did not enjoy it. She is not enthusiastic about going on the potty. She does like the stickers, though! She doesn't always remember them, however, so we usually have to call her back to get them or even sometimes put them on for her. During dinner, after the kids had left the table, Cara came back between me and Em to say something about the potty. I got up and we went upstairs. Cara peed! For the second time, she asked to go to the potty! Hurray! We've amended the sticker system. Cara can get one for going on the potty, one for producing anything, and one for asking to go to the potty.

I ended up giving the bath tonight. I put conditioner in Cara's hair. She was not happy with the idea of getting her hair wet. I told her she had two choices. She opted to lie back in the water, letting me support her head. Actually, she supported it herself, using her arms to hold herself up as she leaned back, holding still while I rinsed what was still out of the water. She did a great job. I think it was a lot easier for both of us.

Cara got some good books for Christmas. She loves Skippyjon Jones, and we're having fun reading him. The Little Engine the Could is of course another good one. I got her The Ox-Cart Man, which I remember very fondly from my childhood. I really didn't think Cara would like it, but between me and Steve, we've read it to her five times in the past two days!

1/2/08 (Wednesday)

When I got to Susan's today, there was much rejoicing. Steve had told Susan about our potty-training progress, and she had taken Cara in hand. At Susan's house, there is no special potty seat. She has the kids just balance themselves, and I really had been apprehensive about Cara doing it. There was no problem, though! Susan got her to go on three times, and Cara peed every time. She was dry all day! Everyone was excited; there was applause. Susan said that Avery had come running into the bathroom, "Did she do it?!" Yes, she did! Cara was clearly thrilled with herself, with good reason.

When we got home, Cara and I found that some of the recycling, which had not been picked up, had blown onto the lawn. She went and picked some up while I got the box and the things on the sidewalk. It was bitter cold and windy. I let Cara inside and went to get my things from the car. I noticed that the cold made me want to pee, and I decided that I'd better get Cara onto the potty, too, right away. When I got inside, she asked me to take her up to her room and change her. She made me do it on the table, refusing to lie on the Elmo couch. Her diaper was a little wet. We were only home for an hour, but she made me do it again! Over at PJ's house, she made Daddy take her upstairs and change her. I figure she's probably a little scared of being a big girl and wants to make sure she's still our baby, and that's fine. I do hope, though, that that doesn't last too long!

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