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Journal Key:

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

2/28/08 (Thursday)

Cara had a lovely, lovely afternoon. I picked her up from Susan's before four and we went down to see the twins. She told me she wanted to bring her pink princess, which, thanks to Daddy, I was able to produce from my bag! I had been packing her Barbie to bring along, and Steve had told me that her little Sleeping Beauty was the thing she had been talking about bringing. Cara wanted her "pink girl with red shoes," actually, and I had left the shoes here. I reminded her that they might get lost if we brought them, Cara told me how much we would both cry if that happened, and all was well.

Cara was excited about seeing her friends. She was confident (justifiably) that they would be happy to see her, too. They would give her a big hug. She would give them a big hug. We are still excited about birthdays, so Cara wanted to give them birthday cakes, too. I explained that their birthday is in the summer. Hers is in the spring, I told her; which comes first? Spring! Actually, Grandpapa's birthday is soonest. Cara will make him a big cake with icing and flowers. (We have a library book about birthday cake, which may be partially to blame for this.)

It was great at the twins' house. We got to play with their princesses (Cara's princess rode in a carriage), and it turns out that one of them is "bad" just like Cara's mermaid used to be bad before her head popped off. Well, she had reformed considerably of late, but it's funnier the other way. I was reminded today of the way Cara's other girls ostracize "my" girl. Cara and the girls got to dance together, and Cara got to go on the potty. Amusingly, she keeps saying "Susan," when she means "Shannon!" It's just like how the rest of us wind up cycling through the whole "Casey-Cara-PJ!" when all we're trying to do is yell at the cat.

Steve was working late, so instead of going home, we went to Barnes and Noble. Announcing that she was hungry, Cara led me up to the refreshments. I diverted us back to the trains for a while, and then, having asked her carefully whether she wanted soup, since she's been rejecting it lately, I got her coat back on and we headed for Panera.

After much discussion, I got her a grilled cheese. She also wanted "pink soda," which she remembered from months and months ago! I let her have it (it's really not soda, but it's also basically sugar water), and she told me repeatedly that "soda is healthy for me." I've convinced her that water is healthier. She ate her sandwich and then ate at least half of my soup, which at first she had rejected emphatically. Now we shared it, with her taking a couple of spoonsful and then giving me one. Her meal came with a tube of yogurt, which I let her actually suck into her mouth for the first time. She loved it; she finished it right up and wanted more!

We went back to Barnes and Noble for a while, and then we came home to see Daddy. Cara had been on the potty four times. The most fun part, perhaps, is washing your hands by sitting on the counter and sticking one hand under the faucet of each of the two sinks you're between. We played trains a lot with different kids, and Cara reshelved some toys that had been misplaced. She even just walked like a happy kid tonight. She marched ahead of me, almost dancing sometimes, with wild arm movements. Interestingly, this was most pronounced when we were leaving bathrooms. She also led me on labyrinthine paths through the store, always confident that she knew exactly where she was going. Alas, she did not. I did end up running into a former student, which was nice. It really was a very, very pleasant evening.

3/1/08 (Saturday)

Friday was a little bit of a tough morning, because I (unavoidably, I felt) told Cara that her Grandmama would be picking her up. So she really didn't want to be at Susan's, and put up a bit of a fuss when we arrived. I'm sure she had a fine evening, but the next time I saw her was under similarly distressed circumstances. On Saturday morning, having discussed Grandpapa George's upcoming birthday festivities, she became convinced that she had to stay at the house and help bake a birthday cake. Mommy was employed via telephone to urge Cara's return for gymnastics. When she got home, however, the promise of going to her other grandparents' house set her determinedly against the idea of going to gymnastics. Mommy tried to bribe her with a lollipop if she went to gymnastics, but Cara just wanted the lollipop. I am told that the first ten minutes or so of her gymnastics class were spent in Mommy's lap, in utter misery.

It's amazing, however, how quickly Cara can swing back from these things, and by the end of the class she was participating and happy. This didn't in any way diminish the urgency of her desire to go to Grandmom and Grandpop's house: as soon as she arrived home, I was called upon to put on my coat and get in the car. Fortunately, having stayed at home, I was packed and ready to go, and we were soon on our way.

Cara had her usual good time in South Jersey. She spent a lot of time with Grandma while I did grown-up things with Grandpa. At her request, Cara and the rest of us enjoyed a nice lunch of bacon and eggs. When we were done with our grown-up chores, Grandpa and I got to do a little bit of playing, mainly with Play-doh. Grandpa, having been somewhat unavailable, was much in demand. Grandma, having read about Cara's recent attachment to spider toys, produced a cute little insect with wiggly legs inside a nutshell-shaped wooden container, which Cara was happy to have.

In terms of potty-going, Cara made quite a few trips today, but usually they were made only after she was done peeing in her pull-ups. Oh, well. She clearly understands the need to go and does not really want to go in her diaper, so we are heading in the right direction. (When she finally got home in the evening she did manage to produce some pee-pee on the potty.)

Cara got to see Rusty, but we also paid a somewhat unplanned visit to Uncle Jim and Aunt Sarah's house, where Cara got to chase after poor Floyd. Aunt Sarah did a wonderful job keeping up with the little girl. First Sarah read her a surprisingly large collection of children's books, and then from somewhere produced some ray-gun-shaped bubble blowers. Cara also found a little purple dragon toy which made lots of interesting noises and flapped its wings and rolled around.

Her favorite pastime, it developed, was climbing up and down the spiral staircase, much to Aunt Sarah's dismay. Going up was not a problem at all, but it was a little scary watching Cara walk down the sharply curving steps. She had no mishaps--though we did have to convince her not to walk down while carrying a little cereal bowl in both of her hands.

It was a sadly short visit to Jim and Sarah's place--we had had no dinner and Cara was napless, and the evening was getting on. So with the promise of dinner and a reunion with Mommy, I packed us back into the car. It was dark and after a little while Cara requested that I put on the overhead light so she could see. Not too long after that she was asleep. She didn't even wake up when I picked up some fast food for us.

Having food to eat is a good incentive for waking up, and though Cara was typically crabby when we got home, she soon perked up with some chicken nuggets in her hands. She was glad to be back with her girls, but it was easy enough to coax her upstairs. I was enlisted for storytime, and then journal time, which is now over.

3/2/08 (Sunday)

When Steve got up today, he went into Cara's room. She got up, walked into the bathroom, and got right onto the potty! We were very proud; I made pink flower pancakes as a celebration. Cara helped me mix up the pancake batter and make it pink. She tasted some on her finger and asked for a bowl of it.

We played all morning. When we chase Cara downstairs, she likes to jump into her ball pit, sort of like a home-base. It's a very beat-up ball pit. The dog's head is half deflated, and we've kind of jammed it up in a corner. There's a seam between the head and the body, the real ball pit part, that's totally ripped. It's not letting air out, but the balls can escape fairly easily. They escaped very easily when Cara decided to slide out that way repeatedly.

A lot of balls rolled into the bathroom, and I decided we'd surprise Daddy. Cara was happy to participate, and we rolled all the balls we could into our tiny bathroom and put the door mostly shut. Okay, the next step was complicated. We had to trick Daddy into going in. I explained to Cara that she had to tell Daddy she had to go on the potty. "No!" she exclaimed. Silly Mommy! She didn't have to go. I tried explaining why she had to tell him that. She seemed to understand and she ran off to find him. I tactfully made myself scarce as Cara ran into the living room, to tell Steve, "There's balls in the bathroom, Daddy!" Well, that did get him to come see.

For lunch I just opened up a can of Chef Boyardee for Cara. She chose the dinosaurs over the letters. I narrated what I was doing and what I was going to do, as I got them into a bowl to put them in the microwave. Cara asked, "Mommy, could I eat them cold?" I couldn't see why not, so I let her try it. She did, and she seemed to enjoy it very much.

It was my turn to be "bad guy" and put Cara down for her nap. I read her a story. She asked for another. I read another. "Good night, Mommy," said Cara. She climbed down from the story chair, used her step stool to climb onto her bed, and crawled under the covers. Astonishing. She then stayed quiet and happy in her crib for almost two hours before falling asleep.

When we woke her, Aunt Claire was there! We played and went out for dinner. Claire got to help dressing and undressing the girls, and she almost had to read Goofy on Caveman Island in the car. Cara went on the potty, and while sitting there she wondered where Claire was. She decided to call her, and so she yelled for her until Claire came and joined us upstairs to hear the robot book we've been reading on the potty.

Bedtime was a very hyper time tonight. Cara did go on the potty twice, and she had a good bath and never escaped unclothed, but she was not particularly calm. While Daddy was reading to Cara, Puma was jumping and pouncing, growling. Daddy told Puma he had to be quiet. Cara told Daddy, "Shhhh! You have to be quiet, Daddy." Steve had to read most of a book in a whisper.

3/3/08 (Monday)

While I was falling asleep last night, I was pretty sure I heard someone walking around. I heard it twice and decided that, if I heard it a third time, I'd investigate. Then I fell asleep. In the morning, I mentioned it to Steve, who said he'd dreamed that he heard Cara. When he got her up, he asked Cara very indirectly whether she'd been up in the night. I think he asked whether she slept all night, or something like that. No sense planting ideas that aren't there! She told him she'd gotten up and put a pillow and some stuffed animals back into the big basket in her room. They hadn't been in bed with her; they must have been on the floor. So, she got up to clean her room. Then she went back to bed.

Today was a beautiful, beautiful day, the first spring-like day! I hung around at Susan's to let Cara keep playing outside, and I got to show PJ and Cara a yellow crocus while we all walked to our cars. (Last Friday, Cara told Grandmama that Avery was like a brother to her. Susan relates that Avery said something to Cara along the lines of "wouldn't it be nice if you were my brother." Cara told Susan she wanted to be Avery's brother. Susan explained that she would have to be a sister. "Avery would be my sister?" Cara found that surprising.)

Cara really wanted to go to the park. We got home and I put my groceries away, and it was almost six. I told Cara we'd wait for Daddy, and then we'd all go to the park. It was really hard to stall. I suggested chalk, a ball, and her little stroller as suitable outside entertainment, and all were rejected. Finally, Cara suggested chalk. What a good idea! We started to draw, but we abandoned our efforts to go for a walk. We went walking around, looking for the house of "the little girl who is my friend." Neither Steve nor I can figure out what that's about. We didn't find it.

Finally, we left a note for Daddy and went to the park. I really should have done that in the first place, because it was getting quite dark when we got there. We ran over to the slides and had a good run-around and went down the curly slide at least five times. Predictably, I then got to push Cara in the swings for a long time, until Daddy got there. It was very dark by then, but we all went and slid once or twice more before heading for home.

3/4/08 (Tuesday)

Daddy worked late today, so Cara and I had a girls' evening in. It truly was a good time. Cara went on the potty and then wouldn't get off until I had read her the robot book. She played with the new tiny girl she got last night; I thought she was putting her down the slide on her dinosaur toy, but it turned out she was putting her down the stairs. "Look, she can do a flip!"

Cara somehow got it into her head that she had a blue dress she wanted to wear, so we went upstairs to find it. It was in a drawer, she said. We didn't get a chance to find out, because I got out the blue princess costume that I had gotten for her for Halloween when she was 18 months old! It was very big then, but now it fits pretty well. Cara put it on over her clothes and ran downstairs to show her Barbie that she, too, had a blue princess dress.

She and her Barbie and several of the girls settled in and watched The Mighty Knights for a little while, with Cara running into the kitchen periodically to ask me for help with the girls' dresses. She may finally be getting better about asking us to do things instead of telling us to. When dinner was almost ready, Cara turned off the TV, announcing that it would "be nice and quiet so we can eat." When we finally sat down to eat, she wanted to serve Daddy some pasta. Since he was not there, I let her serve me, instead. She did really well, using the two spoons together to scoop some out.

I was still finishing dinner when Cara headed off to play. I could hear her downstairs, in a few minutes, telling me, "I put the (something) in the (something)! You want to see?" Well, I went downstairs. She had gotten her girls' Jacuzzi out and put something in it. I was vaguely and noncommittally approving until I realized that she had taken it into the bathroom and put water in it! She had turned off the sink afterwards, and she had barely spilled. The floor was dry! I was very impressed and surprised.

I was probably too enthusiastic, because she apparently decided to experiment further. When Daddy got home, a few minutes later, the water was running and Cara was back with her girls, playing. She noticed that it was on and went to turn it off; I explained to her about hot and cold water, which is really scary because I can't imagine she'll remember. The handles are color coded. Maybe I can mark the bad one, somehow, for her. Next Cara emptied and refilled the Jacuzzi, this time filling it rather fuller. There was definitely some spilling going on; Cara left a trail of little dark spots on the rug. The water also went up her sleeves, so I had to take her dress off of her. She went to get another towel for her pants and shirt, which she described as "a little damp."

When playtime was over, she decided to clean up her girls. She neatly dumped the water out of the Jacuzzi and onto the dish towel we've been putting on the carpet for spills. I definitely expressed to her that this was not a great thing to do, and it was kind of nice the way she didn't fall apart at the slightest criticism. While Steve and I cleaned up, Cara went and jumped in her ball pit. A month ago, she'd have been shrieking.

Yesterday, Cara played outside all day and then went to the park in the evening. She didn't jump on her bed once; she just crawled in and let me read to her. Today, it was a little rainy. Bedtime was slightly more exciting.

3/5/08 (Wednesday)

Last night as I was leaving Cara in her bed, I asked her if she wanted to have zebra in the bed with her. She of course had puma, but there was nobody else. She firmly shook her head: no zebra. I left him in the glider.

When I went in this morning to wake Cara up, I found the following things in bed with her: puma, zebra, her ceramic giraffe trinket box, and her blue plastic bubble pipe.

The other funny thing that happened this morning was that Cara claimed she was going to make Mommy a green birthday cake because "Mommy doesn't like chocolate."

I picked Cara up early because we had to take Buster to the vet. This, of course, was a job that Could hold Cara's attention. We agreed that Buster would be scared and Cara would tell her it was all right. Cara very much wanted to pick Buster up and, when I convinced her Buster would be in the box, wanted to carry the box. Fortunately, she could not. She did spend quite a bit of time pushing her fingers in through the door, which I like to think may have taken Buster's mind off the horror of being in the car. Or not.

In the car, Cara told me she liked . . . facts? fats? I tried asking clarifying questions. What did she like about them? She liked going to them. Ohhhh: vets! At the vet, Cara wanted to sit on the examining table. She was also very supportive of Buster through her ordeal. Buster went to have some tests done, and it took a very, very long time for them to draw her blood. Cara and I explored the entire public side of the office, and we tried the potty (twice). She had already eaten the snack I had brought. Eventually, one of the receptionists went to a closet and got us a coloring book and some stickers. This was doubly fortuitous, because not only were we bored, but Cara had just asked whether Buster would get a sticker.

When poor Buster was returned to us, we got her into her box and I left her and Cara in the examining room while I went to pay. Cara did not want to be interrupted in her coloring. When I got back, she had put her crayons away in their box! It was still a little difficult to get us all back on the road. Cara wanted to give Buster a sticker. She tried sticking them through the crack under the wire door of the carrying case, but then she gave up and just stuck one on the top. Then another. Then we could go.

Cara's five-dollar word of the day: familiar. The potty at the vet looked familiar. I have no idea whether Cara knows what it means, but she used it twice more this evening.

This evening was playdate night! The timing was good: PJ and Casey had only been there a little while before the pizza arrived. They did all right. Actually while dinner was being set up, Cara asked "Do you like me, PJ?" PJ said yes. It was cute. They did have a couple of small disagreements but they were quickly solved. Cara tried doing some pretend playing with PJ--she got into her coloring castle and claimed there was a dragon that they needed to hide from. When PJ came to the castle she suggested that he was the dragon. Then she asked whether he was a prince. PJ didn't go for either option, but later they may have had a short conversation using Backyardigans puppets.

Cara got into her princess dress again and Evie took pictures. She played into the evening and is being quite chatty now up in her bed--we'll see if there are any more out-of-bed adventures tonight.

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