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Journal Key:

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

3/22/08 (Saturday)

Thursday and Friday get skipped this week. Mommy left work early on Thursday and picked up Cara from Susan's and took her to school. They had a nice time and then Mommy, Claire, and Cara went to Grandma and Grandpa's house in South Jersey, where Cara was dropped off for her first sleepover there!

Ev and Claire continued on to Richmond, Virginia for a nice vacation. I stayed at home with the cats and had a couple of quiet evenings. Cara had a nice time with my parents. We were all a little worried about how she would sleep, but it sounds like she did really well. She had a little trouble getting to sleep the second night, but she slept through the night fine, and must have had tons of fun during the day.

She finally came home this morning, and my parents and Cara and I all went out to lunch. Cara, who clearly felt she was on vacation as well, had been very negligent about using the potty, but as soon as we entered the restaurant she decided it was time to get back on the wagon. I had the pleasure of taking her into the men's room and into the handicapped stall--the other ones were "too small." I usually let Evie take care of visits to public bathrooms, so this had the pleasure of novelty for me. Also I was happy to see my little girl again, so it wasn't much of a chore.

Back in the house, my father and I assembled a nice piece of furniture to replace Cara's changing table, which she hasn't fit on for many months. It is now nicely ensconced under her window and holding her books and pull-ups. Cara dumped out her girls and went to town--she hadn't seen them in a while and wanted to play with nothing else, except perhaps the cute little Barbie girl (complete with cats and sleepover party accessories) that my parents had given her.

Right as my parents were leaving, Cara found it was time for her second trip to the potty, and so we had a somewhat hurried goodbye, with none of the sadness I had expected from the little girl. We watched a little bit of TV and then Cara decided we should play Play-doh. Recently she has taken to watching a certain amount of TV, then deciding to do something else, at which point she will stand up and turn off the television.

We did some nice creative things with the Play-doh: we punched out a cow shape and then extruded some green Play-doh spaghetti and cut it into tiny bits to make grass for the cow to eat. Then we not only made bears, but fluffy pillows and big blankets for each one. I was rather proud of the whole thing. When I suggested we go to the park, Cara was perfectly willing to smoosh up all the bears and pack them away. We rushed into our coats and drove to our local park.

When we arrived it seemed to be the shift change: there were many kids and parents there, but they all soon left, leaving just Cara and me. An eight-year-old boy appeared on the playground, but all he did was growl menacingly at Cara (I do not exaggerate--he explained to me that he had recently played some kind of monster in his school's play, and apparently he was still very much into the part). Cara remained intrigued, but decided to study him from a distance, and we returned to the swings. The growling boy was soon distracted by some baseball practice.

We had already been at the park for quite some time when a pick-up truck drove by, stopped, moved back a bit, and parked. Out of it came Em, Ron, PJ, and Casey! Ron had noticed his friend Bruce in the parking lot, but was soon made aware of our presence by PJ's screaming "I SEE CARA!" over and over again from the back seat. We had a nice time swinging (and swinging and swinging--she has great swinging endurance) and sliding. When the Loefflers took off to have dinner, Cara was willing to pack it in as well, and we all got into our vehicles.

I had been hoping for a nice reaction from Cara when I finally saw her again in the morning, but for her it was a bit of a disappointment: "Where's Mommy?" To her, we are a matched set, and she is not truly satisfied unless she has both. Fortunately as dinner time rolled around Mommy and Claire arrived home! Almost as good, a few minutes later pizza arrived at the house! We had a nice dinner (Cara ate two complete slices of pizza), watched some Backyardigans, did some coloring in Cara's new southern belle coloring book, and then Claire headed off for her house.

We ended the evening by getting ourselves back into our normal bedtime routine. The last part of which is, of course, the journal entry. Good night!

3/23/08 (Sunday)

Happy Easter! We had a very happy Easter. In the late morning, we went outside with the Loefflers and saw that the Easter bunny had come and hidden colored eggs on our lawn! The kids found them all, with a few hints, and then we hid them again. We had come out earlier and set up the sand table (with sand!), so the kids had somewhere to play while we re-hid their eggs.

It was pretty cold. When we'd come out earlier, we'd found ice in the rainwater collected in Cara's outdoor toys. However, we managed to hide and find those eggs at least three times. Finally, when the kids were all done, Em and I got to "find" the final few eggs and we went inside. Cara wanted to eat an egg, and the colored ones were pretty gross, so I scrambled her the only remaining one. Then she had some pancakes, and all three kids blew bubbles through straws into cups of juice. They all took turns on the potty and got new diapers and sort of ate some pizza I'd heated up, and then PJ and Casey had to go home to take a nap.

We didn't take a nap, because Grandmama had moved our Easter celebration up to 2:00. We hung around and played and kind of cleaned up a little, and I read Cara The Country Bunny and the Little Gold Shoes and cried and cried. When I was done, she turned around, laughed at me, and left. Steve points out that she may have been laughing because I was wearing bunny ears. Even though we'd just been kind of killing time, we managed to be late. We got into the car at two.

At Grandmama's house, I changed Cara into her beautiful Easter dress, in which she looked ludicrously adorable. I mean, it was just perfect. She was beautiful. Grandmama gave her an Easter basket with some toys, some sparkly shoes, and a big pink hat. Finally all dressed up, Cara set out on her second egg hunt. She found a few eggs in the house, and then we ventured outside. Thank goodness it wasn't as cold as it had been earlier at home! She found eggs all around the house, the final two being beside the stone bunny in the garden.

Many of the eggs had socks in them, in what I find a perfect Easter tradition. Others contained tiny animal-shaped beads Claire had found a few weeks ago; Cara was virtually immobilized by the end because she insisted in carrying them all in her hands. She had to use both hands, and her dress was a little cumbersome. I picked her up and carried her into the house rather than watch her walk up stairs with no hands to steady or catch herself.

We ate a big dinner of ham, beets, asparagus, cucumbers, and potato salad, and Cara wandered off to look for a string for her beads. I suggested that she look in Grandpapa's closet and find a shoelace, but she came up empty. Grandmama found her some sparkly thread, and GiGi strung them for her. She spent a lot of time playing dolls with Grandmama, and late in the afternoon she had some more ham, with chocolate eggs. The perfect dinner.

Cara did manage to stay awake the whole way home, mostly, even though she hadn't had a nap in days and was definitely very tired. She tried a little bit of stalling but wound up in bed right on time.

I don't think we've put anything in about poor Puma. In the past week or two, Puma's been having a tough time. It started when Cara started taking her girls to bed. Puma would meow, the girl would be scared, and Puma would have to sleep on the floor. Today, Cara took her new lion from her Easter basket to bed, and he wanted to see the tiny kitten, too. Puma joined in but was rejected. He's too loud, apparently. This may stem from those nights when Puma kept bouncing around during storytime and Steve and I spoke to him instead of Cara. Hmmm. It's a very tangled web.

Cara is constantly anthropomorphising things and making them talk. It's confusing for her and for us sometimes to figure out who's speaking. Cara showed me a boo-boo earlier, and I offered to kiss it. She put it to the mouth of the doll I had been playing with. When I found the kitty toy for her this evening, the lion spoke to it and then invited it to see its big-girl bed. Then it invited the kitty to see Cara's big-girl bed. Even Cara's not always sure who's talking when she opens her mouth!

3/24/08 (Monday)

Happy birthday, Em!

It's my Spring Break, so Cara and I were home today. We read The Country Bunny and the Little Gold Shoes twice, and no one cried! It was nice to just hang out at home for the morning. Cara's girls got to play with her Dora toys, of which she has two. One is a finger puppet, and the other is a board game piece. Clearly, the finger puppet is the big sister Dora. Cara had a meltdown when she wanted to get out the "snow" blanket, but Shelby was sleeping on it and I suggested that we should be nice and let her sleep. The noise of the wailing woke Shelby, who left, so Cara got her way.

We went over to PJ's house eventually. One tough part was getting shoes on Cara. She wanted yellow socks. We didn't have any. I suggested white. She rejected them emphatically. I suggested that I call PJ and tell him we couldn't come because Cara had no socks. Cara suggested that she wear white socks. Good idea!

Cara excitedly brought her lion. "I have to give this to PJ," she said, hiding it behind her back. She was fixated on that idea, but she did agree that she would want it back afterwards. When we got there, PJ had absolutely no interest in the lion. Fortunately, that was OK. They played all over the house and all mostly had a good time, and then we went out to lunch!

We love Friendly's. We sat at a table instead of a booth so the the kids didn't fight over who got a chair. We had a window to look out of. PJ decided it was raining and spent some time looking for rainbows. He never found any. He was also the one who initiated the pointing up this time. We did not record the moment, having left our cameras at home. I think that that's a sign of good parenting.

A couple of weeks ago, Steve posited that, when offered a list of choices, Cara will always select the first thing. I disagreed. I do believe that I have seen evidence to the contrary, but today, in the car, I asked Cara what she would have for lunch. I suggested a quesadilla, macaroni and cheese, a hot dog. She jumped on the idea of a quesadilla. We got to the restaurant, got out of the car, got seated, looked at the pictures on the menu, and still picked quesadilla. When the food came and PJ and Casey had hot dogs, this was bad. Casey didn't mind that we mooched, though she rejected everything we offered in trade.

While we were waiting, we played with our magna-doodles. I wrote PJ's name and asked the kids what it said. "Cara!" said Cara. Well, we kept trying and writing both names again and again, and eventually Cara could tell whether I was writing her name or PJ's. Basically, she was counting letter. I know that because I tried writing "BG" and was told it was PJ.

We got ice cream! I have decided that the monster mash sundae is the way to go, though peanut butter cups with mint ice cream is vile. I'm getting it with chocolate or vanilla and calling it a bat! It does look like one, with peanut butter cup wings. We got them with soft ice cream, which was easier for the kids to eat. The kids were very excited about getting bats and actually had a fight about it when Cara said PJ could not have one, and he cried. (This was exciting role reversal, because of all of the times PJ has said no and Cara has cried.) Unfortunately, PJ's ice cream was too cold. Em had to "take it to the kitchen, to microwave it." Then she had to take Casey's. Then I had to take Cara's. It was much better after it had been "microwaved."

Casey's speech is coming along wonderfully. She has a lot of phrases that she finds useful; one of the cutest and most important is "button." She uses it when she wants to do something. For instance, PJ gets a turn, Cara gets a turn, and then "button!" My turn.

Cara got several pairs of shoes for Easter. She got really, really cute rain boots that I'm looking forward to using. She got two pairs that I put away for later. She also has two that she has been wearing, both of which are pretty funny. One is light foamy plastic; they'll be good pool shoes. Unfortunately, they are both for left feet and are two different sizes. We wore those to Friendly's. I'd have hesitated more if Cara didn't often put her shoes on the wrong feet and wear them around anyway. I mean, this time at least one was right! I always make sure the one that's smaller is on the correct foot. The other pair is dressy. It's pink and very very sparkly and each has a big flower on the toe. She loves them. She can't walk in them. She is very slow and careful and looks almost as if she were wearing grown-up high heels. She wore them to the supermarket. I was astonished that they didn't fall off while her feet dangled from the carriage. She had on pink sparkly shoes, light blue pants, and a pink jacket. In her hands were Sleeping Beauty, the smaller Dora, and a blue bubble pipe. She was terribly happy.

We went over to a surprise birthday party for Em. Cara got to pick her favorite birthday card, the valley girl one. I helped her sign her name, and then I gave her the pen. Lately at this point she's been giving it right back, but, with Steve's direction, she drew a girl. She drew a head and a body, and then Steve helped by connecting them.

As we walked slowly home afterwards (Cara had her sparkly shoes on), we looked up at the sky and saw an airplane and possibly some stars. Cara pointed up. "Mommy, will you point up with me?" Sure I would. "Daddy, would you point up?" We all pointed up together.

3/25/08 (Tuesday)

I had fun getting Cara to Susan's this morning. I admit, Steve got her up and gave her breakfast, but I got her dressed and did her hair and got her to brush her teeth. She selected her sparkly shoes to wear, and I brought her sneakers. On the way over I had plenty of time to discuss with her how dirty her sparkly shoes would get if she played in them and how much she would hate that. By the time we were in the door, she was perfectly ready to let me take them home "to keep them safe." I could just picture her shuffling around the playground in them!

Everyone was outside playing when I arrived, and Cara ran over for a big hug. She always makes sure I pick her up; when I put her down, I looked down and found that my sweater was covered with sand. It was impressive. Clearly, the kids had had a good day. PJ was still at it; his pants had turned-up cuffs, so I would imagine he brought home half the sandbox.

It was gratifying that Cara was very hungry for dinner today and very excited about what I made. She imitates Steve's comments. Today, it was "tasty." When Cara was done and had wandered away, she found her Southern Belles coloring book. She brought it over with some colored pencils, and we worked on it a little. Then Cara and Steve got out her Easter egg from grandmom, the one that held a Peep inside. I got out a couple of new Peeps. Cara ate half of one, and then she took a half of the egg and took a big bite out of it. That's not the approach I would have taken, but I think it's one of the joys of childhood.

I think that that Peep-and-egg experience influenced Cara's egg-hunt on Sunday. When she noticed that the eggs had started cracking, which many of them did rather impressively, Cara cried, "It's hatching!"

After dinner we took a walk around the block. We saw a kitty near someone's front door, and it came down to say hello. It rolled in the dust at Cara's feet, and she got to pet it. She was happy. Then she ran around the block very fast. It was a little scary because of the unevenness of the sidewalk, but she only had one big spill, and she didn't get hurt. After I carried her a little, she was ready to run again. She would zip along, squeaking, and then get Steve or me to pick her up. We had a lovely, if cold, time.

3/26/08 (Wednesday)

Cara did something wonderful this morning, and she was very proud: she took off her pajama top all by herself! We all said "yay!" This is a skill she's been working on for a while, and it's still going to take some work. The pajama top is particularly stretchy. We tried it again with her shirts this evening, and it went slightly less well. I do see progress.

Lately, Cara's begun telling me things like, "Girls don't like trucks! Boys like trucks!" It's been going on since Monday, so I think it's definitely ingrained. Girls don't like trucks, trains, or dinosaurs. Girls like dolls. I've told Cara I think girls can like lots of things. She also started talking about having long hair. One or two girls at daycare have longer hair than Cara, and she was saying that she has short hair, but she was also saying that the twins have short hair and she has long hair. Her hair and the twins' hair are about the same. I pointed out to her a lot of examples of women with short hair, including Susan and both of her grandmas. She added Grandpapa to the list. (Sorry, Dad!)

Whenever Cara sees a toy phone, she picks it up and starts talking. If we ask her who's on the phone, it's always the same: it's grandmama and grandmom. They're holding hands.

It was playdate this evening at PJ's house. Em told me a few days ago that Casey has become "The Girl Who Cried Poop." She has! At least three times tonight, Casey told us she had pooped and wanted to be changed. Her diaper was fine. She just likes to be changed.

Cara and PJ took turns upsetting each other. She made him cry by saying no to him again. While it is amusing role reversal, I do think that Cara needs to curb her habit of ordering people around.

I have been buying Cara new hair things in hopes of making it easy to get her hair out of her face. I bought a cheap package of barrettes at Pathmark, and Cara discovered them today even though they've been sitting on the counter for a while. She sorted through them and put about eight back into the box. Those were the ones she didn't like. They were just shapes. The sixteen or so that she had in her hands were the ones she really loved; they had animals on them. She wanted me to put them into her hair, but I asked her to narrow it down to two. She selected four. I put four in her hair. They made it through the evening, which is a good sign.

After her bath, she found her absolute favorites again. They're bears. She wants more bears. She wants bears in all the colors the barrettes come in. She told us a couple of times that she is going to get into her "race car" or her "car without a top" and "drive really fast" to the "red store and yeddow store and purple store" to get more bears.

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