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Journal Key:

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

3/27/08 (Thursday)

Cara and I have been drawing a lot of girls. I draw them, and she colors them in. I drew her four of them before daycare today, and afterwards she went right back to them. I had to give them faces and hair. Then it turned out that those were mommies, and I had to draw little girls. I got Cara to make the eyes on them, which was difficult for her. Instead of making dots, she makes circles. They are interestingly placed. I got out her safety scissors and cut them apart; the matching mommies and daughters had touching reunions.

That reminded Cara of the paper dolls her grandmom and grandpop make, so I had to make some "girls holding hands." Next, predictably, having cut out the girls I had drawn very roughly, I had to cut around their bodies and then tape them together, holding hands. Cara wound up with eight little girls in a row, and I got the four mommies. We had to make them all talk to each other and swing and fly through the air; we also played Ring-Around-A-Rosie.

This may sound shocking, but I finally did away with the dog this evening. The dog ball pit has recently become even more hideously deflated, and we have given up on it. I bought a new wading pool, which is shaped like a frog. Cara loves it. It's too small to hold all the balls, but we'll have to let it do for now. For a while Cara got to jump back and forth between dog and frog, but after she was done I got rid of the poor old dog and put the extra balls in a laundry basket. It's kind of sad and kind of liberating at the same time.

In the bathtub, Cara's mermaids and sharks vie for supremacy. This evening, the sharks were clearly the more popular. I heard them (the sharks) arguing over which of them was which. One was the sister, Petunia, and the other was the brother, Sammy. For a while, I think both were Petunia. I'm not really clear on all of this, as Steve gave the bath. I do wonder whose ideas the names were.

Just to get things clear: I asked Cara what the name of her shark was. We had established it was a girl shark, but she claimed its name was "Sammy." My shark was a brother shark; I facetiously claimed his name was "Petunia." Cara was immediately taken with this name and claimed it for her girl shark.

3/29/08 (Saturday)

Yesterday Evie and Cara were to have a day of fun with the twins. This seemed so certain to happen that we felt safe telling Cara that she was going to play with the twins, and she wanted to know where they were. As I left the house for work this was how things stood.

As it turned out, Lina was sick! When Mommy broke the news that the twins were in fact not coming, Cara was heartbroken. Mommy decided on a trip to the mall, but on second thought, after Cara was already in the car, decided it would be even better to drive down to Middletown! (This because it was already planned that Cara was having a sleepover with Grandmama, et al.)

Cara, I hear, had an excellent rest of the day. She didn't have to take a nap, she went to the Monmouth Museum and played in kid-oriented rooms perfect for her (including walking on the moon!), and after that she went to the park, too! Grandpapa reports that he thought they would never get to the playground, because Cara had to jump over every single stick.

Needless to say, after all that excitement she went right to sleep in the evening. And in the morning Grandmama and Grandpapa got to take her to gymnastics! Ev and I met them all there. It was lovely. Then we had a nice morning of playtime, lunch, and nap.

Cara is probably getting a little sick. She is a bit snuffly and may have a temperature. PJ and Casey, who both naturally have about the same thing, came over in the afternoon, and Cara eventually woke up from her nap and came down to join them. We had quite a nice evening. Basically I have found that babysitting involves simply following around after the kids and trying to pick up everything that gathers on the floor, and every once in a while saying something to the effect of "Be careful!" It went very well. The new frog ball pit was a big hit and fortunately everyone is now perfectly happy watching Cinderella.

Casey, who may be teething, was drooling to an impressive extent. A wind-up toy we were all playing with came within a split second of being dripped on. Meanwhile, I was taking our little Barbie girl and having her react to the wind-up caterpillar. I do this all the time with Cara, but this was apparently totally new schtick for PJ. He found it absolutely hysterical, and was fairly crying with laughter, demanding that I take her and make her talk again and again. It's nice to be appreciated.

After the kids took off, Cara decided to play with her full size Barbie doll (this is one that sings). Usually she doesn't play with the toy at all, but PJ and Casey like it, and apparently she was playing with it yesterday morning as well. It has taken on the role of a "teacher lady," and has to teach the smaller sized Barbie girl. She opened her arms wide in a "Come on, kids!" gesture, to get the class in session. It was assigned seating: the Barbie girl had to sit right in the middle of Cara's little table. I was interested to see of what the class would consist. "Start singing!" commanded Barbie. Little Barbie had to sing the alphabet song. Then, in a most disturbing turn of events, the teacher decided she had to take a shower and started getting undressed. I decided it was time to go upstairs and run the bath: sometimes the men just have to leave the room.

3/30/08 (Sunday)

Yesterday was not the first time Barbie has been a teacher. Last time, she also had her class sing their ABCs. This time, I suggested that she have the class count. I counted to five. "That's good!" said the teacher, as she did as soon as I did anything. I asked her, in the persona of the little girl, what number came next. "I don't know," said the teacher, "let's play hide and seek!" I counted, the teacher hid, and then she popped out as soon as the little girl began looking for her. Soon after that, she did have to take a shower. "Kids, I have to get naked!" she exclaimed. She showered, told us she was washing her hair, and then got her dress back on and went on with class. I guess you really have to be prepared for anything.

Another highlight from my trip with Grandmama and Cara to the Monmouth Museum: Cara was thirsty, and we found a water fountain. I don't think she's ever used one before, so she was scared of it. I modeled for her what to do, and she got up on the step stool and bent her head down. She drank for a long time, making very impressive slurping noises. It was so much fun we had to go back for more later.

The best part of the trip, possibly, was the back room, which was really intended for older kids. There was a display about gravity that was basically a big funnel, and you could toss marbles in and see them go around and around. We put a lot in. There was also an air-hockey style table with the planets floating around on it. The moon walk was a cushy place that was also the bottom of the big slide. Cara and Grandmama went upstairs and Cara came down it, even though it's the biggest, steepest slide she's ever done by herself.

Today we hung around at home for most of the morning, but Cara came out with me to do groceries. She was a big help, of course. She sits patiently in the cart and we have interesting conversations. Of course, a lot of them are about how much she wants to see Daddy.

We woke Cara early from her nap to go down to Middletown to celebrate my birthday early. Cara was very cuddly and clingy at first, having been deprived of her sleep, but soon enough she perked up. She and I had a lovely trip to the park, where we took turns sliding and catching each other. Cara was very friendly with other kids, too, which was nice. She had hot dogs for dinner, telling Grandpapa repeatedly, "This is the best hot dog I've ever tasted!"

She iced my cake for me and put on a lot of candles. She sang "Happy Birthday" with everyone, which surprised me; I think she's been quietly overwhelmed at previous celebrations. She got a card and a bear from GiGi, who will not be able to be at Cara's party next week. She was a happy little girl. She was happy to have Grandmama give her a bath, she was happy to go home with us, and now I'm sure she's happy to be in bed.

3/31/08 (Monday)

A lot of the kids at Susan's, including Cara, are fighting colds. Cara was fine yesterday, but she didn't have a great day today. Of course, when I got there she was very perky and cheerful, and she has basically remained so all evening. We had fun playing together for a while; Cara got out her nesting dolls and we got to try to play with the tiniest ones. Somehow I was assigned the tiniest of those, and I could barely hold onto her! She's only a little bigger than a grain of rice.

She got to play with the three Playmobil ladies whom Cara has been favoring for days. They hung out on the balcony of the dollhouse until two of them began crying because the third had a big skirt to wear. I reminded them of the special things they had. One was the fairy, so she had wings, a wand, and a crown. The other was really just a mommy from the dollhouse, but she was a bedroom mommy who was wearing pajamas. She had a bed. Of course, everyone had to go and try it out. Cara had me tiptoe away with her and then ran back to wake them up.

Cara was not happy when I went to cook dinner, but she really did a great job playing on her own. She got out her foam blocks and made slides for the ladies. Each lady got her own in her own color. Cara wasn't a big eater tonight; actually, she barely ate anything. She was happy, though. She brought her old Playmobil toys upstairs and decided to play veterinarian with Daddy. I could hear her trying to get him to look for sick animals. After we ate, she and Steve played computer games. She made him do the muffin one, which is very difficult. I would hazard a guess that it's the toughest game on the Nick, Jr., website! So, if you are up for a challenge, go look in the Holly Hobby game section and be ready to have your world rocked!

4/1/08 (Tuesday)

Cara had an adventure today. Here's Daddy's report:

Getting into the car Cara stepped in some dog doo. I expressed my annoyance at people who did not clean up after their dogs. This got Cara thinking. Whenever we passed someone on our way to SusanÕs, she asked me if that person had a dog. I told her that there was really no good way to tell, unless they were walking with a dog. We talked about how BJ poops in his backyard, as does Rusty, and that Floyd goes for a walk but Jim cleans up after him. I think it was all very educational.

I hope this didn't turn Cara off on dogs! She already professes to be scared of them. She had had a better day with Susan today, but we hear that two girls, sisters, there have strep. Cara felt a little warm all evening, but she acted fine and said that her throat feels good. I picked her up a little early today and took her to the library. (What a great ramp!) She did some puzzles and we picked some books. We don't have any really girl-centered ones, which have been our favorites of late, but I think we got some winners.

Cara was tired, so she was happy to come home. Daddy got home a little bit after we did and nicely went to pick up takeout for dinner while Cara and I played with her Playmobil ladies. She ate a good dinner, but she was a little touchy whenever she was crossed. When we finished our chocolate Easter egg after dinner and Steve took it from her to break it into manageable pieces, she was very annoyed and went to sit on the stairs, refusing to eat any. She did come back.

One nice thing is that Cara's very happy about taking baths lately. I haven't had to work to convince her to come upstairs in a long time. She knows it'll be fun; the hard part is usually getting her out!

By the way, her shoes seem fine.

4/2/08 (Wednesday)

Everyone had a nice day today. Cara asked me something on the way home about the chairs for big kids in the school. She meant, she said, the school where I teach, where there are chairs for the big kids. There is also, she says, cardboard. None of this ever became clearer. She asked why I teach. She asked what Daddy did. She asked what she did. I told her she went to Susan's house. "And play with my friends!" she cried. I'm so very, very happy that Cara goes to Susan's house.

It was my turn to cook for Playdate, so I was quite busy and Cara was not happy. Fortunately, Daddy came home early! He got to play with Cara, and soon PJ, Casey, Em, and Ron joined us. PJ brought us flowers he had picked on the way over; Cara was not at all interested in hers. She did the same thing when he did this last weekend, so I can see that I'm going to have to speak to her about her priorities.

Cara, PJ, and Casey had some yogurt before dinner again. This time I'd bought yogurt in regular cups, so there was no squeezing. However, it was not pink. We had to get out food coloring and turn the pale yogurt more vibrant before it was acceptable to Cara and PJ. I believe Casey was fine.

After dinner, Cara and PJ found her wooden box of necklaces and took all of them out and brought them downstairs, along with the box. Everyone under five got to wear at least one, and PJ put some balls in the box. Casey found the stringing bears and a tiny cup and tried to pour them all in; it went badly. She came and showed me the ones that had gone in, and I said that that was wonderful. I asked her whether she could get some more. She could! She cleaned up and brought me the bears one by one.

The most exciting part of the night, though, for me, was probably the birthday card I got from my in-laws. It's a Backyardigans 3rd birthday card shaped like a big 3. They drew and attached a matching 1! I'm tempted to take it into school to show it off.

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