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4/10/08 (Thursday) Cara may be feeling a little under the weather. She has been rather cranky and clingy, and she does complain of a sore throat. I had to stop at the supermarket, and she got me to carry her almost the whole way; in the produce department she asked to be put down and held my hand. When I was holding her, she was very cuddly. At home, we saw Juliana! She gave Cara her birthday card, which has Disney princesses on it. Naturally, it's a hit! We had to go inside quickly, though, to get out Cara's scooter! Today was the first day I was comfortable outside in short sleeves, and we made the most of it. We took a walk around the block with the scooter. Cara scooted a little, but I think she needs a while to warm up before she is willing to go far. Cara sang some songs while we walked. One of them was about pine cones, and then it drifted from its topic until it was her old favorite about not getting hurt. I'm always impressed with her improvisational skills! We ran into Ron, and then Em, PJ, and Casey came home. PJ and Cara scooted together a little, but then we all went back to our houses. Cara wanted to get out her chalk, it turned out, so I opened the cute chalk holders I got for party favors at Cara's party. They work! I didn't have to touch the chalk, but I drew Cara a giant princess on our front walk. Fortunately, Cara's standards are fairly low. I pulled some weeds in the yard, and Cara held the bucket for me to put them in. She decided she wanted to go show Ron and PJ. Daddy got home, and we showed him, but we still had to go show them. They were, of course, impressed. The kids ran around with some dead leaves from last fall, Cara made me draw a tiny (thank goodness) princess on their driveway, and then we went home for dinner. Cara has learned to put their party hats onto her My Little Ponies, and today she put on her pajama shirt all by herself! She has been putting on her pants herself for a long time, but we notice that, more often than not, it seems, they are backwards. We're working on it. Today, given last night's bath-skipping debacle, Cara was very ready to help clean up and go upstairs when it was time. I love it when it's easy! 4/11/08 (Friday) We went to see Mr. Ray! After daycare Cara and I went and picked up diner for everyone; the Loefflers came over shortly, Daddy was home already, and we ate a quick meal before putting on our coats and shoes and heading out the door. Mr. Ray was appearing in the rec room of a church in North Brunswick. When we arrived, the first fun thing PJ found to do was to run around and around the rows of tables that were set up in the back. Mr. Ray himself came along and talked to Casey, and then he let Em and Ron and the kids take a picture with him. It's a special day, also, because Mr. Ray is the first person whose music Casey has sung along to. When the show started, all three of our kids were clingy. Em and I took the girls up front and stood on the side. Casey got down. I asked Cara whether she could hold Casey's hand and take her to sit with the other kids on the floor. She agreed to, and then she did! They sat and watched, clapping their hands and kicking their feet when it was time to. They stayed there for a song or two, and then they came back to us. We did some dancing and some singing, and then we sat with them in our laps. Mr. Ray started picking children from the audience to come up on stage and sing songs, which turned out really funny! Unfortunately, when he'd already gone through a few, it occurred to me to ask Cara whether she wanted to go up there. She did. All of the other kids were raising their hands and jumping up and down, and Cara stood up from my lap and started heading up. I got her to try raising her hand. She was not picked; I doubt he noticed her, off on the side. After the next song, Em asked Cara whether she wanted to go up. The same results ensued. Mr. Ray sang some more songs on his own, including the Hokie-Pokie, which none of our kids know. Cara really isn't feeling great, though she's herself much of the time, so she was being held by her daddy. I did some hokie-pokieing with PJ, who did not appreciate it. It was loud in there, so it was hard to hear Cara. She seemed to be saying something; I'm pretty certain it was about wanting to go up on stage. Ron got PJ some tiny pretzel rods, which he shared. When they ran out, he let PJ have some money and go buy some more (with a little help). They were a big hit. Cara still wanted to go on stage. We waited until the show ended and people started clearing out, and then we let her. She got on stage and sang the alphabet, complete with her endless loop (Q, R, S, T, U, V, H, I, J, K, L . . . ). She took a bow. She also asked where "that guy" was. PJ and Casey were allowed on stage, too, but in a few minutes we got them off. Mr. Ray was signing autographs in the back, and Cara wanted to talk to him. I suggested she say good-bye. She was hesitant at the end, but then she did go near the table and quietly say good-bye. He didn't hear her, but she was perfectly satisfied. Her dreams were fulfilled; it was a wonderful night. 4/12/08 (Saturday) Today Aunt Claire moved into a house! You wouldn't think there would be much opportunity for Cara to have fun while this was happening, but I think she managed to do quite well. Mommy left early to help with packing, and Cara and I had a nice and fairly lazy Saturday morning. We had Disney and some scrambled eggs. I cancelled gymnastics for Cara (she is still a little under the weather and PJ wasn't going to be there anyway, since he was off to see his grandparents) and asked if she wanted to go to Grandmama's house instead. Rather perversely, Cara told me she did not want to go to Grandmama's house--she wanted to go to gymnastics! Fortunately this was a short-lived thing; soon enough she was excited at going to see her grandparents and we got ourselves dressed and packed and went. At Grandmama's house, there was lots of fun stuff for Cara. First of all, she got her first chance to play with a little teepee-shaped tent that the grandparents got as a birthday present (to stay at their house). As if that weren't enough, she was allowed to have a lunchbox full of Matchbox cars that used to belong to Aunt Claire, and had been discovered during the packing process! And even that was not all, because she also got to play with Aunt Claire's extensive collection of tiny toy horses. Wow. And she got to eat a donut in her tent. I don't think most of us have had a day that good in a while. She got to play around that house for a bit, and then she was driven over to Claire's new place and got to play around there. She had a lot of fun staying out on the big porch the house has--there were a few short rain showers which provided some extra entertainment. I think we'll be coming back to Claire's house. Grandmama and Grandpapa graciously transported the little girl back to their house while the rest of us did some more unpacking and setting up, and then we all reunited again. Cara was "painting," which basically means she was forcing her poor tired Grandmama to paint lots and lots of girls in watercolor. We managed to tear her away from this and got in our cars to go home. Cara fell asleep in the car, and woke up pretty painlessly at the end of the ride. We finished our afternoon/evening with a little TV, some computer games, and dinner. Cara seemed pretty normal all day today except that she didn't eat much--she ate practically none of the pasta we made and almost immediately left the table to go downstairs and play. Unusually, there were not a lot of yelled requests for Mommy and Daddy to come join her, but she didn't get herself into any trouble. She did eventually manage to entirely disassemble her Playmobil swing set, and then brought up all the pieces for us to put back together. Mommy did bath and storytime, and now it is off to bed with her, after an action-packed day. 4/13/08 (Sunday) Evie and I were both tired and, as it turned out, both sick today. But we both went out and did things anyway. Evie went out with her sister and shopped. I took Cara to my parents' house--a bit later even than usual, after a big breakfast of pancakes and several Disney cartoons. She had a blast, as usual. We had lunch, which she didn't eat a whole lot of (later she had a grilled cheese sandwich and several pretzels with a tiny bowl of ice cream), and then we went out to the park. Cara specifically requested the "Dinosaur Park" because of the dinosaur-themed playground they have for little tiny kids. After a short period on the swing, however, she tired of this play area and moved over to the one for older kids, with steeper steps and ladders and longer slides. She quickly gained confidence and sampled most of the slides, but then abruptly decided it was time to leave and play Play-doh back at the ranch. As usual, various toys were extricated and sampled. The old Playmobil cowboys and indians, and the old Playmobil "space guys," got some good time. Cara had brought all of her little girls in their little cars, but somehow they never made it onto my old Matchbox car playset, which I think was the original intention. Exhausted from a somewhat sleepless night, I took a light nap on the couch while Cara tried to be quiet in the kitchen, periodically asking, "Is Daddy awake? Why?" When I came in, it seemed the entire kitchen table was filled with cut-out paper girls. My mother admitted that some of them had been made on a previous visit, so they hadn't been working quite as hard as I'd thought. Cara did a lot of yelling at Rusty, which I think she relishes a bit too much. She also enjoys playing up her illnesses and from time to time would look piteously at one or the other of my parents, touch her tummy, and groan, "I'm a little bit sick; I don't feel so good!" Sometimes she would take a sip of water and immediately squeak: "I feel better!!" Mommy had put pigtails in her hair before we left the house in the morning, so she looked adorable all day. We ended the day by taking the Playmobil guys and making footprints with them in the Play-doh. I got the little girl to leave by mentioning that Mommy was all alone at home and we had to go and see her. Cara got to take a little flower from the front yard home with her, and she slept soundly in the car. In a return to old form, she was crabby when she woke up, and had to sit with one or the other of us and watch Curious George on TV. Eventually she decided she was hungry and we showed her the wonton soup and lo mein noodles we had for her. Cara had gotten the wrong impression from the word "soup," however, and was intent on having chicken and stars. Fortunately there was a can right in the cabinet, and she was soon slurping away on it. She went to it with a will, eventually polishing off more than half the can, and was entirely herself again before she was done. Now she is having a bubble bath with Mommy, because as she firmly said to me, "Daddy, you can't give me a bath." A small behavioral problem: Cara very much enjoys telling other people what they can't do. On the bright side, she did make poopy on the potty at Grandma and Grandpop's house today: "A lot of poopy!" she happily boasted afterwards. 4/14/08 (Monday) Cara is feeling much better now that Daddy and I both have her cold. Susan says that Cara did frequently claim to still be sick, but she thinks that it was just for the drama. I agree. Cara uses her most pitiful voice and is very dramatic. I like to come upstairs when we get home to change my clothes, and Cara generally joins me and gets my slippers. I'm not always particularly interested in wearing them, but today I was. Cara got hers, too, and we both spent the evening wearing "bdue swippers!" I played with Cara for a while, putting off starting dinner because I was feeling guilty about seeing so little of her yesterday. When I finally did start cooking, Cara came along to help. She came with me to the basement when I went to get something, and she saw the macaroni in the cabinet. She asked whether we could have macaroni and cheese, and when I found that we had the right ingredients, I decided we could. Cara helped. While the water was boiling, I put a sandwich baggie on her hand and showed her how to grease the pan! Daddy got home, and he and Cara mixed everything up. It was a group effort and a good meal. Afterwards Daddy got out what was left of the ice cream cake and he and Cara each had a piece. Cara ate the icing off of hers and sobbed bitterly when we suggested that she could eat the ice cream instead of having another piece. Cara's ball pit is still the frog, who is still too small to hold all of the balls. When Steve and I came downstairs after cleaning up the kitchen, we found that Cara had dragged out and upended the laundry basket of extra balls. It sat upside-down near the frog. "You've been busy," I said to Cara. "I jumped and jumped and jumped!" she answered. That seemed odd. Then she demonstrated. She climbed on top of the laundry basket and jumped into the ball pit gleefully, all of her hair sticking straight up from static. She continued to jump and jump and jump, stopping occasionally to put balls back in. I've given Cara a few baths lately, and we've spent a lot of time playing with her watering cans, one of which is a toucan, a birthday gift from Aunt Claire. The two watering cans have become anthropomorphized; they talk to each other and play together. They like to pour water into each other or clean the bubbles off of each other. Sometimes, oddly, they pour "chocolate milk" instead of water. My favorite song right now, which I've been singing on and off for weeks, is the Backyardigans' "Racing Day." (It's not picture tracing day, it's not sausage casing day!) I am really really into it. Unfortunately, I think I have to try to stop. Cara now has added racing to her list of fun things to do after the bath, to avoid getting ready for bed. She wants me to race her down the hall, but it's pretty okay if she races alone. It hurts me, but I think I have to make a big effort and stop bursting into song so often. Today Cara wound up on the counter in the bathroom. When she was done, Steve put her on the floor. "No, no, Daddy!" she cried. She stepped onto the squishy blue pillow that she had on the floor, then onto her step stool, then onto the lid of the toilet, and then onto the counter. "I have to get down on my stairs," she told us. She stood up. She asked Steve to hold her hand while she stepped back onto the toilet, then onto the blue pillow. Much better. 4/15/08 (Tuesday) This morning, Cara spotted a tiny box on the upper shelf of her closet and made Steve get it down for her. It contained the little amber heart pendant that GiGi had given Cara for her birthday. For some reason, Cara decided that she needed to show it to Susan. She took it with her. She showed it to Susan, and a couple of other little girls got to see it, and then Susan put it away on top of her dishwasher, where it would be safe. On a side note, the other night, when Cara was putting balls back into the laundry basket, she was holding them under her chin. She claimed Susan had shown her that and loved it when she did it. I asked Susan today, and Susan does not think she has even shown anyone how to do that. When I arrived, PJ, Casey, and Cara were standing on the lawn and Susan was rolling hoops, kiddie-sized hula hoops, to them to catch. It looked idyllic. I got to roll one to Cara, which involved me figuring out how to roll it correctly. It was challenging, but I triumphed. The hoop goes slowly enough that a kid can chase it a little and still catch it standing up; it's nice. I rolled one for Casey, too, which meant that I had to almost hit her for her to catch it. I did that, too. I was about six feet away. My only time alone with Cara is from five, when I pick her up, to a little after six, when Steve gets home. I've been feeling guilty because I spend most of it cooking dinner, which Cara hates. She wants me to play! I've suggested to her that, if I don't cook, we'll have to go out to eat. She doesn't like that. I'm not sure that the logic really holds her, though. I've decided to make a real effort to involve her more in the cooking. Today, we made matzo ball soup! Cara broke the eggs. I coached her a little, and the second one, which she did on her own, went better than before. She helped measure the oil, and she mixed them together. She dumped in the mix, and she stirred. We went out to play while it was in the fridge and the water was heating up. Afterwards, I let her watch me make the balls. She poured the broth into the other pot. While she did those things, I was able to get some other parts of the meal done. At the end, though, we were back to her begging me to come play and me saying, "Let me just do [whatever]!" There's only so long I can keep her engaged. When Steve gets home, he usually plays with her while I finish dinner. I never seem to play with her! Today, I traded with him. It was nice. The other night, instead of wonton soup, Cara made us get her chicken and stars. This evening, she tried the soup we had made. She liked it! (Big surprise.) This weekend is Passover, and I'm sure Cara can make matzo ball soup again at Grandmama's house. Last year, she really loved the gefilte fish. This year, I bet she won't try it! After dinner, I hauled out the stroller from the basement. I don't know why, but I got the jogging stroller, which is quite hard to steer. I hadn't been sure that Cara would be willing to ride for long, but she was quite enthusiastic. We walked over past the park to vote on the school elections. I told Cara it was so that she would have a good school to go to. She was anxious that there be a chair for her. Just one. We had to stop at the park on the way back, but it was cold and was getting dark and it wasn't too hard to tear her away. We got home in time for a bath. I got to give it to her. Her pink mermaid invited my mermaid to come for a picnic and then launched into a monologue about getting her pink lunch box at school and eating a sandwich. I was impressed. 4/16/08 (Wednesday) The cooking continues! Today, Cara shucked corn. All my life, I've been pulling the leaves all the way off. Cara isn't strong enough, so she just pulls them down. It turns out that, once the leaves are all down all the way, it's really easy to break off the stem with all of the leaves attached! In fact, it may be easier than doing it with them off. Go figure. She was delighted, particularly with the first ear, when we finally found the corn at the center. I always had to do the last few leaves, so she was a spectator for that part. As a whole, though, she was quite helpful. PJ and Casey came over with Em for dinner. Cara had set the table with a purple plate for Casey, a pink one for herself, and a blue one for PJ. I had to get the other pink one from the dishwasher, though, and wash it for PJ. He doesn't like to be left out. When the kids were playing downstairs and we were finishing dinner, we heard Cara telling PJ he couldn't go in her castle. Adding this to the fact that she'd just been refusing to share her hoppity ball with him, I found her behavior rather disappointing. I marched down and looked scary. I told her to come with me. She did, dragging the half-deflated hoppity ball after her up the stairs. I sat her down in the bedroom hallway and asked her whether she'd just been mean. She agreed that she had. She knew she was wrong! I asked her what she would do, and she decided to go and apologize. Well, really she said she would go tell him it was all right, but I suggested that slight rephrasing. She headed down the stairs with her giant ball. PJ was coming up from the playroom with the toy vacuum cleaner. They neatly and carefully got past each other with their huge toys and continued on their trajectories, Cara still on her way to apologize. The best part of the evening, for the kids, was probably when all three of them were in the stall shower in the downstairs bathroom, popping out from behind the curtain and screaming. It's amazing how peek-a-boo is still so effective! Later, Cara, PJ, and I ended up in her bedroom, where we found her squishy ball. They started playing catch, sitting on the floor a couple of feet from each other! I joined in and we made a triangle. We all had a good time. Before Cara and I came in to make dinner, I did some weeding in the front yard while she played. On the dirt of one plant I pulled, I found a worm. I showed it to her, and we watched it go back underground. She found it quite interesting. We had a long talk about worms living in the soil and for the rest of the time while we were out, she kept asking me where they were. I asked her whether she would like to be a worm. No, she wanted to be a girl. We discussed lots of other people, none of whom wanted to be worms. I remembered this while we were getting ready for bed and sent Cara to tell Steve about it. She ran down the hallway. "Daddy," she said, "I thought you were a worm." | Previous Week | Back Home | Next Week | |