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Journal Key:

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

4/17/08 (Thursday)

Susan had an uphill battle today convincing the kids that it was okay to NOT wear their jackets outside. It was a really beautiful day, and when I got there I was surprised to see that they were not outside. It turned out that they had just gone inside, primarily because the kids, in long pants and long sleeves, were too hot! We gave them a pep talk about wearing T-shirts tomorrow.

Cara noticed my sandals and wanted to wear her sandals. She told me that she had two of them "--not three, Mommy!" She agreed that she had two feet, too. We came home and got out her summer clothes and her sandals, which were the only things she tried on.

She helped me make crescent rolls today. I thought that sprinkling cheese on them would make it take longer, so I gave her some in a bowl. In a moment, she called that she needed more. I looked and saw that all of the cheese was on one triangle of dough. We discussed the idea that they all had to share just that cheese, and I showed her how much was a good amount. She finally got the cheese distributed, and then she got to roll them up and put them on the baking sheet.

Yesterday I had suggested that she make rolls, but she had told me she didn't like them. She was emphatic. Today, she was quite excited about trying one. She ate it and then said, "Mommy, can you please pass the rolls?" I did. She ended up eating at least three of them! The "please pass" thing reminded Steve of one of our favorite books (When Dinosaurs Go Visiting), so Steve quoted a line. Cara responded with the next one. I tried the next, and, with a little prompting, Cara got the fourth one.

4/19/08 (Saturday)

Yesterday Cara got to go to Middletown to sleep over. She got to use a big-girl bed in Claire's old room, which is actually my old room from when I was little. I had forgotten that I had put star stickers on the ceiling! Naturally, Cara loved her new bed and went to sleep without a hitch. This morning she and Grandpapa drove up to gymnastics. Grandpapa used his gps navigation system, I believe, because Cara later sang, "calculating route, calculating route!", explaining to us, "The lady says 'calculating route.'"

After gymnastics we were of course eager to come home and see Daddy. We were also excited about getting out Cara's outdoor toys! When we got here, Daddy had already started getting out the things from the shed, including her horse. Cara was really, really happy to see that horse again. She even named him: I believe he's called Petty. She "wocked and wocked and wocked" on Petty. I got out a bucket and a sponge and we cleaned him and some other things. Cara washed him herself, talking to him.

She did a lot of helping while we were outside. She also got to play. There were a lot of leaves on the patio, and I raked them over to the foot of her slide; she loved sliding into the piles. She washed a few other things, and she helped with raking and sweeping. We got to see a herd of six deer pelting by through the woods on the other side of the gorge. We found some old folding lawn chairs in the shed, and Cara sat on one, eating an apple, while I washed off the outside table.

We visited Juliana, because Cara wanted to show her her apple. She had a present for Cara, a tiny girl who has troll doll hair but is a lot less burly than they usually are. We had to take her home immediately to meet the other dolls. She had to play with Cara's little girl Barbie, who is about the same size. They were best friends! Next, they were sisters! Within about a minute, they were twins! They do seem to be getting along.

After lunch and a nap, it was time to go to Aunt Claire's for Passover! I asked Cara whether she wanted to get dressed up, and, of course, she said yes. She got to wear her Easter dress, and I wore a skirt. It only took Cara a little time, once we got there, to figure out that everyone was watching her and thought she was cute. Soon, she was performing.

She does really enjoy being there, too. She likes to run outside on the porch. I brought her parachute guy, thinking he'd work well in the deep stairwell, but he also liked to jump from the porch. Casie, Claire's housemate, has a lot of whale toys, which are a great favorite. They eventually became bats, and I helped Cara hit the squishy ball when Grandmama pitched it. The landlady brought her ten-month-old daughter outside, and she and Cara were quite interested in each other. More, though, the baby wants to follow Cara, who doesn't really know what to do with her.

It was a nice, though very abbreviated, Seder. I got to take Cara on the potty twice. She sat really well through the first two pages or so, and then it kind of disintegrated. When the first hand-washing came, Cara volunteered and we headed for the kitchen. She liked that part. My mom and I had both coached her on asking the question, so she managed to say something like, "Why this night from other nights?" at the right time. She hid the afikomen by putting it on the couch. Later, she put it back on the table and we had to hide another when it was time to start looking. Aunt Claire offered her "a shiny quarter" for it, which was a very good prize. Of course, GiGi then contributed two more.

We piled into the car around nine. We asked Cara how she had liked everything. She told us, a few times, "I like Casie. She's my best friend!" She sang a lot on the way home and was devastated when we didn't let her ride on her horse in the dark, but made her come in. She was tired, though. She was happy to snuggle up for stories with Daddy and get into bed.

4/20/08 (Sunday) (Happy Birthday, Grandmom!)

Today was supposed to be cold and rainy, but when we got to Grandmom's house, everyone was outside in the back yard and it was a beautiful sunny day! Cara got to (make other people) draw with chalk and she got to blow bubbles. I showed her how I could spin around, holding out the wand, and make lots of them, and she wanted to try it. On her own, she couldn't quite make it work. I held her and we held the wand out together and spun around and around; she loved it. She barely paid attention to the bubbles, she was laughing so hard about spinning around. When I was tuckered out, Daddy got a turn.

We went out to lunch, and the restaurant was slow. Cara was really amazingly good, considering the long wait, the lateness of lunch in the first place, and the fact that, at two o'clock, it was the middle of naptime. She basically entertained herself. We'd brought a few toys from Grandmom's house, including a Fisher Price giraffe and lion. The giraffe was Cara's favorite. It developed some sort of vaguely disturbing dance routine having to do with the straw in her chocolate milk. Then it started standing on its head on top of the straw, sticking its little doodlebops into the straw. I suggested that it try its tail instead, and then the fun seemed to really start. As the giraffe explained it later to the lion, "This is where I spin around and fall off and get hurt." I asked the waiter for a new straw, because of the hard usage this one was experiencing.

When Steve and I were shopping for Grandmom's birthday present, we found something else interesting: make-your-own shrinkie dinks! We brought them along and tried them. I drew three girls, one of whom was wearing a green dress. Steve drew a great froggie, at Cara's request (there was one on the box). Grandmom drew a cool fish with stripes. We put them in the toaster oven and stood there to watch. Within a minute or so, they started to writhe and curl up. My girls soon looked like little balls of colored plastic. To my amazement, they then all flattened out again! We took them out and there they were, tiny! It's really perfect for Cara.

Since we'd seen that it worked, we made more. Uncle Jim and Aunt Sarah drew a car and a girl. I made a tiny kitty and a girl in a yellow dress. Steve made a unicorn, a giraffe, a dinosaur, a fairy, and a tiny girl. The whole family watched them shrink. We keep them all in a nice ziplock baggie. Predictably, the girl in the green dress is mine and half of the time she isn't allowed to do the same things as the other girls. The cat is hers, though, which I'm sure is a great comfort.

We didn't spend as much time as usual taking toys out. We did get out some Playmobil astronauts and the Play Doh, and they got to make footprints. Actually, first they all had to sit down and make, well, butt prints. Then they got creative and discovered that that could even balance on one hand or on their heads. It's amazing, the things you find on alien planets.

On the ride home, Cara held her baggie in her hands and obediently didn't get out her tiny things. At home, having slept in the car, she was groggy and unhappy, but they helped. She perked up, had some macaroni and cheese, and had a bath. She scattered them on her bed, but she put them away when I explained that, if she jumped on the bed, they'd go flying off. She then got distracted and didn't jump on the bed anyway.

4/21/08 (Monday)

Cara likes to like things, and she doesn't like to share. "I like Susan," I said, in the car on the way home. Cara also likes her. In a few minutes, she had thought out the rules: "Only kids like Susan!" she told me. "Families don't!"

I also told her in the car that I planned on using the bathroom when we got home. She wanted to come in with me, and I told her I needed to be by myself. The conversation went on, punctuated by some quiet whining. She repeated her request once or twice. Finally, in a lull in our discussion, she said, "Mommy, you hurt my feelings!" She was very upset that she would not be invited to come into the bathroom with me.

We spent more time playing than usual and then started some water for spinach pasta, an easy and quick dinner. Cara was eager to help and seemed disappointed that all we had to do was start water and begin to defrost the spinach. When we went downstairs to wait, PJ and Casey came to the door. Ron was talking to Juliana. They came in and I got them to keep their shoes and coats on while we found ours. Out we went to play!

PJ rocked on Cara's horse, who may not have a name anymore. (I'm sad, because I liked his name!) When he was done Cara got on, and then, after some hard rocking, she climbed off. "It's Casey's turn," she announced, and she walked over to where Casey was playing with the sand. She took her hand and led her over to the horse. PJ was on it already, not listening when we asked him to get off. "Don't you want to give your sister a turn? Look at her little face!" said Steve. Cara bent over to get a better view of the little face. Ron distracted the kids with the sand, and then we were able to give her a turn. Of course, she didn't like it!

We ended up downstairs, where the two slides are. We still have the little one as well as the big one. It's amazing to watch the kids now. PJ likes to run down the tiny slide, and Cara likes to jump down it!

4/22/08 (Tuesday)

Happy Earth Day! PJ rode home in the car singing "Happy Birthday" to "Mommy Earth," his project from daycare. The kids colored in a globe, which is decorated with some yarn and a leaf. I can't quite recognize which hemisphere we got. Cara told me it's the moon. She seems to have missed any Earth Day celebrations that were held.

We went outside to play with PJ and Casey, and then we came back to get our scooter. PJ has a new two-wheel scooter, but he got out his three-wheeler possibly just to be like Cara. He's a very accomplished scootist, regularly riding down to the fire hydrant across from our house and back. Cara is somewhat less proficient, and she's a little reluctant. She doesn't seem to mind carrying the scooter, which looks pretty funny. When we decided to head back here, I did get her to scoot all the way to Gene's driveway. I figure that if she gets more practice, she'll get better at it.

After dinner, Cara and I played downstairs. I put her "tiny things" onto the old Playmobil floor, which has tiny grooves that can make them stand up. They had a party. At a loss for what to do at the party, I had them play tag. They were not particularly good at it. Inspired, Cara and I spent a good ten minutes chasing each other back and forth, around and around. I caught her more than she caught me, but that was partly because whenever she was running away from me, she jumped into the ball pit.

We finished the ice cream cake from my birthday. Cara scraped the icing off and very happily turned blue. Then we all had to look at each other's tongues to see whether they'd changed colors.

4/23/08 (Wednesday)

It seems like a while since we made any potty-training progress. We've been forgetting to use our stickers, particularly since she goes so much more frequently while out of the house than while here. The other day, when we got home from Susan's, I got her to agree to go on the potty. Her pull-up was dry. She asked for privacy. When she called me in, she told me she'd peed and pointed into the toilet. She also asked for a new pull-up. Her old one had just gotten wet, somehow. Oh well.

Today, though, went better. I was the one who suggested the potty every time, but Cara used it three times. Once was here, once at PJ's house, and again at home. Her pull-up stayed dry; it was still the one Susan had put on her! I gave her a prize. I think we need a new system, where she maybe gets stickers for staying dry for specified periods.

It was playdate night at PJ's house. We spent a lot of our time outside. Em and Ron have rearranged the playthings, moving the swing set over, and it's very nice. Everyone took turns on the swings, and PJ and Cara tried the seesaw several times. On her first trip up, Cara went headfirst over the handlebar and tumbled down. We set her up again, and it went much better. If she sits down first, PJ can climb by himself up onto the end in the air. They tried it the other way once, and Ron had to lift Cara on. (He can also climb off of the high stools in their kitchen. Today Em and I tried together to teach Cara to. We tried verbal instructions, demonstration, and actually manipulating her body, and we ended up lifting her off. Admittedly, PJ's had far more opportunity to practice.)

It's great to watch the kids on the playground now. They just run through everything incredibly fast, with no real problems. They play together, too. Cara climbed behind the wheel of the truck sandbox, and PJ and Casey climbed in on either side of her. We asked where they were going. "The candy store!" Cara answered. Perfect.

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