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Journal Key:

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

5/15/08 (Thursday)

Claire and I went together to pick up Cara, who of course was delighted to see us. We headed up to the mall for an evening out. We parked near where we usually do, but off to the side, so that Cara could see another nearby entrance. "I want to go to that mall!" she cried, and then she held our hands and bounced across the parking lot to those other doors. She loves walking between two people; she doesn't ask us to swing her anymore, thank goodness, but she does swing herself by picking up her legs without warning and she does like to kind of assist herself in jumping by using our arms.

The store we needed to go into, fortunately, was the cooking store, so we could bribe Cara with pretzels. Having seen what we wanted to see, we made our way to the rides. Cara wanted to go on the train, but not by herself. We ended up all going on the carousel together, Claire standing behind me and Cara. It's been a while since I've been on a carousel horse! Claire explained that she was spotting us. "Everyone needs a spotter." For the rest of the evening, at unpredictable intervals, Cara sang that. She really enjoyed her ride, emitting shrieks of laughter.

We took a brief break at the little coin-operated rides, which we did not try to turn on, and then went to Tiny Town. Cara took her shoes off and handed them to me, and then she played while Claire and I sat on a bench! She did come visit frequently and need frequent eye contact while she played, but she didn't need us to participate. It was really cool! She's climbing better, too. She liked to climb into the big red convertible and then climb up over the windshield and slide down the hood. Jumping off if was also fun.

When she was ready to go Daddy wasn't there yet, so we actually took a second ride on the carousel. This time, Claire was the waver who stood outside, and I spotted Cara. Cara was still the shrieker. Both times we were alone on the ride, too, but we made it feel full. We talked Cara out of more rides by suggesting a trip on the escalator. That was a hit! Then Daddy got there and off we went to have dinner.

One thing that I count on Claire for is to have change. I never do, but she always does. Cara loves the fountains, so it was really nice that there was someone who could give her pennies to throw in. She loves that. We went to Friendly's and we all had a good dinner. Cara made us trace her hands and recreate the pictures we made last time, turning her fingers into chickens, aliens, and singers. She remembers that very fondly.

After dinner, we went to Playmobil for a little more playtime. They have a setup of the stuff for little kids, so Cara got to point out all the things she has. I finally distracted her with a nickel for the fountain (we were out of pennies!) and we got out of there. We pass by vending machines with gumballs and things in them on our way to the exit; Cara asked Claire for a penny so that she could get some. She bounced between us through the parking lot again, happy as a clam (yes, this evening she did get her clam shell from yesterday out again). It was, as usual, very sad when Aunt Claire had to leave, but we promised to see her again soon.

5/16/08 (Friday)

Everyone was playing Hungry Hungry Hippos when I got to Susan's; consequently, no one came out to greet me when I came in. I got all the way back to the living room before they even acknowledged my presence. It was a rainy day, perfect for games inside! Cara's project was a jellyfish made of half a little paper plate with ribbon tentacles. Actually, I'd better go and put it in a safe place to keep those cats from eating it!

OK, I pinned it on the bulletin board. Since we went out last night, we spent this evening quietly at home. Cara and I played together for a long time, and Daddy picked up pizza. For the first time, Cara folded her own slice. She ate two and started a third, though she did give me all of her crusts. She also wore underpants all evening, earning a prize for keeping them dry until bedtime. It was a short evening, but we've really made no progress lately and I hope this will prime the pump. Her prize was a Littlest Pet Shop bug, which she correctly identified as a dragonfly.

5/17/08 (Saturday)

This morning there was no Disney on, and Cara did not eat any breakfast. She claimed at first that she wanted pancakes, but the few that I heated up stayed in the microwave. I think she ended up having some goldfish crackers on the way to--or the way back from--gymnastics.

Cara's grandparents from South Jersey were coming to see her! Evie used this as leverage to get Cara to sign her name on a belated Mother's Day card for my mother. Right before she started writing, I turned the card around so that it would be facing towards Cara. I don't know if this confused her or not, but it was very interesting to watch her write her name, because some of the letters clearly got written upside down and she wrote from right to left. However she soldiered on and did in fact write her name--not very recognizably it's true, but she definitely did it!

We hadn't seen my parents in a while, so it was a very nice reunion. Cara was in incredibly bouncy high spirits all morning and into the afternoon. She jumped and ran and liked everything. The only thing she didn't like was lunch--even macaroni and cheese was not enough to tempt her to eat. It's pretty strange since otherwise she seems perfectly healthy. She correctly found the words "Cat" and "Dog" on a set of word magnets that Grandma brought.

After lunch we spent quite a bit of time outside inspecting the garden and flowers and doing a little bit of yard work. Cara showed Grandma and Grandpa how she rolls down the slope, jumps down the slope, and how she plays "Catch the Girl" and "Catch the Mommy." Everyone joined in for a nice round of "Ring Around the Rosie," which we sang hand in hand while dancing around the maple tree in the front yard.

We also spent some time watching the wonderful DVDs my Dad has made, which collect photographs for each year of Cara's life so far. We just watched the third year DVD for the first time, Cara astutely and happily pointing out "That's me!" for every picture. Then we went back and looked at the second and first years--the difference was astonishing.

Eventually it was time for Grandma and Grandpa to go and feed Rusty, so they drove off. Soon enough it was time for Mommy to go, too! She was off for a celebratory dinner in Red Bank with her family. The reason she went by herself was because we felt the restaurant was too fancy for Cara to be able to handle--but as it turns out, there were kids there and it might not have been so bad for her after all!

However, it was nice that Evie got to be with her family, and Cara and I had a fine time, and as it turned out were not really all alone anyway. I took Evie's suggestion to go to the park with Cara, but decided that instead of strolling over to our small local playground, I would take her to good old Johnson Park. Em and Ron and company were outside when I put Cara in the car, and when I told them where we were going they decided to come along, too!

It was a nice Saturday afternoon and everyone was at the park. Cara and I still had to go over to the swings, but only a "grown-up" swing was available. I pushed Cara on it for a few seconds, while I and a nearby girl instructed her on how to kick her feet out. Cara didn't want much of this and soon we were on the crowded playground equipment. A few slides later, a kiddie swing opened up and we jumped in and had some nice swinging. Then I noticed that Em and Ron were already at the park and looking at the animals, so we joined them.

Em had gotten some matzohs and was feeding them to the animals--a wonderful idea. PJ was very concerned that every animal we pass get something to eat--be they llama, duck, goose, donkey, etc. He didn't get to do much direct feeding due to the level of fencing around the critters, but Ron dutifully chucked matzohs into all the pens.

Soon enough it was time for PJ and Casey to go and have chicken nuggets and french fries. Cara and I were going to find some kind of food at home. At this point, Cara had eaten pretty much nothing but goldfish crackers all day, and was without a nap. I just want to use this as a preface to what happened next, which was that Cara asked me for ice cream. There is a concession stand at the park, but they didn't have ice cream--the closest thing they had was Italian ices. She was willing to go with that, and asked for the "red" flavor.

I wasn't in a hurry to get her back in the car, so we strolled by most of the animals again, then back to the parking lot (I will add that we were the best possible advertisement for Italian ices--every child we walked by started nagging their parents for something to eat). She was quiet in the car, but when we got home Cara showed me proudly that she had devoured the entire cup. I got her out of the car and headed for the house, hoping she was still going to be willing to eat dinner. Juliana was outside and asked us if we had had dinner yet. I said no. "I have something for Cara to have for dinner," Juliana said. I thought this was very kind of her, theorizing that she had cooked some kind of noodle dish and was sharing.

When she came back out of her front door, she had a bag of gummi bears. Cara was thrilled. I decided not to tell Juliana about the Italian ice.

Inside the house, I somehow managed to convince Cara that we were going to have a good dinner before she got to have any gummi bears. It helped that the bag of bears was very hard for little hands to open. Cara consented to have a little bit of chicken and stars soup, a few potato chips, and some wedges of clementine. All hail the clementine! It is much easier to peel and eat than an orange, tastes better, and Cara loves to share them with me.

It seemed at first that we were going to have a quiet evening with Diego, but Cara quickly lost interest even in the Rainforest Race episode, and we retired downstairs to play with the girls. Earlier in the day I had used her foam building blocks to construct a massive slide for the girls to slide down--this had to be reconstructed. The second time around it went up much quicker. Cara loves reliving happy events of the past; apparently yesterday afternoon before I got home, she and Mommy spent a lot of time cutting out little paper girls. Tonight she requested that I do the same--though she thought it more appropriate for me to make boys. I cut out a big string of boys and we carefully colored them each in. Then she wanted girls. This time, I cut out a very tiny string of six little girls, who we also had to color in (when I say "we" colored them, by the way, it means Cara told me what color to use).

After this it was definitely time to get her in her bath. This took some doing and a little bit of wailing from Cara, but eventually I had her in her bubble bath and happy--and then Mommy got home!

Since I spent so much time with Cara today, I have gained major Cara points, and it was very hard to convince her to let Mommy read to her so I could write this journal. Mommy reports that Cara correctly identified the letters "S" and "P" written on salt and pepper shakers in one of the books she read--and Cara knew that the "S" stood for salt! Mommy remarked that soon Cara would be reading books. "Then I will be a big lady," said Cara.

5/18/08 (Sunday)

Today Daddy went out for the day, and Cara and I stayed home. We tried letting her wear underpants, but it was a fairly dismal failure. We'll try again next weekend! The first thing we did was to make flower pancakes. Cara got to mix the batter and squeeze in the food coloring. We started out with a cup of regular batter for centers and a bigger cup of pink for the petals, but after a few pink flowers I added blue to turn that purple. Cara was really pushing for yellow, but I couldn't see how to make that out of purple. Finally, when I was lower on purple than white, I let her turn the white yellow. I made flowers with purple centers and bright yellow petals; they were gorgeous! Cara had a good breakfast, in spite of the syrup debate. It was very low, but there was more than enough for her. She wanted me to go get a new one from the basement, and I wanted her to finish the old one.

We went outside with PJ, Casey, and Ron for a walk around the block. The kids gave dandelions to each other and to me, and Ron got to hold several in a pocket on his shorts. We ended up in our front yard, where we played Catch the Girl, Catch the Boy, Catch the Mommy, and Catch the Daddy. We played Catch the Everyone. Casey, being an intelligent child, went and took a good long turn on the horse, since no one was going to kick her off of it. Cara and PJ also threw a lot of helicopters, and PJ frequently demonstrated a cute trick. He stands at the top of the yard, on the railroad tie. He gets ready, pulling back one shoulder, then leaps off and runs a little way down the slope, finally dramatically falling, stuntman fashion. "I can do that, too!" cried Cara. Up she got. Then I had to come and hold her hand so she could get off.

When Cara got up from her brief and very unsuccessful, though mostly happy, nap, Aunt Claire was here! She and I were making ravioli, and Cara helped a little bit. We played while the dough settled, and Cara gave Claire a tour of her toys, telling her all about all of them. (At dinner, someone mentioned the sand table. "Oh, Aunt Claire, you haven't seen my sand table!" cried Cara, apparently ready to head out right then. Claire assured her that she had.) Cara liked watching the pasta machine working, but it was too hard for her to turn. She did help mix up the egg for the egg wash. While we were stuffing them, Daddy got home!

It rained a lot this afternoon. After dinner and a little bit of the pie Grandmom brought yesterday, we went out for a puddle walk. Cara put on her rain boots, and we went around the block, stopping to splash in all of the best puddles. I got some cute pictures. Cara splashed in front of our house a bit, and then we headed out. She jumped on top of a little metal thingie in the sidewalk that says "GAS" and exclaimed, "Mommy, there's a A on there!" We walked past a For Sale sign and she went to look at the letters. She asked whether there were any Cs, and I had to say no. She found some Ss anyway. Then we got to the hugest puddle, where we stayed a while. When she got out, Cara asked us to take her boots off and dump them out. Surely, we thought, she's exaggerating. When we finally did lift her up and pull them off, though, water poured out. She had splashed a lot! She wanted them back on, though, over her sopping socks, and she soldiered on.

When Cara doesn't get her way, lately, she's been beginning to almost give us raspberries. She makes a noise with her lips, without her tongue out. She did it when she was done with dinner and we weren't, but I think that that one was in fun. I was in the splash zone, but it was an accident; I didn't say anything and life went on as usual. In a few minutes, Cara said "I'm sorry for spitting on your leg, Mommy." When we had gotten almost all the way around the block, it was eight o'clock and definitely time to get home. Cara agreed and then changed her mind and refused to talk to me except for that spitting noise. She was very defiant. I asked her to apologize, explained her options, and she continued. I had to pick her up, sopping wet, and carry her home wailing. Inside, she finally said sorry. If she'd just have said it outside, I'd have let her splash a little bit more!

We pulled off her boots, and water gushed onto the carpet. Her socks were dripping. Her pants were a mess. She happily stripped and headed, naked, upstairs for her bath. Cinderella joined her in the tub and did half of the talking. This has become a pattern. The other day, I wasn't sure who was saying something, Cara or Cinderella. I asked. "It was me," said Cinderella. After the tub, Cara crawled through the basket of toys behind the glider and found Puma. It was a happy reunion. After a lot of hugs, Cara began swinging him around by his tail. "Did you like that? Meow, yes!" she (they?) said. Now Puma and Cara and Cinderella are all in bed together.

5/19/08 (Monday)

It was cold out today! Cara and I spent at least an hour outside playing in it after dinner. We played a lot of Catch the Whoever, and Cara got to swing around a lot. She went on her horsie and sang "the horsie song," which apparently goes, "you can't know what you wa-ant! (repeat)" We examined the garden, and the beans we planted are starting to sprout. That'll be fun to watch!

We did get to go over to see Juliana a little. Cara toured her yard, pointing out all of the landmarks, and wanted to see Boo, the dog next door, and give him a bone. He was not in evidence. In a few minutes, though, he emerged and came over. Cara wouldn't pet him, but when Juliana gave her a little bone she was able to tell him to sit and to give it to him without freaking out. She liked it! So did he. Having accomplished his mission, Boo went home. Soon Cara was ready to give him another one, but we talked her down.

Cara found a little angel statue on a swing in Juliana's garden and hunkered down to swing it. It must be the most action that angel's ever seen. She got to go really high! Juliana and I were talking and got all the way back here before Cara was willing to quit and follow us!

It was bath time, and Cara was quite grimy. For some reason, she remembered her sidewalk paint, which I really wouldn't have wanted to get out, even if there had been time. We went in and I told her we wouldn't be getting it out, and she started wailing. Through her hysterics, she dutifully put away her shoes and followed me upstairs. She undressed for her bath, calming down a little. I was proud of her for being sort of very good, so I gave her a gummi bear. "I want a yeddow one," she said, "and a green one." Oh well.

I gave Cara her bath, since Steve was out, and then I turned out to be so popular that I got to read her stories, too. It was nice. After two books, I said we'd just have a little one. I suggested Busy Bear, which is extremely light on content. Cara countered with The Christmas Mice, which is certainly a little book. Then she had a better idea: the Weeble book. That one's very little! It's so small, we keep it in a toy basket instead of a book shelf. The literal interpretation of my words had not occurred to me, but it turned out to be a pretty good thing, anyway!

5/20/08 (Tuesday)

It was pouring rain, and I picked Cara up early today. She made a nice project; the picture is a flower, with a photo of Cara at the center. The theme is how much the kids are growing, and on the two leaves Susan wrote two things that Cara can do now, that she couldn't do when she was a baby. In discussion, they all generated a big list of accomplishments, and then they each selected two for their leaves. Cara's choices: I can write my name, and I can stand. Susan thought there might be more exciting items than standing up, but she chose not to be editorial. Anyway, Cara and I drove home through the rain, Cara squealing when the car splashed through puddles. We hurried into the house and went up to our rooms to change clothes. I changed my pants. When I went to see Cara, I found her stark naked! She's nothing if not thorough. Feeling very Machiavellian, I let Cara pick a shirt she loves but which I'm not crazy about, figuring that an evening in it is shorter than a day.

We got to spend a lot of time playing, even pulling all of the stuffed animals out of the shelf we, well, stuff them into. There were many happy reunions. I got to organize Cara's alphabet blocks, and she showed me some of the letters. We sang the alphabet, which I think was a good review for her, since she has developed her own version which skips some letters and repeats others.

I've been trying to convince Cara it's okay to go without socks sometimes, particularly on warm days with sandals. Today, after dinner, she decided to try. It was still very wet out, and Daddy and I were putting on our sneakers to go and do some yard work. Cara elected to go sockless and put her little rubbery shoes on the wrong feet. Ready to go! It was actually not too bad, since we could just pour the water out, afterwards. The hems of her pants were wet, of course, so she took them off as soon as we came in. This was fine, since it was bath time, and I managed to convince her to go upstairs before she took anything else off.

In the bath, lately, Cara's had to have Cinderella. Today, I got to hear Cinderella sing a lovely song. "Oh, how can I be a Cinderella without Prince Charming?" It went on, including lines like, "I want to dance with Prince Charming." We discussed Prince Charming, who cannot come into the bath because his clothes do not come off. Thank goodness.

5/21/08 (Wednesday)

Cara and I hung around at Susan's for a long time today. It was great to play outside. Cara and Casey rolled hula hoops with us, while PJ played in the sand with trucks. Later Cara and I chased each other while PJ pushed Casey in a stroller. She sat and he pushed for a very long time! A couple of times, the kids found ants. Inevitably, and not necessarily intentionally, Casey killed or maimed them. She picked one up, and she stomped on the other. We explained that that does not make them happy.

Cara was very happy when I told her that we were going to PJ's house this evening. I changed my clothes, and we went right over. The kids were playing outside in the front with a hose, using the squirter nozzle. At first PJ was squirting into a bucket, but later they were all getting their hands and feet wet so that they could make prints. They all came up to the steps to take off their shoes and socks and then went back to work. "I'm just waiting for one of them to get it in the face," said Em. Yeah. Within five minutes, it happened. Cara squirted herself full in the face, poor thing, on her first try really squirting a hose! We went in to change clothes; conveniently, there was a pair of pants that PJ had borrowed from us to change into. Everyone was wet, so all of the kids had a complete change of wardrobe.

On their own, the kids got out the tunnel to play with. After they'd gone through it for a little bit, they all got turns standing inside it. We all shared some gummy bears, and soon it was time to go home. I went up to get Cara, and all of the kids brought books over to me and asked me to read. Well, how can I say no to that? I read all three books, some better than others. Cara brought me a Little Mermaid book which I "read" by describing what happened in the pictures. Three books was enough for me, though. We were all tired, and it was time to go home.

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