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Journal Key:

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

6/5/08 (Thursday)

At Susan's the other day, a little bug landed on Cara. She reacted, as I brushed it off, with a stereotypical female panic. Susan reports that any time there's a bug in the sand, Cara reacts this way. Then, apparently, PJ gets to be the knight in shining armor and get rid of it. The only problem is that he doesn't want to touch them, either. He uses a shovel to scoop them up.

Cara and I went to the library to return some books and Steve's book on tape. We climbed upstairs to give that back. I find the library stairs rather scary, because you can se between them. Cara likes them fine. We went back down them afterwards. "No, Mommy, I want to do it myself!" Cara let go of my hand and ran to hold the left bannister. "You can hold this hand," she announced, giving me her right.

I got home just in time to receive a call from Mommy that she and Cara were headed back from the library. I got to make a quick dinner of pasta, and after we'd all eaten we went out to Sears (I needed shoes). Cara continued her habit of holding each of our hands and going limp, sort of in a non-violent protester kind of a way. She likes to swing. We're going to have to get her out of that habit. I picked out some new shoes, and Cara found the mirror lining the bottom wall of that part of the store. I explained that it was a foot mirror so feet could see themselves. She preferred getting down and looking at her face.

Cara did not have much of a nap at Susan's and she was exhibiting signs of tiredness at the store. We took her home--Mommy had to carry her out to the parking lot. She was briefly energized again when we found PJ and Casey going around the block on little bikes (Casey happily runs her trike along, a la Fred Flinstone), and we had a short visit. Then it was off to the bath.

"I want bottle cap!" Cara demanded. She was in her bubble bath and had the new girl she'd gotten this morning for a potty prize. (The girl is a ballerina named Crissy--she only has one outfit, but it came with ballet slippers, and she can always borrow something cute from the other girls.) I was surprised. I couldn't recall Cara using this particular phrase before. I decided she must be wanting the blue cap from a discarded conditioner bottle which we've been keeping among her baby bath toys for a long time. I got it out. "No!" Cara said. "Bottle Cap!" I remained puzzled. "Bottle Cap the tiger!" Then I realized: she wanted the old He-Man toy we'd found somewhere or other, that she used to play with in the bath all the time when she was younger; a big plastic poseable tiger whom we had always called Battle Cat.

After her bath, where Bottle Cap got to hang out with several girls who tried unsuccessfully to ride him, Cara got to have her lotion. Last night Mommy had showed her how to wash her underarms, which probably explains why this evening Cara decided that she needed to put lotion in her armpits.

6/6/08 (Friday)

I picked Cara up early today and took her to the gym! It's probably been a year since she's been there, and it's very different. I mean, Cara's different. The gym's the same! She loved it. She ran right off to play and was friendly with the lady there. Now, the real reason we went was that I had a date to work out with Shannon while Cara and Lina and Sarah all played. They had a fabulous time, and it was interesting trying to get all three of them to come out of the jungle gym at the same time to get them to leave. Cara will definitely be going back there more frequently!

It was late, so we walked down to McDonald's to get dinner. While Shannon and I talked about which table to get, the girls all picked one and sat down. Cara insisted that she did not want chicken nuggets; she wanted a sandwich. She has never in her life eaten a sandwich. I got her chicken nuggets and me a chicken sandwich (very out of character) so we could share. She totally ignored the sandwich. The toy the kids got was a strange bendy feminine snake. They loved it.

On the way back to the cars, we found a shopping cart and put all three girls in, with Cara sitting in the seat. They rode in style. Back at the twins' house, I got to build a great house from Lincoln Logs. The kids played with lots of things. Cara found three Barbie fairies she doesn't have; she doesn't know that I have them upstairs for her to earn as potty prizes. We drank some juice and watched a cartoon--"The Carabears! Hey, that's like me!" It was hard to tear ourselves away and come home, but we figured Daddy would be lonely.

There was a package here for Cara. It was from her great-grandma in Florida, so I got out my grandma's picture while we opened it. It was a gorgeous teddy bear, wearing a dress. On the dress, Cara's name is embroidered! We called to thank them, and they report that the name was already on there when they bought it. I don't think I've ever seen any product with Cara's name, so that's a first! Cara got on the phone and said "Thank you for the bear," but then she just nodded to the receiver.

6/7/08 (Saturday)

An era ended today. Cara still, of course, does not know that she can get out of bed on her own, without us. She waits politely until we come in, and then she bounces out. Now, her weekend naps can take any of a variety of courses. Sometimes, she sleeps for hours. Other times, she hangs out happily. Sometimes, though, she poops and then is not particularly happy and cannot sleep. We have stopped short of telling her she can get up to go to the bathroom, though we've thought about it. Instead, we've told her she can just call us if that happens. Today, for the first time, she did. It was just when I'd decided I was going to take a nap. When I got to her door, she was lying there with a giant smile on her face. She hadn't pooped. She was a little wet, but she'd really just wanted to get up.

We all had a snack and played until Casey and PJ got here; we were baby-sitting. Everyone played mostly nicely, and mostly everyone shared. Mentioning the idea of taking turns with something usually works. PJ wanted Elefun, so we got them to clean up the entire playroom before we'd get it out. That lasted us a while, and then we very bravely put on bathing suits and sunscreen and went out into the 95 degree heat to play in the sprinkler.

PJ and Cara quickly got the hang of things, running right through the center of the thing and getting soaked. They were thrilled. Steve and I ran Casey through and dandled her over it, but I think the part she liked best was the big puddle that formed on the front walk. I got a lot of pictures of the kids being silly. For a while they pretended they were birds and went around with their arms out. They all drank some sprinkler water, but PJ got the idea of holding it in his mouth and then spitting it out. Cara did that last time I had the sprinkler running, but she didn't think to water the plants. PJ made his spitting helpful, running up the hill to water the plantings by the fence. Soon Cara joined him, and they even got Steve to do it once.

Back inside, once we were all warm and dry and dressed, it was time to start dinner. All the kids wanted to help. They took turns washing their hands. For much of the time, all three were on chairs at once. While Casey was washing her hands, PJ and Cara were husking corn. Then they all went to the table to work on the breadsticks. I'd gotten tired of crescent rolls and bought a can of breadsticks because I thought maybe Cara could do those, too. I don't think so. Twisting is harder than rolling. To make it special, I made a breadstick into each of our first initials: two Cs, a P, an S, and a D for Diane because I couldn't see how to make a good E.

Everyone ate well, and then they made a mess in the living room to make up for leaving the playroom clean. We were outside eating water melon by the sand table when Ron and Em came home, and all of us were tired from our long, fun days.

6/8/08 (Sunday)

This morning we were playing with a big, deflated rubber ball. It's really fun because you can put smaller toys on top of it, then hit it with both hands, and they fly off into the air. Cara also likes rolling on it and falling off. However, she tried holding it behind her head and slamming it down, and she hit me kind of hard. I told her that that was not a particularly good thing. She ran off and leapt into her ball pit, wailing, "You never let me do anything!!!"

Grandmom and Grandpop came up today! Cara excitedly and squeakily showed them all of the toys she thought they might not have seen, including her new doll house and some of the things she got for her birthday. They showed us the personal dvd player they had borrowed for us to use on our trip to North Carolina this summer. That will definitely help get Cara through the trip! Cara made us put on a terrible Baby Einstein dvd, the one about Christmas, so it was good that it was on a tiny screen and we mostly couldn't see it.

Before they left, we got out Hullabaloo and all played. Cara's listening to the instructions and following them now, but sometimes they're too fast for her. She mostly does fine, and she really had fun; there was a lot of shrieking. She was happy when she won, and she did some great victory dances, but she didn't get upset when other people won, either.

In the evening, we went out to do some errands. One thing we picked up was a 24-piece puzzle for Cara. We'd been doing some of the real puzzles we have at home, and she's definitely getting better at them. (When we put her fire truck floor puzzle together today, all of her girls got a ride on it.) When we got home we opened the puzzle, and together we managed to put it together. Cara's pretty good at spotting the pieces that we're looking for, though she sometimes has trouble orienting them the right way. It's interesting to do puzzles with her, because my instinct is always to get the frame put together first. Cara doesn't work like that. She operates solely by looking at the pictures on the pieces, so it all happens differently. It's pretty cool.

On Friday, in McDonald's, Shannon pointed out the speaker in the ceiling. Ever since, whenever we're out, Cara has been on the alert, showing us all of the speakers she finds.

One thing that happened yesterday that I'd just like to put in while I still remember it. Before PJ and Casey came over yesterday, I pulled out Cara's scooter and she got on and started pushing it around. She doesn't do this often and was still trying to figure out how to do it. "You're going along good!" I said encouragingly (or something to that effect) as she started to push herself forwards. Cara replied matter-of-factly, "Actually, I'm scared."

6/9/08 (Monday)

The sweltering heat has continued; Susan says that the kids were confused as to why they could not go out and ride bikes. They did get to go in the pool, and Cara told Steve some sort of story about that this evening. She accepts that it is a kiddie pool, but insists that it is "only for big kids!" Babies can't go in, the guy said, apparently.

Cara wanted TV today, but after I said no a few times she went off to play while I made dinner. She's fine by herself, though she comes to see me once in a while. I leapt out of my skin when she shrieked suddenly, but then I heard Steve shriek back and realized that that had been her greeting to him on his arrival.

6/10/08 (Tuesday)

Susan reports that Cara is her wettest child, meaning that when they go in the kiddie pool, Cara gets into the water the most. On the way home we stopped at the supermarket. "I like your sandals," Cara said. A few moments later, "Mommy, you should always say 'thank you.'" So, I did. "Not you, Mommy! The lady! I was talking to the lady." I explained that the lady had probably not heard Cara, but Cara reiterated the importance of politeness. They must have been really nice sandals.

Claire and Casie came over this evening! Cara was thrilled. She was in performance mode from the minute they walked in the door. I had told her that they were coming and asked her what she wanted to show them. She wanted to show them her big whistle. Sure enough, as soon as they walked in, there she was, blowing her big whistle. She showed them lots of her toys, and she and Casie actually reminisced about the day last summer when Casie baby-sat her. I wonder whether Cara really remembers.

They all helped husking corn, but then Cara was too distracted to make the rolls I had gotten to keep her occupied. She was very occupied with other things. Soon Daddy got home, and everyone got to play. During dinner, Cara interjected irrelevant comments into the conversation whenever she thought she needed to contribute. Once, she put her foot on the table to show us a scratch on her leg. She also sang her alphabet several times, without getting past V on her own. Claire asked her about W, but Cara said, "That's not in my song."

We got popsicles after dinner (I got orange and raspberry creamsicles) and went downstairs to head outside, but there was a young deer on the lawn. We watched it, and then we went out when it left. It looked at the window, so it may have heard Cara squeaking. It's good that we went out, even in the terrible heat, because after her popsicle we could just hose off Cara and her picnic table.

Back inside, Cara and her daddy engaged in some violent play-acting with their toys. Cara's Barbie sang a song that had something to do with her shoes. Batman rode on Pegasus. A baby doll insisted that Barbie hit her with a hammer. Even Steve, as Barbie, tried to demur. Cara took over and had to do it herself.

One great thing about having people over is that it's really easy to get Cara to do things. Did she want to show Claire and Casie her bath colors? Did she ever! Come on, Casie! And so we set her on her way to bed. She even came down in her pajamas to say good night before Daddy tucked her in. I did go up after company left to let Cara know that they were not still downstairs, waiting to play some more, just in case there might be any misunderstandings.

6/11/08 (Wednesday)

This morning I gave Cara some choices for breakfast, but I did not mention eggs. I'd made them yesterday and didn't want to make too much of a habit out of them. She claimed to want toast, so I made some, and told her it was ready, and she came into the kitchen and started crying loudly. "I don't want toast! I want eggs!" I made eggs. Then there was a problem with the cup I chose to put her drink in, and then she wanted a spoon to drink her chocolate milk. Anyway, she let me pick out a nice outfit for her and didn't fight me at all about that.

In the evening, I came home from work, and then Em, PJ, and Casey came over, and then the pizza delivery man arrived! Mommy had to eat and run and go back to her school, but PJ and Casey stayed and played. PJ wanted to go outside; apparently he is pretty much impervious to the summer heat. We stayed inside and managed to do all right. I helped Casey play with our wooden food-slicing toy; in retrospect, teaching her how to wield a knife, even a fake blunt one, may not have been the best of ideas. I'll just have to stay on her good side. To make it a normal play date, PJ got juice on his pants and had to have his shorts changed. Fortunately we had a spare pair of his own shorts lying around from the last time such a thing happened, and he got to change into his own clothes.

After the play was over, Cara got a little Curious George, and then a colored bath with bath crayons. I think she was trying to sing "Frere Jacque" (pardon for the bad spelling, hopefully you get the idea) in the bath. Just as we were cleaning up the crayon in the tub, Mommy came home! Now she is reading to her girl. Tomorrow night it will be just Cara and me, since Evie has a late appointment. We'll see if I can keep the television to a minimum.

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