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Journal Key:

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

7/3/08 (Thursday)

Today was the day of the Red Bank fireworks! We were planning to do what we did last year and drive down to Evelyn's parents' house with the Loefflers, and have a big party. But this is what happened. First, last night it turned out that poor George had a fever and was not feeling well. Then today it turned out that Casey had a fever and was not feeling well! Then we discovered that George, according to his doctor, was not at all contagious. George and I had a phone conversation about this, the gist of which was, "Oh, well, maybe next year we'll see the fireworks." Then Evie got home, called her mother, and a little while later we were headed south on the Parkway on our way to Grandmama's house to see the fireworks.

In the end I think we were all very glad that we went down there. We had an excellent meal (having successfully convinced Cara, with much effort, that you cannot see fireworks until it gets dark), hung around a bit, and then got ourselves all packed up with chairs, wagons, bug spray, fruit, a flashlight, and toys, and trundled over to the park.

There ended up being a pretty good crowd there, as usual, but we got ourselves a nice spot and set up. Evie had of course very cleverly bought a glowing necklace and a cool bubble-blowing fan-gun, as well as a bunch of glow sticks which could be assembled into a ball. There was also an American flag. I was the only one who bothered to wave it.

Quite a few children were running around the park, playing and trying to catch fireflies. There were lots of fireflies around, and Cara had been interested enough to try and catch one herself--with horrified results. She shook her hands to get the bug off and made little scream-lets. Once we'd unpacked our things, a little girl who was a year older came over and asked Cara to play. They went off to the playground equipment with Grandmama, and (I presume) had a lovely time. The girl came back to her parent or guardian after a while, but Grandmama and Cara--eventually joined by Mommy--stayed over at the playground until it was almost entirely dark, even playing sand for quite a while.

The fireworks finally began! Cara watched them a little bit. It was past 9:15 before they even started, and Cara was tired and not very attentive. Much more interesting were her glow sticks and the ball they could form into--this was a very exciting thing. At every pause in the action, Cara said "They're all finished!" and was happily ready to go. But she did enjoy them at certain moments, claiming at one point that fireworks "make me laugh." Afterward she told more than one person that she really loved the fireworks.

Cara got to ride back to Grandmama's house in the dark in her wagon. She wanted very much to sleep at Grandmama's house, but eventually suddenly changed her mind and decided she wanted to go home. We drove home listening to an '80s compilation CD that we'd listened to on the way down. Cara stayed awake the whole time (just like last year!), repeatedly insisting that we listen once again to "Video Killed the Radio Star." Now, well after eleven, she is finally in bed. When she will be asleep, I have no idea. But we had a lovely evening.

7/4/08 (Friday)

Cara also likes "Karma Chameleon."

Happy Fourth of July! It ended up being kind of a blah day for us, mostly. It's good to have one of those once in a while. PJ and Casey were still sick, and it was gray outside. We played a lot and made some impressive messes downstairs. We played a lot with some bendy rubber bunnies, like Bugs Bunny. There is a yellow one and also a pink one, so they are brother and sister. They fight sometimes. Once they got sick and Cara became a fairy godmother to make them well.

I went out to the gym and Steve and Cara went to work. I got home before they did. I went ot the door when I heard the car pull up, and there was Cara, walking up to the house with a big bouquet of pink roses! She picked them out herself. She and Steve also got a card. Steve reports that it's one of the few that Cara picked out which did not have any sexual innuendoes! She does have a knack for finding those. It's a Thank-you card for being a good wife and mommy! They also picked up lunch. It felt like Mother's Day!

We were still blah in the evening, and Steve suggested that we go out to dinner, if only to get out of the house. We went to On the Border. We got a booth with a fake plant and our own light! Cara enthusiastically pointed at the picture of the nachos on her menu when the waiter asked, and I had to translate that she thought that those were quesadillas! Both are triangular and cheese-colored, after all. Neither Steve nor I was feeling great, but Cara ate a fabulous dinner. She also went on the potty twice, successfully, and she frequently stopped whatever she was doing to dance to the music!

We had a great Nancy Circle end to the day. PJ and Casey had had a very cranky day, and they'd just gotten home from a barbecue. Em and I agreed to give baths, put Casey down, and take PJ and Cara out in their pajamas to play with glow things in their yard. It was their first pajama party! (I had bought more glow things for Cara so no one would feel left out after she had used hers last night, but with Casey out of action that meant we had extra. More fun!) I raced Cara through the bath and, as we were getting her into her pajamas, the phone rang. It was Em. It was raining.

We put on our shoes and headed out to the Great Glowing Pajama Garage Party! Very soon, of course, the kids had their shoes off and we were all out on the driveway in the light, cool rain, seeing snatches of fireworks through the trees all around us. At least three different displays were at least occasionally visible. The kids ran around with their glow necklaces and we rolled the balls down the driveway to each other. They are just glow sticks bent into plastic holders that make them a ball, so they pop apart a lot. Cara liked it when hers had "bunny ears" and in fact specially requested that Em give hers such appendages. She liked to hold it by the handles. Finally, we'd seen enough fireworks and it was time to go home. I just feel awfully lucky that we have someone else so close who's dorky enough to let her kid run around outside barefoot in the rain in his pajamas to play with a glowing ball and half-see fireworks!

PJ an Em were still watching fireworks when we started heading home. When we were halfway up the street, PJ asked Em, "Why is Casey going home?" Then he corrected himself. We're all so glad it's not just us it happens to.

7/5/08 (Saturday)

Today we got to go back to Uncle Jim and Aunt Sarah's house! Cara was thrilled. However, in the car Steve and I both slowly realized that Cara, having been hanging around with PJ and Casey, is starting to get a cold! She's just a little sneezy and her nose runs a little. She's good about wiping it. (This is also, of course, a cold that came right after she played outside in the rain with wet hair!)

We were the first ones there, which of course suited Cara fine. She got to have her aunt and uncle to herself. Three other kids showed up, the boy from last week and two brothers, who were four and one-and-a-half. The bigger boys are good friends and are very used to playing together, and Cara tagged along and joined in some of the fun. Some of it was too rough for her! I found it interesting to see them play-fighting, which I had not yet experienced in my parenting career. (In my work career, I see lots.)

We had brought Cara's markers and some paper, so we also all spent some time coloring. It was good to have something quiet to do when the craziness threatened to get to be too much. The older boy can draw things! He drew a spider on a house in the rain. The two three-year-olds made grown-ups draw things for them. I got to draw princesses for Cara; I let Steve and Jim handle drawing superheroes. The little one did do some scribbling, but he also just liked uncapping markers.

We all helped husk corn and we ate hot dogs cooked on a real charcoal fire! Aunt Sarah made some great cookies (I wish I had brought a baggie to steal some), and there was plenty of watermelon. After dinner the boys decided to run a store and sell us things. They were all pretend things, and I paid with pretend money. Sometimes, though, the boys came back and handed me something imaginary afterwards. It turned out I had been paying by credit card!

It was getting close to seven when we left to take our tired little girl home. She woke up when we pulled into the driveway, and then there was no crying. We brought her upstairs and got her into her pajamas. She climbed into bed and let Daddy brush her teeth. I offered, but she wanted him to read her stories, too. It was actually a little earlier than we usually put her down, but she'd had a long, tiring, good day.

7/6/08 (Sunday)

We figured Cara would be sick today, but she was really fine. It was mostly a nice at-home day. After we've gotten out lots of toys and strewn them everywhere, Cara likes to stand up and say, "Who made this mess?" When someone says, "I don't know, who made it?", she says, "I did!"

After naptime, and after some recovery-from-nap time, we had to go to the mall. This time we actually had to buy something! On the way, I dug out some pennies and gave them to Steve to hold. Cara wanted to see them. Then she wanted to hold them. I thought she might lose them, but she clenched them tightly in her hand. When we got out of the car, Cara could only hold my hand in the parking lot, because her other hand still had her pennies. She must have been so excited to be holding her own fountain-tossing money! We headed right for the fountain; she walked the whole way. She ran up to it and threw in her three pennies, one by one.

Cara's been picking Steve to do a lot of things with her, so I was a little nervous when I took her on the carousel. She seemed to be good with the arrangement, but then, as I was getting her onto the horse, she said she wanted Daddy to spot her. It turned out, though, that that was because she wanted me to ride a horse. We were able to forgo that arrangement. After our ride, we had to do some actual shopping. I ended up picking Cara up, and we had an absolute cuddle-fest while I was trying to pick out sheets. I hope I like the ones we bought!

Of course, we were planning on going to Friendly's. When we got there, though, they were closing! So, because that was what we were emotionally prepared for, we got into our car and drove to the other Friendly's. "I want to go to the big Friendly's!" Cara told us repeatedly. We tried to get details that would help us figure out which one that was, but all of our efforts were in vain. Predictably, the one we went to was not the big Friendly's. It was the biggest one we could find, though, and it had to do.

Since Mommy has been pegged for story reading tonight, I will pick up where she left off. Cara had a fine time at Friendly's, even though it was not big enough. She said she wanted a sandwich, which was new, since her typical meal there is the mac & cheese with hot dog. But she was consistent and pointed to the grilled cheese picture on the menu, and she quite surprisingly ate the whole thing. First she ate it all but the crusts, and then she went back and polished off the crusts, too!

There was also the typical trip to the potty. Lately at restaurants I let Mommy do the potty trips, since it just seems to make sense for the ladies to go to the ladies' room, and since I don't really trust the cleanliness of public men's rooms. However, for a change I took Cara to the men's room when she said she had to go to the potty. It turned out that she had gone a little bit in her pull-up, but not enough to make the liquid-sensitive flower pattern on the outside disappear; and she peed on the toilet perfectly. It looks like she realized she was going and was able to hold it--which is very exciting!! Evie points out that if we just go to restaurants every day, Cara will be potty-trained in no time!

We decided to try to skip ice cream at Friendly's, and fortunately the server asked if we wanted "dessert," so we were able to nix it without any complaints from Cara. As we turned onto our street at around 8, we saw PJ and company were outside. Cara wanted very much to play with him. It was late, so Evie said they could just go and say good night. I went into the house to run Cara's bath. When the girls finally returned, Cara told me that she was sticky. There was ample visual evidence to back up her claim; she had gotten ice cream at PJ's house!

7/7/08 (Monday)

Cara and I were busy today! In the morning we went to the gym, and Cara got to play with Sarah and Lina. Lina is potty training, so she went on the potty! When Shannon and I heard about that, Cara also heard. Of course, then she had to go. They have tiny potties there; Cara found it a bit alarming. We couldn't all play together, though, because we all had things to do. I thought it would be fair to offer Cara a treat of some sort as recompense. She decided that I meant gummy bears, so I didn't even have to buy anything!

We went to the library by Linwood to return things; Cara had never been there before. It has a lot of nice features for kids, including some cool comfy places to curl up and read. We read a few books, and then Cara wanted to play on the computer. They have several for kids, on a kid-sized table! It was a little difficult to tear her away. We had to stop at a store before we went home, though, so we had to get going.

Cara mentioned nap time a few times. Ironically, it was not what I had planned for her. The poor kid was up in her room happily until almost eleven last night, which I attribute to the sugar in her ice cream, so she was tired! We didn't get home until after twelve, though, and then we had to have lunch. We were leaving again for the dentist a little after two, so there was no time!

Cara's first trip to the dentist was great. We played with the toys in the waiting room for a few minutes, and then we went back. They're clever enough to ask for nicknames on their forms, so they know that her name is Cara. Cara got to sit in a big real dentist's chair, and she had a real checkup! First she got a special little clear pouch with a new toothbrush, a brushing timer, a couple of little flossers, and a big sticker, which she immediately put onto her shirt. She opened and closed her mouth on command, and she had her teeth thoroughly checked and brushed. The dentist says that everything looks good and as long as we brush every morning and evening, and floss every night, we should have nothing to worry about! The hygienist told Cara she was very good; she said she was acting like a five-year-old! I find it interesting and funny that that was a compliment.

When we got into the car Cara asked to go to the park. I thought that sounded good, but we had to stop at a supermarket first. We went to an unfamiliar one, which meant that I had to wander around aimlessly a lot. Now, the poor kid was up late last night. She had no nap. She'd been running all over creation all day, and she hadn't been eating well. On top of all that, I decided that we need practice in her not riding in carts. She's getting too big, so she had to walk. I think she figured out pretty fast that that meant she could go and grab things she wanted. I said no to the water balloons, the Dora toys, and several other things. I let her pick out the bubble bath we got. I let her get big-kid toothpaste, which she can't really use until she can spit. I let her pick a cat toy for no good reason. I said no a lot, though. We checked out and got back to the car. I drove to the park. I turned off the car and turned around. She was sound asleep. She stayed that way for about an hour.

My theory on the toothpaste, by the way, is this. Once we got our toothpaste on her brush by accident, and she was horrified by it and spat it out. I think her toddler toothpaste doesn't lend itself to spitting; after all, it doesn't foam. I think she might do better spitting with the big-kid toothpaste.

As soon as Cara got out of the tub this evening, she wanted to brush her teeth. We let her try the new toothpaste, admonishing her to not swallow. She did pretty well. I let her spit halfway through, and that went really well. Afterwards, we let her use some water to rinse. That was great! I brushed her pretty thoroughly, and then I let her use the brush and had her watch the sand. When the sand ran out, she could stop. Of course, right after brushing came flossing. Cara wanted to do it herself, but she caved pretty quickly. One of her many delaying tactics before she got into bed was deciding she wanted to floss again and messing with the other flosser she got for a few minutes.

7/8/08 (Tuesday)

Aunt Claire came again! She's been dropping off her roommate at work in Metuchen some days, and then she comes over. First, like last week, she stopped at Dunkin Donuts, where she picked up another chocolate chip muffin which she shared, again, with Cara. It's their little ritual. Cara's tooth-brushing enthusiasm remains, and Claire got to watch. Thrilling. Cara insisted on playing with the floss again, too. We played together in the house for a couple of hours, until it was time for Claire to go and us to go to the doctor.

Cara got a splinter in her foot on Sunday, and Steve and I could not get it out. She would barely let us touch her foot, and even when we did, there was nothing we could do. All that was visible was a tiny dot, presumably the head of a little splinter. It was metallic, which made it a little more threatening. We tried putting ichthammol on it, borrowed from Em, all of whose childhood splinters were removed using it. It's a tarry ointment, so Cara's spent the past couple of days with at least two Band-Aids and a sock on her foot at all times, to cover it up. She's become One-Sock Girl! Mostly she has been fine, but occasionally it hurt her. She certainly wouldn't let us touch it. Today, having seen no progress, I took Cara to the doctor.

She was very happy about going. Cara likes to go to the doctor. She asked whether we were going to "the big office." I wasn't sure. "Why are we going here?" She asked when we arrived. I think that the waiting room was what disappointed her. She got over it fast and was very pleased when we were called back. We got to go into a room we've never been in before, with a sign on the door that says "Minor Surgery." There were some pretty cool toys in there, better than in the regular rooms!

When the doctor came in, we put Cara up on the table. She let him touch her foot! Before he could do anything else, he had to find his glasses. He cleaned the foot, and then he sprayed it with something to make it very cold. Using a needle, he did manage to pop that thing, whatever it was, out. At least, we're both pretty sure he did. As he put it, the place where it was "got some red stuff on it" which made it a bit hard to see. It didn't hurt her anymore when he pushed on it, though.

After nap, Cara and I went outside. We took several girls, who wanted to go in the sand. It turned out that it was Cinderella's birthday! She's three. They made her a sand cupcake. It was a hot day, so of course we put water in the table and made a mess. I figured it looked like the girls were having fun getting wet, so I proposed the sprinkler! We both got our swimsuits on and headed out. I have to say, I really enjoyed running through that sprinkler. Cara and I both got soaked, and the yard became a giant mud puddle. When Steve got home, we sent him inside to change, too. The whole family got wet together.

Cara kept her pull-up dry all morning. In the afternoon, I let her wear underpants. She kept herself dry for the rest of the day! She's going to Susan's tomorrow. Maybe if she keeps a pull-up dry all day there, she can try underpants all day on Thursday.

7/9/08 (Wednesday)

Well, on Monday, when Cara and I were home together, she said, "I want to go to Susan's!" Today, we woke her up on time, gave her breakfast, and got her ready. By 8:30, Cara was at Susan's. She was very happy! She had a lot to tell Susan about; I wonder how many of our adventures were actually communicated.

The potty training is continuing. There is improvement, but Cara didn't stay dry all day. She did go on the potty spontaneously this evening, when PJ and Casey were over to play.

I had a CD on in the car that was not one that Cara liked. We brought our 80s CD into the house and had a big dance party, just the two of us, listening to "Video Killed the Radio Star" over and over. It was fun. We all played outside together before dinner, and when we came in Cara came right up to the living room, calling, "Come on, guys! The Paradio Star! The Paradio Star!" PJ preferred the Wiggles, but I think Em enjoyed it.

The ice cream man came by when we were all outside, and we decided to try something risky. We let the kids get ice cream, but then we put it in the freezer until after dinner. At first they were not happy, but soon they were distracted. By the Paradio Star, among other things. Everyone ate a good dinner.

After dinner we went outside. Em cleverly had us bring bowls, into which we had to pop the ice cream's gum ball eyes. (PJ had spiderman, Cara had Spongebob, and Casey had Dora. We got lots of black gum balls.) Everyone got very sticky, and Cara had black ice cream dripping down her chin and neck. PJ looked Goth. Everyone was done by the time it started to rain, and then it was bath time, anyway!

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