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Journal Key:

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

7/17/08-7/20/08

Thursday:

Thursday was the start of our trip to Florida. We had to wake Cara far earlier than she is accustomed to, but she had been so excited about going that she really didn't complain. We got to the airport around seven, and it must have been about nine when we were in the plane, taxiing away from the airport. I was keeping up a steady stream of chatter for Cara, and I said something along the lines of, "We're leaving the airport. Good-bye, airport!" Cara saw the logic in that. "Good-bye, airport," she said, waving out her window. "We're going to Florida, to see my great-grandma!"

And so we did. Cara and I played on the plane for the whole trip. We made it through baggage claim and the rental desk. On the bus to the rental car, I pointed out palm trees to Cara. "Palm tree!" she exclaimed, every time she saw another one. Fortunately, that only lasted a few minutes. The rental car we ended up with was gold and kind of looked like a hearse. I began to refer to it as the Golden Hearse, which Cara translated into the Golden Purse. Everywhere we went on this trip, we went in the Purse. (Research reveals that the purse was a Chevy HHR.)

We had to stop at the rental office before we left to get Cara's car seat. At first they brought out the wrong size, so we had to walk in and explain what we wanted. We got a nice black booster seat. I put it in, and Cara climbed in, exclaiming, "Yay! This is my favorite car seat!"

Dinner was at Grandma's house. When she had finished eating, Cara stood up in her chair, carefully climbed over into my lap, settled down, and went to sleep.

Naturally she woke up when I got up to move, which I eventually had to do. We had to get into the purse and go back to Nancy's house, where we were staying. By the time we got there, Cara found that her nap had been quite refreshing and she was ready to play.

Friday:

On Friday Great-Grandma, Claire, and I took Cara to Lion Country Safari in the Purse. For the first half of the safari, she was too excited about seeing lions to appreciate too much of what we saw. When we got to the lions at last, they were, of course, mostly asleep. We got to see one lioness, though, climb down into a little gully and eat some grass. Cara was also excited about zebras, elephants, and giraffes. Towards the end of the drive-through part, Cara got hold of the map of the rest of the park. She spent the rest of our time in the car telling us all the things she wanted to do and see.

The first fun thing we did was the carousel. I got Cara onto a monkey, and Grandma Anne climbed onto the rhino beside her. "Mommy, could you get off?" Cara delicately asked me. She let me stay on until the ride finished, and then I got off. They stayed on for three or four trips, until Cara was finally finished. Claire and I did take turns riding with them, and I finally got onto a horse beside my grandma.

Cara's been having a lot of experiences lately with bugs or small animals touching her. She's curious, but she really freaks out when they actually make contact. I wasn't expecting her to want a lorry on her, but we went to feed them anyway because of course she loves seeing them. After she watched me and Claire do it, though, Cara wanted to hold the cup of nectar. I helped her cup it in her hand and hold it steady, and the birds landed on my hands instead of hers, which was perfect. She loved it.

We also went on the Ferris wheel twice, and we all fed the giraffes. Cara picked out a plush baby giraffe, and her great-grandma got it for her. It was in a little purple plush bag with very furry green handles, so there's been green fuzz all over ever since. We were all very tired when we started for home, but Aunt Claire was too entertaining in the back seat; no one took a nap!

We stayed at Nancy's house, as I said, and that was a good thing. There were a lot of toys in our room, actually, and Cara found a whole family of little bears for Florida Bear, a little orange teddy who says Florida on his tummy because I bought him in the airport last summer! All sorts of exciting things happened. Cara lost a toy under the couch, and we had to use a broom to get it out. We also found lots of cat toys! It turns out that Calvin, the friendly black cat, loves them! We also found a little black marble that Cara loved so much she wanted to sleep with it in her hand that night. It was funny, though, to see her and Calvin together, both having just lost toys under the couch, both trying to look under it.

Saturday:

We'd been going to the pool every day, Cara, Claire, Mom, and I. Cara wore her swim vest and sometimes sort of her goggles. The water was beautifully warm. Cara loved watching us do tricks, and she worked really hard at swimming. By Saturday, she could paddle on her own for a few feet, from the stairs to one of us. She also liked to jump in from the side; she would go under and then Mom or I would catch her. I love her confidence and her willingness to try things, even if they're hard. One problem with her swimming: she's so excited that she's doing it that she has this big smile on her face and that opens her mouth and water gets right in!

Today was Grandmama's birthday! We stopped at Publix with Nancy and Grandma Anne to pick up an ice cream cake and some magic candles. I added party blowers and a couple of balloons. Cara's blowers got shorter and shorter as she used them because we had to keep cutting off the soggy parts she'd chewed up. The balloons were a hit and were used in numerous raucous chasing games throughout the day.

We all went out for dinner, many of us in the purse. I think it was then that we realized just how much of "Video Killed the Radio Star" Cara had really learned. She's not just singing the chorus now, it's the whole song! Puma knows it, too; he took a few turns singing.

My Uncle Arnie, of course, knows a lot of amazing tricks. He can play music by blowing through his hands. He can do interesting things with a quarter, and he can do all sorts of silly illusions. Cara really, really, really liked it. He works most days, so Cara saw less of him than of anyone else. This evening, though, she really warmed up to him. When we got back to Nancy's house for cake, the first thing she wanted to know was whether he was there.

The birthday: The ice cream cake was a hit. The relighting candles were a hit and a complete surprise to Cara (who had been there when they were purchased) and Grandmama (who had not). It was late when we got that little girl down.

Sunday:

A couple of times, mainly in the evenings, Cara mentioned that she'd like to go home. Today we told her we were going. "Whyyy?!" she cried. Actually, she had asked about Uncle Arnie before she was even out of her room when I got her out of bed, so I think she just wanted to hang out with him. She was showing him all of her stuff. She wanted him to paint with her. She liked to show him tricks.

We had to tear ourselves away, though. We drove to the airport and had to say good-bye to the Purse, too, which was also sad. In the airport, we got Cara a snack. She'd been too excited to settle in and eat earlier. We shared some mini-Cinnabons, which Cara had never had before. What a treat! Then I gave in and bought her something she asked for, partly because I thought it was funny and partly because I thought it would be useful: it was one of those neck-pillow things. I hoped she'd use it to sleep on in the plane!

Of course, she stayed awake until just before we made our descent into Newark. Then we had to wake the poor kid up. Soon we found Daddy, though, who had brought each of us a pink carnation! That helped. Cara just loved her flower. I explained to her about cutting off the end, and I think she retained it. Later, before she put it into the little vase I gave her, she made sure I'd cut off that "bad part."

We had a quiet evening at home. Cara was thrilled to see all of her old toys, and she and Daddy got to play together for a good long while. She terrorized her own cats, got a bath in her own tub, and is down in her own bed.

7/21/08 (Monday)

Cara went to gymnastics this morning, and then I offered her a few choices, because I figured we should do something fun. She chose going to the park, and she specifically wanted "the Johnson Park." I gradually figured out that this was because she remembers the ice cream stand there. However, at eleven in the morning, it is not open. We went on the swings, and then we went on the slides. Cara wanted to try the spinny sliding pole, and she managed to slide down it all by herself. Then it was my turn. I did it, too! Yay, Mommy! Then it was her turn again. Then my turn. This thing is a basic firehouse pole but with another pole wrapped around it in a tight spiral; you sort of sit on the spiral one, holding onto the center one, and you spin around and around as you slide down. It's not too hard, it turns out.

We walked over to the other playground, but it was too wet to have fun. I raced Cara back to the other place, and then we walked over, gathering leaves as we went, to feed the goats. Unfortunately, they seemed to have just been fed. None were at the fence. Cara called them, but they didn't listen. We went to sit on a bench, and soon two came over, a big light one and a little black one. We fed them lots of leaves. Whenever Cara got down to just a stick, she neatly took it over and put it in the garbage.

It was time to go home. Cara was "very, very tired from feeding those goats leaves." She wanted me to carry her, but I was strict and made her walk, poor kid! She had told me earlier that she didn't want a nap, but after lunch she was pretty happy to climb into her bed. She slept for four hours.

After dinner, PJ, Casey, & co came over with Rocket pops for the kids. I got out ice cream cones for the adults, because I'd rather have that than a popsicle. No one was upset. We sat on the lawn to eat, and then we had to fill our bird feeder, because the kids get anxious when it's empty. Then, suddenly, a whole new dimension of fun entered our lives: Ron taught the kids to play Freeze Tag.

We guess we have the rules right. Whoever's It tags people, and they freeze. Other people can tag frozen people to unfreeze them. Well, it probably wasn't the best game of Freeze Tag ever, but it was cool. We had to do a lot of instruction-shouting. "Uh-oh, PJ's frozen! Cara, tag PJ and unfreeze him! Casey, tag PJ and unfreeze him!" They loved it. Eventually everyone was freezing everyone, and some people got frozen inexplicably, on their own. At the end, we all thawed and headed for our baths.

7/22/08 (Tuesday)

So, I've had this sort of internal revolution, in which I've come to the realization that Cara's been taking control of the time-frame of many of our daily routines. What happens is, for instance, we tell her it's time to brush her teeth. She doesn't want to. She starts running away to "hide," which she thinks is very funny, then she starts wailing, and then she goes to time-out. When she feels ready, she comes and gets her teeth brushed. Steve and I found ourselves in the ironic position yesterday of refusing to let our child have a time-out. She's using them as a delaying tactic.

That was why today, after Claire and I took Cara to her second (and far more fun) gymnastics class of the week, we went to a teacher store and got a nice chart with reusable stickers. We've put four jobs on the chart, represented by pictures. Cara's jobs are to brush her teeth in the morning without delaying, brush and floss in the evening without delay, and get out of her bath and into her pajamas without delay. For each of those things she does, she gets a sticker. We tossed in the potty, too, so she can earn a sticker by staying dry until naptime or until bedtime. For each sticker she gets, she gets a book read to her at bedtime. I'm sure we'll have to change this somehow eventually, so that we don't have to spend hours reading.

Today, Cara earned her sticker for staying dry from naptime until bedtime. She did really well with getting out of the bath and into her diaper, and she graciously invited me to select her pajamas, but then she played before getting into them and took herself to time-out when I explained that that was not good. No sticker. She did get her teeth brushed and flossed with no playing and no time-out, so she totaled two stickers and two books for tonight. I hope that, with this system, we will take back the power in the relationship!

Anyway, Aunt Claire came up, and she brought a muffin. We all shared. Then Claire got to watch gymnastics, which was a lot of fun. Yesterday's teacher was kind of strict and had high expectations, and it was a little painful to watch. Today, Cara was in a group with three little boys who were clearly on the same behavioral level that she and PJ are on. When it wasn't their turns, they would flop around on the mat with their feet in the air. When the teacher tried to get the group to go somewhere, it was a little bit like herding cats. She was very patient and nice, which was important. Cara is learning how to do a cartwheel, sort of, by putting her hands down and jumping her feet over, and she's making progress on other things, too. We're going to do all of our summer classes on Tuesdays.

We went to the pet store, for fun, and looked at lots of little animals. It has not occurred to Cara that she could bring them home. She and Claire got distracted by a display of greeting cards while I paid for our various (and very sensible) purchases; I had to come back and get them out. Cara really appreciates cards, apparently. At the teacher store, we looked at lots and lots of toys, of course. Cara picked out a big set of pieces that could be assembled into shiny bugs; she really wanted it! We distracted her by letting her get a little bag of shiny, rubbery frogs. They're kind of horrible; they're very stretchy and kind of gooey. She loves them.

7/23/08 (Wednesday)

I'm sitting here waiting for an explosion. Cara only earned one sticker today, for brushing her teeth in the morning. This evening, she fooled around and took time-outs and got no stickers whatsoever. Steve is up there reading her the one book she gets, and I'm sure there will be wailing afterwards. Actually, it probably won't be that bad. I do hope she learns from this.

Cara went to Susan's today; I know she was happy to be back with her friends. When I walked in to pick her up, I saw the projects lying on the table. They are rectangles of posterboard, each with a sort of donut-shaped piece of tin foil in the center and a rectangular piece at one end. I-pods? No, cameras. Ours was the one that had been colored pink. "I see we got a pink I-pod," Steve remarked after dinner.

It was my turn to make dinner for everyone, and I was quite busy. Cara did an admirable job of entertaining herself, though. She had gotten a goodie bag from someone's birthday today, and first she played with the art stuff from that. Then, since the table was clear, I suggested Play-doh. "And girls!" cried Cara. We went to get things. I brought up the Play-doh and went back to work; in a few minutes I started to wonder what Cara had decided to do. Soon, she called me. She needed a hand, she said. I came downstairs, to where Cara had gotten out all of her girls and was trying to carry them all at once, plus the Mickey Mouse eraser she'd gotten in her bag. She needed me to carry the eraser and Snow White.

Well, once the girls were upstairs, the fun could start. Cara got out all of the containers of Play-doh. I promised her I'd open two. For a long time, she played with them all closed, pushing them around and building things and using them to prop up the girls. Eventually she really really wanted them open and agreed to my terms; she chose two colors, and I opened them. She was happy. She made bears, and she made girl-prints. Some of the girls tried to talk me into opening more, but I was steadfast.

Soon PJ and Casey came over, with their parents. We ate dinner, the kids went to play, and we ate more. Actually, before dinner, something unusual happened: all three kids were in the kitchen with me and Em, leaving Ron and Steve to just hang out for a few minutes. That never happens.

One of many cute moments: PJ picked up two toys and put them face-to-face. "I'm the mommy. I'm the daddy," he said.

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