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Journal Key:

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

9/4/08 (Thursday)

Cara and I have been having nice mornings together during our first week of the new school year. She has been good about getting up and going on the potty. We always end up going on the downstairs potty for some reason, and I never remember to get her underwear, so we always have to go all the way back upstairs again. But putting on underwear is a good excuse to put on clothes, which we never used to do right after getting up last year.

This morning she didn't really touch her breakfast, but we did brush our teeth, which we've been very good about all week. I have these pictures in my car; like many of the child-related items that get in my car, they have a hard time getting out again. They are boards with black line drawings on them, and when you brush water on the board the picture is filled in with bright colors. It works really well, and is entirely repeatable because the colors disappear as soon as the picture dries, and Cara has been painting them every morning.

Tonight Cara wanted to go around the block, because she had seen PJ and Casey about to go around the block earlier. It turned out that instead of walking or pushing her scooter around the block, she wanted to be pushed in her stroller. We gave in and were in time to meet Juliana and Gene outside--they were wrangling with a broken weed whacker. Cara is very shy with Gene. She also refused to speak with her Grandmama on the phone this evening. She did call to Gene later, when he was too far away to hear her.

After our walk I took Cara out on the town. We went to Babies R Us. Cara liked trying out seats. She would run a little bit away from me, but if she got near a stranger, she would run back and hug me. Then, even though it was already quite late, we went to the book store. Cara played with the train table a little, though she didn't get a really good play session in because she had to make two trips to the potty: one trip for each function.

Today Cara started asking us if she could get a surprise. She remembered all of the sudden that she used to get surprises for going on the potty. Mommy explained that she doesn't need to get them for the potty anymore. We hope this is not the beginning of further toy requests. Cross your fingers everybody!

Cara was up late and out of her routine, which may help account for the fact that she didn't do a great job cleaning up, or getting into her pajamas. But she did manage to get two stickers and two books, one of which was our big favorite, Bad Kitty. I personally read Bad Kitty three times just today. As I was driving home today I realized that I knew a good section of it by heart.

9/5/08 (Friday)

I went and picked Cara up early today so that we could go to the twins' house for the first time in quite a while! The girls were all thrilled to see each other, including me and Shannon. The kids all chased each other around for a while before settling down to play, Cara on her own and the twins together. They're used to playing imaginatively together, while poor Cara is used to playing that way with adults! She was absolutely happy, though, digging through their toys. She could have spent hours, I'm sure, taking everything out.

The twins got a trampoline for their birthday! It's a little one-person one with a handlebar to hold onto, and it talks. It'll count your bounces, or it'll make animal noises when you bounce, or it'll play annoying music! It's not out all the time, so it's exciting for everyone when it does come out. Cara got the first turn, and she took a long one; she loved it! Thank goodness all the kids are so good about taking turns, or she'd never have gotten off. The funniest part may have been later, when Cara thought it was her turn but Sarah wouldn't get off. Cara was so mad that she jumped up and down in frustration while Sarah simultaneously jumped on the trampoline. It was perfectly synchronized and very funny.

We came home late, very tired and just in time for the bath. I got to read to Cara this evening. I read Bad Kitty (surprise) and Ride a Purple Pelican. We haven't had that out for months, but I've started reciting the poems to Cara while I brush her teeth. It's a great way to keep her little mind from wandering off and taking her mouth with it, and I'm glad it got her excited about that book; I love it. We read it all the way through. I still really enjoy Bad Kitty, too, since I haven't read it as much as Steve has. This was a bad rendition, though. Puma became very upset in the beginning, possibly because of how bad the kitty was. He hid under the sheets, crying. I comforted him and got him to come out, and he felt better. Then he saw the humor in the book, and he laughed and laughed for the next few pages, which I found very distracting. Then, thanks to Cara, the bad kitty herself was making a strange buzzing noise. When that stopped, Puma resumed appreciating the book and then showed me that he can do forward rolls. Needless to say, my performance suffered.

Cara, however, knows a surprising amount of the book anyway. There are lines written out by hand that we read in the mother's voice, they're things like, "Oh dear, we're out of food for the kitty!" Cara says them, when we get to the right pages, in a very high voice. It's hysterical. She learned to do that with Steve, and she also makes numerous sound effects.

9/7/08 (Sunday)

So yesterday morning Evie got Cara up and took her off to my cousin's baby shower. Ironically my cousin was not there because she had already had her baby--congratulations to her! Meanwhile a tropical storm was swinging through New Jersey and Cara (among other people) got soaked. My aunt kindly offered to dry her clothes in their drier. Cara then had the opportunity to gleefully run around the house in her underwear, bouncing all over the place.

When it was time to leave, my parents drove Cara to their house and she had a lovely sleepover. We drove down today and met them all (including Uncle Jim and Aunt Sarah) to celebrate Grandpa Jim's birthday! It also happened to be Grandparents' Day today, and thanks to Susan, Cara was supplied with suitable cards and such for her grandparents. She was also very happy to give Grandpa his birthday presents.

We had a lovely, typical day, with lots of toys coming out. Cara, perhaps a little tired from her unusual weekend, wanted a lot of books read to her. But she also went outside and tried to make Rusty run around. She was very squeaky today.

On the way home she did fall asleep, and she woke blearily. We took her in the house and had some dinner. Then Cara had the conversation she has with us pretty much every night. She finished her dinner early and wanted to go and play downstairs with Mommy. But Mommy was not done eating. As I say, this happens all the time, and usually Cara is unhappy about it but deals with it. This time, she started crying, and it eventually escalated into full-fledged hysteria, red-faced and thrashing on the couch. Evie and I found when we discussed it afterwards that we had both considered it about time to call an exorcist.

Probably it was just because she was tired that this happened, but we were both at sort of a loss as to what to do. By the time hysteria set in, it was too late to go and play downstairs. My initial method of trying to reason with her ("What is it that you want? Just tell us!") was a complete failure, because she seemed to have lost the ability to form words. We don't want to feel that we are giving in to a tantrum, but we also know from experience that just leaving her in this state does not solve the problem, only exacerbates it.

In the end Evie put on our Barbie DVD. Even this Cara loudly protested against, but when I held her in my arms so that she could see the TV, she did slowly quiet down. We watched quite a bit of the movie, with Evie editing some of the more boring or tense scenes (such as one where a pet cat is kidnapped), and I was getting rather engrossed in the story, and then Cara became verbal again and told us she didn't want to watch the movie anymore.

After this she went through a mood swing and was basically bright and cheerful again. We can only hope that this level of hysteria does not become a commonplace. We did have a nice day, though!

9/8/08 (Monday)

I thought perhaps Cara would be tired today, but she was fine. Go figure. This morning the inevitable happened and Cara noticed the last of the exciting craft projects I bought for the days when Susan was closed. Steve managed to get her out of the house with no meltdowns by promising her we could do it tonight. Sure enough, as she scampered to the car after daycare, Cara said, "We're going to do that thing!"

I'm very glad I didn't try this with all three kids. It's tiny, tiny beads, essentially, which you have to put onto pegboards shaped like sea life. Then you iron it and the beads fuse together and it's a toy. Cara and I did the octopus first. She helped put some on, and then I asked her to sort out the white and purple beads, which didn't belong. With a series of similar distractions, we managed to get through it. Then we got out the iron, which I warned Cara about to such effect that she ran to the other side of the house and called repeatedly for me to shut the door.

The octopus came out fine and was eager to have some friends, so we had to set back to work. When Daddy came home we were almost done with the dolphin, which we ironed while he did the little fishie. I'd just used the random assortments of beads that they gave us, but Steve set to work and paid attention to what he was doing and made a beautiful fish.

One odd side note is that Cara decided, halfway through the octopus, that she no longer wanted her place mat on the table. She got up and took it away. I haven't actually looked for it, but I certainly haven't noticed it anywhere and it did not reemerge during dinner.

I gave Cara her bath this evening. When I'm not actively washing her, I like to just watch and see what happens. Entire conversations can happen without my stepping in at all. This evening, Belle, for some reason, had to go to sleep. She got Cara's puff as her blanket, and the fish Steve made was her pillow. (They float!! We made bath toys.) Cara lovingly tucked her in . . . wait a minute! "No, that's mine, Belle!" Belle was rudely turned out of bed as Cara defensively grabbed the fish, tucking it into her armpit for safe keeping.

9/9/08 (Tuesday)

Due to a miscommunication, Puma got to go to Susan's today! (He was supposed to go on Friday.) When I got there to pick them up, I got a good report on Puma. He helped play with blocks, he enjoyed snack time. Cara also did well. Since it's September, they're picking up their regular curriculum again and starting the alphabet. Today was the letter A, and Cara did well on the lower-case letters as well as the upper. It's nice to see the progress she's made since last year!

At home, Cara noticed the grown-up jigsaw puzzle I am starting on the downstairs table. She decided it wouldn't be fun and went to get out her own puzzle, but instead she found Cranium. We scattered the rubber pads out all over the playroom and played and played and played. Eventually Cara decided she would help Puma to play, while I helped . . . a small velvety bookmark shaped like a worm.

When I arrived home the game was still there, though Cara had pretty much bounced herself out. I suppose it's the new library books that are making her want more books read to her lately, but whatever the reason it is nice to have more reading. We went to the IHOP on account of having no groceries, and we all had a nice time: Cara ate a great deal of her meal and a good amount of Evie's omelette, then happily began munching on my pickle. She seemed fairly tired and draped herself in Mommy's lap in the booth, but back at home she was soon bouncing on her bed.

Our bath was nice, with Cara trying to come up with names for her toys on the spur of the moment. I decided that the Playmobil guy was named Butch. Cara's names are much more in the nonsense realm. Battle Cat (Bottle Cap) started saying "Eeek!" and shivering when Cara poured water over him; Cara found this so amusing that she had to call down to Mommy and describe what was happening. Now Mommy has been picked for storytime.

9/10/08 (Wednesday)

For another day Evie has been picked for storytime: Juliana dropped off a nice fairytale book for us, with three classic stories in it. Evie is reading Goldilocks, I believe.

We had a typical morning--not long into our school year routine, and I am already bowing to Cara's wishes and showing television. Cara now calls any TV "watching a movie." For the second day in a row Cara had me make eggs and toast, then ate pretty much nothing but toast. It was a chilly day, so Evie wanted Cara in a long sleeve shirt and pants. She suggested I mention to Cara that she had new long sleeve shirts, to make it exciting. This was an excellent suggestion: Cara was thrilled to be wearing a new shirt, and said she was going to thank Mommy for buying it, and give her a hug and a kiss. "I love giving hugs and kisses." Sappy, I know, but that's what she said! We managed to get out the door eventually.

This evening the Cranium game (called "Hullabulloo," in approximate spelling) was out again, and Cara was going to show PJ how to play it because it was playdate night. I barely beat PJ and company in the door, and PJ was not in the least interested in playing the game. He played with lots of other toys, though, and all the kids had fun with the marble run.

After dinner we separated. Ron went home, the kids played downstairs, and Em, Ev and I were sitting in the kitchen catching a short break. Cara came up. "Mommy, you should come play hide-and-seek with me and Puma, so you can find Puma's butt!" We were all surprised. I suggested that we might also find the rest of Puma. "No," Cara insisted, "Just his butt." Em very kindly kept herself from laughing out loud. I wondered where she got the word from. Em claims PJ is constantly talking about his butt, but I don't recall ever having heard him say it.

Cara has a small scratch on her foot which was apparently irritated by the lukewarm water in her tub. So we had the shortest bath in the world tonight: she stepped in, cried, and got out.

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