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9/18/08 (Thursday) Two days in a row, Cara said the same thing to me in the afternoon: "Mommy, after dinner, I'm just going to want some gummy bears." Okay. Both days, as happens every day, Cara finished dinner well ahead of Steve and me. She got up and went off to play, never recalling her very exciting plan and never actually having any gummy bears. I'm charmed. Cara woke up early this morning, joining me downstairs around six. She may have coughed and sneezed herself awake. She had a tiny bit of cereal and then some pancakes left from last night, and, to my great joy, we got to watch The Mighty Knights. Truly I do not see how life could get better. I got to do her hair in pigtails, which was nice, and I still got to work on time. (I stayed long enough for Austin's big number, though.) I'm sure you can imagine what kind of day Susan had; all the kids there are pretty much in the same state as Cara. They're all a little sick, but not enough to warrant staying home. She wiped a lot of noses today. I needed scissors to open something, and Cara announced that she would get them; off she ran. I was highly surprised and shadowed her to watch. She opened the Drawer of Many Assorted Utensils, standing on her tippy-toes. I don't think she really needed to do that to see in, but she did. She looked and looked and finally reached in and brought me the orange left-handed scissors. I'm very impressed that she did that, and while I'm a little uneasy about her having access to such things, I also know she's never played with grownup scissors. We talked about it, and she agrees that they're dangerous. Lately we've had to draw a lot of ballerinas. A lot. In various colors. I draw everything but the face and the hair, and Cara likes to fill it in. I had to make big ones yesterday, which really was challenging for me. I prefer to draw tiny ones, because it's so easy! Juliana dropped by with a book. It's something about flower fairy princesses or something. It's awfully girly and frilly and it's just perfect for us. Steve got to read after the bath for a change, and he reports that it was a highly satisfying story. 9/19/08 (Friday) For Family Fun Night, we went and met Daddy up in Menlo Park. I brought some quarters, the Big Three girls, and Wish Bear. The plan was for me and Cara to hit the mall and then meet Steve at the I-HOP, but we ran late. On the phone with Steve, I suggested that we'd go to the mall after dinner. Cara had not heard that the mall was in the cards tonight. After I got off the phone, she announced that she "weally" didn't want to go to the I-HOP. We discussed this for a few minutes before I suggested that we go to the mall first and get a "Cara Bear." That was acceptable. Daddy agreed to meet us there. Cara wanted a yellow bear. I reminded her that we couldn't choose the color. She put in her quarters and I turned the crank. We opened the little door, and out popped a pink bear! Cara was happy. I brought out Sleeping Beauty, who was very happy. Her favorite color is pink. I know it's a little bit of spoiling, but I brought extra quarters. Cara was surprised: she was just saying that next time we came she wanted another. This time, everything was perfect: we got a yellow one. Cara was eager to show it to Belle when she got home, and I took Belle out of my bag. Now each girl has a bear in an appropriate color. They're very happy together. It was really nice that Cara thanked me several times throughout the evening, with no prompting. She also was very cuddly and lovey with both of us, which is alwasy nice. We had a good dinner; the bears and girls found something to slide down. At home Cara dismantled her dollhouse playground and set up a dinner party for her girls and bears, all of whom wore imaginary color-coordinated hats and ate color-coordinated cake. I played with the marble run. Steve finished our video record of the week. It was a cozy evening. 9/20/08 (Saturday) Last night, when Cara was getting into her pajamas, we asked her whether she'd like to wear underpants. She's been doing really well at night, and we thought she could handle it. No, she said, she just wanted her pull-up. We read to her and put her down. In a few minutes, she was crying. She wanted to go on the potty. So I took her, and, while we were there I asked her again about underpants. Being more prepared for the idea this time, she readily acceded. I put her in underpants and explained that she could get up to go on the potty if she needed to. I kissed her and puma goodnight again and closed the door. In a few minutes, we heard noises upstairs. Was it? Naaahh, couldn't be. Yes, it was. I went to the top of the stairs and spied on Cara as she took herself to the potty. She saw me as she came out of the bathroom, but she didn't stop; she headed straight back to bed. In the morning, I lazed around in bed until a little after seven, getting up when I heard noises. It was Cara, who had gotten up all by herself to go on the potty. It's the end of an era. When I put her down for naptime, she did the same thing. I had just taken her on the potty, but as soon as I left she got up to go again. The nap did not go well. I was downstairs in the game room, and I could hear her little feet pit-patting all over her room. She got lots of toys into her bed. The second or third time she came out we gave up. Naps haven't happened for us in the past couple of weeks. I hope they're not over! Aunt Claire came! She is, of course, very popular. She gave us advice on how to fix Cara's book. That's actually one more reason for all the disturbance last night. Probably it's the main reason. I think that right after we put her down, Cara got up to get her Flower Princess book. She was concerned because she could not remember all of the princesses' names. She pulled too hard on the book and pulled out the center pages. That upset her, and then, when I came in and agreed to fix it, she wanted to also use the potty. When I kissed her that second time, I also had to tell her all of their names. There are six of them, which is rather a lot. We got out our sea-animal-making kit. It had occurred to me that we could make our own, non-sea-animal shapes on the peg boards we had. I had thought of hearts and things. Cara and Claire somehow decided to make cats. Claire ended up making ten cats. She made three at first, but they all wanted brothers and mothers and fathers. That would have meant twelve, but we just wound up making a lot and ended up with ten. Cara has been doing an astonishing trick. She can make P with her leg. We're trying to get her to say she's making the letter P. She puts one foot on the other knee, which does look like letter P. It just sounds rather startling, until she says, "No, like PJ!" Cara doesn't know it, but a dream of hers may come true. She's been asking and asking for tiny princesses. This evening we went to the mall for a little and stopped at the Playmobil store. They have a line of micro toys, which are tiny and magnetized, and it finally occurred to us to look for a princess set. It does exist. We will probably pick it up for Christmas and hope it meets expectations. We also went to a Halloween store. I'm glad Cara was there, because I'd have had a harder time choosing without her. There were a few to look at, but Cara chose one and stuck with it. She's going to be the Little Mermaid for Halloween. The package was open already, so we could take it out and make sure it was the right size. I paid for it, and Cara carried it all the way out of the mall. At home, as soon as we were in the door she started stripping. Soon, she was Ariel. She walked around like that for the rest of the evening, getting glitter all over the house. I've hidden it away, hoping to save it for the real event, but I'm betting she won't forget about it. Cara behaved very well with Aunt Claire around to impress: she cleaned up, she got her teeth brushed with very little fuss, and earned three stickers and three books. I was chosen as the reader at last. While I was reading her last book, Cara said to me, "Daddy, after I go to bed, I'm going to sneak out and get that book with the little princesses in it." I confirmed that she meant her current favorite Flower Princesses. She did. "I'm going to read it to Puma, because he will be so sleepy. And I'll lay his head on the pink pillow!" I thought it was absolutely charming that she told me she was going to sneak out of bed. And in fact it seems she made good on her promise, because Mommy had to go up again just now and tape a small rip in the Flower Princesses book. Mommy and Cara have agreed that maybe the book does not need to be read to Puma. 9/21/08 (Sunday) Forgot to mention that yesterday Cara's pants fell down in the middle of the mall! Fortunately she is too young for this to cause her more than a momentary disturbance. The problem is that Cara has long legs for her age, so any pants that are long enough are usually too big for her waist. It's a good thing this pair had an adjustable waistband, and we made it through the rest of our mall trip with no more incidents of indecent exposure. This morning we all happened to wake up early. Cara wanted to see Aunt Claire again. Evie had to tell her this wasn't going to happen. To make her feel better, Ev mentioned that we were going to see my parents today instead. Cara then wanted to go and see them immediately, and also wanted to bring her mermaid costume. We talked her down and first had a nice breakfast out at a local diner. (Also, I had the chance to make my own kitties out of beads; Mommy made more, too, and now there are a grand total of fourteen cats.) Before we went into the diner, I said that I was thinking about having a waffle. "I want a waffle, too!" piped up Cara, having never really eaten one out before. Predictably she only picked at hers, so it was a good thing I ordered a scrambled egg on the side. Cara had her usual lovely time at Grandma and Grandpa's house. We did some crafty projects and played with cars. Aunt Sarah and Uncle Jim came over, and Cara spent a lot of time calling for Aunt Sarah. Cara went to the park with Grandma and Evie, and also spent a lot of time in the back yard with them while the rest of us watched football. We ended up staying quite a long time, and left later than we meant to. We were a few minutes from the main highway when Cara suddenly cried out from the back seat, "Where's my Princess book!?!" We had left it at the house! We had to turn around and go all the way back. Ironically, by the time we returned to my parents' house, Cara had forgotten her unhappiness: she was fast asleep. Weekend naps at home may be a thing of the past now, but she certainly stayed asleep in the car all the way home. She was her typical very crabby self when we got her into the house, but she is now safely in her pajamas and is having the princess book, among others, read to her. 9/22/08 (Monday) This morning (my birthday!), Cara and I were still a little under the weather and I was very sluggish, it being a Monday. Fortunately Cara had leftover munchkins from yesterday's visit to the grandparents, and she made quick work of them. I didn't even try to brush her teeth, and she insisted on wearing her train T-shirt under her chosen long sleeve shirt. This evening I got a nice hug from my little girl and she gave me a card and said "happy birthday!" It was great. We had a nice dinner of tacos--Cara ate at least one very neatly--and I got to blow out some candles on pumpkin dessert squares. Cara helped me blow them out, but did very little help in eating the dessert--she hasn't learned to like them yet. Juliana has given us another book, as well chosen as the last: it's about Care Bears! Unfortunately, unlike the previous flower princesses book, this one is quite awful. I hope Cara doesn't want to read it as much as the princesses one. She also had new library books tonight, and those were what Mommy read to her in bed. Cara has become very active after we leave her: she will probably be making a regular habit of visiting the potty on her own every night. 9/23/08 (Tuesday) The theme of the day was messiness. Cara woke up early enough for me to get her dressed before I left for work. Then, before daycare, she took all of the cushions off of the couch. While I cooked dinner, she jumped around and around on them, "sliding" down the crooked ones. Before dinner, she whined and begged until we took out the Box of Forbidden Art Supplies. Then we somehow managed to leave her alone with it. For an extended period of time. This resulted in forty-eight crayons strewn on the floor, a bag of pompoms dumped, some pipe cleaners scattered, a box of foam stickers and popsicle sticks all over, and a tube of glitter opened onto the floor. She had a good time, I think. After Steve vacuumed up the glitter, some sort of fuzz got spread on the floor. We just couldn't win. Somehow, though, in spite of a couple of good screaming fits, she managed to have a mostly good evening and earn all four of her stickers. We may make "Not Screaming" a category for sticker-earning. That would be interesting. 9/24/08 (Wednesday) Cara has taken to getting up early, possibly so she can get a glimpse of Mommy before she leaves. She once again had all the couch cushions off and once again wanted "eggs and toast" but only ate the toast. She saw one of her fancy dresses in the closet and just had to wear it. She was still wearing it this evening, but Mommy cleverly put a normal shirt and pants under it. Something interesting was happening at the Loefflers' this morning. There were big digger trucks out front! They were taking away the storm drain in front of their driveway in preparation for some expansion work on the driveway apron. Ron was showing PJ the trucks--they both seemed happy. All of this excitement meant that I managed to get Cara to Susan's before PJ and Casey for the first time in a long while. Mommy had to go to Back to School Night this evening, but here is her take on what happened at Susan's today. Facts: A big milestone was passed this evening: it seems PJ has broken the potty barrier! He used both of our potties tonight at playdate; he even peed standing up and pooped! PJ has also seemed to have quickly developed the ability to tell when he has to go--a very important ability that it took Cara quite a bit of practice to work out. He seems to insist on privacy a lot more, though, whereas Cara can go by herself sometimes but will still occasionally ask for a book to be read to her. Anyway, exciting stuff! That was really the big event for our playdate. Except for "Diane" not being there (PJ did ask for her eventually), it was fairly typical. Lots of toys got poured out, pizza was somewhat eaten, and many drinks were put into various cups and then swapped. The kids all got to have some gummy bears. Apparently, in an appropriate turn of events considering PJ's historical insistence on Diane diaper changes, Casey was at the top of the stairs last night calling for me to change her diaper. Unfortunately I did not hear her, and she had to settle for a new diaper from her mommy. | Previous Week | Back Home | Next Week | |