| Previous Week | Back Home | Next Week |

Journal Key:

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

10/23/08 (Thursday)

We agreed to provide the paper goods for Susan's Halloween party next week. Cara and I decided to go right to the party store and get them. We found plenty of good things. We got the same plates we got last year, which are clear, with black spider webs on them. Then we put back one package of those to replace them with plates shaped like kitty faces. Cara held those in the car and discussed opening them to play with them; I talked her down. We also found several different packages of napkins that we liked. First we had pumpkin ones, but then I found really cool bat ones. Then we remembered that PJ's scared of bats and maybe those would be bad. Then we found kitty ones. That was good.

We found lots of other things. Cara saw several costumes she liked. Fortunately, she does remember that she's going to be a Little Mermaid. The thing she really tried hard to get was a set of three eight-inch rubber skeletons, one white, one orange, and one black. She wanted them. She wanted to hang them on the wall upstairs; they would make her room "so pretty." I talked her into getting some light-up things for trick or treating instead.

At the cash register, which we finally got to after Cara investigated several pairs of wax lips and tried to get me to purchase a small orange lollipop, Cara discovered something horrible. It was a package of gummi candies apparently associated with High School Musical 3. I think. They kind of looked like wedges of cheese. When she started asking, she didn't even know what they were. The girl behind the register and I both tried to dissuade her, but when I finally said no, Cara sat plop on the floor, in tears. To her credit, there wasn't much wailing at all. Soon we were up and on our way out. At the door, we were distracted by racks of stuffed toys. We found Walden, Wubsey, and . . . some other thing from that show. Then we found some (strangely mature and yet not prostitute-like) girl dolls. All of these things are things that Cara agrees she would love to get for Christmas. Thank goodness that works!

We tried to watch Toy Story tonight. Mommy firmly put it in and we all started watching it with popcorn. We got through a good portion of it with Cara periodically saying that she didn't like the movie or wanted to watch something else (the rest of the time she was fairly enthralled). At the point where we stopped it Evie and I both realized there are some scenes that would be too scary for her. But after we stopped it, Cara, whose only comments so far had been negative, said it was a pretty cool movie.

Evie is now upstairs reading Cara a version of the Circus McGurkus in which the oft-mentioned character of Sneelock is replaced with Puma.

10/24/08 (Friday)

Turns out two cups of juice right before bedtime is not a good idea for little girls. I changed some sheets last night at two in the morning. All I can say is: Karma. Sometimes I believe in it.

But Cara came home from Susan's with the same pants she had when I dropped her off, which is good. Evie discovered from Susan today that Cara apparently plays a mean air guitar, complete with singing. We were very surprised.

We all met at the IHOP for our Friday dinner. Mommy had found one of our old favorite books, The Cats of Mrs. Calamari, at the library, and I had to read it to Cara in the restaurant. This IHOP is very small and intimate and I'm sure a few other patrons also got to enjoy my dramatic reading.

The second part of our evening's entertainment was a trip to the mall for another "Cara Bear." (I'm glad I avoided getting a plastic thing out of the coin machines at the supermarket up near my work today--it would have been just a bit too much.) I noticed that the Care Bear machine featured a sticker saying "Collect all 32!" Oh, boy... The amazing bit was that Cara said she wanted a purple bear. On the way there Mommy tried explaining very carefully how we have no control over what color bear comes out, and how it might be nice to have two of the same bear ("I'm a twin," I helpfully added). Lo and behold, when we put in our coins and cranked out a bear, it was indeed purple.

Cara was very happy. So happy that it was okay that we weren't at the mall with the Playmobil store, and it was okay that she couldn't have the little stuffed pink ballerina she found at the Gap. We did some walking around but Cara was tired, so it was back in the car with me and Johnny Cash.

10/25/08 (Saturday)

After gymnastics today, Cara and I went back to TJ Maxx to find a snow suit. We also found a lot of toys, some of which Cara would like for Christmas, some of which she'd like for her birthday, and some of which she would not like but just thought we should look at. We also found one silly thing that I had to buy: pink hot chocolate mix. We did find a coat and snow pants; they're pink and brown, which I think is a nice combination.

Today was a rainy day, so our plan of going to Grandmom's house to go pumpkin-picking was amended into a plan of going to Grandmom's house to carve pumpkins from the store. After a lovely lunch, in which we had sandwiches and Cara rolled her own cold cuts to eat (then she tried a sandwich, consisting of a roll with potato chips in it), we got down to work. Cara put on an apron and helped to scoop the innards out, but she was soon "too tired" to go on and went off to play. Grandmom had gotten her a set of stickers in which you get to put features onto plain pumpkins, so they stayed in the spirit of things.

Cara and I had picked up a carving kit with great patterns and also a pumpkin light, so the two pumpkins came out great! Steve was a trooper; I make him do all the carving. Cara and her grandparents did a lot of playing. Somehow a leaf from the dining room table came out and became a slide for the toys. Later, Cara slid on it, too. To my horror. (I wonder whether my mother remembers that I broke the edge off of one of her leaves when I was little. It was still perfectly usable!) We played Break the Ice, the name of which Cara takes literally. Instead of trying to knock out single blocks so that the little man stays on top, she uses her hammer to gleefully pound the whole thing away. Then she made Grandmom get out Mousetrap and set the whole thing up and then she ignored it. She did play with the mice.

In the car coming home Cara of course fell asleep, and then she had a rotten time waking up. Unfortunately, Steve and I are starting to lose patience with this. We were less than charmed, but we managed to get through the evening. I got to read the Circus McGurkus, the Puma version, and this time I replaced young Morris McGurk with young Cara McGurk. It's still fun.

Cara had a lot to drink this evening. I have suggested to her that, if she needs to go to the bathroom in the night, she could come to my room and get me instead of crying. She thinks that's a good idea.

10/26/08 (Sunday)

Cara still needed a parent present when she went to the potty last night, though fortunately it was not too long after she'd been put to bed. She passed a dry evening and we got up and had a fairly lazy, nice morning with more homemade pancakes. On a whim, we moved the glider in Cara's room downstairs to the play room, and moved the toy shelves from there into the room next door. It is a pleasant change. The glider is a nice addition to that room, good for story reading and sitting around, and the toys do fine in the other room. Also, Cara has more floor space in her own bedroom--we weren't using the glider much in there anyway.

Mommy took Cara out for some grocery shopping. I'm told that Cara rode on the cart by holding the handle bar and putting her feet up on the bottom rung of the cart. Sounds like fun! She went down for a pretty late nap some time past 1. It was a very noisy, bouncy nap. Cara apparently was up and looking out the window when Aunt Claire arrived, because she claims that she saw Aunt Claire's car. She wandered down the hall to meet Claire, and it wasn't long before Grandpapa arrived also!

We had some wailing when The Mighty Knights (which she wasn't watching anyway, and which she's seen a million times) was switched off to be replaced with football. She was made to see reason eventually, and in fact we were able to watch an entire NFL game without any meltdowns. Various people did have to periodically supervise Cara in the potty or on the computer, but the people who really wanted to see the game got to see it. We had some good delivery pizza (from a guy) and some nice veggies and crackers for snacks beforehand. For dessert, there were pumpkin squares. Perhaps catching the spirit of excitement, Cara was absolutely thrilled about the pumpkin squares, regardless of the fact that she has never eaten them before; this time, she took three or four bites, claimed to really like them, and then moved on to other things.

What she did do was drink. It seemed to me that Cara drank a whole lot of punch juice (we bought a new container at the store). She also went to the potty a lot. I just hope no one has to change any sheets tonight.

It turns out the pumpkin decorating stickers that Grandma gave us yesterday are a real hit. Cara continued to make pumpkin faces today, and is doing it more independently than some other things we do.

10/27/08 (Monday)

We all noticed on the way out of the neighborhood this morning that the house with all of the fabulous Halloween decorations has started to have its haunted house built. This is very exciting; one of us thinks it's a castle and wants one. So, coming home, Cara and I decided to take a walk to see it.

First, I had to change clothes. Cara came upstairs, delighted, to show me a sticker on the back of her hand, which she claimed she had gotten for doing a very good job. She had just given it to herself downstairs.

We got our coats and shoes on, and we got Puma into his or her stroller, and off we went. "I just love going for a walk with you, Mommy," said Cara. I reciprocated. "I just love going for a walk with you, Puma," said Cara. I'm pretty sure Puma reciprocated. We got to the "castle" and looked at that, and then we kept going; Cara suggested a trip to the park! It was cold out. We walked the whole way there. I had been carrying the stroller and Cara carrying Puma since before we got off of Nancy Circle, but we made it. Pushing the stroller, of course, is made difficult when you feel obligated to lift it over every crack in the sidewalk. Cara also jumped over at least ten percent of the cracks, which is a lot.

We swung for a long time and then walked home in the dusk. Cara stopped three times and went back a few steps and picked dandelions, which apparently were particularly fascinating ones.

At dinner, we particularly enjoyed the following exchange:

Cara: Mommy, do you know what the bread does when I drink punch juice?

Mommy: What does it do?

Cara: (triumphant) It gets punch-juicey! Watch!

Later in the evening, we signed Ron's birthday card. Cara of course wrote her own name, but I also had her write "Ron." Those are mostly letters she knows! I had to help with the N. She drew a little picture of a girl on the back, and she sealed it into its envelope. No one else had gotten to write anything. She wrote "Rom" on the envelope. I wrote a small note on the outside.

When Cara had given herself that sticker earlier, she had declared that she wanted to wear it all night. I told her it would probably come off and she'd have to have a new one. She objected. Of course, it came off. Still, while Steve was reading to her, she remembered and asked for another sticker. Unfortunately, we have no idea where she got the one she got. It had something on it about boo-boos; Cara had told me I got it at a party. I dont' remember any parties like that! We could not find any sign of its origin; we had to get her a sticker from our bag of potty stickers. She loved it!

10/28/08 (Tuesday)

I do wonder whether those stickers lasted the night. I haven't heard about them. I remember, as I was putting them on, I was imagining being called to Cara's room in the night because she was upset that one fell off.

Anyway, a strange thing: It snowed today! It went for a few hours, switching over from rain and then back, but there was enough to cover the grass and cars and even turn the roads white. I believe that Susan termed it "a wacky day." I believe that because that's what Cara kept singing about in the bath.

I decided on a perfect snowy-day dinner, but we had to stop at the supermarket to get a few things. I was really torn. I mean, I wanted my casserole, but I hated to make the little girl get out of the car in the cold rain at the store. Also, I hated to get out of the car in the freezing rain at the store! We did it anyway. I was freezing. Cara slowed us down, crossing the parking lot, because she was dancing. And singing. And having a ball.

Now, in the store, we seem to have conquered the sitting-in-the-cart argument. Cara's happy to walk. Unfortunately, she's happy to walk. I couldn't get past the ends of two aisles without her stopping me to look at something astonishing, like a cereal box. She liked Rice Krispies, among others. As an example of her thoroughness, we have now examined the mermaid on the Chicken of the Sea cans.

The other day at school I cleaned out some (astonishingly) old files of holiday decorations. There are a lot I know I will never use and that I believe should never be used in a public school because they're too denominational. I've been ignoring them for years, but I finally thought of just bringing them home! I don't want Santa or the Easter Bunny hanging in my classroom, but in my living room? I included the overtly Halloween ones, too, because I don't like to assume that the kids all celebrate.

I had Cara bring the bag over to Steve to open. As he got the things out, Cara would run over, take each one, saying "wow" or something, and carry it away to make a giant pile. She was very happy. We hung up the Halloween ones on the front door, some inside and some outside. The rest got put away, except for a little Easter egg one that Cara brought upstairs because she was having fun throwing it.

Steve went to the gym after dinner, and Cara and I mostly played games. She had a nice warm bath in which she sang a lot of songs: "My dream, my dream, is in my head. . . and it's that I will get Tinkerbe-e-ell!" After the bath, I did something astonishing. I kept Cara in the bathroom and brought her pajamas in. She got dressed, and then we brushed her teeth right away, circumventing about five minutes of nonsense!

We've been having trouble getting Cara to select underwear at night. My modus operandi is to bring two pairs for her to choose between. Last night, she rejected both. I told her she'd have to go pick her own. She objected, but finally she went. She carefully went through the drawer, finally choosing one of the two I'd originally offered!

10/29/08 (Wednesday)

Cara and I talked happily about Halloween in the car this morning. (By the way, as to the stickers on Cara's hand from earlier in the week, one of them was rolled up to a little ball which I found in the bed and removed. The other was still on her hand, but it got wet when she washed them and we took it off and put it somewhere that I don't remember.) A couple of mornings ago we managed to have no television, because Cara was engrossed in making her sticker pumpkin faces. This morning she watched one Curious George and then turned off the TV to come have breakfast.

Evie picked up Cara and the little girl did a kind of dance out of the house, sticking her hands out in alternate directions and singing about something she didn't want to do. Evie sees a career in musical theater. It was playdate night at our house! The kids very methodically and very thoroughly made a huge mess in the downstairs rooms--it may have been a new record. Casey may have actually peed on our potty tonight! Evie roasted a chicken and provided many side dishes, among them gravy and cranberry sauce. Cara initially mistook the cranberry sauce for Jell-o; then, realizing she had gotten it wrong, she decided it was called gravy.

This evening is near Halloween, but is also near election day, and Evie decided we should watch Barack Obama's special televised campaign ad. We tried to explain this to Cara, who wanted to play computer games or watch Curious George. I doubt she understood about his maybe being President, but for whatever reason she was quiet and good through the whole thing. Of course, she didn't listen at other points during the evening and came away with only one sticker, but we were very proud of her for letting us watch our little show.

| Previous Week | Back Home | Next Week |