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Journal Key:

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

12/4/08 (Thursday)

Puma got to go to Susan's today. By all reports, she was well-behaved and had a good time. We stopped at a local deli on the way home to pick up dinner; I ordered Cara a grilled cheese sandwich. Since it was a hot thing, I decided we should eat as soon as we got home; Daddy could have his when he got here. It was a good thing we ate, because he ran late.

Cara's been very good about playing with her gerbils lately. She is very happy to spend time with them, and they seem to be friendly. They come out and she gives them treats and talks to them and gives them tubes to gnaw. They're out in the dining room now, so we're not in a closed room away from the cats. So far, it's been okay. I'm trying to teach Cara how important it is to put the lid back on when she's done, but I'm not sure it's sticking. So, we have to make sure we supervise. It may not have occurred to the cats yet that they could get in there.

Cara's also been friendly with the cats, which is sometimes successful and sometimes very disappointing. Buster is more likely to ignore her and let her pet her a little; Shelby often runs like heck.

We had a couple of clementines while Steve ate his dinner. Cara peeled them herself, and all I had to do was break them in half once they were open. She's very enthusiastic.

Yesterday, we put Cara's Christmas dress on her to take some pictures. She was very happy to get to wear it and to get to wear the big-girl tights that Grandmom bought her. (They fit!) This evening, from when I picked her up at daycare, Cara's been asking to wear the dress again.

12/5/08 (Friday)

It's Friday! Which to Cara means that Puma can come to Susan's. (So why did Puma also go to Susan's yesterday? Well, you know: Puma.) She also wore her Puma brand sweatsuit, so it was just a very Puma Friday. I made her a mess of scrambled eggs for breakfast and two pieces of toast. She eventually ate the toast in the car.

Evie had her school holiday party tonight, so I went to pick Cara up. Em recently came up with the idea of taking her kids to Taco Bell--perfect really since they love tacos. I told Cara when I picked her up that she could have anything she wanted for dinner. "I want a hot dog!" she said, which is pretty much what she always says. I tried selling her on the idea of tacos. She was receptive and even agreed to the idea. Then after a few moments she said sadly from the back of the car, "But I want a hot dog!" So we went to the diner down the street and she had a hot dog. She was a cutie pie and sat next to me in our booth and smiled at everyone (though she did not talk to everyone). We hadn't brought anything apart from Puma but we had a fine time. She wanted ice cream with gummy bears on it, and then was willing to compromise down to M&Ms. But when the ice cream came with whipped cream on top that was acceptable.

When we got home we had to make a fairy, and then I had to play a video game that was "not long." It wasn't long before Mommy was home!

For her project today Cara got to find pictures of people in different types of clothing and cut them out. Susan explained to me ahead of time that one of the pictures was a woman in her underwear, but I shouldn't be disturbed at all because Cara claimed it was a swimsuit.

12/6/08 (Saturday)

My theory today is that Cara must be awfully tired for some reason, because we have had occasional periods of obstreperousness accompanied by wailing. However, overall it was a lovely day.

I finally put into practice a plan I've had for a while; as soon as we got to gymnastics, I put Cara on the potty. I gave her a pep talk about how it's bad to take potty breaks during class, because you miss your turn. "And the other kids take it!" Cara chimed in. I think I got her on board. There was a wonderful few minutes during the trampoline in which all three other kids in the class headed for the bathroom, and Cara got a very, very long turn. She did come find me a while later, claiming to need a tissue. Her nose was perfectly dry. I had no tissue. I swiped the underside of her nose with my finger, and she found that that fulfilled whatever imaginary need she had.

We went out after gymnastics to buy a tree stand. At the Home Depot, we spent a lot of time looking at Christmas things. They have a large selection of plastic snow globes with buttons to press. When you press the button, it plays a song and air blows the "snow" around and around rather violently. There are many, many different ones. Some have Disney princesses. We tried them all. They all work.

Finally we went home to get Daddy. Cara wanted to play Play Doh, but we talked her into going out. We went to lunch at On the Border, where Cara had a corn dog. Neither Steve nor I recall ever having eaten such a thing, and we were a little horrified, but she just held that stick and ate away. It seemed like one second Steve was warning her that she'd hit the stick soon, and the next second she was done. She finished the whole thing.

From there we hopped right over to Sears to buy a tree skirt, and Cara got to make Steve look at all of the Christmas lawn ornaments. Outside, we bought our first Christmas tree! It's a Fraser fir, with nice strong branches. Even though it was daytime they had the loud generator running to make the lights work, so Cara got what I consider a very authentic tree-buying experience. Steve took it home in his car, while Cara and I, in my car, stopped at Dunkin' Donuts for a treat. I wanted the fancy hot chocolate they make, but they didn't have it, so we got cappuccino and a couple of donuts. Like an idiot, I let Cara pick hers. She wanted pink. She ate Steve's chocolate one.

When we got home, Steve had the tree inside. We got it set up; Cara helped take the netting off. She helped put the lights on, and then she helped hang ornaments. She tends to find one branch she likes and keep putting things there. One little twig has three or four things. She loved seeing and handling all of the ornaments; she even got to hang the antique ones. I'm more worried about the cats breaking things than Cara! (Buster and Shelby spent the whole decorating time under the tree, occasionally attacking the skirt and then getting stuck to it.)

I wanted to take a better holiday photo, so I asked Cara whether she wanted to put her Christmas dress back on. Did she ever! She wore it for the rest of the day. We managed to get some nice photos, and nothing bad happened. The rest of the day was pretty quiet; we dropped Steve's car off, I did groceries. I made ravioli for dinner, which Cara absolutely demolished. I think she ate more than I did. I got her to eat her asparagus by telling her I was going to eat all of mine faster. Later I got her to clean up by telling her I could clean up faster. I'm just astonished that this stuff works.

Cara washed her hair tonight! She started by squirting her head a lot with a rubber duck. I gave her the shampoo and explained how to rub it around. Then she squirted more with the duck. I ended up helping to rinse her, though, because really there's only so much one duck can accomplish.

Having brushed her teeth this morning, helped to clean up (fast!), gotten into her pajamas (except the shirt) with neither of us even in the room, and brushed her own teeth this evening, Cara earned four stickers and so four books tonight for the first time in a long, long time.

12/7/08 (Sunday)

I made bread pudding this morning, as I believe I did last week as well. Last week, Cara requested it for breakfast every morning. Most evenings, she asked for more. She didn't always eat what she got, but she was very enthusiastic. Predictably, today she almost totally ignored it and instead ate at least four clementines. She shared parts of them, but she ate an awful lot. Later, she claimed her tummy hurt. Too much of a good thing, I'd say!

The thrill of the day was that Grandpapa and Aunt Claire came up to eat turkey and watch football. Cara was ecstatic when they arrived; when the car pulled up, she ran around shouting, "I have a big smile on my face!" Then she tried to hide behind the front door, possibly aiming to surprise them. We got to show off our Christmas tree and the Advent calendar, which was great--Claire got it for Cara, but she never got to see it all set up! Riding the crest of the showing-things-off wave, Cara also showed them several toys that she's had for months, aiming to pass them off as new and exciting.

Claire bought us some beautiful new ornaments for the tree. One is a tiny stuffed elephant, another is a chicken made out of orange peel. He's interesting! A third is a little African musical instrument like the one we have in the living room. The last one is a tiny eggshell with a nativity inside it. This reminded me that we have a regular-sized eggshell like that upstairs, so I brought that down. Tiny people and animals are involved, so Cara was delighted. The little one already got broken (and fixed), so we're going to be more careful from here out.

Claire got to cut out paper animals today; of course they're beautiful. She made some monkeys, some cats, and some birds that look kind of like hummingbirds. They make the ones Steve and I make look like they were done by second graders! Fortunately, Cara's not particularly discerning.

While company was here, Cara got to do lots of things. She and Steve played Candy Land, and then she got him to get out the Play Doh. I think everyone played with that, at least a little. Puma stuffed herself into the top story of the dollhouse and took a nap, but she got out okay afterwards. One confusing problem is that Daddy cannot play video games while we are watching football. That one's hard to fathom. He was able to play some computer games, though.

Kids really are creatures of routine. The only problem with having a big family meal around halftime is that it's not a part of Cara's schedule. She had to have lunch, and then she didn't eat much of the "dinner" we had at three. At six, she was hungry, right on the normal time! It's not a problem or anything; I just find it interesting.

12/8/08 (Monday)

Cara and I went to the library after daycare today; she still really enjoys riding down the ramp. We played games on the computer for a while, and I got Cara to put her hand on the mouse. I moved and positioned it, and she clicked. Soon she had a sense for when she ought to click. I had her try a few things on her own, and she met with some success. Soon, though, she had had enough. We did really well getting books; we came home with seven, none of which are obvious duds. We got several old favorites, including Princesses are not Quitters and Cinderella Penguin.

Steve was late tonight, so we had some time to sit around and read before we made dinner. We also had time to make a new fairy. All of the fairies she's made for the past week or so have had the darkest possible skin color. Today, she kept saying, "Darker! Darker! That darker one!" It turned out the was looking at the very blue-black eye color, which is just not available for skin. We had to compromise.

It was taco night. Cara used her fork to put some refried beans onto her quesadilla, which I think was just a brilliant idea. She also ate two tacos without making a mess. We love taco night.

Cara's been singing some interesting songs lately. Today, there was a lot of repetition of something like, "Here comes the big blowhard!" Yesterday, she sang something that seemed to be possibly a dream she had had, or partially a dream. She chanted something about how she was creeping up the stairs, without Mommy or Daddy, and there was a monster behind her, and then she hugged Puma so tight that Puma broke in pieces. Awwww! Then I think she did something to make the monster go away.

12/9/08 (Tuesday)

Today I picked Cara up early to take her to get her flu shot. The nurse did a really excellent job. She had Cara press a magic invisible button on the desk and then she made robot noises as she lifted her to the table. She explained to Cara everything that would happen and had me be in charge of the top half of her. In a moment, it was over. Cara didn't even cry! She selected a Hannah Montana sticker, though she has no idea who Hannah Montana is. Then she had to press another invisible magic button to get down. It was the best flu shot ever!

We had an evening out on the town. Cara and I stopped at the Menlo Park Mall to pick up a Cara Bear. We got Sleepy Bear this time. He's a boy. The other bears are all girls. He's a girl, too. We now have six of the things, and we haven't gotten a double yet!

Next, we headed to the Woodbridge Mall with the idea of getting Cara's hair cut. The hair cut place was kind of slow and crowded, though, so we went to dinner with Daddy instead at Friendly's, which was kind of slow and crowded. It was a good dinner, even so. We got home too late for a bath, so there was a little bit of playtime before bed. Life is good.

12/10/08 (Wednesday)

Lately Cara has been saying "Daddy, I looove youuuu," a whole lot (and Mommy I love you as well, but I'm speaking from my point of view). So much that it has gotten amusing. I imagine it's a fallback phrase when she can think of nothing else to say. Still I'm sure she does actually mean it. If anyone else said they loved you that much, though, it might be a little weird.

One other funny thing she has been doing: she got a family of reindeers from her advent calendar boxes, and lately they have been howling at the moon. It's very interesting Christmas image.

Tonight was playdate night! Cara was excited to show all of our Christmas decorations to Em and PJ and Casey, who had not seen them before. The kids had some fun batting at the tree ornaments, and they also found the Hanukkah menorah gel stickers that Cara has and stuck some to the wall. Couch cushions came off, the ball pit was dumped, other bins were dumped, and fun was had (cleaning up was done before we said good night). Cara started her "The big blow hard is coming" song, and PJ joined in. Em says it's the first she's heard of it, so maybe PJ was just copying. Hmm.

We opened up our mail tonight and found that Cara got a cool Christmas card with stickers. They are ornaments that get stuck on a Christmas tree. There is also some alphabet recognition involved. We limited her to a few stickers tonight--maybe we can keep the fun going with this card.

Everyone be warned! There may be a brief interruption in journal service, due to a software issue. But we should be back up and running very soon: within a few days. We will take notes in the interim. Until then!

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