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Journal Key:

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

 

1/1/09 (Thursday)

For what I think was the second time in two days, Cara started her day by getting up and getting to the potty all by herself. A good way to start the new year! We got ourselves ready and headed down to Grandmama and Grandpapa's house again for a nice New Years Brunch. Curious George is very popular these days and her Christmas present DVD of the monkey came with us. Cara ate many of the biscuits she and Mommy made yesterday, and remarked "I think I made this biscuit!" no doubt in conscious imitation of the scene at the end of Princesses Are Not Quitters where the princesses recognize the breakfast foods they helped make the day before when they traded places with their servants.

There were other visitors, among them GiGi who brought a new present or two: a pad of paper and a drawing board. Cara did a lot of coloring. We also spent some time watching the Rose Parade on TV, and I was a little surprised to find that Cara found this entertaining. She liked the flowery floats and the unusually dressed people participating.

It was a lovely morning, and Cara told us in the car that she was not tired at all. Then she fell asleep. Fortunately when she awoke at the end of the car ride, she was not unhappy. The sun was still shining and we had work to do. We took down our Christmas decorations and got the tree out of the house (since our house is being invaded by three additional children tomorrow, this was more than just good housekeeping). Cara helped to a small extent.

In the evening we took the unusual step of turning the TV on and flipping through the channels instead of watching pre-recorded kiddie shows. Naturally I managed to find the Looney Tunes marathon on the cartoon channel. It was interesting watching these with a parent's perspective, showing them to Cara for the first time; because while I did find them as amusing as always, the level of violence in every show was a bit disturbing this time.

It so happened that tonight I was the one who brushed Cara's teeth, so Cara and I had to be very quiet and finish before Mommy came upstairs. Boy was she surprised to discover that Cara's teeth were already brushed! And there was added excitement because the little girl got to use her new flossing sticks, which have faces on them.

1/2/09 (Friday)

This morning was a lot of fun, because we had a mega-playdate! First, the twins came over. It's been an awfully long time! The girls have all grown up a lot. The house was a lot less wrecked at the end than it has been in the past. The kids did a lot of actual playing together. Some things were different, but some were the same. A typical Cara quote: "Sarah . . . twins, you have never seen my party boat!"

We had an extended session of hide-and-seek. I'm glad to be able to report that, in spite of being much older than Cara and more mature, the twins also announce in what rooms they will hide. I, we directed, after finding everyone a couple of times, got to hide in my bedroom. I got comfortable by the side of the bed, and, after a few minutes, got out a book. Unfortunately, Shannon came to tell me the kids had gone back downstairs and no one would find me. I came down and was yelled at for coming out of hiding. Back I went. I could hear the girls upstairs, but no one came to find me. Then the door opened. It was Cara, whispering to herself. "I'll hide in here. I have to close the door so no one will find me." She suited the action to the word, and then she was astonished to discover me and delighted that we could hide together. We hid together for a while, and then we gave up and went to find people.

Butch and Chopper were, of course, very popular. One of them got to come out in the ball, to great acclaim. Cara showed Shannon her now-shrinking winged horse. I got to explain to Shannon what in the world the wax princesses on Cara's dresser are. Buster allowed herself to be petted for a while, and then she headed for the hills. Actually, Sarah was very convinced that she had gone into the basement and wanted to follow her, when Buster was really just under the dining room table. I was amused.

Around noon, we headed for Friendly's, Lina and Steve in my car and the rest of us in Shannon's. (Cara's idea) There, we met Denise and Nicky! We sat at two tables; I sat with Sarah, Denise, and Nick. We had brought plenty of toys, and the kids were all happy. The highlight of the meal came during the actual eating part. Denise was having a hard time getting Nick to eat his chicken fingers. Sarah went over, picked one up, and started feeding him. He very agreeably ate the whole thing, though it went a lot better when Denise suggested that she stop to let him chew. Cara got a regular sundae with gummy bears; she ate the gummy bears. The other kids got the snowman sundae. Sarah did a very artistic and realistic job decorating hers, using red gummy bears for a mouth, green M&Ms for eyes, and a lot of other candy in the hair. I took a picture with my cell phone.

It was a fabulous morning; I think no one will be very surprised to hear that Cara took a good nap this afternoon!

1/3/09 (Saturday)

I forgot a few things yesterday. Cara very excitedly showed Lina and Sarah how she can spin around. This led to discussion of Cara's ambition to be a ballerina when she grows up. Lina: "You want to be a ballerina when you grow up? Just like me! We're both going to be ballerinas!" The other thing was when Cara was playing on her own. It was a song, sung perhaps by Cinderella: "When I love you, the sun is gray, but when I don't, it's yellow."

Another incident which we found amusing but I don't think has gotten into the journal yet: we were playing with Cara's Polly Pocket party boat and the Care Bears tried to join in the fun. Cara's girls immediately pushed them all off the boat: "No bears allowed!" Mommy decided to pretend that one bear had fallen in the sea and needed help: "I can't swim!" cried the bear. Cara had one of her girls come to the rescue immediately: "You go like this!" the girl said helpfully, making arm motions to teach the bear how to paddle.

Gymnastics today, strangely, was entirely PJ-free. Our PJ was home because Casey had been under the weather. The other PJ was also absent. Cara had a great time hanging out with the other little girl in her group. Having been coming here for almost a year, Cara seemed to finally notice that one wall is covered with a big mirror. She and the other girl spent a gleeful few minutes waving at themselves. I can only assume they waved back.

We did a few errands afterwards, which took us to stores that had toy departments. Instead of asking for things, Cara dutifully pointed out all of the things she really, really wanted for her birthday. We were shopping for biscuit cutters, which we need because we have lost all of our cookie cutters. (I'm hoping that, if I say that here, I'll find them.) We decided to make do with some new cookie cutters that are larger than we would like, but which should do the job. Cara told the cashier that we were making biscuits.

In the afternoon, we drove down to Grandmom's house. Cara got to stay there, while Steve and I went out with Uncle Jim to a concert. We all slept over. Cara had, of course, a really great time. They played Play Doh and played with Legos and read books, and Cara exercised all of her prodigious delaying skills in getting to bed at nine thirty.

1/4/09 (Sunday)

We had a fabulous morning with Grandmom and Grandpop and Rusty. Grandmom made waffles, which we all enjoyed. After breakfast, we all went over to the park, where Rusty had a walk while we played at the playground. I hadn't brought Cara any mittens (bad Mommy!), so Grandmom lent her her gloves and Cara ran around with giant blue hands. She was still a good climber, though I was slightly more nervous than usual. They joined us at the playground, and then we all walked down together to see the geese on the pond, where they walk around on the patches of ice. Cara got a piggy-back ride from Daddy.

We hung around and played all morning; they had a very cool Lego set out. It was a gas station, complete with pumps and hoses, a lift to elevate vehicles for the mechanics to work on, and a nice office with a desk. Cara liked to put one of the little men at his desk when there were no cars to be worked on. There were two cars and a tow truck. The two cars had a man in front who appeared to be in some sort of uniform; one was a fireman and the other may have been a police officer. In the back, each car carried a girl who was brandishing a large cleaning implement. They were really ready for basically any emergency. When we were drawing, Grandmom punched a hole in one of the papers to let the tow truck hold it up. Cara insisted that that would make it a lot easier to work.

I think it was after we had left Grandmom and Grandpop's house and were having lunch that Cara told us how she sometimes gets mad at Puma. "Then I stomp on him," she explained. !!

Though it was nap time, Cara stayed awake the whole way home. It got kind of hot in the car, and she and I both took our coats off. I think that was what prompted her to announce that she was going to put on her Curious George T-shirt when we got home.

We got home, and Steve and I went back to the car to bring things in. When we came back, Cara was nowhere to be seen. Was she in the bathroom? We found her in her room, triumphantly naked except for her Curious George T-shirt. I'm not really sure how this happened, because Steve took over, but it's not hard to imagine how Cara wound up spending the next five hours wearing her T-shirt with the pink tutu that Grandmama bought her a few weeks before Christmas. She did eventually decide to put on her tights, so that she could be a ballerina, and later she was willing to put on a sweater.

It's tough being a parent! After dinner, I let Cara have some candy (having earlier said, maybe after dinner). Then, I said no more. She wanted more, more, more, more, more. She kept asking and I kept saying, politely, no. I suggested clementines as an alternative. She decided to distract me by twirling around a little and cuddling up. I was being worn down. I was close to giving in. Then she asked, "Can I have a clementine?"

Steve got to give the bath, and now they're up there sneakily brushing Cara's teeth. This whole let's-surprise-Mommy/Daddy thing is really awesome!

Reading to Cara, I got to a page that mentioned bees. "I don't like bees!" Cara cried. I always try to advocate for bees, so I explained that bees do a very important job for us, helping the flowers make fruit. Without bees, I said, we would have no food. "Only candy," added Cara regretfully.

1/5/09 (Monday)

On days like this, when it's the first day back to routine after a long time off, I have come to expect an easy morning with Cara. Not so today: she was quite unhappy at being woken up a little after seven this morning, and let me know it. However, after that inauspicious beginning, we had a calm morning. Cara ate all her toast at the kitchen table, and we watched Diego save Christmas. I understand that Cara had a good day at Susan's along with the other kids.

This evening was pleasant, all of us I think feeling rather glad to be back in our routine, but also happy to be home again. Cara and Mommy went to the library in the afternoon and got lots of new books, which we have been attempting to use as a motivator. Cara decided she needed lots of wash cloths so that she could put large numbers of girls to sleep in one of her dollhouses. She wanted more and more wash cloths. They got put away in the dollhouse for future use. Then she got in the tub and wanted something to wipe her face with. A wash cloth! Fortunately there was still one left in the bathroom.

1/6/09 (Tuesday)

I was very excited yesterday when Cara described to me the book she wanted from the library. There was a black and white kitty, who was angry, and then the lady got a dog, and the kitty was angry again. I had to do some questioning to get that much information, but I was able to figure out, eventually, that the book was Bad Kitty. Well, they don't have Bad Kitty in the Edison library. We got other books. Later that evening, I told Cara to tell Daddy about the book she wanted. "The kitty was angry," she said. "Oh, Bad Kitty?" said Steve.

One of the books that Cara chose herself is a Halloween book. This was one I read to her in the library before we came home. There are two children; their mother is going to be doing something in the Halloween party at school, but she won't tell them what. They go to the party, and, after looking everywhere else, they have to go into the Haunted Hallway. The little boy is scared. At the end is their mother dressed and made up as a witch, lying in a coffin. Frankly, I thought that that was a scarred-for-life moment: your mom in a coffin. Cara, however, found it very reassuring. "It's just their mommy!" she cried. I can see her point of view: that scary thing in the coffin is just your mom. That's her favorite book. She's heard it about four times now.

On the way home from Susan's, Cara told me she wanted to read the Halloween book. I one-upped her: I handed her Bad Kitty, fresh from the North Brunswick library. (Guess what two books Steve's reading to her right now.)

Cara and I got right to work when we got home and made biscuits. Cara did some scooping and some leveling some sifting and some sticking of fingers into things. She did some rolling out and some cutting out. Then she wanted to eat some dough. Then some more. And more. Last piece? OK! Then some more. It got to the point where I called my mother to see whether Cara eats half of the dough when she's there. (Answer: No, she gets distracted and runs off!) At the end it was kind of convenient, because there were tiny scraps left over that I had nothing to do with. There's nothing bad in the dough, it just seems kind of yucky.

We made biscuits in six different shapes. They turned out good!

1/7/09 (Wednesday)

This morning Cara woke up on her own, which was good for me, because she definitely doesn't like it when I wake her up. She is hard to wake up and unless you keep bugging her she will just fall back asleep again. I had to put my foot down in the morning and tell her there was no time to make a fairy on the computer. This upset her, so I didn't feel like putting up a fight when she carried Puma outside with her. Susan said that Puma could come as long as Cara was willing to put Puma down at "clean-up time."

Unfortunately, Cara was apparently not willing to put Puma down at clean-up time, so as of today Puma is officially blacklisted from daycare. Cue the dramatic music! Perhaps Cara will learn some kind of lesson from this.

Anyway, this evening was playdate night over at PJ's house. The kids wandered off not long after dinner started, and Cara and PJ were soon upstairs dropping little foam rockets through the railing. They also did some spinning in the office chair, and Cara called PJ upstairs to his bedroom--so they could jump on the bed. (When I came up the kids took turns jumping off the bed into my arms. It wasn't my idea!) Ron also claimed that PJ wanted to play "doctor" with Cara, using his new doctor's kit. (Ron and Em did not feel like opening the kit tonight, so we avoided this adventure.) We got to see PJ and Casey's video game system, which is a lot like Cara's except that it involves pedalling a bike. Cara played it a little and did fine.

I witnessed PJ and Cara talking to each other, which they are doing very reasonably these days. Cara was asking PJ questions about his trucks, and he was responding. It was nice.

PJ wanted us to stay, but we had to get home and take a bath. Cara left with the promise of a clementine when she got home. Clementines are great motivators for Cara, and Mommy has been successfully using them as dessert food for the little girl.

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