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Journal Key:

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

1/8/09 (Thursday)

Cara and I stopped at the supermarket today. I had suggested that she should try peeling a cucumber, so, when I picked one out, she insisted on carrying it around the store for the next ten minutes. It was supplanted only by the next thing she wanted to carry, a package of hot dog buns. When we found a set of hair bands I wanted to get her, she put the buns in the cart and traded up.

At home, Cara opened her hair bands by herself, even conquering a twist tie. She played with them while I got things cooking, and then I reminded her about the cucumber. She brought her chair to the sink, and I showed her what to do. Then, I left. That made it harder for her to give up! She managed to pretty much peel about half of it, which I thought was pretty good. I finished up the peeling, and then I asked her whether she wanted to cut it up. She's very leery of knives, so her automatic answer was no. Then, she thought about it, and nodded vigorously. I gave her the knife and let her cut the ends off. I cut the thing into two long halves, and Cara cut those halves into chunky half-moons. She did the whole thing!

Steve went to the gym this evening. When he got home, we were watching Tinkerbell. At the end, the following conversation occurred.

Daddy: Cara, we'd better go brush your teeth.

Cara: No, Daddy, you stay here. Mommy has to brush my teeth, and we'll surprise you.

Daddy: (whispered) Cara, couldn't I brush your teeth and we'll surprise Mommy?

Cara: (whispered) Ok!

Daddy: (aloud) Well, I have to go . . . organize my books. (gets up from couch)

Mommy: Is Cara going to help? Ok, in a few minutes I'll come up and brush her teeth.

Cara: (from stairs) No, Daddy's going to brush my teeth and we'll surprise you!

. . . And they did.

1/9/09 (Friday)

Cara is wearing hair bands these days instead of barettes or pigtails. She got some "hand-me-ups" from Casey, and has gotten excited about them. I put one in her hair this morning, which mysteriously broke while she was at Susan's house. "It popped," Cara explained later. Hmmm. In the evening we all met at the Menlo Park Mall for Family Fun Night. I took a few minutes to try on some jeans. Cara was very adventurous and spent a lot of time running ahead of us in the mall. We were constantly trying to correct her general direction. Mommy gave her a handful of change which she could spend as she wished at the coin-operated toy/candy dispensers. She was disappointed to get repeat Care Bears, but she also had enough left over to get some tiny glow-sticks, which were exciting.

We had dinner at the food court, where each of us got food from a different place. Cara dropped her Nathan's hot dog and Mommy had to get another one. The little girl ate that hot dog, and then wanted another, but we couldn't face going back to the place and buying a third hot dog.

Also at the mall, Mommy took Cara into one of those frightening stores for young girls that are full of mirrors and glittery makeup and hair styling products, and they got some more hair bands. (I spent this time safely ensconced in a men's shoe store with a pair of very distinguished shoe salesmen.) Cara came home in my car and had to suffer through listening to my music, which she did with no complaint after her initial claims of "I don't like this song."

On Saturday Cara is going down to Grandmama and Grandpapa's house for an extended sleepover visit, while her parents go off to New York City. So no journal tomorrow! Stay tuned.

1/11/09 (Sunday)

Yesterday morning I took Cara to gymnastics, where she was irrepressibly bouncy and jiggly. Even stern warnings from her teacher about sitting still did not really deter her from pounding her feet on the mats in between turns or other similar maneuvers. She discovered the full-length mirror and spent some time waving at herself. I also was proud to hear the teacher tell another student to "Watch Cara and see what she does" when it was Cara's turn on the balance beam.

After gymnastics we went to the pet store and did some shopping, and the little girl got to look at all the critters. She understood that when a habitat was empty it was probably because someone had bought the previous occupant, like when we bought our gerbils. We established that she did not like the couple of giant, hairy tarantulas the store offered--I had to agree.

After that we hurriedly packed, got in the car, and before long Cara was on her way to Grandmama's house and Evie and I were on our way to New York City. While we were walking in the city, Cara was running around in various Middletown parks. I am also told that Cara got to use her sled--she even went on the sled by herself!--down a pile of wood chips in the back yard. It was a very independent weekend for Cara, and she did a lot of things for herself. In an odd turn of events, Grandmama's specially made macaroni and cheese was rejected by Cara, who preferred to have a hot dog.

When Evie and I arrived at the house, some time past noon on Sunday, Grandmama was busy cooking up some pancakes, which Cara was fortunately very willing to eat. Before long a football game started, so Grandmama, Mommy and Cara piled into the car and went off to Monmouth Museum. Cara is an old pro at this place now and did a lot of running all over. She managed to walk over a rope bridge, something that has been scary in the past, and went down the big slide which leads to the surface of the Moon many, many times.

The football game was still not over when the little girl returned, and so she patiently colored and kept amused until we finally decided to go back to our house and see how the kitties were doing. Cara naturally fell asleep in the car and when we stopped to have dinner it took a lot of work to wake her up. Fortunately the promise of a corn dog was enough to stave off the post-nap hysterics, and when we did at last arrive home she was ready to set up a tea party for all of her girls.

We all had an exciting weekend and I think we are all ready for a good night's sleep before returning to the weekly routine.

1/12/09 (Monday)

It's bitterly cold out. It was still cold inside when we got home, but soon enough it was back up to a balmy 68. Cara was wearing a sweat suit. Soon after dinner, she decided she was too hot. "I'm going to put on my yellow pajamas!" announced Cara. Off she ran. In a few minutes, she was back. She was wearing yellow pajama shorts with a little yellow short-sleeved pajama top. She proceeded to run back and forth between the living room and the kitchen enough to actually coincidentally keep herself warm.

I don't remember what we were talking about, but for some reason Steve had occasion to say, "'plotted against us.'"

I asked Cara what Daddy was referring to. "Bad Kitty!" she cried. She was quite right.

"That was an allusion," I told Cara. "When someone makes a reference like that, it's called an allusion."

"And when you wear your pajamas like that," added Steve, "that's called a delusion."

Cara got out her big foam blocks this afternoon, and she got Cinderella and the couch from the dollhouse. She put Cinderella on the couch and built a house around her. It looked like a large, colorful, bomb-proof bunker. You really couldn't see Cinderella inside. When it was clean-up time, I suggested that Cara put away those blocks. They stack neatly inside a plastic case, and she's never actually done it on her own. Today she did. She lined up the blocks neatly, making sure the layers were all even. Every block fit.

1/13/09 (Tuesday)

A couple of weeks ago, I related how Cara spent a wintery evening wearing her Curious George T-shirt and her tutu. I didn't put in that I was very surprised to find Steve putting on khakis and a button-down shirt on a Sunday. Cara had asked him to put on his work clothes so that he could dance with her. (I did get a little sappy at that point, because it was just like what her wedding would be like. Em and I, of course, during the next few days, discussed such important topics as whether the groom would wear the Big Yellow Hat during the ceremony and whether we'd serve anything but bananas. Em hopes Steve wears his work clothes to Cara's wedding.) When I told this story to people, they berated me for not taking pictures. Don't worry, I told them, I'll have more chances. Well, indeed I did. Cara spent the entire evening in just her tutu and CG shirt, happily running around. She did a little dancing with Daddy, and I took a couple of shots. No really good ones yet, but it's a start!

While I was cooking dinner, Cara asked me to make paper bears. Tiny ones. I ended up a with a strip of paper less than an inch wide, but I just folded it up a lot and went to work. I soon gave up on the bears idea and made "dancers" instead. Cara got out her markers and started coloring clothes on them. The first one on the left was herself, wearing pink. Then she explained who a few others were: the farthest one was her Aunt Nancy from Florida, dancing. Grandma Anne was there, too. I was next to her, and then Daddy, and then her "boy," the brother she intends to have. He's wearing red. He really likes red. There are several dancers left; I can only imagine who they will be!

1/14/09 (Wednesday)

The other dancers have all been assigned. I believe that Cara colored the next one this morning; it's Gene from across the street, whom Cara is clearly fascinated with though she is unable to speak to him in person. Gene is wearing a yellow Curious George dance outfit. We're all in Curious George clothes, except that you can't see the Curious George. Next come Casey, PJ, Em, and Ron, and then there's Aunt Claire and then Grandma Anne and Aunt Nancy. Not everyone has been colored yet, which comes in handy when Cara's asking me to cut out more dolls. It keeps her busy.

It was playdate night here this week. After dinner, Steve set up Cara's video game. He and PJ ended up playing, predictably. PJ's pretty good at it! He's able to do some things I've seen Cara having trouble with. He stood right up in front of the TV, though; it was funny! While the guys were doing that, Cara and Casey had clementines with me and Em. Casey played with Cara's upstairs dollhouse, and eventually Cara disappeared downstairs. She called us to join her, and Casey and I went down. It turned out it was time for the girls to have a party. Casey got to have a couple of girls and try to put shoes on them. I can definitely see Cara and Casey spending a lot of time playing together in the future!

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