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Journal Key:

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

 

1/15/09 (Thursday)

It was snowing this morning when we woke up! Lately I think Cara has been trying to get up before I go into her room. She doesn't like it when I wake her up. So a few days this week she has come down the hallway and found me still getting dressed in the bedroom, and this morning was one of those days. When we realized that it was snowing outside, Cara was very excited.

I went outside to start my car and get it warmed up, and on the way back into the house I slipped and fell in the driveway. (I was not injured at all.) I went inside and told Cara we would have to be careful when we went out, because I had just fallen. "On your butt!" Cara added helpfully.

This evening I met Cara, Mommy and Aunt Claire at the mall. As usual, when I was pointed out to Cara from afar, she came running up to me and I got to lift her into the air. It's always nice to get the Cara greeting. She had gotten a new restaurant toy, a set of Tinker Bell fairies on little stands. We went to a restaurant, funnily enough. Cara heard the word "soup" mentioned and just had to get soup. She was given a little taste of the special soup of the day and we decided to get her a cup of it. Immediately after we placed this order, of course, she decided that she didn't want the soup anymore. So it was a good thing we ordered her a grilled cheese sandwich too!

Cara has been very kissy lately. That is, she makes kissy noises at everyone, and sometimes actually kisses things, like cups and her sleeve. She told me this evening that Johanna at daycare does that too, so I guess that's where she got it from. To go along with this, Cara will often have this kind of conversation with us:

Cara: "Mommy!"

Evie: "Yes, Cara?"

Cara: "I love you!"

Evie: "I love you too, Cara."

Cara: "No! I love you better!"

And so forth. This may be adopted from the Loefflers somewhat, but really Cara has for a long time been expressing her love for us as a kind of default way of starting a conversation--sort of like commenting on the weather.

This evening was exciting because Aunt Claire was hanging out with us while we had our bath. Then both Aunt Claire and myself got to be surprised when Cara had already brushed her teeth. After she had gone to bed, I heard Cara making noises and went up to see her. She needed a boo-boo band-aid on her finger, which (as she had mentioned to me earlier in the evening) had a boo-boo on it. Since the boo-boo was invisible to me, I let the child apply the bandage herself.

1/16/09 (Friday)

Cara actually came downstairs to greet me this morning. Susan asked at the end of the day whether everyone on Nancy Circle had been up late last night, because apparently the kids were a little crabby today.

I was stuck in traffic and didn't get home until late. Dinner was late and then Mommy had to do some baking. Cara helped with the baking a little. Curious George was on until bedtime. While some mixing of ingredients was going on, Em called us. She wanted to consult with the most reliable historian on Nancy Circle.

"Can you ask Cara if Susan cut PJ's hair today?" Em asked.

I relayed the question. Cara nodded.

This was rather intriguing. We tried to elicit further information from the little girl, but without much success. The circumstances behind the hair cutting remain clouded in mystery. PJ (we are told) was in the "eating room." He had not gotten anything in his hair, though (we are told) Emma got lots of stuff in her hair.

1/17/09 (Saturday)

At gymnastics today, the first thing Cara's group did was swing on the rope: they did the best thing first! The Nancy Circle crowd did take at least four trips to the bathroom; we hope not too many other people were trying to get in. Cara wore her Puma outfit today. She also selected and put on her white, slightly frilly dress socks. They have no non-skid stuff on the bottom, so she did some fun skating at home later. I'm not sure how they affected her performance at gymnastics. Actually, I left her alone when she was putting on her socks. As I left, I heard her muttering something about butterfly shoes. I totally forgot that her butterfly shoes were sandals! She came downstairs wearing them over her dress socks, ready to head to gymnastics in the snow, the ice, and the ten-degree weather. She proceeded to trip three times in as many minutes, possibly because her shoes didn't fit anymore. We convinced her to put on other shoes for the trip out.

Today, Grandmom, Grandpop, Uncle Jim, Aunt Sarah, and Aunt Claire came over for a big lunch! To my surprise, Cara did NOT help me make biscuits. She did help a lot with the eating of them, forcing Grandpop to painstakingly split them in half before buttering them. (Next time, I have to make them thicker!) She also got out lots of toys, although really she didn't manage to make an awfully big mess. For dessert we had the pumpkin squares that Cara helped my make last night. She always talks about how much she loves pumpkin squares. To my knowledge, at least, she has never tried one. It's a good thing Grandmom brought chocolate chip cookies! She knows what little girls like.

1/18/09 (Sunday)

I made pancakes this morning, and at the end I made some little ones for Cara. She was utterly charmed because she noticed that after I cut them for her, we could put them back together and they looked like circles! Fascinating.

It snowed a little in the night, and we went out to play in it as well as to shovel. It was very powdery snow, but we still managed to make a few snowballs. After I handed Cara the first one, she cried, "Let's have a snowball fight!" I managed to sort of get one together for myself, and we threw them at each other from about five feet apart. We may both have missed, or at least they just bounced off of us. We could re-use them! I was just glad Cara didn't remember the game she played a few weeks ago when it snowed: it was called Snow Belly, and it consisted of Cara throwing snow on my belly and yelling, "snow belly!" Juliana joined us, and we all made snow angels and went sledding. Cara went through three pairs of mittens, because hers are the kind that get coated with snow. The first thing she did whenever I got her a new pair, of course, was to stick her hands into the snow to get them covered thoroughly. Then she ate the snow off.

For lunch, the whole Nancy Circle crowd went out. The bathroom count: Cara-1, Casey-0, PJ-3. Juliana wore her pink sweater and got some compliments from Cara. She also began to talk in a higher-than-usual voice, because she claimed Cara was contagious. Cara very much enjoyed her corn dog; PJ borrowed a stick that had been in an ear of corn so that he could also eat from a stick. Em impaled a chicken finger, but that was no good: he needed a French fry.

Cara announced in the car going home that she didn't want to take a nap. We put her down anyway, and she went to sleep. She really went to sleep. It was date night, so when four o'clock rolled around we wanted to get Cara over to PJ's house. I spent literally fifteen minutes waking her up. She would roll over and scream and scream and kick and flail and sleep some more. Finally Steve picked her up, still screaming, and put her on the potty, where she kicked and screamed. We took her off, pulled up her pants, and left. In about thirty seconds the screaming stopped. We heard Cara move her step stool over, wash her hands, dry them, pick Puma back up, and come out, a normal, though subdued, child once more.

It was a great night at PJ's house. They did some drawing, and we had to bring Cara's pictures home to finish. She was not satisfied, because in our family portrait I am the only one with a body; everyone else just has a head. There is a head for Steve, one for Cara, and one for her little brother. Em reports that the little brother has a name, but it's a secret. I do wonder how much of this is me, because I have asked her in the past about having younger siblings. (How she felt about having them, not whether she did have any.) I don't think I've brought it up in the past six months, though. I'm picturing Cara going to kindergarten and having to draw a family portrait and still putting in a sibling she does not have. That'll take some explaining.

The bedtime routine (knock on wood) seems to be running well. Cara knows what she has to do at every step. Today she decided to surprise both me and Daddy by brushing her teeth by herself. As usual, it was not entirely a surprise; she announced it very clearly. I supervised from a polite distance. Things seemed to go quite well. What a big girl! It's a little scary.

1/19/09 (Monday)

Here is a story from yesterday's playdate, which I think is best told by Em. This is from her email!

PJ somehow got his shirt wet in the bathroom downstairs. He came out of the laundry room stark naked. Cara looked at him and laughed. I mean LAUGHED at him. Right when I was about to ask, "PJ, where are your clothes?" Cara popped out with "PJ *giggle giggle giggle* why are you NAKED? (laugh laugh laugh)"

PJ: "I'm not naked."

"Yes you are."

"No I'm NOT! I'M NOT NAKED!!"

Cara continued to laugh, PJ continued to be insistent and I eventually convinced him to at least get some underpants on.

Today was MLK day and both Mommy and I had off from work. We did not directly tell Cara this, but somehow she figured it out and requested that Mommy drive her to Susan's today. So that is what happened. It was a good quiet day, as a couple of the other girls were out. It was snowing almost all day today: the kids did not go out but they may well get to play in the snow tomorrow. It seems to be Red Riding Hood week this week, and Cara came home with a little basket of things to take to Grandma's house.

Tonight we did some nice coloring on the big paper that Cara drew on at PJ's house last night. Cara drew a wonderful little picture of Puma, with ears and whiskers and four legs (and a tail after I suggested it), and she even drew Puma's collar and leash, and made a very long curling line to get the leash to go all the way over the drawing of herself. Everyone has a body now--I helped a little.

Cara left dinner a little earlier than we did and spent that time trying to get Mommy to come downstairs by showing off girls that she had dressed. Before the bath Cara decided she wanted to play Candyland, so we got it out. She and I actually played a complete, almost entirely by-the-rules game. Fortunately, the cards happened to play out so that Cara won. "Cara," said Mommy, "When you win a game, it's nice to tell the other person: 'Good game!'" Cara said, "Daddy, I played a good game!" She then went on about how much she liked to win.

I made an attempt to assert that playing the game was fun, even if you don't win. That one may take a few years to sink in.

1/20/09 (Tuesday)

This morning we woke up Cara bright and early. We had only one car, so Cara had to jump in that car with us so I could drive Mommy to work. Cara was, as usual, not happy at being woken up, but managed to get over it fairly quickly, and got to have some toast in the car. Back at home afterwards, I managed to get Cara dressed and over to Susan's at a relatively reasonable time.

The kids, I hear, got to go play out in the snow today. Susan says it's just like going out to the beach, because they all get their pails and shovels: they even built "snow castles."

Today was inauguration day, so Susan put on the swearing-in ceremonies at lunch time. The speech ran a little later than she expected, so all the kids went to sleep, except one. Apparently it was only Susan and Cara watching Obama. Cara was interested and involved, wanting to know where Obama was, and happy to see when Mrs. Obama was with her children. I'm even told she mentioned George Bush.

I ran a little late in the evening and managed to get to Susan's just as Em was leaving, so Cara was the last kid standing. We had to get right into the car to go and get Mommy! Then we all as a family drove over to the Toyota dealership. It was touching. At dinner, Cara showed us how Obama held up his hand while he was taking the oath of office. Clearly she was paying attention. I hadn't gotten a chance to watch the speech, so Mommy found it on the internet. Cara came over and got in my lap, hoping to get to play some games, but instead we watched the speech on the computer. It definitely wasn't as exciting for her the second time around, since she asked me at every applause break whether it was all over yet.

Then there was the bath. After the bath, those hands came out. Lately I've been having my hands talk in their funny voices to Cara in the evenings, right after she gets out of the tub. The left one starts talking, but the right is unresponsive. Cara tries to get it to wake up, but eventually Leftie has to whack it a little. What follows is a highly funny discussion about who could possibly have woken Rightie. This evening we went through our whole routine, and then this conversation ensued:

Cara: Hands, I want to tell you something.

Rightie and Leftie: What is it?

Cara: I want to be a ballerina when I grow up.

Leftie: Really? So do I!

Cara: So does Puma.

Leftie: Wow.

Cara: My favorite color is pink.

Leftie: Me, too!

Rightie: I like gold and silver. (Rightie tried to make the conversation more interesting, but everyone ignored him/her.)

Cara: Puma's too. And my kitty Deesta's too.

Leftie: Maybe we should go see them.

Cara: (nods)

Leftie: Do you think your mommy would carry you?

Cara: (turns to me) Mommy, would you carry me?

1/21/09 (Wednesday)

Cara woke up this morning before I left, so I got to see her and say goodbye. She brought it up when we were on our way home from Susan's, reporting that Daddy woke her up by brushing his teeth too loudly.

Tonight was playdate at PJ's house. We brought a paper lantern that Cara made, which she apparently arbitrarily decided was for Casey. Casey was a little mystified. We also brought clementines, which remained in my pocket because Em served raspberries, strawberries, and cucumbers in addition to baked ziti for dinner. It was a good night.

Weeks and weeks ago, Puma, who used to be a boy, became a girl. You could ask Cara, "Is Puma a girl?" and she would say, "Yes, he is." Puma gradually really did become a girl. (Some people had a hard time with this. I personally was not enthusiastic about it at the beginning, but I became quite used to it.) This evening, I heard Cara referring to Puma as "he." I know that mistakes are occasionally made, so, to make sure, I asked whether Puma was a boy. "Yes," said Cara, "she is."

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