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Journal Key:

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

2/12/09 (Thursday)

When Cara and I got home, Juliana was outside. We went over to visit. Cara, of course, toured the house. She insisted on going into all of the bedrooms. In one, there was a set of tiny perfume bottles on a dresser. Each had a different-colored pair of birds on the top. Guess what: Cara got to pick one! (Guess what: I'm not really sure where that is right now! I think I'd really like to know.) She also got a bracelet to grow into, which she did not actually ask for or even mention, and she got to pick out a ribbon from the sewing basket. All of this was hard to carry home, since Juliana also gave her a book.

Cara, as is her habit of late, drew her family on the back of her project from Susan's. This time, for the first time ever, she has a little sister, instead of a baby brother. Very interesting. (Also, hearing Cara talk about her fictitious younger siblings is a lot less painful than I had thought it might be after a miscarriage.) Since I'm steadfastly rooting for a sister rather than a brother, I'm quite pleased. I've been trying to talk Cara into this for months, with what was apparently no success. Clearly, though, it was percolating.

When we came home, our big job was getting Cara's Valentine cards ready for the big party at Susan's tomorrow. First I had Cara write her name in the from section of about ten cards. On some, I couldn't tell at first that she had done it, because after the C she somehow turned and wrote up rather than across. She managed, though. I printed a list in all-caps of the names we needed to put on the envelopes. After we'd done a couple, Cara got the hang of it and I didn't have to keep showing her which letter was next. Of all the names besides PJ's, The one she's closest to being able to read is Casey's. It was a lot of work, but Cara did do all of the writing on her cards for this year.

Hanging around after dinner, Cara wanted some music to dance to. She and Steve put on the Wiggles. Soon, though, Cara was dissatisfied. She wanted something else. She chose some truly excellent Genesis.

2/13/09 (Friday)

This morning when Cara got up she told me she wanted to stay home today because she was sick. I told her today was a very special day that she wouldn't want to miss: it was the Valentine's Day party at daycare! Cara began bouncing on the bed, eventually explaining that it was because she was so happy. She had to go and get dressed and ready to go. She carried her little pink bag of valentines into Susan's house and was ready to give them out right away.

Tonight we had a party with PJ and Casey, to give Ron and Em a break. The kids all had a good time. Evie spent most of the evening with Cara and Casey, who played a lot downstairs and even read some books. I spent almost the entire evening playing video games with PJ. He has incredible stamina for playing video games in general, though next to no stamina for playing any one specific video game. We switched games a lot; I think he liked taking them in and out of the console. I drew the line at fighting games but we played almost every other Super Nintendo game that I own.

PJ accidentally spilled chocolate milk on himself (and his Spiderman figure) early in the evening, and so needed new clothes. I found an old pair of brown sweatpants for him from Cara's closet, but PJ and I were at a loss for a non-girlie top. He eventually chose an aqua green sweater with a big floppy turtleneck collar. Evie laughed when she saw him, and thought he was ready to play Puck in A Midsummer Night's Dream. His parents also cracked up when he came home.

2/15/09 (Sunday)

We drove Cara down to my parents' house yesterday and dropped her off there, then continued down to Baltimore for a little get-away. Cara had a fine time with her grandparents. Apparently they watched the Grinch movie four times. She acquired a tiny troll doll that she discovered somewhere. She kept her grandpop busy enough that he went to bed at the same time she did--around 8:45. She was up early this morning and performed a rather shameless non-nap for them in the afternoon.

When Evie and I arrived at around 3:30 she was bouncing around the house with a back-scratcher in her hands, wearing (at her own insistence) the exact same outfit she was wearing the day before. At her mommy's prompting, she thanked my parents for letting her stay, and without prompting added "I'm so glad I got to come to Grandmom's house."

She predictably fell asleep on the way home. We watched some Curious George in the evening and Cara dressed one of her girls as a "superhero." Then the girl had to save a bunch of other dolls in distress. Then somehow or other Mommy had the idea of finding movies of hula dancers on the internet. She and Cara watched a few of those with interest.

2/16/09 (Monday)

The highlight of our lazy Presidents' Day, which all of us had off, was Cara's trip to the dentist. (We prepared for the trip by brushing her teeth to get all of the goldfish crackers out of it, and then Cara put on sandals, her coat, and a pair of mittens. Perfect!) Though Cara has been to the dentist before, this was her first trip to this particular dentist, a woman named Doctor Chao. I had to read pretty much every book that the waiting room had to offer while we waited. Just before us was a little boy. Partway through his visit his mother came out to the hallway and described very clearly on the cell phone how her child had screamed and grabbed the nurse. "I'm going to be next!" Cara exclaimed, with some understandable trepidation. I explained to her that unlike the boy, she was just going to have her teeth cleaned, she didn't need to have any taken out.

As it turned out Cara did fantastic and there is nothing wrong with her teeth. The doctor was very quick and entertaining (she had what are probably the standard kid dentist jokes). Cara was shy but she was not uncomfortable and she followed instructions. She got to look in a little hand mirror and practice brushing her teeth, and she got to see her own teeth in the dentist's little mirror. After the short cleaning she got a big bag of teeth-brushing goodies, and then got to pick a sheet of stickers. She had some trouble making the decision. There were dolphins, baby animals, and various television characters. Cara eventually picked a sheet of glowing bugs. "I'm very surprised!" said the dentist. So was I.

The dentist asked us about what candy we gave Cara, and I listed some things. She recommended that we not give her lollipops, since they are a type of candy that has no nutritional value whatsoever. So of course, as soon as Cara got home she went right over to her Valentine's candy and asked for a lollipop.

2/17/09 (Tuesday)

Cara woke up crying around six this morning. She needed to go on the potty. She did; she seemed a little out of it. I asked whether she wanted to go back to bed, and she did. She was quiet and stayed happy and cuddled up, if not entirely asleep, until seven.

I was glad Cara was up, because I had forgotten to have her do Valentines for her friends whose parents I work with: Lina, Sarah, and Nick. I wrote out their names for her and gave her the envelopes. I explained that, if she wanted to write Nicky instead of Nick, she could add a Y. I didn't think she'd do it in the middle of other letters! What she ended up with was something like the sign for pi and then OK. "I'll cross Nicky's name off," she said, efficiently updating the list.

On the way home from Susan's, Cara announced that she wanted to go out. She wanted to go someplace. She wanted to go to the cold place. The cold place? The cold place. She repeated that a few times, and then she added that there was a lot of pepper there. There was a big pepper. Then I got it: Chili's. I got to explain to her the difference between the word "chilly" and the word "chili."

We decided to make biscuits this evening. Cara is quite the expert when it comes to using a knife to level scoops of flour. She helped getting out equipment and mixing things. I rolled out the dough, and she picked out the cookie cutters. The first ones we made were tiny men (they turned out to be girls, I think), and Cara said that that was all we were going to make. I was relieved that that turned out not to be so. We also made hearts, stars of David (I think I have a Hanukkah cookie set), things that could be either knights' shields (me) or badges (Cara), moons, and, at the last, ghosts. Cara ate some dough, occasionally remarking that this was the last piece she'd have. That was never true. She only stopped when, to her consternation, I used up the last of the dough.

2/18/09 (Wednesday)

Cara and Steve had biscuits for breakfast. Steve ate his, and then Cara came along for hers. He split one and got it ready for her. She ate half. The other half was for him. She wanted another. She ate half. The other half was for him. It was quite a breakfast!

PJ and Casey really love to get the mail. To make it more fun, Em and Ron prepared some "mail" for each of the three children, which consisted of an envelope labeled for each one and some m&ms inside. We had to wait until after dinner to get the mail. This evening, I drew eyes on my hands. The kids were somewhat surprised, but really they took it in stride. I spent a lot of time playing with PJ. We hung out in his room while he crashed trucks. I don't really understand boys, I think. Maybe not until they're about 13.

Twice I got to read Cara a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse book that really was about audiology and hearing aids and things. She now knows that Em is an audiologist. I got her to go upstairs and tell Em that it's great that she's an audiologist. I hope I remember to bring this up to Cara in a couple of days and see what in the world she remembers.

One of the Valentines Cara got had a tattoo in it. It was a pirate tattoo, from Pirates of the Caribbean. Cara has it on her hand. She loves it very much. She wanted very much to wear one of my yellow dishwashing gloves into the bath to protect it. We reassured her that it would stay on. I hope we were right!

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