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Journal Key:

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

3/26/09 (Thursday)

This evening, Cara unmistakably made a Grammar Joke. After we brushed her teeth, I said, "OK, it's time to rinse you." In mock horror, Cara exclaimed, "My whole self?"

3/27/09 (Friday)

It was Family Fun Night tonight. Cara told Mommy that PJ is an American. Undeniably true! She also pointed out all of the American flags on the way to the restaurant. We went to The Olive Garden, a restaurant we haven't been to in a very long time--we didn't think Cara had been there at all, but Evie and I both remembered the children's menu when it was given to us, so we think we went to one when Cara was very little. It was a bit surprising when Cara chose to have the tiny pizza off the kid's menu, since she doesn't usually do that. But that's what she got, and she enjoyed eating it.

The second phase of Family Fun Night was a trip to the nearby mall to visit a Book Fair. Evie purchased young adult literature for her students, but also found a few choice kiddie books for Cara. The most popular so far, since it is the one we actually used, is a "fun with paper" book which showed us how to make a dancing ballerina. We'll be looking at that book a lot.

While at this particular mall, Cara sampled its highlights. It does not have a "Kidtown," but it does have mechanical rides, and it also has the bulk candy store which sells mini gummy bears. Evie suggested I take Cara down to the candy store while she continued perusing the book fair. Unfortunately it turns out that letting Daddy go into a candy store without another adult present is not a good idea. I purchased two heaping scoops of mini gummy bears, which is considerably more than is usually purchased. Cara downed quite a few but we did eventually manage to close up the bag.

Before we even left for the mall, Juliana caught us outside and managed to give Cara several more gifts. Ironically there were a couple more books, one a jigsaw puzzle book which entertained us at the restaurant. The other gift was a stuffed Curious George toy. It is slightly larger than our tiny stuffed Curious George, and slightly smaller than the ticklish, giggling Curious George (AKA "Daddy George"). We were trying to ascertain this new mid-size George's place in the family. Apparently he is not George at all. The last I heard he--or rather, she--was a big sister.

We were reading this evening, and Cara was running her finger along the mural on her wall. First she was making herself a twisted path through the trees by her bed, but then her finger ran up to a brown hill about as high as she could reach. She exclaimed that she had been in a cave. I asked, and she told me that it was dark and I had come and found her; I had a flashlight. I was looking for her lost teddy bear. She found it; she had a flashlight, too. A dragon had taken it. It was a bad dragon, a fiery red one. The dragon came to look for it and found nothing, so the dragon went back to its bed.

3/28/09 (Saturday)

The dancing ballerinas are a big hit. I have made a ballerina, a boy ballet dancer, and a butterfly. Steve has made a boy and a girl. They all have to be in Cara's room any time she's going to sleep. Each has a big paper spring attached to his or her head. It's thrilling. One up-side to them is that their creation creates far fewer tiny scraps of paper on the floor. Another up-side is that we have not been making them, day in and day out, for weeks.

It turned out to be a beautiful day today, so after Cara's abortive nap we went out to play. We started out playing soccer and ended up with a lot of balls in the front yard. The way we worked out that we can play soccer is that two of us stand at opposite sides of the yard and are goalies. The other one, in the middle somewhere, has the ball. The ball is kicked, it goes past the goalie, everyone (including the goalie) cheers, and then the kicker becomes the goalie and the goalie becomes the kicker. We tried playing bocce, which was a lot of fun when Cara won and very very upsetting when Daddy won. We also just ran around with balls. One interesting interlude was when we saw a foot-long earthworm trekking across the yard. He went to ground finally near our stone border, where Cara now believes an earthworm family lives.

We got cold and went in to have hot chocolate, but then Cara and I decided to go to the park. We walked. Well, we ran. We basically ran the whole way there, off and on. I was impressed with Cara's endurance. At the park we met a pair of twin girls a little younger than Cara. After the initial tentative meeting period, they all became good friends. The three of them ran around like lunatics, chasing each other and racing and climbing and sliding. I got to kind of stand around, as I've seen other parents do. Cara really loved it; it makes it very clear to me that she's kind of lonely. A lot of the time, grownups have to do things with her that she'd like to do with other kids. Not that she doesn't love our attention, but I think that we're not the only thing she needs. I'm really glad she's going to Susan's.

Eventually, of course, Cara headed back to the swings. The little girls followed in a bit, and one of them went on the big-girl swings. Earlier I'd asked Cara whether she wanted to try them. Now, she announced that she wasn't scared of them anymore! We went over and tried it. I explained about pumping, I pushed a little, and then I got on my own swing and we spent a couple of minutes swinging next to each other.

By now, I was definitely cold. We'd been there a while. Cara decided that it was time to go home. I am astonished to be able to say that we also ran home.

3/29/09 (Sunday)

We went to Sears today so that Steve could pick up some jeans. While he was working on that, Cara and I went off for adventure. We went down the stairs, and then Cara turned left instead of turning right, the usual way we go. She was looking for the "secret elevator." I do not know who first took her on the secret elevator, because I know I've never been on it before. Some salesladies offered to help us, but when I told them it was a secret elevator they made sure not to tell us where it was. Of course, the large elevator sign in front of me helped. There was also only one hallway to go down. We went up the secret elevator.

Then we went down the stairs, and then we went up the secret elevator. Then we went down the stairs, and then we went up the secret elevator. Then Daddy and Cara went down the stairs and up the secret elevator while I paid. I knew they'd returned to my floor when I heard Puma meowing in the distance.

This evening Steve had business on the computer, so I was in full charge from seven o'clock on. The child was in bed by 8:30. Hah! (I was motivated by her two days of naplessness. Otherwise, It'd have been more normal, I admit.)

3/30/09 (Monday)

We went to the library. Cara once again remembered and requested a book: she wanted "the dragon one, where the guy falls out of the tree." Why, it's Herb the Vegetarian Dragon! Unfortunately, Herb was out. We had to pick out other books. Cara just wanted three, with great emphasis. Fortunately, this turned out to mean three in her own hands, and I could have as many as I liked. I do like to get a selection, because we never really love more than half of what we get!

Steve worked late tonight, so dinner was late. Cara helped make corn bread. When we finally sat down, I was pretty sure I'd be jumping up in a second to make a hot dog (or two). Instead, Cara asked for some fish. She ate it. She ate some bell pepper, some broccoli, some corn bread, and some leeks. For the past week or so, she's been suddenly trying new things. I really hope it continues! She had seconds, mainly of corn bread, and then we had dessert, and then Cara had some more peppers and some goldfish crackers. Then she was late getting into her bath. Go figure.

After Cara brushed her teeth and Steve flossed her with her real floss, she suddenly, cried, "I forgot!" and started wailing, seriously wailing. What had she forgotten? It took a while to get it out of her. "I forgot to put my mouth on it!" She likes to suck on the floss a little. Apparently it's important.

3/31/09 (Tuesday)

This week we seem to have adjusted to the changing of the clocks, and Cara is back to getting up nice and early. This is good news for me as it means we make good time getting out of the house and getting to Susan's. I have been making bouncy girls in the morning, but they are an effective bribe for getting her to dress herself and such.

It seems that PJ and Casey have fallen in love with an a cappella version of our national anthem that Em happens to have in her car. They listened to it three times in a row and wanted more. Combine that with Cara's penchant for spotting American flags, and we have a very patriotic little neighborhood.

Cara did some good independent playing and some good listening this evening. She had an interesting idea about Mommy and Daddy dividing up the bath duties, and wanted us to trade off partway through. But she was okay with it when I did the whole bath. Even though she has a stack of new library books, and I only read two of them to her last night, she insisted on some old favorites tonight instead. Maybe I'll get to read some new books tomorrow.

The child has been shocking us lately by seemingly reading the titles of Curious George episodes off the TV screen. We realize that in all likelihood she has just watched the discs so often that she knows what comes next, but it's still a little unnerving. Also this afternoon Cara asked her Mommy whether "C, T, A" were in the word cat. Neither of us remembers coaching her on this recently, so that was pretty impressive!

4/1/09 (Wednesday)

Last night, we are told, PJ said to his mommy, "Let's play catch the girl!" and started running around the room.

At Cara's request I made pancakes for breakfast, including a Mickey Mouse head, and I made scrambled eggs. We left a lot of dirty dishes and managed to beat Em to Susan's.

Today was dance class day and Cara danced in the big room again. When I got home she was wearing her pink tutu and her underwear, and no pants at all. It was playdate night! I played some video games with PJ and Cara made some noises about wanting to play also, but wasn't interested enough to make a big deal about it. When it was time to leave, Em called for all the Loefflers. "Are you a Loeffler?" she asked Cara. Cara was offended. "I'm not a Waffler!" She couldn't come up with Genzano. She did manage to attempt a pronunciation of "Elizabeth" though.

Cara made me a "pie" in the bath when she put a washcloth over a tub that had several toys floating in it. I pointed out that it looked like a pie, and she insisted that it was a pie she had made for me. She kept offering it to me, and finally I did what I guessed I had to do: I pretended to take a piece and eat it. "Yucky!" cried Cara, showing me that it had toys in it. I asked whether this was an April Fools, and she decided that it was. Then I asked her to get up so that I could wash her, and she wouldn't. I told her very seriously that she would get no stickers at all tonight if she didn't stand up right away, and I could see her about to get stubborn. "April Fools!" And she laughed and stood up.

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