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Journal Key:

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

4/23/09 (Thursday)

Today Cara woke up before I left for work. I thought I would have trouble getting her to get off my lap, but suddenly she did get up and went into the bathroom. Strangely, she shut the door behind her. I went and got my ID and coat on. The door was still closed. I could hear Cara inside, talking to her mermaid. I went and got the paper, which had come late. The door was open. The water was running full-blast. The mermaid was lying in the sink. Cara was stark naked, her pajama pants and underwear on the floor. She was holding up her shirt, which she carefully spread out on her step stool so that she could stand on top of it.

At that point, I went downstairs, told Steve there was a naked child, and left. I figured I had a good enough story already. Steve emailed me later. He had gone up and showed her how to work the stopper on the sink. She had eventually turned off the water, when she felt it was full enough. She had carefully wrapped her mermaid in a washcloth and put her to bed in the water, and there the mermaid was when I got home.

This morning, Cara did show me that Deesta was sleeping on the little couch in her room, covered neatly with a blanket. Puma was sleeping in her bed/box, with another blanket. Nothing, though, I think, could really have prepared me to walk into Cara's room this afternoon to find Sleepy Bear, my old (male) Care Bear, worn from years of love, tucked away to sleep in the case of a little doll pillow, wearing Deesta's very pink, very sequined, very low-cut dress. Nothing.

We went to the library. I am excited to report that we have put our first hold on a children's book: Herb the Vegetarian Dragon, which was out last month, was still out this month. We are on the waiting list. We did manage to find a few other books that might be okay. After we got our books, Cara wanted to play computer games. I let her. Literally. We sat in two different chairs and she used the mouse to play both the game where you design chickens with hats and boots and the assembly line makes them and the game where you help visitors to the lagoon find "fripple guides" based on the descriptions they give. Not only was she using the mouse well by that time, but she was finding what people wanted more quickly than I expected.

When we got home, I had to make dinner. While I was getting settled, Cara told me, "Mommy, I want to be with you! Like a customer." I had no idea what she might mean. She repeated it a few times. When I finally got into the kitchen, there she was at the table, coloring the tiny paper dolls I had made her at work, waiting for her meal--just like a customer in a restaurant.

4/24/09 (Friday)

This morning when given a choice between two outfits, Cara rather perversely chose the outfit both Evie and myself had tried to get her to wear on Earth Day. Lately dressing has been rather tiresome for us parents, because whenever we make a suggestion to Cara about what to wear it is roundly rejected without the least consideration. This I hope is not entirely just a spirit of contrariness, but at least in part is a desire for independence and having a say in her choices.

On the other hand, I've noticed in recent weeks that when I choose something for her or tell her what we're about to do, she will say "That's just what I wanted!" as though I had somehow read her mind. In this method, instead of rejecting our choice because it is not her own, she decides that our choice was in fact hers all along, and takes control of it that way.

This afternoon I was finally able to leave early from work and got home almost simultaneously with the rest of the family. I wanted to stay outside in the beautiful weather when Evie went to chat with Juliana, but the child wanted to stay inside and have paper dolls made for her. Eventually I coaxed her outside (after having made said dolls) by going outside myself. Evie got out our unusual "touchable" bubbles--a very thick and sticky form of bubble solution which creates bubbles that dry in the air and can be caught and touched and stacked. While we were playing around with bubbles, a three-year-old girl whom we've met a while before was attracted to the exciting scene and convinced her aunt to walk her over to us.

Cara and Patrice, the young lady, spent a lot of time blowing bubbles with each other, and then a little time drawing with chalk on the sidewalk. At one point the two girls very politely swapped bubble wands, and seemed to get along nicely. Eventually Patrice had to go--Cara was too shy to say goodbye, but when she got in the house she very carefully took her little chairs out of the game room and hauled them up onto the sofa in the dining room. It seems her idea was that she and her new best friend were going to have a party later by sitting on the sofa and using the chairs as tables.

4/25/09 (Saturday)

It was a beautiful spring day today, with summer-like weather. Evie and Cara got out early and did some work out in the yard, and I came out a little later to clean out my car. The Loefflers strolled over and soon the three kids were wandering all over the place, in and out of the house. PJ coaxed me into a game of "Samus." When it was time for them to leave, PJ very agreeably shut Samus off and went with his mommy.

We Genzanos went on a bit of a lunchtime adventure. We all strolled over to a nearby cafe to get food. Cara was a bit whiny about the whole thing--much as I would have been when I was a youngster, I'm sure. She complained that it was too hot, and wanted to be picked up. However we made it, ate some lunch in the sun, and purchased a nice cool treat from the cafe's handy freezer case. We walked home in the hot sun with our various cool items. Cara had a multi-colored push pop (the orange part of it Cara guessed was "carrot" flavored) which eventually took a dive out of its container (I blame myself for pushing it too far up!). It was okay that Cara got a little push pop on herself, however, because after that we all got into our swim suits and got out the Backyardigans sprinkler toy! The water was very cold, but the sun was hot, and we had a nice time running back and forth through it.

Our outside activities have a way of attracting company, and eventually the Loeffler children came over in their own swimsuits to share in the fun. By that time the water had been running for a while and there was an excellent mud puddle right by the front walk, which all of the children enjoyed jumping up and down in. When we had all had our fill (actually, PJ wanted to keep going), the Loefflers ran off for a quick wash, then returned for more playtime.

For dinner we decided to continue our outside activities, and I fired up the grill. Cara helped me set up her bouncy horse toy, and we lugged our glass table up the hill and had hot dogs in the sun and the breeze. Then we had ice cream cones! The Loefflers were outside again, but they didn't notice our ice cream cones, so we didn't have to share with them.

Cara topped off her lovely day with a bath filled with mermaid toys. Then she got her books read to her. We have a new set of library books right now, a couple of which are Halloween-themed, because Cara seems to be naturally drawn to that subject for some reason. Her favorite seems to be one about a witch who wins an award for having the scariest house on Halloween. Go figure.

4/26/09 (Sunday)

We did some more highly successful yard work today, and Cara really enjoyed using the hose. She was a great helper when it came to watering things, and of course she was very industrious when it came to washing the bucket I'd been carrying rocks in. She happily filled it up with water, saying, "I want to be Jill." When it was full, it was too heavy to carry, so I got to be Jill. Fortunately, I was able to skip the "tumbling down" part. We played Jill enough that I gave all of my favorite plants an extra drink.

Yesterday, when we were running in the sprinkler, Cara got pretty wet. Her favorite activity, though, seemed to be moving her towel around, spreading it out on the ground in a variety of places, lying on it, wrapping herself up in it, running around in it, and walking on it. There was a lot of time when the sprinkler was running all by itself. Today, I made the mistake of mentioning using the sprinkler again. Within half an hour, by ten in the morning, Cara was in a swimsuit, ready. The front yard was still muddy. Instead of using the sprinkler, we just got the hose back out. I'd run it for a little bit, and I'd use my thumb to make it spray. Cara would run through, and, when she ran off, I'd turn it off until she came back. It was perfect. The child got nice and drenched, and the yard didn't get drowned. The towel, however, did have to go through the wash again.

This afternoon, we went to Grandmama's house. We had more water fun, even getting out the wading pool. Cara ate an entire ice cream cone (usually she eats half and then gets distracted), but Grandmama and Grandpapa had to use spoons to pick out the chocolate chips. Actually, that only happened when Cara noticed them; I'm pretty sure she ate quite a few without seeing them. She also got to do some painting, and she used a gold marker to draw herself and me (she got Grandmama to draw Steve). She cut us out and brought us home, which led to us fielding strange comments from the back seat such as "I can't reach myself!"

When we got home, Cara noticed to her moderate distress that she had forgotten to bring Grandmama the picture that she had decided was for her. I am also slightly disappointed, because Cara told me yesterday that these particular pictures were to be sold to Grandmama and to Grandmom, and I had been eager to see what that entailed.

4/27/09 (Monday)

Back to the old grind! Cara wanted to continue sleeping this morning when I came up to wake her, so I puttered around downstairs for a while, then returned. By that time she was busy trying to get herself into a dress that she and her mommy had looked at the night before. It turned out that in just the dress Cara was quite chilly, it having cooled off during the night with all the windows open. So we added pink sweatpants to her outfit, and socks, and then a light jacket when that was not enough. I figured that as the day went on she could strip off layers. We had a pleasant breakfast and finished our morning with a reading of Witch Bazooza (the current favorite library book--and I mean current: it is being read to her right now).

This wasn't just any old Monday, though. For a while Cara has been making noises about going to Chuck E Cheese. She was quite disappointed just yesterday when it turned out we weren't going there. So this evening Evie and I gathered up our courage and our steely willpower and met up at Chuck E Cheese's. It was all worth it, because the child had a blast. She ran around the place, shot up the platforms into the tubes, shrieked and laughed. Evie instigated a conversation with me wherein we talked about how Cara could get herself into a cage-like box above our heads and wave at us. Cara took the bait and within seconds was waving enthusiastically down at us.

We ordered a medium-sized pizza, which is not particularly large but is cut into ten slices. Mommy, having a strange aversion to Chuck E Cheese pizza, declined to partake. Cara and I shared it between us. In fact, we literally split it, because Cara determinedly and emphatically downed five pieces, one after the other. While chomping down the fifth one, she generously allowed that I could have the last piece.

They have somewhat reorganized the games and rides, and Cara got to show me some of the alterations. She used to ride constantly on a very old-fashioned mechanical horse, which has now been replaced with a horse-riding video game--not really an improvement, but still fun. She several times ran off to a ride, got herself all buckled in, and then started calling "Daddy! Daddy!" so that I would come and put a token in it for her. It was a good thing Evie could hear her calling, because I couldn't. Actually Cara was much more independent than she's ever been at the place, and her parents spent a bit of time comfortably sitting at our booth.

It was a very active and food-filled adventure, and we got home just in time for the bath. Cara wanted Mommy to give her a bath, which is what usually happens (I like to think that she likes it when I read to her, and that's why Mommy does the bath). However we have been trying to teach Cara that she is not the boss, and that sometimes we the parents get to decide who does what. So I stood firm and said that I was going to give her a bath. The end result was that I got angry and Cara put on a very impressive tantrum. I'm not sure if anyone learned a lesson.

4/28/09 (Tuesday)

It's a good thing I stopped at home before I went to pick up Cara, because there was an important message on the phone: the book we had on reserve at the library was in! We went right away to pick up Herb the Vegetarian Dragon. Cara was very, very happy to get it.

When we got home, though, Cara got her first sight of our new landscaping, which is very very beautiful and with which we are all very happy. (I do plan on taking pictures of it soon.) We dumped our stuff in side and came back out to play. While I picked up rocks from the lawn, Cara got to use the hose to water the plants. I helped by counting to ten, as per our instructions, while she held the hose on each in turn. Having thoroughly watered the new plants, Cara continued and watered some of my bulbs by the fence, the tree, some of the grass, and her own shirt. Then she watered my shirt. Then she went in and changed clothes completely.

This evening we got to spend time with all of our neighbors, we cooked out, we ate outside, and then we had ice cream cones. I don't know whether life gets better.

That was quite a tantrum Cara threw when Steve gave her a bath last night. This evening, though, he gets to. "It's sure an exciting night for you, Mommy," Cara told me. "You get to read to me."

4/29/09 (Wednesday)

Last night Cara found a skort in her summer clothes drawer and wanted to wear it. Evie had a long conversation with her about how it was going to get cold tomorrow, and how the skort would have to wait for a warmer day. This morning, when I returned to Cara's room after an initial visit that started her crying loudly (I guess she didn't want me to come in), she had picked out her clothes: her tie-dye T-shirt and the skort. I stressed to her that it was a chilly morning, but I didn't have the heart to put my foot down--we brought a spare pair of pants to Susan's. We also brought a portrait of Cara by Chuck E Cheese, which the child had decided she needed to show to Susan.

After a somewhat whiny dance class, Mommy and Cara arrived at the Loefflers for playdate. When I got there the kids were amusing themselves downstairs. Cara predictably put away her hot dog rapidly and wandered off. After dinner the kids had some popsicles and then somehow decided to play leap frog. Not sure how that happened. Cara will probably never be able to outrun PJ, who is a quick little guy; but she can out-leap-frog him.

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