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Journal Key:

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

5/7/09 (Thursday)

This is the pajama entry.

The other night, somehow we decided to make cookies after dinner. Steve and I were cleaning up in the kitchen. Cara announced that she would get her "pajamies" on. The next thing we knew, before we could protest or remind her about her bath, she was halfway up the stairs, singing to herself about pajamies. She brought them down, along with clean underwear, and proceeded to very slowly change while loitering and dancing around the kitchen and living room.

She's really been taking her sweet time getting her pajamies on this week. This evening, I got her shirt ready to go onto her. I asked her whether she wanted to be a big girl or a little girl. "Big girl!" she said, coming over to let me put her pajama shirt over her head and help her with the arms, just like a . . . little girl. We also did the pants cooperatively. I'm not sure what kind of big girl operates like that. I was hoping for speed and independence, and all I got was speed. I'll take it!

5/8/09 (Friday)

When I got to Susan's, Cara handed me the Mother's Day gift they'd put together and told me she loved me. Susan had been working on "Happy Mother's Day," but that was a pretty good substitute. We headed home, and I put my stuff down and went upstairs. Cara asked me whether it was Mother's Day. It was not. My gift was for Mother's Day. I asked whether she wanted to hide it until then. She did. So, I'm not sure where it is. I hope she remembers.

Cara and I went to the dance tonight. We went after dinner. Before dinner, we had the following conversation at least twice.

Me: We're going to eat soon.

Cara: I'm just not hungry.

Me: Then I guess we can't go to the dance.

Cara: I'm hungry now!

Finally we got ourselves dressed up and headed out! Cara wore her blue dress from Easter. Deesta went with us, because she was dressed up, too. Cara was very excited to see all of the dressed-up people, and they were very excited to see her, but it was a little overwhelming. Mostly Deesta meowed instead of Cara talking. I was just happy to get so show off my daughter to my co-workers!

Nicholas was there! He and Cara had a really, really good time running around together. Ramps are a lot of fun, and the cafetorium has some big ones. They ran up and down, and they played tag. I think Cara really appreciated getting to play with someone slower than she is. We went to the potty in the teachers' room, and (it was all Denise's idea) we photocopied the kids' hands. They loved it. I'm horrified.

Cara did a lot of dancing, and so did Deesta. Deesta eventually got very excited, of course, and started jumping. I was not surprised. I personally thought that Deesta's dress makes her look like a prostitute, and it only got worse when Cara took her dress off of her and spun it around.

It was very, very loud at the dance. I don't like dances. Cara does, though! It was her favorite part of the day. I'm very glad we went.

5/9/09 (Saturday)

Today was Cara's 4th-birthday checkup at the pediatrician. It was a day of many adventures, only some of which had to do with peeing. The first adventure (which did) happened right when we got to the doctor's office. We got a little sample cup and headed to the potty. When I explained why we were there, Cara was very alarmed. After I explained how it would work and sat down myself to demonstrate, she felt much better and decided it was funny. I guess, after she'd put so much effort into being potty-trained, the idea of just using a cup instead seemed pretty strange. The whole thing went fine.

She was weighed and measured; she's in the 95th percentile for height and 75th for weight. She may have been 42 and 5/8 inches and about 38 pounds. I really should have written that down. Cara got her eyes checked! I held an envelope over one eye while she looked with the other at the chart and pointed to show which direction each E was facing. Her vision is great. The part of the visit that she didn't like was that she had to wear a paper gown. It had jungle animals printed on it, and there was a little belt we tied it closed with, but it was still not comfy. She was very happy to get her clothes back on afterwards.

We went to Barnes and Noble in the morning, just to hang out. We went to the potty. I took Cara in with me. The following occurred:

Me: Cara, are you looking?

Cara: Well, I couldn't see anything.

Me: Well, good!

Cara: Because you have such a big tushie.

(I do apologize for putting my tushie in here, but I thought it was pretty funny.)

Cara had many ideas for fun things we could do in the afternoon. Her ideas were that we could go to the mall, or go to the bouncy castle we saw outside the grand opening of my new drug store, or go to Chuck E Cheese. After lunch, she had another idea. "We could go . . . " she came to whisper where in my ear, "to visit my grandma in Florida!" We ended up staying home and doing chores, but it was still fun. Cara played with her girls a lot. My favorite part is when one says to its mother, "Mommy, could we go to Chuck E Cheese?" and the mother, usually Snow White, says, "Yes, darling!"

Because we're pretty busy tomorrow, I got taken out for Mother's Day this evening! We went to a Chinese buffet. Cara ate a slice of pizza, half a hard-boiled egg, half a dozen shrimp, another slice of pizza, a little chocolate pudding as a consolation prize because there was no more pizza, some red Jell-o, another slice of pizza, and then, after some hard begging, a little bit of Daddy's ice cream.

We went out to the car. A couple of weeks ago, Steve tidied up his car. He took lots of junk out of it, and he vacuumed. I opened Cara's door, and she looked at the floor. The empty, clean floor. "I don't think this is our car!" she exclaimed, apprehensively. We pointed out that her seat was there, and we showed her other things that were ours (pens, for instance). We convinced her to get in. As we pulled away and, in fact, all the way home, we could hear that little, worried voice: "I reawy don't think this is the right car!" When we got home, we took her around to the back to show her the Genesis bumper sticker and to assure her that the license plate is the same as always. Steve has explained the key system to her. He's explained that it may have seemed to be a different parking spot because the cars around it changed. I'm not sure she's convinced.

5/10/09 (Sunday)

I had a wonderful Mother's Day; I hope that you did, too! We had a busy, busy day. In the morning we drove down to Grandmama's for brunch. We got to see Aunt Claire, Aunt Theresa, Uncle John, and GiGi. Cara ran around and had fun, making sure to have extra-loud fun whenever she was out of our sight, hoping to tempt us into coming to play with her. After brunch we drove all the way down to see Grandmom and Grandpop. At their house we played with a cool activity book Grandmom got Cara in New Mexico; it had colorful pictures with lines for us to cut on, so Cara got to use her little scissors. We also played outside, and Cara got to try out badminton. Floyd was there, and, to our surprise, after Cara ran at him squeaking for a while he got up and ran after her for a little, sniffing at her. It was a pretty playful reaction.

Cara handed out Mother's Day cards to Juliana, me, Grandmama, Aunt Claire (plus one to take to Casie), GiGi, Aunt Theresa, and Grandmom. She still has one left for Em and one for Susan. I let her carry them all around in the cloth bag that Juliana made her for Easter; they fit perfectly. It was a day of great celebration.

We got home around nine. We're all tired now!

5/11/09 (Monday)

Cara's favorite thing to watch these days is Crazy Quilt, a birthday present DVD from Shannon and the twins (mostly the twins, I understand). I seem to remember Shannon apologizing when we unwrapped it, and I am beginning to see why. It's a Canadian television show in which a woman and her puppet raccoon friend create paper crafts and use them to tell a story. It's endurable the first few times, but becomes steadily more grating with each repetition. Cara can't get enough. The only comfort is that she has not yet evinced any desire to actually make any of the things on the show.

This morning, after our dose of Crazy Quilt, Cara decided that she would bring one of her girls to Susan's. She had been handing them out, possibly this morning, and had told me I was "so lucky" because I got one of her magnetic girls. I let her take the girl in the car without comment, but by the time we got to Susan's Cara had decided to leave the girl in my car. So she came with me to work, and arrived home in the evening to find a happily skipping child in a pink frilly skirt.

We are amazed to find that Cara honestly likes brussel sprouts. Mommy made them for herself for dinner tonight, and I made a pasta/chicken/veggies dish. Cara had no interest in the pasta and wanted a hot dog instead, but she just had to have some of Mommy's brussel sprouts.

Before we were done dinner, PJ came by to show Cara his big rocket toy. When we were done eating we came outside and got a chance to launch it a few times before it broke. We learned that Casey is almost ready to graduate to underwear! We're all very excited. Casey celebrated by telling Evie her favorite knock-knock joke. I will record it here--we've probably already mentioned it in an earlier entry, but it's best to make sure.

"Knock-knock."

"Who's there?"

"Watermelon sky!" (though it comes out sounding more like "watermelon guy"; which is silly because that just doesn't make any sense!)

I hope you all got the punchline.

5/12/09 (Tuesday)

Today I picked Cara up from Susan's early to go into New Brunswick to rehearse for her dance recital. Clearly, we don't take her there often. I know she was in New Brunswick for a carnival once, but that was probably the summer she was two. Today, before we were into the city proper, she was exclaiming at the height of buildings. She enjoyed the parking deck very much, as well. It felt weird to walk with her in a city, because crossing the street is so different.

The State Theater is big and beautiful, but it's not as big as I was afraid it would be. I've really only been there a couple of times before. We sat down in the audience near a few other girls from our class (and their moms) and hung out to wait. Our group was the first one called; they seemed to have organized the rehearsal differently from the show. Off the girls went, up onto the stage, and disappeared in the back for a few minutes. Soon they came out in their line and got straightened out by their teachers, and then their song started. The teachers did the dance in the wings, so it was funny to watch the girls all dancing while staring studiously off to the side.

Cara has talked about being nervous about this show, or, at least, she talked about that a couple of weeks ago, but there was none of that today. She smiled while she was up there, and she loved being on the stage and in the theater. I helped her change into her tap shoes, and soon she got to go and practice that, too. The whole thing really was a lot of fun.

5/13/09 (Wednesday)

During the past few weeks, Cara has been reluctant to go to dance class. Even today, she told me a couple of times that she wanted to go home. Finally, I got her to tell me why. It's because the little back room they dance in is "too small." She would rather dance in the big front room. I asked whether they have to make two lines in the back room. Yes, they do. Is Cara in the back line? No, the front. Still, the room is just too small. Class, of course, went great!

We went to PJ's for dinner. Between when we headed over and when we got home, I got some time to myself; Cara played on her own for almost an hour. I did have to help her dress one girl in a princess dress. When it was time to go, they were all dressed up and none of them were in princess dresses. Three of them took their shoes off and came with us, and the rest all got put away. I was happy.

After dinner, we went outside with ice pops. David came by. He is, according to Cara, "the best tickle-monster!" He had all three kids running around, giggling hysterically. They wrassled and tackled and had a fabulous time. Cara was very sad when it was time to go in, and she picked being tickled as her favorite part of the day.

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