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Journal Key:

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

6/4/09 (Thursday)

When I got to Susan's today, Susan explained that we had a problem. I prepared myself for the worst. When Cara had put her sneakers on to come outside to play, she said that one of them pinched. Maybe it was on the wrong foot. It wasn't. Emma had left already. When Emma leaves, her mommy carries her and just grabs her shoes. Emma has the same sneakers as Cara. I had come early, planning on taking Cara out shopping with me, but, with mismatched shoes, we just came home.

Tonight is an exciting night. PJ and Casey came over after dinner for a pajama party. Everybody got to hear about it all day. Casey invited Susan, who said she'd come if she could find any princess pajamas. Most days, when I pick up Cara, PJ asks whether he's coming over to our house. Today, he had a follow-up question: Would Steve wear his pajamas? (So far, no. We're in pajamas, and he's still got his tie on. Dress shoes, too.)

The kids are all in pajamas and they all have blankets and their lions or pumas, as the case may be. They have juice in sippy cups. I have my pajamas on, too, and we're watching Monsters, Inc. It's Casey's favorite. I let PJ and Casey pick their favorite movies and Cara choose between them. We're working hard on cuddling up on the couch and not making any mess anywhere. So far, so good.

6/5/09 (Friday)

Last night ended well; just as we were watching the credits to the movie, Em arrived to get Casey and PJ. Then we all went to sleep! Today Steve brought Emma's shoe back to Susan's, but we didn't get back Cara's sneaker. Oh well.

After daycare Cara and I went to a beauty supply store and I let her pick out nail polish. She got pink and blue. I had a very tough time talking her out of getting the hottest neon pink there. I did let her get some little decals for her nails, in return for her agreeing we'd paint them tomorrow instead of tonight. I'm sick again and just wanted to collapse. To facilitate this, Family Fun Night involved takeout and a viewing of Toy Story. Cara was new to the movie and enjoyed the happy parts very enthusiastically with jumping and dancing. Some parts worried her. We did fast-forward a few scenes. Overall, though, I think she liked it a lot. Now, finally, it's bedtime.

6/6/09 (Saturday)

Today was a "Stay-at-Home" day, Cara's favorite. Cara and I woke up early, and then I had to leave to go to the dentist. Mommy had made a deal with Cara the night before, that she could skip her bath that night if she promised to take one in the morning. They also planned to paint Cara's nails. Without Evie even having to mention it in the morning, the child came into the bathroom and stripped for her bath. She was ready to get out of her bath without any fuss, because she wanted to get her nails painted. I returned (with muffins) and found a bathed child with painted fingernails and toenails. (She was very happy with them and throughout the rest of the day kept wondering and predicting whether people we encountered would notice her nails.) We had a nice Saturday morning breakfast. We did some chores in the morning, and Cara helped me water the plants right in front of our house that might not have gotten direct rain on them. We changed the gerbils' bedding, which Cara enjoys.

Mommy's sickness returned, as she mentioned yesterday, so once again Cara and I went out to the mall for our main outing of the day. Though I did end up buying Cara rides on the tiny train and the carousel in the mall, and though I did take her to the Playmobil store and bought her some soft pretzel sticks as a treat, I managed to avoid purchasing another stuffed animal. I did not let her go on the more expensive robotic animal ride that is now located right next to the train and carousel. I did not buy her anything from the Playmobil store. Even the dollar in quarters that we brought with us to use in machines did not get spent (mostly because we were at a mall that does not have any good coin-operated machines). Even with all these restrictions she still managed to have a good time.

In the late afternoon when I brought her home, I sort of laid around and let the child play with her toys. I found that while I was lazing around she put easter egg stickers on my sneakers and the back of my hand.

6/7/09 (Sunday)

Today our big adventure was when Cara and I took a long drive over to Pennsylvania for the christening of my cousin Andrea's daughter Lily (Cara realized with amazement this evening that Lily shares a name with one of her mermaid toys). Cara was very shy at first, with a lot of new and relatively new faces around her. She understood without having to be told that she had to be quiet in the church. There was a part of the service where all of the little children were supposed to gather together and have questions asked to them, but I wasn't sure whether Cara was meant to be a part of it, so we missed that part.

Afterwards, we went to Andrea and Dan's house. They had one of those inflatable bouncy castle things set up in the backyard! There were lots of other kids at the celebration, some of them Cara's own age. After a grown-up pointedly introduced to little girls to Cara, and suggested that they play together, Cara finally managed to overcome her shyness. Before long the girls were all upstairs in the house, playing with stuffed animals. Then they were playing hide and seek. Then they were outside in the castle again. Then inside again. There was maybe one moment where Cara decided to go and find Daddy and get some reassurance, but the rest of the time she was content to run around and play. "This sure is a great birthday party!" Cara commented, and she got a chance to show several people her nail polish, which must have pleased her immensely. When it was time to go, she did not want to leave.

The child slept most of the way home (having avoided a nap on the way there), and was quite drowsy and a little depressed upon waking. I think it must have seemed awfully boring to her to be sitting around at home after all that excitement! I cooked her some spaghetti for dinner--as we were leaving the party, Cara claimed that she had wanted to try the meatballs but had not gotten the chance (she did have plenty of other things to eat). I was going to try to get her spaghetti and meatballs for dinner, but when it turned out we couldn't easily obtain meatballs, Cara was quite happy with just pasta.

After dinner Mommy and Cara stepped outside to have a look at all of our plants and our garden. They met a couple, their dog, and their son, a boy named Steve (how confusing) who was probably a little younger than her. There was more socializing and playing. Cara had to show Steve her little parachuting guy. Steve spent some time running back and forth across the lawn, a la PJ. It was a good day for playing with other little kids.

6/8/09 (Monday)

There was a funny moment yesterday when Cara was playing outside with Steven. She asked Juliana whether it was okay to go into her yard. It was. I asked whether Cara wanted to take Steven with her. No, said Cara, explaining that he was inside washing dishes.

When I was saying goodnight to Cara last night, she reminded me of something. On Friday I had forgotten to go in and kiss her goodbye before I left for work. When she mentioned it to me later, I had promised to do it twice on Monday. I forgot all about it, of course, until I mentioned that I'd be in in the morning and she asked whether I was going to do it twice. Well, I did. I went in and told her I was leaving for work and gave her a kiss, and then I left and came back in and did it again.

I put two braids in Cara's hair this afternoon. It's so fine and slippery! When I took the elastic off in her bath, it instantly unbraided. She was excited about the braids, which were her idea, because she wanted to look like "Little Red" who is apparently very athletic and is super in some way because she can spell things. She's from Y kids. I don't know what that is. I'm not really sure who Little Red is or what she can do; Cara explained it to me in the car. She does have braids, though! Cara may wake up early tomorrow so that I can braid her before I leave.

Steve is reading to Cara. He came in to read to her, having taken out his contact lenses, and announced that he couldn't find his glasses. Cara was instantly ready to help. "Daddy, when were you when you wore them?" I heard her asking as I left. (Don't worry, I found them! It's very hard to find your own glasses when you can't see.)

6/9/09 (Tuesday)

Our dining room has become a very frightening place. The other day Cara brought down her Elmo couch and set it up all spread out and covered with stuffed animals. The two chairs from her little table were at the head, with a few more animals. It was sort of like a wagon, and those were the drivers. Today, that whole thing got moved over and changed around a little, and the hobby horse is leaned against the chairs and the actual dining room chairs have been taken out and an afghan is over them to make a tent. I admit that I helped with that part. As a whole, though, the room has become astonishingly full of . . . excitement?

We went outside after dinner and blew bubbles with the new big bubble wand Juliana gave Cara. Cara bounced her big ball into the bubbles to pop them, and she sang several lovely songs. One was about Juliana having given her the bubbles. Another was "Pop goes the bubble," though Cara got a little tangled up in those lyrics.

6/10/09 (Wednesday)

Yesterday Cara had a pretty bad day at Susan's, judging from her description of it. All evening she was fairly bossy and demanding. She woke up around midnight and wet herself in the bathroom. (I am glad we didn't have to change any sheets!) She woke up around two or two thirty, claiming that she couldn't sleep because I'd only read her four books. We put on her fan and her music and she went back to sleep. Adding all of this up, I could only conclude that she must be getting sick. I called Susan in the morning to warn her and let her know I'd have my cell phone on.

It never rang. Cara had a great day; Susan said I'd "brought the umbrella." I'm awfully glad to have preempted the rain!

I've had to braid Cara's hair two mornings in a row. I redid it before dance class today. It was the last day! I had taken Cara's pictures for her teachers and rolled them up into tubes tied with ribbon; I tied the gift cards I'd gotten them to the ribbon. Cara was really excited about giving them to Miss Nicole and Miss Megan. The other girls were intrigued by them and spent some time looking through the tubes before the teachers got there. It was a good party. There were cupcakes, and the kids got to play hot potato again. Cara refers to it as "that bean bag game" and she is very enthusiastic about it. They also did the hokey-pokey, which I wish I could have watched to see whether any of them really know their lefts from their rights.

I'm kind of sad that dance is over. Cara wants to go back to gymnastics next year.

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