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| Previous Week | Back Home | Next Week | Journal Key: Green = Steve | George = navy | Janet = Purple | Evelyn = Black 6/25/09 (Thursday) Hooray for children who sleep until well past seven! Perhaps thanks to my prediction that she would be up early, Cara slept nice and late. She then managed to watch Peter Pan in its entirety before I took her to Susan's. I suggested that she tell Susan about Peter Pan, but we've been listening to my best-of-the-eighties cd in the car and instead Cara told Susan about her favorite song, "Karma Chameleon." Susan is also fond of it. After we got home in the afternoon, Cara helped me put new sheets on the beds. I told her she's a much better helper than Shelby, who tends to get in the way in these operations. Cara remembered that we have in the past used her to scare Shelby away. Now, however, I reminded Cara, she wants to be friends with both cats. In pursuit of this goal, she is trying, when she remembers, not to scare them. This idea has not been communicated to Puma, who still frequently jumps at the poor creatures. (Yesterday, Puma got a time-out for jumping too much in the living room. She gets awfully excited.) At bedtime this evening, Cara and Steve had to go downstairs looking for Puma. Cara spotted her, explaining that she had seen "a flash of brown." This inspired a song: Cara: Puma's a flash of brown! A flash of brown in my eyes! (Puma, are you a flash of brown?) Puma: (Yes I am!) Cara: Puma the flash of brown! 6/26/09 (Friday) Cara came home with Grandmama and Grandpapa after a delightful lunch with her Red Bank/Middletown relatives. We decided that we would take Cara for a trip to Deep Cut Park which has a gorgeous koi pond and was a major photography spot on her parents' wedding day. We also showed Cara the Japanese trees where her mommy and aunt Claire loved to play when little. Somehow Grandmama had talked Cara into a shopping trip to buy the makings of a fine salad for our supper. This went well, and then on our trip home (we took the slow road), Cara fell sound asleep in her booster seat. Cara's sickness kicked in and she became uncomfortable with suggestions: 'Let's make cookies?' "What kind?" 'I don't like chocolate chip.' Grandmama shows no perturbation and casts about for an alternative. "gingerbread" 'Can I have a gingerbread girl?' Grandmama begins to hunt for ingredients and substitutes. After great creativity, she has a bowl of gingerbread almost ready for the oven when 'I want chocolate chip.' Then we offered ice cream but it would not do. I went out and bought ice pops which were okay for about three minutes. Then Grandmama said 'I think we should start getting dinner ready.' This went smoothly, hot dogs were to be the main course and but 'I don't want any salad.' This was the high point of my evening, and Grandmama bore it very well indeed. After dinner, we watched the rest of the exciting movie followed by a bath, followed by three books/stories and amazingly, Cara was snug in her bed before nine P.M. Our usual morning followed: pancakes, a run around the neighborhood, a puzzle, more art, more crafts and then a trip to the best destination ever: home. One note: three weeks ago, we took Cara on an expedition to buy a goldfish. On that day, we bought two goldfish and a figurine of a mermaid/princess/scuba diver and introduced them into our long-standing cold-water tank. A minor tragedy: some disease must have been introduced into the tank and all the fish died. At one point last evening (I think) Cara looked into the tank and said 'There's my princess/mermaid.' and not a peep about the fish! 6/27/09 (Saturday) Yesterday the little girl got a sleepover at Grandmama and Grandpapa's house. Today we visited Grandma and Grandpa! Cara is still just a little sick, which meant that she coughed every once in a while and slept in the car going both ways instead of just one. But she had a good time, and as an added bonus we got to see Uncle Jim and Aunt Sarah too! We were outside for a little bit and got out the sidewalk chalk. Cara drew an otter. It was totally recognizable and very impressive. She also drew a nice castle with a flag on top in the belated Father's Day card we gave to Grandpa. Later we all did some coloring book coloring, and the child played a little "Break the Ice." She took to hammering the poor little guy right off of the ice before even getting to knocking all the cubes out. Puma has also gotten very frisky lately, flying through the air and as often as not coming dangerously close to our live cats. It has caused Evie and me to describe Puma as a "rascal," to which Cara objects. She claims to know what it means. I have doubts. 6/28/09 (Sunday) Cara and I headed south again today to have a girl day with Aunt Sarah! We let Uncle Jim come with us for lunch, though. The high point of lunch was when Cara got Sarah to take her to the potty. It's an awfully nice restaurant, and apparently in the largest stall, which Cara generally chooses, there was a full-length mirror right across from the toilet. It was perfect for dancing! Sarah got Cara to pull her shorts up after just a little bit, though. At the mall, we did some important shopping. Sarah and I both got jeans, and we worked hard to get Cara about six shirts. She was a trooper about trying things on. I'm very glad we'll have some tops that fit, because she dressed herself today in a skort that is a little bit too big and a shirt that actually was very well coordinated but which was a size 3T. The amount of time during which skort and shirt met was negligible. I found a shirt that did better, but we definitely needed more! The biggest excitement at the mall was that Cara spotted a gumball machine. It was full of big gumballs. Since she was so good about the clothes shopping, I let her have one. We got red. She popped it into her mouth. Sarah and I were both concerned about how in the world the candy shell would be broken, and we suggested that we all sit on a bench until things got settled in there. On the way to the bench, though, the gumball popped out, solid and whole. Maybe next time . . . 6/29/09 (Monday) Cara made an interesting observation this morning when we were watching Peter Pan. During the scene when Wendy meets Peter, she becomes so happy that she decides to kiss him. He has no idea what a kiss is, and so she tried to show him. This upsets Tinkerbell so much that it gives her twice her normal strength and she is able to escape from the drawer she's been stuck in in time to pull Wendy's hair and stop her. Cara is concerned that, had Wendy managed to kiss Peter, she might have changed him. My first thought was that he might lose his childhood innocence and invulnerability. However, Cara was thinking of fairy tales in which princesses kiss, for instance, frogs, turning them into princes. I'm not sure Cara could figure out what Peter would become. Quite honestly, I'm not sure either. Tomorrow is Cara's last day at Susan's, and we made cupcakes to bring. They're funfetti ones, with sprinkles in them. (It's our first time.) It was very difficult to get Cara to eat lunch. Then she had a cupcake. Then she wanted another one. I put it off to later. We both took a nap. She wanted a cupcake. Not yet. Things went on like this for quite a while. She let me take a little nap after I painted her nails, so we each had another. I was pretty sure I couldn't get away with not having one with Daddy after he was home, but somehow all she could come up with to ask for after dinner was a clementine. It was her fourth of the day. I didn't remind her of the book Pinkalicious, in the middle of this cupcake uproar, but I may if it continues tomorrow. 6/30/09 (Tuesday) It wasn't hard to get Cara to go to Susan's today, since we were bringing cupcakes and presents! We got a coloring book for each kid, and yesterday we made heart-shaped labels to put people's names on. Cara decorated them with stickers. I wish her stickering technique were better; she likes to put them all overlapping. She also put a ton of stickers on the outside of the gift card we got Susan, which was nice. Cara just came to show me a scratch on the back of her leg. I was kind of at a loss for what to say. Me: You're a brave girl not to cry about that. Cara: It really hurted when I got it! Me: When did you get it? Cara: I don't know. I think everyone had a nice party. The kids liked their coloring books, and Susan gave Cara a backpack; it's her tradition when someone leaves. I'll miss Susan. One neat thing, though, is that Cara's kitty came home! It's a small white blanket with a kitty head at one end and essentially a kitty butt at the other. That's what Cara used to snuggle with, so we sent it to Susan's, years ago, for her naps. I remember looking around for a replacement! Cara brought it upstairs to meet Puma and Deesta; she introduced them politely, and now they are friends. They had some wild times this evening. Cara's pretty excited about preschool, though. We packed her lunch box. I did groceries, so I was prepared. She has a mozzarella stick, some blueberries, some goldfish crackers, and some rolled-up slices of ham. For dessert, there's chocolate pudding. Because I was scared that wasn't enough, I stuck in an extra cheese stick. Her bottle is full of apple juice. I've made sure she understands where her spoon is. She has a napkin. The whole thing is in the fridge. Cara helped me make salad. She was thrilled when I suggested salad, which makes no sense because she doesn't eat it. She did help peel the cucumber, and then I let her cut it up, using a real knife. I held the cucumber and I held her knife hand, but she really drove, so to speak. She cut thick slices, which at first made me think that was all she could do, but then she went back and cut each slice in half. Half of the cucumber went into the salad, and the other half was for Cara to eat. She did. We did have occasion for me to remind Cara of the important lessons that we can learn from Pinkalicious. If she eats too many of these cupcakes, she posits, she may turn chocolicious. I agree. Like a chocolate bunny, perhaps. Oh, how she would hop around! Still, could she just have one more???? Last night, for some reason, when I got Cara out of the bath I called her my little peach and told her she smelled like a peach. She agreed that she did. (I asked what I smelled like. The answer: Yucky.) This evening, when it was time to get her out, she asked me to call her my little peach. I obliged. We gradually got her dried off and ready for bed, and she picked her little cupcake pajamas, which was awfully appropriate. I called her "little cupcake." This, of course, was a ridiculous thing to do. "No, Mommy, I'm a peach!" 7/1/09 (Wednesday) It was very easy to get Cara to head upstairs for the bath last night. I just mentioned how important it was to be clean and beautiful for preschool. This morning, when I came back from an early blood test, she was dressed, ready, and bouncing. It was a quarter to eight. I did her hair, and she was off. She grabbed her lunch box, she went downstairs and put her shoes on, we went outside and took a couple of first-day-of-preschool photos, and we were off! She even buckled herself into the car. When I parked in Highland Park and we got out, Cara basically jogged down the sidewalk, occasionally stopping to wait for me. There was a moment of shyness when we got in, but another girl was painting and the teachers invited Cara to join her. I went off and paid, and when I came back through on my way out, I had to get Cara's attention to say goodbye. She gave me a big smile and a nice wave. She was busy. I picked her up around four. She was bouncy and happy, not just because I had come. She jumped up and down with joy when I asked whether she'd had a good day. She had a good nap, she had fun playing, and she liked her teachers and the other kids. She remembers the name of one other girl, whom she likes. Did she meet any nice boys? No. While we're not getting a lot of specifics about the day, there was a general air of great enthusiasm. Oh, so, how was lunch? She ate ham, pudding, goldfish crackers, and one blueberry. No cheese sticks. Hmph. Cara is upset because her strange cat-blanket-thing is at preschool for her to nap with. Tomorrow we will bring it home. For now, Steve had to draw a picture of it. A couple of notes from the past: Yesterday, we had meatloaf for dinner. Cara had meatloaf in one compartment, corn in another, cucumber in the third, and one empty compartment. This was a problem. She asked for a couple of things we didn't have, and then she asked for honey to dip her meatloaf in. We were not forthcoming. Eventually, I made her a deal. If she tried one peice with ketchup, I'd let her have honey. (Wendy's serves honey as a dipping sauce for chicken nuggets, which I think puts this into perspective. A little.) At first, she balked. I scraped off a little ketchup. She tried it. Then she was ready for honey. Also yesterday, I sent Cara to Susan's with her hair in braids. When I picked her up, her hair was in pigtails. "It was just too slippery!" said Susan. I have been saying that for a long time. It is too slippery. I feel vindicated. | Previous Week | Back Home | Next Week | |