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Journal Key:

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

9/3/09 (Thursday)

Cara and I are quickly getting back into our non-summer routine of getting up, having breakfast, and fighting over when to turn the television off so I can get her to preschool. Actually this morning Evie and I were crossing our fingers that Cara would be willing to wear the outfit that Mommy had picked out the night before. Evie had already left for work and I was thinking that I'd really have to go upstairs and get the girl up when I spotted her coming downstairs. She was wearing nothing but her pajama top, and she wordlessly continued downstairs to the other bathroom. Cara is generally not very communicative in the mornings, so I never even considered asking her why she felt she had to remove her shorts and go all the way downstairs to go to the bathroom. But after that she went right back to her room and changed into her clothes, so all was well.

This afternoon Cara went shopping with her mommy so they could get her some Fall clothes. Now she has new pants and shirts and picking out clothes hopefully won't be difficult. Cara even tried the clothes on in the store. She seems to be much better about shopping for clothes than I ever was.

With our new school-year routine, Cara can no longer shower with Mommy in the mornings, so right now we are back to baths. Tonight I gave the first bath I've given in quite a long time. There were many, many mermaids in attendance.

9/4/09 (Friday)

Today Evie and I both had off of work. We neglected to tell this to Cara, because she was heading off to preschool. We did pick her up earlier than usual, so that the three of us could go down to Grandpop's house and take him out to dinner for his birthday (Grandmom is currently off in New Mexico). (A teacher at preschool remarked that Cara spent all day drinking lots of water. "She really likes water!" I found this a bit odd since at breakfast and most other meals she drinks very little fluids at all.) I have discovered very recently my wife's talent at drawing a great variety of pretty dresses for princesses. She drew a great many today for Cara and, I believe, managed to avoid repeating a dress style. Cara likewise did an excellent job of coloring and decorating the dresses--some had kitties drawn on them, or bears, and some of the princesses got to have teddy bears, which Cara added with a stamp.

Grandpop got to be somewhat involved in the princess coloring, since the paper travelled around with us everywhere today. At dinner we were all surprised to find that Cara was given a little length of dough which she was encouraged to shape into something which would then be baked into bread. All of us played around with the dough, including Cara. She requested that it be turned into a "kid," so I made a feeble attempt at pulling out arms, legs, and a head. It got baked and was given to Cara along with the little pizza she had ordered for dinner. She ate a couple of pieces of pizza, claimed that she was done eating, and moved right on to the bread-kid. This was her "dessert." She ate the whole thing. (We also ordered a piece of chocolate cake to share--this she did not like at all.)

After dinner it was getting quite late in the evening, but we let Grandpop show us a fun little computer game that he found. In the game you have to build a cake based on a picture, matching the shape, batter and icing colors, and the topping. Usually Cara just makes us play computer games while she watches, but this time Grandpop got her in the chair and had her control the mouse. She did good! Hopefully this will give her more confidence using the mouse in general. Though on second thought, I don't want her to learn to use my computer all the time to play games. That's Daddy's job!

9/6/09 (Sunday)

Yesterday after an exciting morning and early afternoon doing chores, we relaxed for a bit. Cara's tidying skills have improved and she helped take things off of the floor so that Mommy could vacuum. In the afternoon Grandmama came and whisked the child away for an action-packed evening. They went out to dinner and once again took a trip to Atlantic Highlands to play on the playground, look at the boats, and have ice cream. On the way home, they drove by a fireman's fair and saw a big Ferris wheel lit up against the evening sky. While Grandmama and Grandpapa were admiring the view, from the back seat came "What the.. What the... What the--heck?" This is something the child is trying out lately.

The child's main concept of humor is, of course, slapstick related. When she is trying to be funny, she will lightly smack herself in the head, or pretend to fall over, saying "I'm so silly!"

This morning, before her parents got down to Middletown, Grandmama and Aunt Claire took Cara out to the fields to go raspberry picking. The pickings were a bit scarce, but Cara remembered the experience from last year and perhaps made some progress at being able to tell which berries were ready to pick.

Mommy and Daddy were at the house in Middletown when the ladies returned from their berry-picking, and we all had lunch--GiGi was there too! Cara was once again entirely uninterested in dessert. Lots of people drew mermaids and princesses for Cara, so many that I was free to draw some monsters instead. In the afternoon we all drove over to Theresa and John's house for a dip in the pool. It's getting a bit late in the year for the pool and Cara had to take some breaks to get into her towel and shiver. It was an exciting couple of days for her and she was quite exhausted in a short time, so we packed her into the car and drove off. She did eventually fall asleep, but waking up was not bad, and we all had a nice dinner and are now curled up in front of the TV.

Tomorrow we will get to play with PJ and company for the first time in a while, and probably do some grilling!

9/7/09 (Monday)

Today was Labor Day and our last day of summer vacation before Mommy and I return to full time work and Cara starts full time at her preschool. We had a very lazy morning, just sitting around. Our plans with the Loefflers fell through and we finally went out to do some errands at around the middle of the day. One of our tasks was to buy a first birthday present for someone we know. Cara thought about this and suggested that we buy a "squeezy toy" or two. A dog, a cat...a rat. I pointed out that we had a better chance of finding a squeezy rat toy at the pet store--by good luck, we were also stopping there. Somehow we emerged from the pet store without buying any squeezy rats, however.

As it is Labor Day, we took the opportunity to pull out our little charcoal grill and cook up some dogs and burgers. While I was working on the fire, the ice cream truck was driving by, and--well, it is the last day of summer. Cara got an ice cream Dora head on a stick, her usual choice. Since we had a charcoal fire going, we also had to toast marshmallows. So we had a nice time. Dinner was early, so we have had lots of time this evening to find ways to amuse the child. Evie has put in her time drawing princesses today. We've played computer games, watched movies, and right now mother and child are working on a game or two of Candyland. I think Evie and I both have a stressful time playing board games with Cara--each of us hoping desperately that the laws of chance will allow us to lose. But it's also important, of course, to show Cara that sometimes she will lose, and how to lose well.

It's been a busy summer. But now that we're all back to the grind, I might take a break from being the journal-writer!

The trouble with Candyland is a fundamental inner conflict that Cara faces: She wants to win, but she also really wants to draw the card that will take her to the land of the lollipop fairy. Sometimes these two desires work together, but more often they are in direct opposition. We played four games. I won three. Cara did get somewhat upset after a while, but it was really less because of losing and more because she hadn't gotten her fairy card. She had found it before we started the first game and carefully positioned it at the very bottom of the deck. I'm not sure how she thought that would help.

For the record, I have drawn 57 princesses this weekend, which are all unique. I admit that in some the differences are subtle, but they are there.

9/8/09 (Tuesday)

Today Cara and I were back to routine and had a pretty typical morning. It really is a new school year and as we drove to preschool, we could see all the kids who are just a little bit older than Cara going to elementary school for the first time. At Yellow Brick Road, there were a few new arrivals, and some of them were a bit upset at being left there for the first time. Then I think one kid bonked her head. Cara picked up on the negative emotions and started clinging to me. "I'm going to miss you, Daddy!" she cried. I eventually disentangled myself and a teacher picked her up. We'll see how often that happens!

Evie picked up Cara in the afternoon. They had some discussions on how her day was. Apparently there is a boy named Pollen at preschool, and he likes green. Hmm.

We like to think that our little girl is growing up and maturing all the time. But tonight she decided that she wanted to watch some of her old Baby Einstein DVDs from when she was an infant. Particularly inappropriate was the Christmas-themed DVD. Every once in a while she gets a yen for these movies again. I guess it's okay, as long as she doesn't get all the way to high school still thinking that felt animal puppets are the funniest things ever.

9/9/09 (Wednesday)

Having looked at the wall at preschool where the children's names are up, I think Pollen may be Collin. I feel better.

On the way home, Cara told me she wanted a movie on. I said, essentially, no. We had the tv on too much yesterday. Cara was displeased. I still said no. "When my daddy gets home, I'm going to tell him you wouldn't let me watch a movie!" What will he say, I asked. "That you're mean!" When we pulled up to the house the argument was repeated, and the result was that Cara got out of the car in an angry way and stalked down the driveway in an angry way and was almost but not quite unwilling to go through the door when I held it for her. Then she got over it and got busy wheedling for more princesses.

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