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Journal Key:

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

9/24/09 (Thursday)

I was a little bit apprehensive this afternoon when Cara asked me whether we could have Family Fun Night tonight. Of what did she expect such a night to consist? Hot chocolate, with little marshmallows. That, I was happy to provide. We had Sleeping Beauty on before dinner, and Cara asked us to pause it about three minutes before the end, so that she could watch the finish with her hot chocolate. We told her we could just put part of something else on. She wanted her drink in a sippy cup, so that she could be in the living room with it. Instead, I spread a beach towel on the floor and let her use a mug.

Cara and I sipped hot chocolate and watched the beginning of Monsters, Inc. together. When she was done, Cara indulged in some dramatic groaning. Her arm hurt, it turned out, from spooning hot chocolate into her mouth. Poor child.

I thought that that was a pretty nice idea. I asked Cara, when she brought it up, what had made her think of it. I wondered whether she'd read a book with hot chocolate in it or something. "I just thought of it with my thinking sense," she explained.

9/26/09 (Saturday)

Last night Cara got to go to a high school football game with her grandparents; she likes the bands, the excitement, the cheerleaders, and the people (two of them!) in lion costumes. Today was somewhat less exciting, except that Aunt Claire came up. She's as exciting as a football game.

We had lunch at Chili's, where Claire and Cara colored a chili pepper to hang up with the hundreds of others. I'd been there a few days ago, actually, and searched fruitlessly for the one Steve and Cara had done. Today, we were seated right under it. This time, we talked Cara into not making it just red and green. It had a big green stripe, and then Claire was instructed to draw red hearts all over the rest of the pepper while Cara drew blue spots on the stem end. Then Cara colored red over half of Claire's hearts. I expected her to realize that she had obliterated them and to be upset, but it never came up.

This evening we played three rounds of Candy Land. Under Cara's direction, we got to be different colors every time. It was very difficult. Cara's goal, also, was more, perhaps, to draw the lollipop fairy card than to win. Winning was good, too, though.

9/27/09 (Sunday)

Today we took a trip down to Grandmom and Grandpop's house in South Jersey to celebrate multiple birthdays, including mine. Cara was thrilled because she knows there are lots of toys at Grandmom's house (because Grandmom still has a lot of the toys my brother and I used to play with when we were little). One of the first things she did was get Grandpop to bring up the computer game she'd played at their house on her last visit (she's very into computer games recently). She built some cakes and we played a very, very easy memory game. She also wasted no time in getting out the Matchbox/Hot Wheels cars and the Playmobil spaceship. Some old Mister Potato Heads and Cootie Bugs were unearthed as well. Uncle Jim and Aunt Sarah and Floyd the dog were there too. We had a pleasant day hanging out, and Cara did a good job of cleaning up the various toys when asked. We managed to get through the whole visit without having to watch a kid's movie or show on TV--it was only when we finally returned home and Cara was eating her dinner that Sleeping Beauty made an appearance.

9/28/09 (Monday)

Cara and I had a good morning (it was easy: Steve got her breakfast and paccked her lunch); I got to drop her off at preschool. She went cheerfully. When we arrived, the Beatles were playing. I am of course terribly pleased that she's getting a thorough cultural education. I was disappointed ten minutes later to find the collection on my MP3 player to be sadly sparse. After preschool, we went to ballet through a dramatic rainstorm. Preschool was great. Ballet was great. She's happy to show us new moves she's learned. It was nice to come home and find dinner ready.

Sometimes, things just seem to go right. We had veggie lasagna, which I know Cara has rejected before. I was completely prepared for rejection. However, we cut it up, reminded her that it was made up of lots of things she liked, and left her to it. She ate it all up and asked for seconds. When she was done, instead of asking for tv, she wandered off downstairs. Somehow a crate I'd brought home from school, a toy hairbrush she'd happened upon, and some teddy bears all came together. She announced on her way upstairs that she was looking for more bears because she was going to shave them.

She set them all up on the crate and gave them each a snack, a cardboard bone from a Scooby Doo toy. She balanced the bones on their noses. Then she took the bears one by one and put them on a chair we'd built of pillows. She "shaved" them. For a shaver I gave her a toy microphone to use, thinking it looked like Daddy's electric. I'd forgotten that she's watched Mr. Smee shave Captain Hook at least two dozen times. She put "water" and then "white stuff" and then she shaved them. By tomorrow they'll have all grown back and she can shave them again.

Then it was bedtime. Last night, she decided, was "girl night" and I got to bathe her, brush her teeth, and read to her. Tonight is Daddy-Daughter night!

9/29/09 (Tuesday)

On Sunday, we had birthday cake at Grandmom's house. We brought some home, and before we even got here Cara had worked out a plan. She wanted to take some with her for her lunches. For her dessert. She'd eat all her healthy stuff first! We agreed. Both yesterday and today, she took some cake. Today, when I asked her what she'd had for lunch, her answer was "cake!" Then she explained all of the other things, the healthy things, she'd eaten before it. It was her dessert.

Today was a day of many trips and much business. I went to get Cara. Everyone was out to play. We went upstairs to get her stuff. Did she have a jacket? Yes. Miss Jane was wearing it . . . around her neck. Down we went. No, Miss Jane had taken it off when she went back inside. It was upstairs. Cara went up to get it. As we went out the front gate, Cara mentioned that she really loved her little Halloween Kitty, a black toy kitten Juliana gave her yesterday. It's dressed up as a pumpkin. I hadn't seen it at home when I stopped off, so I asked Cara where it was. It was upstairs in her nap bag. Was that okay? No, she needed it. Up we went.

At the library, Cara wanted to color a picture. We got her one, and she took some crayons and sat at a table with another little girl who was coloring. I went and picked out books. When Cara was done, she put away her crayons, brought her picture, her kitty, and the library bag, which I had left with her, and came to find me. It was perfect!

When we got home, it was time to open our shop. I was the assistant. All of those bears (and one dolphin) had to be shaved again. We decided to encourage repeat customers by expanding our line of services, so we got quite an assembly line going. First we brushed the bears thoroughly, from head to toe, excluding their noses. They enjoyed that. Next, they were shaved and their ears and teeth were checked. The fourth bear needed her nose checked, with a different instrument; a pez dispenser was just right. Finally, we had to shave the dolphin, because she had grown back "slick" since last night. Several of our customers were female, but I elected to let that go. It's such a successful business.

9/30/09 (Wednesday)

This morning Cara informed me that at preschool the children were to bring in bears for a bear parade. She also claimed that they had to bring boxes. I'm still a bit unclear on how much of this is truth and how much fiction, but she did eventually show me a sign at preschool that announced that it was "B" week and that there was indeed a teddy bear day on Friday. "I guess it's not Friday," Cara said. Before we left the house, she considered once again bringing her Halloween cat to daycare, then switched to a bear, but in the end brought nothing at all. Hopefully we'll manage to remember to bring a bear in a couple of days!

This evening the Loefflers came over for a playdate night! The kids spent lots of time playing with each other without parental support. Cara vigilantly came upstairs to announce that Casey had put some water into one of her water toys and, inevitably, spilled some on the carpet. PJ and Cara spent some time doing some dangerous acrobatic jumps onto the couch, until Casey came over to complain that they were not sharing the couch, and the jumps were ended. The children all took turns trying to show us how big they are--Casey's method is to crouch down and slowly return to a standing position. That big!

After dinner, PJ finally succeeded in getting me to play the Samus game with him for a few minutes. But bedtime was early tonight and the kids had to go. They left a bit of clean-up work in their wake, as will happen when three kids get together. Cara was an enthusiastic clean-up helper--to the surprising extent that even the bear-shaving shop is now out of business.

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