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Journal Key:

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

10/8/09 (Thursday)

Cara talked to me the other day about how sorry she was for crying when I turned off the TV in the mornings. She suggested that she would not do that anymore. I agreed to a return to television viewing in the morning, provided we agreed to keep it to one episode of a show such as Dora or The Backyardigans. We've been trying this out and it's working just fine. She is a good little girl, and she has a good memory. She remembered this morning that she wanted to bring both her princess and her bride dolls to preschool, and she did. Then, true to her word, she reminded Mommy in the afternoon to bring both dolls home.

This afternoon Cara and her Mommy were coloring a picture with an ice cream cone in it. The ice cream was, of course, cherry-flavored. But there was an object stuck in the ice cream, and Cara wondered what it was. Mommy theorized that it was a chocolate stick. But Cara didn't think so. "It's a pickle!" And so they colored it green.

10/10/09 (Saturday)

Friday was a sleepover day for Cara. Today we drove down to meet her in Middletown. We had a nice morning at Grandmama and Grandpapa's house; Mommy and Cara devised a ramp made out of Cara's large cushy velcro building squares, which they placed on the stairs and connected to a box at the bottom. They were rolling balls down the ramp and into the box. I didn't get out of the house without drawing a few mermaids.

After a quick lunch we hopped into the car and zoomed over to Aunt Claire's house, where it was Apple-Picking Day! Cara was confronted with a lot of grown-ups she didn't know, and so was pretty shy. There was also a little dog, which she alternately tried to play with and run away from.

It was nice as always to go out apple picking. Every year Cara's apple-picking skills improve. This year she managed to pull off a few partial branches with the apples she picked. But she was also looking out for apples that were the wrong color. We considered picking a pumpkin, which they also had, but in the end decided to leave it for another fun Fall occasion.

Back at the house the grown-ups spent a lot of time cooking, eating and talking. Cara spent a lot of time watching many children's movies. We unfortunately had to go through yet another viewing of The Jungle Book, but Claire's friend Moira had very generously brought along a few kids' movies and we tried some of those on Cara as well. The one we got all the way through was an old (and short) adaptation of one of the tales from The Wind and the Willows. I have a few doubts about the cartoon's faithfulness to the original source, but it had enough physical comedy to keep Cara's attention.

Eventually the evening wore on and we said our goodbyes. Cara did manage to get Casey to make her some paper giraffes, which we took home with us. For a last snack before bedtime, Cara had some apple. And a marshmallow.

10/11/09 (Sunday)

So, we told Cara some big news this morning. I asked her whether she had noticed that my belly was getting bigger. Not really. I told her there was a baby growing in it.

Cara: No!

Me: Well, yes, really.

Cara: Again?! (I think she was thinking of pictures she's seen of me before she was born.)

Me: ?

Cara: (returning to the coloring book she'd just gotten out) Look, Mommy, I did all these. I didn't finish this one or this one. Would you help me?

We figure she's internalizing the news and that more questions and reactions will pop up as we go along. In the meantime, she has claimed, at different times, to want a brother more and a sister more. She also asserts that she will cheerfully share all sorts of things, including her playroom. I do think it would be nice if we had that one on tape, to play for her in a couple of years.

Today we went to visit Grandmom and Grandpop; Grandmom had gotten out her paper-doll-making kit, with the thought that we could dress them up for Halloween. This was a big hit. Cara made a sheriff with a mustache and a badge, I made a clown, Grandmom made a princess, and Daddy made a man with a huge mustache who was wearing a vest and a skirt. We also spent some time outside, picking up acorns. Some of them had sprouted and taken root, and we pulled them up and collected them for disposal. "Poor little acorns!" said Cara.

10/12/09 (Monday)

I picked Cara up today around five; everyone was singing a song and bouncing around. Cara left perfectly cheerfully. When we got home, the other shoe dropped: "Mommy, you came in the singing time!" I was contrite and promised to do better tomorrow. Cara suggested that I should really come later, for instance, "at the time when Daddy gets home." Somehow or other, we'll figure this new routine out.

Cara drew a picture today. It was five orange stick figures. The rightmost one wore a red dress and had yellow hair, which was long and had a big braid in it. The one next to it had on a green dress and may have had a purse. The others were all plain stick figures. This picture, except for the details of the second figure's clothing, was identical to at least five or six other pictures Cara's drawn in the past couple of weeks. I feel like I get one of these every day! Cara explains that, of course, she's the one with yellow hair. The others are me and Steve and Cara's sisters. The one in the dress is one of the sisters.

We were all tired, so we picked up pizza this evening. The pizza had bubbles on it! Cara was not pleased, but we explained that the bubbles were the best part. She swiftly changed her views. She also announced, to me, that she was going to eat the crust now, since she's such a big girl. Steve reminded her that it's a matter or taste rather than maturity, but she insisted. She was going to really like it. In the end, the crust stayed on the plate.

10/13/09 (Tuesday)

Today I got to preschool a little after five thirty. Cara was delighted that I'd come well after story time, and she was clearly having a good time hanging around with the few other kids who were there. There was no singing time today, apparently, so that was not an issue. If this had not been the result of my having had a ridiculously long day at work, it would have been a joy for everyone involved.

For the past few nights, Cara's been playing her video game system, the one with her Backyardigans game. She usually asks Steve to play one of his games and then that leads her to this idea, which is much better in most ways. She's become very independent with it, only needing help with a couple of parts. One problem is the spiders. They go up and down on their threads, and the character has to dash under them. Cara is afraid of them and refuses to do this by herself; it does require some timing. I have her hold her finger on the button and I press mine over it. I hope that after a few months of this she will try it on her own. The other hard part, oddly enough, is the rhyming. They give you a word and then three choices of words that may rhyme. You get to hear all of the words more than once, and you can see them all (as well as pictures of what they are). Cara, who can rhyme fine as long as she doesn't know that's what she's doing, selects words at random until she hits the answer.

The problem with Cara's new pastime is that it can neither be paused nor saved. Right now it's bath time. Cara wants to finish. We're going to have to figure out what to do about this, and I know that I, at least, am fighting against the part of me that's pleased that she's doing so well with it! We've just explained to her that she won't have time to play in her bath, because she's using up her bath time right now. Cara replies that she's going to do this "so quick."

10/14/09 (Wednesday)

For the first time in a while, we went over to PJ's house for dinner! What we've all been predicting seems to be starting to happen; Cara and Casey spent a lot of time enthusiastically playing with dolls, while PJ was kind of an odd man out. Of course, the SuperBaby part was his idea. He held a baby out over the railing, saying "SuperBaby to the rescue!" and then he wanted to drop it. Cara protested vehemently that the baby would hurt her head. He stopped. Within two minutes, he and Casey were both dropping babies with Cara's encouragement.

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