| Previous Week | Back Home | Next Week |

Journal Key:

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

10/22/09 (Thursday)

Cara got up very early this morning and had cereal for breakfast before I had even come downstairs. She had lots of free time while I was eating my breakfast. I picked her up at six just when preschool was ending. One of the "munchkins" had had a birthday party and Cara got a little goodie bag. She got a box of raisins out of it in the car, but when she got home she had to get out the tiny little container of black Play-doh and play with that.

After dinner we watched most of a movie and ate some popcorn. Eventually though Cara decided she was tired of the movie and wanted to play babies. We were still up and still not in our pajamas, playing with babies, when Mommy came home.

10/23/09 (Friday)

It was nice to get to be the one who picked Cara up today. It was nice just to get to spend time at home! For a Family Fun Night project, Cara and I got out our Halloween decorations. All of our paper decorations are in a folder in the basement, and Cara did a great job sorting things out. She made two piles; one was Halloween, and the other was everything else. She did keep one small red snowflake out, though, because it was "so tiny." We taped up a lot of things. I hung a few things high enough on the front door for people to see them, and Cara hung a lot of things very low on the front door. She taped the snowflake to the end of a black kitten's tail. The most dramatic thing we did was to hang big letters spelling Happy Halloween in our bay window. It was very exciting to wait for Daddy to get home and see.

Cara remains somewhat disappointed that we have no light-up decorations.

I do not plan on buying any light-up decorations.

Downstairs, there is still a long street set up, lined with houses in which various girls reside. The prince lives with Cinderella; she's the mom and he's the pop, which I think is why Cara referred to him today as Cinderella's pop. The girls each have two different outfits, and they have all gone to ballet class. The second outfit, which each of them brought, is for tap. They were dancing ballet, when suddenly it was time for tap! They were all happy. Unfortunately, Cara could not recall which outfit went with which girl. She asked me to help. I really had no idea. I suggested that the girls could discuss it, but that idea was rejected. I'm not sure how the difficulty was finally resolved.

10/24/09 (Saturday)

We were supposed to go to Grandmama's house today with the Loefflers to paint pumpkins, but, unfortunately, poor Cara was sick! She had a fever in the morning and didn't eat the eggs Daddy had scrambled at her request. He had to leave to help my folks move furniture, and, twenty minutes after he left, the medicine did its job and the little girl was normal and wanted more eggs.

She and I had a nice day, really. We did many important things. We started coloring in a picture Cara made Steve draw a week or so ago: "Daddy will be so surprised!" We made a new letter B. Every week at preschool they study a different letter, make one, and hang them up. Cara's been coming home with them, and I've belatedly figured out that we ought to be hanging them up in the playroom; we'll have a whole alphabet eventually! How long did it take me to figure this out? Long enough to lose the B. Our new one has balloons on it. It's hanging between the A with ants on it and the C with clouds. I asked Cara what she thinks they'll do next week. No idea.

We also played computer games and played babies and added three or four new houses to Cara's "street," each complete with a girl to live in it who has at least two outfits to wear. We did laundry. Cara picked out all of the accessories to go with her Halloween costume: she's wearing a beautiful pink princess dress that Aunt Sarah gave her for her birthday, and she's chosen a lot of jewelry, a crown, her fairy wings, and a wand. She needs fancy shoes. We can work on that. Cara also did her entire United States floor puzzle herself. She got out her Playmobil people and set up their playground. Fortunately, she was willing to participate in a very productive six or seven minutes of cleaning up this evening.

I have to admit that, as a pregnant woman who had a long week at work, I was hoping that a sick child would do more television viewing! However, the only thing we watched for more than twenty minutes was Sleeping Beauty, which we put on early when she was feeling rotten. After that, it was "Mommy, could you please turn this off?" Sigh.

Steve got home in the afternoon with, among other things, two books from GiGi. One is a cool Halloween book. In the front is a clear pocket with four flat cardboard pieces of candy in different shapes. As you read the book, you put the shapes into the correct holes. At the end, they're there in another clear pocket and you can (with some difficulty) get them out. I've never seen anything like it! The other is very timely (I love puns, and this one works awfully well). Cara's been learning about telling time at preschool. They've practiced phrases like "quarter after" and "o'clock." Cara was able--yesterday, at least--to show me with her arms how the hands of the clock looked. The new book is called Tick-Tock Sharks. It's got a cool manipulable clock that lets you move the hands and simultaneously displays the time as a digital clock would. That part folds out so that you can use it as you read the book. The book is about different types of sharks going about their day and what they do at different times. As we read, Cara moved the clock to match their times (all were on the hour, which disappointed me a little but probably made sense). Good job, GiGi!

10/25/09 (Sunday)

Though I have not yet read it, Evie has had to read the new Trick or Treat book to Cara at least four times so far. I did read her Tick-Tock Sharks, which is pretty cool.

Today was a true "staying-at-home" day. Mommy did go out to do groceries, but most of our day was spent hanging around the house playing or doing chores. The child continued in her habit of starting movies and losing interest--the only thing she got through was an episode of Curious George, and that was probably only due to its very short running time. Cara was normal enough today, though, apart from a little clinginess and a stuffy nose. She decided on a whim to move her little easy chair and Elmo couch, together with all their stuffed-animal occupants, downstairs and into the living room. It will be interesting to see what goes back up at bed time.

Evie and I were both surprised that Cara was perfectly willing to let us dismantle her "street" of houses in the play room so that I could vacuum there. In retrospect, however, we realized that setting it up is most of the fun. It hasn't been set back up just yet, but no doubt it will be soon--the girls at least came right back out again.

Soon after Mommy came back with groceries, Cara's little friend Steven stopped by, and they spent some time running around. Cara brought out several balls, going into the house and coming out again with only one ball at any one time. Then the two kids spent a lot of time not quite playing catch with each other.

In the evening while dinner was preparing we played a successful (no one cried) game of Chutes and Ladders. Mommy had purchased our Halloween candy at the store, and of all the things she bought the thing that most excited Cara was the Pop Rocks. I guess she's had them before at some point, though I'm not entirely certain of that. Regardless, after dinner we had to have some. It was a lot of fun listening to all the crackling in our mouths. Cara was quite upset when we told her that she could not have two pouches, then did not succeed in finishing her first one.

The little girl has had her Halloween outfit all laid out and has been periodically putting on a lot of the accessories and running around with them. She is very ready!

Tomorrow Evie and I should find out the gender of our next little one.

10/26/09 (Monday)

It's a boy! We got to see him in there, squirming around and wiggling and putting his hand in his mouth. We got a couple of glimpses of his face, though of course when the technician wanted to get a clear shot of it he decided to put both of his hands there. We saw his mouth opening and closing. We got to see his fingers and toes, as well as his brain and spine. He weighs fourteen ounces, and according to his measurements he's due March 3. I'm sure the doctor won't change the due date, but I'll remember.

The first person we told was Cara. She and I have been discussing painting the baby's room lately, and she's been very focused on having a sister. She has been planning on painting fairies on the wall. We'd told her that we'd better wait to see what kind of baby it was before we committed to that.

Today we went to preschool to get her and both went upstairs. I knelt down and she came running, and then when she was about two feet from me she saw Steve and made a ninety-degree turn to hug him first. We got her stuff together and when we got into the car we showed her the pictures of her baby brother. Cara is very happy to see him and is going to be a great big sister.

My plan for the mural is to do a landscape with a little train track running around the room; maybe the trains can have toys or candy or something. In the landscape, I'd like to have a lot of animals. I brought this up to Cara, who suggests a river with a crocodile--a friendly crocodile.

I had an idea for a name, but it's more popular than I'd like, and Steve isn't crazy about it. He's spent all evening coming up with names. Some are just silly, but some are serious. He's making a list. Most of the ones he brings up are the silly ones, I think. Cara agrees that we should not give him a silly name. Several of the names Steve's suggested (not silly ones) are names that kids at preschool already have, so we've rejected them. Cara, in the interest of participating, has thrown out a couple of combinations of nonsense syllables that turn out to be her name suggestions.

She also wants to know whether we have a Halloween costume for him, and we had to explain that he's not ready to come out yet. I think that's our first conversation about when the baby will come. I was on the phone with someone this evening while Cara was playing girls. I mentioned what a great big sister she'll be. "I have to put away all my tiny things!" she exclaimed. Steve reminded her that she has several months before then.

10/27/09 (Tuesday)

At preschool this week, the kids drew faces on jack-o-lanterns. Cara's stands out from the crown; it is a monkey jack-o-lantern. For some reason, today Cara chose to bring home both of the stuffed animals she keeps at preschool for nap. She says that it's because she "really likes them." I think I'll tape a note to her lunchbox or something, to make sure she brings something to cuddle with tomorrow.

To my great delight, Cara has become a fan of the Food network. We watched a Dr. Seuss-themed cake competition yesterday, and then she saw the beginning of Alton Brown. This is good. This is very good.

10/28/09 (Wednesday)

When I got out of the shower at a quarter to six this morning, there was Cara. We got ourselves dressed and ready and headed downstairs, and she asked me to make pancakes. I, of course, hedged. I made my own English muffins, and in wandered Cara. She wanted to try one, "just with butter." I gave her a piece. She wanted more. We discussed the jam. It's raspberry jam, made from raspberries Cara helped pick. It turned out that she had forgotten that she wanted some. She got the rest of her half of a muffin, this time with jam. She wanted more. So, Cara ate half of my breakfast! I'm glad I had made two.

We were tired this evening. I admit, it's mostly that I was tired. We came home and plopped down on the couch and turned on the tv. Cara's excited about watching "the Network." She'd gotten Steve to try it in the mornings lately, but then it's paid programming. Now it was on, but it was shows I didn't like. I'm not sure Cara really wants to watch one person cooking, either. So we lay there like a couple of giant slugs and watched HG TV. It was nice. Part of me was screaming about turning her brain into mush, but the other part of me was so mushy anyway that it couldn't be bothered to care. (After dinner we tried the Network again and watched a cookie-baking contest. A show about candy started immediately after that, with no commercial interruption. "Wow!" I said, "Wouldn't that be fun to watch some time!" Somehow that worked and we were able to head for the bath.)

I am proud to announce that I am currently Cara's preferred tooth-brusher. It's quite an honor. My charm lies in the fact that I recite poetry and sing to give her something on which to focus. Unfortunately, she dances. We've gotten it down to just arm movements. Tonight, Cara had a plan. I was to sing a song, recite a poem, and then sing a song, and so on. I really prefer poems. I know a lot more of them. They're just cooler. After my first song,my first poem was a big hit. I followed it up with another poem. No! That was wrong! Cara's eyes filled with tears. I did finish my poem, after I talked her down, but then I had to sing "Head, shoulders, knees and toes." It was . . . a big hit. I have to wiggle my way out of this program, or I have to learn some cooler songs.

| Previous Week | Back Home | Next Week |