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Journal Key:

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

11/6/09 (Friday)

It's Friday, and I finally have a new and fully functional computer, so I can write this. This week Mommy has had off for three days, and today was one of them, so she took Cara to preschool this morning. Lately Cara has started making her own bed in the mornings! She does this of her own volition without being asked. Mommy is very proud.

It was Family Fun Night, and Aunt Claire came here! We wanted to take Aunt Claire out for her birthday (which was a few days ago now, and we already celebrated with the family, but this was us taking her out), and we wanted to take her to our wonderful local Japanese restaurant that has a big fish tank and gives us tongs with the appetizers. Unfortunately, we drove up the building to find it emptied and for rent. Oh no! So we went to On the Border instead. Cara looked absolutely wiped out in the restaurant: she kept saying she was tired and was collapsed in the booth on Claire's shoulder. Then we got home and did some sorting through Cara's old school projects (we are prepping our dining room for being painted and had to take down Cara's bulletin boards). Cara became very excited at her various creatures and drawings and decided to put on a puppet show with them. She was bouncing and singing all over the place. This continued into her bath and after.

Lately Cara has decided that she wants to read Hanukah books. She chose two for her reading tonight (the third was her Halloween one), and then made each of the grownups read one book. It was my job to read the third book, which was about dreidels. Then Cara got me to read her one more book, which had to be a very specific Hanukah book, which we had to search through her entire bookshelf to find. Now she is in bed. Whew!

11/7/09 (Saturday)

Cara had fun, I think, being a helper on painting day. She found interesting things under the furniture we moved. The only thing I found really exciting was a marker that has been throwing off the count in her big set for months. She used a paintbrush to actually put some paint on the walls, and she started, at least, to learn about not dipping the entire brush head into the paint. She helped or at least spectated when I put the slipcover back onto the couch that we moved into the basement.

We had music on, and there was a lot of dancing. Sometimes, though, it was more what Grandmama termed, "very nice rhythmic movement" than dancing. Listening to the Beatles was nice, although that was what inspired Steve to sing "Hey, Boots, go find your dad," after Cara caught a very exciting Dora episode about Boots's birthday in which at the end we got to meet Boots's dad, who apparently works as an engineer building amusement parks. We did not get to see his footwear. Steve's song was very creative and I enjoyed it, but Cara of course felt a need to stop him and make him be quiet.

Cara has difficulty pronouncing "amusement." I find this amusing.

Her favorite part of the day may have been decorating the two bulletin boards, which have been rehung in her playroom. She got to stand on a stepladder and use tacks, and she got total artistic control of the project. Because of that there are some things hung over other things, but I'm sure we'll get that worked out eventually.

11/8/09 (Sunday)

Grandmom and Grandpop came up today, and they brought Cara a Pez dispenser--with some Pez! This was exciting. It took some work to convince Cara to take the candy out with her hands instead of putting the dispenser, which had the head of Snow White, up to her mouth. I tried to make the point that she might want to share with other people some time. Of course, she handed it to me. Yum?

A favorite toy right now consists of a broken bead necklace and a long plastic tube. The end of the necklace can stick inside the tube. Today it was a fishing rod. Cara did some fishing, I had to do some, Puma did some, Deesta did some, the Halloween kitty did some, and so on. The first thing anyone caught was a mermaid, and then fish of the same color as the mermaid. Eventually Cara and the toys were all on the glider, which had become a boat in the sea. The animals lined up in the back, and Cara fished for them. She caught a lot. "These guys sure like to eat mermaids!" she told me. "I cut them up when they're dead. They don't mind, because they're dead." Oh, I answered.

We were out late down in Middletown. Cara stayed with Casie. She was happy when we explained this arrangement, but she had several questions. Among them: "Will I sleep there?" We explained the game plan. Still, as we were getting into the car around eight, she expressed great surprise that we had come back "in the night."

"I'm still hungry," Cara told us. "I need a snack when we get home." I don't like to deny a hungry child food, so when we got here I asked her what she wanted for her snack. Pez. I know that's what I reach for when I'm really hungry, too.

11/9/09 (Monday)

Cara spent a lot of time saying "Momma" today. It was also often followed by "I love you." This is nice to hear once or twice, but ten times? Perhaps we should coach the child in conversation-starting techniques.

It was a busy day today--the beginning of a new week at preschool, gymnastics during the day, dance in the evening, and a late dinner around the table. Cara had two pieces of pizza, followed by two cheese sticks. Then, incredibly, she claimed to still be hungry at teeth brushing time. I suspect her of wanting to stall the bedtime routine, but she did in fact eat all three of the baby carrots I gave her.

Tomorrow night Cara and I will be hanging out together. I hope she doesn't call me "Momma" by mistake.

11/10/09 (Tuesday)

It was hard to wake the child this morning, and I knew how she felt, so we got into preschool pretty late. I went to the doctor after work and had prescriptions that needed picking up in the evening. Evie went out to an appointment after dinner, so the child and I got to visit the pharmacy together. We had already decided that Cara could have a treat for our exciting night out together. So we looked down a few aisles. Cara found a Christmas-themed aisle, and an aisle with cookies, and some fake fingernail things. She found the toy aisle and looked at Barbies. Then she found some rubber chickens. But what she decided on taking home was a picture book adaptation of a Barbie movie adaptation of the Three Musketeers. Are you dizzy yet? In the story, Barbie (playing a character named Corinne--not d'Artagnan!) dreams of being a musketeer, but can only get a job working as a maid at the palace, where she finds three other maids with exactly the same frustrated dreams. Believe it or not, they come out on top in the end. The book also came with punch-out paper dolls and stands. We read it as soon as we got home, and then Cara and I had a conversation about movie-to-book adaptations. Cara was ready to go out right then and there and find the Barbie movie which the book had swiftly summarized. Unfortunately it was time for her bath.

I'm writing this entry a bit late, on Wednesday morning, so I can give you the added information that Cara has taken the book with her to preschool. She did not however take the paper dolls. "There are some big girls at preschool, and they might get ripped!" she explained.

11/11/09 (Wednesday)

For breakfast, Cara had toast. Daddy had something else. It was round. Cara wanted some. "Daddy," she said, "I want one of those American muffins!" I find it somewhat astonishing that she was able to hit upon American as a parallel for English. I mean, I know she knows about American things, but I'm impressed that she sees "English" as a similar concept. She actually was talking to me about American muffins the other day, and I had reminded her what they were called. She didn't have any today, because once she was done with her toast she was full. One of these days, though . . .

I was somewhat surprised to find a small American flag in Cara's box today at preschool. However, I just chalked it up to Veteran's Day. It turns out, though, that there was a parade in Highland Park and the lollipops went to see it! There were two fire trucks, and there were some people dancing and drumming. "And even, one person gave a flag to me."

It was playdate at PJ's house today. As the adults finished eating, the kids went off to play. Casey and Cara went downstairs, and soon we noticed Cara coming up and putting shoes with the other shoes. She did this a couple of times. "Maybe they're cleaning up," said Em. Five minutes later, she went downstairs. The next thing we heard was applause: Cara and Casey had cleaned up the playroom.

Steve has had to draw a picture of five girls dancing twice. Once was ballet, and once was tap. Cara's contribution was a rug that looks like a cat face on the steps to the stage. Today he was asked to draw girls doing a cat dance. I had, when Cara originally mentioned this idea, thought that she wanted him to draw actual cats doing ballet. It turns out that these are the same girls again, dressed up as cats. Now it's bedtime, but Cara is working hard to get him to draw them doing a mermaid dance. Without fish tails. But like mermaids. Right now. "I want their legs twirling." I hope he wiggles his way out of this.

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