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Journal Key:

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

8/19/10 (Thursday)

A few years ago, someone got Cara a very very fancy pink hair thing that was far too huge for her. She found it yesterday. It's pink and is sort of an elastic with big pink petals coming off of it; they have rhinestones on them. Today, Cara wore her hair in a pink, sparkly ponytail! I'm going to have to look for some pretty hair things for kindergarten. It hadn't even occurred to me.

This morning, in the car, I heard jingling. Sometimes Owen does play with his moose. He also often talks to it. When I got out and went back to get him out, though, I saw that he had grabbed the moose's foot and was jamming it into his mouth! I'm very glad he's starting to use his hands. He was also working on his tiger in the afternoon. Another thing he enjoyed, besides drooling, sitting, and talking, was standing and bouncing. He sort of tips forwards and back with his hips, holding himself up. He thinks it's very funny and that he's awfully clever.

Last night, Cara looked at the cover of one of her library books and asked, "Does that say 'China'?" It did! She seems to have figured it out by seeing Chinese-type pictures on the front, recognizing them possibly because of her Girls From Around the World sticker book, and by seeing the the word started with a C.

I was telling Cara that tomorrow we're going to go and visit Discovery Time, the daycare where she'll be going on kindergarten days for wraparound care. From there, I explained, they'll walk over to the park! "Will we find things in the park?!" asked Cara. It took me a second to realize that she was thinking of Discovery Time. No, alas, it's just a daycare, not a scavenger hunt.

I asked Cara to get herself into the bath while I took care of something downstairs. When I came up, she was wet all the way to the top of her head! She'd been sitting up at one end of the tub and sliding down onto her back, up to her ears in the water! She'd discovered to her delight that when her ears were underwater she could hear funny noises. "Mommy, when I have a little boy or a girl, when I'm grown up, and married, I think I'll teach them to just slide down in the water and they can hear funny things." They might like that.

We read The Honey Hunt tonight. There's a page where Papa Bear sticks his head into a tree that turns out to be full of skunks. "Eeeeeeeeew! Skunks! They're so, so stinky! I hate skunks! They smell so bad! I've never smelled one. Yucky! They're so, so, so gross! . . . I said 'hate.'"

8/20/10 (Friday)

This morning Owen stayed home with Juliana while Cara and I walked over to Discovery Time so that she could see the place she'll be spending most of her time on school days. There were three teachers and about a dozen kids there when we went in. Cara was very quiet; the first thing she said was when one of the teachers took us out to see the playground. She told the teacher that her preschool had a pink potamus and a green caterpillar; here, they had them in other colors. It's a nice playground, with a big plastic structure for climbing, two slides, a play house, and a lot of other things. Cara ran all over it.

When we headed back inside she was quiet again. I asked her whether she wanted to head home. No. She wasn't ready. Did she want to sit with the kids? She hadn't really talked to them when some of them had come over and been introduced. She wanted to go sit with them, though. I promised her I wouldn't leave without her (she was worried), and she strolled off, sort of along the side of the room, over to where the kids were sitting on the floor and watching tv. (They assure me they don't spend a lot of time like this. I'm just figuring it's only one year.) She sat with them. She talked a little. When they were all ready for snack, I told her it was time to go.

She was pretty quiet the whole time, but Cara is very, very excited about her new wraparound! She's ready to start. She's going to make friends with lots of new kids, a lot of whom live right around here. Kindergarten doesn't start until the seventh, but I think Cara wants to start at DT on the first!

Owen has a very nap-free, clingy morning. He wasn't particularly easy or awfully pleasant. Finally, around one, I put him down in his car seat (we were at PJ's house), picked it up, and swung it. Within seven or eight swings, he was asleep. He slept while I ate lunch, brought him and Cara home, got her packed, buckled him, got us all into the car, drove to Grandmama's house, hung around there for an hour to chat with GiGi, and then got back into the car to come home. I think he woke up around five. He was in a much better mood!

8/21/10 (Saturday)

Cara had a very big day today. In the morning, Grandmama took her to the beach. They left the house before nine, and they got back around one! Cara showered the sand off and ate hot dogs in the car on the way home, because it was time to go to Lina and Sarah's birthday party! Grandmama had had to give her an IOU for a trip to Dairy Queen. When the car pulled up, I saw Cara in the back seat waving a piece of paper excitedly. It's a concrete IOU.

Owen and Cara and I all had a really good time. It was a beautiful day for a back yard party. Owen was happy to be held by Linda while I helped Cara change into her swim suit so that she could go in the kiddie pool. There was also a big swing set to play on, as well as a bouncy horse and a tiny merry-go-round. Cara ran and played and ran and played, having fun with the girls and Nick and also the kids she hadn't met before, while Owen was very happy to be carried around and played with by Linda, Shannon, and Denise. He was very drooly and very friendly and quite pleasant. Many people held him up high in the air; it doesn't get more fun than that! It turns out that Owen is non-discriminating. He'll suck on anyone's shoulder.

There was cake and there were games. Cara opted out of the balloon-breaking game; she decided she'd rather swing. Denise, Owen, and I watched Nick take all of five minutes to break a balloon; he tried sitting on it, which worked for most of the kids, lying on it, and finally stomping on it. The third stomp did it. There was a very pretty pinata shaped like a white cat. Cara was extremely selective in her candy gathering: she came back with a bag containing eight tootsie rolls. The twins' grandpop made balloon animals for all the kids. Actually, the boys mainly wanted light sabers. Cara got a very pink poodle.

I was really proud of Cara. Owen was sleeping on my lap when I asked her whether she wanted to change into her dress. She did want to! Off she ran. She found her dress in the bag, went into the house, found the bathroom, got changed, and came back out, all on her own. Then off she ran to play some more! Everyone was well-behaved and everyone had fun. No one wanted to go home, but eventually we did.

This evening, we finally watched The Wizard of Oz. Well, Owen went to bed, and the rest of us watched. I'm looking forward to talking to Cara about it tomorrow. Tonight, she was really too overexcited from her day. Poor kid!

8/22/10 (Sunday)

I haven't had the chance to mention that on Wednesday when Owen was being fussy, little Casey came over and handed me a popper. "Binky?" she suggested. I was ready to give it a shot. At the time it wasn't a huge hit, but it made me try it that evening and it actually worked--I put him to sleep with a popper. This worked the following evening as well (though not on Friday). We had just about given up on trying poppers with him, so it's interesting that he is clearly still willing to try them.

Today Owen had three meals of solid food (along with many bottles). In the morning he had fruit, in the middle of the day a vegetable, and in the evening he polished off some chicken and rice. Lately when we put him in the high chair he tends to lean forwards, and since he's not perfect at self balancing, this makes feeding him rather exciting. When he's into it like this he will lunge towards the spoon in a very dangerous way. So far no one has poked him.

It was an exciting day because first Grandmom and Grandpop arrived, and then in the afternoon Grandpapa and Aunt Claire came with furniture! Cara has inherited some bedroom furniture that has replaced her old bed and dresser. Her drawers are bigger now, and she even has a nightstand.

After this, Cara and Mommy rushed off to another birthday party. Cara goes to Yellow Brick Road with Vinnie. His big brother Oscar was having his birthday party. Vinnie was allowed to invite his friends to keep him company, and Cara was one of them. According to his mother, when Vinnie is asked whether he has a girlfriend, he answers "Cara!" Vinnie's mom introduced Cara as such, sotto voce, at the party. Evie didn't mention Adrian, who was also there.

Later in the evening, Ev mentioned that soon Cara's time at YBR would be ending, and we should do something special to say goodbye to everyone. Cara suggested that she give out some hugs. "Who would you hug?" Mommy asked. "Adrian!" Cara did specify "no kisses," however.

8/23/10 (Monday)

It was good to be back to routine after such an exciting weekend. I picked Owen up first, and he and I sat on the floor to listen with the Lollipops while Miss Jane read a story. Owen sat nicely in my lap while Cara came and snuggled up next to us and Andre came over to mess with Owen. Most of us listened to the story. It was about an aardvark who was sleeping in a tree while other animals tried to wake him up. I was really identifying with the aardvark, until it turned out that they were trying to wake him up because he snored so loudly they couldn't sleep. In the end, he became nocturnal because he really wanted to eat termites at night. This week is legends week.

Cara, on the way home, apropos of nothing: "Some things are pink and some things are not." How true.

Today was a big day. Today, we got a mailing from Lindeneau with information about kindergarten! Cara and PJ will be in the same class. On Wednesday, there will be popsicles in the playground in the evening; we'll go over right from our playdate. There's an orientation on the 3rd, and school will start on the 7th. It's very, very exciting.

It was rainy today, so Steve hit traffic. I'm pleased with myself for managing to keep Cara happy, give Owen a bottle and feed him his dinner, and get our dinner onto the table all on my own. We were all happy when Steve got home, though. Owen kept crowing at him! He was very squeaky tonight.

Cara played independently with her dolls. "Oh, I forgot my name!" one of them lamented. I'm not sure who she was, either.

Cara was on her own in the bath for a few minutes. When I got upstairs, she was filling the bucket with water and flinging it at the back wall of the tub. "Fireworks!!!!!" I admit, it was pretty cool. Splashy, but cool.

I finally got to read Cara The Rabbi and the Twenty-Nine Witches, which I found last week and Steve has read to her. I'm proud of her because she has been wondering about a logical problem underlying the story. The Rabbi brings 29 brave men to dance with the 29 witches. Doesn't the Rabbi dance with one? Perhaps, thinks Cara, one witch dances with two men.

8/24/10 (Tuesday)

"When I grow up," said Cara, "I'm going to be a teacher . . . and an aerialist in the circus!" I had never even considered that, but it sounds like the perfect summer job!

Today was our big Girl Day, finally! In the morning I made a list, and then we set to with a will. Cara ended up with about eight new shirts, five new pairs of pants, two pairs of leggings, new socks and underwear, and a lot of new hair stuff. She got a new pair of shoes. She got a backpack, a folder, some glue sticks, and a pencil case for school. Did I forget anything?

We had lunch at the Shiny Diner. It's up by the mall, and Cara hadn't been there before. She was impressed by how shiny it was. She wanted one of the very pretty desserts in the case, but I talked her down. She wants to go again, though. She drew a hopscotch board for Tinkerbell on the back of the place mat, so she took the place mat with her. In the car, she looked at the front of it. "This doesn't say 'Shiny Diner'!" I had to confess that it didn't. I wasn't sure exactly what it was called, maybe the Menlo Park Diner? Yes, she said, that was what it said. We confirmed that the words started with M, P, and D.

At the birthday party we went to on Sunday, the kids had a Bakugan. It was really really cool, and they all wanted to play with it, so I barely got a turn. I really really wanted one, so today at Target I got myself a cute little thing that's sort of a girl version. It's a little plastic ball that, when it's placed on metal, pops open and reveals itself to be, in this case, a cute/weird little rabbit-creature. Mine came with a little house and it pops open when you put it on top. Cara did not want one, but she certainly seems to want mine! I'm taking it to school, though, and it'll live on my desk. I think I've agreed to bring it to YBR to show off to the Lollipops first.

Since I'd gotten that for myself, I had to get Cara an equivalent toy. She selected a new outfit for her Barbies. Doctor Barbie! The outfit comes with a (pink) stethoscope and a clipboard. The clipboard has a tiny pencil, which Cara wanted to throw away because she thought it would get lost. I suggested that she keep it and play with it and just accept the inevitable when it gets lost. That made sense. Actually, Cara eventually noticed that the dress was partly pink, and doctors don't wear pink. Also it had a cute little hat, and doctors don't wear cute little hats. Also it's a miniskirt, but apparently that's not an issue for her. Now it's Nurse Barbie. She seems perfectly capable of practicing medicine, though. Cara built a bed out of her tinker toys, and a girl Barbie was very sick. Her mother Barbie was going to a party. Steve and I both separately commented on this, but the little girl is a big girl and the mother had to go to the party. I think it's because she's wearing a fancy dress.

When we're feeding Owen in his high chair, he usually starts to fuss partway through. Today, he was leaning back and things were going well and he started to get upset. I sat him up a little and he was able to bobble around and charge at the spoon, and he was perfectly happy. I would have been more perfectly happy if he had remembered to open his mouth more consistently when he dove at the food.

8/25/10 (Wednesday)

This had nothing to do with the kids, but this morning after Ev drove off with Owen and Cara, I noticed that a telephone pole on our street had a plume of smoke rising from it. I found the number for our fire department and they arrived and passed the problem on to the appropriate utility company. As a result, Evie got to watch a good half-dozen PSE&G trucks sit outside the house for most of the day.

Today was to be a popsicle social with the elementary school kids, but it has been moved to its rain date--tomorrow! Instead, I stayed late at work. Cara yesterday night requested that I find her the cartoons that we have in a red box. It took me a while to identify this as our Pixar short films DVD. This is her latest favorite. In fact, she has one particular favorite about a super-powered baby and his horrified babysitter, called Jack-Jack Attack. Evelyn taught the child how to hit the previous scene button, so she can now watch it over and over and over and over and over again. Hmm.

Owen seems to have moved to a new size of clothing. Or perhaps it's just that the cooler weather has made other outfits available to him. Either way, there is a whole new world of fashion awaiting him, involving long sleeves and footies.

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