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Journal Key:

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

12/16/10 (Thursday)

I stayed home with Owen today. He is not really particularly sick at all. He was a bit warm at times today, and a bit irritable at times, but mostly he was normal. The main problem we had was a major disagreement about napping. I very much wanted Owen to nap, and he seemingly very much did not want to. I took him out with me to run a few errands and he fell asleep in the car, but he was not asleep when I got home with him. Later, I purposely took him on a car trip to get him to go to sleep again. The problem was that when I tried to take him out of the car and into the house to continue the nap, he woke up again.

As a last resort, I stuck him in his crib and waited until he stopped crying. It took a long time, and even then his nap lasted an hour at the most. I feel certain that if we hadn't had this argument, our day would have gone better.

Cara had her dance class moved to tonight, so when she got home we changed her into her outfit and I drove her there. She got to give Miss Val Ann her present, and the kids got to hear some holiday music and wear Santa hats.

We returned to find that Mommy had magically cleaned Cara's play room. All of the furniture was moved to the walls. The floor was cleared out. Evelyn suggested that Cara could decide where the furniture could be placed. But Cara did not want anything moved. Why not? Because with all that floor space, we could go down to the basement and pull out her giant Polly Pocket Race to the Mall Playset! Cara's parents were horrified. But we went along with it.

(While Ev was cleaning, Owen was in his doorway jumper. A stray balloon was charged with static and stuck to his legs. He continued bouncing away, with the balloon under him. Apparently it was very funny to watch.)

Cara had to find time in the evening to do her homework. She did the great majority of it herself, without help from her parents. When she finishes, one of her parents is supposed to sign the sheet at the back of the weekly packet. Tonight Cara took care of that, too: she signed her own name there.

12/18/10 (Saturday)

Owen is eleven months old! It's a good time to sum him up. He's a wonderful little boy. He has two little teeth. His hair is getting thick enough that it gets messy sometimes. He's really great at sitting up and at standing, and he loves jumping. He likes to grab things and bang them together or wave them around. He "talks" a lot. He loves the cats, and he loves his sister. He loves paper.

He's starting to be a very interactive player. He'll clap in response to clapping. When he's on his changing table, he clasps his hands together and puts them over his eyes. He's starting to play peek-a-boo with us.

Today he had a tough time. He and I went down to Middletown to join the family in decorating for Christmas. Owen napped in the car, but he woke up when we got there. I'd really hoped he'd stay asleep, because he needed the nap! He wanted to sleep more, too, but he just couldn't, somehow. Whenever I gave him a bottle, he'd rub his face against me and snuggle up and just not quite be able to get there.

He did have some very good times, though. He likes playing peek-a-boo, and lots of people were willing to play with him. I gave him Cara's old zoo toy to play with, so he got to take lots of little animals out of a basket. I'd brought his doorway jumper, and of course he enjoyed that. GiGi liked to stand by him and play with him; they had a good time. He's got some big-time stranger anxiety, though. I had to be holding him or staying near him or at least in view at all times.

Cara got a wonderful new tea set from Aunt Nancy, and she had a lot of fun setting that up both at Grandmama's house and here. Owen got a cute teddy bear; my favorite moment was him sitting there clapping its feet together.

Today, at lunch, Grandmama, that wonderful woman, heated up a lot of pigs in blankets. Cara took three and ate them. She took three more, and she was ready to keep on filling her plate. I stopped her. I told her to eat those three, and then she could have as many as she wanted. I was away with Owen while she finished those three, so I wasn't there to curb her enthusiasm and make her pace herself. She took six more. Then, she finished those. After that, I think she only had one or two.

The other day, Em gave Cara a ride to DT in the morning. She reported a couple of amusing conversations.

Over breakfast, Casey was telling Cara:

Casey: Cara! guess what! Santa is bringing me twinkletoes for Christmas! Do you want twinkletoes too?

Cara: *nods*

Casey: Did you tell Santa?

Cara: No......(starting to get upset at the prospect of having not told Santa something so horribly important)

Em: Cara, do you know what twinkletoes ARE?

Cara: No.

Em: Then maybe Santa can bring you other things you know you want instead of a pair of shoes. Because, Cara, really, twinkletoes are just shoes. Not even BOOTS!

Casey: They're shoes! And they're pink! And they're sparkly! And Santa's bringing them to me!!!

Em: And you can show them to Cara and she can see if REALLY she wants them, but it's ok if Santa doesn't bring them.

. . . and all was right with the world.

Later, in the car:

PJ: Hey, Cara! Guess what! At Christmas time, I'm going to Jason's house!

Cara: (exasperated) I KNOW, PJ!

PJ: You can't know, Cara. I've never told you before.

Cara: I know, PJ, but I've heard you tell everybody ELSE.

12/19/10 (Sunday)

Steve and I have discussed purchasing eleven more advent calendars, because having that little box to open does such wonders with getting Cara out of bed in the morning. She's really enjoying adding pieces to her woodland Christmas scene. All of the animals are having a feast. On Friday, we were very rushed in the morning and she never opened her box. On Saturday, she was in Middletown. Saturday night, she got to open two boxes! This morning, it was back to business as usual. She had a biggish box to open; she got a little plastic manger which she elected not to put any of the food in, because she's pretending that the animals already ate everything that was in it. At least twice today, she's come to us, pretty sure that she never opened a box this morning, wanting to open one now! We've had to assure her that she did already open one and remind her what was in it.

Today, Steve and Owen stayed home while Cara and I went out with PJ, Casey, Em and Ron. We went to Chili's, of course, and then Barnes and Noble, where the kids were allowed to get something. After much thought, Cara returned to the item she'd been hankering after the past few times we've gone. It's a book that teaches you how to draw a lot of the things Cara loves: mermaids, princesses, etc. Last time we went she spent at least fifteen mintues paging through it on her own. Now, she can see it any time. It was a nice early Christmas.

This evening, Juliana came over to wish us happy holidays and say goodbye; she'll be going away for the holidays. We quickly got a card for her and I told Cara to bring it upstairs so Daddy could sign his name. She gave him a pen and he wrote his name and returned the card.

Cara: You're done?!

Steve: Yes.

Cara: That was fast!

Steve: Well, I've been writing it for a long time.

Cara came home from Grandmama's house with a nice pair of patterned socks. When she showed them to me, I assumed that they were for her; but, she explained, one was a stocking for Marshmallow, and the other was an extra stocking for Marshmallow (in case the first one broke). By today, this had transformed, and the socks were for Puma and Marshmallow. Cara carefully wrote the word "MARSHMALLOW" on one sock with a pink marker, after we spelled it out for her, and then she drew pictures of all the presents that both animals wanted on the socks. The pictures are somewhat hard to interpret--Cara is very good at drawing, but markers on socks don't make for precision. All I remember for sure is that they both want wigs. You heard me.

12/20/10 (Monday)

Steve pointed out a while ago that he thinks Owen gets jealous when we're eating and he isn't; he wants to eat our food. Considering that he objected to the chunks in the stage three baby food last time I tried it on him, I think that this presents something of a problem. Anyway, he was certainly excited about that broccoli he tried a couple of weeks ago. This evening, he was fussy and unhappy. While Steve got dinner onto the table, Owen sat in my lap and tried a piece of asparagus. I was pretty confident that he wouldn't be able to do anything dangerous like get the whole thing from his hand to his mouth. He held it with one end sticking out of his fist, and he destroyed that thing. He gummed up the whole end of it, and by the time he dropped it he'd squeezed the rest of it into shreds.

It was around seven when we sat down to eat, and Owen was very unhappy. We put him in his jumperoo, but Cara and I had to keep playing peek-a-boo with him while we ate. Finally, I started a bottle for his bedtime. Then, though, I gave him a piece of bread. I thought it might be too big for him, but he mangled it and mauled it and worked at it, and he laughed and talked and jumped and jumped and jumped while we finished dinner, cleaned up, and got through Cara's homework. When he'd finished the bread, he did the same thing to a wagon wheel treat. There were parts left from both, but they were pretty disgusting.

12/21/10 (Tuesday)

The tension is mounting. There are only three boxes left for Cara to open in her advent calendar. She knows there are surprises hidden in the house. It's getting difficult to bear. That is, it's difficult when she thinks about it. The rest of the time, it's fine.

Cara's been taking her Barbie dolls around with her. All eight or so of them went to DT with her. Most of them were naked. She's often distracted when I get there to pick her up, so it's difficult to get her to pack up her harem. Today we stuffed them all into the backpack. When we got home, I unpacked and stacked them up, a cord of Barbies. This evening we got a large package in the mail, so Cara got the box. She added it to the airplane that she's building for the Barbies. The airplane consists of the Elmo couch on its side, draped with a big shawl, and the box standing up behind it. I had to come down to find one particular Barbie, and I had great difficulty finding it. I couldn't find any of them! Eventually I looked under the shawl and found them all sitting in chairs, facing front, riding on the airplane. Naked.

12/22/10 (Wednesday)

Today Cara had a "Winter party" at Kindergarten. She came home with several things, including what she described very precisely as "two unsharpened pencils," a little container of Play-doh, a couple of holiday-themed pictures, and a packet with instructions for making "Snowman Soup." It was hot chocolate mix that was supposed to be combined with marshmallows and a few other things. But, Cara explained, she had eaten the things that went with the hot chocolate.

Owen discovered by accident that he can lean far back and look up at the ceiling while in his jumperoo. So he started doing this for fun tonight. He would jump a while, and then slowly lean his head back.

Tonight Evelyn put Cara in front of the computer and had her go to the Nick Jr. site. Cara spent some time playing her own games by herself on the computer. She needs mouse practice!

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