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Journal Key:

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

12/23/10 (Thursday)

Once in a while, I am reminded of how extraordinarily lucky I am. This morning, Cara woke up and had a Great Idea. It was about the "card" that she had written for Santa. Oh, yes, that letter to Santa that was . . . sitting around the house somewhere. Oops. Cara's idea: we could leave it on the plate of cookies for Santa. That way, when he came in, he'd see right away what she wanted. The other part of the Great Idea was to write a letter for Owen, too. She would write that he wanted "more weebles." I suggested "some toys" as a substitute.

Cara's been watching Frosty the Snowman. There's a weird part with a magician who tries to do a trick with eggs. Starting on Tuesday, because of this, Cara has been wanting eggs. Her first request was while I was in the middle of cooking dinner on Tuesday, so she didn't get any then. I suggested breakfast. This morning she mentioned it again, but then I left quickly to get to work without mentioning any of this to Steve. I'm not sure what happened; I do know that she wants eggs tomorrow.

I brought home some presents from school. Some are for the kids, from Nick and the twins. Some are for me. Last night we opened the ones I brought home. Tonight, faced with a present for herself, Cara elected to put them all under the tree. I was so ready to open things!

12/24/10 (Friday)

Christmas Eve began with Cara being very lonely. It was about six or seven in the morning. Cara walked into our bedroom and told us she was lonely. Ev told her to go to the bathroom and then come back. "You hit the snooze button on her," I said. When she came back, I lumbered out of bed and went back to her room. She clearly intended for me to stay in the room with her while she went back to bed, but at that point we heard Owen waking up. I suggested that she might as well get up, too, and the three of us hung out downstairs until Mommy woke up.

Cara has an incredibly high tolerance for repeat viewings of the animated Frosty the Snowman. As soon as it is over, she is ready to watch it again. This morning I put my foot down and we only watched it once. Then, with no other alternative, Cara was willing to watch the sequel, Frosty Returns. The sequel was very odd, and almost made me wish I'd seen the first one again. Later in the morning I realized I could bring up her favorite Scooby-Doo movie using the instant queue on Netflix, so she has switched over to that movie now. I hope she doesn't want to watch it too often, because it will tie up the computer!

We decided to begin our long holiday with some house cleaning, so for a lot of the morning we were juggling kids while dusting and vacuuming. Owen continued to be totally uninterested in solid food, but was fairly well-behaved for the morning and into the early afternoon. He did, in fact, nap a little, but it was broken up into small chunks. We haven't successfully used Star Wars on him for a while, but it worked today--though not till the end of the movie.

In addition to house cleaning, Ev also made cookies with Cara to give to Santa, and did some cooking for the evening. Cara ate her share of cookie dough and then was flitting around the kitchen chattering away at us. I think it was her idea to make cookie versions of all of us. Cara's cookie is wearing a cookie dress, which Evelyn made for it (Evelyn's cookie persona is purportedly wearing slacks). My cookie persona inexplicably has green eyes. Owen was decorated to have red overalls. This evening, Cara gave Evelyn's cookie away to Santa. It's hard to know how Ev should feel about that.

By the time we were scrambling to finish the cookies, finish the vegetable dish, pack up the car, and get everyone dressed, Owen was quite done. He emphatically did not want anything to eat and hated all of his toys, and we had little option but to let him scream while we finished up our preparations. As usual in these situations, as soon as the car started moving he was quiet. He fell asleep at some point and was still asleep when we arrived at Grandmama and Grandpapa's house.

It was Evelyn's idea, once we had gotten there and settled in somewhat, to give the bean something to eat. He was finally ready to sit down and have some solid food spooned into him, and we were so determined not to miss the chance that when other people arrived, we asked them to stay out of the downstairs room where we were so that he wouldn't get distracted. He eventually finished almost a whole jar, and I'm convinced this made a big difference in his evening. He was really a wonderful little boy tonight. He looked very handsome in his light blue shirt and grey sweater (with a penguin on the front). Everyone got to hear how well he can babble. We did need to hold him through the meal, but he had a very good session in the doorway jumper, and never got frightened at anyone at all (though he did give several people the "Just who are you, exactly?" look). And he loved getting his presents! One of the first ones he opened was a beanie baby ostrich, and I could see the joy on his face. He put the beak in his mouth right away. He also enjoyed looking at a big board book and seeing his new farm tractor toy in action.

Cara I know also had a good time. She was not willing to try much of dinner, unfortunately, but her Grandmama pulled out a big jar of gefilte fish, and Cara put away something like three pieces. Good thing Grandmama had that ace in the hole! Since I was sitting with Owen during the present-opening, I'm not able to give a comprehensive list of Cara's gifts. But I know that she got a lot and that she reacted very positively to all of them. She got a very nice Night Before Christmas book, and a new fancy dress for her Barbies, and a few craft projects to work on, among other things. She spent a lot of time up in the dollhouse room, and fortunately got some new dollhouse toys, too. I believe Aunt Claire helped with some of the dollhouse time, and Grandmama made some pretty impressive paper snowflakes.

So we had a very pleasant Christmas Eve. We left for home well after Owen's bed time, and arrived home well after Cara's bed time. Both kids are now in bed, the cookies (and letter) for Santa have been placed, the magical reindeer food is scattered on the lawn, and I think Santa may have already visited. Between washing dishes and writing journals, I think we missed him! Soon we'll head for bed.

12/25/10 (Saturday)

Last night was a screamy one in this house. Steve and I got to bed around eleven thirty. Cara had us up around one. Owen got me up at four. He wanted to be asleep, but he just couldn't quite get there. I gave up and went back to bed around five. He cried for a bit and then dropped off. Before seven, Cara was in our room, lonely. There was no snooze button, because she'd already been to the bathroom. I really didn't want to get up, so I invited her into bed. It was the first time ever that she got in with us, snuggled up next to me. Then I remembered that she's got a cold that involves a very runny nose. She was on my pillow. She went to sleep. Steve and I lay there, Christmas morning, waiting for the kids to get up.

Finally, Steve did get up. I didn't think I could get out without waking Cara, and I was right; when I got out, up she came. She went to check downstairs, and there were lots of presents under the tree and in the stockings. In the interest of family togetherness, though, I insisted that we wait for Owen. To pass the time, we folded some laundry that had been sitting around, and we didn't refrain from going in to put Owen's stuff away. It worked! Very soon, he was an awake and happy baby.

Everyone had things to open. Given his enjoyment of paper products, I expected Owen to be a participant in the tearing part. He preferred to watch. Cara made up for that by being very active in the unwrapping of packages. One problem was that, now that she's reading more smoothly, she's reading parts of the labels on things. Several times, we had to explain that a present under the tree was for someone else, that our names were on it because it was from us.

Having created a very enjoyable confusion on the floor by the tree, we had a lovely breakfast. We got to play with a few things, but then it was time to head to Grandmom's house for Christmas. We're reading Little Town on the Prairie, and Owen has been really great on all of our trips this weekend, so it was a very pleasant drive.

We got to see almost the whole extended family. There were a lot more presents to open. Cara was delighted with a huge sticker book, which had very large pages, each of which was dedicated to a different theme. She spent a good deal of time carefully pasting the thirty or so ballerina stickers onto two sheets of construction paper. She took them all off in order, left to right, row by row, and stuck them on in the same order.

Grandpop, who bought Puma for Cara on a trip to the zoo years ago, decided to duplicate the feat by using the zoo website to get another puma! I knew that he had done this and nearly died when, on her sock, Puma drew the friend she hoped to get from Santa. Today she met that new puma, who, coincidentally, probably by reason of being slightly larger, turns out to be her mother!

Owen was, again, remarkably good today. He enjoyed standing up and drumming on things, and he sat nicely in our laps and messed with things while we ate. We brought up an old activity table, and he was delighted to have a new office to work in. For a while Griffin worked there, too, and Owen occasionally either patted or whacked his hand, depending on your point of view.

Lily, who is two, was there, and she was, unfortunately, very excited about all of Cara's toys. Cara mostly was pretty good about sharing, but it was tough.

We got home a little after six, having had another great drive, and we unpacked and started to put things away. Owen got put down, Cara had a bath, and suddenly I realized that she hadn't really eaten all day. She'd had a few pancakes in the morning (including some she'd gotten out herself, microwaved herself, and cut up herself); and then she'd had some soup at Grandmom's, after I'd explained to her that this was the soup that she'd tried a few Christmases ago and eaten bowl after bowl of, and that that was how we'd known she liked soup; then she'd skipped the meal and been too busy for dessert; and then we'd gotten home and played! She came downstairs in her pajamas for an apple and some chicken nuggets. She wanted ten. I heated four. She finished them and wanted more. Ten. Steve made three. She finished those and her apple and went to bed.

12/26/10 (Sunday)

There's a blizzard going on! The snow started this morning, and we spent most of the day trying to convince Cara that it wasn't time to go out in it yet. She kept reporting on whether she could still see the grass. Actually, she wouldn't have been able to go out at all, if Steve hadn't gone out this morning and managed to pick up some snow pants for her! He had to go to three different stores, in addition to doing his other errands, but he did eventually find one pair of size six pants. Just as he picked it up, a woman came along looking for the same thing. We're all pretty sure those were the last ones anywhere.

Aside from one of us really wanting to go out, staying in was really nice. We ate good leftovers and got things organized, and we got to play with some of our new things. Cara and I made a picture on her glow dome, a contraption of clear plastic that you draw on with special markers. When you put it on the base and turn it on, the dome spins and the pictures glow. Later, all three of us worked on making some creatures with her pixos kit. It involves scooping tiny beads into a mold, wetting them, letting them dry, and then sticking plastic eyes and things on. Then you can put them on a base and they light up. Cara's Polly Pocket girls have been over to visit her Calico Critters, and Owen has, well, been shaking and banging a lot of his new toys.

This evening, after dinner, Cara and I finally went over to PJ's house to play in the snow. It was really, really awful. I looked afterwards online, and the temperature was 24 degrees, but with the wind chill it felt like nine. The wind was blowing the snow around, and more was coming down. Em and I, just standing around, both looked as if we'd rolled in snow. It was deep, at least eight inches so far, and it's very, very powdery. It makes drifts, and sledding in ti was weird; I was able to get it to pack down a track for the kids to slide in, but every time I went down the hill, at the bottom I felt as if I were splashing into a pool of snow or something. The kids had a great time. We may have been out there for almost an hour. They all sledded and rolled and climbed and made snow angels and even had a snowball fight, which, thank goodness, Cara didn't like, and between that and being cold, we came home. I had to make Steve come and help us get unzipped, because my fingers hurt so much. Cara claimed to hurt, too, but when we asked her what hurt, she said "nothing." She has picked up on the phrase "freezing to death," and she claimed to be doing so at least three times in fifteen minutes after we got back to the house.

12/27/10 (Monday)

Last year we got Cara Snow White, and we finally watched it in, maybe, November. This year, Steve got her The Princess and the Frog. We've watched it at least five times. Of course, she had seen it before, and they have it at DT.

DT was closed today. The rest of us had planned on staying home, so Cara joined us. I was out shoveling when she got up. The snow had drifted in the yard and around the cars, so it took a long time. Snow is piled up inside the fence and on both sides of the driveway apron as high as I could pile it. By noon, though, we were able to set out for Trenton, where Owen's High Risk Follow-Up appointment was still on. We could have rescheduled, but it seemed like a better idea to get it over with. I never expected that the roads would still be as bad as they were!

The snow was so powdery that it blew out over roadways that have to have been plowed. Even One was bad. We made it in time, though. Owen had been sleeping in the car, and he wasn't happy about having to wake up. In fact, he was unhappy throughout the appointment. He was unhappy in reception and in the waiting room, and he was unhappy with the doctor; when we were back with the physical therapist and the speech therapist, he wailed and clung to me.

He weighs twenty pounds, four ounces, and he's 28 inches tall. The doctor was happy with him, and he says that we should have him spend more time sitting in the crib, so that he learns to grab the slats and stand up. I stood him up (screaming) in the back with the therapists, and the physical therapist noticed that his feet splay out, which I have also noticed. Based on my answers to their questions, as well as their observations, they recommend Early Intervention for his verbal and physical development. I'll call tomorrow.

The drive home was better than the drive down, for the most part. The highway was much more clear. However, we had to get off of the highway to eat, as I had promised Cara we would, because we'd dragged her along and she'd had to wait. Of course, she picked Chili's. The first light we could have taken was closed. We got off at the second, where we waited in a very long line of cars, watching vehicles stopped in the on-ramp next to us. The first car was stuck, and people helped push, and then their cars got stuck, too. When we left Chili's, both of our children having been pleasant throughout the meal, a tractor-trailer was stuck in it and that ramp was closed. We went a different way, but that ramp was closed, as was the next one we went by. We ended up taking 18 and then heading up through Highland Park, getting home five hours after we left. The silver lining: we brought Little Town on the Prairie into the house to finish the final two chapters.

Now, it's almost seven. I'm really very much ready for bed.

12/28/10 (Tuesday)

I'm feeling somewhat better today, and Owen got to wear some of his cool new clothes, including the hat he got that's way better than the one I got him, to YBR. So things are looking up.

I picked Cara up from DT before three, because we'd been invited to the birthday party of the son of one of my coworkers. It was at a "bouncy place," and as soon as she got her boots off Cara disappeared into one of the many inflatables. She and all of the other kids barely stopped running the whole time. Eventually I joined Cara in going through a sort of obstacle course one. Crawling through a tube ahead of me, she called back, "just try to fit through this one!" I did enjoy going through it, except for the slide at the end. Cara and I went around a few times together. Cara would like to have her birthday party at that place, as she would at many places.

12/29/10 (Wednesday)

We had a pleasant day today. Owen decided to get up at 4:30 but was eventually convinced to go back to sleep. He was up again at a more reasonable time and we had a relatively lazy morning before the kids got dropped off. Everyone at YBR loves Owen's new ear-flap hat. For some reason or other, Cara made use of one of her favorite current phrases. "That will perk him up!" she said of Owen. Miss Sandi remarked that that was an interesting thing to say. Cara likes to talk about things perking Owen up. She also believes that when she plugs in the Christmas lights, it will "perk up" her mom and dad.

Tonight was playdate night! We trudged through the snow to the Loefflers' house to have pizza. The kids had fun showing off their new toys. Owen is still a bit scared with Ron and Em on his own, but he did really well this evening when Ron took him downstairs to play away from his parents. We stayed playing video games a little later than we meant (but it was important that Ron and I clear a particularly hard level in PJ's new Mario game).

I gave Owen his bedtime bottle tonight, but afterwards he was totally not sleepy. He was babbling to himself and to me, grabbing at the corner of his dresser, and looking around the room. I kept holding him and eventually he started to get heavy-lidded eyes and began to yawn. It was funny to watch him blinking his eyes and yawning, while still managing to babble. Eventually I just put him in his crib still awake. I don't usually do this, but Ev does, and it seems to have done the trick.

For Christmas Cara got a new Puma. It is Puma's Mom. (I don't remember if we've already mentioned this.) Puma's Mom looks much stiffer and has better posture than Puma. She seems much more firmly stuffed, and has more black markings around her face. We assumed that, while my father carefully purchased this puma from the Philadelphia Zoo the same as the first one, clearly the zoo had changed their toy slightly. But we spent a while going back through old pictures and it seems that when the original Puma was new, she looked very much like her mother. So it seems a few years of love and several trips through the laundry have made a big difference.

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