Owlflers

 

Jane has been excited to find lots of 'owflers' in our yard.  If you have never heard of owflers, perhaps a picture of some should help:



 

We planted a bunch of bulbs last fall and I have been overjoyed at the beautiful display of colors in our gardens!

She loves to bring them to me, so we have had to have a talk about leaving the pretty flowers alone and not hurting them. I'm sure that it is confusing to her that I don't have a problem with her bringing dandelions to me!  I remember that when Mark and Paul would bring me dandelion bouquets that I was humored, but didn't appreciate it.  I've grown up as a parent and I realize now that they are sharing their discoveries with me and I absolutely love receiving dandelion bouquets! They are precious and I am honored to receive them! 

 

Jane mixes up some of her words, like saying owfler instead of flower.  I love this stage of language development!  We have many words from the boys that have stuck in like bilbow for elbow, uscusting for disgusting, flavorit for favorite, froggy for foggy, and frip frops for flip flops.  Jane has two words that are quite different that she says the same.  For both cinnamon and medicine, she says "menicin".  It used to perplex me as to why she was requesting medicine on her toast, but I've got it figured out now!   

 

Jane is growing up so fast!  She will be 3 next month and I'm I a bit of shock that she is getting so old!  

 

She is all girl, that is for sure!  When I told her to go and get ready to go shopping, she went and grabbed her necklace, sunglasses and purse!  She loves to play in the shoe section at the store!  I have found myself navigating around the shoe sections so that she doesn't see them.  I absolutely hate buying shoes, so it amazes me that she finds shoes to be so interesting! 

 

 

 She has entered the 'Princess Stage'  I have some dress-up clothes from my friend and Jane loves to wear them!  I've had to hide them so that she will wear something more than Pink Princess or Purple Princess. 

 It actually bugs me that she likes princess stuff.  I am not a princess fan.  I don't do Disney Princess.  Just because I don't do Disney princess doesn't mean that she can't, but it does mean that I will not be decorating her room with it!  She has watched the Tinkerbell movies, but none of the other Princess movies.  Her version of princess isn't the Disney, it is more from some of the Japanimation movies that we watch.  Most of those princess stories have the "self-rescuing princess" attitude that I like! She really just likes dressing up and having fun, so I'm learning to let it roll!

 

 

 Jane and Seth are great friends.  Seth is a very tolerant big brother.  He lets her play in her room and borrow his stuffed animals.  The other night she wanted him to read a book to her at bedtime.  Seriously, it doesn't get much sweeter than watching the two of them snuggle up and read together. 

 

 

 

 

Sweet Baby Jane

Okay, I know that Jane isn't a baby anymore- this is a fact that makes me rather sad.  Jane is growing up and learning more things with every passing week.  On Tuesday Paul and Seth will go back to school.  They have been home since before Christmas.  I have loved having them home and it is going to seem so strange to have them be gone all day.  Jane is going to miss having them around, too.  When I think about how (relatively) quiet it will be when it is just me and Jane at home during the day I am very grateful to have my sweet little Jane to spend time with.  She is such a delightful little girl.  Sure, she has her days where she isn't at her best, but don't we all?  I know that all too soon she will be gone all day too, so I am trying to relish the time that I have left with her. 

I was telling my friend about some of the funny things Jane does and she told me that I should write them down (thanks Shelley!).  So, I sat down to write a few things- she is such a delight! 

• Jane calls a knife a "ching ching".  She loves to get a butter knife out of the kitchen drawer and hang it through her belt loop.  She will chase around the house swinging her knife like a sword and yell out "ching, ching!" 
• The other day she picked out a video to watch.  She wanted to watch the cartoon version of Godzilla.  I watched her standing in front of the TV watching the movie in her cute little skirt, tights (with ruffles on the bum), frilly t-shirt and hair done up with ribbons while watching Godzilla and swinging her ching ching- I realized that it is pretty obvious that she has older brothers!
• Jane will get on all fours and meow like a cat.  I will say things like "what a pretty kitty", or "what a good little kitty" and she will crawl around my legs or climb onto my lap while I pet her head and rub her back.  The other day I asked if she was ready for her nap and she started to act like a cat. I carried the "kitty" to her room and put her in her bed.  She meowed for a song, so I meowed Twinkle Star to her and she thought that it was so funny! 
• She loves to dance.  When I play the piano, or when Daniel listens to music in the office,  she will dance around.  I am amazed at how well she does with repeating dance moves that we do.  I love how her curly hair bounces up and down when she dances.
• When dancing around, sometimes Jane will call out "doggie" and she will get on all fours and howl.
• If Jane wants you to ask her something, she will say the question that she wants you to ask to you.  For example, she will bring a jar of peanut butter and a spoon to me and say "want some help?" or if she wants to eat what you are eating, she will say "want some?"
• Jane offered Daniel a cracker, but at the last second she put it in her mouth instead of Daniel's.  When he asked where it was, she just opened her mouth and pointed inside!
• Daniel has called Jane "Sheldon" at times because of her obsession with the first bar stool in the kitchen.  Sometimes that is the only place that she wants to sit.  She will throw fits if one of the boys sit there.  (Sheldon is a character in the TV show "The Big Bang Theory" and he has his special spot on the couch).
• Jane love to work on little puzzles.  We have been going to the South Jordan library story time and when they have playtime she heads for the box of puzzles.  I pulled out the puzzles from our stash and she plays with them several times a day.
• While at story time, a bunch of the kids were getting loud and Jane shushed them.  Perhaps she gets shushed a little too much at home?  (Jane is really loud at times- she is happy, but loud and sometimes I try to get her to quiet down a bit!)
• Monkey see- monkey do.  Jane is great at imitating us lately.  She repeats us in the most unexpected moments, too. 
• Right before Christmas I was really sick and Daniel brough me a cup of crushed ice to eat.  Jane wanted one too, so we sat on the couch with our mugs of ice.  I took a spoonful and said "Mmmmm, this is perfect".  Jane then took a spoonful and said, "Mmmmm, delicious"! 
• Jane is a great mommy to her babies.  He loves to take them on walks in the little stroller (and she always makes sure that the seat belt is buckled up).  She takes them shopping through the basement with the grocery cart. She loves them and cuddles them and sings to them.  She changes their diapers when they are stinky.  We always seem to be short on washclothes because she takes them into her room to use as blankets for her babies.  I will often see all of her babies on the floor in her room, tucked in for a nap.  She will come out and tell us that we need to be quiet because baby is sleeping. 
• She will say please and thank you and it seriously melts my heart.  I love handing her a cup of juice and hearing her tell me thank you!  She has learned to 'beg' using clasped hands held up to her face and a long 'please' when she really wants something.
• I think that Jane is really a fish.  She loves the water!  She will take long baths and enjoy every second of it.  She absolutely loves to go swimming.  When her hair is wet it is super long- it comes more than half way down her back.  When it is dry and curly it is just a little bit past her shoulders.  Jane loves to put lotion on her tummy and face.  She likes to get a small dot of lotion on both hands, match them together and then rub. 
• Clothes.  Oy veh.  Her clothes.  She loves to wear skirts.  If she has a clean skirt, she will pick it out over a pair of pants.  She has acquiesced to wearing leggings or tights underneath so that she isn't so cold during the winter.  She has a very opinionated idea as to what she should wear for any given day, so I moved all of her shirts down where she can reach them and let her be the one to decide.  She has been known to change her mind and change her outfit anywhere between two to five times a day.  When she takes a shirt off of the hanger, she puts the hanger back on the rod and if she changes her mind about a shirt, she will put it back on the hanger and hang it up.  She will also put all of her dirty clothes in her hamper, so I am grateful that she keeps things organized even though it drives me crazy that she changes her clothes so often!
• Jane is a big helper around the house.  She likes to help the boys empty the dishwasher in the mornings.  She will grab the utensils and put them where they belong in the drawer.  She will also put the plastic food dishes away and most other things that are stored in the lower cabinets.  Even though it takes a little bit longer to have her help, the boys seem to appreciate the help!  She likes to fold the dish towels and to help put the clothes in the dryer.  I will hand her the clothes from the washer and she will throw them into the dryer often commenting that the clothes are wet and cold! 
• The girl loves chocolate (she calls it cha-kit) and peanut butter. I love peanut butter, too, so we will get our spoons and dig into the peanut butter together! Sometimes we'll sprinkle the spoon with chocolate chips!
• Jane loves to get her nails painted!  She is really good about holding still just long enough to get them painted and dried.  She is so much fun!  She hangs out with me while I do my hair and make up.  She has her own little brush that I let her use to rub on her face.  She always giggles when I brush it over her cheeks.  I don't know how long it will be before she realizes that I'm not putting any makeup on the brush though! 
• Daniel fell asleep on the couch one afternoon.  Jane got her blanket off of her bed and put it over him.  A few minutes later I noticed that she had propped her baby doll next to his arms and put her binkie next to his face. 

I am so grateful to have little Jane in my life.  She exudes happiness and a love for life.  She has a gift to make other people around her happy.   I am so lucky to be her mom!

Jane squealed with delight when Madeleine let her try on a ring at Scheels

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Daniel and Jane: the cutest father/daughter duo ever (to live in our house!)

Jane's First Haircut

I have been asked if having a girl is different than having a boy and until the past few months, my answer has been a resolved no.  One place where it is different is hair.  Jane's hair is long.  If she were a boy, I would have cut it off by now.  I have to remember to set aside time to do her hair before we go out.  With the boys a quick comb through (or swipe with the baby wipe when we are already in the van!) would calm their hair.  Jane's hair needs work, a comb through doesn't do the trick. 

Anyhow, I take Jane with me when I get my hair cut, and last week I had Kristen trim Jane's hair.  I don't have a lock of hair, because we didn't cut much off, just leveled the hair in the back and got the bangs out of her eyes.   Jane didn't want the cape on, but other than that she was good (for a two-year- old!)  She got her left hand free from the cape and wanted me to hold her hand.  She was calm as long as I held her hand. 

We took Jane in for her first dentist appointment and things went well.  The dentist said that it was the best two-year-old exam he had ever done.  She let them brush her teeth and let the dentist look into her mouth for a few seconds!  We all had appointments that day, so she was able to sit in the exam room and watch Mark get his teeth cleaned.  I think that she was more willing to cooperate because she saw us take our turn on the chair.  Her two-year-old molars weren't in yet, but I'm betting that they are trying to surface because she has been chewing on things and has been unusually grumpy.  I think that the "terrible two's" might be "my teeth are coming in and they hurt, THEY HURT A LOT!". 

Happy Birthday Jane!

Dear Jane,

Two years ago today Dad and I drove through a spring snowstorm to get to the hospital for your delivery.  I remember watching large snowflakes drift down from the heavens while in I was in labor with you.  That snowstorm was an unexpected delight.  You, my dear, are the unexpected delight of our family.  I am so happy to have you in my life.  Don't tell anyone else, but you are my favorite daughter!  You have added a whirlwind of excitement to my life and I am so glad that I was blessed to be your mother.

I have to admit that sometimes I am a bit jealous of how much your Dad loves you.  The two of you have an awesome bond.  I love to see your eyes light up when he enters the room and listen to you yell out "Daddy!". 

 

I love how expressive you are.  Your little face tells so many stories!  I'm sure that you have told me many stories but I just don't understand everything that you say.  Even though I don't understand you, I LOVE listening to you talk!  (You talk a lot)

You are one smart girl.  I have been amazed at how much you understand at such a young age.  You love routines and patterns.  You love to read books (you are definitely part of the right family for that!). 

I love how you can get anyone who comes over to visit to read you a book.  We have read these little books to you hundreds of times.  We will read them to you hundreds more, I'm sure.

Dad and Jane

Uncle Ben and Jane

Uncle Jared and Jane

You have quite the fun personality and attitude.  I love playing with you at the park.  You are full of adventure and joy.  I am amazed that you have figured out how to climb the ladder at the neighborhood park.  You aren't afraid of any of the slides. 

You are a wonderful companion in the kitchen.  It is fun to see you imitate the things that I do while making dinner.  It is fun to see you pull out an apron and beg me to help you put it on.  It is fun to watch you cut up apple slices and devour them.

Jane, you are such a sweet girl.  Over the past few months, I have noticed how caring and nurturing you are.  You feed your babies, put them to bed, and read them books.  After my eye surgery, you helped wipe my eyes with a tissue and gave me a hug.  When I was resting on the couch, you brought a blanket from your bed and put it on me.  Thank you for taking care of me!

You have made me a better person.  Being a mother is a tricky job.  You can thank your brothers for helping me be more patient with you than I was with them.  Being the youngest really does have great perks!  I can't tell you enough how much you have added to my life.  You have give me reasons to smile when I didn't feel like smiling.  Thank you for being my daughter.  

Jane and Mom (on Jane's 1st birthday)

I love how you admire your brothers.  You love to be with them and you try your best to keep up with them. I have a feeling that you are everyone's favorite sister!  You are so cute with Seth.  He is your buddy and I love to watch you interact with him.    I have always loved and admired my big brother, Randy.  You and Seth are about five years apart from each other, like Randy and me.  Seth can be your best protector and friend as the years go on. Please don't be afraid to let Seth take that roll in your life! 

My dear love bug, I hope that you have a wonderful birthday!  I love you!

What Did She Say?

Jane has been learning new words and talking a lot lately!  She loves to jabber and leaves us wondering what she is talking about, but every once in a while we understand what she is saying.

The first word she said was "bye".  She loves to go places!  I complied a list of things that she says.  Most of this list she has said over the past two days! Of course, she doesn't pronounce everything clearly, but we know what she is saying. 

• bye
• go
• sock
• stuck (she uses this word when she can't open a door, is done eating and can't get out of her highchair or when she can't get her shirt or sock off, when she is ready to get out of her crib, or when a toy is somewhere she can't reach!)
• shoe
• Paul
• Seth
• baby
• Binky
• stinky (she is very aware of her diaper lately and tells us when she needs a diaper change!)
• owie
• no (I really could have waited a lot longer for her to figure this one out!)
• yes (but at least she knows yes too!)
• cheese
• bath
• hi
• tada!
• see
• thank you (sounds like ayou)
• outside
• here you go
• where it go
• movie (she says "kiki" for Kipper)
• you okay? (sounds like youkay)
• let's go
• give it back (I was a bit shocked when she scolded Seth and told him to give the toy back that he had taken!) 

Jane has been removing her clothes a lot lately.  The other day she climbed onto the air mattress we had set up in the basement and she climbed under the blanket, took her shirt off, then came out of the blanket and said "tada!"  We would put her shirt back on and she would climb back under the blanket to remove it.  I'm trying to not make a big deal out of it, but I really don't like her taking her clothes off!  Sometimes she pulls her shirt over her head, but can't get her arms out, so she will call out that she is stuck!  She is quite the character!

She was not happy that I got the camera and took her picture before getting her out of the crib.  I'm not surprised to walk into her room after a nap and find her this way, but the first time I thought that it was picture worthy!

Dog Food and Baby Dolls

On Valentine's Day, we went up to Madeleine's house for a little party.  We made creations out of clay, ate lunch, played Husker Du and frosted cookies.  It was a wonderful afternoon.  I don't know what it is about Madeleine, but I feel so refreshed and calm when I am around her.  Daniel loves it when I spend time with her because I come home a much happier me.  It is wonderful to be friends with Madeleine.  I feel so lucky. 

Madeleine's dog, Elliot, was eating her lunch and Jane decided to join in.  She got down on her belly, placed a piece of dog food on the floor and licked it up!  She even went back for seconds!  Elliot was good to share her food, and I was good to be calm and let Jane explore.

We decided to cleanse Jane's palette with some sugar cookies.  Jane ate her first cookie, so Madeleine got some frosting on a knife and helped Jane frost her second cookie.  Jane had the knife in hand, loaded with frosting and she decided to forgo the middle-man and eat the frosting right off of the knife!  I wasn't concerned because the knife wasn't sharp at all.  We even reloaded Jane's frosting administrator.  The boys finished off the entire batch of cookies.  They loaded the cookies up with frosting and sprinkles.  They were in a sugar-induced coma on the way home! 

Jane loves to play with her dolls.  Today she was feeding her baby some goldfish crackers.  She would break off a tiny piece and put it on her mouth!  It is a lot of fun to see how different she is than the boys were with the dolls.  She mainly plays with this doll and one that is a bit smaller- they were the boy's dolls when they were little, but they never cuddled with them the way that she does! 

You can't see them really well in this picture, but she was wearing denim overalls today.  There is just something about toddlers in overalls that makes me so happy.  (Aaaaaaaugh!  I just referred to Jane as a toddler.  I mean, she is one, but it makes me so sad that she isn't a baby anymore.)

On Wednesday we went to Living Planet Aquarium.  I was smart this time and didn't bring the stroller.  Jane does better there being held or climbing around on the benches.  We loved watching the otters, but they weren't out for very long while we were there.  Our next favorite exhibit is the penguins.  I loved watching the penguins dive into the water and watch the trail of water bubbles that would follow them.  It was beautiful! 

Seth was excited that he is finally taller than the emperor penguin! He is such a sweet kid! 

We have one more week out of school and we hope to keep busy with a lot of fun things.  We had a small snow storm last night, but still not a good enough storm to go sledding at the park.  Does anyone know of a good place to go sledding that is free?  The boys are so anxious to go sledding!

Another Before and After with Jane

Jane loved playing with this snowman last year. 

It was so easy to get her to hold still for a picture last year.

When I tried to get a picture of her with it this year, she wasn't wanting to pose for me.

Then, I wouldn't let her play with the camera and see her picture.

She settled down, but still wasn't ready to smile.

Oh well, I tried! 

Baby Jaxon

Daniel's sister Deb had a baby boy on January 31st.  (Daniel and I both have a sister named Debbie- both are twins and born on the same year! They both live in Arizona, too!)  Deb and Chad moved to Arizona so that Chad could learn how to fix up motorcycles.  I found this fabric and thought that it was perfect for little baby Jaxon!  Congratulations Deb and Chad!

Quilt measures 40x40

Last Christmas

I gave you my heart and the very next day you gave it away.  Sorry, I wrote the post title and then the words to the song just flowed out of my fingers!  My boys sing this song all of the time and I think that it is hilarious!  Anyhow, back to our scheduled program:

Last year at this time Jane was just learning how to roll.  She rolled over to the Christmas tree and took a few ornaments off (and put them in her mouth). She loved to get under the tree and look at the lights (and play with the presents).

This year, Jane is running around and loves to look at the Christmas tree.  She has been taking ornaments off of the tree and depositing them all around the house.  I found some in my closet, in the laundry room and in the kitchen cupboard.  She has been putting things on the tree too!  The bottom half of our tree looks very sparse compared to the top, but it is all good!  I am absolutely amazed at how much Jane has changed in the last year.  Our family is so blessed to have her with us! 

If you look closely, you can see that Jane is hanging her necklace on the tree!

Hold Her For Just A Little While

The other day Jane woke up early and I didn't want her to wake up the boys as they had been up late the night before with their play performance and they had another late night ahead of them.  I went into Jane's room and gave her a cup of milk.  I rocked her in the rocking chair and thought that I'd hold her for just a little while and then play quietly with her in her room until the boys woke up.

Much to my surprise, Jane fell back asleep!  I was afriad that she would wake up if I put her back in her crib, so I reclined the chair and held her while she slept.  It has been a long time since I have held her while sleeping.  I loved every second of it! 

While we were sitting there, I was reminded of our first night together in her room.  I held her on my chest and we both had a good rest.  Of course, she was a lot smaller then, but for a second I was pulled back into that blissful moment of holding a sleeping newborn.  I loved feeling the heat of her body, listening to the sounds of her breath and watching her chest move up and down. 

She didn't wake up for an hour.  I am so grateful that I was able to use that hour to calm my soul and hold my beautiful baby.  I will treasure that morning with her forever.

Things Jane Can Do

Yesterday I realized that Jane is the same age that Mark was when Paul was born.  Yowzer!  I really wish that I had written in my journal when Mark was a baby.  I wish that I had been more diligent with writing about the little things that amazed me with my little babies.  I think that I was just on survival mode though.  I have far more free time now than I did with two little ones.  I started writing weekly emails (the beginning of Taylor Times) when Paul was about 3 months old, so I do have a lot of things recorded that I wouldn't remember now. 

That being said, I wanted to write down some of the things that Jane has been doing lately.

Jane has changed so much in the past few months.  Once she started to walk (run) we have been able to see another side of her personality.  It has been so much fun to see her discover things and to watch her explore.  One of my favorite things to do with kids this age is to go for a walk and let them be the guide.  They scatter about from one thing to the next and it is fun to see what catches their eye. 

Jane continues to amaze me with the things she does. She seems to enjoy patterns and routine.  When she wakes up from her nap, she will grab her binkie and have us hold her up to the shelf to put it away.  She knows to put the diaper in the garbage can after she is changed.  I didn't realize that she would put the diaper away until one day when I changed her clothes and diaper in the living room.  I normally change her in the bedroom, but she took off while I was getting her clothes ready.  I held up the diaper and said "Let's go put this in the garbage".  She took the diaper, and beelined it to her bedroom and put in the garbage.  We had just rearranged the bedroom a few days before so I was really surprised when she knew exactly where to put it.  (We had to rearrange her bedroom because she can reach the light switch from her crib and she discovered it!)

She loves to play with Legos.  She has been putting together little towers with the 1 inch Legos and loves it.  We have a little play kitchen that has a shape sorter.  When you put the little shapes in the hole, you can push a button to make them come out from the 'ice cube dispensor' part of the fridge.  Jane has been delighted with this since she was about 9 months old.  It is amazing to watch her awkwardly cram the little shapes into the hole with her chubby little hands and then push the button to make them come out. 

When she turns the light on in her bedroom, she will look up at the light and say "Mwa ha ha ha ha".  Okay, we have been teaching her to say that because her Uncle David taught the older boys to say it when he was living with us when they were a few years old.  It is just entertaining to see when she chooses to say it!

When we leave the pantry door open, Jane will get something to eat.  She has been really good about not making too big of a mess.  Usually she will grab a box of cereal or crackers, sit on the floor and eat.  She has been known to take the box of animal crackers downstairs with her and leave a Hanzel and Grettle-like trail to the basement.  I am so much calmer now than I was 11 years ago.  I think that it is cute and enjoy the moment instead of getting irritated.  I had her help clean up the 'trail' and she loved it! 

Jane with a box of cereal.  She sometimes gives us this silly smile that scrunches up her little face and it looks so funny! 

I love to listen to her talk.  She will go on and on just jabbering away.  I really wish that I knew what she was trying to say.  It is seriously so much fun to listen to her.  She is so animated. 

Jane is really observant.  She has been helping the boys empty the dishwasher in the mornings.  She will grab things out of the dishwasher and put them away.  She knows where to put her bowls, the tupperware and the lids.  We were all taken back when she put things away, but she loves to be involved and to help out! 

Yesterday while I was eating my lunch, I had to blow on the rice because it was really hot.  I noticed that Jane was blowing everytime I would blow.  I had some rice on a fork ready to share with her and she blew on it before putting it into her mouth! 

It has just been me and Jane at home during the day (Daniel is home, but is working)and it has been strange.  I have been anticipating Seth to come home for lunch, but he is at school all day now.  (He has been loving 1st grade)  Jane has been a pretty good shopping companion, so I am glad for that!  I honestly don't remember having so much fun with a baby before.  I am so glad that I am able to stay home with my little Jane and watch her grow up!

Jane's One Year Pictures

Just for fun I decided to have Jane get her one-year-old pictures taken in the same dress that I wore for my one-year pictures.  It was fun to pull out my picture and compare. 

Sherron 1 year

Jane 1 year

I love the 'O' picture on this one

Jane Plays Outside

The other day the weather was gorgous, so I took Jane outside to play on the grass while we waited for Mark and Paul to come home from school.  I took my camera outside with us and I just followed her around while she explored.  We had a lot of fun!  I think that I caught a few good shots too!

What is this?  An acorn!

She played with the acorn and flower for a long time before the flower got the chance to explore the inside of Jane's mouth.