Spring 2009...Jane

Here are some pictures from the last couple months. And now I'm realizing they are all of Janie! We need to take more pictures of the other kids:)

Jane likes to dress up. Since we don't many official dress up clothes, she finds what she can. Her favorites are hats and mittens, but Gene's baseball gloves do in a pinch. She also is a fan of shoes...preferably not her own, since she can't get her own shoes on by herself.



Here she is with Uncle Mike, who now lives in Boston.



She loves to play with the other kids, and they in turn do well with her. Here she is with Lucy, playing with our "button bowl":


We do let her play with small chokable objects a lot, but don't worry...she has been known to occasionally put things in her mouth, but I think having the opportunity to work with small objects so often is great for finger dexterity...and she has learned there are more interesting ways to play with things than to eat them. Here she is in the much-loved stone box (I couldn't quite stand the thought of how dirty the kids could get playing in a sand box, so we filled it instead with pea gravel).


And here's a Jane story, which happened a month ago, when she was just starting to talk, but not speaking in sentences yet. This is the story of her first sentence:

It was a rainy morning, not pouring but definitely wet. We were heading out for the last day of Bible Study, and I had dressed the kids nicely for the occasion. I was rushing around trying to remember everything we needed to bring, and Brendan was helping the kids get shoes on. He took the big kids out to the car, and came in to finish getting ready himself. When I came down I wondered where Janie was, and he said she was outside with the kids. Outside...I thought they were in the car. He said he had sent them out to get in their seats, and Janie has just gone out too. One of those crazy, hurried moment, things that probably happens to everyone once in a while. No, we don't ever leave her alone in the driveway without a parent. So, needless to say, when we both rushed outside, she was crouched down at the edge of a mud puddle, between the driveway and the sidewalk, happily playing....with her TEDDY BEAR! Her pants were muddy at the bottoms, and she had been eating the mud- it was all over her mouth. As Brendan loaded her into the car, she held up her teddy bear, who was also covered with mud, and said quite audibly, "Eat mud, too."

Little Miss Tattletale

So...Janie is our resident tattletale, at the ripe old age of 20 months. She is often telling me what has happened to her..."Push me" and "Hit me" being her favorites...but she says them in such an injured tone of voice that I can't help but laugh. And now I think she is getting old enough to "joke" about it...she and Gene were eating breakfast, on opposite sides of the table, when I stepped outside to take out the trash. When I came back she told me Gene had pushed her!

Early to Rise...

What is it about putting kids to bed late that makes them wake up extra early the next morning? We let the kids play outside a while last night, because it was SO nice out, and got to bed by 8:30-8:45ish. Now, at 6:30, I am hearing noises from both bedrooms. Yet I find when they go to bed super early (i.e. 7 or 7:30), they tend to sleep till 7:30ish. Strange... I don't know how this is going to work for the summer. It is okay for the girls, since they both take naps and can catch up on missed sleep. But for Gene, who I finally weaned off taking a nap in the fall...he needs more sleep! Yet he is the one who consistently wakes up the earliest. Yet to put him to bed at 7pm on these nice, sunny great for playing baseball with Papa after dinner days seems cruel...our dinner doesn't usually END till close to 7 since Brendan gets home around 6:15. What to do, what to do...

Muffin Tins

Here's something fun I discovered a while ago on a few blogs that I follow- a new way to eat lunch (or snack, or dinner, I guess!):

Fill in the different little sections of a 6 or 12-cup muffin tin with different foods, and give one to each child for their meal. It is pretty appealing. I can put in fruits, veggies, meat, sandwich sections, and things that need a spoon, like yogurt and applesauce. I can put veggies in one section, next to a section full of dip. I can even fit a cup in one of the top sections.

Of course, left to their own devices, my kids would completely avoid the foods they don't like. So...I have a couple rules when we have muffin tins. There is always a "dessert" section, with a piece of candy or a cookie or something...and if they eat at least two bites of each section, they may eat the dessert. I used to say they have to eat at least two bites to be DONE with the meal, but everything from all sections to have dessert...but then I realized that it really can be too much food for some tummies, so I revised. I also advise them to start at the top and eat two bites from every sections FIRST, before filling up on their favorites...this is a work in progress, and they are starting to get it...otherwise they start "forgetting" whether they have really eaten two bites of those undesirable foods.

Anyway, it's fun, and also a GREAT way to use up leftovers!