Friday, November 21, 2008

Jane Turns 2!



I remember the excitement of throwing Millie a party for her 2nd birthday. When Abby turned 2 we had a fun family celebration with a special dinner and decorations. This year for Jane's 2nd birthday, Jane was lucky to get sprinkles on the ice cream in her waffle bowl after a dinner of leftovers (granted, it was the week before Mark got home). Poor Jane! But what we lacked in pomp, we hopefully made up with in love and attention. She loved the light-up birthday tiara (couldn't for the life of me find an ordinary birthday crown at Wal-Mart) and opening her presents.
Jane is such a delight -- full of personality and determination. She was the earliest walker of the bunch (10 months) and moved quickly from walking to running. She amazingly agile and resilient (she picks herself up after she falls saying, "I okay!"). She is also full of mischief and has a twinkling, mischievous look whenever she is doing something she knows she's not supposed to do and is waiting to get caught. She has a ready smile and a willing hug. She'll often pause what she is doing to come and give me a hug, say "Hi Mama!" and then run to resume her activity (heart-melting!).
I love when I ask her to give me a kiss on the cheek and point to my cheek, she leans in and gives me a kiss and then she says, “Other cheek” and I turn my other cheek for her to do the same thing.

Jane is a real ham and most of the time gets silly when she is the center of attention. She rolls her eyes and shakes her head and makes funny noises. Another funny thing she's started doing after brushing her teeth at night is saying, “’pit, ‘pit!” and makes a spitting sound over the sink. She has seen her sisters spit out their toothpaste and so she wants to do it, too.

Lately her greatest love has been Barbie movies. This is hilarious since she has no interest in any other TV, but almost every morning she wakes up and says, “Wanna watch Diamond Castle!”. She knows all of the songs word-for-word, and loves to dance to the music (apparently she watched it every day while Mommy was visiting Daddy in NYC). When Mark came home he brought her a Diamond Castle Barbie that plays music from the movie when you press her hand (this is the toy that I take off the shelf each time we go to Wal-Mart to keep her occupied and which, of course, she screams for every time when I leave it in the store)
and she looked like she had died and gone to heaven. After continually hearing the songs belting from the Barbie's belly for the past week, we are all wishing Diamond Castle Barbie herself would die and go to heaven.
Jane adores her big sisters and they adore her. They are both content to have just her for a playmate because she is ready and willing to do anything they want. Each night, after I put her in her crib she summons them each to her room, calling "Millie, hug!" "Abby, hug!" We just love our little Miss Jane!

Monday, November 17, 2008

AHHHH!




MARK IS HOME!

Let the heavens sing. Let the angels rejoice. All is right with the world (in an ideal world, of course, which this world isn't, but things certainly are beginning to look up!).

Saturday, November 1, 2008

Happy Halloween!

Millie designed our Jack-o-Lantern face this year.
Ready to go get "canny" (as Jane calls it). Abby was probably the most excited for Halloween this year. She laid out her costume the night before and all day asked, "When is Halloween going to start?" On our way home from trick-or-treating she summed up her experience with "This was the best night evah!" Millie agreed.
Millie loved her fairy costume.
Pretty Princess.Eating Jack-o-lantern quesadillas, "monster toes" and breadstick bones for Halloween dinner.
Trunk-or-Treat at the church
Cute kitty (she called her costume "Hello Kitty") Jane seemed to eat her candy as fast as she got it. By the time we went through all of the cars at Trunk-or-treat she had probably finished off 6 or 7 Dum Dum suckers. She kept saying "wanna other lollipop". As we were going around the neighborhood Abby said "Jane is such a good eater of candy! She's a good eater-upper!"
After one house that had a rather dark doorway and spooky decorations Abby said (much relieved), "I thought that house was haunted!" After which Millie said, "Oh no, she was actually very nice!"
On the way home, Millie (who for the past year has been worried about the Daddy Tax that Mark levvies upon her Halloween candy) said, "I know how to keep Daddy from taking my candy! I'll give him some!"

Field Day . . .


It was so fun for me to cheer on Millie and her class during Field Day this week. She ran in four events and did a great job! It was great to meet all of her friends and some of the other parents.


Millie has been so eager the past few weeks to get some decorations up for Halloween so we decided to make some for Family Home Evening this week. Abby had fun painting styrofoam spiders, and Millie had fun designing our pumpkin face and helping scrape out the seeds.