Jane these days… (nearing 2 and a half)

Jane is getting a little chattier, but mostly just with us.  When strangers try to engage her in conversation, she gets shy and defaults to animal noises or simply pretends to fall asleep.  Around us though, she says things like “actually…” or “What the heck?” or “Hey guys” when trying to get our attention in the car.  She asks for a banana and then asks us to “open the door” to it for her.  She usually eats her bananas diced with a fork, though.

Jane has cereal almost every morning. After inquiring after daddy’s where-abouts, Cheerios is the first thing on her mind when I get her in the morning.  She usually has two or three bowls and then insists that she wants another, waits until I pour the milk and changes her mind.  I hate that part.

She has always loved books, but it’s reach a new level lately.  She really listens to the stories now and can fill in a lot of the blanks in her favorite books.  Right now those favorite books include: Good Night, Good Night, Construction Site (every night), Little Blue Truck, and her “Princess Book”.

Jane finally got tall enough and learned how to open doors. Now she is obsessed with opening and closing doors, which often leaves Peter trapped or excluded. 

Jane loves trucks.  Love pointing them out on the road, love books about trucks, loves playing with toy trucks… anything to do with trucks.  We took her the other night to the Monster Truck Rally.  It was fun.  The noise concerned her a little at the start, but she warmed up to it after a little while and liked pointing out the trucks and cheering for the pink one or the doggie truck (Monster Mutt).

Jane said her first bedtime prayer all by herself about a month ago.  It went like this:

"Heavenly Father, thank you this day.  Thank you Zoey.  Thank you Mason.  Thank you Quinn.  Thank you Dave..." then came daddy, mommy, Peter, Jesus, Paw Patrol, Bubble Guppies, and Dinosaur Train.  It's fun to hear what's important to her. 

Jane loves her cousins and asks me all the time if we can go see them.  I told her we would seeing all of them in just two months.  She was so excited.  Then I said, "Ok, get your coat on we're going to the grocery store," to which she replied, "No grocery store.  We're going to go see the cousins."  I explained that they all lived really far away and it would be a long time before we got to see them again.  She broke down into the saddest cry ever.  She misses her cousins (and prays for them all the time too.)

For a while, every time Peter would lie down with a sippy cup or bottle, Jane requested a drink of her own to lie down beside him.  They like to be close to each other, but it doesn't often line up that they feel that way at the same time.