Jane (4 years old)

Our little four year old is so aware of her age now.  For months leading up to turning four, she made all kinds of promises.
"When I am four, I won't wake up daddy, ever again."
"When I am four, I will like to eat my carrots."
"When I am four I will never hit Peter."
None of those have come true and I feel so betrayed.

In all fairness, she isn't hitting Peter near as much.  I really can see a difference in her 4 year old maturity.  She's a little more helpful (a little), mostly when it comes to Alice.  She pays so much attention to her and loves to make her laugh.  She keeps her occupied when I need it and that can be SO helpful.   She likes to feed her and get her toys and help her down from things when she stands up and panics because she can't get down.  I really love how much she genuinely loves her sister.
When I ever so gently comb Jane's hair, she cries and yells at me, but when Ali grabs a fistful and rips it out by the root, Jane just grimaces and then says with a smile, "She's a grabber!"  I guess that's just the relationship they have.
Jane is constantly writing lullabies for Alice.  "I just made a new song for Alice," she'll say and then launch into some off-key crooning.  "Alice it's ok, you don't have to feel so bad. It's ok, it's ok, it's ok Aaaaaaaaaaaliiiiiiiiiiiii...."

She's not always so sweet, though.  She's become a little more defiant also and she and I butt heads frequently.  She's started saying "No way!" or "Never!" in a stubborn four-year-old way that drives me nuts or she completely ignores me and that really gets my goat.

But our real struggle with Jane is that she is still waking up all through the night and wandering into our room to get daddy.  We are at a loss with what to do.  Sometimes it's bad dreams, sometimes needing to go potty and sometimes no reason but sleepy autopilot.  Peter wakes up occasionally to go to the bathroom too, so between the three of them, we are getting no sleep.

Jane loves to giggle and when something strikes her funny bone, she wants to recreate that moment over and over.  "Mom, let's play a game, it's called: Run around the table and slip on the towel and say 'Uh-Oh'.  Can we play that game?"  It's always forced laughs after that, but she still wants to do it over and over.

When we leave Church, we race daddy home and it's a BIG deal to Jane and Peter.  They always want to make sure we're going the "fastest way".  They count to the biggest numbers they can think of, (which for Peter, always ends in "twenty-one hundred").  They picked that trick up from one of their shows where counting makes the car go faster.  They want me to use "Blazing Speed" at strategic moments (another show), and ever since Chris managed to beat us by taking advantage of a left turn light, Jane always wants me to "turn left at the ice cream picture" even when it's not in our best interest to do so. (And yes, she gets left and right correct a surprising amount of the time).

Jane's getting pretty good on her bike with training wheels.  She loves to ride and goes pretty fast on the straightways, but is VERY cautious with curbs or hills.  She's the one that wants to be outside the most.

Jane needs sunglasses the way I do.  I get headaches if I'm in the sun without shades on.  I'm not sure if Jane get's headaches, but she complains that it's too bright even for a moment and keeps her sunglasses on whenever it's bright out.

We've had a pass the Children's Museum for the last year, but I haven't decided yet if I want to renew it, or go for another venue.  Jane asks all the time if we can go, and I've had to explain the situation several time.  Now when Chris goes to work, she says things like "Daddy can you go to work now, so you can make lots of money and that's a pass so we can go to the Children's Museum."

I sure love her and all of her quirks.  She's our little Jane.

We were having a fun little moment sharing cookies and chocolate milk while the others were taking naps, but when I gave her the go-ahead to blow bubbles as hard and long as she could, I may have achieved favorite parent status in that moment... just that little moment, though.
 

Ali-gator

Ali-gator is Jane's nickname for Alice.  She calls her that all the time.  I usually use Ali-kins, but other variations include Ali-cat, Ali-saurus, Ali-monster, Ali-Ali-oxen free, and Grabby-grabberton.

At 6 months old, our little Ali-gator is scooting all over the place.  She gets up on her hands and knees all the time, rocks back and forth, and then face-plants, but no real crawling yet.

She's close to sitting, but doesn't quite have the balance yet, or perhaps the patience.  As soon as we sit her up, she dives after something she wants.  She finally has enough control to sit in a high chair, though and that is a huge milestone to me.  Now if we eat out, we're not struggling with a baby crawling, squirming and grabbing everything as we try and eat.  Phew!

She eats three meals a day in addition to nursing and is finally starting to outgrow her 0-3 month clothing. She just had a lower front tooth break through.  We had a few rough nights with that, but we seem to be back on track.  She usually wakes up twice a night.

A few weeks back she suddenly decided to boycott bottles.  I've tried so many times since then with no success.  It used to be that I was the only one she would take a bottle from, and now she's just done.  It makes getting a babysitter much harder.

She's a little screamer now.  It usually happens when she's happy, but still wants to be picked up or when the next bite food isn't getting there fast enough.  She just screeches loudly all the time now.

The War Memorial in Indianapolis

In remembrance of those how died in 9/11, they fill the courtyard in front of the War Memorial in downtown Indy with American flags.  The whole mall of memorials is beautiful and we had been meaning to check it out, so this seemed a fitting time.  The War Memorial itself is a huge building/monument with a small, but interesting War Museum in the basement.  We really like our city here, and it's fun to keep exploring new areas.

The City Museum - St. Louis

The City Museum in St. Louis was one of the highlights of the whole trip.  This place is nothing short of mind-blowing. It's a labyrinth of stairs, slides, tunnels, bridges, and secret passages.  Anything and everything is meant to be climbed on and explored.  Over and over again, I would emerge from some narrow passage to find another sweaty, panting parent and we would give each other that wide-eyed, this-place-is-nuts kind of look.  I wonder how often they deal with lost children.  Our kids are a little small utilize this playground to it's full potential, but they were excited about it nonetheless.  They could have stayed in one little corner the whole time, but Chris and I wanted to see more.  As it was, we only touched on a small section of it.

This is a terrible picture, but it's the only one I have that shows the twisting blue rebar tube that leads from one floor to the next.  We sat here just before we left and I looked at that and thought, I wonder how often people go in that one?  It looks miserable.  While we sat there we saw three adults attempt it.  The would squeeze in and shuffle around the first bend until they were 100% committed and then you could read the regret all over their body language.  It was very entertaining to watch.