Seriously cute!

So, my big girl has grown up. After being around Arianna, Jana was bit by the baby-bug. She was even wanting to hold Kara yesterday.

Oh, she is so full of love!

Then she got Sweet Pea and now she dresses (or undresses is more appropriate) her bunny.

For a girl who had never really shown any preference for female-gender specific toys, clothes, etc., she now has is showing some opinion.

She also decided that she wanted to wear a jumper (my daughter never wears dresses voluntarily).

This weekend she got a hold of one of Kara's bottles and decided "Sweat Pea a hungry."


She brought out all of her kitchen stuff.

And for once, she was willing to share her toys with Kara - except for those that she was stuffing inside her jumper.


Kara had a wonderful time playing with toys that she's normally scolded for touching - since Jana was feeling very gracious. (Pardon the bib, she popped her left front tooth, the next left tooth is almost through, and the right second tooth is pushing through, but we haven't had any real movement on the right middle in a while.)


An another note, Kara is such a sweetheart. Her little personality is really coming out. When we were driving home from Grammy and Papa's, Jana started whining about wanting her Moosey. I assumed he had fallen to the floor, but when we stopped I realized that was not the case - Kara had snatched him away from Jana. Later, Jana was very upset that she didn't have Sweet Pea. Where was she? Yes, Kara had her.

She scoots all over the place now - just backwards though.

The other funny thing is that she's in the box stage. She loves boxes and lids - forget the toys that are in the box, though. You can see that she dumped out all of the toys and is enjoying the lid to the box.

Grammy takes Jana to Build-A-Bear

So, we got suckered in by the hype (thanks Jen) and Grammy decided to take Jana to Build-A-Bear. Since Jana is so in to dressing animals now, this made a lot of sense for us. She has two dolls that she isn't interested in yet, so we gave this a try.

Of all the animals, she picked out this super soft bunny. She was first drawn to the really pink bear, then the elephant, then the bunny. She put the bunny back a few times, but always went back to it. Here's Grammy trying to help Jana with her bunny.



Here's the Bunny getting stuffed. Jana wouldn't push the pedal or the button, but wanted me to push the button.

She picked out two hearts to put in the bunny.
And put them in the bunny.

She picked out jeans and a purple t-shirt for the bunny. Then Grammy found pink crocks, like hers and she insisted on putting them on right away.


Here's Jana and her new friend: Sweet Pea.

We got back to Grammy and Papa's house and it was time for dinner. There was an issue because Kara was in the high chair, Jana needed to sit in her booster seat, so where did Sweet Pea sit? The exersaucer.

And since Jana couldn't wear her sunglasses while she ate dinner, Sweet Pea needed to wear them.

But once dinner was over, Jana was back to toting her new friend around.

Snow? It's almost April!

So, Kara and I went shopping while Papa hung out with Jana. While we were shopping, it started to snow and snow and snow some more. It snowed so much that Grammy and Papa called to tell us to come home because they already had over an inch.

So we came home and Jana and I went out to play in the snow.

It was quite an adventure because we don't have any cold-weather clothes. So, we layered, but she refused to keep her hood on.

It was so cute - she was trying to catch the snow.


She was feeling adventurous and was trying to run around in the snow. She was having such a good time.


I could get her to wear her hood for a little while, but then she took it off and insisted on taking mine off too.


Then we went out to the street and went walking. We walked down a side street that had snow that was practically untouched. She was watching her footprints disappear behind her and started to do her "waddle like a penguin." "Waddle, waddle, waddle." (Thanks Diego.) :-)

Day 2 at Grammy and Papa's

Since we arrived her on Easter night, there was candy around and Jana is obsessed with "beans" (Jelly Beans). She keeps finding the canister of Jelly Bellies and carries them around. She first figured out that they were in the pantry.

She would carry them on to the carpet and try to open them up.

Because she couldn't figure out how to open it (thank goodness), she would try to "drink" them. Then she says, "ahhhh, yummy beans."

Papa was at a meeting and Grammy had a dinner, so the girls and I had some quiet time together. Jana and I decided to make some banana bread (aka "Mommy bread" or "Mana bread").



She was a great help mashing up the bananas and stir the dough.
While the bread was baking, we headed out for a little walk. Jana decided she wanted to sit on Tyler's bike. We tried to do a little pedaling (because she fits the bike perfectly), but she wasn't having any of that.

So off we went on our walk. We walked down the street and then Jana decided to push Kara in the stroller for a while.

We ended up walking down the big hill down the street from my parents' house. Then I ended up carrying Jana back up the hill on my shoulders, pushing Kara, and carrying the bubble mower as well.

A Day with Cousins Tyler and Justin

First I have to mention how much Jana adores Tyler! We hear about Tyler for weeks after we visit him. Whenever we see a blond boy and/or a boy roughly his age, Jana immediately thinks he's Tyler and starts yelling to him.

So, when we told her this morning, as we so rudely woke her, that we were going to see Tyler, she tried to climb out of her crib to "see Tyler now."

We drove up, spent some time with Justin, then went to pick up Tyler from Preschool. They had a wonderful conversation about Dora and Diego on the way home, of which Dadda and I understood very little. :-)

Then the tornado struck. We've always referred to Jana as the toddler tornado, but when you add in the almost 4 year old... Phew. This was one of the many messes today, as they decided to take out every toy many, many times.

I have to say that I love the fact that Jana loves to play with cars, blocks, and balls. She had such a great time playing with all of Tyler's and Justin's toys.

And they had to play with a wide variety of toys at the same time. Here Jana is playing with the ball shooter, holding part of a recorder, and with the monkey flashlight right next to her.
Then they moved on to the race track.

Tyler tried to teach Jana how to use the controller, but Jana had a hard time seeing the connection between squeezing the trigger on the controller and making the car move.

And then Justin (aka Destructo) found them and cars and track went flying.

Which sent Jana into fake uncontrollable fits of laughter.

We were once again reminded of how big Kara is getting. She discovered Justin's push cart/walking toy and stood behind it for a while and then decided to sit on it.

Oh, but when she discovered the buttons that worked the sound effects, whew, the toy's entertainment value increased exponentially.


We made English Muffin pizzas and had a quick bath before loading up, taking Dadda to the airport and coming back to my parents' house.

I have a whole new respect for my brother - bath time, alone, with both girls has always loomed as a daunting task; however, Ryan was able to bathe not one, not two, but three kids between the ages of three and one. No one streaked around the house (except our daughter) and it was so mellow. All I can say is: Teach me, oh wise one!



She's so going to kill us for this picture later on in life, but I LOVE this one. The safety goggles were THE toy that everyone wanted during this bath.

Thanks Tyler and Justin for sharing all of your toys today!

Visiting Grammy & Papa: Day 1

We've had a great time so far. We ended up leaving Patrick and Sarah's a little earlier than we expected - they were so wonderful to let us invade for so long, but they needed a chance to just be their little family.

The drive to my parents was soo much better than the drive to meet Arianna. Kara slept and we gave in and let Jana watch Dora and Diego on the portable DVD player. We arrived around 10:30ish on Sunday night. It didn't make for much of an Easter, but we'll make up for it next year.

Grammy and Papa LOVE to spoil the girls. Some times it is food treats, some times it is clothes, some times it is toys and some times it is extra attention. This trip is no exception.

First we started with Grammy letting Jana play in the water at the sink.

Next it was a trip to the park with Papa.

And finally Papa let her "drive" the golf cart.


In my parents development, there is a great little park that has a little club house that Jana loved. Here she is coming down the stairs inside of it.
Peaking out of the window of the club house.

She also loved the slide. She's getting so brave and wanted to go down the slide alone. We also had a fun time going down adjacent slides while holding hands (after she told me which slide I was supposed to go down and to "hold a hand, Mama.")

Look at those piggy tales fly.

And of course, Little Miss Kara Mae woke from her nap as charming as ever. While she seems to be days away from crawling, we're not convinced it's going to be her mode of transportation for long. Look at this kid stand.

After Papa and I took Jana to the park in "Papa's cart" Jana was obsessed with it and insists on driving it. Here she is with Dadda.

Apparently our exersaucer is boring because Kara really doesn't like it, but she loves to hang out in my parents'.


We're all enjoying this time greatly and I'm so appreciative of the help as Dadda headed off to Boston for the rest of the week.