Jana is 20 months old!

I have to admit that I'm not so okay with her approaching two years old. While I absolutely adore this age and love the personality that comes with her being a toddler, I'm so afraid of her growing up. She's just such a joy as a baby/toddler. You can just see that delightful, yet stinker-ish personality in these pictures of her.

This is the look that J will have to face and fight off the urge to cave into it. Can't you just picture this face accompanied by the pleading, "Pleeeeeease Daddy?"

"I can reach the door handle now.... Just wait a few more months and see what happens when you try to tell me I can't go outside. Hee, hee, hee!"

Her vocabulary has exploded this month and she is such a mimic. She is now copying our sayings and repeating them at appropriate times. She'll say "see you" when playing peek a boo and say "awwight" when asked a question. She will now ask for naps or to go to bed when she's tired, but the hilarious one is that she asks for a "baff" (visualize her doing the baby sign of rubbing her belly as she says this) multiple times a day. She is also pretending to know how to count. She plays this game with me. I'll say one and sometimes she'll repeat it, but when I say two, she'll say three. Or I'll say one and she'll say two. And just smile boastfully and giggle.

One of the most commonly heard words in our house right now (besides please) is "again." But, I will have to get an audio clip of it, because the description doesn't capture the true meaning. She looks up with those big blue eyes and says, "agin?" raising her intonation into a question.

I'm also so incredibly impressed with her vocabulary. She seems to come out of no where with words, unprompted.

Off the top of my head, these are the words she says (not just repeats)
Mama, Mommy, Mom , Dada, Daddy, Dad,
Gapa(Grandpa), Gama (grandma), Dave (Uncle Dave)
Hi, Bye-bye, Night-Night,
Doggy, Sissy, Sis-sis, baby, doll, ball
puppy, blocks, box, shoe, sock, bed
sleepies, nap, bath, bink, book, hat
hot, banana, apple, beeto(burrito), milk, juice
water, pizza, egg, blankie, fish, bike
swing, slide, walk, mail, seat, boobie (oops)
eat, owie, cheese, please, again, more

Here she is with her new friend "Meemow." (because kitties say Meemow).

She knows most of her body parts: eye, nose, ear, cheek, chin, mouth, teeth, head, toes, feet, arm, hand, leg.

She is becoming such a big girl. She was a total crack up this evening, climbing in and out of a box, carrying her scooter in the air, and making faces at us and then giggling. During dinner someone, who shall remain names (but wasn't me), passed gas at the dinner table and she got this horrified look on her face and declared "Stinky." When J and I started cracking up, she started laughing so hard. It's hard to imagine many better times than sitting around, eating dinner with J and the girls, laughing with Jana.

Despite being a absolute riot to have around, she has a bit of a temper on her. She can communicate so well most of the time, when she can't she falls apart. She also believes that when you say please, you should get whatever you were asking for.

She's been such a mommy's girl until this last week and now she's adoring her daddy. It's so fun to watch them.

Jana is so protective of Kara. If anyone walks up to Kara in her car seat, Jana immediately runs over, kisses Kara on the head and declares "sis" or "sissy." I really don't want them to grow up any faster, but I really want them to be old enough to interact - you can tell Jana wants to play with her.


Here are some recent pictures of Jana:

This was the night we celebrated Grandma E's birthday. After delivering her card to Grandma, she wanted to help open presents, but was VERY unhappy when Grandma started putting the presents back into the boxes. Jana was horrified when the frosting stained her fingers blue. It sent her over the edge and a bath was the only thing to bring her back.

While she has a potty, we've done nothing with it yet. She loves to tote it around the house and sit on it (fully dressed). She does tell us when she's wet and poopy and she sometimes wakes from naps or in the morning completely dry. We'll give it a try and we'll see what happens. The most hilarious part of having the potty in the house now is this... seriously, where does this kid pick this up?

She's so big now that she can get herself on and off the rocking horse and Grandma and Grandpa E's house.

Even though she's so big, she loves Kara's toys. We caught her trying to climb into Kara's bouncer. She did fit, but when she rocked in it, she bounced nearly to the floor.

We discovered that Jana loves bubbles... or I should say that she loves that Maiya loves bubbles. Maiya chases the bubbles and bites them. In fact, she jumps into the air to catch the bubbles, which sends Jana into hysterics.

Swings are still her favorite. I can tell already that this kid is going to be a roller coaster kid!

She loves dress up. She has two aprons that she loves to wear. I was only able to get pictures of her in the one, but there's another one, too.


But it doesn't stop at the aprons. I put her in dresses for church on Sundays and today she did not want to take off her dress or tights. She just continued to twirl around in it. She was literally in this dress from 8 am until 7 pm when we changed her for bed. We can barely make it through a normal day in the same clothes, let a lone in a dress.


And lastly here is one of her and I after she sat and watched me get ready for my interview. I rarely wear make up, but oh how she was enthralled and loved my powder brush. Hee, hee.

The Pumpkin Patch

There is a wonderful farm not too far from us that we went to last year with Jana. They have it all - petting zoo, corn maze, kid's corn maze, zipline, playground, flower gardens.... You get the idea. But this year, Grandma and Grandpa E came too and we had a blast.

It was actually a gorgeous afternoon, but just a little on the crisp side. It was a bit crazy as there were kids everywhere, but Jana loved it.


Here she is with the goat. She had no interest in the goat and thought daddy was "yucky" after feeding the goat. She had this look on her face like, "are you crazy?"

She wasn't so sure about the "baby moos" either, but then again, neither were we: they didn't look too healthy.


Jana loved the teepee and after playing in it with "Gapa" she insisted on showing J and I.

They had a gigantic grain "sandbox-type thing." Here she is standing outside of it, watching all the other kids, deciding if she's brave enough to go in.

She certainly enjoyed all the new experiences, but once she discovered the playground - it was back to her old favorites: swing and slide.

A little family teeter-tautering.

Jana discovered their pedal tractors and insisted that daddy push her around the track, again and again.


And then she discovered the John Deer tricycle. And they were off for a few more laps.

She finally got brave and decided to play in the "tunnel."

A little family swinging.

Too bad Jana doesn't like the swings. ;-) Hee, hee! She was being so silly and opening her mouth up as wide as it was would go as she was swinging. She kept us all giggling.


Posing for a pic before going down the world's narrowest slides. Whewie! I love the look on Jana's face here. It almost looks like panic... but in fact she's upset with us for pausing for the picture because she wants to go down the slide.


We have a thing about cutouts like this (we used to put our dog in them whenever we saw them - that was a funny sight. J lifting a 60 lb. lab and sticking her head through a cut out. I'll have to post those pic some day.) But anyway, here is Kara Mae hanging out with some ghosts. Pardon my head in the picture; I discovered it was very hard to get her face in the hole while in the baby bjorn and hide my head at the same time.

And here's my big girl!


Jana giving us "cheeses" (her posed smile).


Once again, an attempt at getting the girls in a picture together.


Kara in yet another cutout - poor kid!


One more shot at another family picture before we headed into the store to buy the most amazing apples and Asian pears.

Teeth and Jana-isms

Well, we may have an explanation for the most recent bad sleeping nights by Kara. She appears to be working on FOUR teeth. That would explain the insane amounts of drool and general unhappiness lately. Poor baby!

We also have some Jana-isms that are an absolute crack up. Right now she's copying everything we say... as best she can. Here are her favorite words that she seems to come out with from no where.

Weeshies = fishies (goldfish crackers)

Baggies = blankies

Dabe = Uncle Dave

Mutton = button

Meemow = Meow, her stuffed cat's name

Bubbas = bubbles

Boobies = bubbles when she gets silly or tired

Jaaaaaaay naaaa = How she says her name

booky = spooky

biter = spider

doot doot = train

bito = burrito

Oh, she is such a joy!

So Busy!

When people ask the ages of my girls, they look at me with either a look of astonishment or sympathy. My response is always the same: "We're busy, but what a wonderful reason to be busy!"

This week we had two play dates, pictures, lunch with a friend, errands, and a trip to see trains with Grandma and Grandpa E, Gramps, and the train club. Whew, and I wonder why I'm wiped out today.



Jana's so full of personality these days. It can be challenging at times, but it's also so wonderful. It awes me to watch this little being becoming a person before my eyes. I feel so blessed to be home with her and watch the transformations each day.

She wants to be a big person so badly.

She loves to sit at her table in the kitchen like a big girl. She would rather sit there than in her seat at the kitchen table these days.

That is unless, she can sit at the table and pound on Daddy's computer.

She has learned how to get onto the couches and loves to sit there and play with her toys.

We have also gotten her a potty. She's to the point of letting us know when she has gone in her diaper, so we thought we'd give it a try. Unfortunately she's also in a phase where she likes to carry everything. So, right now the potty ends up all over the downstairs. As you can see, it ended up on poor Maiya's bed. She does like to sit on it, but carrying it seems to be her favorite thing to do with it.



I'll do my best to scan in the pictures that we had taken, so you can see them, but at least you can see their outfits for them. I'm not really into the matching outfits (I'm not sure why, but oh well), but LOVE to dress them in coordinating outfits. These aren't great shots, but at least you can see their outfits.



Here's us yesterday at the PNLS park. They had actual little trains that you could ride on. Jana loves "doot, doots" so she had a blast riding on it with Grandpa E. She even insisted on going a second time. (Oops, can you tell I love this outfit? She's in it again.)

Kara, who has yet another cold (poor baby), was happy to be all snuggly with Mama.


Or getting cuddles from Grandma E

Jana also discovered a John Deer tractor. She LOVES tractors right now. She sat on this for probably 20 minutes. She loved trying to turn the steering wheel and pushing buttons (hope we didn't do any permanent damage) :-)

While she loved the train rides and the tractor, I have to say that her favorite part was meeting a puppy. There was a 9 week-old dachsund pup that loved Jana and Jana cried when it was time to leave him. They were adorable together and I know Jana loved that he was her size (unlike Maiya - who Jana is trying to climb onto these days).


One realization we've made lately is that our DVR is always full. We have lots of shows we'd like to watch, but no time to watch them. If the girls are awake, why waste that time in front of the TV? Cuddling is far more fun.


Here are the girls this morning - just for fun.

(Thanks Uncle P and Aunt S for the adorable skirt. Who would have guessed that even though she outgrew the shirt at a year old, the skirt would now fit and even be too big?!?! hee, hee)

(Thanks Grandma and Grandpa S for the cute jumper. We got so many compliments this morning at church about how cute Kara is in it.)

Bare Buns and the new-found ability to unzip

I forgot to write about this last week, but it was definitely memorable.

J and I are taking a class on Tuesday nights, so Grandma and Grandpa E come over and hang out with the girls and put them to bed.

Last Wednesday morning, I heard Jana chatting away in her crib, so I went to get her.

I walked in the door, made my way through the mess of toys strewn about to the window. As I slowly pulled up the shade, allowing time for Jana's eyes to adjust, I saw... no, it couldn't be.

In the light of the morning, I saw two white buns, yes buns!

Jana was lying on her belly with her knees tucked under her... and her behind in the air... and it was bare.

As I approached her crib, I saw that she had one leg out of her sleeper and her diaper was off.

Somehow, my little houdini, managed to unzip her sleeper, pull a leg out and unfasten her diaper. The most amazing part of it all is that her sheet and blankets were unscathed.

Kara is 4 months old

Oh, my sweet little girl!



Kara is so smiley and happy (except when she wakes and wants to eat at 1, 3, and 5 am).


She's working on sitting on her own, but shows no desire to roll over again. She spins herself and migrates all over the floor while on her back. When she is on her tummy, she even pulls her legs up under her like she's trying to crawl, but alas, no rolling.


She's so strong. She LOVES to stand. She would stand all day long if we let her. In fact, we pulled out the exersaucer and she loves it.



In an effort to get her to sleep through the night, we put away all of her binkies. The thought was that she's using the binkies to pacify herself to sleep and when she wakes without one, she can't go back to sleep and cries. So, now she has discovered her thumb. Jana was never a thumb sucker so this is very different. It's cute (but worrisome) to see her asleep with her thumb in her mouth.


She's also very interested in her big sister these days. She loves to watch her and gets upset when she can't see her. She even tries to mimic Jana's noises sometimes. Now that's a crack up! Here they are in their new sweat suits that Grandma S bought for them.

At her 4 month appointment, she measured 24 1/2 inches (76th %ile) and 15 lbs, 2 oz (91st %ile). She's so big!


All dressed up and ready for church.


What? Me? Cute? Of course!


Hanging out on Daddy's lap


I've got my duck!