Jane turns two!

Trying to get mom wet!

Jane is Two years old! She has grown so much. She has stayed as full of energy, excitable and smiley as ever. After playing with her second cousin, Colin, (who is 4) He said, "Jane is just too crazy for me!" I said "I don't blame you, she just gets so excited." He asked, "Why?" His mom replied, "She just loves life." He asked again "Why?" She said, "Because that's just the way God made her." Yep Jane loves life and that is the way God made her and I'm so glad. She makes life so much fun.

Playing with cousin Colin

She can be a challenge sometimes, like any toddler, but she is learning and responding to discipline. Most of the time when she gets in trouble it's because she can't quite control herself and let's her excitement get the best of her. When she is playing with Atlas she will get overwhelmed with excitement and either tries to pick him up or just gets too rough. She is confused as to how to make Atlas stop crying and will hit him when he's crying sometimes. Other times she'll tell him, "No, No whining!" Which is what she is told a lot. ;) Like I said she's learning. She can throw a fit like the best of them, but it normally doesn't last very long and they seem to be decreasing in number. I think it's because I won't give her what she wants until she calms down and asks nicely and sometimes she doesn't get what she wants at all if she throws a fit even if I was planning to give it to her otherwise.

"I do not want to wear those shoes!"

I don't always react to her bad behavior in a proactive way. I'm learning too. I thought I had left my anger problem behind me long ago, but man, does Jane bring it out of me. What I'm finding is if I stay calm and don't get angry at her disobedience it really helps me to have a clear head and react constructively instead of destructively. It scares me to think how easy it is for me to hurt my kids emotionally or physically by a quick reaction motivated by anger. For example, a couple of weeks ago Jane hit Atlas on the head while he was crying and I angrily pushed her away from him, which made her fall down and hit her head on her nightstand. I thought, "Great... now I have two crying children and one of them is my fault..." I was so disappointed in myself. Jane retreated to her bed and was crying under her covers. I felt terrible. I went over to Jane and told her I was sorry asked if she would forgive me. I then asked if she would tell Atlas she was sorry. (A word she learned quickly after Atlas was born). She did and we all gave each other hugs and kisses.

Hugs!

I was embarrassed by my overreaction. I didn't want anyone to know about it. After I reflected about it some more I thought "I don't know why I would worry about telling anyone about it. Nobody is a perfect mom and we all need to be more transparent with each other and encourage each other with our mistakes along with our successes." So here I am telling you all about my failings as a mother and I feel better because of it. It's too stressful to try to maintain the image of perfection. After all God didn't ask us to have a perfect looking life, he called us to serve him and others, do our best and ask for forgiveness when we fail. I think it's important for us as Christians to be transparent with others and not be hypocrites, because who likes a hypocrite? Most importantly, It turns people off from finding their Savior and that's not ok. Let's not be whitewashed tombs. Let's show everyone that we're just as messed up as anyone else and the only reason that there is any good in us and we're able to love life and anyone around us is by the grace of God and Jesus who is continually saving us from ourselves.

She LOVES the trampoline!

Now let me get off my soapbox and get back to talking about my little firecracker who is growing up way too fast! I went back and read my blog of Jane's first year and I thought it would be fun to continue with a summary of Jane's second year including her growth, firsts and favorites. :)

Those shoes look like they were made to go with that dress!

Weight

Birth: 8 lbs

1 Year Old: 18 1/2 lbs

2 Years Old: 25 1/2 lbs

Jane has always loved climbing in between these arches

She has never been a heavy weight partially because she won't sit still long enough to eat a big meal. She was that way when she was nursing. It didn't change when she stopped nursing and went to all table food and cows milk either. She's almost always moving when she's awake and I think it keeps her slender, but not too thin.

That's her swimsuit she's carrying around. :)

Height

Birth: 21 inches

1 Year Old: 28 1/4 inches

2 Years Old: 32 3/4 inches

Same dress as above. I love to watch her grow!

Jane has stayed pretty close to the middle on the percentiles of the average height for her age. I kinda feel like she'll be a petite person like myself, but who knows, she could end up being tall like her daddy. We'll have to wait and see!

Love that smile!

Her head has finally come to be pretty proportionate to the rest of her body. :)

Hangin out with Atlas

She has 15 (almost 16) teeth! That's a big change from the 3 teeth she had on her first birthday.

Firsts!

Jane asked her first "Why?" just the other day! Which I think is a pretty big deal. I know it is the first of countless more! My mom was taking Jane to my mom's parents house for a visit while I got to stay home and get a few things done with just one kid to worry about. They were about to leave and she said, "mommy go!" I said, "No, I'm staying home today." and she asked "Why?" Of course, I didn't have an answer that she could totally understand, so she said "Why?" again. I told her I needed to get somethings done and she soon left with no fussing, but probably a lingering "why" in her head. She knows more words than I can count even though I have trouble understanding one word from another sometimes, because so many sound similar. She will finally repeat words after me and can say at least 8 different colors pretty well! She will surprise me with words that she knows. Like when we were at my parents a few weeks ago she grabbed my hand and took me over to the side of the pool and said "Buoboo!" It sounded like a cross between bug and booboo. I asked her if she saw a bug, there were a bunch of mosquitoes over there because of the rain we had recently. She frowned and said it again. I asked if she got a booboo she said no. I asked my dad if he said anything to her about that area and he said he told her it was bamboo plants. OH! of course you were showing me the bamboo on the side of the pool. I had no idea she had ever heard that word, so I didn't expect her to be saying it! I've heard that two year olds learn about 5 new words a day. I believe it!

Steadly walking - 12 months

Big swing - 13 months

Running - 14 months

Falling asleep on the floor - 15 months

Video Game - 15 months

Anime! - 15 months

Ponytail - 16 months

Playing dress up - 17 months

Trip to the Library - 17 months

Pretending to talk on the phone - 18 months

Playing in leaves - 19 months

Washing the car - 20 months

Playing with dirt - 20 months

Sibling - 21 months

Tire swing - 21 months

Wearing mom's jewelry - 22 months

Toddler bed - 22 months

Swimming on her own - 23 months

Favorites

First time in a booster seat here.

Her favorite food is Mac & Cheese. Other favorites include, strawberries, hot dogs, pizza, cheetos, fruit snacks, ranch dressing, meatballs and marinara. She will eat a whole can of sliced olives if I let her.

Yay books!

Her favorite books seem to change on a weekly basis. Her current favorite is Creaky Old House. Other recent favorites have been Panda Club's Tree House, Dr Seuss ABC, October the Octopus, Berenstain Bears-Soccer Tryouts, Learn to Share, and Goodnight. She loves books and loves to read them in her bed with me or in the glider before bed.

Bah! I just love her hair in this photo.

Her favorite toy at the moment is hard to say... toys have never been a big thing with her. But she does like to play with her elephant train a lot and she's always liked her talking puppy and toy house. Running around on the driveway with her toy strollers was a favorite for a long time.

Watching Team Umizoomi

Her favorite TV show varies from time to time and has changed from Blues Clues to Daniel Tiger to Team Umizoomi and the most recent favorite Doc McStuffins.

Picking out Frozen!

Her favorite movie is undisputedly Frozen! She will pick it out time after time. She loves her Frozen bedding and any Frozen clothes she owns. Tangled is a distant second but she does like it a lot too because one week she said no to Frozen a few times and wanted to watch Tangled instead, but went back to Frozen the next week. She really liked Guardians of the Galaxy when she watched it the first time, but didn't sleep well that night and seemed scared, so we'll have to wait on those kind of movies for a while.

Look at those smiles!

Her favorite activity is to swim in Marmee and Pappaw's pool. Jumping on the trampoline takes second place.

She's gotten so good at jumping!

She continues to love people and is excited to try just about anything! She'll see someone doing something that interests her and start saying, "my turn, my turn, my turn!" She loves music and will sing and dance when it comes on. She is a girly girl and loves shoes, jewelry, purses and dresses. But she's kind of a tomboy too and loves to play anything that involves a ball and likes to play in the dirt. She still loves to be outside more than anything, but TV is becoming a big favorite and might watch it all day if I let her. She likes to play games on my iPod, but it's a special activity that she only gets to do when Atlas is nursing or when we're on a long car ride. She loves the park! In fact her biggest meltdown ever was when we had to leave the park one time. (most of the time she leaves without any problems.)

Climb, Jane, Climb!

It's so fun to watch Jane grow up! I'm continually trying to not wish her older or younger than she is and enjoy every age as it happens. I'm loving getting to watch her mature and learn something new everyday. It's amazing. So glad God blessed me with her and made me a mom. Happy 2nd Birthday girlie! We love you so much.

This is me attempting to get her to sit in the chair for a
picture...  I guess she's graduated to climbing trees!

She'll pose for a picture if her new horse, Max, is in
the chair instead. :)

Matthew 23:27-28

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness. Even so you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness

Romans 5:8

But God demonstrates His own love towards us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.