Jane Turns Five!

Wow, I have a five year old. There's something about this age that seems very significant. Maybe it's that she's half way to 10 which is crazy to me. Or maybe it's more about the fact that she is becoming completely her own person. She has valid ideas and solutions to problems that I haven't thought of. We can have discussions that keep me honestly interested. She can play a card game, enjoy a live action movie and get first place in a racing video game.  She can understand reasoning and apply it to other aspects of her life. She's smart and picks things up quickly, but she gets bored easily when something starts to feel repetitive. She adores everything that is new and exciting. But as soon as something feels normal and known she loses interest.

Primping. I feel like I'm glimpsing the future here!
When did she become a pre-teen??. ;)

Something else that I feel like I just realized is she does most of the basic daily life skills completely on her own. Like getting dressed, brushing her teeth, brushing her hair(still a work in progress), putting on shoes, taking a shower, getting her own water, getting a snack, etc. She really enjoys the primping process. She likes to put on her play make up, put in a hair accessory and clip on her earrings at the beginning of the day. She's my girly girl and she doesn't get it from watching me! ;)

Pretending to go on a trip and making a house outside.

Jane is anything, but a homebody. Almost every morning after she gets up she asks me, "Where are we going today?" She gets awfully disappointed if I reply with, "Nowhere" even if I follow up by telling her where we are going in the next day or so. She always wants to go somewhere and do something special. Special doesn't have to be something she's never done before or anything extravagant. It can mean going to the grocery store or the library. As long as we do something! If we stay at home I try to do something that we don't do every day like paint nails or get the kiddie pool and sprinkler out. Normally that's enough to keep her happy for the day. I can't tell her that we're doing something exciting too far in advance because that's all I'll hear about until we finally get to go. I can always count on her to try something new and not be afraid!

Tickle fight!

Jane loves her friends! I'm so glad she's learned to make friends easily and plays well with kids she has just met as well. She's just a friendly and outgoing person by nature. If we're the front yard she waves to anyone that comes by and says "HI!". The picture in the upper left is Jane's longest friend, Brianna, they met when Jane was just 3 months old and they are only a few months apart in age. We live about 45 minutes from them and always have. They are 2nd Gen friends. We always make sure we get together at least every month or two. They always look forward to seeing each other! The picture in the upper right is Jane's best girl friend, Paige. They met last summer and clicked really quickly. They look like the same age, but Jane is actually a year older, their birthday's are May 23rd and 24th. It's awesome because Paige can play well with Jane and Atlas being a little younger than Jane and a little older than Atlas. They live two doors down from my parents so we get to see them a lot. <3 The bottom picture is Jane's first friend she picked out herself and her best boy friend, Nathan. They've been bffs since they were 2 and still love playing together. We lived only a few minutes apart when we first met and saw each other a lot! Then they moved an hour away about a year and a half ago. We make sure to make plans to see each other every month still. Jane watched the movie Ralph wrecks the internet and she could really relate to it since she had experienced a really close friend having to move away. So she told me she wanted to make a best friend bracelet for Nathan like Ralph and Vanellope have their necklace. It's so fun to keep watching her relationships grow and to help her learn to be a good friend. Other favorite friends are Whisper, our old neighbor friend. Liam, the son of my longest friend, Mindy. Alexis, her first friend made at Gymnastics. Also a bunch of new park friends she loves to play with.

Sweet siblings!

Jane really loves her brother and sister! But man does she seem to love to fight with them too. She doesn't fight with Xan too much yet, other than saying, "No that's my toy baby!" but she will go from saying Atlas is her best friend to being at each other's necks and exclaiming that she doesn't want a brother anymore. She's very emotional and dramatic in the moment and says things she doesn't mean. I know she really enjoys having lots of siblings though because she was asking for another baby before we were ready. I told her to pray for another sibling. When we finally told her there was a baby in my tummy she was soooo excited!! She is praying hard for a brother because she thinks Atlas should have a brother. We'll just have to see! It will be cool if she has her first answered prayer. At the same time, if it's a girl it will be a great teaching moment about how God will sometimes say no, but it ends up better than we imagined! Jane and Atlas continue to be opposites in almost every way. One example is Jane loves change and Atlas hates it. Xan and Jane definitely have more in common, they both love girly things and love everything loud and exciting. They have their differences too though. Xan is content to play independently and is a lot less dramatic.

Blueberry picking at 4 years old

Weight

Birth: 8 lbs

1 Years Old: 18 1/2 lbs

2 Years Old: 25 1/2 lbs

3 Years Old: 29 1/2 lbs

4 Years Old: 34 3/4 lbs

5 Years Old: 40 3/4 lbs

Blueberry picking at 5 years old

Jane has finally made it back to the 50 percentile in weight! She actually stops for a few minutes to eat these days. ;) I think she is the perfect weight for her height. Now that she's 5 I don't think I want her weight to get any higher than the 50 percentile if possible. I don't think it will be an issue since she's still so active and really loves her gymnastics.

Coach Shelton and Jane (4yrs)

Height

Birth: 21 Inches

1 Years Old: 28 1/4 inches

2 Years Old: 32 3/4 inches

3 Years Old: 36 1/2 inches

4 Years Old: 3' 3" (39 inches)

5 Years Old: 3' 6"

Coach Aloura and Jane (5yrs)

Jane is in about the 50 percentile in height as well. She really grew this year! At her last appointment she was projected to be 5'5". Just a couple inches taller than me! :) She's starting to get that girly shape. I've noticed her legs and bottom section getting some definition and she's starting to develop that hourglass figure. For those reasons and just the fact that she's 5 I've been trying to teach more modesty and being discreet. Like don't undress in front of people, close the door when you use the bathroom when you're not at home and try not to let people see your underwear when you wear a dress. She remembers some of the time... Haha!

Buddies!

It's time for firsts and favorites! It's so much fun to review the year and watch her grow. I was wondering if there would be enough firsts this year to keep the firsts section going. I was pleasantly surprised that there was one each month, sometimes even two that I had to chose between. There were a couple of ones that I put on here that I had to take off because I realized she had already done it before! This may be the last year I can do firsts throughout the year, but I guess we'll see what happens this coming year!

Firsts

Accepting Jesus <3 - June 2018

Jumping off the diving board! - July 2018

Hugging a Mascot - September 2018

Playing an arcade game - August 2018

Movie night with mom watching Star Wars! - October 2018

Kicking the thumb sucking habit!! - November 2018

Sitting with Santa - December 2018

Gymnastics Meet! - December 2018

Barbie! - January 2019

Library Card - February 2019

Chicken pox - March 2019

Starburst in hair... - April 2019

Being 5!! - May 2019

Favorites

Jane will pretty much try anything these days! Except for things like raw oysters. ;) A lot of times she'll try something new and say she likes it then I'll ask if she wants some more and she says no thank you I'm good. Haha, apparently she didn't like it that much. Her favorites have stayed the same since last year. We still have to put limits on her very favorites. They are Mac and Cheese, spaghetti and meatballs, ravioli, hot dogs, non frozen cheese pizza and chicken nuggets. If she eats too much for dinner she'll wake up around midnight and tell me her tummy hurts. I normally have to stay on the couch with her for an hour while it passes. I just have to pay closer attention at dinner time. Favorite breakfast foods are sausage and cheese biscuits, Scrambled Eggs and toast and cinnamon rolls. Lunch time favorites are a turkey sandwich or a grilled cheese. She loves all fruit and broccoli and carrots are her favorite veggies. Her very favorite place to eat right now is Cici's.

She is still a book lover! She loves to pretend to read to Xan and Xan enjoys it so much. It makes my heart melt. I can't wait until Jane learns to read so she can actually read books to her little siblings. I wish I had more time to read to them, but usually we only read a few books at bed time and maybe one or two during the day. Her favorite books this year have been Hannah's Tall Order: An A to Z Sandwich, Little Mommy, We Help Mom, Little Critter Just Shopping with Mom, Fancy Nancy books and Farmer's Market Surprise.

Jane never stays on one show for too long. She does have some she keeps coming back to though. A few of those are Miraculous Ladybug, Peg + Cat, Blues Clues, Paw Patrol, Power Rangers, Scooby Doo and Peppa Pig. A few new favorites have been Luna Petunia, True, Chip and Potato, some random short educational videos and Tumble Leaf. She really enjoys video games now! She doesn't have a real favorite from what I can tell but this picture is of her getting first place in Sonic Racing against all the computer players. She also enjoys the original Sonic the Hedgehog games on Genesis, Mario Kart 8 and Super Smash Bros Ultimate on the Switch. We really need to work on being a good sport though. ;)

Frozen is still sticking around as Jane's longest running favorite movie. It's nice that she likes variety though. We only watch Frozen like once a month or so. Her other favorite movies lately have been Moana, Wonder Woman, How to Train Your Dragon series, Ralph Breaks the Internet and Toy Story. She loves to try anything new though! I'll tell her we can try just about anything that's age appropriate, but if I don't like it I will turn it off and there needs to be no whining about it. She does really well most of the time.

I feel like Jane finally got into playing with toys this year. She still prefers to be playing with someone else than by herself, but every so often she'll want to play with her barbie's or cooking things on her own. She LOVES to play pretend now. Her favorite pretend play is Mommies and Daddies, She loves to pretend to be pregnant and give birth to her baby in bed. She always wants Atlas to be daddy, but Atlas doesn't always want to play. I'm trying to teach her that she can't make someone play with her and it's ok to play on your own sometimes. She loves card and board games. Sleeping Queens and Catch the Fox are her favorites now. She can earn game nights on her own with me if she completes her bedtime and morning routine charts. Biggest toy win this year was Kinetic Sand. It will give me at least 30 minutes of quiet, happy play time for both big kids with minimal mess. Thanks Marie! Oh and Lamby still wins the favorite overall toy award.

Jane adores anything where she can be moving around. Her favorite activities are still swimming and jumping on the trampoline. Really if it involves water she loves it. She can swim super well now. She can do cannonballs, pencils and beginner dives. She can swim all the way across the pool and dive down to the deepest part of Marmee and Pappaw's pool. Her trampoline skills are getting better too. She can jump high enough to make me nervous and she can almost do a true front flip. Gymnastics is her favorite organized activity. She loves to practice at home too. The KinderStars meets were a big hit. Meet season is over and she's really missing it now.

Like I said at the beginning Jane is not a homebody. She loves to go anywhere and gets especially excited if it's an overnight trip!! Visiting Family is a big favorite. She loves to go to San Marcos to visit cousin Ellis, to Dallas to visit cousin Holden and to Austin to visit 2nd cousin Colin. New Braunfels/Schlitterbahn is still her favorite trip of all so far I think. Pretty sure she would go anywhere just so she can experience it though. Local places she loves to go are Pump It Up, Jumpalooza, Urban Air, the movie theater, any park or splash pad, the Humble indoor playground and Marmee's house of course!

Life with Jane is never dull. She continues to be just as excitable and energetic as always. She is very precise and has to have things a certain way. When she plays Elsa she has to have every item of clothing she deems necessary and her hair put up just the right way. She loves to perform and make up songs, dances and stories. Everything has to be dramatic and I'm trying to teach her about controlling her emotions so they don't control her. The character trait she struggles with the most is being more selfless. But I think that's a common problem with her age. We're wired to look out for number 1. I'm doing my best to help her rewire a little bit. She does not enjoy sitting down to do school or taking almost any kind of direction from me. But she's getting better because she is starting to see the results of her school and that I sort of know what I'm talking about when it comes to gymnastics. I love the little girl she's growing up to be more and more each year.

Happy Birthday girlie!

Y'all... She has outgrown her 5 year baby memory book. : o When I first got that baby book at my baby shower for Jane I thought oh wow it'll be a while before I can finish it. It's blowing my mind that I can finish it now. I just have to pick out a few more pictures for it. Time sure is flying by. The more kids I have to keep up with the more I turn around and realize one of them has grown up on me seemingly overnight. I feel like Jane has been doing that a lot. The way she treats others, the way she'll explain things and her reasoning skills seem so grown up sometimes, but then there the days that her behavior reminds me she has a lot of growing up yet to do. And that's ok with me. I have been feeling just how fleeting her childhood is lately. I mean we're starting Kindergarten in the fall! I'm doing my best to soak it all up! 

We love you so much lovely Jane. Happy 5th Birthday!!

John 5:24
Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life.