Move to the big girl bed

In the past several months, Jayna has gone through something of a developmental growth spurt that has really changed her from "baby" to "little girl". It's bittersweet. I miss the baby, but at the same time, it is SO fun to watch her personality emerge. Another milestone this week...

Since Evan will soon be needing the crib, we decided to switch Jayna over to the "big bed". And thank you God....she made the transition so easily! I wasn't worried that she would have a hard time with it; in fact, I knew she would be excited. But I WAS worried that she would take advantage of her ability to escape her bed and not stay in it. Well, she has not climbed out of her bed once! Even in the morning, she sits and reads books until one of us goes in and gets her.

We also bought her some new bedding for her birthday, and it is so stinkin' cute. I liked it on the shelf at Target, but I loved it when I put it on her bed! I also found some wall decals online that go with the theme...we'll add those later. The top picture was of her initial reaction to her new bedspread...she was quite pleased. :)

Jayna is 2!

Newborn:

1 year:

2!

Our girl is growing up! I look at pictures from her at one year old and she looks SO different now, and just much older.

Wednesday was Jayna's birthday, and we decided to skip a "big" birthday party and have a fun little family day instead. In the morning we took the kids to Pump it Up, a big bouncy-toy place, and they both LOVED it! (Evan slept). I've never seen Travis sweat so much! Jayna was a little timid at first, but that didn't last too long. Afterward, we went to Round Table for a buffet lunch. Let me say first that taking all three kids to a restaurant is a big gamble (will they sit still/behave/not be too loud, etc.), so we rarely do it. But they did great, and we all left quite full. Later in the evening we did the presents/cake/ice cream thing, and listened to Jayna giggle as she opened her presents. Her favorites were her Elmo backpack, stroller for her babies, and Dora toy from Travis. It was a fun day!

Jayna at 2:

-Jayna has an amazing vocabulary!! They say that at 2 a child should be able to string two words together (at minimum), and I remember that with Travis I was worried because he wasn't doing that yet. Jayna...literally every day I am surprised by some new phrase she says. She's even doing some 4-5 word sentences. I guess that's the difference that being a girl and having an older sibling makes!

-She is a nurturer. To Evan, to her dolls and toys, even to Travis on occasion. She loves to take care of others.

-She is very observant. She is constantly imitating others in words and in action, and almost always in the correct context. She's a smart one!

-She LOVES to read books, by herself or with someone else. If she is ever shy around you, just offer to read her a book and she'll come right to you!

-Other things she loves: being outside, singing "eieio", playing in the nursery at church, playing with water, crackers, pretzels, swings, and slides.

-Travis: "Dadit"

Evan: "Baby Ewan"

Water: "Wawo"

Booger: "Bookoo: (we get this one a lot, along with an upheld, booger-covered finger)

Please: "Bee"

Thank you: "Tay too"

-Frequent phrases: "No, Dadit!", "Oh boy!", "Why?", "Ont a ___" (want a _____), there are so many more...

Jayna-

You bring joy to our lives every single day! It has been awesome this past year to watch your personality emerge and watch you be come the person God made you. May you one day read this and know how very much we treasure even the smallest aspects of your life and how very much we love you...even more than we know how to say!

Another year old

We took the kids to get their 4 and 2-year old pictures (and threw some of Evan in for the fun of it) done at JC Penney a couple of weeks ago. I wasn't terribly thrilled with how they turned out (especially the ones of Evan), but a few were cute. And they were cheap. Here were our favorites of each of the kids:

A few other cute ones...

And a few we didn't order, but all together make a funny sequence...

First smiles!

Taken at 6 weeks...

Birch Bay

Over Memorial Day weekend, we went up to my sister's house in Bellingham for a day. My parents were up there, too. Steve and the other guys spent the day working on some remodeling my sister and bro-in-law are doing, so us ladies took the kids to Birch Bay. My parents took us to Birch Bay many times when we were kids, and I have many great memories of the place. It was fun to take the kids to a place where I used to play!

Jayna was at first unsure about walking through the wet sand and water, but then decided she was okay as long as someone was holding her hand.

Yes, that is my nephew Ethan in the background, laying in one of the pools of water! We laugh because he and Travis are sooo different in that way...Ethan couldn't wait to dive in and get as wet/dirty as possible, while Travis had to be convinced that it really was okay for his shoes to get dirty!

Checking out a clam shell.

Reading together

Things are almost always so crazy around here that I just have to document this rare moment of peace. Steve came home from work one day to the following scene...this is how you envision life with kids BEFORE you actually experience life with kids!

She's a character!

As I was going through recent pictures to post on the blog, I realized that there are many of Jayna that each represent a certain current quirk of hers. Here are a few...

Jayna is going through a phase where she always wants to be held. (This clearly presents a problem when I am out with all three kids). The mower kind of freaks her out, and yet she gets mad when I take her inside. So, Steve figured out a way to mow AND hold the girl at the same time...probably not the safest activity in the world, but it makes for a good picture!

She loves her new sunglasses, as evidenced by the many pictures I've posted with them on her face!

When trying to take pictures of Jayna, she'll sometimes cooperate, but often the first thing she does when I pull out the camera is yell "ot to tee, ot to tee" (want to see). What she's wanting is to see the pictures that I've already taken, so I usually have to let her see a couple, and then she'll cooperate. This is her reaching for the camera, asking to see.

She's always trying on my shoes, Steve's hats, etc. Here, she was "helping" Steve do some yardwork, and she tried on the gardening gloves, then realizing that she can't do much with them on!

I put both the kids down for naps at 1:00. Jayna falls asleep pretty quickly, but Travis (if he falls asleep at all) takes awhile. This often means that Jayna is up earlier than him. Fortunately, she has grown to really love books (yay!), and often, when she first wakes up after her nap, I can settle her in front of the bookshelf, and she'll spend a good 30 minutes reading book after book. In the end, every book will be on the ground, but that's okay...I'll always encourage reading!

Again, the sunglasses...I love this picture of her!

Siblings

It's rare that I get a picture of all three, but I can do two! A few favorites...

This one was taken on Easter, the day Evan was born. I may have been in the beginning stages of labor, but dang it, we would get an Easter picture of the kids in their outfits! And then the kids didn't even end up going to church.

Travis and his miniature.
Jayna insisting yet again on holding Evan, and Evan not enjoying it one bit:)

My new favorite picture...it's on our desktop! We're really starting to notice these two playing together more often...it makes my heart happy!

Baby Jayna

As I explained in a previous post, both kids have done great welcoming Evan into the family. One thing that has been interesting, however, has been Jayna's new obsession with all things baby. At first I wondered if she was reacting to not being the baby anymore, and while there may be some of that, I think she's just really interested in all the new toys that she hasn't seen before(or at least doesn't remember since she was a baby when she last saw them). She has pretty much stopped caring about all of these baby things at this point, but she does still love to sit in the swing every once in a while. Silly girl!

Doesn't she look huge compared to him?!