Around the house

This post isn't about anything in particular... just an update on life with a newborn and a three-year-old. This may be the first in a new series called "Around the house with Ouisey and Jane."

The coolest thing that has happened in the past few weeks is that Richard and Jane built a club house! We conditioned part of our attic during our recent remodel, which has made for an unexpected play space for Jane. I think it started when she discovered all her old toys stored up there. So when we received a copy of Fancy Nancy: Explorer Extraordinare, in which a little girl makes a club house, Richard decided that was just what our attic needed. He cobbled up some pieces of wood and bamboo, lashed them together with scraps of ribbon, draped them with old curtains and sheets, and voilà!

Nickel helped.

And now for some random pics of our girls and what they've been up to...

Sleeping

Making friends

Rocking the awesome hat from Sally

Smiling

Exploring

Swinging... "Wheeee!"

Oops.

Painting

Burping the baby doll,
which has been named Ouisey.

Baby Ouisey and Baby Doll Ouisey
sharing some floor time together.

Jane is three!

Happy Birthday to Jane!

In the midst of all the Christmas crazy, we paused to pull out a birthday crown and blow out some candles. We are saving birthday gifts for her half birthday because the marginal utility of a gift received the day after Christmas is rather low. Besides, at three years old, Jane's only birthday requirement is cake. Easy! We also fixed Jane's favorite dinner: PASTA.

We cannot believe that she is already three years old, especially when we look at Ouisey and realize how much Jane has grown and learned since she was that tiny. Here are some pics that show Jane on her past birthdays... my how much they change each year!

Two years

One year

Zero years

One of Jane's favorite activities right now is hanging things around the house. Anything with a handle or string is likely to be found hanging on her dresser drawer knob, or the back door knob, etc. The ornaments from our Christmas tree were in constant rotation around the house...

Jane loves sorting and organizing things so much that when she discovered the easel she got for Christmas, she spent the first half hour just moving the crayons and chalk around to different compartments. I guess she would have been just as happy with a tackle box.

Jane has been a loyal companion on hundreds of Kroger runs in her three years. The stickers are genius. She gets so excited, even though the graphic has not changed since I was a kid. She has started asking for stickers at the check out line of every store now, which makes the employees feel really guilty if it is not a sticker distributing establishment. The guy at Home Depot ended up giving her a giant barcode sticker off of some kind of garden item.

Note: stickers hurt when peeled off of face skin

Jane continues to ham it up for the camera... anything but a smile. She also picked out this outfit. Please note the socks and sandals.

So, in this picture she is actually trying to smile. She walked into the nursery where I was sitting with Ouisey and said, "Mommy, look, I'm smiling. Take a picture."

One of my favorite things about Jane at three years old is all the funny things she says. Just listening to the way she views the world is so entertaining. Here are some highlights:


Jane (after reading a touch-n-feel book that said T-rex's have sticky tongues): What's he got a sticky tongue from?
Mommy: I don't know.
Jane: I think he ate some tape.


Jane: I'm just getting a rubber band for something... (looks around to see what she might need a rubber band for)... for my shopping cart. So it doesn't blow away.


Mommy: Did you go to the bank today?
Jane: No
Mommy: Why not?
Jane: Because we didn't buy any money for you.


Jane: You put all the gum together and that's how you make gum. You mix pink gum and "lello" gum and red gum and that's how you make blue gum.


Jane: My hair is so long. I think I'm going to need a haircut soon... maybe when I'm nine... or seventy-eight.


Jane (after opening our blinds a little bit): I'll just leave them like that for now, said Jane the big girl.


We love you, big girl Jane!

Big sister

What better place to put this giant sticker than
on the bottom of your foot?

So, Jane is a big sister. As I mentioned in the previous post, she is doing pretty great considering this massive change. Not only is there a new person in our family who cries loudly, but the person who has pretty much given her undivided attention for the past three years is now continually distracted by the tiny newcomer. All that to say, Jane is taking it in stride, and we are all very thankful for Daddy's well-timed winter break!  

When Jane first came to the hospital to meet Ouisey, she wanted to hold her right away. She was so excited... then after about five seconds she said, "I want you to take the baby off." Ha! 

This pretty much sums up her reaction to her new baby sister. She is intrigued by her, but definitely not the "little mommy" type who wants to love on her all the time. She is trying to be helpful, though, always wanting to be the one to put the paci back in when Ouisey spits it out, and bringing her stool over to the changing table to help/watch the diaper changing.

We have tried to think of ways to make Jane feel special during this transition, since the baby gets so much attention. One thing that we (and lots of other well wishers!) did was to give Jane a big sister present. Here she is testing out her new doctor kit.

Another special treat was that Jane got to spend the night in a hotel with Fancy and Papoo, her first time! She was so excited... especially since they got cake pops on their way to the hotel, ha!

Back home again...
Jane already had this purple "Big Sister" shirt, so when I saw this purple striped "Little Sister" outfit, I had to get it for Ouisey. You can't read either shirt in any of these pictures, but they still look pretty cute together, I think.  

Jane likes to hold the back of Ouisey's head...
not sure where she came up with that.

Jane has gotten lots of Daddy time this past month, which has been so great. One of their projects has been organizing Richard's shop. Jane loves sorting things and putting them in containers, so this was a home run for Richard in terms of occupying a three year old and accomplishing something at the same time!

One thing we are quickly learning with two children is not to ask Jane to do anything that is not worth a battle. Relinquishing control of Jane's wardrobe, for example, is helping to keep the peace, which is especially important when we're trying to get out of the house semi-on-time. Sometimes I can get away with guiding her choices by picking out part of the outfit so it sort of matches, but on this particular day I had to let her dress herself head to toe, including jewelry. 

As much as I would like to choose her clothes myself, it is pretty fun to see what she picks out and give her creative control. Supposedly, when I was her age I used to insist on picking out my own clothes and would wear several outfits at the same time, like pants with a skirt and dress. I guess it runs in the family!