Terrible Three's

We seemed to slide through the two's without too much terribleness. But boy, Jane sure is pushing it lately. When I tell her to do something like, "Please pick up those toys" or "You need to eat 5 more bites" she responds with "Or?" So then I'll explain to her that she will have to sit on time out, or she won't get to eat dessert, or whatever the consequence may be. Then she'll weigh her options and say something like, "Okay, I'll sit on time out." Well, then, how do I get her to pick up her toys?!

Speaking of terrible, Jane has had her first few instances of being mean to Jack. She dragged him by the arm in the kitchen, took his toys on numerous occasions, drove a toy truck onto him, and banged the closet door against him. You know, the usual. One time I was so upset with her I was nearly in tears trying to sternly talk to her about it. Her face lit up with a big grin like it was Christmas morning and she exclaimed, "You're sad? You're mad AND sad?!"

Oh, but I guess it's not all bad. She does seem to really love him. She really loves to make him laugh. So anytime Jack laughs or smiles at her she says, "He loves me!" One time she said, "He loves me SO much! He real bad loves me!"

And other quotes from the month:
One day the doorbell rang and Jane hurried to the door. When we opened it I saw that the mailman had left a box for us. Jane kept looking around and finally asked, "The box said ding doong?" (her own made up words for what the doorbell sounds like).

I guess Jane has heard me say "Darnit" a couple of times. So I've heard her exclaim in frustration things like, "Marnit!" or "Varnit!"

Aunt Julie let Jane borrow the latest Tinkerbell movie for a few days. She learned one line from it that she says anytime she gets in trouble. "Hey! Don't judge me!" I didn't know it was from that movie until one time she followed it up with the next line, "You've been yelling at each other since I got here."

For some reason I haven't bought kiwi in a very, very long time. I said something to Matt about kiwi in the car and Jane said, "Did you say pee pee?" I said, "No I said kiwi. Do you remember kiwi?" She said, "Yeah, I ate it in the laundry basket. I was shocked because I remembered her eating it in the laundry basket too. So I looked up the pictures from that day and it was exactly a year ago. When do kids start forgetting all of their little kid years?


Poor Jane has been getting hurt quite a bit lately. It seemed everyday she was doing a couple of things that would hurt her. Like when she climbed onto the table to get away from her friend who was playing the "I'm going to get you" game and just ran right off of it. Anyway, one time after getting hurt she was so upset she yelled, "I don't want to get hurt! Little kids get hurt ALL the time! I don't want to get hurt all the time!" It's so true. I would be in a bad mood too if I was getting hurt that often!


One night after putting Jane to bed she kept coming out for different things. Last drink of water, fix her blankets, etc. We were getting really frustrated. Then she came out again. We said, "What's going on?" She said in a plaintive voice, "I don't know how to sing Itsy Bitsy Spider."

After getting my new sewing machine in the mail I told Jane what it was. Later she asked, "Where's your show-me bachine?"

Matt asked me one morning if his shirt looked okay. I said it did, but Matt said he thought the neck of the shirt looked too big with his white shirt showing underneath. Jane was nowhere around when we talked about that and couldn't have heard us. And Matt likes to ask Jane's opinion because as he puts it, she'll always make him feel good. So he said, "Do you like this blue shirt I'm wearing?" She said, "Yeah, but it looks dumb. It looks big over the white shirt."

One day I announced to Jane that it was time for our afternoon routine: Lunch, Show, Nap. She said to me, "But I don't want to eat lunch. And if I watch a show my brain will come out and my blood will come out." (Matt had been telling her that if she watches too much TV it will make her brain not so smart. Eventually he ended up just telling her that her brain would turn to mush).

Jane called the back of her knee the "armpit on my leg."

Uncle Steve asked Jane, "Jane, what is your favorite thing in the whole world?" Jane said, "I don't know my favorite. I'm sad about it." Steve asked, "Sad about what?" Jane answered, "Sad about you talking to me."

When my parents were babysitting Jane they told her she needed to cooperate. Then my dad asked her, "Do you know what cooperate means?" Jane said, "Yeah, it means you put your clothes on." (we're always telling Jane to cooperate when we are trying to get her dressed).

One time Jane yelled, "Stop it!" I looked shocked at her tone and asked, "Are you talking to me?" She came up with, "No, I'm talking to my best friend, door." and pointed to the door.

Jane has taken "I need my privacy" and has started saying things like, "Did you see my privacy?" meaning did we see her naked.

Jane still gets candy for going poo. I will give it to her until she's 18 if I can avoid another stool retention phase. So she was sad one day when she didn't need to go, "I can't go poo poo. My body is empty."

When my dad was watching Jane play with playdough she made a big mound into a house and put little pieces of playdough "into" it. She explained that they wanted to go into the house so that they could be safe. I'm sure that has something to do with this same line of thinking: Jane was looking at a picture of a farm scene. She said something about the animals needing to go inside the barn. I explained to her that not all of the animals live in the barn, that lots of them just live outside. She seemed very concerned and said, "But the bad people will get them!"