Jane Time!

It's been far too long since we've shared what's been making us laugh around here.

For example, Jack fell while in the tub and his head went half way under the water before I pulled him out. Jane, having been told numerous times that Jack could die if he fell in the water, asked, "Is he dead?" Despite the fact that he was crying and moving, I acknowledged her question with a simple, "No." A few minutes later I said, "Jane, you didn't seem very sad when you asked if Jack was dead. Would you be sad if he died?" She said, "Oh, yes. I would lay on him softly and cry." I couldn't make this stuff up if I tried.

We went to see the lights at Temple Square, you know, back in December. Jane looked up at the top of the temple and saw the Angel Moroni blowing his horn. Jane declared, “Hey Mom, I see the guy who poked Lehi with a stick.”

Jane really wanted something out of her room but Jack was asleep. She kept asking me to get it and I kept saying, No way. A little bit later she walked out of my room holding my scriptures. She opened them up and started tracing her finger along the words. I asked, "Are you reading the scriptures?" She said, "I'm reading these so Heavenly Father can tell me how to get something out of my room when Jack's asleep." She pointed to the page and told me to read it. I did. Then she pretended to read it and said, "Your mom can go in very quietly but first you must tell her what you need."



One funny thing that Jane talks about is liking people's faces. After meeting her preschool teacher for the first time I asked what she thought and she said, "She has a nice face." Then, one time while playing at a McDonald's playplace she really gravitated to a girl who was probably about nine years old. Jane grabbed her hand and followed her around. Thankfully the girl was very sweet to Jane. When I told Jane it was time to leave she was inconsolable. Still crying in the car she was saying things about never getting to see her again. I told her that there would be other girls to meet and play with and she said, "But I really liked her face!"

She also really likes her dad's face. When Matt was going to work she wanted him to stay home and said, "But I like your face better!" (Thanks, Jane).

One day we worked on some sequencing puzzles that she has. One of the sets was of a baby boy, an older boy, and then a grandpa. The grandpa was very wrinkled and bald. Jane got nervous about Matt growing older and wanted me to tell her that Matt's face wouldn't look like that. I tried to explain it. Matt tried to explain it all, too. Matt ended up telling her about how we will all look "normal" again when we are resurrected. About a week later we were driving in the car and Jane announced, "When Dad grows bigger his face will change. He won't get his normal face back until he dies.” Then she continued, “So we should let a bad man kill him or a car hit him." I said, "But you don't want him to die NOW, right?" She said, "No, his face is still good, but when it changes....."

Jane woke up to use the bathroom in the middle of the night. Then she gave Matt a hug. Matt said, “Jane, I’m so glad you’re my kid. Are you glad you’re my kid?” Jane said, “Yeah”, but then started bawling. She said, “I don’t want to be a big person because then I can’t stay with you.” Matt said, “Oh, buddy, you can still stay with me when you’re a big person.” Still crying, Jane said, “But then there’ll be three big persons, and that’s not how a family works.” She was still crying but went to bed. She got up shortly after and continued the conversation with Matt. This time they talked about how they could live by each other and see each other every day. Her new concern was now, “But you won’t have the same face.”

So, yes, Jane has mixed feelings about getting bigger. But she is, indeed, getting bigger--taller, to be exact. Even Jane, herself, has noticed. Lately, she'll stand up straight and say, "Look! I'm almost five!"



One of her church teachers told me that the teacher asked, "Would you be mean to someone if they were mean to you?" All of the other kids said something to the effect of, "No, I would still be nice to them." Jane, however, raised her hand and said, "I wouldn't be nice, I would make mean faces at them."

Jane told Matt she had pee-pee on her clothes. She had her shirt off and was twirling it around. Matt said, Don't twirl it around if it has pee-pee on it! She said, "I PROMISE it has pee-pee on it."

On her way to bed Jane shared this concern, “Dad, I need to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night because I've been farting and farting.”

Jane has been concerned lately about losing her teeth. For a while she was coming up with a new question every day. Will it hurt? How will I eat? When will it happen? Then one day she pointed to her gap and said, "I think I already lost a tooth." I explained to her that she didn't, and she acted like she was just joking.



Recently I went through the kids things to try to downsize their "stuff." I had Jane help me with some of the things. We were going through her dress-ups. There were things that she would admit were too small or that she didn't like the way they felt, etc. But instead of getting rid of them entirely she INSISTED that I keep them for her kids someday.

Remember when I said Jane was our budding interior designer? Well, she always comments on the color of a room. She'll say something like, "I like the color in here." After playing outside at a new friends house she asked the mom, "Can I see inside your house? I want to see what color it is." She has strong opinions about colors and currently really hates the color orange. She saw a store at Thanksgiving Point that was lavishly decorated at Christmas time. They sold beds so she thought it was a house. She talks about the "gold room" all the time and how we should buy that house. She'll also point things out like, "Why doesn't our kitchen look like so-and-so's? Their kitchen is so beautiful."

I mean, can't you see that she enjoys the finer things in life?