Jane and Jack

Oh, these two. They have been quite the duo lately. On one hand I am so pleased to see them becoming friends. On the other hand, when they work together, they can kick my butt. They are inseparable and WILD! I can't recall too many specific incidents (other than when I heard Jane's encouragement from the bathroom only to find later that she was egging Jack on in his quest to slime the bathroom with toothpaste), but it's more of a general craziness. For example, every meal is complete chaos. Laughing, and doing crazier and crazier (and messier and louder) things to get those laughs. Jack won't let Jane do anything without him. She has a chore to put the silverware from the dishwasher into the drawer. But now it's Jack getting the silverware and Jane excitedly showing him where to put it. She even taught him how to do another chore with her- folding washcloths. Even time-out has lost its effectiveness. Jack just sits right next to Jane on the time-out chair and they make a game of it. One time Jane told me, "I want to be on time-out forever!" Another time I tried to distract Jack in his bedroom so Jane could feel the full punishment of time-out by herself. But Jack was crying and trying to get the door open, "Jane! Jane!" Then when Jack was put on time-out in his crib for spitting repeatedly, he was calling out, "Dad! Dad!" Jane kept saying, "Dad, he's calling you, you need to get him. Dad, he's sad. He's just little. Get him, Dad." It was seriously so brief, but as soon as Matt went to go get Jack, Jane ran into the room to save him.

I guess what's bothering me is that I used to feel like Jane was on my team. And that Jack was on my team. But now I'm not on a team at all! It's them against me. They don't need to try to please me by doing what I ask. They are fine with just pleasing one another. The other day I heard Jane say to Jack, "Oh well. Mom doesn't know what she's saying, huh, bud?" And Jack answered with a "Yeah."

It has made this house more hectic, but I was very pleased to see that even when Jane had a friend over to play, she continued to include him. Warmed me right up. Especially because that meant all my kids were occupied and not bugging me for something.

Sure it sounds nice. They are entertaining themselves. But imagine--they've made a terrible mess and I try to get them to help me clean it up. Why would they? They just keep on being wild together. I can threaten to put Jane on time-out, but then I've told you what will happen. I don't want to lock Jack in his prison crib for too long. And as soon as he gets out they'll just start being wild again. All I'm saying is that I feel like they are a much more powerful force than I am. And it's exhausting. But at the end of the day, when they're asleep, I am all smiles about their budding friendship. I hope it lasts. I don't look forward to the day when either of them say they don't want to play with the other. So I guess I'll try to enjoy it.


Here's some pics of their togetherness. They like to put on skirts together.





And they like to eat bananas together.





And they even like to give solemn looks to the camera together.