Jane quotes

Here's what Jane's had to say the past five months.

Jane likes to make things or arrange things in a certain way, then she doesn’t want anyone to ever touch them or move them. Even if it’s in a pile in the middle of the floor. So, after building a Lego structure Jane said, “Mom, I want this to stay like this forever. Don't ever take it apart until I'm a Mom, okay?”

In December we went to Thanksgiving Point to see the reindeer. We went into a store there where there was a man singing Christmas music and they were giving away hot chocolate and cookies. Jane said, “Mom, a human in singing.”

One day at the dinner table Jane banged on the table and said in a booming voice, “Announcement! I declare....that I wish my mom will always be in this family.”

Jane is convinced she sleeps with her eyes open. I guess we found that out one time when we told her to just close her eyes and go to sleep. She said she never closes her eyes because that makes her have bad dreams. We tried to explain to her that she for sure sleeps with her eyes close. Eventually she stopped her side of the argument but a months later she said something about it again, caught herself and said, “Op, never mind. You don’t think I sleep with my eyes open, but I really do.”

I took Jane and Jack to McDonald’s play place after a disappointing trip to Monkey Island to find that it had gone out of business. When a new girl arrived on the scene Jane approached her and asked, “Would you like to play with me?" The girl excitedly looked at her mom and said, "Mom! I made a new friend!" They played forever. The friend could reach the monkey bars because she was taller than Jane. But Jane kept trying over and over again. At one point I heard Jane say, “You need to cheer for me.” So the girl said, "Go, Jane, Go!" She fell several times. Eventually she got both hands on it. They were thrilled. Both girls went to tell their moms about the victory. When leaving the girl came up to me and said, "Can Jane come play at my house sometime? My phone number is......then she rattled off her phone number.

I asked Jane what we should get her preschool teachers for Christmas. She got very excited and said, "Oooh, a bookcase? Or a wedding dress? Or how about new boots?" Then she went on to think of elaborate gifts she'd like to get every person she knows. She was really bummed when I had to explain our Christmas list would be much smaller than that.

Jane has picked up on a quite funny, although slightly frustrating way to get Jack to do what she wants. If he starts to bother something she’s working on she’ll say something like, “Do you want a cookie, bud? Ok, go ask mom for a cookie.” She knows we don’t have any cookies so then I’m left with a disappointed Jack. I think I’m finally starting to curb the behavior. But one time we were at the library and I was checking out books. I asked Jane to get Jack from the play area so we’d be ready to leave. Minutes later Jack came up to me and said, “I want Dinosaur Museum.” I asked, “Jane, why is Jack talking about the dinosaur museum?” She said, “Well, I needed him to come with me so I asked him if he wanted to go to the dinosaur museum.”

One time Matt asked Jane to say the prayer. She said, “Dear Heavenly Father...NO.”

After eating dinner Jane said, “I am so full I am un-starving.”

One time after Jack had asked Jane repeatedly if something was a truck she said, "Yes, just be confident about it."

One evening Matt and I played a board game together. Jane liked watching us and felt like she could sense that Matt was winning the whole game. So, when the score was added up and I was the actual winner she insisted it was Matt. She wrote on a piece of paper, “Dad win.” She felt like that made it legit. Then asked, “How do you spell Mommy lose?”

While in the bathtub she made one of her toys walk on the water. She said, “You know what he’s doing? He’s miracling.”

For Family Night we sang the “Whenever I hear the song of a bird....” song. Jane said, “Sometimes that song makes me sad. But it didn’t that time. I tried to be sad but it didn’t work.”

Jane saw a friend from church riding his bike. It didn’t have training wheels. She said, “He’s five years old and he has a two-wheeled bike? That’s just ridiculous.”

One morning Jane said to Matt, “I love you.” Matt said, “I love you too.” Then Jane said, “Your breath smells stinking gross. You need to brush your teeth.”

Jane was playing with my China chopstick collection. She had a certain idea in mind for how to play with them. She wanted Matt to play and he didn’t quite catch her vision. She said, “Dad you’re ruining my life!”

One day Matt was going over long vowel sounds with Jane. Jane was getting the majority right. But when I came in and said, “Oh, I know a hard one,” and I wrote down PINE, Jane said, “P-I-N-E, that’s an easy one. Popcorn.”

Jane was running around laughing at Sharon’s house when a new friend was pretending to be a zombie and chasing her. But then Jane said, “This game is starting to scare me a little bit.” Later we saw her hiding under the table.

Jane has picked up a horrible habit of calling us names. She knows she’ll get really busted if she uses real words so she usually makes them up. Like, “Dudie.” Or once she told Matt he’s a Berk. Then she asked, “You know what that means? Jerk.” One night she said to me, “I don’t want to eat anything.” I said, “Fine, then go brush your teeth.” She said, “But I want to eat something you little stinker.”

For a week or so a common conversation around the house was whether or not dinosaurs were bigger than the blue whale. Jane was certain that they were. She said, “I’ve seen their bones!” It made her really, really mad that we kept saying the blue whale was bigger than the biggest dinosaur. She would challenge us by saying, “How do you know blue whales are bigger than dinosaurs?” One night at dinner it all came to an emotional end. Jane blew up and yelled, “I HATE blue whales! I HATE blue whales! I want to try to kill them!” When Matt and I couldn’t contain our smirks she screamed, “Don’t even laugh!” Later we showed her some comparison charts and she is now on good terms with both blue whales and dinosaurs.

And on a more touching note, it has been really neat to see Jane develop her own relationship with Jesus lately. One night she said to me, “Mom, when I see a star in the sky I’m going to make a wish that Jesus will always be alive in heaven.”

One morning Jane told Matt, “I was talking to Jesus when I was laying in bed because I needed to say something important to him.” Matt asked, “What was the important thing you needed to say to Jesus?” She said, “about loving people.” Matt asked, “What did you say about loving people?” She said, “I don’t want to talk about it. I don’t think you’ll understand.”

About once a month Jane will have a very emotional breakdown about growing up. The most recent meltdown was specifically regarding the fear of not living next to us (mostly Matt) when she grows up. No matter how much we tried to explain that we could get houses right next to each other, or could drive or fly to see each other all the time, she very logically would come back with the evidence that we don’t live by our own parents or see them very often. So she kept crying and crying because she was worried that once she grew up she wouldn’t WANT to live by us. Eventually I told her that maybe she could feel better if she said a special prayer and asked Heavenly Father to help her. It was bedtime so we all went into her room and I told her I could help her say her prayer if she wanted to. She said she needed all of us to leave so that she could pray in private. It killed me not to hear her sweet prayer. She came out a couple minutes later feeling much better. Then she said to me, “Wait, I need to say another one because I forgot to mention you.” Thanks, Jane.

And here's how Jane wanted to pose the last five months.