2.5 Years

This was Jane after church yesterday. This sneaky girl either climbs to the back of the van or tries to get in the driver seat when it's time to get buckled into her car seat. As I was taking this picture, she was asking me for the keys. She is ready to drive and be a big girl.

I have to say that having a toddler can be quite trying, but when I take a deep breath, let her spread her wings and watch her learn and grow, it really is so much fun to be with her. Right now Jane is interested in:

- Where things are located. Where certain families/friend live, what they are close to (hospital, beach, grocery store, other friends, etc...).
- Babies, babies and more babies. She takes them on walks, swaddles them, re-swaddles them and swaddles them again. She reads them stories, sings to them, feeds them, puts them down for naps, pretty much all of the things that mommy's do with their little ones.
- Playing dress up. We have neighbors that have three girls and playtime in their basement is always so much fun. 
- Reading. She loves reading stories before nap time and bedtime. She enjoys picking out new books at the library all by herself and has started to "read" on her own. I am amazed what she remembers.
- Silkies of any kind. We have put an end to silkies in the car and are trying to keep the silkies for bedtime only. It's not easy task to remove anything with a silky tag from her reach, so this is a work in progress. Holding silkies = lots of thumb sucking so we are trying to save this for bedtime.
- Doing things ON HER OWN! Sometimes this drives me crazy and yet it is such a good thing for her to develop her independence.

She loves chicken nuggets, raisins, warm milk, chocolate (a girl after my own heart), her shiny shoes (as she calls them), wearing her jacket backwards, reading on the potty (for way too long), playing boingy, boingy (aka bouncing on our bed and having Trever throw her into the pillows), riding her scooter, and riding in the shopping cart with the little bus at the grocery store.

She keeps us laughing with her observations of the world and silly questions/comments:
She often asks, "Dad, how was your shower?"
"Mom/Dad, lets go to the money bank."
"Mom, who turned the rain on?"
"For?" - this is her version of why and she repeats this phrase several times a day. 
"Can we go to a restaurant?"

This little girl keeps us on her toes and we just love her. She is learning and growing so much and I can't wait to see who Jane becomes.