A Random Update

It has occurred to me that I haven't blogged about Jayna in a long time. 

Here I got all upset about never blogging about anything else and then I just went and forgot about her. 

I'm sure she's all broken up about it. 

I tried to add a video to this post, but the video is too long.  I had a specific reason for uploading said video, but I guess y'all will just have to wait until I shorten it up (nearly IMPOSSIBLE to edit out my little JBird) to get the full picture.

Jayna is 3 years and almost 8 months old.  This makes me want to vomit.  I am having so much trouble with the fact that she's so smart and cute and she's going to grow up and continue to be smart and cute and I'm going to have to deal with that.  I don't envy myself AT. ALL.

She can spell up to 5 letter words now.  We work on this everyday and she loves it.  She loves that she can do it herself and doesn't have to ask me how to spell things.  She wrote G-R-I-L on her chalkboard in the kitchen last week while we were cooking dinner.  I said, "Jayna!!  You spelled 'grill!'  Great job!!"  She said, "Daddy's grilling the chicken, so I wrote 'grill.'"  Fair enough logic, I suppose.

She can now add in her head to a certain degree.  A few days ago I was explaining how the weathermen were 10 degrees off of what they said the temperature would be.  She quickly said, "Mommy!!  That's called math!  Kind of like 5 plus 3."  I played along and said, "So what does 5 plus 3 equal?"  She held up 5 fingers on one hand, three on the other and then counted them.  That's a wonderfully surprising first step at age not-even-4 to get the hang of adding.  Last night she was eating 8 jelly beans and 3 princess candies for dessert.  She looked in her bowl, looked up at me and said, "I have 8 jelly beans and 3 princess candies.  That makes....(paused as she looked up at the sky)...11!!!  Mommy!! I added my candies!"  She didn't even have to use her fingers!!  I gave her 3 more easy adding problems and she did them all correctly without her fingers.  On the 4th one, which was 9 plus 9, she gave up.  But again, great first steps here.

She is kind and polite and caring and emotional and loving and sassy.  A few mornings ago, her preschool teacher asked her a question that Jayna answers the same way EVERYTIME she's asked and Jayna responded with, "Why you ask me that question when you know the answer?"  She didn't say it like she was being a smartass or anything and even though I was laughing on the inside, I told her that that isn't a proper response when someone asks her a question.  Hilarious. :)

She loves to cuddle.  She regularly compliments me on my jewelry, my clothes, my hair.  She tells me I'm smart and she says her daddy is the best guitar player she knows.  She is a fierce fashionista.  She regularly asks Chris for different clothes than the ones he picks out for her in the morning.  She does it to me, too, but I just get frustrated and make her pick out her own clothes.  The results are pretty interesting when that happens.

She loves to tell stories.  Mostly about princesses getting married, but there are always some original elements in there.  Over the weekend she told Chris and me a story where "the rabbit turned into a froggy and then into a car...and then he stayed a car for awhile." 

She loves for Chris and I to tell her what we do during the day at work.  She's fascinated by it.  She'll ask me what I did and I'll start to tell her.  She'll almost immediately interrupt me and ask, "Did you type perials?"  That's her word for "proposal."  Her latest is, "Did you send any mailtypes?"  That's her way of saying "emails."  She's so cute I could die of the overload.

She loves to learn new things.  She knows about trees and photosynthesis and her immune system and phases of the moon and where the sun rises and where it sets.  She likes to do hands on things ESPECIALLY if you're teaching her these things.  She helped me plant the entire garden and also helps me take care of it.  She likes to help Chris build things and she likes to help me paint furniture.  She LOVES technology and learning about computers and how to use them and she can work the iPad better than Chris and I can.  She loves her learning apps and her playing apps alike. 

She helps me do things around the house to earn an allowance.  She sets the dinner table.  She helps me sort laundry.  She helps put dishes in the sink.  She puts the silverware away from the dishwasher.  She helps with Ollie.  And I don't MAKE her do any of it.  She wants to help.  She knows that 4 hands get things done more quickly than 2 and that we'll have more time to play if she helps out.  And while that isn't always true when you've got a 3-year-old helping me, I NEVER turn her down.  I let her help me do anything she wants to help with.

She loves her Ollie more than words can say.  She is kind and gentle to him.  He comes up on her bed everynight for family story time and singing bedtime songs.  And then she hugs and kisses him goodnight.  She helps with giving him treats and feeding him and letting him in and out to go potty.  She calls him "buddy" all the time.  It's very adorable.  "Come on in, buddy.  It's raining out there."

Her current favorite toy is a piece of multi-colored yarn that I gave her a long time ago.  It's probably 8 feet long.  She ties her swings together in the backyard.  She tucks the end into her pants and lets it drag behind her so "her prince can find her."  She made a bridge for bugs over the garden with it.  We loop it around the tree and the garden post to make a finish line for our races.  She uses it as horse reins on her glider.  She has had more fun with that piece of yarn than anyone ever should.  And I think it is the most creative and cute thing she's probably ever done.

Don't you worry!!  She has her troublesome points too.  A few weeks ago, she got 4 time outs in ONE WEEK because she wouldn't stop listening to an older little girl during rest time.  Jayna and this other little girl are the only 2 who don't take naps anymore, so they lay on bean bag chairs in the common room for 30 minutes while the other kids fall asleep in the nap room.  The older little girl kept talking to Jayna and telling her to do things that kept getting her into trouble.  It happened once and I promptly had a talk with her about peer pressure (although I didn't use those words) and about how she should ignore this other kid when it was time to rest, learn, be quiet, etc.  She said, "Ignoring my friends is mean.  I'm a nice girl."  It took an entire week to convince her that it was, in fact, the appropriate thing to do.  And now she regularly ignores this other kid even when she doesn't have to.  She told me earlier this week, "So-and-so wanted to play a game and I didn't want to play.  She kept asking me so I just ignored her.  She cheats anyway."  :)

She regularly gets whiny when she's tired.  She doesn't want to finish her dinner but still wants dessert.  She doesn't want to drink her milk before having lemonade.  She can throw a tantrum with the best of them.  She has an attitude, people.  Pure sass.  And she isn't afraid to use it. 

Overall, I love being her mom.  I get sad and sentimental at times that she will indeed grow up.  Doesn't every parent have that?  I worry about her.  I worry about if I'm doing the right thing.  I worry if I'm somehow making her grow up too fast or if I'm trying to keep her little for too long.  I worry about when she's a teenager.  I worry that I won't teach the right lessons or set a good enough example for her.  And I worry about really bad things too like kidnapping and things like that.  I...I worry.

I just want to keep her safe, let her flourish as her own little person and show her what it means to love and be loved.  That's all. :)

Drawing of Jayna wearing a crown while playing with her infamous yarn.  I'm the one at the top. 

Helping plant and water. 

 Helping build the garden.

Cuddles with the JBird.

I thought I was just putting baby wash into the bath.  Turned out to be bubble bath.  The ratio of bubbles to water was about 10:1.  And it was the highlight of the weekend. 

Planted garden.  Jayna dug in there more than I did. 

Playing iPad.  Probably Tiny Zoo.  That's one of the 2 apps she needs help with...mostly because I won't let her buy stuff from it.  

The wine cork plant markers that Jayna helped me make and place.  She loves to do anything crafty.

So that's what's going on!!  Consider yourselves updated!! :)