Just Jane

Jane is still learning the art of conversation. Questions seem a bit difficult for her. 'No' she learned long ago, of course, but she doesn't know that you can just say 'Yes' as a shortcut to repeating the question. If I ask her, 'Would you like some yogurt, Jane?' she will gleefully proclaim, 'Like some yogurt, Jane?' and run to the kitchen to await the payoff.

She also uses questions in place of dialogue. Often, she'll bring up a topic by telling me, 'Would you like a cookie, Jane?' or 'Would you like to draw, Jane?' Like Lady Catherine, she doesn't seem to have a problem both asking and answering all her own questions.

Recently we stopped by the bank, where a very nice teller gave Jane a plastic piggy bank. Jane was fascinated by it. At one point I was in the kitchen with Ella, and heard Jane start crying. I came running, and began asking questions to ascertain what was wrong. Jane sobbed, 'Did you bite piggy's ear, Jane?' Hmm, I never would have thought to ask that one.


Her imagination is vivid and varied. She will hold any toy up to her eyes, pretend to click, and say, 'Take a picture!' Sometimes she'll instruct me to say cheese. She'll tell Ella, too, and never seems to mind that Ella doesn't follow her instructions. Her conversations with Ella are really quite amusing.


I began correcting her pronunciation a few weeks ago, and now she runs riot with it. She will say a word, any word, even a word that she was going to pronounce correctly anyway, and add how not to pronounce it. A common exchange:

Jane: Put on the yellow pajamas.
Mama: Yes, I'll help you put those on. Bring them to me.
Jane: Not yewwow.
Mama: No, not yewwow. Yellow.
Jane: Not lellow.
Mama: No, not lellow.
Jane: Not wellow.

And so it goes. Practically everything she says has to be followed up with a disclaimer now.

She loves hairbows and ponytails. She still wears socks on her hands and calls them gloves. She loves to get dressed up, and goes hunting in her dresser for new clothes to try on. Every time I put a new dress on her, I give her the old one to put away, and she'll come running back with another one that caught her fancy. She is all girl, this one.