Where's Janae?

With all my talk about Benjamin lately, you might be wondering what Janae has been up to--or whether she is being neglected or forgotten.

Well, Janae actually has a new hobby--and it's one that keeps her very busy and very quiet--sometimes for up to half an hour at a time.

In the past when Janae has been quiet for more than a few minutes she's been either getting into Ben's stuff, taking all Grandma's pins out of the pincushion, wetting her pants, or changing her clothes.

But her new pastime is nothing like that . . . well, actually it does involve changing clothes (just not her own).

 

Some of you might remember a Polly Pocket-style Cinderella doll that I put on Janae's birthday cake a few months ago. Even though the doll was for children ages 3 and up, I thought Janae might like to play with it once in a while (I used to love playing with Barbies, and have watched my nieces play Barbies/Polly Pockets, so I guess I was a bit eager to start this phase!).

Janae was very interested in her new toy right away, but it's only been over the past few weeks that she's learned to dress and undress the doll on her own.

 

Grandma gave Janae another similar doll, this one The Little Mermaid, providing Janae with even more dresses and accessories to work with. She lines up the dresses like Ben used to line up his cars, and then she focuses all of her concentration on getting the dresses on and then off. It is quite something to watch!

 

Ben and Janae will play side by side, Janae with her Princesses and Ben with his Lego or pirate ship. This is really cute . . . until the pirates decide to kidnap the mermaid and take her onto their ship--then I usually have to intervene. It's lots of fun, though--I love the way they are both so focused.

 

I guess we'll have lots of little toys to pick up when baby #3 starts to crawl, but in the mean time, it's a great way to keep Janae out of too much trouble :)