Loving on Jane

The past few weeks have been difficult mainly because I have too much time on my hands. I only go to school once a week for my physiology lab. The rest of my studying is done at home and on the internet. Some weeks it takes more time than others but even a long unit doesn't take more than a couple of hours a day. My second job of getting kids set up for online tutoring has been quite slow due to the computers being back ordered. I signed up at a temp agency, had an interview and have taken some basic office tests. My data entry skills have been described as phenomenal. The only problem is that most of the positions are full time which my class prevents me from taking. I had an interview for a part-time position last Tuesday but they chose the other candidate. With all of that in mind, I was grateful to be asked to watch Jane on Thursday and Friday.

Jane is now 15 months old and I no longer do all the talking. I do not understand most of her jabbering but her vocabulary is surprisingly large for her age. The most common word was "ba'o" which she proudly proclaimed every time she saw my water bottle. I had to find a sippy cup for her so she could have a drink every time I did. It didn't take long for me to start calling her "parrot" because she often tried to repeat words or short phrases. As I was searching the refrigerator for something to give her at noon, I asked her if she wanted some green beans. Her imitation of "green beans" was very close to the real thing.

Jane has also learned some basic sign language for words like please, more and thank you. I was giving her some blueberries one at a time. As soon as she got one blueberry in her mouth she reached for another. When I held the plate out of her reach until she was done chewing the one she had she immediately began rubbing her chest to say "please." Being given another blueberry was greeted with one of Jane's large smiles - a smile so big that you can tell from behind if she is smiling. She is also quite generous with her hugs. Add it all up, and it was a very enjoyable way for me to spend a couple of days.