I love when Jane wears something that Cate used to wear. They look like sisters.

This is Cate wearing the onesie at almost 5.5 months:

And now Jane wearing it at 8.5 months: 

Jane is just now fitting into some 6-12 month clothing which makes the comparison not quite as significant but still, I enjoy it. In sleeping news, I finally took Jane back to the doctor yesterday. She weighs 14 pounds now which is fabulous and I think we are finally getting somewhere on her eating/sleeping/stomach/pooping issues. 

You are probably wondering how it's possible that this child can be nothing short of delightful all the time. She is actually a very happy, easily entertained kid that I dote on every waking moment but…oh my word. The SLEEPING. It's so bad! I feel like I have a 2-month old sometimes. The transition to solids has not gone so well. She has a very sensitive stomach. Our initial foray into solids was horrific. Rice cereal, sweet potatoes, bananas – all too difficult. She has had good luck with baby oatmeal but on Mother's Day, after several good nights, I thought, let's try just a tiny bit of sweet potatoes again. Fast forward to 1:00 AM and there's me and Telfer, drinking bourbon on the couch, reading our novels. Nothing could console her. It's taken days to get that half-jar of sweet potatoes out of her system. So for now, peas, oatmeal, pears and prunes are our only friends. 

So I am not sure if it's the right food, the wrong food, the slanted floors, the ability to roll around in the crib, the pacifier or WHAT that keeps her up so much in the night. It just makes me crazy. I do know that this is a temporary problem and she will hopefully sleep as well as Cate does at some point in her life. Just keeping it real.

It was only a matter of time before I put together a Jane Austen bookshelf. I love Jane Austen. I am one of those people. I agonize over which is my favorite novel. Always Persuasion unless I have just re-read Pride & Prejudice.  Which Telfer also loves. We didn't name Jane after Jane Austen necessarily but…there might have been a small niggling thought there. 

Here are the books with some annotations because I can't help myself:

Jane Austen's Letters | Folio Society Edition | I have a Folio Society addiction. Such beautiful bindings. They don't really hold their value but they are so pretty. I swear, Jane Austen wrote to her sister Cassandra mainly about dresses, fabric and bonnets. 

A Truth Universally Acknowledged: 33 Great Authors on Why We Read Jane Austen | Susannah Carson, editor | Strangely, Susannah was the other girls name I LOVED. Telfer, not so much. 

Jane's Fame: How Jane Austen Conquered the World | Claire Harman | I really loved this examination of the lasting influence of Jane Austen and her novels. Very well written and I bought it in New York at one of my favorite bookstores with Anna & Amanda.

Pride & Prejudice: A Bed Book | Jane Austen | I bought this at Dutton's in LA before they went under. Seriously. The book is printed sideways so you can read it comfortably in bed. I couldn't pass this up. They have a whole range of titles and it has taken everything in me to not order more. 

The Wit & Wisdom of Jane Austen | Jane Austen

Remarkably Jane | Jennifer Adams, editor| Such a cute little book. Chairs on the cover. My favorite quote: "I love structure in the novel. It's not surprising that overwhelmingly my favorite novelist is Jane Austen – structure is tremendously important to her. I love the idea of bringing order out of disorder, which is what the mystery is about." PD James. Not surprisingly then, PD James is my favorite mystery novelist.

Jane Austen's Guide to Dating | Lauren Henderson | The title says everything that needs to be said.

Persuasion | Jane Austen | I have several copies of every novel but this is probably my favorite copy. I like the size and the way it feels.

Pride & Prejudice & Zombies | Jane Austen & Seth Grahame-Smith | Mildly entertaining but mostly I just like the cover art and the idea of this.

Sense & Sensibility & Sea Monsters | Jane Austen & Ben Winters | A gift. Don't think I will ever read it but again, the cover makes me laugh.

Sandition & Other Stories | Jane Austen | A couple novels that Austen never finished. Haven't read because I'd like to think there's something out there I haven't read yet.

The Jane Austen Miscellany | Lesley Bolton, editor | The illustrations from early editions of the novels are pretty much the best thing about this little book.

Jane Austen's Guide to Good Manners | Josephine Ross, editor | My mom bought me this book, probably in the attempt to improve my manners.

Persuasion | Jane Austen | Missy just gave me this copy of Persuasion. Oh my. It's lovely. It's a Penguin Red Classic.

Set of Novels | Jane Austen | My mom found this set of all of the novels in a junk store in Hermiston, Oregon. It's something I would save in a fire. I love it so much. You can't tell from the picture how cute the boards of the books are – each has a different, cheery color. Almost like wallpaper.

Clearly, I am a bit behind. So here's a sampling of the last couple of weeks. 

Easter was good. He is Risen! We had brunch at our house with Elizabeth, her friend Tasha, Chris, Mendy, Nana, and the Duerre family. So fun. I even made my first real cake and it turned out so well. After nap the girls posed for pictures. Always entertaining:

 

We finally got a double stroller used on craigslist. Cate has some "issues" with running away (she is basically fearless and incredibly frightening). So we needed a double stroller to contain the girls. I had been wrestling Cate into our single stroller while Jane was strapped to my chest. Now, both girls are strapped in and we can actually take Mr. Henry for walks without Telfer. We walked downtown (a beautiful 20-minute walk) after I took this picture and a woman stopped me totally freaked out because she thought I had a small infant unstrapped in the stroller. No, it's Cate's itty bitty baby. Come on people!

I have discovered my mood is directly correlated to how much exercise I get, especially since I stay home with my kids. I can't stay home all day every day without going a bit crazy. Now that it is starting to get nicer outside I have a way of getting the girls outside for both a bit of exercise and errands. Telfer also gave me a treadmill for Christmas that gets good use in the basement. The best thing that ever happened to me was when the girls started napping at the same time in the afternoon.

This is getting long and random but I had a great mother's day yesterday. Some ups and downs based on a certain 2-year-olds moods but I felt very loved. I took a nap, Telfer made me dinner and he may have bought me a Le Creuset oval dutch oven. A complete surprise and it even matched my nails. I would rather have Le Creuset than jewelry any day of the week.

 

Jane also gave me a great Mother's Day gift – she figured out how to pick up her little meltable snack bits, put them in her mouth, let go and actually eat them. Seriously, you would have thought I had won the lottery I was so excited for her.