Many of you know that sweet Jensen is nearly always thinking of others. It seems she's constantly working on some little project to give to a friend. Often, it involves stickers, a craft or "written" notes. It's not unusual for Jensen to receive a little gift only to hear her immediately say that she's going to use it to make something for a friend because "______ likes Cinderella". Not a day goes by that she doesn't walk around the house placing stickers on all of our bodies. She sets a great example of generosity (most of the time!).
There have been several times where before bed she'll come right up to me, bring my face close to her face and, in her husky little voice very seriously say, "Daddy, I made-ed a present for _____. It's on my table. Don't let me forget it in the morning." Admittedly, I often fail to remind her (and she often forgets to grab it herself). However, she always seems to remember after she's strapped into her car seat, so she'll going running back into the house with the determination of a 100-meter sprinter to retrieve her package (which is often a handful of crumpled papers adorned with dozens of stickers, but papers crumpled with love nonetheless).
There are other times that Jensen is in the midst of a masterpiece when it's time for us to leave the house. This often frazzles her a bit as she insists it be "just right" and cannot be rushed. As parents, it puts us in the challenging position of choosing between squelching her desire to share/encourage and allowing her to bring her countless supplies into the van in order to complete the project. I know what you're thinking..."that should be an easy decision, Dad. Let her finish in the van!" Truth is, often we do. However, we've learned that it comes at the expense of a van full of paper, stickers, pencils, pens and other art accessories which are often left to accumulate for weeks at a time.
Recently, my patience for the clutter had grown thin. In a moment of calm, I made a new deal with Jensen. What goes in the car when you leave the house must come back into the house when you get home (a reasonable expectation I believe!). And, I added an additional caveat that I'd prefer she do more reading in the car than artwork. (Recently, the carpet "somehow" got red crayon all over it...Jensen denied the allegation.)
In the last week, Jennifer mentioned in passing that it seemed Jensen had "forgotten" the rule but I didn't give it much of a thought. (I only drive the van on weekends!) However, Jennifer didn't have a recollection of actually observing Jensen bring stuff into the van, yet clutter was accumulating at record rates. Translation: now that Jensen sits in the back row of the van full-time...she was sneaking it in.
Last night, I was looking for something in the van (that's another funny Jensen story), noticed a smattering of Jensen's belongings and decided I would quickly clean out the van...or so I thought. Let's just say that Jensen had attacked the cup holders and storage bins in the back row. About half-way through my clean-up efforts, I decided to just start making a pile and then grabbed a photo of the following (remember this is the 2nd half of the clean-up effort). By the end, I had paper, stickers, one sock, a coat stuffed into a purse, books, pencils, crayons, silly bands, cheerios, 4 old cell phones she uses, a dehydrated apple slice, her digital camera, hair bands, candy wrappers and a super ball. One item belonged to Jacob (sunglasses...a legitimate van accessory) and nothing belonged to Janie Grace. Perhaps what was most strange was that had you opened up the van door yourself, 95% of these things would not have been visible during a quick scan of the van's interior. She had squirreled most of these items into compartments and beneath seats.
I implemented our not-well-adhered-to-rule about 3 weeks ago. At that time, there was nothing in the car that wasn't suppose to be, but I've learned I've got to watch out for Jensen's clutter-full sneak attacks!
(I know...someday I'll look at several empty cup holders in the back of the van and long for the day I could find 8 miss-matched silly bands, an old piece of half-eaten candy and a sock.)
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