Let the Holidays Begin

Tori and Ollie had a special night with this dad last night. They went out to eat at a Chinese buffet and went to see the lights. Eli stayed home with me. He hates his car seat and isn't feeling good with his molars coming in. We played, while the others had a great time. They told me all about the food they ate and the lights they saw. More fun is on the way on December 23. Huts has the day off and is taking them to lunch, to see the Chipmunks moves and then to spend their gift cards at Target.

Not Ready

Last night we got to talk to Tori while she was visiting Cassy and Courtney. She's having a great time. She is not one who likes to stay home and she didn't bat an eye when she left. She started crying because she couldn't go with them! She is not a home body. Even with the girls in school and being home alone all day with Melissa, she is having a good time. Most kids would be bored, but not her! The only thing she might miss is her doll house. She doesn't miss us it seems. I asked her last night if she was ready to come home...dead silence.

"Maybe next week?", I asked.

"Yeah, next week", she quickly agreed.


She misses her parents...really she does. Next year she won't be able to take these trips because she'll be in school. Hopefully that'll solve some of her wanderlust. This summer could be her last chance for long trips away from home for awhile. She'll be back home next Friday in time to see the Princess Frog with her Mama and get ready for Christmas. Not much time left before the havoc of Christmas occurs. The kids are ready. We just have some space planning to do for all the new toys from Santa!

Update: Her two weeks turned into one! She missed her Mommy a lot and her Daddy a little. She also missed her dollhouse! You know the important things. I met her and her uncle Frankie in Alton, IL. to pick her up. She was ready to go!

Grandma - Tori Day

Today Tori stayed home with Grandma. They slept until 10 and played dollhouse. They were supposed to go see Darin for awhile later and take the new dog with them. She sat with Grandma all last night and no doubt talked her head off today. Tori loves the one-on-one attention from her grandma until Aunt Melissa arrives, and then that will all be over!

Screamer

Tori got into major trouble last night. She has been making a mess of her face when she eats, smearing it with ice cream, pudding, etc. Now she is broken out and has sore, cracked lips. After getting her face washed last night, she settled in to watch TV. She asked for a snack 10 minutes before bedtime and got told no. She screamed bloody murder, got put into bed and screamed bloody murder again. She finally got a banana in bed, only because we were trying to get Eli to sleep.

Wonder Woman!

Tori braved the cold for several blocks and would have went more, if Dale and Annie had brought the wagon. She loved going up to the doors and came home with a bag of candy. She put on gloves and a hat,. but that was it. She didn't need anything else. She was Wonder Woman, after all!

Miss Fit

Tori has been seeing her bed a lot. She has taken to fussing over the least little thing, including throwing huge fits when Eli steps foot into her room. She is getting quite selfish, and that fact lands her on her bed quite often these days/. She sits there until given permission to get up and then vows she won't make a fuss again. That remains to be seen!

Happy Pants, Then Not So Much

We figured Tori would be the one who was upset about not getting to go to Joe's. We were wrong! She was happy as a clam to go eat pizza and see her Aunt and Uncle's. Its been a long time since we've been to Pizza Inn, but Tori missed it so! The only problem with her is that she gets too distracted with everything around her and it takes her hours to eat. I had to keep reminding her to heat her food, so we could get out of there before it was their bed time. She enjoyed the night out and played with her Aunt and Uncle's outside while Christian ate. She had her problems though. She threw a fit when they told her to get out of the street. She threw a 2nd fit when it was time to go home. All of her crying caused Eli to get scared and he screamed at the top of his lungs until we had to yell at Tori to stop crying. She wasn't done with the fits though. After brushing her teeth, she tried to go back into our room to watch her movie. She had closed the door on her way out and attempted just once to open the door. When she didn't get it the first time she screamed bloody murder. Then it carried over to this morning. She brought a small Care Bear and a sun visor to the sitters. She couldn't get the visor to fit the Care bear and I couldn't either. I told her it couldn't be done and the screams came out again. This time she got in trouble. I yanked her out of her care seat, spanked her and sent her to the sitter's door while I got Eli out. She howled all the way to the door, but calmed down by the time we went in the house. She's in for a rude awakening because she's too old to be throwing those kind of fits over nothing.

Sleepyhead

Tori sleeps until the last possible moment every morning. I dress her while she sleeps, and then I haul her downstairs into the car. I don't think she says much. Poor girl. Mornings are not her thing. However, this morning, she woke up at 3, wanting to leave, and at 4, wanting to get dressed. Huts and I told her to go back to sleep. Lo and behold at 6, Miss Sleepyhead was back!

Miss Whiny

Tori has entered a new phase of whininess. She starts tearing up at the drop of a hat, mostly when nothing goes her way. We have no idea when this started, but we're hoping ti does not last. In the meantime, she is getting to know her room/bed really well.

Me and the Kids

After very little sleep due to Ollie and Eli, I managed to pull it together and have some fun with Ollie and Tori on Monday. We played dollhouse, ate at Chilis and shopped at the toy store. Then we came home and played for a while before Huts and Eli came home. It was a fun day for the three of us, and we're supposed to do it again soon!

Mom-Daughter Day

I am trying to find a day for Tori and me to have some fun. Friday is out due to the prospect of rain. Maybe Monday. We're going to do a little shopping and have some lunch. We might even go to McDonalds!

Darth Vader, Wonder Woman & Sock Monkey

It's official. There will be no theme this year in the kids' Halloween costumes. Christian has a fascination with Darth Vader right now, even after seeing how Anakin became Darth Vader. Tori has no interest in Star Wars. She was going to be Tinker Bell, until a couple of days ago when she announced she would be Wunna Women. Eli gets no choice; Dad picked out something warm for him that hopefully he can handle. Stay tuned for photos.

All Clean And Ready For Her Return

Tori's room is all clean and waiting for her to come home. The dolls are in place, the dress-up clothes are tucked away and the room is a mass of peaceful pink and purple. Eli doesn't even seem interested in it now that Miss Chatterbox is not in there to yell at him and make him laugh. Oh Tori, your room is yearning for your return.

Excitement

The weekend is about to start, and Tori is totally looking forward to it. She knows she has the next two days at home, the following four days at Sharon's, the Friday with Mom and Eli. the weekend with everyone and Grandma and Grandpa, and Monday with the family. She is psyched!

Off to Annie's

The kids have been barely home 3 days and they went to stay the night and day with their Aunt Annie. Tori did not want to go to the sitter's today because she was so ready to go. She always has to be doing something, its a nightmare in her eyes when she has to go to bed and get up the next morning for the sitter's. She still has a full year of going to the sitter's before she starts school next fall. Luckily she starts swimming in Sept. Then in the winter or spring we are looking at putting her into dance or gymnastics.

She still likes to play tea party at home with all her dolls. She brings chairs, dolls and plates for her tea parties to the chalk table. She positions her dolls exactly how she wants them and then they have a snack. Each doll speaks through Tori and they talk about all kinds of things. None of which can be interrupted by a parent asking what Tori is talking about. We get a "I wasn't talking to you, my dolly was talking". Sorry to interrupt that conversation! I'm sure it won't be long and we'll be watching plays in the near future. I'm sure she'll get her brothers to participate.

Mommy

Tori has taken to calling me Mommy and she says it about every minute or so. It drives me a little batty, but I am trying to be patient and grin and bear it. She has a lot of requests and lot of questions, which I don't always know the answer to.

On another note, I took the time to fix her doll's wild hair, and she isn't fond of that at all. She hasn't removed the dog tails, but it's coming. She likes the wild and crazy look I guess.

Busy Girl

Tori is lovin' her time at Uncle Frankie's. She has latched onto cousin Kassy and Kassy's mom Melissa. She is eating up the attention and all the time on the trampoline and four-wheeler. If we're lucky, we'll get her home without too much of a fight soon.

Missing Mommy

The first 2 days of this week, Tori has been sad that she has to go to the sitter's. She's missing her Mommy! Today she got to spend the morning with her Mommy due to the sitter not being able to watch her the kids today. She was excited! They had a bit of excitement at home when they discovered Piper was bleeding. Apparently they cats got in a fight while we were sleeping and Piper got it good.

The kids discovered the carnage and 'helped' Mommy clean up. I'm sure she'll have a great story to tell tomorrow. Her day with Mommy ended at noon as her Uncle Dale came to take care of them in the afternoon. I'm sure she'll be sad, but she'll get another day with Mommy sometime soon.

4th of July

We let the kids know this morning that the 4th is coming. Of course, they related the shooting of fireworks to some episode of Sponge Bob. We passed by a fireworks stand and are wondering if Annie can shoot them at her house. You can't do it in Peoria because of local laws, but maybe it is allowed in Mossville. I will be checking that out. If not, the kids will have to settle for sparklers and stink bombs.

Big Helper

Tori is a great helper, unlike her big brother. She picks things up and never has a problem when we ask her to help. She helped pick up the blocks last night, while Christian snuck off and hemmed and hawed to get out of it. She helps with Eli too, who thinks she is hilarious. She can make him laugh like nothing, Last night, she made cookie bars. What a helper!

Walking Buddy

The boys are party poopers and won't go on walks with me. Tori will. She walks all over the neighborhood with me, counting garage doors and windows. We look at flowers and talk about the storm drains. She says that is where her other parents and grandparents died. Bizarre, I know. She walks and walks with me, never once tiring and always wanting to know more. I have a good time with her.

Watermelon Girl

Tori is wearing an outfit with watermelons on it today. She is also wearing her pink sparkly shoes. She looks cute, and she knows it. Too bad her Care Bear doesn't look as great. She got that thing from Annie a long time ago, and she carries it everywhere. It is worn out and very dirty at the moment. I told her this morning that it is getting a bath soon. Poor Bear. We got her another one, but she likes her old pink one.

Dora House

Tori finally got her Dora house. Marie picked up one at a yard sale, and Tori as it out, along with all of her little people and their houses. The family room looks like a toy store. She was also happy to get more dress-up clothes. She is all set for play time.

Mommy

Tori has taken to calling me Mommy. I don't know where she picked it up, but I am not Mommy. Christian still calls me Mom or Mama, and Eli just slobbers on me. Tori has been very cuddly lately, demanding that I pick her up and carry her everywhere. She also likes to play with my hair She is turning into my girl, while Eli is a daddy's boy. He prefers Huts to me, just like Tori did as a baby. Poor Huts. His left arm is about to break off.

Miss Mumbles

Tori has turned into a bit of a mumbler lately. She doesn't want to speak up or clearly. She's too busy doing 2 things at once to concentrate on what she's telling you. So after the 5th time of asking her what she said, you usually have to break her trance, look her in the face and ask "what are you saying?".

Last night we tested her speech ability by trying to pronounce certain words and as long as she was paying attention to what she was doing, she said it clearly enough to comprehend. Once distracted, Miss Mumbles returns. It doesn't help that she has such a quiet voice, until she has a hissy fit that is!

We'll see how it goes with her speech. She is probably just going through a phase like her brother is with certain letters.

Fit Thrower

Tori has become one. She throws a fit when things do not go the way she wants, like her dad being too busy to wrestler with her on Monday night. Boy, did she get into a tizzy and mope around the house. Silly girl! It only gets her in trouble; it never gets her what she wants.

Pink and Purple

These are Tori's favorite colors. She is turning into a girlie-girl. She loves to buy sparkling clothes and shoes and has said she wants her hair to be longer. Then again, she likes her haircut because everyone tells her it is so cute. She likes dolls, makeup, princesses and all of that jazz. She is also into jewelry. We'll see how long this lasts.

Scooter Queen

Tori got a scooter for Easter, and she was all decked out in her pink shirt, shorts, tights, helmet and pads for an hour ride up and down the sidewalk. She has been asking for this scooter for some time now., She is also thrilled with her Pj Sparkles doll and took her to Sharon's.

Miss Impatient

Huts picked up the materials for the swing set and Tori wants to know why it isn't together yet. Who cares if it rained and snowed this weekend. She wants to know why Dad has not taken the time to get her swing set up and running. She is going to bug Huts to death until he gets that swing set put up.

Sleep Walker

Last night after the kids went to bed I heard the pitter-patter of little feet running around upstairs. Most of the time the cats are chasing each other up and down the hall with the kids out of the way. After counting the 4 cats sitting downstairs, I went to investigate the sound. It was a little girl who had gotten out of her bed several times.



By the time I got up there, she was back in her bed crying because she knew she was in trouble. She had woken in the night the previous night and wanted to sleep in our bed. So she thought she could do the same tonight, except we weren't in bed yet. So she kept checking. She didn't figure out that if she climbed into our bed and fell asleep, like Ollie did a few years ago, that we'd probably let her sleep instead of putting her back in her bed. Once she fell asleep, she never woke up during the night. It was just getting her to fall asleep in her own bed in the beginning that was the trick.

Craziness

It all started around 8 o'clock with Tori throwing a horrid fit. She was clearly tired, so I told her it was time for bed. She kicked and screamed her way up the stairs and then wet her pants. Huts spanked her, and she kicked and screamed some more. I spanked her. She continued wailing until I gave her a small drink. Meanwhile, Eli was fussing. I finally got him asleep and Christian in bed. He had decided to be good. Eli got up at 11 for a bottle. Tori got up at 3:30 to get into bed with Huts. I moved to her room and Eli got up. I gave him a bottle and the morning routine started a little before 5. Guess who fell asleep in the car, Eli and Tori!

Tori Skiing

Bathtime

That's what Tori requested at 1 in the morning. I gave her drink of water, only to return five minutes later to her wanting a bath. I put her in bed with me--Huts was sleeping in Eli's room and she slept ok until about 2. Then she started mumbling and groaning again, but this time, she didn't say why. It was a long, night for the four of us. Christian is the only one who looked rested.

Sleepy Girl

Tori is always fast asleep when I get into the car, at least I better say so, or she throws one whopping fit. She loves playing games, and this is one of her favorites. I don't enjoy it per say, but it is certainly better to see her happy little face than to hear her wail. No plans for the weekend, so we'll see how she handles that. Who knows what we will end up doing, especially now that it is going to be cold outside.

Water Bug

Tori loved the water park and woke up early on Sunday morning demanding to go down there. We went home instead, much to her dismay. She played on everything, with and without her brother, and only threw fits when she missed the big bucket splashing down. She couldn't seem to understand that the bell was a reminder that the bucket was about to be tipped over. She came back to the room waterlogged and tired. We went to meet Chip and hear a story and she scarfed down the cookie. Guess she was hungry from all of that activity.

Tori The Do-er

Tori-the-Doer was back in action this weekend. After dinner at the hotel on Friday, we went to the water park and Tori went immediately to the water slides. Down she went as fast as she could. She played in the kiddie pool for awhile and then went to the bigger slides by the dumping bucket. She hopped down the slides without her brother's hesitation. Back up again for another run. Once she heard the bell ring for the bucket dump, she'd run over to get water dumped all over her. She'd try various ways standing, sitting, kneeling, laying when the bucket fell. Once she was soaked from the bucket she'd come running over to us with the biggest smile. It only got to be a problem when she would miss the bucket dump and she would throw a fit. She also loved putting her face in the water and trying to swim under water. The girl is a fish and her water soaked smile coming up from swimming would completely show you her love of water.



Skiing for her was just as fun. She was eager to try, even though her boots had too much snow to get her ski's on to begin with. She was slow walking in the boots, which helped get them caked in snow. I scraped the snow off and eventually got the ski's on. Tori happily went in line and up the magic carpet. She fell over a few times. On one occasion, she got off the carpet and was helped to catch up with the group by being pushed. However, the person let go and Tori took off down the hill with no one holding on! Luckily the other instructor stopped her before she fell or ran into something or someone. All the activity tuckered her out and she was ready to call it quits. We went back to the water park that night for more of the same fun and she had milk and cookies with Chip too. Early Sunday morning though, the cry went out, "I Want To Go To My Poooooooooooooool!".

All Planned Out

Tori is looking forward to the ski trip so much that she plans it out a little each day. This morning, we were going skiing and swimming at the waterpark at the same time. Who knows where we will be doing tomorrow. She thought we were going away this morning, but that wasn't the case.

When?

That's what Tori wants to know about Grandma and Grandpa. When are they coming up? Tomorrow? This weekend? This month? Lucky for us, my mom is coming in a few weeks. Tori cannot wait. Grandma will get to see all of her toys and her room. Get ready, Grandmas. Tori is gonna drive you bonkers!

Princess Tales

Tori has taken to telling us Princess stories in the car. She is the yellow or pink princess, and the rest of us are other colors of princesses, kings, knights, and dragons. Annie is always the Purple Princess, and Christian and Eli are knights. Huts is the king, and I am either the queen or the witch. Sometimes, Eli gets to be a dragon. Dale always plays multiple roles, while Stella is usually a princess. The tales are long and wind all over. Who knows where Tori will take us today in her tale.

Better

Tori is better, but who knows how long that will last. She is surrounded by sick brothers. Tori has been quite the card lately, enjoying the fact that Eli is a captive audience. She sings for him, plays with him and twirls around for him. She also plays peek-a-boo and jumps around him on the bed. He smiles and laughs at her. They are two peas in a pod, until Christian gets in on the act. Then the fighting over Eli's attention begins. Tori hates it when Eli pays more attention to Christian than to her.

Dressed To The Nines

Tori left this morning wearing her new red and white shirt with large gems on the front and her sequin shoes that look like they have seen better days. The pants were way too big, so she wore an old pair of black pants. She thought she looked beautiful, and that is all that counts. On another note, she is potty trained. She has only had a couple of accidents and goes by herself without any problems. She beats the boys in this area, hands down. As Huts said, "That's it?"

Tori The Tryer

Tori loves to go and do. What exactly you ask? Well, everything. She wants to go skiing, swimming, swim class, to see grandma, to church and most days, she doesn't want to go home after she gets picked up from the sitter's. This usually causes a lot of drama as she starts bawling when we tell her that we are going home. This spring we are enrolling her in something...anything so she can do something. It'll probably be swimming class, gymnastics or dance class (or maybe underwater tumbling dance if they had such a thing).

She is already looking forward to skiing and swimming next month. I showed her pictures of the water park in the hotel we were staying at and she had to show her Mama how great it was. She was ready to go right then. Unfortunately that won't be for another month. I don't think showing her pictures of the place will satisfy her desire to go go go before then.

The Go-Go Girl

We are taking a little trip at the end of February, and Tori wants to go right now, as in yesterday afternoon. She was disappointed to learn she had to wait and cried when we went home to eat rather than out. She does not like sitting at home; car rides, no matter how long, are her thing. I can't wait to send her on a plane ride to see Uncle Sam sometime. That should keep her attention.

Tea Party

Tori and I had a tea party last night with all of her dolls. We started the evening at the dollhouse, but that soon got put away in favor of the table and big dolls. We ate play cupcakes, tomatoes and vegetables. We also drank play tea. Christian joined us at some point and served as Christina, much to his dismay. Eli dropped by too, so he could play Ella.

Dollhouse

Tori got her dollhouse, and she and Christian played with it much of the day. Uncle Dale put it together for her, and she had great fun squishing the twins into their swings and high chairs. She has no idea that more dollhouse stuff is coming. She is going to have a full house. Tori also got a whole slew of Little Pony things, a movie theater, carousel, roller coaster, ice cream shop, etc. She has five or six ponies and all kinds of things to do with them now. Lucky girl!