The Teacher

Tori has begun talking a lot more lately. She'll sit downstairs at night and sit on our laps or run around the living room/kitchen talking up a storm. She'll get right in our face and talk to us for hours on end. She'll talk to the kitties, the toys and even her brother. Recently she's started teaching us how to speak. Her most popular subject of instructions is in Teletubbies.

"Say Tinky-Winky", she'll command. Once we repeat her words she'll say, "Vewy good, Say Po!".

This will go on and on often repeating the same words. She is a bit hard to understand at times and we aren't able to understand everything she commands us to say. We end up getting scolded when we can't understand her.

"No, say mouf!", she'll scold. We have to keep trying to understand her until we understand her request or distract her with something else.

If nothing else we can distract her with drawing. She loves to draw and paint. Sometimes we have to draw with her. She'll color with her markers all day. She hasn't been allowed to paint much because it is such a mess, but she loves it too. Maybe we have a little artist on our hands.

Fit To Be Tied

Last night Ollie wanted to watch Teletubbies on the TV in the living room. That just wouldn't do for Tori, she wanted to watch it in Mom and Dad's room! When she didn't get her way, the crying began. She was threatened with spanking, time out and getting sent to bed. With each of these threats she stopped wailing long enough for the punishment to not occur. That is until she was threatened with going to bed. It was only 30 minutes before her bedtime, but she didn't want to go to bed early. After a few minutes she forgot all about the issue and watched it with Ollie in the living room.



I think there is an increase in crying for silly reasons instead of crying for no reason with her. Either way the amount of crying isn't curtailing anytime soon. If only she didn't get upset over every small thing. Luckily 5 minutes later she is over it and is back to her happy jabbering self.

Valentines

The sitter is throwing a Valentine's Day party for the kids, so Ollie and Tori have to make cards for the other kids. Huts and I haven't made valentine cards in a long time, so we are frantically trying to remember what we need to make them. Construction paper and stickers, along with the crayons and markers we already have, should do the trick. Ollie won't hear of buying the paper valentines and using them.

All Gone

Tori has been MIA for two nights now. Instead of circling around downstairs and talking to us, she has sat upstairs in our bedroom watching Dora and playing with her toys and her brother. I tried to get her to stick around last night when she came down for a snack, but she refused. Guess Dora is too important right now.

Cake

Tori has got too much going on to worry about my birthday, but I bet she has a slice of cake and eats off the icing in a matter of minutes. That's what she did with a couple of cupcakes last week. She will also eat the ice cream I'm sure. Too bad I can only have a bite. Sweet things don't sit well with me right now--thanks baby no. 3. Your present is so much appreciated.

Don't Care

Ask Tori whether she wants a baby brother or a baby sister, and you will get both answers. She hasn't figured it out yet. She does like to pat my belly and poke my bellybutton. She gave me a few pats last night while I was on the phone with my mom. I feel huge, even though I am just now starting the second trimester. Something tells me this is going to be a big baby.

Not Wanted

The kids have gotten too comfortable at the sitter's. Tori usually becomes a zombie to the TV when we enter the sitter's. This morning, however, was a little different. She got interested in the lego's Ollie had brought into the room and dumped on the floor. I gave her a kiss on her head and told her goodbye and she had words for me.

"Ok, Daddy, you go now!", she said.

Makes me feel wanted and loved.

Soup

Tori didn't eat much at Subway, and when she got home from the hairdresser's and had her bath, she came downstairs and started scrounging around for something to eat. She ended up asking for some chicken noodle soup. SHe ate the entire can of soup and then had an ice cream bar. Of course, this led to her having her pajamas changed and face washed. She went to bed around 9 and woke up grumpy! Thank goodness tomorrow is Saturday and she can sleep in.

Mimic

I had a bad night, and after watching me heave into the trash can, Tori decided to mimic the event. She sat on the edge of the couch and pretended to heave herself. Such sympathy. She has also done this with the spitting. Then she spent the rest of the night wallering all over me and her dad on the couch. She likes to squish up against us and stomp all over us. I protect my stomach, while Huts protects his jewels. She can be vicious.



Tonight is haircut night. Tori will be the first up; if she doesn't go first, she throws a major fit. She will hop up onto the seat and smile as she gets her hair cut. Ollie, on the other hand, will demand to sit in his dad's lap and fuss when the hairdresser gets close to his ears. Huts will go next, and then the three of them will go someplace and look at the toys or pets while I get partial highlights. Then they will return with happy faces and be ready to go home and get a bath to remove all of the loose hair.

I Can Do It

Sometimes Tori can't do it, and sometimes she can do it. Last night, she ran off with one of my potatoes and said she was going to cut it with a knife. She looked in the draw for a knife, and when she didn't find one, she gave me back the potato and told me to cut it for her. She also thought she could open her own M&M bag, and when that didn't work, she finally relented and let me do it. Of course, there are those times when she can't do anything and you must move her from chair to chair or get her crayons and coloring book for her. Little booger!

Tori has also decided to pick her own clothes. Yesterday, she refused the jeans that went with her top and wore bright pink pants. The flowers on the leg of the pants in no way matched the flowers on her shirt, but she didn't care. This morning, she allowed me to put pink pants and a pink-and-purpe striped shirt on her, but only after she tried to put on the shirt. She was too sleepy to get it on, so she gave in and let me do it. My two-year-old is ready to fly the coop. I am all out of babies until August.

Baby Pats

I thought Ollie would be the one fascinated with my growing stomach, but Tori has taken that role. She loves to point at my belly and say "Baby, baby." She rubs her chunky little hand all over my belly and pokes my belly button as though she is trying to get a peek inside. She also pretends like the moles on my stomach hurt her hand. She seems to know now that there is a baby brother or sister in my tummy. I tried to get her to say the names Huts has mentioned, but she refused. Little booger. She has also been getting in some Mommy time, insisting on me getting her a drink and something to eat and going upstairs with her. She has already grown tired of her daddy doing everything for her while Mom heaves and sleeps.

Hey Daddy!

Who's our buddy at night? Tori, of course. She sticks around downstairs talking our heads off while Ollie takes over the family room upstairs. She is constantly yelling, "Hey, Daddy" or "Hey, Mommy." She is also starting to throw more fits. Trying to understand what it is that she wants is never easy, and when we mess it up, she howls. Yep, been in trouble for the fits. Sharon makes her sit on the bed when she becomes too fit to be tied.

I still haven't found the mute or off button on this little device called Tori2005. She's a top of the line non-stop go-go talking destructo machine. She'll constantly want you to play, read or give her a bath. When she's not getting you to do one of the previous activities, she's demanding you do something for her, get her drink, snack, fix her tent, put Dora...teletubies...cailliou on for her. There are times the Tori2005 does play on her own, but you wouldn't be able to even here the TV over the ruckus. It seems the volume knob is broken and she only it broke off at the high level.

On occasion the Tori2005 goes into crouching mode and leaks fluid. Usually this is caused by some grievance against her. Of course the grievance is paltry, but you wouldn't know that by the flood of fluid from her. Often times the Ollie2003 model is the instigator, but generally he treats her well. Give her a few minutes and she recovers well enough to continue on her way.

The Tori2005 still does not sleep well. She hasn't slept well since before Christmas. Her sleep mode must be broken because she wakes around 3 or 4 wanting something, blankie, water, her parental units to sleep with her. Most of the time a quick drink will take care of the dilemma, but it doesn't prevent more wakings. Her internal clock must be off or she is low on fluid, its been a month and we haven't been able to fix the bug to get her to sleep through the night. Its just pre-work for her parental units for Baby2008.

We'll probably get Tori2005 running well, sleeping well, a quiet mode installed and hopefully learning waste disposal by the time Baby2008 comes in August. Ollie2003 will be making his adjustment to school, Baby2008 and new sitter, so I'm sure our docking station will be in complete chaos for much of the rest of the year. Hopefully it'll be an easy one for Tori2005.

Sleepless Nights

Tori returned from her grandparents with plenty of toys. She also returned with her habit of waking in the middle of the night. This is not a welcome development for her parents. It wasn't a big deal when we were all still at home after Christmas. Everyone could sleep late and we did. But once it was time to go back to work, Tori decided to be let us have less sleep.

Tuesday she went down early for a nap at 1, but I had to wake her up at almost 6 pm! Then when we tried to put her in bed at 10, she got out of bed and tried to open our bedroom door. Her Mama tried to get her to sleep with her, but Tori kept talking. Since I was still up, I stayed up with her until 11:30 to wear her out. Yet, she fought getting in bed then and didn't want to go to sleep. Eventually she did, but the only thing it did was make her parents tired.

Last night wasn't much different. She got a decent nap, got up at a good time, but still was a little hellion when it came to bedtime. She howled, "I want up" for 30 minutes. She was given a drink, her 'babies' had there blanket and eventually she went to sleep. Sometime during the night, she started fussing again, so I slept in her bed with her until 5 am. Making for another night of bad sleep. This morning while driving her to the sitter's, Tori mocked my tiredness by sleeping the 20 minute ride to the sitters. I can't wait for the days she sleeps through the night again. Only for baby #3 to invoke its wrath on our sleep schedule.