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.