Going To Grandma's

Tori is now enamored with staying in the hotel on Friday night and going to see Despereaux with Grandma this weekend, or so she thinks. Christmas still does not compute with her, though perhaps it will when she unwraps her dollhouse. I have moved her table into her room to hold a Little Pony carousel she is getting, and she has decided to use the table and chairs for her dolls. She puts out cupcakes and tea cups and they all have a tea party. Even her big brother joins in on the fun. I wondered when she would decide to throw a tea party.

Bitten By the Travel Bug

Tori doesn't care about Christmas at home. She wants to get into the car and go see people. Everyday she asks me when we are going on a trip. I will be surprised if that girl doesn't do something for a living that involves travel. She went a short trip today, to the dentist to have a hole in tooth she was born with filled. Annie took her and said she was good.

Poor Tori. She lays awake at night telling herself stories and gets up cranky from too little sleep. She is a total night owl like her dad. Christian, Eli and I are early birds. We like to rise with the sun and wind down with dusk. This does not spell good when Tori starts school and has to get up and get going early on in the day. Maybe the excitement of being at school will be enough too motivate her.

Friday with Mom

That is what Tori gets. She was sad yesterday about Eli getting the morning with his dad at the doctor's office, so I offered to keep her home on Friday so we can clean house together and take care of some other things. She is looking forward to dusting with Mom. Wish me luck. On another note, she has been making major progress with the potty training. THis weekend I am putting her in panties to see if she can get through the day without having an accident.

Miss Carol

My friend was Tori's teacher at church, and she loved up to her big time. She talks about Carol quite a bit now and will be surprised to see a new teacher this Saturday night. Carol trades off teaching with another woman. I hope Tori likes her just as much as she does Carol.

God/Craft Hour

That is the term Christian and Tori use to describe church. They are anxious to go and learn about God and do some crafts. I am looking forward to taking them and hoping they have a good time. They are also going to shop for a little boy named Christian. Huts pulled his name from the Salvation Army tree, and our Christian has started asking questions about what we are getting him and why. I hope this turns into a good lesson about giving.

Dollhouse Crazy

I want a dollhouse, not just the one Mom told you about, but every dollhouse I see. Mom gets all of these great toy catalogs, and the dollhouses are the first thing I look at. I love the Dora dollhouse. She's great! I got a new Dora video, and then when I got home, I begged Mom for another Dora video about spies. She told me no, and I wailed, but it didn't work. i didn't get Undercover Dora like I wanted. Oh well. Maybe for Christmas.

Dollhouse

That is Tori's one request this year, and she will not let up on it. We are getting her a Fisher Price dollhouse with twins, and asking everyone to help fill it up. She will be so pleased to have a house full of people and furniture. I tried to explain to her again what twins were and that Aunt Annie and Uncle Frankie are twins, but she refuses to believe it. Impossible in her little world.

Haircuts

Tori is excited and ready to be boootiful again. She also keeps talking about making another trip soon. While that is bound to take place, it was certainly not going to take place this morning. She wanted to know why I was putting her clothes away and if we were getting ready to go on a trip. That girl loves to go, go, go!

Impatient Boogers

We went grocery shopping last night, and before Huts and I got everything into the back of the car, Christian and Tori had opened their frozen food dinners and started complaining that they were cold. Apparently, they don't understand the term frozen. Eli was starving, too, so I got the privilege of scrambling to feed him while fixing their frozen dinners, which they hardly ate. Fun, fun!

Dancing

Tori and I watched Dancing with the Stars last night. She loved it and hopped around all night long. She also played sick for Christian so he could care for her with his doctor's bag. The two were quite the obnoxious pair last night. Bedtime brought peace.

Fit Thrower

Tori was a big crab last night, whiny and demanding. I finally grew tired of it and put her in bed a little after 8. She threw an enormous fit, legs and hands flying. Guess what!! She got into major trouble. I put her into bed, gave her some water and shut the door after a peck on the cheek. She continued to throw her fit until Christian went to bed around 8:30. Then she spent the next hour talking to herself. Huts had to tell her to hush. Silly, silly girl!

Explosion

Usually toddlers have a word explosion, Tori has had a sentence explosion and hasn't stopped talking since! Since about August, she talks non-stop and has gotten a lot better at using complete sentences and indicating what she wants. I got so used to her speech before, this explosion still surprised me with what she can communicate to you.

This has carried over into calling her Brother stupid on several occasions and getting in trouble. I think it also has caused more physical brawls as well. Christian wasn't able to understand everything she said, now that he does, he doesn't like it. I had to break up a pushing match next to the stairs the other night.

Unfortunately, this hasn't curbed Tori's crying over nothing. You tell her 'No' or that she can't do something, even nicely, its like her world has crumbled. I guess this is an important difference between girls and boys. Hopefully she'll grow out of it before kindergarten.

Grandpa Kitchen pants

"You might as well divorce me now," Huts said to me as he passed by the laundry room.

"Why?" I asked.

"Tori says I am old and I have on Grandpa kitchen pants."

I can't stop laughing. We don't know where she came up with that term, but she and Ollie sure like telling us that we are old. They are obsessed with age, telling everyone they are old.