“Mighty”.?? That is Aunt Heidi’s definition of our girl.?? Tiny but MIGHTY.?? She is awfully big on the inside.?? 🙂

Where to even begin??? Oh my she entertains me.?? Let’s start with Justin and Jessica.

As you know, “Justin Beaver” and “Jessica” are Tori’s imaginary friends.?? I downloaded my first ever Justin Bieber tune this month because Tori begged me.?? Her favorite song is Baby and we listen to it over and over and over and over.?? I am not allowed to sing it though.?? She asks me to please stop singing so that she can sing it by herself.?? Her little face is so serious as she sings it to and it just cracks me up every time.?? It was well worth the .99 cents just for that.???? Somehow, she managed to find JB interviews on the Kid You Tube (via Kidzui) and she watches though repeatedly too.?? I would love to tell you about Jessica but I have never met her.?? Mysteriously, I always just miss her.?? :)???? Tori is pretty funny with this.?? Apparently she doesn’t want to face the imaginary part so she just makes up excuses.?? “She will be here in five more minutes”.?? “She came last night and left before you woke up.”???? “Jessica can’t come over because Troy is shy of her.”?? Ty and I have really tried to meet Jessica but Tori won’t have it.

Tori:?? Mom can I have a strawberry?

Me:?? Sure

Tori:?? I need one more for Jessica.?? And one more for Justin Beaver.?? They are coming over.

Smart girl.

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Tori:?? Mom can Justin Beaver sit in the back seat the next time we go somewhere?

Me:?? I don’t know.?? I don’t know Justin Beaver.

Tori:?? He is my friend!

Me:?? I know he is your friend but I don’t know him.

Tori:?? Duh!?? (In her teenager voice)

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Tori:?? Mom are we going to start school soon?

Me:?? Yes when I am done with breakfast.

Tori:?? Okay good.?? I have time to go listen to one more song.?? (Baby)

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Don’t you just love it when your day is relegated to settling disputes about people who don’t even exist?

Ty:?? Mom Tori is saying we are mean.

Me:?? Boys be nice and kind to your sister and Tori talk nice.

Tanner:?? Mom we just told her that Justin and Jessica can’t come over right now because we have to clean.

Tori:?? WELL THEIR MOM SAID IT’S FINE!!!!!!!!

Ty:?? Mom should Jessica and Justin come over right now or not because we are working?

Really??? I just stood there awe struck.?? As if I don’t have enough to settle in a day.

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One day this week Jim was telling me about a guy at work who was teasing him about his leather jacket claiming it had an 80’s feel to it.?? No sooner did he say this that Tori comes into the room and upon seeing her dad in his leather jacket says “Ha Ha!?? Your Justin Beaver!”

I laughed really hard.?? Tori and I are both so glad that Daddy has a Justin Beaver jacket.?? He is so cool and so hot.?? My JB not Tori’s.?? 😉

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One day I took her shopping with me and was silly enough to give her a cart.?? She managed it well considering.?? I expected to have to guide the cart since my Gidget can’t see well pushing it but dumb me didn’t count on her doing her own shopping.?? I glanced back to see her putting ice cream cones in her own cart.?? Ooops.???? A lady walking by saw this and said “By the time she is old enough to help you she will no longer want to.”?? LOL.?? I bet that was experiencing talking.

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Setting:?? I am putting kids to bed and Ty doesn’t want to go so he says….

Ty: BBBbbbbbbbbbuuuuuuuutttttttt……

Me:?? Ty you need to think about what you express next and make sure it’s kind.

Tori:?? I am thinking I will be quiet and stay up.

I give her “that” look.

Tori:?? I was just making a little joke.

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One morning I was reading the kids the story of Jesus and his disciples on the boat during the storm.?? I ask them why Jesus was sleeping when the disciples were so scared.

Ty:?? Because he was tired.

Doni: LOL.?? Okay.?? Maybe.?? But all the other guys were really really scared and Jesus was just sleeping.?? Why wasn’t he scared?

Tori:?? Because he was asleep!

Duh.?? I guess I was asking really dumb questions.?? Hee hee.

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Tori (to Ty):?? “I am older so I am the boss of you.”

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Tori (to Troy):?? Good morning little guy.?? Good morning Chunchine.

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Tori (to Troy) after growling like a bear:?? (He cries his scared cry).?? Troy what is the matter with you??? I only scared you a little bit!

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Tori (to Ty when he was playing a video game):?? Ty!?? Go back to the main menu and put a shirt on your guy!?? That is disgusting!!!

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Last week she was helping me do laundry and I caught her in the laundry room cleaning the lint screen.?? “This needs to be cleaned every time” she says.???? How did she even reach it?

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Tori asked me a question about why something was happening.?? I say “well I think that is happening because….” and I launch my explanation.?? When I am done, she says “I think not.?? Actually I think….”???? LOL

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“And if I don’t, then what will happen?”

She had to ask didn’t she?

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“Ty is my best friend AND my sister!”?? – Tori

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She wanted to dress for outdoor play and was wearing a nice dress.?? I told her no and suggested jeans.?? She grabbed the jeans but then changed her mind to a different dress.?? Then she changed her mind back to the jeans.?? Then she started to change her mind again but stopped herself and said “Uh actually I don’t.?? I don’t want to change my mind again.”???? LOL

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Me:?? I am going to the store.

Tori:?? Can I go with you?

Me:?? No.?? Not this time.

Cry cry cry.?? Whine.?? Repeat petition.?? Repeat this cycle.?? I stick to my “NO”.

I shut the front door and lock it with her crying on the other side of the door.?? She pulls herself together to say one last thing to me.

Tori.?? OKAY!!!?? I think I am just going to stay at home with Daddy!

When the inevitable occurred, she pulled the old boot straps up and insisted the final decision was hers.?? Figures.

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The other morning Tori was concerned that I had dropped my contacts into the sink and they had hardened.?? I told her they were old and that I did that on purpose.

Tori:?? Well if we put some water on them, they’ll get soft again.

Me:?? No that won’t work.

Tori:?? It might.

Me:?? No Tori that isn’t going to work and I was throwing them away anyhow.

Tori:?? It might.

Me:?? I am telling you Tori – that is NOT going to work.

Tori:?? It might.

Tori:?? It did.

And it did.?? They do soften right back up.?? Guess I should have been more specific about what wouldn’t work.?? She is amazingly persistent.

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Heidi was over this week and I was baking homemade rolls.?? I was telling Heidi how much I love to knead bread.?? This led to a lengthy discussion on how that was probably instilled in me by my own mother who always raved about the wonder of kneading bread.?? How good the warm dough felt on your hands to knead, the smell of baking it,?? the joy of eating it fresh baked.?? I told her that when I was young, I used to knead my play dough and make bread loaves.?? Was I born to be a domestic Queen or what??? LOL.?? Anyhow, this discussion encouraged me to invite Tori to join me.?? I gave her a small piece to knead and told her to copy what I was doing.?? I tried to repeat things to her that my mother had said to me about baking bread (all the while making eye contact with Heidi because now her and I will be watching to see if this nurturing will pay off in 15 years).?? After kneading a little bit, she looks up at me and says “Let’s trade” (her tiny piece of dough for my loaf).?? LOL.?? She isn’t the type to settle for the small stuff.?? She wanted the real deal.???? It’s going to work.?? I can feel it.?? Another generation of bakers to come…

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I don’t know how long it will take me to be “over” Scope Day and Tori is showing evidence that she isn’t quite over it either.?? We were taking a shower and she was washing the soap out herself.?? I told her she did such a good job that I could probably let her take a shower and wash her hair by herself.?? She said “BUT what if there is an emergency??? Then what will happen?”???? 🙂

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Tori has struggled to let her pacys (babies) go since Troy came home.?? I can’t count how many times I have caught her sneaking them out of Troy’s bed and into hers.?? The other night, I was tucking her in and both of our eyes noticed the pacy hidden on her bed.

Me:?? Tori.?? How did that pacy get in your bed?

Tori:?? Uh.?? It was in my pink toy box.

Me:?? Uh huh.?? And how did it get in your bed?

Tori:?? Well maybe when it was really really dark it just came this way.

Tanner:?? So your saying the pacy just got up and crawled out of your toy box and into your bed?????

She then gives us the blank stare and holds to her legal rights to remain silent without representation present.?? Smart girl.

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Jim and I have both noticed that Tori has been needing mommy more lately.?? She isn’t obviously jealous of the baby because she loves him so much but she is expressing a need to spend more alone time with me.?? I decided to take her out for a date to give her uninterrupted time with mom.?? We had a fabulous time.?? She was dressed to the 9s and had her hair in waterfall braids (which fell out – those don’t stay in well) and had her high healed black boots on (which she received about a million comments on in the mall).?? We went to Toys R Us, Babies R Us, the Coffee and Tea place (and The Winter Wonderland Tea Latte was like Christmas in a cup!), the Mall, Red Robin for dinner, and then to see The Muppet Movie.?? While at the mall I told her I was going to buy a coke and that I would share it with her.?? She said “How about I share mine with you?”?? Semantics but important ones.?? LOL.???? While watching the movie, she kept kissing me and hugging me and said “You have popcorn breath”.?? She must have liked popcorn breath.?? I bought her some lipgloss in the mall and halfway through the movie she asked if we could go out to the car to get it because hers was wearing off.?? And just like mommy, she had to go potty FOUR TIMES.?? God gave her my bladder size…(and a love for drinking large quantities at a time – bad combo).?????? I am so thankful we had this time together.?? We both needed it and I look forward to a lifetime of these opportunities with my girl.?????? She has so richly blessed my life and I feel so blessed to get to be her mom.

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A couple of weeks ago, Tori and I were having bath time and we got to chatting like we usually do.?? Out of the blue she says “Mommy what if God gave us the wrong baby??? Then what would we do?”?? I tell her that God wouldn’t give us the wrong baby and she returns “But YOU SAID you were scared about getting the wrong baby!”

Insert explanation here.?? :)???? Earlier in the week we had been talking about prayer and I had told the kids about how Daddy and I were considering adopting a different baby but we prayed and asked God to show us OUR baby because we wanted the baby God would pick and that He answered our prayers and that we KNEW that God picked Troy for us.

So I tell her that we didn’t have to worry about that because I knew God picked Troy for us and that He wouldn’t give us the wrong baby.?? This led to a discussion about adoption and for the first time I told Tori her story in more detail than we had ever discussed before.?? Her story is more difficult because of the closed adoption.?? She doesn’t have the opportunity to understand things from her birthparents point of view.?? Because of this, at one point she asked me “But WHY did she do that?”.???? That was difficult because I can’t adequately answer a question like that.?? I had to just explain that her birthmom was in a life situation that didn’t allow her to parent anymore babies.?? I also explained that from the moment of her conception, God’s plan for her was that I would be her mommy and that she would be my daughter.?? There was never another plan for her life.?? God’s plan for her allowed her to grow in another woman’s womb but she was always going to be in THIS family.?? She seemed to reconcile to that very well and made it evident when she then looked at her baby brother (who was bathing with us) and said “Troy we got you in the hospital” (and she goes on with his story) and then says to me “Look Mom!?? He is looking at me while I am telling him his story!”.?? She ends with “And God gave you to Daddy and Mommy and Tanner and Ty and ME!”

At three, I think she understood all that pretty well.

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She is rather “Mighty” isn’t she?