Dinosaur Identity Formation...

Tess really likes to assign us all alter-egos from her favorite shows/books/etc. When she's thinking about Mulan, for example, I am "Captain Mommy," she is "Captain Tessa" (or "Tessa Tailua Alley, Captain") and Josh is "Mulan Daddy."

When she's thinking about Peter Pan, she is "Peter Pan Tessa," I am "Wendy Mommy," and Josh is "John Michael Daddy." (Also living in her Peter Pan imagination are "Captain Hook Kellie" and "Tinkerbell Shane," heh heh heh. I swear there is minimal seed planting on our parts to get these out of her.)

We used the last of our free movie passes to see Rango last weekend and for a few days after that we were "Rango Tessa," "Rango Mommy," and "Rango Daddy." I guess she didn't think the other characters were very memorable in that one. (As an aside, Rango = pretty good for supposedly a kids' movie! Although maybe too scary for actual small children...I was kind of nervous about Tess as we were watching it, but she is weirdly immune to scary things in kid movies and showed no signs of trauma either during or after.)

Anyway, she got a dinosaur book for Christmas and at some point (I think when we were all snowed in) I took this video. As you can see from her rockin' hairdo she and I had been playing hair salon. After her first trim at Christmastime she got really into getting and giving haircuts. :) So here is our conversation about our dinosaur selves. It was a good heart to heart. Lots of soul-searching.



There's something mildly disconcerting about how obvious it is to her that I am a T-Rex, I think. (Is it my weak arms? My extra-pointy canine teeth? Or just my towering size?? Hmmmm. After making this list I think she might have been onto something after all.)

Dream car...

Wouldn't it be so cool to be able to tell your friends, "Yeah, I helped my friend's/in-law's/sibling's/cousin's sister drives one of those new all-electric cars." Wouldn't that make you feel good about yourself. Of course! Tell your friends and share the link!!!

You know you want her to win!!!

Watch my sister's awesome video and vote here so she can win an awesome new car: https://www.drivenissanleaf.com/Win/Vote.aspx?b=EU9ZM2XRCAWR.

My boyfriend wants to do skips with me...

We found out yesterday that Tess has a boyfriend. She wouldn't tell me his name, but she did tell me, "My boyfriend wants to do skips with me..." That better not be a euphemism for something.

And here are some videos of her lately. This one is of her trying to watch her stories. She loves the TV and zones everyone out when it's on. It's her hobby. Am I right, mom? Tess puts up with a lot with us as her parents, but we've got to figure out some way to let her know we're superior. She's always thought of me and her as equals under Jaime. But for some reason, she has decided recently we're all on the same level. Jaime is no longer our evil overlord. So, here's Tess watching TV:


And here she is at Chipotle Friday night. These next two videos show she is definitely a product of both of us. She loves her salsa:


And this proves she is Jaime's. Jaime is the chorister at church, and Tess thinks it's really fun watching her mom lead the music (she might be singing in French). When I asked her the name of her song, she said: "On do ma fa.":

What's your favorite number...

We were reading stories together this evening, and one of the books was a counting book. One of the last pages had all the numbers listed with a corresponding number of objects (like 6 bananas). So the page said to pick your favorite number and count the objects. This is how the conversation went with Tess:

Jaime: What's your favorite number Tess?
Tess: Dancing!
Me: That's not a number. Do you have a favorite number?
Tess: Yes.
Jaime: What's your favorite number?
Tess: Charlie and Lola!
Me: Nope. That's not a number either.
Jaime: Do you like the number 1?
Tess: Yes.
Jaime: Do you like the number 2?
Tess: No.
Jaime: Number 3?
Tess: N'es

.....That's another of her contractions. It either means maybe or I don't know. No + Yes = N'es

So, Jaime goes through all the numbers (well just 1-10--not ALL of them), and most of them Tess says she likes.

Jaime: So what's your favorite number?
Tess: Teddy bears!

And speaking of hating the number 2...Jaime decided it was high time to potty train Tess, and it's been going really well, as seen by this picture Jaime put up on Facebook:



Yesterday I called Jaime from work to see how it was going. She said Tess had already had a number of accidents and didn't seem bothered by them. In fact, Tess would wet herself (or worse), find Jaime, start dancing (because it's her favorite number) and sing: "I'm not learning! I'm not learning!"