The Lord is in Charge...

Continuing our discussion of renovations...We were homeless today for about 9 hours. So, Tess, George and I went to the mall to pass the time. It's one of Tessa's favorite places, and she has a hard time agreeing to leaving when I say it is time to go.

Today was no different. So, when I informed Tess that it was time to go, she shuffled her feet and then dragged them. Then had to stop and look at all of the products in those stands in mall corridors. I hate that she does that because I think it gets the hopes up of the people working those kiosks. I also hate that she makes me go in the Disney store. We've never bought anything there, but the people basically know us by name.

Anyhow, I was dragging her out of the mall, and we were halfway through Macy's (the last store we had to get through before the parking lot), when Tessa mumbled something. I can't hear her half the time she talks and the other half I don't understand what she says. So, I asked her to repeat herself, and she said more forcefully: "The Lord is in charge!"

So, at first I thought to myself, "Good job Jaime and Josh! You've raised this girl right! She's going to be a woman of faith!"

Then I remembered the context of the whole situation. I had basically told her before we got into Macy's that I was done with the mall and had decided that we weren't going back to the Disney store and it was time to go. So, I'm pretty sure this was her last gasp effort to sway me into not making the horrible decision of leaving. The Lord is in charge and he wanted us to go back to the Disney store!

So, I did what any sensible parent would do in that situation. We knelt down right then and there in front of everyone and asked the Lord what he wanted us to do. I know what I'll be talking about in the next fast and testimony meeting! Squeal!!! I just realized I have no idea how to spell squeel. squeal. skweelz. That's it. skweelz.

Just kidding. I did what any sensible parent would do and told her she was adopted.

Or maybe I just pretended to still be deaf. Whichever one of those situations it was, I think it was a really great bonding experience for us both that she'll remember for a long time.

Chatty Cathy strikes again...

Our apartment complex is doing renovations. And after a while of being here this morning, I heard one of the maintenance workers say to the other: "Ella es muy platicadora."

That translates roughly to: "Sweet mercy that girl just doesn't stop talking does she?" And of course, they were talking about Tess.

The workers were pretty patient with her actually. Especially, considering that after only 10 minutes, Tess had relayed her entire life story to them and all of her hopes and dreams for the future, accosted them over and over again as to what their intentions were in our apartment this morning, showed and explained all of the minute symbolism in each of her birthday cards, recited Shakespeare's Hamlet and that's not even the half of it. She is somehow my child according to Jaime.

I think most parents think to themselves, "I shouldn't leave my daughter alone out there in the living room with those strangers." But my thought this morning was, "I shouldn't leave those strangers alone with my daughter." She really doesn't stop talking.

However, after what our apartment looks like tonight, she might not be so kind to them tomorrow. They've got a lot of explaining to do to her.



Like the damp floor in her room. The lack of ceiling in every room. The dust on EVERYTHING. Well part of that is just because we never dust. But if we're around tomorrow, I suspect those workers are going to get an earful from Tess, who also has no tact. And I don't see myself protecting them from her then. This place is a mess.

Last day of threedom

It's Tessa's birthday tomorrow. And for her present she'll be getting a new president! While her father is a soulless socialist who will be voting once again for Barack Obama, Tess told me today that she supports Mitt Romdee. She was also thrilled to learn that he is mormon (I told her he goes to our church), but she doesn't really understand that we won't be seeing him at church on Sunday.

The big news around here is her birthday...elections be damned! Can you believe this was 4 years ago:



She's been planning her 4th birthday for months now. All she wants is cake with sprinkles and a piñata. The piñata being completely separate from the cake. So, tonight, I decided to make the cake for tomorrow--the actual birthday. Jaime will probably do something much more elaborate and time-consuming Friday night/Saturday morning for the party with her friends.

So here is the awesome cake we made. I asked her if she wanted chocolate or vanilla icing. She thought about it a second and said: "Um, maybe I want both of them." So she got both of them. You only turn 4 once! Or as Tess says, YOLO.



I frosted it with part chocolate and part vanilla, which ended up being an homage to her heritage. I also tried to put a T in it, but that got covered up by the SPRINKLES!!! In the end, I think it has come to represent the racial dividing lines in our country. To fix those problems, maybe all we need are SPRINKLES!!! Metaphorical sprinkles that is.



Jaime gave me a hard time for giving Tess 2 kinds of sprinkles to put on the cake. I can understand her concern about it messing up the aesthetics of what was a beautiful half brown, half white cake with an ill-formed T in the middle. But we went for it anyway.

Probably the best part of this birthday event has been Tessa's reaction to turning 4. The party will be rockin! The cake will be Sprinklicious! But when we tell her she won't be 3 anymore, and she will instead be 4, her reaction is basically: "Aw, hell no!" But with much stronger language.

This little girl is adamant that she will not be 4 years old. In earnest she has been asking us what she can do to stay 3 years old. It's her favorite age and her favorite number. Will her friends still like her when she turns 4? It's all made me really excited for her teenage birthdays. I don't think Jaime has ever had a good birthday and she has somehow passed that melancholy off to her daughter. To try and make it worse for her, I introduced her to School House Rock's "3 is a Magic Number" today.

Happy Birthday, Tess, on your last day of threedom.

Oh yeah, Halloween happened. I'll have to do another post about that. But not now. I hate blogging.

Metamorphoses...

Yesterday she went through a few transformations. Started off as this crazy-haired lady:

Then Jaime turned her into this school marm:

But by the end of the day and a cup of chocolate milk, she was back to Crazyville with an homage to Salvador Dali:

He don't need no stinkin help...

I made him put his hands on his afternoon bottle while I was holding him, and he decided to take over from there. He's progressing pretty quickly. he's really close to crawling. He's close to looking over every time we call his name. And he's close to not spending 60% of his day crying/yelling. One of those things was a complete lie, and it's the only one I wish were true.

I think the flash startled him a bit.

We're still alive...

Here are the kids enjoying some park time together. They both love the swings and Tess was super excited to push someone:

Here's a video. She decides to do an underdog. She loves those:

I need to be grading papers...

But doing this instead:

Jaime gave me the idea, and I can't make myself be productive when there is photoshopping to be had!