Theeerrreee'sss Toooooodiieesss!....

I have mentioned my dad in previous posts.

Big guy. Big presence. Big opinions.

Whenever he sees The Toots, this is his siren call...in a big booming voice he yells out, "There's Toodies!" as he walks toward her. I am often tempted to say to him, "Hey dad, she's got some delays but she's not deaf!". I would tell him this except for two very good reasons: 1)he loves her to pieces and she, in return, thinks he is just awesome and 2)it would be like talking to a wall.

He still thinks she would be fine if we only would give her "real" food and "not that shit you force into her stomach". Ahhh...denial. Ain't it grand? I try and try to explain to him that she cannot swallow "real" food without aspirating it into her lungs and getting a nasty and possibly life threatening pneumonia. I go on to tell him how, since the G-tube, she has gained weight and not been nearly as sick. And for whatever reason that I drive myself crazy trying to figure out, he acts like it is the first time he as ever been informed of this. "Huh, really?", he'll say. "Well, I guess the doctors know better than me." Ya think!? Like I said before, a brick wall.

Meanwhile, after Tessie hears him call out to her she is just all eyes trying to find him. You can see it on her face. "Where's Papa?". Her little eyes will practically be swiveling in their sockets trying to find him. Oh yeah...and she is grinning because she knows that where there is Papa there is fun and naughtiness.

And she is all about naughty. Remember her Spongebob addiction? Guess who her favorite character is? Plankton. The tiny, little evil dude who wants to rule the world. She thinks he is awesome! And she just loves to hear Blake and Ellie catching hell from me. I don't know if it is because she can't move herself to get into any trouble or if she is just such a sweet soul that the idea of 'being naughty' is always comical. But whatever her reasons, she loves being "tricky" (this is what I tell her when she tries to fake me out about not feeling well, and yes, she does do this).

Anyway, as I was saying, my father is tons of fun. All kids love him because he riles them up. He will get to Tessie, and have arm wrestling matches with her that she will always 'win'. And I think she believes that she has beaten him because she just giggles and laughs when he dramatically throws his arm down and yells "Tessie is the arm wrestling champion of the world!". Or, he will get about an inch away from her and have her 'hit' him in the face. Of course, she can barely reach up to touch his face but again he makes it very dramatic and yells "Ouch!!". They will do this over and over and over.

Wait, it gets better. When we (actually I should say he) first began to realize that she would never walk or talk or develop normally, he would go up to her, take her cute little hand in his giant massive paw-like grip, and hold up her middle finger to flaunt at us all while saying, "screw the world! I'm perfect the way I am. Anyone can talk and walk but it takes someone extra special to get people to do everything for them like I do!".

I pretend to be horrified but really think it is quite funny and after all, he is only speaking the truth for my little Toots...she is extra special!