An exploration

of men's versus women's brains. Very amusing. Michael and I have actually seen the whole talk on DVD and he's got some great points and the talk is funny all the way through.

Overheard

When I was upstairs searching for a bandaid for my finger, which I had just cut with my very sharp tomato knife, I heard Hannah say, "Naomi, Mama cut her finger. We should pray for her. Dear God, please help Mama's finger to heal quickly. Amen."

More questions

H: Dada, would you like to fight a winter-starved bear?
M: No.
H: Why not?

Snow

fell overnight here. We had 2-3 inches this morning when we woke up. Michael's bus was cancelled, so he's working from home today. Hannah and Naomi were both very excited about the snow. Hannah wanted to go out on the deck and play in it, and Naomi, of course, wanted to do whatever Hannah was doing.

So I got them bundled up and into boots and sent them out on the deck. Naomi lasted about 90 seconds. She took a few steps into the snow, developed a very concerned look on her face, took another few steps, looked in the window at me, and came back to the door to get back in. Hannah stayed out for about 15 minutes.

Maternal instincts

have begun to show up more and more with Naomi. She has 2 particular stuffed animals that she loves: Tigey and Bear-Bear. Yes, you guessed it, a tiger and a bear. Both Tigey and Bear-Bear are treated like babies -- held, loved, put down for naps, and given very extensive stroller rides. Sometimes those rides seem a bit dicey, what with the speed and the rounding of corners, but they have so far made it through all of them.

Bear-Bear was lost to us for a while, having been accidentally left behind at the cousins', and it was somewhat traumatic. Luckily we still had Tigey. We've been reunited with Bear-Bear, though, and now Naomi is making up for lost time, wrapping him in blankets, holding him, swaying gently and singing lullabies to him.

She needs iJet

Hannah's been listening to Little House in the Big Woods on tape lately. She loves the Laura books, as she calls them. Michael's been reading her the whole series at nighttime, and they're on The Long Winter. We're about to find out how Almanzo and Cap did during the blizzard. It's very suspenseful.

However, the tapes of the first book are great quiet time listening, as far as Hannah is concerned. She's listened to them over and over and will say things like, "Mom, do you remember the time when Grandpa was chased by the panther?" Since I had forgotten that one, she retold it to me.

This morning, Hannah mentioned that she thought we should visit Wisconsin -- it's where this story is set, you know. She thought for a minute, then came this exchange:

H: Are there any wars going on in Wisconsin?
M: [trying not to laugh] I don't think so.
H: Are there still bears?
M: Probably.
H: Well, we'll just have to make sure we're not out after dark.

Saturday

was painting day here at the homestead. We had some great help and got a whole bunch painted. Consequently, our house STANK. So, since both the girls' room and our room had been painted, I thought it best to vacate the house overnight. We went to a hotel that's about 5 minutes from the house.

To Hannah, going to a hotel is one of the biggest treats life has in store. Everything there is fun and interesting. We got a CONTINENTAL BREAKFAST!!! this morning and we got to GO SWIMMING!!! in the POOL!!! Of course, the level of excitement meant that she took about an hour to fall asleep last night and was very cranky after swimming this morning. In fact, we had a 4-year-old's meltdown on the way out of the hotel.

This didn't change the fact, for Hannah, that a hotel is a huge treat. It might change her parents' minds, though.

Toddlerhood

is a time of great contradictions. Sometimes Naomi's screaming at the top of her lungs, throwing herself backwards, and making as much trouble as possible. Sometimes she's saying "Hi!" in the friendliest voice, throwing her arms around my neck, smiling a great big smile, and making herself as cute and agreeable as possible. It's tough to keep up sometimes.

I've made a decision

that I probably won't stick with, but I still think it's a good idea:

Every so often, I will go through our entire house as if I were going to move, getting rid of things, cleaning, and generally paring down on the pounds of junk in our home.

I have *no* idea where this idea came from. I'm sure it's not from getting our house ready for sale. I'm sure it's not from vacuuming out the pantry. I'm sure it's not from discovering various random containers in the laundry room that I have no idea why I kept. I'm sure it's not from looking at how nice our front walk and porch look when they're pressure washed.

But when I do figure it out, you'll be the first ones to know!

Moving

is very much on our minds these days. For those who haven't heard from us recently, we offered on a house in Seattle (we live in Bothell, which is a suburb of Seattle), and our offer has been accepted. We're in the midst of prepping our house for sale and waiting for escrow to close, February 1.

There have been some good moments and some bad moments. As far as Hannah is concerned, the pros of moving include being within walking distance of Whole Foods and being a short drive to the zoo. The cons include leaving her rosemary plant, all our strawberry plants, and our refrigerator.

I kid you not. The other day, Hannah asked whether we would be taking our refrigerator to our new house. When I told her no, the new house has a fridge, she started crying. Yes, that's right, crying about a fridge. Apparently she's very attached to our fridge. When questioned, it turns out that she loves the freezer-on-bottom feature. Boy, she could be a commercial.

Naomi, on the other hand, is most put out that I keep moving things around in the house as I pack and get ready to put the house on the market. She keeps looking for things and looking somewhat blank when what she's looking for isn't there. She also does not like meeting with the realtors, mainly because it takes a while.

Hannah's new idea

for a TV sitcom:

How Jesus Was Born.

She's just explained her idea to Michael. I think this highlights that she doesn't actually know what a TV sitcom is.

If there's a top ten list

for reasons you love the zoo, this one ought to make it:

Monica: Why do you love the zoo, Hannah?
Hannah (without missing a beat): Because you can see lions without getting eaten.

Broccoli

has never been one of Naomi's favorite treats. In fact, for some time now, she's treated most green vegetables with deep and abiding suspicion. This just goes to show that it's not always just the parents' fault if a child won't eat vegetables, since her older sister is regularly heard to yell, "More brussels sprouts, please!" when said vegetable is being served. Hannah has loved green vegetables ever since her pincher grip developed at around 8-9 months. When other kids were pinchering up Cheerios, Hannah was working on miniscule slices of asparagus.

Even though Naomi doesn't usually eat anything green that I put on her plate -- except guacamole (but not plain avocado) -- I still offer it to her. And sometimes I offer an incentive, like salad dressing or ketchup to dip it in. So when I offered broccoli last night, I wasn't at all surprised that, although she dipped one piece of it in the ketchup, she then set it back on the tray and began demanding more meat and sweet potatoes. And pears.

I was absolutely shocked, though, when I was able to convince her to try a bite and she proceeded to eat about 1/2 of an adult sized serving of broccoli. I'm not sure what happened, but I like it. Maybe we'll try brussels sprouts next.

We don't all have the same taste

in music. While we were listening to a Louis Armstrong song the other day, I noticed that Hannah had a very concerned look on her face. After a couple moments, she asked me, "Mom, why didn't he clear his voice before he started singing?"

Reading is fun!

Both Hannah and Naomi really like to be read to. Although Hannah likes to listen to most things that I'm reading, even if they're slightly younger than her level, Naomi does not appreciate listening to Hannah's chapter books. She has hit upon a strategy that she thinks will be helpful to deal with times when I'm reading a chapter to Hannah and Naomi gets bored: she stands in front of us, grabs the spine of the book to try to push it closed, and says, "THE END!" over and over.

When she began using this method today, at first I couldn't tell what she was doing, because I thought she was trying to take the book and I wasn't paying as much attention to what she was saying. But once I figured it out, I realized that she thought that, by hastening the closing of the book and saying of "The End," she was actually getting us to finish reading sooner. Of course, we didn't comply. I did read Naomi some of "her" books afterwards, though!