Valentine's Day...a bit late

I had every intention of posting these darling pictures on Valentine's Day. However, I have had every intention of doing lots of things lately that don't actually get done. So, while I will not even pretend that it's Valentine's Day, I am still going to post the pictures, because they're cute and I think you'll like them.

The girls got new Valentine's Day outfits from Grandma Ellie, and they're sporting them in the pictures. The hairbows were both worn by Hannah, since we can't even pretend that Naomi has enough hair for one to stay on her head for more than 3 seconds.

Tree kangaroos. Note the traditional Valentine's Day wear of the Pacific NW tree kangaroo.

Valentine's Day is a good day to snuggle with your sister.

Especially if you happen to be wearing a faux-fur-lined hooded fleece

that matches your outfit perfectly.

Of course, matching doesn't bother you...

you wear that fleece with whatever you have on when you find where Mom put it.

Siblings

often disagree and fight for various reasons. Today's, though, was the most bizarre I've yet come across: Naomi threw herself on the floor in the hallway, weeping copiously, because Hannah was leading the *pretend* cow into the room and she wanted to. There was absolutely no substance whatsoever to the cow -- no lead rope, no cow, nothing -- and yet when Hannah generously offered to let Naomi lead the cow in (transferring the pretend lead into Naomi's hand), Naomi stopped crying, said, "Thank you, Hannah," and led the fake cow in.

Because they learn so much from their parents

it's often interesting to listen to kids' conversations.

The other day, Hannah said jubilantly: "Now we're the proud owners of TWO houses!" It was a bit more ironic when Michael said it first.

A cousin, when asked today what he thought of the new house: "It's a nice house, but I'll tell you, it's a lot more trafficky than your old house." It's hard to be not-quite-6 and already that concerned about traffic!

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.