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!