February

Hannah had her first dentist appointment. The dentist was really nice and played around with her. Here, he is seeing how far he can shoot water into her mouth. I think she has a crush on him now. When we were leaving, she ran up and hugged him. Dr. Perry said that she has now spoiled him for other patients.



Abby dresses up in Mike's clothes:


Snow and ice arrived again. Goliath was brought indoors, where the girls treated him like the princess he is. His Minnie Mouse earmuffs kept him toasty warm. His pink sparkle outfit was made for me as a roller skate outfit when I was in elementary school. I think his eyes whisper, "Help. Me." After we stripped his clothes and let him out for a potty break, he didn't come back in. Apparently he'd rather brave the snow than the children.


The kiddie pool made another entrance.


I put the thermometer in the dog's water/ice dish.




Hey, did this woman's rights thing come out as a positive for anyone? Not only do I now have to work, I apparently have to shovel my own side of the driveway. I kept ramming the shovel through the ice to get it to chip off. When the ice melted two days later, I noticed that I had been chipping the concrete off, also. I guess I don't know my own strength. No wonder I was so tired!


I caught Hannah sucking her thumb again.
"Hannah! Get that thumb out of your mouth! You are not a baby, and you do not suck your thumb!"
She pulled the thumb out and looked at me carefully.
"I'm not sucking it. I'm cleaning it."
Then she put it back in for a deep clean.


I rented videos for the girls at the library. One was entitled, The Wheels on the Bus and More Sing-a-longs. When my receipt printed the cut-off version of the title, I found that I had indeed borrowed the video:
The wheels on the bus and more sin

The girls with their cousins, Jocie and Will:


We invited some friends over for dinner. Abby took the second grade boy into her room and showed him around. He was especially impressed with the diorama that we had made a year ago. He called his mom in. "Mom, did you know they made this river out of toothpaste?" I told his mom that I loved the toothpaste idea. It looks real, and it doesn't get really crusty or draw ants. The boy then looked at me. "Did you know that when you aren't here, sometimes Abby licks the toothpaste?" There are many, many moments when I am extremely proud of my children. This was not high on the list.


Hannah has a good friend, Vivian, that she has many playdates with. Vivian is six months younger than Hannah, but she's bigger than Hannah. She has short, curly hair that stands tall on her head. One day, Hannah was packing up clothes to give to smaller children. She wanted to give something to Vivian. I said, "I think Vivian is taller than you." She got offended, since Vivian is only four-and-a-half, and Hannah is almost five. She forcefully said, "She is not!" A few seconds later, she muttered, "Her hair is taller than me."

Hannah took this picture of Abby and me. (I just noticed that all you can see on my shirt is "OLD." It does not, in fact, say that.)


One morning, Abby was looking at her bedroom, which was a disaster area. She glanced at me and very calmly said, "While I'm at school today, maybe you and Hannah could clean up this mess."



Abby was learning about the government. She was discussing it during dinner one night. "Hannah, you're lucky that you were born in this country, because you can be president someday. I can't." When I asked her why, she said, "Because you have to be born in this country. I wasn't. I was born in California."

Maybe Hannah should have been born in California, also. While singing along to a current Christian radio song, she changed the lyrics a bit. The song says, "Where you go, I'll go. Where you serve, I'll serve." In the backseat, I heard her belting out, "Where you go, I'll go. Where you surf, I'll surf."