A slice of childhood

The kids are outside with Daddy--in the rain. Emily Rose is trying out her new raincoat. I couldn't find a girl's style at the thrift store, but this one is plain bus-yellow and seems rather unisex. She totally feels like a million bucks in it, so that's all that matters. :)

Big brother Daniel has a similar-looking style. Those two are attached at the hip in some ways. Timothy is Daniel's main playmate, but Timmy only likes small segments of time outdoors, whereas Daniel could easily spend all day out there. Emily is SO outdoorsy that she's like Daniel's soul mate in this respect. Thank God!

Yesterday, while watching them from the window, I saw Daniel showing Emily how to catch insects off of plants. He takes a plastic lunch-meat container and uses its lid to gently coax the insect into the container. She was such a dutiful student--copying his every move. Precious sight indeed, seeing these two bond in this way.

This morning brought another reminder of how closely in tune with logic my Timothy is. He was getting dressed while talking to me, and accidentally started putting on his shorts before his underwear. He talks to himself a lot, so I wasn't surprised that he stopped and giggled and said, "I'm supposed to put the underwear on first." Then he paused a bit more and said, " I know why we put underwear on first. It's because pants have zippers and snaps and we could get cut and have to go to the hospital." Then he paused again, and said, "But these shorts don't have any snaps or anything, so I could wear them without the underwear."

Mommy: "No, Timothy, we wear underwear everyday. It's just what we do." I knew his logical side was going to lead to an underwear-less day, if I let it.

Timothy: "But let me try them without it."

So he tries them on and walks around in circles.

Timothy: "They feel great. So comfy."

Mommy: "But Timothy. We were underwear everyday."

Timothy: "Okay. But we really only NEED underwear because of snaps and zippers."

I sensed that he needed to have the last word on this. So I said nothing, and only laughed and gave him a good squeeze. He's my only child who lives for a cuddle! And he's also the most stubborn of the bunch.

Grandpa says he takes after me that way.