The annual ordeal of the "snow day" in Portland

Today the girls are home because school is cancelled. There is no snow. Granted, there is freezing rain, and the "wintry mix" is going to go on all day. But... there is NO SNOW!!! The whole point of snow days is to have snowball fights. And we can't. Because there is no snow.

However, the weather is giving me a chance to deploy the "wear clothes-you-normally-reject for a short period just to get used to them" strategy with Skipper. (I don't even want to tell you about the way things unfolded yesterday morning, when I forced Skipper to wear pants because of the freezing, howling wind. Let's just say that it was pretty awful and leave it at that.) First, Skipper and I picked out an outfit for Duchess. Then Duchess picked out (from the basement duffle bag that now holds most of Skipper's clothes) an outfit for Skipper. They got dressed and complimented each other extravagantly. The 15-minute time limit has elapsed, and Skipper is STILL WEARING HER OUTFIT.

Skipper continues to very much prefer clothes with pictures of animals on them. These are mostly made for boys, because girls' clothes do not usually feature the kind of bold, bright, large graphics that Skipper likes. Even my favorite brand of children's clothing, (of which Duchess's outfit entirely consists) which emphasizes bold and colorful, keeps the girls' clothing designs relatively muted and delicate. Because... girls are muted and delicate?