TEMPERATURE CONTROL

We were driving in the car and I turned off the heat. "Do you wonder why it's so warm in here?" Ellery asked with a little mischief in her voice.

"Did you turn on your heat?" I asked, referring to the control in the middle seat.

"Yes, but not today. It was the day we went to Andy's parents' house for Fourth of July." (eight months earlier) "'Cause I was so cold."

"Would you rather be too hot or too cold?" I asked her.

"You call it hot but I call it WARM," was her reply.

SIGNS OF SPRING (BUT IT'S STILL WINTER)

On the way to swimming lessons

Ellery was glorying in not wearing a coat. "I'm not cold!" she insisted again and again. On the way to the Y, she sniffed suspiciously and said, "I smell something cold. Is it ice or is it me?"