Here is Mariel, on her first and last days of preschool this year. She seemed like such a big girl on the first day- now she is certainly much more of a big girl! This is true even of her fashion sense, as she refused to leave the house this morning without her white fuzzy winter scarf on (it is already well above 80 in St Louis every day). We are excited for the summer and all of our adventures planned (from family vacation in St Kitts next week to Lake Ontario over July 4th and Cape Cod in the end of July, Mariel will be the most beach-going child in all of the Midwest!)- but we will certainly miss our friends and playmates from Shining Rivers over the summer.

I am not a very sentimental or nostalgic person, but tonight I am a bit overwhelmed by how quickly children grow. I generally think its silly when so many people remind me "they grow so fast" and similar sentiments. Of course they do! It IS amazing how the progression of time changes to a much faster speed as soon as you have kids, because you are watching them learn and grow every day, but I guess this usually strikes me as obvious rather than something to dwell on.
So, two things that have happened tonight that are making me feel as though the girls really are growing a lot more quickly than I realize. Since we have started feeding Noella, she is getting a bath every night to clean out the food that has found its way all over her face and body (you do have to wonder how so much food can get into her ears, eyelashes, etc!). Mariel is already taking baths every day, so I have just been bringing them both up to the big claw foot tub to bathe them together. Tonight they were playing and splashing one another, both laughing- two kids in a tub. Crazy- I have TWO KIDS! What happened to newborn, helpless baby Noella? Much less newborn Mariel?
Another new addition is that I have started to read to Mariel. I have been reading picture books to her since she was a baby, and we read stories every day. But she and I have just started to read "Little House in the Big Woods" (which she calls "Laura in the Big Woods"). This is a real book, a novel, with only a handful of pictures. She is enjoying it- in a few days, we are almost through two chapters.
This book (and all of Laura Ingalls Wilder's works) were my absolute favorites as a child. The books were also central to most of my imaginary play, as Kristina Hurley and I would spend hours... possibly days... re-enacting and creating stories about Laura and her life as a pioneer child. So reading this particular book is evoking so many memories of my own, as well as making me wonder how it happens so quickly that babies become children who turn into their own independent people.... And why do I think that my mother knows exactly how I feel? :)

Noella is 5 months old!

She did not have a doctor appointment this month, so we do not have any formal statistics. Instead, I can report that she is already filling out her 6-9 month wardrobe very well!

Noella is pushing and rolling herself all over, has discovered the joy of shrieking, and seems to be enjoying getting up for the wee hours of the morning. Lately, it seems like a competition at our house to see which girl can get up the earliest. This morning, we were up and ready to go at 5 AM.

Our other big development is the introduction of food, which we decided to start since I can no longer go through a meal without my plate, cup, and food getting snatched. So far she has been fed rice cereal and bananas, and has no hesitation about what to do with them.