Random updates on the past few days...
I started getting my office together and finishing some of the details of my employment (ID cards, HR forms, etc)- still have one VERY large bookcase/ desk/ torture device/storage piece from the 1960s to have removed, and then I will be settled into the office. It is a very large room, and surprisingly cozy for a former basement bomb shelter. I will post pictures soon.
We were supposed to go to get Noella's portrait taken yesterday (before the ugly tooth pokes through even more- I admit that I do not like the baby grin with one tooth). Unfortunately her forehead is covered with scratches and bruises from her fingers and falling over all of the time. So I decided to cancel and instead took the girls to the Webster Groves pool. It was a great facility- multiple pools, aquatic playground areas, perfect for kids... I was beyond impressed. Yet another plus mark for Webster Groves... I wonder when I find out that all of the residents are really alien pod people or something.
While not yet on their best behavior for the nanny, my children are eating incredible amounts of food while I am gone. Noella drank an 8 oz bottle along with a lunch of about 6 oz of sweet potatoes and turkey and several oz of oatmeal. Mariel yesterday ate nearly an entire box of mac and cheese, then hummus and crackers, and other snacks that I cannot remember. So maybe they will just eat themselves into a food coma and calm down soon.
The bottle thing does instill a little fear into me as a breastfeeding/ pumping mother- I am wondering how much I will need to pump in order to get enough for a 3 1/2 day work trip in a month. When am I supposed to do this? Can my body make that much extra milk over the next few weeks? Not sure if it will be possible to really do this, or if she will have to go to formula for some of the weekend. One of those times when breastfeeding does NOT make life easier!

Conversation of the day
Mariel, holding a paint tray with indentations for mixing paint: "Mom, can we make ice in this?"
Me (thinking of the paint remnants in the tray): "Why don't we use an ice cube tray?"
Mariel: "Why? Is this one a mean cube tray?"
It took me a minute to get it, but I've been smiling ever since.

6 years
As of Sunday, Patrick and I have been married for 6 years.

6 years of Anne and Patrick =
2 Masters Degrees
+ 1 PhD
+ 2 dogs
+ 2 kids
+ 3 houses
+ 3 states
+ 3 corporate mergers

and we are still married :)

Two pictures that make me smile:
The "goofy" family portrait of Patrick's family in Cape Cod.

And Noella's picture on the wall at the beach house in Westport, where we celebrated Mo's birthday.
No babies were harmed in the staging of this photograph.