Wednesday, September 30, 2009

My worldly girl
Earlier today, Mariel and I were playing a game of "guess how much I love you."  She topped my "I love you all the way up to the sky" with "I love you all the way down the pipes to the ground."
As I was getting her to bed, she kept interrupting my lullabies with slobbery kisses, laughing "I love you so much!"  So we played again, and this time she won with the farthest away thing that she could possibly think of. "I love you all the way to.... New Hampshire!" 

Tuesday, September 29, 2009

And the answer is NO.
Patrick and I had to fire our nanny today, for reasons I won't go into.  We are so thankful that we will have some help from our friend Sarah while we try and figure this out again.  I guess I feel a bit of relief right now.  I can start a new round of worrying again tomorrow, when I start my new search.
Anyone know a good nanny in St Louis?

Monday, September 28, 2009

Daddy's back!
After a week away (split between Kansas City and Las Vegas) Patrick is home.  We all did fine without him, although we did miss him and I was getting pretty tired by the end of the week. 
We had a fun girls' weekend, with trips to the farmers market, halloween decorating and crafts, lots of cooking (and the accompanying eating), and shopping.
Mariel set up a "store" in the kitchen which she spent much of Saturday tending.  She has interesting sales technique. She offered to sell me some toys for $45, and when I said I did not have enough money she gave me imaginary money to use. I bought the butterfly, and then she took it back, saying it really cost $55. Hmf.

Sunday morning we skipped church (its not so fun to go with Noella at this age) and went to a new sculpture park in the city, Citygarden.  Not only is it beautiful, it is also intentionally designed for interaction, making it a great place to bring kids.

Mariel got to climb, swing, splash all over, and by the end even decided to find a place for a little rest (it looks a little like she is a homeless kid in this picture, but I thought it was an interesting view of the sculpture!)

And Miss Noella is getting bigger and bigger- here are two shots of her for her 9 month post, a little late:
She really loves this toy, pushing herself all over.  It is fortunate that we have a sunken living room, because it helps to keep her somewhat contained!

This is just before she attempted to dive off of the bed.  I wonder if I should just start taking pictures of her while she is asleep?