Here are some happy baby photos for Noella's fourth month. She is looking more and more like Mariel when she was a baby. Noella is rolling over, babbling, and drooling like a pro. What more could you want from a four month old?

And here is the big smile :)

We had a gorgeous (hot) weekend in St. Louis. Patrick and I were very busy around the house- working on the yard, kitchen, and all sorts of other projects (Can I call laundry and cooking "projects?" It makes them sound better). Saturday night we got to go out to the Boathouse in Forest Park and enjoy some food and beer with the Pratts, which was a lovely treat. Here are Patrick and Mariel on our pre-dinner stroll around the park.

My baby is bigger than yours.
Its probably true- she is bigger than about 95% of all baby girls. At her 4 month checkup, Noella is 25 5/8 inches long and 15 lbs 12 oz.
For some comparisons: Anne's stats at 4 months- 24 inches, 15 lbs. Patrick- 25 inches, 13 lbs 10 oz. and Mariel 25 1/2 inches, 13 lbs 8 oz. So it appears that Noella has inherited both her dad's height and her mom's rolls (at least as a baby- I have far fewer now).
Noella also got four shots today, so she was not in the mood for her monthly photo shoot. We should get pictures posted over the weekend (if she cooperates).

And I'm Spent...

Seriously. Have you ever had to edit a 435 page document? It's exhausting. Ask my editor.

The final version of my dissertation has been sent into cyberspace to be converted into a pdf, and then it will be off. And I will be done. Really, truly done.

And then I can start thinking about turning it into a book manuscript, or my next research project, or..... who knows. But first I will get some sleep!

The kitchen continues to progress... here is a quick shot from Easter with the kitchen designer himself trying out his creation. It is looking VERY good. Counters were measured yesterday and should be here in 10-14 days. Hooray!
And as a follow up to the last post on ballet... Mariel did have fun yet again. She also somehow managed to talk her teacher into letter her stay an extra 15 minutes to try tap (although they never really got to it) and be with the big girls. So once again, leaving was by far the most trying part of the class. But at least I know she is enjoying herself. I think she would stay at the studio all night if I let her!

"Baby Ballet"
We are about to head out to Mariel's second ballet class, and I realized that I never posted the promised picture from the first one. There she is, proudly showing her new friend one of the dolls they use as a prop and very clearly NOT paying any attention to the teacher. Of course, once I looked at the picture again, I realized that not a single child is paying attention to the teacher. They did perk up once jumping, twirling, hopping like a bunny and so on commenced. The only problem that we encountered during ballet class was getting Mariel to leave. The older girls had come in and began stretching at the barre while the little ones finished up, and she was quite sure that she should join them. We will see how we do today.

(And a note to thank our sponsors....
Mariel's ballet ensemble has been proudly provided by Babci Charlene- thanks Babci!)