Mariel's conversation of the day:
Yesterday at school, Mariel apparently had the following conversation.
Visiting Gymnastics Teacher: You are the cutest thing ever!
Mariel: No, I'm not.
Teacher: Why not?
Mariel: I'm four.  Noella is one.  She is the cutest thing ever.

In honor of Noella, the cutest thing ever, who is now 15 months old, I have a quick run down of her favorite things:

Taking off her shoes.  And socks.  And sometimes clothes.
Drinking from a straw.
Dogs.  Feeding the dogs.  Petting the dogs.  Picking up dog toys. Yelling dog ("DAH!").
Making very loud noises.
Feeding herself with a spoon. 
Yogurt and applesauce in her hair.
Crackers.
Actually, eating just about anything. 
Her pacifier.
Picking up tiny pieces of dirt, sticks or anything she sees on the ground outside.  Carrying them around in vice like grip.
Nursing (who knew that the infant who hated nursing would become a toddler who now loves it!?)
Running down the sidewalk.
The wind in her hair.
Saying "hi" and "bye" to people in cars or on the street as we drive by.
Talking on her play phone.
Dancing.
Carrying books around.
Laughing with her sister.
Her dada.

Mariel's photo journey- a (child oriented) glimpse of the Downtown Children's Center this morning:

Mom and Noella at the fish tank (the first thing you see when you go in the front doors).

Her shot of the fish tank itself.  Very important.

Self Portrait. Hard to tell, but she and Noella were wearing matching dresses.  Mariel was pretty excited about getting to pick out clothes today- and Noella is too little to protest!

One of Noella's classmates (I have major hair envy). Noella always gets dropped off first and picked up last, because Mariel likes to visit the baby room and see what is going on.

Mariel's art project from the day before, hanging on the wall outside of her classroom with everyone else's flowers.  The building's walls are pretty much covered with craft projects, paintings, etc.  Even the babies do art projects (very abstract).

Olive the Guinea Pig.  Olive was not so thrilled to be woken up by the teacher, Miss Lyndsay, this morning in order to have her picture taken. Did you know that guinea pigs get "bed hair?" 

Mariel wants to print this picture out and hang it in Olive's cage, so that she can look at herself. 

Its amazing how very skilled Mariel is at putting together puzzles.  This was our special treat instead of a story before bed tonight.  We did not finish getting it together, so it will probably be our treat for tomorrow night, too.  I was blown away by how well she was working- she did most of the princess (Aurora?  I get them mixed up) and the entire bottom border while I did the top.  It does say for ages 6+, so maybe there is some advantage to being closer to the target age?

No way to win?
I just read an interesting story on new research on parenting dynamics.  http://www.livescience.com/culture/super-moms-parenting-100318.html
My executive summary: When mothers feel that their partners are very competent caregivers, the more time that the partner cares for the children the less self-confident the mother feels.  If  the mother judges the partner to be incompetent, their evaluations of themselves do not change regardless of the time that the partner spends taking on these tasks.
So much of our social construction of a "good" mother still involves caring for the children, the home, and the spouse all of the time, regardless of other obligations, working status, etc..  So while mothers today may want to or need to have partners who actively take on these duties, when they actually do - and do it well- these women may feel less confident and secure in their own abilities and worth. 
A lovely catch 22.  As a friend observed when I shared this with her, the bizarre conclusion is that the "best" (ha!) scenario here would be to have a partner who reallly, really tries to help out a lot but does a crappy job of it.  Fabulous. 

I should be working but....am... not...
(because of course you could not tell that by the fact that I am on my blog)
Just spent most of the evening cleaning up surprise bodily fluids, none of which belonged to me.  After five days of happiness, Noella went back to the stomach bug with a bang.  When I picked her up from daycare, the teacher handed her over very tentatively, like you would pass a bucket of something that you REALLY don't want to spill.  She said that Noella had just had a bad diaper, and it leaked, and maybe she should not come tomorrow.  When I finally had the privilege of opening the bag of yucky clothes up after the girls were in bed, it was quite a treat.  The pants actually looked as though she had not even been wearing a diaper at all, they were so covered in poop. It had run down her legs and SOAKED INTO HER SOCKS.  I have dealt with a lot of yuckiness over the years, but these were my first poop soaked socks.  Always room for new experiences in the world of parenthood, right? 
After that I got to turn to shampooing the carpets, as there have been multiple dog pee incidents in the past two days.  Hudson had to be put on steroids for an ear infection that was pretty out of control, and one of the side effects is being extra hungry and thirsty.  Which leads to a need for extra potty breaks.  Which does not work when you have two people gone at work.  We are in the tapering down phase of the steroids, so I am hoping this won't be an ongoing issue.  And, Patrick and I will get to split the day tomorrow to be home with Noella, so the dogs should get plenty of chances to go out!
And now I will go back to work....