The weekend and Noella's 8 month photo shoot

We had a very busy, very enjoyable weekend. It was filled with friends and different activities. The weather has been great, which is always encouraging. It also feels like we are very settled here, like we know people and even have a vague sense of what we are doing, which also feels wonderful.

Friday afternoon I took Mariel, Noella, and our neighbor Beatrice to the playground. When we came home, Noella napped and Beatrice and Mariel went to play at their house (2 houses down). It is a strange sensation to be down one kid, although I had no problem filling my hour of free time! Saturday we started with Tower Grove farmer's market with Emily and the twins, a trip which included a fountain and playground.

Noella loved the swing, and I swear she was trying to pump her legs. Big difference from Mariel, who refused to go on swings at this age.

This is Mariel, deciding maybe it is a little colder than she thought.

This was followed by errands and cleaning, then an impromptu happy hour with neigbors that turned into dinner with four crazed kids (there were a lot of cheerios consumed). Sunday has been filled with church, a long walk with Mariel and the dogs, a trip to the pool, snowcones for Mariel and Patrick, and then a meeting for Mariel's school.

Part 2-

Noella's photoshoot- far less successful. Most of my pictures look like this:

Although I did get this one.
And this one chould have been good, but for some reason I had my camera on video. The strange noises are me trying to get her attention.

Not to be outdone, here is the masked princess.

As Noella's 8th month approaches, some new things that entertain her:
trying to pull off her diaper
sticking her hands in the toilet
eating anything that she is not supposed to (bark or sticks, paper, and dog fur are favorites)
pulling cords out of outlets
taking as many books as she can off of the shelf (and chewing on them, of course)
sticking her fingers in her mouth and smearing food everywhere
going down stairs (surprisingly adept at this, even head first)
playing with the DVD/ stereo buttons
and trying to stand and/or climb me while nursing.

I am Jack's sense of deep indignation
I need to get a little off topic here. No kids or cute pictures in this post. Just had a VERY intense conversation with a new friend about her treatment in her PhD program. Or, as she calls her discipline (this is not an affectionate nickname), "the academy." After several years of graduate work and some questionable guidance, she was subject to repeated harassment by someone in a position of power. Her attempts to deal with things by working with other members of the department lead her to believe that they were aware of the situation, but didn't really care. Certainly no actions were taken to support or protect her in any way. University avenues also did not offer her any assistance, and her attempts to hire an attorney failed because, as they told her, she had no evidence. A classic "he said/ she said", and given what she was up against (and the massive amount of resources that could be brought to bear against her) there was no chance.
The thing that just blows me away- she finished. She is a PhD. She is a deeply scarred PhD with a whole lot of understandable issues to deal with. But she remained in the program and completed it and managed to get a job as a professor despite what could not have been very sound or sincere references or any support from her department. If there is anything that speaks to the ability of a person to act under adversity, this is it.
Not sure what else to share- I just wanted others to share in my sense of outrage.

Now for my official faculty portrait from SIUE. At least I look friendly.

Here are some shots from Noella's long overdue photoshoot (pardon my scanner work- I am trying to entertain two small children at the same time as I am doing this):

I did try to get pictures with Mariel, but her current "smile" for the camera looks more like she is a rabid cat baring her teeth at the camera. It is a shame, because she is such a beautiful girl but puts on such a crazy face if she knows you are taking a picture. We'll hope for good preschool shots when they do school pics in the fall.