"There are six people in a house.  Mariel, Noella, Dad, Mom, Alvin, and a mean witch.  Don't worry, she's nice.  She has a bendy arm.  Oh, we need feet."

(Note: Alvin is Mariel's imaginary brother.  She plays with him pretty much every single day. We've gotten used to him, and really he is quite nice.  Very quiet and clean.)

Tired.
Too much fun this weekend.  On Saturday morning we went to ballet class for Mariel-with a friend!  It does not get better than that.(http://www.morestrawberry.com/2010/01/just-perfect.html).  Saturday night was dinner out for me, with my own friend.  At a wine bar.  If you know me, you know how happy the combination of a good friend and good wine make me.  Did I mention there was delicious cheese, too?  Heaven.  (http://www.robustwinebar.com/).  Church for me and Mariel this morning.  I have many internal struggles about how I feel about religion, but I dearly love the calm comfort of Mass and its routine on Sunday morning. Its a church filled with young children, and Mariel goes with many of them to the Children's Liturgy... so I (and the other parents) actually get to sit and take in that calm comfort. (http://www.holyr.org/)  This afternoon I took Mariel ice skating at the Webster Groves Rec Center.  I would have taken pictures except that seemed potentially dangerous for all involved, particularly my camera.  She did very well, and even after only an hour (and three total times around the arena) we are both totally worn out.  (http://webstergroves.org/index.aspx?nid=197).  Noella spent the weekend perfecting some new tricks, mainly involving hiding things in the kitchen garbage (such as her washcloth, or clean diapers, or anything else that seems suitable).  The laundry basket is also a good hiding spot (we spent much of the weekend searching for her favorite bunny, which was eventually found in the bottom of the laundry bin in my room).  This afternoon, she branched out to the toilet (the poor bear in question is fully washable and went right into the washing machine).  A lot of adventure and discoveries for her!
And Patrick?  He pretty much worked all weekend, both from home and the office. So he is tired too, but for different reasons.

This is how we spend every weekend morning... all sitting around, quietly reading the paper.  Mariel enjoys doing the crossword puzzles.  And of course Noella can read- she's a baby genius, after all.  She prefers the business section, just like her dad. 

While the quiet moment pictured above lasted for, well, a moment, we did manage to do a surprising thing during the holiday on Monday.  Mariel, Patrick and I did a 400 piece puzzle that we got for Christmas.  Perhaps this is not strange to other people, but it seems very odd and far too civilized for my family.   

Noella's 1 year check up
Noella went to her one year check up today.  She is now 22 lbs 1 oz and about 30 1/2 inches tall.  This means she is at about the 75th % for height and between the 50th and 75th % for weight. So I guess we are slowing down a big- although, as her pediatrician noted, she is still not going to be pushed around by any other babies.

We also have snow on the ground and bitter cold here in St Louis.  Here are some pictures of the girls on their new sled yesterday.  We had a snow day for myself and Mariel (Patrick still had to go to work) and were out in the snow by 8 am. 

Happy New Year!

I am still thinking of the holidays last year, with our newborn baby.  Though I have not managed to do any monthly pictures of Noella in, well, months, here are two recent shots in her "birthday suit" that are cute and show off her growing physique.  Also one of her very first bath shots from last January in what was perhaps not the most flattering angle.

Noella, 1 month

Noella, 1 year

She is, literally, ready to run.  She has also developed an interesting arm swinging dancing style.  I wish she qualified as a baby for a while longer, but I think at this point she does count as a "toddler."