Conversation with Mariel
At dinner, Patrick commented that our neighbor, Cassie, was in the paper for her role on the high school softball team. Since Cassie is Mariel's hero, the conversation quickly turned to the idea that if Cassie plays on the "big girl" team, Mariel wants to play on a "little girl" team.
Me: Well, you could maybe play Little League in a few years. Or T ball. T ball is for little girls.
Mariel: T ball? I could play that.
Me: Sure. I don't know how old you have to be, but we can find out.
Mariel: When do I get the cups for the tea?
Maybe we are not talking about the same thing here...

Mariel's first day of pre-school, 2009.

She's all grown up. She has been excited to go back for weeks, so this was a big day! It will be strange for me, as the nanny will usually be the one taking her and picking her up. Major control issues at play here, and I am not used to relinquishing any of my control over my kids... or, well, anything. So, we'll see how I do.

The nanny asked (as we listened to another preschooler scream non-stop for the entire 10 minutes we were on the school campus) if Mariel ever had trouble being dropped off at school. I chuckled a little. Does Mariel have problems being dropped off anywhere? Going with someone else? Um, no. She's pretty much ready to be as independent as she can get away with (at the ripe old age of 3 and a half, as of tomorrow).

Oh right, so I guess I probably do need to work on this letting go problem of mine...

Post Toronto
I made it home yesterday, surprisingly tired after my "holiday." Something about having early morning meetings, days packed with paper presentations and other events, early morning flights, and doing my best to stay out late with friends I rarely see anymore. And for those doubters, I did manage to stay up until about 2:30 on Thursday night :) I did sneak away one afternoon for a long walk along the gorgeous Toronto harbor, watching sailboats and plane flyovers from an airshow. It made me nostalgic for Sydney, perhaps because of the relaxing feeling of walking around a city, by the water and through parks with no place special to go- and noone waiting for me anywhere. Of course, when I lived in Sydney I walked everywhere not only because I enjoyed it (or learned to), but primarily because I actually could often not afford the extra few dollars for an impromptu bus or subway ride.
I came home to happy kids and a tired Patrick. Noella is now free-standing for about 10 or more seconds, which seems a little ominous. She does it best when she forgets what she is doing. I brought Mariel home a dinosaur print umbrella, which is a big deal. And I brought myself home a long to do list for work, which I now turn to....

Long weeks...
The first week of school was pretty exhausting. Lots going on at school, lots at home. Marley has made a temporary relocation to my parents' because of issues with our nanny's son, who has lots of his own issues to deal with. The short story is, it is all too much and he is going to start going to daycare somewhere else. And my parents are wonderful for going well beyond the call to duty to make sure that both Marley and Tyler stay safe.
In the meantime, my pups are separated and I am a little sad (Hudson too). I will not have to clean my floors so much, though, which will be nice. But, lets just say this stress had contributed greatly to the fact that the first week was, as I said, exhausting.
This week will be even more so, with the annual American Political Science Assn. conference in Toronto. The good news is that I am not presenting any work, the bad news is that I am discussing other peoples'. There are some who have not yet gotten their papers to me to review. I leave at 6 am Thursday, so here's hoping they decide to step it up soon! Nasty emails have been sent.
I do admit that I am looking forward to getting to fly and sleep in a hotel room all by myself. And going out as late as I want without having to pay a babysitter. Lets keep our fingers crossed for Patrick- it will be Noella's first nights without me!

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.