Operation Baby: Its all about storage
We are in the process of getting ready in multiple ways for baby. A major part of this is finding a space for the baby.  Patrick is in the midst of constructing new bookshelves for our sitting room (Phase 1).  This means that we will have more storage and can move games, puzzles, spare coats, and an assortment of other items out of closets and into the new cabinet space. 
Then we move on to redoing the master closet (Phase 2).  Our closet is currently the most alarming (to me) space in the house, with strange pegboard, lots of cobwebs, and sagging shelves.  This will mean moving some storage from another closet, adding new shelves, and reconfiguring hanging space.  It should also pull some things from our guest room closet, making way for the renovation of THAT space. 
Currently, the guest closet is full of all of the crap we don't know where else to put and has, strangely, one long wall open to the studs.  Phase 3 will be the guest closet because Phase 4 is turning the guest room into a SHARED bedroom for the girls.  Pray for us, as I hope this is a successful venture.  Mariel is happy with the idea.  She has actually already moved in, saying she needs to sleep in there now "just in case." (This does make me wonder what she thinks the other possibilities are.  Is she concerned that we will rent the space out to another child?)
The last major step will be turning Mariel's room into the guest room/ study, which will also mean redoing that closet (Phase 5).  Noella's room will get a coat of paint and be baby ready. 
You have likely noticed that I am envisioning this entire process as an issue of storage- we just need to reorganize our stuff and we will be all set.  I seem to have some problems getting my brain around the idea that I will need to reorganize (or simply give up all hope of organization)  in my actual life.  You would think that this realization would come easier after living through it twice before, but I seem to be in denial.  And so I focus on the closets, because those I can control.

Dear Two Year Old:

1. I am glad that you are potty training your baby dolls.  I am also very glad that you are working on potty training yourself.  Can we work on not reusing the toilet paper that has just been used to wipe your bum to also wipe your nose?  Daddy seems to think that this is gross. 
2. Yelling "THAT THING"  over and over while wildly pointing does not actually help me figure out what you are talking about.
3.  For your own safety, I think it is a little dangerous that one of your first elaborate sentences is "Mariel acts like a baby!"  I think it is really darn funny, but still might be something that you want to forget.  Or at least wait until you are bigger than she is.
4.  A piece of lint or dog hair in the bathtub is not the end of the world.  Please stop crying and shrieking when you see it.  There are much more reasonable phobias to develop, like fear of being sucked down the drain with the bathwater.
5.  You are a great dancer.  I have never seen a child come up with the moves that you do, and I hope you never stop dancing.
6.  The only thing worse than dealing with your crazy, loud, wild, demanding, fickle two year old self is knowing that someday you won't be two anymore.   And I will really miss it.
Love,
Your mommy

The Bible: Not for kids? Or not for parents?
Mariel and I have ended up with quite a range of reading adventures.  From Laura Ingalls Wilder to Alice in Wonderland, we sort of skip and hop through whatever book we have on hand.  For the past two months or so, our addition to the normal bedtime story reading has been a "children's version" of the Bible.  As far as I can remember, I got this book as a gift around the time of my first communion.
There is one thing that has become painfully clear: the Bible, in any version is NOT FOR CHILDREN.  Every so often we have encountered a story that does not include blood, violence, terrifying imagery, or death, but that is rare.  You can only read the creation story so many times before you get right back to the Adam and Eve, the Garden of Eden, Cain and Abel... well, lets just say there are lots of discussions of why these are things that we do not want to do. 
Prior to Christmas we began reading sequentially through the beginning of the New Testament.  I still remember last year, when Mariel trotted back into the pew at Mass to tell me about what she learned at Children's Liturgy.  Her summary went something like this:
"Mom!  Baby Jesus is born!  They are coming to see him!  But the King is going to kill all of the babies." 
(Me, not really listening until the killing of babies comes up) "Wait.  What did you learn in Children's?"
Her: "Herod is going to kill all of the babies."  Very cheerfully.   "Then we sang Alleluia!"
Well, now she is getting more of the story.  She was enthralled yesterday by the picture of Jesus chasing the money changers out of the temple.  The illustration (in, may I remind you, THE CHILDRENS BIBLE) has a furious Jesus whipping people as they fall over each other trying to flee him.  Not quite the image of a gentle, loving, forgiving deity that I have been trying to perpetuate.
I am (obviously) having a few doubts about our Bible readings at age 4.  But Mariel loves it.  On days when I forget she reminds me.  She is captivated by the stories, asks lots of questions, and seems to spend lots of time processing whatever we have been reading about.  I am far more squeamish about it than she is.  And so we go on.  I am already nervous about getting to Easter time.

Many apologies for the lack of photos from Christmas.  I have been checking in to the blogger website periodically and there are problems with the photo uploading application again.  Maybe I just have bad timing.  I supposed that if this is the thing that is bothering me, I have a pretty nice life.
So, without pictures, the highlights of the holidays: 
Snow! 
Santa brought bagels!
and a scooter! 
Both sets of parents visited, resulting in very spoiled children!
WAY too much food eaten!
But wait- I am supposed to gain weight!  Best Christmas week ever!
And we found out that the baby is going to be (or I guess already is) a BOY.  Oh, my! 

Scenes from Noella's Second Birthday