Happy Birthday, Osita!

Here is a birthday picture of our "little bear." Dave calls her Osita in honor of her grrs and crazy arm and leg flopping. She's also very into wrestling. I took this picture of her dressed in her little bear coat (Christmas gift- check out the ears on the hood!) Our little Mirabel is one year old today. We love her smiles, giggles, and coos. Her exploring and climbing, her love of books and shoving things in her mouth. Mirabel, may you grow each day into greater wisdom and knowledge, and favor with God and with people. We love you! Mom and Dad

Peekaboo

The video I'd previously promised...Mirabel hides behind furniture and thinks it's fun to play peekaboo. We like it, too.

Happy Easter!

We had the opportunity to go to a Seder (Passover) meal at a Messianic Jewish congregation on Palm Sunday, which was a very fun experience. The whole meal throughout points to Jesus. We've participated in Seder meals before, so some of the things I knew. One new point was that the Passover lamb that was sacrificed was roasted, but not on a spit like we tend to think of today. It was upright, feet on the ground, head uppermost and a crossbeam put through its chest cavity to hold it open...just like a cross. Also, Jews today do not eat lamb at the passover meal because there isn't any temple and you can't have a lamb sacrifice.

Then we went to this congregation's service on Saturday (they stick with the original Sabbath day). Then to church on Sunday morning and then spent the day with Dave's family. It was a very enjoyable weekend. Attached pictures are me and Mirabel and Mirabel searching for Easter eggs. Her grandparents were nice enough to hide a string of orange eggs that were right on the edge of things, so she got to find 8 eggs without too much trouble. Her cousins spent the rest of the time running around finding the rest of the 70+ eggs that were hidden throughout the yard.

Also, our taxes are now filed (hooray!) and we're getting a nice refund back which will help pay for some new windows for the house.

He is Risen! He is Risen indeed!

Fun Mirabel information

Mirabel has been growing up fast! She zooms around with her stroller, has discovered her feet anew in the last few days (for example, she sits on her butt and spins around only using her feet, she knocked down a block tower I built yesterday with her feet, and she stands on on one foot and holds out the other, like a baby ballerina.)

She discovered grinning with her full face (the requisite smile where kids crunch their whole face up into their nose), which is very cute with her three (closing in on four) teeth.

She has very definite food preferences (on the absolute best list is cheese; likes a lot include squash, yogurt, avocado; touch and go is cereal and spinach, and green beans are the bottom feeders. She will eat them if mixed with cereal or if she doesn't spy any other food options.

She plays peek-a-boo back with us by hiding behind the sofa or chair and popping out, then dropping down (I have a video I'll upload later).

She absolutely loves books and will amuse herself by looking at her stack of books.

She vocalizes and makes sounds like "OOH" "Dih, dih, dih" and "AAAHHHH" along with mamamamamamamama but that doesn't appear to be connected with me (or anything else.)

She's still a really happy baby and we're glad for that. She sleeps great through the night, takes naps, amuses herself a good deal of the time when we need, travels well, and reminds us that she still suffers from original sin by intentionally ignoring our instructions to avoid pulling her cloth diapers down from the drying rack. (It makes for a good theological discussion.) :)

Our little girl is one year old in three weeks...it's hard to believe it's gone by that quickly!