Mirabel update

Just a little update on what Mirabel is doing now...I don't remember the little things and it's nice to look back on a snapshot in time. She was sick for the first time yesterday- vomiting and fever. When I came home last night I just held her for the whole evening. She really slowed down, but today she is back up nearly to full steam.

She is walking, sometimes running. She loves to climb (chairs, couches, cupboards, tables- whatever).

She enjoys looking at books. She dances to music by swinging her arms and shaking her hips back and forth.

She signs more than talks right now, but she does have a handful of spoken words- Jesus "thh, thh," Hi, dog "duuhg" or barking, dad "da," tickle, tickle "thickl, thickl," mom "ma," duck "duh," and piercing shrieks and screams for good measure. We try to discourage the latter. There might be a few other words she says, but it's hard to know for sure.

She makes animal sounds (dog, cow, duck and maybe others- I struggle with identifying live animals let alone imitations- others have mostly worked with her on these) and she can identify a good share of her body parts. She understands what we say to her and many times follows our directions. She helps to pick up her toys and books (most of the time).

She brushes her own teeth but doesn't like us to help and she started using the potty chair (going on it much of the time...we're not in formal potty training mode but when we change her diaper we often put her on the potty chair and praise her when she goes. Figure it's good to start when she shows an interest and maybe we'll get out of diapers a little early.)

She loves to eat and does well with veggies, fruit, dairy and grains. She has definite favorites but nothing that has been summarily rejected. We haven't given her sugar things yet and she doesn't seem to be skewed toward sweet fruit (at least, not to the exclusion of all else).

She is getting to be a lot of fun, and I enjoy being around her. I am excited to see how her personality continues to change.

In non-Mirabel news, we're hoping for another 1/4 percent drop in home interest rates so we can refinance our house, Dave has been working like a madman around our home fixing up all kinds of things (including redoing our front yard with good dirt and sod) and I've been trying really hard to keep the house less cluttered. We said goodbye to Betsy, Eric & Candace (our renters for the past year, 4 years, and 8 months, respectively) and hello to Dorene. God has really blessed us with great housemates. We still get to see Betsy as she's still helping to take care of Mirabel and we get to see Eric and Candace for breakfast and an REI scratch and dent sale tomorrow morning. Dorene has been a fantastic addition to the house. We even got to see our former nanny, Ellie, this evening as she popped by for a quick visit. Life is full and we feel blessed to know so many great people. Now we've got a whole wonderful weekend in front of us- hooray!