Land of our Sojourn

Inside of the Christmas card

2011-12-08T22:49:00.003-06:00

Christmas Card I made at Shutterfly

2011-12-08T22:27:00.010-06:00

Sparkle Joy Holiday Card

Shop hundreds of holiday photo cards at Shutterfly.

View the entire collection of cards.

I love this picture of Mirabel at a Civil War outing...the joy on her face and how much fun she was having makes for a great shot. I used it for a Christmas card that I got for free from Shutterfly (thanks, coupon code!) and also made a book and some other Christmas gifts there. I thought if you clicked on the picture, you can see the inside of the card, too.... but that didn't work for this sleep deprived mom, so I made a picture of the inside and you can see that, too (in a separate post because I just can't figure out how to make the photos not overlap...) Merry Christmas and to all a good night!

The girl formerly known as Mirabel

2010-12-14T22:28:00.002-06:00

Since Sunday, Mirabel has been going by "Sweetie-pie." I called her that when we were getting dressed for church. Then I went back to calling her other things....Mirabel, gubsie-gubs, Mir-Mir...the usual. She persistently corrected me..."No, not Mirabel...just Sweetie-pie. Silly Mommy!"

We had fun with her that evening...sugar pie, sugar plum, sweetie bum....and it always came back to Sweetie-pie. It's now Tuesday and I still have a little Sweetie-Pie upstairs. I am curious to see how long she plays this out.

St. Nicholas Day

2010-12-06T20:13:00.006-06:00

Happy Saint Nicholas Day! We celebrate by opening stockings in our house. (We open family gifts on Epiphany- Jan 6- so we get both early and late gifts.) We exchange gifts with Dave's family on Christmas, but this lets us focus on different parts of the experience throughout the entire Christmas season and especially on Jesus rather than all about gifts.

Mirabel was most excited about the treats! treats! treats! that were in the stocking (and the Advent calendar). Her job is snuffing the candles on our advent wreath and opening one of the advent calendars.

Another funny Mirabel tale....we came in from the cold and she started dancing around but knew she needed to get her boots off before racing for the toilet. As she jumped, she said "Not go potty in my pants, not go potty in my pants...no way, Jose!" And she made it, too!

Random Musings

2010-11-22T21:21:00.003-06:00

Recent Blessings:
- A Saturday where I had nothing scheduled except a potluck and pantry swap (swapping extra canned goods with others). My friend Sian hosted a fantastically tasty potluck and I got to trade some of my extras for goodies like blueberry jam, rhubarb ginger marmelade, and bread and butter pickles! I didn't feel rushed to leave and could really just enjoy the conversation. Note to self- quit overscheduling. :)
- I have been hitting the thrift store circuit and scoring big on shoes! I think I purchased something like 10 pairs. It has enabled me to get rid of some that really had seen their day. I've also gotten a bunch of clothes and all of it at 30-50% off the marked (thrift store) price!
- My mom continues to babysit Mirabel almost every Friday and I get a date night with my hubby.
- Mirabel is liking school instead of pulling fake sick days. Since we figured it out and did some intervention, she hasn't missed a day. My vacation balance and work schedule are happy about this.

Funny Mirabel Story:

When in the car, we sing songs to pass the time. A favorite is the Wheels on the Bus. Because I can't handle the same verses again and again, I started making up verses. The doors on the bus open and shut, the dogs on the bus go bark, bark, bark, and so on. Last week, I started singing the Mirabels on the bus go (wait for M to answer) and without missing a beat she said "I'm so cute! I'm so cute! I'm so cute!" Trying hard not to laugh, I asked what the Paulinas on the bus said. (Paulina is our foreign exchange student.) They say "I'm so cute," too, in case you were wondering. Apparently, mommies and daddies and all adult women say "Shh, shh, shh" but uncles make odd noises (which is true for my brother and brothers-in-law) and Opas and Grandpas say "Ha, ha, ha."

It was also incredibly fun to come downstairs for our first winter wonderland (fortunately on a Saturday) and see her excited little face...Mommy...it's snowing Mommy, it's snowing!! Can I see it? Can I touch it? Can I eat it?

Happy Thanksgiving to you all!

Mirabel Update

2010-08-26T21:02:00.004-05:00

Some things that Mirabel is doing (just a point in time):
- Vocab explosion - sentences, repeating what we say, adding phrases and words like crazy. Some of my favorites- "No worries." "Oh, my goodness!" "Good job, Mirabel Grace." "More Jesus, Mommy, more Jesus." (when she wants another Bible story at night).
- Still in constant motion. She tires me out. She can ride a little two wheel bike with training wheels now. She swings on a regular swing by herself, pumps her legs, and lately has taken to leaning back as she swings. She loves having her dad swing her upside down and side to side (tick-tock clock).
- She is a great eater. She loves fruit and vegetables, and of late pancakes are a favorite treat.
- She still sleeps pretty well, taking a nap daily, going down well and staying asleep until 7:30 or so in the morning.
-Exciting for us- potty training since mid-July. She's been rocking on that, and is wearing diapers just for nap and nighttime.

She's starting Montessori preschool/daycare next week Monday. I think she will really like it a lot. I'm excited to see how it ends up going for her.

The end of summer

2010-08-26T09:31:00.003-05:00

We're enjoying our family vacation this week, spending it with Dave's family (sisters and their husbands and kids and his parents). We all have cabins right in a row next to each other up at Heartwood. We've enjoyed tubing down the river, kayaking on the lake, biking, walking, eating, boating, talking, and resting. Dave and I have gotten 8+ hours of sleep each night since we've been here which was much needed.

When we get back, we'll be welcoming Lisa to our house as well as two foreign exchange students, Paulina from Poland (though she's been living in Mexico the past few years) and Yirui from China. Full house and exciting times ahead!

Feet that go where God sends

2010-08-07T22:04:00.003-05:00

Before I was pregnant with Mirabel, I heard a sermon that talked about blessing, not cursing. One thing that specifically stood out to me was an admonition to parents to intentionally bless their children and not curse them. While most parents don't actually curse their kids with swear words or phrases like "you'll never amount to anything," they do say hurtful things like "I can't believe you did that" or "Why do you always ..." or "That was a stupid decision" etc. It stuck with me. I have tried to specifically bless Mirabel each night when I put her to bed and try to avoid cursing behavior.

For the past few months, I have been praying for her this way- God, please bless Mirabel with a strong mind, eyes that see, ears that hear, a mouth that speaks truth, a kind and compassionate heart, hands that serve, a strong body, and feet that go where God sends. For the past few weeks, she has been saying "baa-dee" along with me and "fee..go...God...senns" when I say the last two phrases. It's a sweet memory for me.

Little Mirabel- may your feet always run along the path where God sends.

Big, big, big BOOM!

2010-07-05T08:38:00.005-05:00

We had a great 4th of July celebration yesterday- church, then a BBQ party after church, then hanging out at home, then off to the Party in the Park. Mirabel saw a few fireworks set off by individual households during the music session and was dancing all around, but when it came time for the real display, the booms scared her. Last year we watched the show from someone's yard, and it must have been far enough away that she could just enjoy the show without being scared of the sound.

We went to the park with my friend Lisa and it was great to be able to bike home faster than the cars! We finally tumbled into bed around 11:30...the latest she's been up since she was a little skipper!

(Note the excitement of my day...I bought an Old Navy tank top in 2003, which has been my goto shirt for the 4th ever since. I found a matching tank for Mirabel for 50 cents at a garage sale and it made me smile all day long.)

Our little bean counter

2010-03-25T17:46:00.003-05:00

I was eating dinner with Mirabel the other night and she took a handful of her green beans out of the dish and plopped them on the table. Slightly frustrated, I said to her that I thought it might be better to keep them in the dish. (I'm sure that's exactly how I said it, too.) I went back to eating my meal and heard her talking. Vun, too, free, for, fiv!! Clap, clap, clap. I looked over and she had lined up five green beans right in a row. I didn't even know she knew how to count, but I guess she has been paying attention to her number books and puzzle.

Our little wonder turns two next month and we're looking forward to other wonders this spring and summer. I'm hoping one of them is potty training. :)

Winter Weekend

2010-02-21T20:49:00.004-06:00

I enjoyed going to Winter Weekend this year- it's our annual celebration of winter in my living history group. We dressed up in 1860s clothes on Friday night and played various parlor games (including cards and the largest sized game of pickup sticks I've ever seen- the sticks were taller than a toddler). Saturday was the ball and today we had a party/lunch at a member's home. Then two other members and I went out coasting (sledding). What fun! You can see a video of us here. I have the purple dress and blue hood with the white maribou (swan feather) trim. Many thanks to my mom, dad, and sister for taking turns with Mirabel babysitting this weekend.

Getting Organized....

2010-01-03T22:02:00.003-06:00

Just a quick post...big organizational changes at the Pestel home. I'm finally getting to cleaning the dungeon (uh, basement). Dave asked for it for his Christmas present and after 5 years here and having a kid, I'm finally ready to part with some of my clutter stuff. My dear friend Lisa came over today to help me out and we got a game plan together and went through all of my wrapping materials. I culled of at least 2/3rds of it, which I offered to people at our church. (We have a cool email list where you can give away things or put out a need and most of the time someone will take it or has what you need. A redistribution of things within the church body as it were.)

Dave's sister is coming over next weekend to help us rearrange our first floor (we don't feel like we really utilize two of the four rooms to their full extent possible) and I am so excited to get organized. I felt really overwhelmed but with these two ladies helping out I feel like I can finally do it!

In other news, we are still looking for someone to move in with us- no inquiries yet.

And a brief note...do not eat months old yogurt in a tube, even if it hasn't been opened. Those two ounces can harbor a lot of bacteria and make for a generally unpleasant night and following day. This is the first time I got food poisoning, and I did it to myself!!

Baa

2009-12-27T22:34:00.002-06:00

So....we've been doing Advent preparations at our home over the past month or so- Advent calendars (two of them), Advent wreath with candles, Advent devotions. We have several nativity sets that are Mirabel friendly (and several that aren't). Mirabel has been having a lot of fun with the Christmas decorations- lights, tree, ornaments, Advent, baby Jee and the whole bunch. We also have a lot of books about the nativity and of course, there are lots of animals on the scene. Mirabel loves to make animal noises, but she isn't very good at baa. So I've been making the sheep sounds and she has been focusing on the cows, horses, cats and dogs.

A couple of days ago, she transitioned from calling me maa to baa...apparently in response to the fact that I had been baaing quite a bit lately. Several days later, she's still doing it...probably in response to the immense laughter coming from her father. It's now been reinforced with my whole family as we spent our Christmas celebration with them today...she totally knows that isn't really me or my name, but she gets an impish little grin on her face and sweetly points to me and says "Baa" to get my attention. Baa- baa!

There IS room at this inn....

2009-12-07T22:26:00.004-06:00

We just found out that we will have both rental rooms open in our house come January. We have been trading rooms for part-time childcare, so with the opening in rooms comes a need for a sitter/s for Mirabel, too. We can make it through January on some stopgap measures, but will really need to have someone in here and able to sit by February.

So...if you or someone you know is interested in a swap, we trade two days of sitting/week in exchange for each bedroom. That includes all utilities (water, electric, sanitation, internet, basic phone line). If a married couple wanted to take both rooms, we could put up a door that blocks off the two rooms, hall, and bath to make a semi-private suite. We share the main living space. We can furnish the rooms.

Our ideal candidate is someone who is Christian and is willing to commit for 1 year, likes kids (Mirabel is now closing in on 20 months), and would like to live in a little community. We think this arrangement could work well for someone who is single and wants to have a couple of part-time jobs (one bedroom- work for us 2 days, another job for cash income), a married couple with one kid or without (there are two rooms- one for them, one for the kid, mom able to stay at home and earn the rent by sitting for Mirabel 4 days and still get one day a week and weekends by herself without Mirabel), a missionary couple/family on furlough (we have all the house stuff, rent is free in exchange for childcare, they'd just have to cover incidentals).

We would like someone who comes referred, since they would be living in our home and caring for our daughter. Let us know if you or someone you know might be interested. Thanks!

They dropped like flies....

2009-11-11T17:19:00.004-06:00

My sister, Micaiah, and I were talking awhile back and thought it would be fun to go on a family weekend away. We haven't done this since we were all single (last family vacation was 10 years ago) and now that we have spouses and even some grandkids, we thought it would be nice. We made reservations at Heartwood, only to learn that my sister, Tirzah, and sister-in-law, Kat, got sick in the days just before we left. They didn't want to infect the rest of us, especially newborn Korbin, so they (and their husbands) stayed home. That meant the rest of us had to make more fun for ourselves, but we managed to do just that. And we just made reservations for Memorial Day weekend next year to (hopefully) get the whole family involved.

We had a lot of fun looking at the leaves, running around, playing games and talking inside the cabin, eating, and generally being away from the daily grind. Micaiah got more sleep than she does at home, Josh was very good at holding Korbin, my mom was in heaven getting to spend time with two grandbabies, and I enjoyed hearing my dad play guitar. Dave, Mirabel, and I went on a hike in beautiful weather and I am looking forward to returning when everyone is there.

Happy Halloween!

2009-11-01T20:43:00.002-06:00

We had a nice Halloween yesterday. I love the dress up and imagination portion of the holiday (as well as the candy- who can turn down sweets?) Mirabel is still too young for candy, so she just dressed up and ran around. We sent her to a festival party with my parents and she loved looking at all the other costumes.

We went down to visit my sister, her husband and their new little baby, Korbin, who was born exactly 18 months after Mirabel. He's wearing the little pumpking tshirt and socks we got for him. He was a peapod for the evening (same costume that Mirabel wore last year.) What started as an odd family joke has now turned into a mini-streak. Let me explain. My brother's birthday is on May 22. He married someone whose birthday is on March 22, and they decided to get married on July 22, which was a Saturday the year they wed. They told me I should have my baby on the 22, which I actually did. (April). Now Korbin popped out on Oct 22. Kat (my sister-in-law) said she can't handle the pressure. They aren't expecting or anything, but it will be interesting to see if anyone else manages to get a 22nd birthday!

Anyway, Korbin is in the picture with us. Frankly, I can't imagine heading back into the newborn days right at the moment. My sisters are almost exactly 18 months apart and my mom had two other kids at home...but I'm just now feeling like I'm emerging from the baby fog tunnel and I would like to enjoy a little bit of time there before heading back in.

That's one way to lose the baby weight...

2009-09-29T12:46:00.003-05:00

Mirabel shared her flu bug with me. She was sick last Thursday, and I had hoped it was just teething. Alas, on Sunday at church I was hit with a sick feeling which progressed into full fledged flu. I ended up losing 5 pounds between Sunday and this morning. I'm feeling a lot better than I was, though still a little under the weather. The nurse says I'm contagious through today so I'm not back at work until tomorrow.

I've gone through about 3 loads of laundry just from me and thank goodness for David and our nannies, Betsy and Dorene, who have kept things running and helped me out. I hope none of them get this bug!

I wouldn't recommend this as a diet plan but I am hoping I can keep the weight off...this gets me back to pre-pregnancy weight.

Mirabel update

2009-09-25T21:52:00.004-05:00

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!

Blue Sky Guides and Odd Clothing Choices

2009-09-08T17:58:00.003-05:00

I've been trying to sell out of 2009 Blue Sky Guides (coupon books that have an eco-focus). I'm a leader for my company's "Green Team" and this is a little fundraiser. The books normally sell for $20, but we are selling them for $7 since they expire the end of November. Sales have been decent, but we still have 16 left, and I'm trying to sell them however I can. (Craigslist has been a good outlet...) I'm stopping short of putting up a poster in our front yard or wearing a badge that says "Ask me about how to get your copy of the Blue Sky Guide" but I'm not that far away from those solutions. :)

My friend, Lisa, Mirabel and I went to the Minnesota Renaissance Festival yesterday. We know several people who work/perform there, so we are typically able to get free tickets. Which makes the money we spend on food and trinkets a lot easier to swallow. We had fun eating and shopping our way through the fair, listening to Jeremy and Scott's band, hearing my brother-in-law, Adam's singing group, and people watching. My favorite outfit was the black underwire bra with some hand-sewn coin fringe. (I didn't notice what the person was wearing on the bottom, so taken aback was I by the top.) I worked at fest the first summer we moved here (15 years ago) and I was astonished by the fact that some of the very same performers are still there- including the fairy, Twig, who today is the picture at the top of their home page. I don't know how old she is, but I'm guessing she was at least 18 or 20 when I was there, and so she's probably at least my age now...

Mirabel rode in a little butterfly ride and was all smiles and she also enjoyed the petting zoo. (She also enjoyed eating dirt and putting all kinds of rocks in her mouth, but what kid doesn't like that?) We got tired out, dusty as all get out, and just a bit sunburned, but it was a very enjoyable day off.

Congratulations!

2009-08-19T20:13:00.004-05:00

Weddings all around in these parts- congrats to my little sister, Micaiah, and her new husband, Josh, who got married in a ceremony at our house on August 4. We've never had a wedding here before- it was kind of fun. It was also very casual, as everyone, including the bride and groom wore pajamas. I didn't personally snap any pictures but we could try to find some.

Other than that, the last week of July we went up north and rented a couple of cabins with Dave's family. We had a lot of fun- the cousins entertained Mirabel, we were able to sleep in (Mirabel slept until 8am every day!) Then we came home and went to our nanny's wedding- congrats to Betsy and Jamie!

We also had fun hosting a neighborhood block party this past Saturday. Great turnout and who can go wrong with potluck food? Now we're enjoying the last lazy days of summer, though the mornings this week have been feeling more like fall.

Time flies....

2009-07-14T18:54:00.006-05:00

Goodness, we've been busy with life. Nothing tremendous to report- but it's been a long while since I posted. Mirabel has been working on showcasing her personality lately. A funny story from yesterday- she signs several words (more, eat/food, please, milk, all done, washing hands, toothbrush, and cheese). Well, I was trying to feed her supper, which included some bananas mixed in yogurt and some cereal. She is not a fan of bananas with yogurt, though she'll gobble each independently. So, she was vigorously signing "all done" as I tried to get her to eat the yogurt. She tolerated the cereal. When I attempted to put some of her yogurt in the cereal and offered spoon with mostly cereal and a little yogurt, she watched me do it, took a sniff, and again signed "all done." I dumped that spoon, took only cereal, and the little bugger leaned forward, stuffed her nose in the spoon, and then lifted her face, smiled, and ate up. Then I gave her some sweet potatoes, which she really likes, but she pushed those away and started signing cheese. I told her she needed to eat some actual food before getting cheese, at which point she started double-fisting the sweet potatoes in her mouth and then emphatically signing cheese, cheese, please, please. What a happy little camper when the cheese finally came.

Things like this, laundry, working in the basement (got all the baby clothes organized!), helping alter our nanny's wedding dress, finding a new nanny to replace her when she moves out, work, processing cherries from the cherry tree, and other such things have been filling my days. Dave and I are looking forward to celebrating our 6th wedding anniversary this coming Sunday. And I'm attaching a picture of Mirabel at a recent Civil War outing and one from when she was 2 months old. Some people at church gave us their climber set, and Mirabel has spent many a happy hour playing on it.

Sweet retreat

2009-05-27T19:58:00.003-05:00

David and I went away this weekend without Mirabel for the first time. We went to Heartwood (Thrivent members get half-price lodging and a bunch of free amenities like bike rental, hay rides, and river tubing). It was a lovely time away. We did a spiritual focus and Dave created some Bible studies (where we've been, where we are, where we're going). We try to get away two weekends a year and focus on some aspect of our relationship- spiritual, physical, intellectual, financial, emotional, and/or social. Many thanks to my mom and sister, Micaiah, or sitting Mirabel while we were away.

In other news, Mirabel is popping out tooth #5, getting dangerously close to walking, is signing several words (all done, milk, more, food), and she ramped up her "talking" although she doesn't really seem to be saying much (at least, not much that is understandable to us).

I'm very happy that warmer weather is on the way. I hope my tomato plants do well this year. Last year's were duds. I'm hoping for better crops this time around.

Happy Birthday, Osita!

2009-04-22T19:56:00.004-05:00

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

2009-04-15T17:24:00.003-05:00

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

Happy Easter!

2009-04-13T19:34:00.007-05:00

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

2009-04-01T21:30:00.002-05:00

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!

Sick of Snot

2009-03-08T19:57:00.003-05:00

Mirabel has had a snotty head cold for what seems like forever...it appears to come with new teeth for her and we now have a bottom tooth to join her top two teeth. But I've also been sneezing and snotting myself for the past few days. This experience has reminded me of the little ditty from childhood - "Don't kiss your honey when your nose is runny, you might think it's funny, but it's (s)not."

We're trying to figure out where we'd like to go for a vacation and whether or not to take or leave Mirabel or try to travel with someone else. We've wanted to go to London for a long time, and with the dollar being stronger against the pound than it has been in a long while, it seems like a good time to travel. But if we went there, I'd want it to be for at least 10 days, which seems like a long time to leave our little one behind. So then the question is how to take her, or if we go somewhere else....has anyone else had this kind of experience? If we left her, she would be in our house, with her normal care providers, and we'd probably have them care for her in the evenings along with grandparents (who she knows). Other options would be Guatemala or somewhere else in central America. I've also heard there are some babysitters that you can hire in another country (e.g. associated with the hotel) but that seems a little odd to turn over your kid to a stranger in another country.

I'm getting a little cabin fever and am looking forward to warmer weather and more sunshine.

Ok...off to exercise and then off to bed. We're doing a mini-challenge with some people at work where you set a goal (mine is to lose 5 lbs) and then have weekly goals during the week. If you meet the weekly goals, you're good. If you don't, you pay a $1 penalty. You pay $2 to participate in the challenge and whoever meets their goal at the end splits the pot. My weekly goals center around limiting sugar and exercising, and I need only one more exercise session to avoid paying $1. So...off I go!

Wedding pictures

2009-02-15T20:55:00.003-06:00

There are two ways to interpret this post. One is that we have Tirzah and Adam's wedding pictures, which I've added below. Tirzah decided to get married in a red dress and the bridesmaids wore white. The wedding was in the evening, so Mirabel was tired and also had a cold...she spent most of the time clinging to me and generally looks like she was drugged in the photos (though she was not under the influence of any substance....) sigh...our opportunity to get a good little family shot didn't turn out so well.

The other thing is that after 5 1/2 years of being married we are finally getting our official wedding album. We took three years to get the order in and then I'm not sure what happened but we finally reconnected with the photographer and we're getting it this week. We've had our proof book with 300 pictures and now we get the fancy book with 24 pages that we selected ourselves (the pages have multiple layouts and pics on them). I'm also excited to get our disc. Our proof book has 300 pics, but he took 700 or 800, so we'll get to see a lot more photos that we haven't seen before. Even after this long, I still love my hubby and love remembering our wedding!

Life update

2009-01-31T20:30:00.005-06:00

We've been doing the normal life stuff- eating, sleeping, working, Bible study, errands, etc. Tirzah got married a couple of weeks ago. I wanted to update some photos but we didn't take many and the official ones aren't ready yet. Mirabel was a mini-me of the bride. Welcome to the family, Adam!

I was running around today to a bunch of different places and came home and Dave made this movie this afternoon. It's Mirabel's beginnings...so it's from awhile ago but I thought it was awesome. Now I have to talk him into making one for each year....

Merry Christmas!

2008-12-27T12:53:00.005-06:00

I believe I've just given up on sending out Christmas cards this year. We did get our family picture taken- you can see it for yourself if you go to mysmilesbywire.com. Email is polkstina at hotmail. (Fill in the symbol "at" and the com part..I'm trying to protect myself from spammers) and use Mirabel for the password.)

We had a great Christmas with my family on Christmas Eve and Dave's on Christmas Day. We got to sing Christmas carols at both events (piano by my sister, Micaiah, and guitar by brother-in-law, Bob). Lots of good family time, reading the Christmas story, and some time outside in the snow (M was not so keen on the wind nor on having us wipe her snotty nose.)

M was so excited about all the people she fought sleep as much as she could, passing out at one point in the middle of crawling across the kitchen floor. She also loves eating tissue paper and wrapping paper- a struggle to find it before she does.

We hope that your celebrations were enjoyable and that you share our joy in welcoming our Savior and remembering his birth.

Breastfeeding question

2008-12-11T18:11:00.002-06:00

So, this is a question about how you know if the breastfed child is getting enough milk once you start on solid foods and you are at work. I know at least some moms who read this have breastfed and worked.

Without getting into tons of nitty gritty details, I pump while away at work, and I know as they get older babies eat other foods (Mirabel does really well with that) but I don't know resources about how much milk she "should" be drinking daily. She takes everything I pump, but I wonder sometimes if she's getting enough. Any wisdom from the masses?

There's always room for one more....

2008-11-23T13:09:00.002-06:00

So, we haven't posted in awhile, but that doesn't mean we haven't been busy. We currently have two renters- Eric and Betsy. Eric has lived with us for just over three years and Betsy moved in this summer and also babysits Mirabel a couple days each week. Eric is getting married just before Christmas and his (soon-to-be) wife, Candace, is moving in after the wedding. So we've been busy with all sorts of preparations.

Eric and Betsy are swapping bedrooms this weekend, but that doesn't really impact us. We've been focused on clearing out extra stuff from the basement to create some storage space for Eric and Candace and tidying up the living space down there. They are going to have a "living room" downstairs, the bigger bedroom upstairs (not ours- but we have a 10x12 and 10x10, and they get the 10x12 now.) We're also clearing out a bit more space for their pantry stuff. And they are going to get the house one night a week, but that is just a schedule change.

Well, I'm off to clean, sort, and organize in the basement. We're getting a whole new pile of sell/giveaway/recycle stuff (we sold most of what we placed on Craigslist before...so now it's off to round two!)

Trick or Treat!

2008-11-03T19:12:00.003-06:00

Here's a picture of us from Halloween (I was Dr. Crusher from Star Trek: the Next Generation, Dave was a construction worker, my friend Lisa was a woman from the 1950s, and our little sweet pea!)

Mirabel also had her 6 month appt today. She is long and lean...85th percentile for length but only the 5th for weight. But she's hitting her developmental milestones well and I'm not really worried about it. Breastfed babies are often behind the curve on weight gain. She's a little under the weather after getting her flu shots (and the 6 month series). Poor little thing.

Mountain Monkey

2008-10-25T20:44:00.005-05:00

Have you ever gone on a trip and found out that someone (or something) just seemed to pop up all over the place? Well, that's what happened to us on our recent trip last weekend to Colorado. We took off from the airport (yes, we still managed to travel with carry-on luggage only, even with a kid!) and right from the start, mountain monkey inserted himself into all our photographs! I guess he saw that Hammy got to go along with us to Canada and he wanted his moment in the sun. Click here to see our pictures.

We had a lot of fun in Golden, Colorado. It's the last stop on the public transit bus from the airport. It's a very walkable little town, with excellent nature trails, fun restaurants and boutiques, and enough historical feel to satisfy me. We spent a good deal of time outside walking around (kudos to Dave for taking Mirabel in the baby carrier!). We hiked up a mountain and walked up and down the creek. The fall colors were gorgeous and we had unseasonably warm weather.

We were invited to join a Mamas for Obama walk by some people we met in the ice cream shop (we didn't go with them, though we were at the river that day), we saw the Coors factory (let me just say that the snow capped mountains on the label are NOT actually there), and we stayed in Pansy's Parlor (in Pansy's room). We ate at Woody's Woodfire Grill every day- not at all typical for us, but they had an all you can eat salad and pizza bar. It's hardest to get veggies and dairy on a trip, so we loaded up on that buffet and with breakfast at the B&B and snacks, we got through with two and a half meals a day. We also went to story hour at the library and saw a ton of bronze statues throughout the town. A few of them are in our pictures.

All in all a fun trip! We recommend going to Golden if you ever have the chance.

Come on, baby, do the locomotion

2008-10-11T21:36:00.003-05:00

We went to our first ECFE class this morning. (Early Childhood Family Education). It meets at our local school- close enough that we can walk. We had a nice stroll outside on a beautiful fall day and we also got to learn some fingerplays and songs- things that help you interact with your baby and help them develop. We also met some nice parents. While we were at class, Mirabel fixed her eyes on her rattle and couldn't quite reach it. She pushed off her feet and did the classic "scootch" forward. Then she repeated several times when we were at home.

Must babyproof...must babyproof...we haven't much time, I'm afraid....Really we just have to pick up some things that we've been lazy about leaving on the floor in our living room. We've got the list of what to look for- I think that's what I'll focus on tomorrow afternoon.

In other news...I'm going on a road trip to Chicago Mon-Wed. I have a conference there on Tuesday, and my friend Lisa is coming along with me and will take care of Mirabel. I get to see one of my college friends and also stay with the family I babysat for through my four years at college. I'm looking forward to that (and the conference, too!)

We've moved to solids

2008-10-06T19:26:00.004-05:00

Mirabel had her first taste of squash yesterday and I'm uploading a video of it. She made the funniest faces! But she ate all of the teaspoon or two we gave her. Her sitting up skills have increased exponentially over the past few weeks and she can do it for multiple seconds at a stretch, she has been watching our food intake intently for weeks, she's almost 6 months old, and she started waking up at night after months of sleeping through. Signs pointed to starting solid food. We're going with veggies first, then cereal, then fruit in an attempt to gear her taste buds toward less sweet things...we'll see if it works. She does have a mom with a monster sweet tooth (but I also love my veggies!)

Denied

2008-10-02T18:10:00.003-05:00

I received a notice from my county district court today...notifying me that cases settled that were scheduled for trial next week, they have too many jurors and "YOU DO NOT NEED TO REPORT ON MONDAY OR ANYTIME DURING THAT WEEK." Followed by "Your service will not be rescheduled. No further action is needed from you. Thank you for your understanding."

Wasn't that nice of them to thank me? :) I'm looking forward to having the time at work as it was hard to figure how I could possibly get my work done as well as my jury duty. But I'm a little bummed to miss out on the juror experience. I think I would make a great juror.

I guess this means next week will be my first 5 days in the office stretch since April 21.

Girls Weekend!

2008-09-23T19:41:00.003-05:00

My college friend, Lisa, and I packed up the car and Mirabel and headed up to the Wisconsin woods this past weekend. We had a great time just hanging out in the room and hitting the outdoors. We went on a little nature walk, drove to Spooner (highly recommended if you like poking around small towns with cute little shops), and took in some absolutely breathtaking fall colors. I've uploaded a few pictures of Spooner...a cute general store (I'm showing off my new lip gloss with my pouty lips), Look painted on the downward ramps at curb crossings, and note the "wobblin duck saloon" sign. I love girls weekend getaways. Dave had fun at home with a football party and he also was a champ and did some stuff around the house. I didn't even ask him to do it, I figured if I was having fun he could, too.

In other news, Mirabel has discovered how to string rolls together and she traverses our living room quite adeptly now. Yesterday she made it over to the tv stand and was kicking up at the VCR from the floor. We need to babyproof...I'm guessing it won't be long until she starts scooting around on her stomach and then it will be crawling and right now we are sorely un-babyproofed.

Goodbye summer, hello fall....

2008-09-10T20:22:00.003-05:00

Just like that- September hit the calendar and it turned cold up here in the northern tundra land of MN. I like a lot of things about fall- pretty colored leaves, fall harvest, Thanksgiving...but I'm not so excited about the colder weather. I swapped out Mirabel's clothes today to get the warmer things ready. And I have to admit a certain sadness to putting away some of the super cute clothing she's worn this summer since I know she won't get to wear it again. (I felt the same way about my favorite maternity clothes...since I went early I didn't feel ready to be done being pregnant and it was like I never got to say goodbye to my faves.) Oh, well, I guess that's part of life. A cycle that continues on. I like how God has a predictability but yet has differences. Like sunsets. They happen every day yet none of them are exactly the same. What a creative God we have!

Happy fall.

Looking for some DJ referrals

2008-09-03T18:05:00.002-05:00

My little sister, Tirzah, is getting married in January 2009 and needs a DJ. I told her I'd post and see if my reading audience has any recommendations for DJs in the Twin Cities. They want someone who can create their own playlist. She said to me, "We'll give them our first song, my song with my dad, and a song with my close friends. No rap, no profanities, and just play things that people will dance to and have fun. And no schmaltzy pleas to get people on the dance floor. Just a nice, normal person."

So...have any recommendations? Heather, if I remember correctly, your brother was doing DJ stuff at some point, right? I don't remember your phone number. If you have a recommendation that is a phone number or email and don't want to list it online, you can send it to me at my full name at hotmail. (That's my address in code...don't want spammers to get ahold of it!!) Or contact me the other methods...or post a comment and let me know to get ahold of you!

Thanks for your help!

The Summons

2008-08-25T17:38:00.002-05:00

So, I went to get the mail today (I've never gotten over the childhood glee of getting the mail). And I go through it...a credit card bill, some election literature, a piece of junk mail...and...MY NAME IN CAPS with a very official government document informing me I've been selected for jury duty. Now, I'm 31 years old, registered and voted in nearly every election since I turned 18, and win all kinds of drawings (everything from a Cabbage Patch Doll when I was eight to a mountain bike to gift cards at my work picnic). But despite this winning-ness, I've never been selected for a jury until now. The irony of it all...while I think it would be pretty interesting (as long as I'm not on some murder case or something that would really gross me out) they scheduled me for my first full-time week back at work. I don't think I have any option...so I guess the beginning of October will find me in a jury pool rather than at my workplace. I'll let you know if I get selected (if I'm able to, that is...I'm sure they will tell us rules of whatever we are or are not allowed to say outside of court).

Going for the Gold

2008-08-17T20:17:00.011-05:00

It's been Olympic fever here. We hardly ever watch TV, but we've been tuning in pretty much every day since the games started. With all the furor over the young Chinese gymnasts at the Olympics, Mirabel told us she was old enough to go for the gold. She has been practicing on the double arching bars and is working really hard to stick her landings. We told her it would help her scores if she could stand on her own and she assured us she was working on it. Her practice was cut short by a round of spit-up, but we've been very impressed with her work ethic. Go for it, sweetie!

Wonderful Mirabel...

2008-08-11T15:30:00.003-05:00

I'll chunk out my entries. Going back to work has gone pretty smoothly, but I'm so glad I'm easing in. Three days at work, four days at home makes the week easier to take than if I'd jumped right back to full time. Our little peanut is growing fast! I weighed her today by getting on the scale with and without her, and she's somewhere in the neighborhood of 15 lbs. Her 4 month checkup is coming up the end of this month, so we'll get the official measurements then. Mirabel is a really happy baby. I'm thrilled to be done with the crying that permeated weeks 4-6. She smiles, vocalizes, and has started to entertain herself. She is very interested in what is going on around her and studies patterns and people (including herself.) She found her thumb last week, though it's not a regular habit yet. She doesn't really nap consistently, but does usually sleep through the night. I guess I'd prefer that vs. napping and up lots of time during the night. We're looking forward to getting to know more and more about her as she grows and reveals her personality!

I took these pictures of Mirabel and Dave this past week and posted my favorite one here. (I uploaded the series online and will add more pics when I have time. Probably later this week.) Mirabel August Pics

Whirlwind week...

2008-08-03T18:47:00.003-05:00

For those of you who haunt our blog (mom and Heather...at least...) we've been busy over the past week! Mirabel has been growing and discovering new things, we went up north to a cabin for a week with Dave's family, and upon returning home Mirabel and I traveled back to the 1860s at Fort Snelling for the past two days. I have one day to recover before starting back to work 3 days a week this Tuesday. So, I have pictures and things to say, but the details are going to have to wait just a bit. (How's that for tantalizing?) :) More soon.

Stinking animal!

2008-07-24T17:11:00.005-05:00

Some animal decided it didn't like our blueberry bushes (newly planted this year, you recall). It chewed or tore through our fence (two sides...for entry and exit, I suppose) and completely dug up a bush, leaving the roots exposed after it tossed it aside. Who knows if it will survive the replanting. Another bush has most of its leaves chewed off...though that may have been a deer. What kind of animal terrorizes blueberry bushes? And why is the one bush that is outside of the fence the one doing best? I guess that hostas and day lilies are better protection than a fence. Clever marketers should pick up on this..."Aggressive hostas! Put these around your cherished garden plants to ward off intruders." Seriously, I'm not a big fan of any type of animal, but I can co-exist as long as they leave me alone. In this case, I feel like the animal needs to back away from my goods. And Steph, I'm sorry to see your garden woes...the corn didn't make out so well. It certainly makes one appreciate the small farmer who toils to bring food from seed to harvest.

Update: I've added pictures. The first one is the healthy bush...in front of the hosta and day lily. Next, the hole (my foot added for perspective.) Sad looking bush (this is the one with leaves chewed off, not the dug up and replanted). Finally, the garden as a whole...

Psst...you wanna buy a...

2008-07-23T18:59:00.003-05:00

Dave and I have accumulated a lot of stuff. We are both frugal (meaning we don't spend much on accumulating it) but we are both savers (that is to say, we love to rescue usable things from going in the garbage). A dangerous proposition when you have two story, four bedroom house with full unfinished basement and large garage. The basement has been filled to the brim with things that we deem useful (even if not for us). We took advantage of my maternity leave to post a bunch of it on Craigslist. So far, we've gotten over $750 from selling our things. If you want to satisfy your curiosity with this remote sale, you can find out what's left by searching "roseville cleanup" in the Minneapolis/St. Paul section of craigslist.org. And if you want some of it real cheap, we won't hold you back. No, really....I know someone in the biz...we'll make you a good deal...real good... :)

How does your garden grow?

2008-07-16T13:42:00.004-05:00

Ours is doing ok. Everything got a late start, just like the big farms, due to the colder spring. I planted 10 tomatoes, and 9 are growing. The tenth mysteriously disappeared- the WHOLE PLANT was just gone one day. I have no idea what happened to that. Last I knew, there were not a whole lot of natural tomato predators. My rhubarb plant is huge, and Dave put in several rows of lettuce and spinach and those are growing pretty big now. However, I'm wondering if some animal got in and rolled around, because several plants were upright yesterday but now are sort of on their side.

We also have several fruit trees- a cherry and two apple- and we just planted 5 blueberry bushes this year. The strawberry patch is growing great, but never a strawberry do we get to eat...the rascally animals always eat them first. Same with our raspberry bushes we planted which they have chewed down to the nubs three years running. Fortunately, our next door neighbors have some and share the picking rights. The cherry tree was disappointing this year- just a handful of cherries. The rest never showed up or else were eaten by the birds. And our apple trees just went in last year. There are about 5 apples on each tree, but we'll see if they actually make it to eating stage.

We also have about 5 containers of herbs, like basil, cilantro, rosemary, thyme, and chives. Yum! Problem with those is I usually forget to use them.

We're trying to plant a lot of food on our lot, especially things that are on the dirty dozen (those fruits and veggies that have the most pesticides in them). or are terribly expensive in stores but easy to grow, like the herbs. It's going to take a few years to get it all up and going, but hopefully we'll be in pretty good shape 5 years from now.

We want to get another cherry tree and maybe a pear...and I would like to get a fence for our raspberry and strawberry areas...after 4 years, I think I deserve more than one strawberry!!

Mirabel stats

2008-07-07T12:21:00.003-05:00

We went in for M's 2 month appointment today- she's up to 24 inches long (at the 88th percentile), weighs 11 lbs, 11 oz (54th percentile), and got rave reviews from the doctor and nurse for her developmental milestones. Despite having an upper size head at birth, it’s only at the 39th percentile now, but she manages to do the most with the brains she’s got! She's a little charmer- I uploaded some new pictures.

Ham? How is ham a theme?

2008-07-07T11:29:00.003-05:00

So when Dave and I were dating, we planned a New Year's Party. Dave had a list of possible themes written out, and in reviewing them I said, "Ham? How is ham a theme?" Well, it turns out I'd started looking at the food list....but we did pick ham as the theme of our recent Canadian vacation. If you look at our photo album, I've uploaded our vacation pics and you can see our little friend Hammy in nearly every shot. Play along...it's like "Where's Waldo?"

Our trip went well- Mirabel was a good traveler and we got to take in Canada Day on July 1 (like our July 4), explore the Canadian Mint, Assiniboine Park, taste some delicious gelato, walk through the Forks shopping/gathering area, see some living historians (including a little 2 month old baby), eat a delicious meal at a cafe run by Christians living in community (see http://www.twelvetribes.org/) and stop in Grand Forks, North Dakota on the way home. If that's not living on the edge, I don't know what is. :) Seriously, we enjoyed some yummy co-op food and I got to sit in a hot tub for the first time in over a year.

We're glad to be home but it was fun to get away for a little while. I think I actually get to relax more here, though- when you travel, the baby is yours 100%, but when you are at home there are visitors and events where others hold the babe for awhile. Now it's off to catch up on laundry and the immense clutter that seems to be taking over the house.

I love a good deal...

2008-06-24T15:31:00.002-05:00

Ah, summertime. One of its joys is the garage sale. I love driving down the road, seeing a sign (or stuff laid out along the yard) and having the time to pull over and check it out. Since I'm home for the summer, I've been able to indulge much more than usual and with a new baby in the house, it's the perfect time to search for baby bargains. I've purchased a bunch of stuff for cents on the dollar. Now I'm just searching for transitional shorts (its really hot here right now and I can't fit into my summer wardrobe just yet....but I don't want to put out a lot of money for things I'll wear one season.) Wish me luck!

Happy Father's Day!

2008-06-15T20:22:00.003-05:00

Dave is a great dad- the thing I most appreciate is him taking Mirabel in the middle of the night for those multi-hour wakeful times. He also changes diapers, incorporates her in regular life (see mowing photo- we have an electric mower so not a noise issue), wrestles with her, and teaches her judo (they are up to lesson 57). :) He cuddles, sings, and is infinitely patient. Organized, loving, focused, knowledgeable. What a dad! Happy Father's Day, sweetheart!

What's in a name?

2008-06-09T13:48:00.002-05:00

Several people have asked us about Mirabel's name. We started looking for baby names probably 1-2 years before we started trying to have a kid, knowing it would take us a long time. We searched through name books and online sites, and after MUCH effort, had narrowed the list down to 4 names for each gender by the time I went into labor. (This effort involved ranking, spreadsheets, analysis of historical name trends, the approximate percentage popularity and how many people in a school of 2000 would have a name based on its specific popularity ranking- yes, we're both detail oriented.) Dave had wanted to get the names down to one; I thought having a few to choose from would be nice; since I went into labor early, I got my wish.

We wanted a name that was unique but pronounceable when you see it, has a good meaning, and that sounded pretty for a girl and strong for a boy. We named her the day after she was born and picked from our list of Clarissa, Greta, Mirabel, and Rosa. We both liked all four names (unlike our boys name list) so it was more an issue of picking the one that seemed to work best for her. We ultimately selected Mirabel, which means "wonderful" or "marvelous" and is derived from Latin. (The French/Spanish meaning is "beautiful view" which is nice, too.) Her middle name is Grace, so her name means "wonderful grace" which we mean to reference the wonderful grace of God in calling us to him through Jesus.

We plan to call her Mirabel (no nicknames for general use, though I have several pet names started, including "Baby Bell," "Mirabella-boo," and "Sweet Pea.") I'm sure she won't let me use those forever, but for now she has no choice. :)

We have sleep-through!

2008-06-04T06:48:00.003-05:00

For the first time since who knows when, we got more than 6 straight hours of sleep. Miss Mirabel went down around 11 last night and awoke at 5:30 this morning, fed and then slept until 8:30 (along with her dad). Who knows when it will happen again, but it's amazing how rested I feel. :)

Life in the Past Lane

2008-06-02T10:42:00.003-05:00

Mirabel and I joined other Living History Society of Minnesota members for a picnic and croquet outing yesterday. She was cute as can be in her 1860s garb. She did have a marvelous bonnet made by the Widow Brown which she wore for nearly all of the day, but by the time we got around to taking photos, the bonnet had come off in an attempt to get her to go to sleep. Alas, that was fruitless (she slept approximately 3-4 hours from 4:45am to 9pm yesterday- yikes!) But she did sleep like a log last night.

We'll get a better close up of her at a future event, but here's what we have for now. My favorite question from the public- “Is that a real baby?”

Up North, Eh?

2008-05-28T12:39:00.005-05:00

The Pestels are heading north of the border next month...Dave and I honeymooned in Winnipeg and we're going back for a week to celebrate our 5th anniversary. Mirabel will be coming, too. We found a B&B that takes kids and lets us use their laundry facilities, both requirements with a small child that manages to get a lot of clothes and cloth diapers dirty each day. The B&B is a little further out of the city than we were last time, but it's near a bus line (and the University of Manitoba), has walking paths and lots of old tree-lined streets, and should be a relaxing place. We had such a good time when we were there before- it's as if everyone is so cold for most of the year that when summer finally does come they are all outside having fun, festivals, and generally enjoying the warmth.

We are just barely ahead of the passport requirement- Mirabel's birth certificate will be enough (along with us and our passports). Mirabel went to Mexico in-utero and now to Canada...this kid is going to be a world traveler before she knows it!

Mirabel is doing a little better on the crying front- yesterday we had a great day. She ate, actually entertained herself for about 15 minutes looking at one of those black/white contrast things that help develop eyesight, and slept for regular intervals. Unfortunately, that led to an hour of frantic monkey from 11-midnight, but then she fell asleep after feeding and did pretty well overall. I'm really glad that I am able to take three months off. I don't think I'd be ready to go back to work next week with my sleep-deprived self!

It's my party and I'll cry if want to....

2008-05-19T16:09:00.006-05:00

Crying seems to be Mirabel's theme of late. We can't figure out why, but most of her waking time seems to be spent screaming. It has nothing to do with diapers, feeding, or temp as best we can tell. We're taking refuge in a factoid Dave's sister shared (crying peaks at 3-5 weeks) and that we are trying to figure out what we can do with her. Being near a warm body seems to help, but that impedes our ability to get anything else done!

Here's a link to some pictures I uploaded to Snapfish. I'm new at this, and blogspot doesn't allow mass photo uploading. You can use my Snapfish account to view(polkstina@hotmail.com for the username and seepics as the password).

**NOTE** Please only view the pictures, don't order anything as any information you put in will be viewable by everyone else. If you want the pictures, email me and I'll send them to you directly.

Happy Graduation to Me...

2008-05-15T16:55:00.003-05:00

I finished up my MBA this semester, graduating on May 1. Although, I actually skipped graduation. May 1 was my official due date, and I didn't plan to attend the ceremony (thinking it wasn't good to plan on attending something where I'd either be VERY pregnant or else just have had a kid.) I borrowed a set of graduation gear from one of my classmates that graduated last semester just in case I was able to go, so I can at least have pictures. (Check out the weird hood- and funky sleeve hood thingies!) I ended up staying at home with Mirabel on graduation night, but I'm truly finished just the same!

My graduation gift to myself is to read the Harry Potter books. I haven't done so before now, and have wanted to the whole time I've been in school. However, I know myself well enough to know that my homework would have suffered, so I didn't allow myself to even start the books. So far, I've read the first three books in the past three days. Now I'm getting ready to start book 4, but I've had to put a bit of stop on it while I catch up on laundry. :)

Living Green Expo

2008-05-04T14:53:00.002-05:00

We took our little earth baby to the Living Green Expo this weekend. It's a major event held annually at the Minnesota State Fairgrounds, conveniently within a couple miles of our house. There are exhibitors of different "green" products, including food, farmers, cloth diapers, cloth bag totes, energy, green building/remodeling and the list goes on. They also have some seminars, though we had to cut back on our normal sun-up to sun-down exposure due to Mirabel. She was a fussy monkey last night from 3-5am so we are home now and taking a little nap soon. We got a ton of cool free stuff and coupons and purchased a new style of cloth diaper and some eco-friendly cleaners. We'll see how well they work.

Well...off to bed!

Super Nana!

2008-04-27T06:14:00.004-05:00

We are doing well at home- everything is topsy turvy and I don't think there is a room in the house that doesn't have some impact from Mirabel (except maybe our renter Eric's bedroom) but we're loving it. My mom (Nana) is kindly staying with us to help out, doing everything from cleaning, cooking, and laundry to holding Mirabel for three hours during the night when she is fussy but not hungry (allowing Dave and me some much needed sleep!) We've taken a couple of excursions to date, including a rummage sale (where we bought a bundle-me for $1.50- who would think you need one with an April baby? It SNOWED yesterday!) and a trip to check out Tirzah's wedding dress and bridesmaid dresses. (Any tips from nursing moms out there about how to order a dress now for a January wedding? I think I'll be down to regular size by then, but not sure about the bust measurements.)

Auntie Micaiah (a hairstylist) took a funny shot of Mirabel with a faux-hawk and in the outfit M purchased.

Mirabel has a sweet disposition, doesn't fuss much except when hungry or if she has a dirty diaper, does really well with being passed among a bunch of people, and is the cutest little thing (I know, all parents are biased.) We'll try to figure out how to link to an online photo gallery, but for now, I'll include a few of our favorite pics.

It's a girl!

2008-04-23T16:43:00.001-05:00

We had a beautiful baby girl on April 22 (Earth Day!) and we've named her Mirabel Grace. Vital stats: 8 lbs 4.8 oz, 20 inches long, lots of black hair on her 14 inch circumference head, and a good set of lungs. She was a trooper through the whole labor and impressed the socks off the hospital staff- her heart rate never spiked and we never needed interventions. With the awesome support of David and my sister Micaiah, I was able to go through the whole labor and delivery without drugs. Mirabel is a pretty little girl who has done a great job of sleeping, eating, and creating dirty diapers thus far. We expect her skills will only increase with time, but for right now, we've decided she's definitely a keeper. :)

8 1/2 months

2008-04-20T20:36:00.003-05:00

Here's the 8 month shot...this was the week of uncomfortable pregnancy. Now I'm back to "normal" which means I pretty much run around and do whatever I want. I took my first fall on Friday...trying to carry a paper box of stuff home in case I went into labor over the weekend and dragging my briefcase behind me. I stepped on an unlevel piece of sidewalk and fell down (fortunately not on my stomach, and hurting nothing but my pride). The gentleman who was there to witness it all was very nice and carried my box two blocks to the bus. I did aqua aerobics, finished my 1860s baby dress at the sewing bee, did some shopping and laundry, and got my very last homework stuff done- hooray! Now if I can just make it through at least a few more days at work I should be able to get everything done that I "need" to do- like the board reports- and this kid can come whenever it wants.

My sweet husband scrubbed the grout and resealed the tile throughout the house- he does a fantastic job of maintaining the place. He gets frustrated that it takes so much effort that doesn't really show, but when the house doesn't fall down around us, I think it's well worth it. :)

Pregnancy Laziness and Busy Beaver-ness

2008-04-14T18:27:00.003-05:00

So I've found that there are some elements of pregnancy in which I've become extremely lazy...for example, makeup went out the window months ago (the extra 5 minutes is more worthwhile, plus who wants phthalates messing up the baby's reproductive system). Lately, I've decided it's just too much work to put in my one contact (yes, I only wear one) so I've been heading out the door in glasses each day.

Then again, I've been a little machine in getting things done- exercising 3-4 times per week, cleaning the basement and sorting office papers. No, it's not nesting- I think the baby could come and survive a cluttered basement. Dave has been asking me for a looong time to get these projects done and I'm trying to do it before baby, knowing the chances of it happening afterward are slim. I've also been working hard to get things up to speed at work before going on maternity leave. I've got 2-4 weeks left (although the baby could come anytime now). As long as I can make it through April 21, I think I'll have everything done at work that I "need" to get done.

Just three more nights of class (including tonight) before graduation. Everything is wrapping up...we'll see if that nesting instinct kicks in anytime soon.

An Exciting Adventure

2008-03-31T12:33:00.002-05:00

My college friend Lisa and I always have "adventures." Interesting things seem to follow us. Saturday was particularly eventful. First, Lisa almost left behind her wallet at Paint your Plate, our girls day outing. Then I actually lost my wallet...in retrospect, an 8 month pregnant person should not stuff a wallet in an unzipped coat pocket. I didn't realize it until later, lost time from the girls' tea, and was delighted to learn that Steve, a good Samaritan, had found it in the street, located me in the phone book, and safeguarded the thing until I picked it up. Then off to the coop for some shopping...only Lisa rear-ended me on the way. Oops. I stopped instead of pushing a yellow light since she didn't know where I was going and she didn't see that I stopped. All that is messed up on my car is the bumper, but her car is worse off. I will say to my credit, that I'm really growing as a person. I wasn't even mad about the car (it's just a car) and we were able to laugh about it....along with a few tears, since she is less than $500 from paying her car off. Also, if you have American Family insurance and hit another person with it, that saves you $100 off your deductible. Who knew there was a family and friends discount with a car accident? Here's hoping the rest of the week is a little less eventful...

Pregnancy Pics

2008-03-23T16:35:00.003-05:00

Here are some pregnancy photos...I guess I have gotten a lot bigger! Only about 6 weeks to go!

Green Living and Baby

2008-03-23T13:00:00.001-05:00

David and I have been moving more toward a “green” lifestyle for many years. (In fact, my siblings call us hippies.) This doesn’t come from alarmist global warming (though we do think the earth is being harmed by humans). It's really borne out of the responsibility we feel to be good stewards of the resources God has given us. That means being good stewards of the earth (reduce, reuse, recycle) and good stewards of our bodies and other resources (like finances and the house). Some of the actions we’ve taken include composting, buying organic fruits/vegetables off the dirty dozen and whenever feasible, purchasing organic milk and sustainably farmed organic meat (and eating less meat in general), driving a Prius, biking around town for errands, and having renters live with us in our 4 bedroom house.

Another wacky idea we have relates to our baby. We’ve purchased some big items (crib/dresser) used and gladly taken hand-me-downs for others like clothing or exersaucers. We don’t think that babies need that much anyway. So, the whole concept of registering for a bunch of new items, particularly when many of them are plastic, didn’t appeal to us. This isn’t a plea for gifts- but since many people have asked us what we need we thought we’d explain our reasoning here.

We chose to do the bulk of our registry at Peapods, a local, family-owned store in St. Paul that specializes in natural toys and baby care. They have a ton of really great wooden toys that help kids develop imagination as well as things like cloth diapers, baby slings, and organic cotton bedding and clothing. We also set up small registry lists at Babies ‘R Us and Target- but mostly for consumables and natural baby care products.

Our wacky idea is for people to give us used baby gear with lots of life left as shower presents- like the 0-6 month outfits that get worn a few times before baby grows out of them. We’ll post a list of wanted items, whether that is hand-me-downs of your own, Craigslist purchases, or garage sale finds.

Our blog

2008-02-21T17:44:00.000-06:00

So...we figured that we should create a blog with having a kid and all. We wanted to find a name that didn't incorporate our last name (already pretty easy to find us on the web) and I thought of the Rich Mullins song "Land of My Sojourn." Of course, others had already thought of that phrase, along with several other angles, so I couldn't get that exact title.

The song has a verse:
Nobody tells you when you get born here
how much you'll come to love it and how you'll never belong here.
So I'll call you my country, but I'll be lonely for my home...
I wish that I could take you there with me.

And that describes how I feel about living on earth...after enduring some rough times, I have come to love being here. At the same time, our real home is in heaven with God- and there is an element of us that will never belong here. And we wish that we could take all of our friends and family with us to heaven- but that's a choice each individual person makes for themself (in terms of how they respond to God's invitation for fellowship.)

So, our blog is called sojournersdk...join us for periodic updates on our sojourn through this world.