Time flies....

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

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!

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!

Sick of Snot

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!