Getting Organized....

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

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....

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....

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!

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...

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

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!