Oh yeah

My new Civic is sweet.

I emerge at last

More pics posted below. Sorry no updates lately -- this having a full-time job thing takes up most of my day.

Ellie's dong great. She's taken a few steps toward being potty-trained -- she seems to be aware of when she's going in her diaper, and she's done a #2 in the potty to match her #1. But overall, she's still diapered.

Tina's doing OK with the pregnancy. She's back on her old friend Zofran for nausea. No actual upchucking yet, but she's been feeling sick when she's not on the pills. She's also having migraines, which contribute to the general difficulty of getting through the pregnancy. This is the last time she'll bear fruit, that's for sure.

Work's going fine. The house is OK -- Ron (Pappaw) put in a new set of front doors for us yesterday to replace the dog-ugly ones we had.

We still have the cats too. Yay.

Ellie as a clown

She's usually to be found clowning around, but here she is stealing your heart as a clown for trick-or-treat.

She got pretty good at saying "trick-or-treat" and "thank you." And everyone just loved her.

Ellie holding her Boynton chicken

Apparently the chicken was going out somewhere nice, and had to wear his blue patent vinyl shoes.

Ellie dancing with her great-grandma

Ellie counting her great-grandpa's fingers

Ellie and papa standing in the woods

Ellie and papa walking in the woods

Yes, I know

The horse in the pic below is really more brown and white -- but it did have black on its mane, and that's the part she could see from on top. So hush.

Ellie-bean at the Pumpkin Fest

This morning we took Ellie to the Pumpkin Fest in Harrison, Ohio. She had some fun, picked up two tiny pumpkins, and rode a horse. Prior to this she's been afraid to ride animals, but I think her trip to King's Island got her over the fear of getting on stuff that moves. She loved riding the horse -- she called it the "zebra horse" because of its black and white colors. I'm happy she wasn't scared.

Ellie riding a horse

One small victory

We may be on our way towards successful de-diapering Ellie-bean. She used her tiny potty today, for the first time. Nice job, Ellie!

(Yes, I know, I'm telling the world of our kid's bathroom habits. She's 2. She gets potty-trained. Nobody reads this that we wouldn't tell anyway, so I don't think it's a big deal.)

Sorry not many posts lately

Thanks to Tina for posting those pics. Blogger let her down after the three, though.

I've been pretty busy lately and haven't been able to post much. Tina's been pretty nauseous, so I've been drafted into housework duty on top of work. No actual sickies yet, but enough feeling-like-sickies that she can't really get much done.

So we'll try to catch up occasionally. Please bear with us...

--

Sola Scriptura - Sola Fide - Sola Gratia - Solus Christus - Soli Deo Gloria

More merry-go-round fun

OK, cravings are here

Today I've run out no fewer than three times to satisfy Tina's cravings.

First, Cream of Wheat.

Second, fruit, particularly pluots. (They're a cross between a plum and an apricot. Very plum-like but not quite. Very sweet & juicy, quite good.)

Third, Spicy Italian sub from Subway.

Later, I think I'm going to go out to satisfy my craving for a new Honda Civic Si sedan. Hey, if she's gonna order me around, I might as well have a fast car to fulfill her requests in.

Totally unimportant in light of the post below

Given the real news below, this isn't a huge deal, but I successfully defended my dissertation last week, so you all can call me Dr. Mastilak. I'm not going to require or even request it, but I figured I'd at least point it out.

You know, in case you care.

Why Tina couldn't ride anything at King's Island

Well, Tina couldn't ride any rides at KI last weekend.

The park really strongly recommends that pregnant women don't ride the rides. And, well, Tina's pregnant.

Woo-hoo!

The baby's due on May 3, but given all the post-delivery complications from Ellie, Tina's definitely having a C-section. The first ultrasound went fine; heartbeat was good, no pictures of anything identifiable yet.

We're not finding out the sex of this one either. Mama's orders.

So we get to chronicle all the food ins and outs and other pregnancy happinesses over again.

Initially, just like last time, pasta and anything wheat-y or grain-y is usually out. Large slabs of beef, unlike last time, are also not good. This time, there's a lot of desire for fresh veggies, salads, and other alien things. Plus the occasional odd craving (today: fresh-baked cookies).

It's slightly less fun this time around, probably because Tina's dealing with Ellie and also watching her sister's kids, so she's a lot less flexible. The nice thing is that so far, the feelings of nausea have yet to come to...well, fruition, I guess. So Tina's overall probably better, but she's still not feeling great.

Name options: Amelia June is pretty much set in stone for a girl; Benjamin Reagan is the current favorite for a boy.

Trip to King's Island

We took Ellie to King's Island last weekend. She had an absolute blast. Pics are below. She wanted to ride everything, including the Vortex. Um. Not an option now, sweetie. Wait until you're bigger.

Tina couldn't ride anything...see separate post above for why...

Ellie and papa on the log ride

She really really didn't want to stop riding the log ride. Not only was there a big going up and going down, but there was also "I got all wet." And lots of giggling. Oh boy, was there giggling.

We couldn't even get her distracted with ice cream.

Ellie driving a yellow jeep

She loves seeing yellow jeeps. She loved driving one too.

Ellie's second time around

She loved the ride and wanted to go on again...actually, she loved all the rides and wanted to go on all of them again. She eventually learned that she had to wait in line again.

Ellie riding a pretty fun ride

Reagan's mom was worried that Reagan would be afraid riding by herself. So Reagan got to ride with Ellie, who enjoyed the heck out of the ride. It was a pretty simple affair -- riding around in an oval shape with a pretty fast whipping around the ends. Ellie just loved it.

Reagan was a little worried-looking throughout.

Ellie riding a zebra

She loves zebras. And "zebra cake inside" -- Swiss Cake Rolls.

Ellie & papa riding in a red chopper

Ellie & papa waiting in line

Happy Birthday, Ellie-bean!

Ellie's second birthday party was Sept. 2. Her actual birthday is today, Sept. 6. Some pics of the party are posted below.

My family was once again able to come into town. It's nice that Ellie's b-day is close to Labor Day weekend, so we can have the party on the long weekend and people can visit from Clevelandish places. And this time we had a big enough house to put them all up in.

Enjoy the pics.

Mama made a teapot-shaped cake for the party and did a great job with it. Ellie looks like she's doing a little teapot mime thing. I don't remember whether she was really doing it but it's a cute photo nonetheless.

Ellie and her new teaset

Ellie loves tea sets so much we did a tea-party theme for this party.

She hasn't had actual tea yet -- we keep as much caffeine out of her as we can. She's mostly on milk, ice water, and a little juice.

Ellie showing Mama how to use the View-Master

See 'n' say

These have evolved over time...there's now a "quiz" feature.

Boy, toys have quizzes now. Wow, what a real improvement. Yip-pee.

Ellie and Eddie

Eddie is one of the characters in the Fisher Price Little People...Ellie loves her People. She knows them by name: Eddie and his froggy friend Freddy, Michael, Maggie, Sonya Lee, and Sarah Lynn.

Papa's favorite gift of Ellie's

Our friends Corey and Beth ("Coney and Beff," Ellie calls them) gave Ellie this Doodle Pro...they didn't even know it but a few days earlier she'd fallen in love with one of those at a local LaRosa's Pizza. They also didn't know that she'd have to fight Papa for it...

Cards made by Ellie's cousins

Ellie wearing her new backpack

Birthday present, you know.

First week of classes

So this was my first week of classes at Xavier. I think they went OK.
I generally showed up in the right room and at the right time,
although I didn't realize that Monday classes didn't start until 4:00
PM, so my early-afternoon Monday classes didn't meet. I did figure
that out before the class time, fortunately. But I did end up being
prepared to teach on a day I didn't have class. Better than the other
way 'round, I think.

Ellie seems pretty OK with my "going to work" every day. Tina probably
would like a break from being on Ellie duty 100% of the time, but I'm
not on campus late most days, so it's not too bad. Plus she can always
go 'round the corner to Mammaw's and plunk Ellie in the pool.

Ellie moving earth

She's using the tractor, just like Pappaw Ron. Only she's on the tiny tractor, and he uses a big one.

Ellie and grandma moonwalking

Really.

Well, not really. "Crappaw" does what he calls "moonwalking," which is nothing like the actual moonwalk. (Given the tendencies of the original moonwalker, that's fine with me.)
So he started this trend of Ellie's paternal grandparents walking backwards with goofy looks on their faces, which Ellie seems to have learnt.

Ellie and Gramma Gramma Gramma

(She usually says Gramma 3 times.)

They're reading the little "book" attached to the teddy bear Ellie got from great-grandma's roommate Ruthie.

Ellie and Crappaw

Ok, I should probably not be so happy about "Crappaw." But it's funny.

Ellie, great-grandma and grandpa

She knows everyone by "name" and says all our names when she sees us in person or in picture. But she calls grandpa "Crappaw." Heh heh heh.

Ellie riding a giraffe

She calls them "jiresh." That's close enough for me.

Ellie playing with ostrich feathers

Yes, we Purell-ed her hands afterwards.

Hey y'all

We've been a little busy and haven't gotten to posting lately. And we've heard about it! So here are a few pics to tide you over for a while. And here's some story:

We've moved into our new place. It's pretty big, so Tina gets to decorate lots of stuff. She's right now at this very moment crooning over various pictures of daisies to put on the wall. (As if she needs more stuff with daisies on it. The 25-foot moving truck was chock full, and 76.4% of the things in it had daisies on them. Really. I counted.)

I have about a week and a half until classes at Xavier start, so I have a little time to get my new career figured out. Fortunately I only have one course to teach (I have 3 sections of it, Monday & Wednesday afternoons and Tuesday evenings) so I don't have to prep for multiple courses. I'll also be back up in Michigan about the 20th of September to wrap up my dissertation, God (and my advisor) willing.

Ellie's having a ball, swimming at Mammaw and Pappaw's house almost every day (at least, almost every day we're not in Cleveland, where we were the last few days). She's getting to play with her cousins too. It's a good time for her. She's talking very well, singing a lot, figuring stuff out...I really wish I had some objective way of figuring out for sure whether she is in fact the most perfectest little kid ever, because I think she is, but of course I'm biased.

The only problem she has is that she's growing up and getting bigger, so she won't be my little monkey forever. Well, she'll be my monkey forever, but she's a lot less little than she was. And I like her little.

Here are some pics of a few of our rooms

We're still waiting for furniture in a few rooms, and unpacking boxes in almost all of them...so we'll post more when there aren't so many bare walls and boxes laying around.

Ellie practicing gymnastics

Here I am reading to her...

...about important social issues like sharing cookies from the cookie tree.

Buy her new furniture...

...and all she does is sit on the floor
anyway.

More cutie in my hat

This is just too cute

Here's Ellie in one of my hats. This is why I never wear hats -- they look so much cuter on her.

Our new abode

Here's our new place. We're moving there in just over a week (I started to type "a couple weeks" but hey, it's coming up fast!). It's really neat-o. Lots of white walls to paint and hardwood floors and bedrooms.

Plus it's close to Mammaw & Pappaw Ron's cement pond. And Aglamesis. And not too far from Xavier, where I'll be going every now and again.

Here's my personage...

...and Ellie's personage, at my graduation, on this, the day of my graduation.

Well, really, it was my gad-jee-ation, as my parents were wont to remind me every thirteen seconds.

And I didn't actually gad-jee-ate, because my PhD won't be totally done for a few months yet. But I walked in the big ceremony deal and got the goofy hood thing put on me.

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