Hot air balloons over Jackson

Our fair town's Hot Air Jubilee was a success this year... 

Ellie's close up

The evening sun makes her hair look a little red.

And she has a bit of a rootbeer-sherbet-slush mustache.

But she's still gorgeous. 

Ellie, feeling dramatic

 

Ellie starring as King Kong

 

Ellie doing some shipping

Grandma's going to love this picture.

Grandma loves the post office. 

Tongue-tied?

Tina seems to think that Ellie might be slightly tongue-tied. It might have contributed to our need to bottle-feed. One of the nurses in the hospital mentioned it, but the initial in-the-hospital doctor said she didn't see it.

We didn't bring it up with our pediatrician because of what the doctor said, and we didn't look into it more until recently...I noticed that Ellie's frenulum looked kinda big and white (or something, I forget exactly what I noticed) and then Tina decided to look into it.

We'll bring it up with the pediatrician when we see him next, probably about the beginning of September.

I got my monkey back

I got my monkey back yesterday. She's getting a tooth in the top now and is fairly cranky about it. But I'm happy to see some toofy progress.

It's funny how a week of not seeing her makes her changes more obvious. She's clearly more adept at stacking the rings on her Rock N' Stack than she was a week ago. And she's now pretty much waving in response to a wave, which she wasn't doing before. I'm sure if I'd had her all week I would've seen it happen gradually.

Alone again

Tina & Ellie are out of town again...here I am without my monkey. Not fun. I'll get her back next Saturday or Sunday. Bleah.

Formula findings?

We think we might've figured out something with her not liking formula. The second-last can of mix we bought was Meijer brand without DHA & ARA, which are some special nutrients thought to help with brain and eye development. Well, she's not getting so much formula these days so we figured it didn't matter what we bought. Well, she really liked it, more than she's liked any other formula. After we ran out of that, we could only find Meijer brand with DHA & ARA, and she doesn't seem to like it at all. So do DHA & ARA taste bad? We're not sure...I don't recall if I really tasted the non-DHA/ARA stuff, so I can't say anything other than "maybe."

There are other brands without the DHA&ARA, but Meijer is cheaper (a LOT cheaper). She's been getting some milk lately and seems to be having less trouble with it than she did before, so we might just move her to milk pretty soon and bag the whole formula thing once for all.

Not too much going on

Hey y'all...not a whole lot to report. Plus, I've been kinda cranking on my dissertation lately so I've found it a little hard to keep the posting going. Sorry.

Ellie's still crawling around, sometimes moving around on hands and feet rather than on hands and knees. Kind of a halfway step to walking, I guess.

Still just two teethies. She's been cranky lately so we think there might be a new one coming soon, but we've been thinking that a lot, so who knows.

Ellie-bean crawling

Yes, we know, she's absolutely gorgeous. 

Truckee River in the morning

 

Some red thing growing in Tahoe

 

Un-B&W-ized moonset at Tahoe

 

Moonset at Tahoe

 

Early in the morning at Tahoe

I love pictures of the sun through trees, probably more than you do. 

Oh, by the way

Here's me in Lake Tahoe last month.

Why am I posting this?

Just because I can. 

Ellie in the pool

Ellie loves floating around in the pool. Sure, we doubled up on the flotation devices. That's our prerogative.

She didn't really like to wear the hat, though. 

Ellie on her little stroller car

 

Sorry so slow

I was out of town most of last week and will be again next week. I'll try to get some new stuff up here.

Mostly, more of the same has been going on. Ellie's not quite crawling yet, only has the 2 bottom teeth...kind of a holding pattern. I predict a flurry of development will break out shortly.

More happy shoulder rodeo

I've been waiting to do this since about when she was born.

Mama didn't let me until today -- and wasn't going to let me keep doing it until she saw Ellie's big ol' smile. 

Just in case...

...any of you were doubting my statement below about the gorgeous-est baby ever. 

Our new basement, after after

It's a little cluttered but it's a lot better than the last time I posted a pic, eh? 

Happiest papa ever

 

Comments: an apology

Hi everyone who's left comments...I made a small mistake. I had "comment moderation" enabled, which means that no comments show up unless they're approved by li'l ol' me.

Well, I didn't realize there were some comments sitting waiting for moi to approve them. Fortunately, my loving wife made a comment claiming that the "mama" sound that Ellie made referred to her. (Pfuh.) After making that comment, she noticed that the comment had to be moderated.

Long story short, the comments y'all've been posting are now approved and displayed. Thanks for reading and posting, and I'm sorry I screwed it up. I've changed the settings so that won't happen again.

Oh yeah...

By the way, she's still the gorgeous-est baby ever.

Ellie at the doctor

Her last doctor visit was fine. She's still 90-95% in height and about 50% in weight.

She also got a shot and had her finger poked for an anemia test - she didn't really cry for either one. She was too interested in the colorful bandage the nurse put on her poked finger to cry.

New formula for formula, plus real food

Lately we've had good results with Soy Dream Vanilla Enriched Non-dairy Beverage. She gets a little of that in a bottle that's mostly soy-based formula. We think it's because the Soy Dream is as sweet as your average milkshake, so it offsets the really nasty taste of formula.

Also, she's been doing great eating grown-up foods -- tomatoes seem to be her favorite, but real mac & cheese (made out of macaroni and cheese, not powdered cheese sauce mix), peas, green beans, etc. She doesn't seem to like being fed baby cereals anymore - she wants to eat like a big girl.

Updates

Ellie still hasn't crawled yet - but she's getting there. She gets herself up onto all fours, which she hadn't done much yet. So she's showing interest in crawling.

She also clapped her hands for the first time today. We were at a concert by the Hip Pocket, a really good band at First Church of Christ in Jackson, MI. We were dancing with her and clapping and she clapped a couple of times. She really loves dancing and music.

She has 2 bottom teeth and probably a top tooth coming in soon - she's constantly gnawing on stuff. Including my thumbs.

Sorry no posts for a while

I was busy doing something for school - a project funded by the fine folks at PricewaterhouseCoopers (the pfabulous pfirm with the pfunny name).