Easter

We went to see my parents and my grandmother for Easter. It was a good time - the weather was beautiful and we enjoyed seeing everyone.

We went to Easter services at The Gospel House in Walton Hills. Nice place. We'll probably go back. It's a little "churchier" than Trinity here in Michigan. A choir with robes, for one thing. An organ for another.

In all, it doesn't really matter where we go...we're there to celebrate our risen Savior, not for whether there are robes or a rockin' praise band. So I hope y'all had a happy Easter and celebrated His resurrection with your family wherever you are.

The family at Easter

Here we are outside my parents' house. Their tree is bloomin' nicely this time of year. 

My parents and Ellie

Gee, it's too bad Ellie doesn't ever smile, huh? 

Two more of my favorites

Here's a nice pic of my angels. 

Papa...

...and two of his favorite girlies. 

Ellie Bellie in her Easter dress

Here she is, beautiful and all that.

Again, while this is a nice picture, it falls short of portraying her true elegance and toothless charm. 

Grandpa and Ellie

Not surprisingly, Grandpa is telling Ellie what to do. Maybe she doesn't want to put the ring there.  

Happy news

Well, it looks like we don't have to get our plumbing dug up. Our first plumber said we might have a broken sewer, which would have to be dug up. Our second opinion said no, it's just a belly in the pipe. (Basically, the pipe doesn't have a nice, steady slope - it goes up and down as it goes out to the sewer main.) He stuck a camera in it and washed it out with a lot of running water, and we could see that there was no break in the sewer. Nice to hear. So we don't have to spend a few grand. We just need to run a lot of water and we'll be fine.

 

The downside is that he also said we ought to wait at least 90 days to get the basement put back together. But at least it's summer.

A girlie and her doggie

Here are Ellie and Snicks, from a couple of months ago.

Poor Snickers has been demoted to dog, and is only slowly getting used to her new position. 

Seven months old

Here's Ellie on her seven-month-old day. (April 6, 2006).

Her clothes are "18 months" size. I guess they shrunk in the wash, eh?

She has "little chickies" on the soles of her shoes. For some reason, her shoes consistently get more compliments than any other part of her wardrobe. 

Lunch

Ellie really loves her graham crackers.

She also loves saltines. She seemed to like a mouthful of cottage cheese too.

We tried some Gerber wagon-wheel-shaped food thingies, but they dissolve too much and make a really sticky sludge all over everything, so we sorta stopped those. 

Not much new here

Our basement's still a wreck. A guy will be here tomorrow to discuss reassembling it.

Ellie seems to enjoy watching balls get thrown and seeing them bounce off of things, including Mama and Papa. We get into little mock fights and Ellie just giggles her head off.

She also likes to pull on her toy box (which is cleverly disguised as a laundry basket) and see what's inside. And she'll giggle if you throw something into it while she's looking. She especially likes to see something bounce off the big ball in the basket.

She'll enjoy watching Wimbledon, I think.

Our basement bathroom after

Too bad about the bathroom...it was pretty nicely painted by Todd & Amanda, the prior owners. I guess someone will have to sit there and paint white flecks on green paint to replace what was there.

At least insurance is paying for all of this, eh?

And we didn't really lose anything of value, so it's really all just an inconvenience (and a deductible). 

Our basement bathroom "before"

 

And here's our basement "after"

After CertiPro came in and took the carpet and walls out.

We had a little sewage backup that apparently contaminated the whole place. So major reconstruction of the basement will be done soon. 

Here's our basement "before"

 

Looks comfy

Here's a new way to sleep Ellie has discovered.

She also does a thing where she talks with her mouth open and uses the back of her hand to make a "baa-baa-baa" sound.

Fun for all involved. 

Ellie in her chair

Let's see, the head bone's connected to the shoe bone...no, that's not it. 

No clever caption needed

Well, some clever caption might make the picture better. But I can't think of anything clever, so I'll just let it be. 

Sitting up now

Ellie's sitting up now, but she really doesn't enjoy it too much. She's still happier being carried around and held.

She also likes to stand up (assisted). We're starting to think she'll walk before she crawls, because she really hates being on her belly. 

A little cold again

Ellie's had a little cold and cough lately. She was better this morning, so we didn't feel like bad people taking her in to child care (see post below). She does seem to have remarkable healing powers - her colds never last more than a few days, but mama's and papa's colds last for weeks on end.

Spitting up-date

The Zantac seems to work when used in combination with Isomil rather than Similac. Isomil is a soy-bsed formula that's apparently easier to digest. So she's been spitting up a whole lot less. Good.

We think she might be getting headaches from the Zantac, though. She rubs her eyes and face like she's tired, but she's not tired. There's really no way to tell if she does have a headache, except maybe to give her some Tylenol and see if she gets better. But that usually puts her to sleep, so it's not a perfect test.

Child care success!

The stars finally lined up right for us to try child care at church again. This time, we brought the real Elizabeth. She was fine the entire time, playing with what was for her a new sort of kick toy. The volunteers said she was a happy baby.

That's more like it.

Tina won't admit it, but she spent the whole service with one eye on the little black display they have in the sanctuary to tell parents their presence is needed in the child-care area. (I did too.)

daddy's little girl

Ellie has joined her Papa and her doggie Snickers in the Land of Reflux. She's been put on Zantac for her spitting up, which has been diagnosed as probably acid-related.

The Zantac she gets is a really really nasty minty-liquid thing. She hates it - but she loves grape Pedialyte, so she gets minty-grapy Zantac and seems to take it OK.

Funny-sad: when we gave her the unadulterated Zantac, she'd take it, make a face - and visibly shudder. I do that with the worse cough medicines, and it's no big deal. But with a 6-month-old, it's somehow tragic. (But still a little funny.)

I miss Ellie

Tina and Ellie are in Cincinnati this week. So I'm here with Snickers, who is still my good doggie, and my dissertation, which isn't.

I think I miss Ellie more than Tina. I've been around Tina for 13 years and Ellie for 6 months, but I'm thinking a week away from Ellie is doing more violence to my heart than a week away from Tina. I've been away from Tina before, and while it's no fun, I know she remembers me when she comes back.

Is Ellie thinking of me right now? Probably not. Does she miss her Papa? Probably not. Hmmm...that hurts.

I know I'm being a baby. But that's the way it is when your daughter is as perfect and awesome as Ellie.

Wrong wrong wrong

This story is just plain wrong. On so many levels.

If I'm not mistaken, every single thing in it just reeks of wrongness. I can't even start with the details. But if there's a principal in the story (excluding the law prof called in for a prediction) who has a single basic remnant of decency, I didn't see it.

Wrong, wrong, wrong, all of it is wrong. And bad, bad, bad. It needs a new word..."badong."

Sorry

No posts in a little while...partly I'm moving my e-life onto a new computer (dad's old laptop, which is newer than mine) and partly because I'm actually getting somewhere on my dissertation these days. Funny that.

Anyway, more on Ellie to follow sometime soon. Thanks for your patience.

My new background picture

This is what I see on my computer every day now. It doesn't begin to show her happy personality or her genuine charm.

OK, I'm being a total sap. But you would too if she were yours.

First sniffles

Ellie's getting through her first little cold. She's doing fine with it -- she's a little sleepier than normal, so she gets tired-cranky a little more often. But she's not noticeably worse when she's not tired.

She loves sneezing, even though it's a lot messier than normal -- she laughs and smiles just about every time. (She hates getting her nose wiped, though.) It bothers Mama and Papa to hear her gurgly nose-breathing (OK, sorry if you're eating while you read this) but Ellie's her usual happy self.

What a blessing she is. I can't imagine a better baby. Well, maybe Ellie without all the spitting up. But otherwise, she's perfect.

Well, that was a disaster

So our church does an occasional Friday-night "date night," where they do a few hours of child care so parents can get a night out without paying for a babysitter. Nice idea.

We dropped Ellie off last night. Tina got upset before we even left the church. I chalked that up to first-time-child-care-drop-off mommy-jitters, and we went shopping and to dinner at the home of the Butterburger. The whole time Tina was all stressed and unhappy, feeling like we forgot something. Then, less than an hour after we left, we got a call that Elizabeth was "having a hard time" and that we should come get her.

Hmmm. That didn't make Tina feel any better.

Apparently, right after we left, Ellie started looking around (for us, we guess) and crying. And crying. And she wouldn't stop. Everyone tried calming her, walking with her, whatever, and she wouldn't stop. She stopped after we got there, but was a little sobby and pretty tired.

Now, Ellie just doesn't cry like that. Ever. Nobody at the child care really seemed to believe us. Well, the folks from our bible study did, because they see her and know what a good baby she is. But the others were saying how they watch colicky babies all the time and it doesn't bother them. We're thinking, "She's not colicky!" but of course they probably hear that all the time.

Anyway, the whole night ended up being a lot more stressful than if we'd just taken Ellie shopping and to the restaurant with us. Not that we think anyone at Trinity did anything wrong, but Ellie's such an easy baby that it's not at all stressful to have her with us.

We've been thinking about dropping Ellie off at child care on Sundays, but Tina's been reluctant to do it. No less so now, I'm sure. We'll have to work her up to it. Ellie, I mean.

Well, and Tina too.