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).

Mama thought the chair was gonna tip over!

 

Happy girl

A happy girl in her favorite chair.

Well, her papa's favorite chair. Ellie's favorite chair is probably her mama's lap. 

odd pic, cute story

Ellie likes to stick her finger in the end of the stick eraser and pull it out to hear the little popping sound.

She usually will try 2 or 3 times until she gets the sound, then stops. So it's pretty clear she has an idea in her head about what she wants to do with the thing, and knows how to go about it and when she's accomplished it.

For most people, that's just a cute little thing a baby does. But for someone who's piddling around in graduate school, especially someone studying cognitive psychology (as a minor), that's evidence of a "goal-directed system" with "test, operate, test, exit" processes.

Never ever ever get a PhD. It makes your brain really goofy. 

I knew it

So my monkey came back, with a new tooth peeking through right next to the first one. I just knew that would happen.

Plus, yesterday when they got in, Ellie was really tired and cranky from the car ride, and she kept looking at me and crying. Not happy for papa. A good nap took care of it, but for a while I was as sad as she looked.

Last night, she wouldn't stay asleep until papa put her to bed. So that made up for it...except that it was 2 in the morning and we didn't realize that's what she wanted until mama tried it a few times. (Or maybe Ellie was just tired...but I'm gonna say she wanted me to put her to sleep.)

And so it begins again

Here starts another week without my monkey. Ellie,Tina and Mammaw are headed to Auburn, Alabalamalammy to spend a week with Ellie's aunt Donna. So I get to spend a week without them.

Well, I usually spend a week without Mammaw, because she lives in Cincinnati and I in Michigan. But Ellie and Tina, I'm usually with.

So I probably won't blog anything, there being nothing about the Mastilakbaby to blog.

Milk options

Ellie could get goat's milk after she's off the formulee. It's supposed to be easier to digest. Tina's not thrilled about the idea, mostly because she's never had goat's milk (or goat's anything).

Maybe we can get our own dairy goats someday. Depends on where we live.

Milkula bad

OK, so the milkula experiment was a flop. It turns out Ellie has a sort of cow's-milk intolerance that leaves her sort of...well, solidified, if you catch my drift. As soon as she went on the milkula, she got unhappy. As soon as she went off it, happy again.

Apparently it's not all that uncommon, so we tried a day or two of soy "milk" (I, a fan of dairy in all its forms, hate to sully the good name of milk by associating it with a bean product), but being a bean product, it gave her a bubbly tummy. So that was no good.

So now she's on 75% Isomil soy-based formula (the same formula she's been on for a while) and 25% Nestle Good Start formula, which is cows'-milk based but is supposedly partly broken down for easier digestion.

What we'll do once the formula days are over is a bit up in the air. She probably can't ever really have that much milk if she wants to poop ever again, which she probably doesn't think much about now but is probably a good plan. Soy "milk" is straight-up nasty, but we might have to give it to her with gas-X or something.

By the way, Tina is a sicko. She thinks even the sweet goodness of organic whole milk is sour (compared to her coco-crispy chocolate milk, I guess it is) and actually likes the watery Edensoy yuck. She might push to give it to Ellie...well, I guess Ellie might have to get it, but man! will I be unhappy about that. Real people drink milk.

Waaaay too proud of myself

OK, for most guys this would be no big deal, but we put a new faucet in the kitchen today. The old one was leaking, and in true Mastilak fashion, we just bought a new one.

I come from a family in which (no exaggeration) the last two new car purchases were made because a van needed new tires and a Buick needed a new window motor. So I never really learned how to fix things, just to replace them. Of course, nobody could teach me to do things like replace faucets, which is why I'm so proud of myself.

All of which is more than anyone wants to know. Suffice it to say, we don't work with our hands much in the Mastilak line. Our mouths and our brains, but not our hands.

Feeding the giraffe

Here are Ellie and Tina (bottom right, Ellie's the little yellow hat sticking up) coming face-to-face with a giraffe at the zoo.

They sell "giraffe biscuits" to feed the big ol' beasts. Ellie didn't like getting face-to-mouth with it.

Sorry for the poor quality - it's a screen capture from a video. 

Waitin' for the tram

Here're Ellie & mama waiting for the tram.

And not smoking. 

Llama-llama-bo-bama

Here're Ellie & I watching a llama get fed. He got carrots and some green things I didn't quite recognize.

I'm not good with vegetables yet. 

Tram time

Here's Ellie enjoying a ride on the tram at the Binder Park Zoo in Battle Creek, MI.