Papa, tubby and sitting by a Christmas tree

 

Mama was a Viking

 
Shocking new evidence of her secret life as a marauding, pillaging Norse warrior!

Ellie took this

 
We got her a kiddie camera, and she took this picture with it. Nice sweater.

Oh yeah...

 
His face is obscured in this picture, but someone is wearing quite the sweater, isn't he?

Here I go boasting

 
Ellie is writing her own name (and a long name it is) -- the top "Elizabeth" was assisted. The bottom one isn't quite as good -- but she did it completely on her own, no hand-holding from anyone whatsoever. She wasn't quite 2 and a half when she did this. More like 2 and a quarter -- it was probably early January 2008 when she did this.

I know I'm biased but this kid is like superbright or something.

Not sure about this one...

 
Ellie looks like Yoko Ono playing an undead banshee or something...

too smiley-cute not to post

 

Ahhh, that's good tea

 

More tea party

 
There's real water in that thar teapot...and on the table, and on the child...

Ellie loves her tea party

 
She also loves to scratch herself on the nose when she's napping...

Ellie's not sure about Papa's hat, I think

 

Ellie reading to her great-grandma

 
Great-grandma makes these really cool collage cards for Ellie...lots of fun for all involved. And Ellie gets to read them. (She's not really reading yet -- she does recognize all the letters, of course, and knows a few words on sight.)

Four generations of Mastilaks

 

Christmas tree with big blue elephant

 
Silly story: Ellie was going to see Santa one morning, and I told her (jokingly) to tell him that she wanted a giraffe for Christmas. Instead she said "I want a big blue elephant." And that's what she told every mall Santa she saw. Naturally, every mall Santa was competely baffled by that. But come Christmas, there was a big blue elephant under the tree. So "the real Santa" must have gotten the message.

Three generations...

 
Well, not really. But sorta.

Ellie's looking forward to having a baby sister or brother, and is getting some good training in now.

Ellie at Christmas

 
Yeah, it's only two months past Christmas. Sue me.

Here she is opening a present at her Pappaw Phil's house.

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