Happy Thankgiving

We celebrated Thanksgiving at the Pastalaniec Compound in South Houston. Grandma and Dziadziu cooked up a delicious spread, as ususal. Traditional delicacies included Spinach Madeline, Tofurkey, and Rabbit-Free (i.e. vegetarian) dressing along with more normal fare.

Last Sunday we had Thanksgiving with the whole Milby clan, hosted by Anida's sister Teresa. Barb and I also had a double date with Eric and Anida last night - thanks to all the grandparents for baby sitting.

Last Saturday was our Godchild Morgan's baptism at St. Vincent DePaul. It was beautiful - hopefully we will have pictures posted soon...

Sean models a cut lip for his first Thankgiving - also slight bruises on each cheek. Sean is a big fan of the face plant.

Pastalaniec family, minus photagrapher Joanne


Joe and Joanne pull the Tofurkey wishbone

10 Months Old

Happy 10-Month Birthday! Sean is growing and advancing with leaps and bounds. He stood for almost 10 seconds the other day. He thought he was being held up by a shoe lace he was holding up from a shoe in his toy box - psyche!

He seems to be trying to use four words - mama, dada, cat and uh-oh. The uh-oh sound is the most definite and the funniest - he uses it at appropriate times but can only say "uh" not "oh."

For the last week he has been using his walking toys to "walk" around the living room. He pulls up and crawls on every thing. He latest trick is trying to do chin-ups on the dining table.

Halloween Night

Pictures shamelessly lifted from the new re-branded Gator Blog!

Besides making a grab for Morgan, Sean slept through most of Halloween. Dave missed his trick or treating with the Carters and Johnsons for the first time in 5 years. Duty called and he was at ISP Corporate in NJ.

The gangs all here (well, minus sick Braden and sister Gillian) (and mostly awake...)

Halloween Weekend

Above, another picture taken at PicturePeople in the Galleria. They did a great job and it was well worth the shekels.

Sean has not yet selected a "comfort object" as many crumb crunchers his age do (e.g. blanket, stuffed animal, etc.) He does, however, pick favorite objects for one or two day periods. This weekend it was both a plastic back massage thingy and the plastic measuring cup/cap that comes with our laundry soap. When he crawls around the house carrying the cap it sounds like a pegged-leg pirate is walking around. At least he had the good sense to pick plastic objects! 2007 is the 100th anniversary of plastic! Bakelite on Wikipedia, 1950's film on plastic, Ansco Panda Bakelite Camera - made by GAF (now ISP.)

Saturday we went to Joshua Nolen's baptism in the Woodlands. The service was held at St. Anthony of Padua Catholic church. Interestingly enough, there is a St. Anthony of Padua church on Woodlands Drive in ... Singapore. Google maps would not give me directions from Houston to the church, causing me to look closer and change my search criteria!

Sunday we went for a walk around the ponds in the back of the 'hood and then on another walk with the Johnson's to go to some open houses in Westwood on "the other side of the tracks." In a neighborhood where most house go for $150,000 tops there is one street with new houses being built on existing lots and being sold for $500,000 and up. We went to three houses, which all had cool features (including closets! We don't have many of those in this neighborhood.)

4117 Woodhaven
4125 Woodhaven
4130 Woodhaven

Hidden room with a "Texas Basement" - a climate controlled portion of the attic

Kitchen with cool brickwork around the stove

More cool kitchen brickwork

Halloween is Coming!

Sean 9-Month Dr. Appt. Update:

• Weight: 18 lbs. 12 ozs. - 25%
• Height: 29.4" - 90%
• Head Circumference: 17.5" - 25%

Still tall, skinny and with feet and ears too big for his head! :-) He remains a joy and a happy baby. He has 7 teeth now and more are coming. Sean is very mobile and sits, stands and kneels (A Catholic!) and is close to walking. He hates to go to sleep at night and end the fun, but has really established a routine anyway. By the time 8:30pm comes around he is really ready for bed.

Sean loves to feed himself everything and eats most of what mom and dad eat now. He will crawl into the kitchen and pick the Cheerios box or Goldfish bag off the shelf and try to get into them.

Late October...

OK, it has been an inexcusably long time since the last posting. The weekend before last we went to Denver for our annual rite of fall with the Wheatley's. For 11 striaght years now it has not been autumn without a visit to Eric and Anida (now with Daniel and Rachel!) We forgot our camera, see a cute picture of Rachel and Sean HERE. The toy they are playing with - the Leap Frog Musical Table - Sean liked so much we picked one up from Craig's List within 3 or 4 days for $15 - he loves it! We had a great time with Eric and Anida and the kids and going to the Great American Beer Festival. Texas did not do so well this year...

Brewery	Beer	State	Medals	Category
Fredericksburg Brewing Co.	Pioneer Porter	TX	Gold	Brown Porter
Fredericksburg Brewing Co.	Enchanted Rock Red Ale	TX	Bronze	Irish Style Red Ale
Saint Arnold Brewing Co.	Saint Arnold Fancy Lawnmower	TX	Gold	German Style Kölsch/Köln Style Kölsch

Dave and Sean did suffer from a short-lived virus that Grandma and Dziadziu also caught. Further investigation revealed that Dave caught it at work, leading to more celebration than planned of National Infection Prevention week at ISP - Texas City last week!

Elissa's 2nd Birthday gave everyone a chance to dress up for Halloween early. Above are the Cavemen (uh, CavePEOPLE - I just went to harassment training) Pasta's with little Pasta-Saurus.

The birthday girl shows off her much improved birthday cake eating skills (compared to last year!)

Nana with Sean, Elissa and Claire

Bring in the clowns!

Sunday we went hiking in Brazos Bend State Park. Afterwards Grandma and Dziadziu help Sean practice walking.

Dave and Sean on the trail

Uncle Joe and Sean planning future escapades...

Narcissistic Bachelor Dave Blog

Mom and Sean are in the Hill Country for a few days to visit Nana and Grandpa and for Barb to work. (Don't miss Sean's 9-month bday blog, below.)

Dave, confronted with two days alone, reverts to his bachelor ways. First, Sunday night dinner - Wolf Brand Chili with cheese or Kraft Macaroni and Cheese with tuna, peas and picante sauce? Due to my 2+ year boycott of Campbell Food products, Wolf Chili was out. (Dave to Campbell - I opened your soup and it was spoiled. Campbell to Dave - here are some coupons for Campbell products! Dave to Campbell - it happened again, spoiled soup! Campbell to Dave - here are some coupons for Campbell products! Dave to Campbell - your soup made me sick. I will eat no more Campbell products until I recieve from you a quality improvement plan. Campbell to Dave - here are some coupons for Campbell products!)





So on to menu item #2:
-One box Kraft Deluxe Macaroni & Cheese
-One can of dolphin free tuna
-One-half bag of frozen peas
-1/2 cup Pace yellow label picante sauce

It was great! Warning: Married men, even if you do not normally cook you should make it a practice to cook something at least once every six months. In case of an emergency you should be able to locate pots and pans and NOT spend 10+ minutes trying to figure out how the only can opener in the house works.


Yes, Pace is now owned by Campbell Foods - it is the one exception to my boycott. My only Karmic justification is that the person who developed Pace into what it is today before selling out to Campbell now runs NatureSweet Tomatoes - a cool company based out of S.A.

Sean is 9-Months Old!

Asleep after a busy Saturday (with the Ags atop the Big-XII South for the first time since 1998!)

Sunday morning with Dad in his Chair

C'mon Dad, I'm funnier than the comics!

Looking to see if someone is watching...

Rare shot of my upper teeth (Dad says naming rights will be available for my future braces installation.) Notice the new baby friendly furniture in the background - CDs have now joined the beer bottles in the garage.

Sean Bath Time Video

Grandma has babysat Sean for two days now while Barbara works. She and Sean play hard! Both days Sean went right to bed at 9pm, like someone flipped a switch. Dziadziu brought over lasagna for dinner tonight... Thanks guys!

Sean enjoys bath time, which is typically "sit in warm water and chew on different toys time" for him.



Daniel and Rachel in Denver now have a combined blog! Look for the link on the right hand side-bar.

Company Boy

We had a busy weekend, focused around a Sip-n-See for Morgan, our God Daughter. The theme was nursery rhymes and Mom, Keri, Michelle, and Tamme put a couple of weeks worth of creativity into planning the event.

Some pictures from last week. The most recently used SD-Card is suffering technical difficulties...

Google Test Video

9/15/07 College Game Day

Hello! Welcome to college football this week. First - this blog skips several things that should be blogged and may be posted as early as tonight - stay tuned.

Second - Several months ago Dave accidentally dropped the "diaper bag" camera onto cement. Friday we finally looked into what would be required to fix the now non-retracting lens on the Lumix LZ3 - cheapest price was $136! Price to replace the camera? $136 - exactly! Hmmm. Once we arrived in College Station for the A&M game and discovered that Dave's camera was still in Houston we ran into a Best Buy and bought a replacement Lumix LZ7 - for what turned out to be a $19 premium v. what is would cost online. PLUS a 30$ warranty that replaces the camera no matter what happens to it for 2 years.

OK, on with our story. Saturday morning we headed out for College Station - aiming to get there in time to watch the 2:30pm UT game on TV and then head to the stadium for the 6:00pm A&M game.

Barbara feeds Sean in his UT outfit while Dave tears hairs out over Longhorn game at Double Dave's in College Station

Things looked up for UT once Sean and Dave cheered them on together!

#6 Texas went on to beat the University of Central Florida (C-USA) Knights 35-32. Yes, look for UT to fall out of the top 10 this week. The only thing impressive they have done for the first three games of the season is win them.

Rhonda, Sean and Barbara cheer on the Aggies. Thanks to Rhonda and Joe for the near 50-yard line seats!

The Aggies went on to beat the University of Louisiana Monroe Warhawks 54-14. The Aggie 2nd and 3rd string played most of the 3rd and 4th quarter. Finally - a blowout for the Big XII besides by OU. The Aggie 2nd string quarterback ran the ball in for two touchdowns.

What is a Warhawk one might ask? It is the politically correct new mascot to replace the Indians of the school once know as the University of Northeast Louisiana. Warhawks only exist in college football, online video games and on the WWII era P-40 aircraft.

This odd mural was on the concourse near our seats. Interesting, but why must they insist on "sawing" Bevo's horns off? Where is PETA? Should UT come up with a song about de-clawing Reveille? Four times a game the Aggie fans sing a song that ends up with the crowd locking arms and swaying back and forth to saw "Varsity's" horns off. Dave leaves the stands and looks for inner peace during this time of the game.

Sean and Dave spent half-time playing on the grass just out side the seating area and underneath the 3rd largest high-def video screen in the Western Hemisphere. (UT 1st, Nebraska 2nd. - The Dallas Cowboys will win out in 2009 with a 9,000 sq. foot display)

An A&M tradition, taking pictures of your kids in front of the statue of Sul Ross, former president of A&M.

Sean at 4-months as a fetus

Sean Update (and flood pics)

Sean keeps growing up! His upper jaw is a plethora of growing teeth, which do wake him in the middle of the night. He is moving from solid pureed food to Cheerio's and is now 75% successful in hitting his mouth and not his lap. He claps his hands and laughs a lot.

It now seems like Sean stands more than sits or crawls. He crawls to any solid object, stands up, and promptly clears the surface of its contents. Above is his favorite climbing spot (and also where No. 2 seems to occur- or at least a lot of grunting.)

Sean and the Barley do OK. Sean is fascinated with her but keeps a pretty soft touch. Barley leaves before she gets too upset.

Hold on there cousin - a remote control is man's work!

Picture 1 of the backyard last week. Since we have lived here it has never rained enough to put 5-6 inches in the yard and float the mulch out of the flowerbeds. It has happened 4 times this year, 3 within a week.

If you are looking for my Infiniti back there, don't bother. The insurance company has totaled it. Luckily I owed slightly less on the car than they thought is was worth, so we get some money back. Now - off to new car shopping.

Lake Pasta

Busy Tuesday and Van Dyke Rant

Tuesday progressed uneventfully throughout most of the day. Then, on my commute home, I encountered a Houston gully washer. It only rained 1.5 inches, but did so in a short 20 minutes or so. An area around our house of about 4 square miles suddenly flooded. I tried several routes to get home, only to be blocked by obviously flooded streets and stalled and stopped cars. I decided to head back to I-610, and on a completely deserted on-ramp, encountered my own personal puddle. Seeing no stalled or stopped cars I assumed it was clear. As I headed down the ramp it started to look bad. Knowing the worst thing you can do is stop I started looking for a place to turn around. Then, I hit a dip and water came over the hood. I jerked the wheel to the left to get on a median and only made it half way up before the engine died.

I called Barb and started the 2 mile walk home. I got out of the car into water up to my mid-thigh. Water was already in the car on the passenger side. Every time an SUV or pickup passed the wake would pick up the passenger side of the car. Apparently a wake also killed my Blackberry. I made it 1/3 of the way home before neighbor Todd showed up in his Chevy Suburban to rescue me. We went back to try and push my car up onto the median with the help of an onlooker. His comment? "A flooded Infiniti - that's a damn shame!"

Todd took me home and then brought his family over for an already scheduled dinner. Before dinner I got down on one knee and asked the Johnson's to be Sean's Godparents. They said yes! We had of long list of contenders, however our church's requirement that Godparents both be practicing Catholics helped us focus on Todd and Tiffany. Then, they delighted us by asking us to be Morgan's Godparents! We are very excited!

Back to the car story: After dinner Todd and I went to check on the Infiniti. It, and the 40+ other flooded cars in the area, were gone. Towed by the city of Houston. I eventually tracked the car down to a yard in SW Houston. Ask me for stories on this place! The car would not start and the electrical system would not even start-up. Totally dead. I am waiting for USAA to inspect it and decide on the next step.

Luckily the Johnsons have a spare car at the moment, so I have something to drive to work in.

OK. Enough. I will rant on Van Dykes later....

Lots 'O Pictures Blog

OK, so we haven't posted new pictures since getting back from Scandinavia. Well, here they are.

Sean in his beach hut last weekend - a good place for a chew.

Daddy and Sean play in the water - it took me several tries to figure out I liked it.

I don't need a walker - I can crawl!

Elissa and Sean play with Dave

Elissa hugs Sean - he looks doubtful

My crumb crunching competitors

I show off my standing skills - Stage I

Stage II

Stage III

Stage IV - Yeah, that was me. No stunt babies needed!