Joe & Emily Darowski: 2009

Where has the time gone? It seems like just yesterday we were fairly consistent blog-updaters. Now look at us. In the last month we've posted one 30 second video of our daughter climbing the stairs. Time to make up for our slacker ways. Thus, we begin back in the early days of September, when we made a trip to Dallas.

DALLAS TRIP (Sep. 3-8)

The purpose of this trip was two-fold. 1) Joe's brother, Adam, lives in Dallas with his wife and 3 children. They had yet to meet Lizzie, and it had just been awhile since we'd seen each other. 2) #20 BYU was playing #3 Oklahoma at the new Dallas Cowboys' stadium, and Adam had procured tickets. Joe was ecstatic beyond belief about the prospect of attending this game, having thought about this game since the day it was announced, and Emily thought it might be fun.

An added bonus for the trip was the Joe's Aunt Beth was also in town, so she got to meet Lizzie for the first time. Also, Emily's brother Mark was going to the game, so Mark, his wife, and children were able to meet up with us for a few hours before the game.

Here is a picture of Lizzie with her Uncle Adam and a picture of Lizzie and her cousin (Richard or Robert...they're twins and I'm not sure which one we've got here) and her Aunt Dorias (DISCLAIMER: Joe has taught Lizzie to scrunch up her eyes when she gives a big smile. The fruits of his labors can be seen in the two pictures below).

THE GAME (Sep. 5)

While seeing family was nice the game was spectacular. Easily the game ranks as the greatest sporting experience of Joe's life. Admittedly, some of the luster was lost when BYU choked against Florida State two weeks later, but that single game, with the huge upset of Oklahoma, still stands as a fantastic moment in BYU football history.

Our seats were in an Oklahoma section, but we were near the portion of the stadium that was allocated for BYU fans. Even though we were in an Oklahoma section we proudly wore BYU blue and cheered loudly (Joe cheered most loudly) for the Cougars.

You could feel the largely Oklahoma cheering crowd getting a little antsy when BYU was getting blown out of the water after 1 quarter (it was obvious they were coming for the christening of their National Title run). Of course, that was nothing compared to subdued panic that could be felt when the defending Heisman Trophy winner Sam Bradford was knocked out of the game. Tens of thousands of people falling silent as a lone figure lies injured on the ground is an interesting sound (if silence counts as a sound...which Simon and Garfunkel famously argued).

The stadium was fantastic, the game was close, the outcome was what we hoped for. All around a great sporting experience. Joe plans to frame the tickets. This bemuses Emily.

Travelling with Lizzie

For both our trip to Utah (chronicled a couple blog posts ago) and our trip to Dallas one of the big question marks was how our small child would handle air travel. Lizzie was the x-factor in our plans. Largely Lizzie did really, really well on all the flights. Very little fussing, and she never really hit a point where she was out and out crying.

When we were waiting to board at the Dallas airport Lizzie wouldn't fall asleep, I was standing with her trying to calm her down, and she would periodically give a loud cry. At those moments I felt every other passenger in the waiting area tense up. Nobody looked at me, but I knew they were paying attention to me and my daughter. Fortunately, once we were on the plane she was really good.

However, when we flying from Dallas to Chicago, as we were making our final approach to the airport, she started to get pretty fussy. We thought maybe the change in air pressure was bothering her. Then, just before we landed, she threw up on herself, Emily's sweater, and my right arm and leg. I had no idea such a tiny person could be hoarding so much in her itty bitty stomach. In the first episode of LOST, Jack says: "fear’s sort of an odd thing. When I was in residency, my first solo procedure was a spinal surgery on a sixteen-year-old kid. A girl. And at the end, after ... 13 hours, I was closing her up and I ... I accidentally ripped her dural sack. It’s right at the base of the spine where all the nerves come together. Membrane is thin as tissue. So it ... it ripped open. Nerves just spilled out of her like angel hair pasta. Spinal fluid flowing out of her and ... and the terror was just so ... crazy. So real. And I knew I had to deal with it. So I just made a choice. I’d let the fear in. Let it take over, let it do its thing. But only for five seconds, that’s all I was gonna give it. So I started to count: 1...2...3...4...5. And it was gone. I went back to work, sewed her up, and she was fine." That pretty sums up my feelings as I looked down and saw baby vomit all over and...the smell...it's a terrible smell. I'm sure moms know it well. Anyway, fairly quickly I reached into our diaper bag and grabbed our diaper changing pad to wipe up the vomit, and then the baby wipes for a more thorough clean up. We had a ziploc bag we stuffed everything into (in the end we tossed the ziploc and called the diaper changing pad a loss, because we didn't want to release the smell by opening the bag to wash the pad). After we got into the airport Emily and I took turns going into the restroom and washing our hands and arms. Lizzie looked pretty pale after we got off the plane, but she seemed more herself by the time we were getting on the next plane.

Here's a picture of Lizzie and Joe at the airport, with Lizzie practicing the smile Joe taught her.

The Beach (Sep. 18)

Emily's mom is now renting the apartment below us. She's helping us out by watching Lizzie while we each try to make headway in writing our dissertations (Lizzie is just a little person, but she can be a big distraction when you're working on a PhD (but a good distraction)). Emily's brother Eric lives in Indiana, so one weekend Eric and his family came to visit us and we all went to the beach. Now, those unfamiliar with the Great Lakes may wonder what sort of beach is to be found in Michigan, which is admittedly far from the coasts. Well, the Great Lakes are appropriately named, and they have beaches which are plenty nice for a day trip. When you're on the shore of Lake Michigan there is no sign of there being anything on the horizon other than water.

We were a little concerned about how Lizzie would take to the sand. Turns out she loved it. And not in the I-want-to-eat-it way she loves so many other things. She just had a blast playing in it.

The Cider Mill (Sep. 26)

Finally, this last little update will catch us up to last weekend. We went to a cider mill with some friends (nothing says autumn like college football and apple cider). Besides delicious fresh cider, the mill had a corn maze and various other farm themed entertainment. This post is already wordy, so I'll just slap up a few more photos and call it good.