Joe & Emily Darowski

Lizzie Birthday Pics!

2012-01-22T12:11:00.001-05:00

She turned the big 0-3! Over a month ago...but hey, better late than never.

A magnetic fishing game, puzzles and books, and getting to camp out in her new princess tent (which she sometimes asks that we put a superhero blanket over so it can be a superhero tent). What a day!

Anyone Still Out There?

2012-01-19T23:37:00.000-05:00

Considering our track record, there's really no reason you should still be frequenting at our blog, unless you're family and have to spend eternity with us anyway, or you're a really good friend who isn't deterred by long lapses in communication.

However, here we are, ready to give an update on our lives.

We survived our first semester teaching full-time, both with a 4-course, 2-prep load. To translate, we were both teaching 2 sections of 2 courses. Joe taught intro writing courses, which amounted to about 3000 pages of grading across the semester. Emily taught intro psych and cognitive psych. Our main survival technique was staying one step ahead of the students. For Emily, who had a 7:45am class MWF (who thought that was a good idea?), this meant many early mornings finishing lecture preps. Joe always seemed better at staying on top of things before classes, but he struggled to stay on top of the grading after classes.

Emily is impregnated. ETA of baby is late June. The first trimester was tiring and offered mid- to low-level nausea on a regular basis. Heartburn, aching hips, and restless legs have already made appearances. The second trimester has been more even keel and we all look forward to the gender identification ultrasound Feb. 6. Despite these minor complaints, we are super happy to see our family grow.

Joe is the editor of a book on essays about Superman. Feel free to add this to your own growing library of academic inquiries into super heroes and comic books (you all have one, right?). You can also feel good knowing you're contributing about .0000001% to our annual income, or something like that. Jokes aside, Joe has worked hard on this and there are negotiations for creating a series of essay collections on different superheroes.

Lizzie is amazing (she's a 3-year-old and does the good and bad things that come with the age, but she just brings so much happiness and fun into our lives that it makes up for the hours trying to get her to eat a decent dinner or clean up after herself or... the list could go on). We feel pretty blessed to have her as our daughter. She has quite the imagination. Given her thorough indoctrination into princesses and superheroes, she often creates fascinating ideas. She once informed us the cardboard box she was in was a robot princess cage. She loves to play Rapunzel by attaching a scarf to her head with a headband and then perching on our bed (the tower) and calling down to Flynn Rider (dad) to come up. She enjoys books and being read to, although she is sometimes frustrated she can't read herself. While she knows the ABCs verbally, we are still working on identifying letters by sight and sound. If only she would sit still long enough to be taught!

We'll try to get some pictures up here soon so you can see what a three-year-old Lizzie looks like.

Lizzie reads The Night Before Christmas

2011-11-28T11:13:00.000-05:00

Uncle Andrew is back

2011-11-21T17:02:00.000-05:00

Joe's brother, Andrew, just got back from serving a two-year mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. He was in Poland.

Because we're in Idaho, and he was returning to Utah, we were able to go and visit him the weekend he got back.

This was pretty much the first time Lizzie got to see him. They got along swimmingly.

Halloween: Tinkerbell

2011-11-02T09:58:00.000-04:00

Like a zombie rising from the grave...

2011-10-30T22:30:00.000-04:00

Some Halloweeny pics with Lizzie

2011-10-26T22:56:00.000-04:00

Not of her costume, we'll save that for after she officially wears it, but she's gotten into the Halloween spirit in other ways.

Catching up with Lizzie pictures

2011-10-20T14:18:00.000-04:00

Back when Aunt Kate saw Lizzie all the time many pictures were taken. Here are some of them:

Happy Birthday, Emily! (a week ago)

2011-10-19T00:31:00.000-04:00

So Emily had a birthday, and you should all know it was fantastic.* Mostly because of Lizzie.

Here are some pictures to prove it. First, Lizzie helped make Mommy dinner:

Then she gave her lots of hugs and kisses:

Lizzie even helped blow out the candle on Mommy's Molten Chocolate Birthday Cake:

And, amongst her gifts, Emily got socks! Therefore the birthday was awesome! Lizzie insisted that Mommy needed purple socks when we saw them in the store, because Mommy's favorite color is purple. Lizzie has declared that currently pink is her favorite color, but when she grows up purple will become her favorite color.

*Disclaimer: We are aware that we haven't posted in awhile and while we have plenty of excuses** we aren't going to make them.*** We're all just moving on.

**Our absence coincided with us becoming full-time employees of a University instead of grad students and with the tragic death of our camera, which is a crutch we rely on for these blog posts.****

***Except in the previous footnote.

****We got a new one as a graduation gift from Joe's parents.

Rexburg

2011-08-19T23:19:00.001-04:00

We're mostly settled in Rexburg now. We start our orientations on Monday, so the next chapter of our life is fast approaching.

We're very happy with the house we're renting, but alas, we can't post pictures right now because our camera suffered a sudden stop against a rock after a brief freefall. Whenever we get that situation worked out we'll post some pictures.

Lizzie stole Grandpa's hat

2011-07-30T12:26:00.002-04:00

She looks like a bit of a punk in a couple of those. But then, in an un-punklike manner, she ate an otterpop and loved showing off her green tongue.

Ambition

2011-07-25T23:48:00.001-04:00

I've been stealing a lot of posts from my sister Kate's blog. That's not going to stop now (but it will probably start shortly because she no longer has regular access to my daughter). In the meantime, here are some great pictures of Lizzie and a blow up pool.

Ambition, thy name is Lizzie:

After Dad stepped in and did his thing to help out, the fully inflated pool was ready for Lizzie to play in.

What a great picture

2011-07-23T20:09:00.000-04:00

My sister Kate posted this picture on her blog (it originally came from here) and I just love it.

Croquet

2011-07-22T12:49:00.000-04:00

We decided to play some croquet with Joe's family for a little bit of fun bonding. Lizzie gave it a try, but then got bored with the game.

In the end, as expected, Joe won it all (his sister Kate got second, and insisted on taking part in the glory of victory).

Success!

2011-07-19T17:00:00.000-04:00

Emily passed her dissertation today. They want some minor revisions, but they always want some minor revisions.

I'm very proud of you, Emily. Great job!

WHAT A DEAL!

2011-07-19T14:18:00.000-04:00

Toys R' Us is really pulling out all the stops to liquidate this merchandise!

And she's off

2011-07-16T20:33:00.000-04:00

Lizzie and I dropped Emily off at the airport today. She's flying back to Michigan to defend her dissertation this coming Tuesday, so look for some good news to be posted here roundabout Tuesday afternoon. Just about every bureaucratic*/administrative pothole that could be hit has been hit in the road to her defense, but now it's coming together.

Good luck, Emily!

*That word and all its sundry formations is my arch-nemesis. Rare is the time I spell it correctly on my first pass.

Beautifully Sad

2011-07-02T09:28:00.000-04:00

That's how my sister, Kate, described these photos of Lizzie she took:

On a less tragically stunning note, Lizzie's eyes really pop in this picture:

Cousin Julia

2011-06-29T21:20:00.000-04:00

Lizzie has a bucket load of cousins. One of the nice things about spending some time in Utah is that she's gotten to know some of them even better. Another perk is that her aunt Kate has been around with her nice camera to document this process. Here's Lizzie playing mostly with her cousin Julia, but Ellie and Sophia sneak into a couple of the pictures as well.

Crepe Cake

2011-06-25T22:50:00.000-04:00

We saw a variation of this on the Food Network and decided to give it a try. Basically, you slather whatever you want between crepes until its as tall as a cake, then ice it. We did alternating layers of strawberry jam and chocolate ganache and a cream cheese frosting. It was delicious, and the options for flavors are pretty endless.

A couple books

2011-06-24T09:32:00.001-04:00

Joe co-edited a book called "Movies, Music, and More: Advancing Popular Culture in the Writing Classroom." It's part of a book series published about professional development for composition teachers and writing center workers. He also wrote the introductory essay.

He also had a chapter published in "Green Lantern and Philosophy."

Little brother

2011-06-21T22:06:00.000-04:00

Sure he looks tough now, what with all the military training he's had, but once upon a time I could take this kid in physical competitions. Those days are long past. I'm proud of you, Alex. He's out of focus, but that's really my little brother there.

Lizzie and the Dark Lord of the Sith

2011-06-18T23:03:00.000-04:00

Yup, that's a fist bump.

Half-Marathoners

2011-06-12T08:35:00.000-04:00

Emily and my sister Kate ran a half-marathon Saturday morning. The day before Emily sent off a full draft of her dissertation to her committee chair. That's a pretty successful two-day combo for Emily. Way to go, Luv!

The Lollipop

2011-06-10T00:13:00.001-04:00

Some years ago (possibly ten or more) Joe received a gigantic lollipop as a gift. He never ate it. For years it sat on a shelf in his room and visiting nieces and nephews would ask if they could eat it. For no particular reason, Joe never let them have it.

Cut to the present day, and amongst various possessions still tucked away at his parents' house Joe and Lizzie came across the giant lollipop. Whereas the appeals of nieces and nephews were never given into to, Joe could not refuse the pleas of his daughter. It's a good thing sugar doesn't spoil.

Behold, the lollipop:

The light at the end of the grad school tunnel

2011-06-09T12:22:00.000-04:00

We've both been hired for one-year faculty positions at BYU-Idaho. Emily is in the Psychology department, and Joe is in the English department.

We need to be in Rexburg by mid-August for training. So now we know when this temporary-post-grad-school-crashing-at-our-parents'-houses experiment has to come to an end. We love that our parents made their homes available to us while we've sorted out our employment, but we're grateful we get to move on to the next stage of our lives.

Back in Utah

2011-06-05T22:29:00.001-04:00

We're back in Utah and that means that Lizzie is spending time with cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandparents. Her Aunt Kate has a nice camera and has found Lizzie to be a very photogenic subject. But taking pictures is far from all Kate has done with Lizzie.

There has been toenail painting:

Cake decorating:

And Lizzie has tried on Kate's hats, shoes, and other accessories:

Captain America

2011-06-01T11:28:00.002-04:00

So we haven't posted for awhile

2011-05-23T23:14:00.000-04:00

There's been a lot going on. We've moved out of Michigan, we graduated, and we're on the job market. Here are some photos of the graduation part of our lives:

Lizzie's Easter Egg Hunt

2011-04-24T22:03:00.000-04:00

Here are some pics from an Easter Egg hunt at church. This post is light on commentary and heavy on pictures, which may be a trend for the next few posts as times are busy at the Darowski household.

One Down, One To Go

2011-04-13T19:48:00.000-04:00

Joseph successfully defended his dissertation today. He's officially going to be a doctor. Emily will be wrapping up in the next couple months as well. Exciting times in the Darowski household.

Great shot

2011-04-09T13:54:00.000-04:00

Lizzie has been going stir crazy all winter, and one of the great releases for her energy is bouncing on Mommy and Daddy's bed. Here she is mid-bounce:

The Chicago Comic and Entertainment Expo

2011-04-08T22:41:00.000-04:00

A few weeks ago I went to the Chicago Comic and Entertainment Expo (C2E2) to do a presentation on a panel hosted by the American Library Association. My panel was academic, and I presented about using the Michigan State University Comic Art Collection in my research, in the classroom as a teacher, and as part of the MSU Comics Forum. The American Library Association hosted a number of panels about comic books in libraries, in schools, etc. So that part of C2E2 was academic. The rest was decidedly not.

I've never been to a Comic Con before, but I've followed the news coming out of many of them. They have a reputation of being a bit insane with people walking around dressed in costumes, panel discussions with comic book writers and artists, booths packed with comic books, artist alleys with comic artists doing sketches and selling their work, and a lot of chaos in between. C2E2 certainly had all that.

Here are some wide shots of the main floor:

When I walked out of the panel discussion I was a part of, these were the first two people I saw:

And that wasn't the craziest thing I saw. That would probably be Batman and Godzilla doing a synchronized dance:

But there were other crazy costumes too:

And there was also a working R2D2 robot:

A game of quidditch:

And a massive chalk drawing of the Green Lantern.

I don't typically see most of these things at the academic conferences I go to. I also got to go to a panel about the new Thor movie with the actor playing Thor there answering questions, so that was cool.

Not a list you want to be on

2011-03-25T21:25:00.002-04:00

On Wikipedia there is a list of notable instances where the Sports Illustrated Cover Jinx is supposed to have come into play. Out of curiosity I just took a look, and there's a new entry:

"March 24, 2011: The BYU Cougars player Jimmer Fredette appeared on the cover after the Cougars beat Gonzaga to take them to their first Sweet 16 since 1981. In the next game, Jimmer only hit 11 of 29 shots in a loss to the Florida Gators."

Well, I suppose if you make the list it means you were on the cover of Sports Illustrated, so it's not a terrible list to be on, but it's still probably not a life goal most kids make.

Maybe there's a curse...

2011-03-24T23:11:00.000-04:00

BYU lost in overtime to Florida in the Sweet Sixteen. Jimmer scored a ton, but his shot was definitely off tonight. I can't help but think if he'd been a little more on BYU probably would have won. But still, what a great season it's been. Great regular season, nice run in the tournament, and losing in overtime is nothing to be ashamed of.

I've passed through the stages of grief faster than expected. Thanks for the great year, BYU!

There is no curse, there is no curse, there is no curse...

2011-03-24T16:51:00.000-04:00

I am thoroughly wrapped up in Jimmermania. The newest Sports Illustrated has Jimmer on the cover...which is great on one hand, but troubling on the other. There is a supposed "S.I. Cover Jinx" or curse that strikes the athletes and teams on the cover. BYU plays tonight, and it will take off a little luster of my favorite team being on the cover of Sports Illustrated if BYU were to lose tonight. Here's hoping they make it on to the Elite Eight.

The Best Seat in the House

2011-03-15T23:32:00.000-04:00

Today they were doing some repair work on some pipes under our street. They had to dig a hole right in front of our house. Lizzie was very fascinated with the big trucks, as you will see in these photos.

First, she stood and stared:

Then she tried to get comfortable:

Then, she went the extra mile to ensure comfort:

Then, she decided her friends should watch too:

And finally, she tried a different angle:

All in all she was pretty entertained by the construction for about 45 minutes. At one point she called back to me, as she was frantically waving, "They say hi to Lizzie!" because the operator of the bulldozer was waving to her.

When one of the construction workers came to tell us they'd be turning off our water for about an hour he asked Lizzie if she wanted to help them. She nodded her head, then turned to me and said, "Shoes." Much to her disappointment I did not let her go out.

Lizzie learns her limitations

2011-03-14T15:03:00.000-04:00

Today, I was driving with Lizzie on a long stretch of straight road. The sun was shining brightly, and streaming straight in on her face. Almost immediately she said, "Stop sun. Turn off sun."

Being the responsible parents that we are, we have one of those window shade things, but Lizzie always rips it off if it is in the window. Sometimes, though, she'll hold the shade up in front of her face if the sun is bothering her, so I reached back and handed it to her. She immediately threw it down. With increasing volume she started to repeatedly yell "STOP SUN!" I tried to explain that as soon as we turned the sun would be out of her eyes, but sometimes it is hard to reason with a two-year-old.

Soon, she was crying and through her tears she continued to sob, "Stop sun." Shortly before we reached the turn she went silent. As we were waiting for the light to change and give me a green arrow, I looked back and told her we were about to turn and the sun would be out of her eyes. Her face was turned into the side of her car seat, her shoulders were drooped, and her limbs were limp. She looked completely defeated. She had gone from making a request of the sun to stop shining, to defiantly ordering the sun what to do, to begging, to complete silence. Her will was broken.

And she remained that way for the rest of the trip. Even after we turned, she didn't move until I stopped the car when we got to Emily's building and I got in the back seat to try and cheer her up. She had been bested by the sun, and she knew it. Of course, that's a battle most of us will lose, but from Lizzie's tone early on I think she really thought she could command the sun to stop shining on her. Lesson learned for Lizzie: you can't tell the sun what to do.

The Inevitable Aftermath of Building a Snowman

2011-03-02T21:35:00.001-05:00

So snowmen melt. Not big news to most of us, but Lizzie might not have been prepared for this. That's on us as parents. A bit of a rookie mistake not to mentally toughen her up for the inevitable.

The other day I looked out the window and saw that due to some warmer temperatures through the night Emily and Lizzie's snowman was now headless and the body was considerably smaller. Lizzie came over, climbed on the couch, and looked out the window too, most likely ready to wave to her friend the snowman.

She surveyed the scene. Her little shoulders slumped, her body seeming to melt in a reflection of the snowman outside, and she very quietly whispered, "So sad..."

Finally, a snowman

2011-02-24T20:10:00.000-05:00

Lizzie was a big fan of Spring, Summer, and Fall because she got to play outside fairly frequently. Winter has required a bit more of an interior lifestyle for the little lady, which has not always been quite as fun. However, she has been very fascinated with the images of snowmen that she sees. She especially likes the carrots they have for noses. She has asked to build a snowman fairly often, but we just hadn't gotten it done.

Being in Michigan you would think the opportunity to build a snowman would come about fairly frequently. On the one hand, we have plenty of snow, which is a key ingredient in snowman building. On the other, it can get freaking cold here, often too cold for a responsible parent to take a two-year-old out in for the length of time requisite for proper snowman construction. Between being too cold, the snow not being good packing snow, Lizzie being sick when we actually have the right snow and a reasonable temperature, and (let's be honest) her parents not wanting to go out into the Michigan winter, the stars have always been just out of alignment for Lizzie to get her much desired snowman fix.

Until today.

When I woke up I saw that it had snowed in the night. I actually only thought it was a light dusting, but when I went out to the car I saw that it was a couple inches. We had previously had a good six inches of non-snowman quality snow that has lingered about, but the fresh stuff seemed promising. I stopped in the driveway and made a snowball that actually held together. I rolled it around and lo, it actually grew in size. A very exciting development. I had to get to school, but I ran to a window where Emily was and knocked so she could see the snowball. Then I was off to school. At school I saw Emily's facebook status: "Word is it's snowman snow out there. Here's hoping. Lizzie's been begging to take a carrot out and work some magic."

When I got home I saw that magic had indeed been worked:

Well done, Emily and Lizzie.

Supergirl and the piano

2011-02-16T20:20:00.000-05:00

I really like this picture. That is all.

That mega-snowstorm

2011-02-10T23:57:00.000-05:00

You may recall a week and a half ago the country was put on warning for Snowmageddon, Fourth Horseman of the Snowpacolypse. We got a lot of snow, but not a life-altering amount. In the front yard we shoveled a fairly tall pile clearing the walk. In the back yard, clearing a path to the garage, we made a pile that was deep enough for me to jump into, but really there probably wasn't a need for Michigan State to cancel classes.

Incidentally, it was harder than I anticipated to get out of that pile.

Like Mother, Like Daughter

2011-02-04T10:57:00.000-05:00

I think Lizzie must have been sick when I took this picture, because normally she's not much for the cuddling/catching a nap next to Mom or Dad. Emily's hand is covered by the pillows, but really they are in about the exact same position.

Happy Hulk

2011-02-02T19:58:00.003-05:00

Amongst the many superhero toys Lizzie has at her disposal are a few versions of the Hulk. Hulk is probably the superhero toy she plays with the most (but don't worry, she readily identifies Superman, Spider-Man, Batman, Wolverine, the Thing, etc. when asked). She has also found several pictures of the Hulk amongst my comics. Sometimes she worries that the Hulk is sad or mad all the time (which, let's face it, is a valid concern. It's not like she's wrong).

So, I took Lizzie to the artist alley at the Michigan State University Comics Forum and we asked Guy Davis, an Eisner Award winning comic book artist, to sketch a happy Hulk. Guy Davis is the regular artist on a series called B.P.R.D. (The Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense) which features lots of monsters, so he seemed like a natural choice to draw the Hulk. He gave Hulk a bit of a Peanuts' design for Lizzie. Here is the result:

Lizzie is also fond of The Thing from The Fantastic Four. Marvel comic book artist Ryan Stegman was there and he drew Lizzie a sketch of the Thing with a smile, so she knows he's happy too:

Ph.D or Bust

2011-01-25T14:29:00.000-05:00

Joe has been doing a lot of posts of late and while comical (pun intended), they haven't been much of an update about our family.

So, here is a list of some of the things going on in our neck of the woods:

Joe and I are graduating this semester with our PhD's. (It may take a miracle. Need I say, this is stressful. We welcome any prayers on our behalf.)

Joe is on the job market (more prayers on this appreciated; I plan on staying home after graduating).

We experienced Lizzie's first case of croup.

We swapped Lizzie's room and the guest room to create a more convenient working space for Joe and I when Lizzie is sleeping.

We had Joe's brother John here for the weekend (he came for the comic forum).

I made my own laundry detergent and dabbled amateurishly in soap making with a Hobby Lobby kit.

We've both heard Lizzie count to 6, but she doesn't do it on demand so it's hard to say if it happened by accident.

Lizzie has slept in until 7 or 8 for 3 days IN A ROW. This is unheard of for a girl who has woken up by 6 for about 99.9% of her young life. Maybe she's having a growth spurt. Maybe she's realized her parents need more sleep. When I asked her if she was growing, she said, "No Jesus." Not sure what that means exactly. We have also asked her before if she had any dreams while sleeping and she answered, "No Jesus." It is very fun to hear the things Lizzie has to say.

I'm sure there's more really exciting stuff happening in between dissertating, taking care of Lizzie, dissertating, eating, dissertating, sleeping, dissertating, doing church stuff, dissertating, having date night, dissertating, having "Lost" night (a dinner/TV night with friends) and dissertating. I'll let you know when I think of it.

This was actually published

2011-01-24T11:09:00.000-05:00

At the MSU Comics Forum on Saturday there was one presentation on government produced comics. Comics that were usually either a how-to manual of some sort, were pure propaganda in war time, or which had some sort of safety message. While government comics have created a character or two that have proven successful (Smokey Bear, for example), not every comic book character the government produced was a hit. For example, Pip the Magic Safety Elephant never really took off. And I, for one, cannot understand why his career apparently ended after one appearance.

Everything about Pip is delightful. I particularly enjoy the pair of glasses on his trunk that are about a foot away from his eyes. The costume is all kinds of awesome. I also love the alliterative title The Perils of Pip Preventing Poisoning.

And, as my brother John pointed out, the name "PIP, The Magic Safety Elephant" is ambiguous. Is this an elephant teaching about the safe use of magic, or is this an elephant that can wield magic in a quest for safety?

The government needs to resurrect Pip, for the safety of children everywhere.

At the University of Nebraska's website you can download an electronic copy of the comic, so I may feature Pip again if I get around to reading it and the content proves as fantastic as the very promising cover I posted above.

MSU Comics Forum 2011

2011-01-15T14:15:00.000-05:00

For a few years now I've helped to organize the Michigan State University Comics Forum. It's a two-day event that features a keynote speaker Friday night, and then panel discussions and an artist's alley (where comic book artist show off their work, do sketches, talk with fans, etc.) on Saturday.

We've had a great run of participants, including several Eisner Award winners (think comic books Oscar). I'll be giving a presentation on Saturday. Everything is free and open to the public. The artist alley is going to have a great mix of independent and mainstream artists.

This year's event is next weekend. Here's the promotional poster by Ryan Claytor:

This one actually made me laugh

2011-01-11T20:28:00.001-05:00

Generally when I see facebook memes I ignore them. But when I saw one of my friend's products based on these instructions it made me laugh, so I figured I'd give it a go. I'll post the instructions, then my result:

1 - Go to wikipedia and hit random. The first random wikipedia article you get is the name of your band. 2 - Go to quotationspage.com and hit random. The last four or five words of the very last quote of the page is the title of your first album. 3 - Go to flickr and click on “explore the last seven days” Third picture, no matter what it is, will be your album cover. 4 - Use Gimp or Photoshop or similar (picnik.com is a free online photo editor) to put it all together. 5 - Post it with this text in the "caption."

I'm not sure which of the three elements I was most pleased with. I mean, that photo is absolutely fantastic. So that immediately gets an early lead in the "favorite element" race. But I love the absurdity of a band called Fencing at the 1976 Olympics. And that quote is just near enough to some angsty band's album title that it almost seems real but the seriousness is simultaneously a wonderfully humorous element in this cover art. All around an enjoyable 10 minutes.

The Future is Awesome

2011-01-10T00:06:00.000-05:00

One of the only things Emily and I have ever disagreed about is whether or not cars will ever drive themselves. Sure there may have been something or other that we haven't seen eye to eye about, but nothing comes to mind.

I've always been firmly in the camp that cars that drive themselves while I read comic books in the former-driver's seat are inevitable. Emily has argued that though the technology may reach that point, the potential liability issues will prevent a car company from releasing such a product.

Imagine my joy when I came across this opening sentence in a CNN article: "It's conventional wisdom in the auto industry, but the rest of us may be a bit shocked to find out that cars of the future likely will drive themselves."

Conventional wisdom was the phrase that leaped off the virtual page for me. It's just accepted that this is inevitable. I believe that means I win this particular debate.

And seeing as how we are so harmonious on every other front, a 1-point lead may prove insurmountable for Emily.

The Evolution of the Batmobile

2011-01-07T00:16:00.002-05:00

Stumbling upon things like this are what makes the internet so very amazing. According to the disclaimer at the bottom, the images came from batmobilehistory.com (you just know that site is going to be a fantastic time waster based on the name alone) and this layout was put together by carinsurance.com. I came across it at a comic book fansite called iFanboy.com. The actual design of the layout is as impressive as the information contained, in my opinion (oh...by the way this is Joe writing, not Emily, if you had doubts).

My goodness that 1995 one is atrocious (the one with the gigantic fin). What were they thinking? Actually, the 1993 one might be worse...bad couple of years there.

Catching up: Lizzie's Birthday

2010-12-30T22:22:00.000-05:00

Right, we'll get to Christmas soon enough, but first we should probably get a post up about Lizzie's birthday (15th of December). She was starting to understand the concept more this year, and Joe thinks next December is going to be a very exciting month for young miss Elizabeth.

Lizzie frequently asks us to draw monkeys for her, and Joe has a quick version of a monkey face that has become his standard, and thus that became the design for her cake. The color scheme bore no resemblance to an actual monkey, but rather was based on the color of fondant we had leftover in the freezer from my birthday cupcakes (no need to make a new batch when we had some lying around). Joe would like me to make the disclaimer that Lizzie is rocking some post-nap hair styling. I try to do cute stuff on occasion but when she rolls around so much doing this, that, and the other, it's a hard thing to maintain.

Opening presents from the parents: play kitchen stuff.

Eating brinner. At one point we asked Lizzie what she wanted for her birthday dinner and she said pancakes. We were never able to verify that that was what she really wanted, but she got it anyway (thank you Aunt Beth for the awesome winter-themed pancake fry pan).

Opening presents from Grandam Swensen while she watches on Skype (Oh Skype, what would we do without you?). My mom can find the best "old School toys" on e-bay and such. I hope some of you out there recognize these toys from your childhood.

Enjoying presents from Grandma Kay and Grandpa Joe (also Skyping in). This is a Spider Man quiet book that Lizzie seems to think seconds as a nice pillow when one must take a break from birthday festivities.

Here is Lizzie with the candles lit on her awesome monkey cake. You never know, this caricature could end up in a children's book someday so watch out for it.

Here is a video of us (me, Joe, and Utah Darowskis) singing Happy Birthday to Lizzie. She started crying. Let's just say the Darowskis are not known for their singing. I don't think I'm a terrible singer, but Lizzie was not pleased with the performance. Although I secretly like to believe she was starting to wonder why it was taking so long to get to the important part: eating cake!

Fantastic Hair

2010-12-23T19:12:00.000-05:00

Lizzie recently had her hair in two tight braided pigtails for a couple days (Emily's doing, not mine, I don't possess the necessary skill set). When her hair was finally released from its elastic tether the results were spectacular to say the least.

Happy Thanksgiving

2010-11-25T07:50:00.000-05:00

Fly high

2010-11-10T22:45:00.000-05:00

Well, she mostly got that last one...

2010-11-06T21:38:00.000-04:00

Lizzie's little injury

2010-11-03T22:08:00.001-04:00

My sister, Kate, was here for a few weeks (this is Joe writing...Emily doesn't have a sister Kate). She helped us out a TON. Emily and I are both trying to wrap up our PhDs and write dissertations, and that can be a touch time consuming. As can having a near-two-year-old (kudos to everyone who wrangles more than one child, my respect for you grows as Lizzie does). Kate would help watch Lizzie so both Emily and I could work. Again, huge help.

Now, the life of a toddler is filled with bumps and bruises and occasionally a more substantial owie or two. That's just part of the package deal. Kids sign up for it, parents sign up for it, we know it's inevitable. So, up front, I want it clear that Emily and I in no way want Kate to feel guilty about the story that's about to be related. She should have a clear conscience.

Kate actually wrote up the story on her own blog, so I'll just copy and paste the tale in her own words:

Now I've done it.

Let me just start off with this and make sure it's known.
I DID NOT MEAN TO BREAK MY NIECE'S ARM.
But break it I did. According to 2 doctors at least. 2 other doctors when viewing the x-ray say it is in fact not actually broken. Who knows what the truth is. I still feel guilty/horrible/like-a-child-abuser nonetheless.[*]

My precious niece whom I have been watching everyday for the past 4 1/2 weeks enjoys spinning. As in twirling around. As in me picking her up and swirling around. Also as in playing Ring Around the Rosie. (over and over and over again...) It brings a huge smile to her face every time. And really, I feel as her Aunt it is my duty to always bring out such a smile no matter what.

Mistake.

We were spinning. Joy was had. Lots of smiles and laughter. (she has the cutest little laugh you ever did hear. so contagious.) I may have possibly been lost in the moment as we were spinning and lifted her up off her feet by her fragile little hands/wrists and spun around. She did in fact love it. Enthralled by her smiling face I kept spinning her probably what was a smidge too long and she cried out in pain. I brought her down. She got over it. We played ring around the rosie immediately after. She went to "all fall down" and I didn't quite anticipate the correct timing to let go and held on. You get the picture. There were tears.

There could not have been a worse day for this to occur. Once she settled down she clung to me for the rest of the day, and semi-regularly had an outburst of tears as if in utter pain. However, the day before she had received a flu shot, and I myself tend to feel like complete crap the day after receiving one. I had anticipated her not feeling well. I simply assumed she was just feeling sick. [it was probably a combo of both] I had not put together that it was her arm that was causing the pain. (although it was probably there in the back of my mind being pushed away for want of being able to remain blameless.) If only she could have communicated to me what the pain was. Oh verbal ability, how I take you for granted.

I don't know which is worse. That I caused a broken arm in a 2 yr old. (tragic) Or that I failed to recognize it for an entire day. (unforgivable)
Maternity instincts = failure. Am I a disgrace to all women?

It would appear that Joe Bro and Emily do not blame me at all for the broken state of their daughter. Very kind. But I mean come on, I broke your child. Not even the littlest twinge of worry as you step out the door every morning, leaving me alone with your beloved toddler for 8 hours? Have you not great anxiety at the thought of coming home and what you might find? One must wonder...

Perhaps now would be appropriate to mention that I am retiring my time as a glorified baby-sitter/sort-of-nanny/live-in-child-watcher (ew creepy much?) and am moving back to home sweet home Utah. I am in hopes of finding a job out there, saving money, and if the stars align can go to grad school in the near future -- don't hold your breath though, it would appear my awesome luck in life ran out the day I graduated college.

[Sidenote: my moving back to Utah has no relation to the above event. Just a humorous way to let anyone who cares knows. Lack of job being the main reason for the change. And no doubt Big Bro and Sis In Law grew tiresome of my constant presence. Can ya blame them? Throw in the fact that I broke a child, I don't think they'd take me back.]

Lizzie hasn't found a broken arm too much of a hindrance. She still plays plenty. She didn't get a cast, just the cutest tiniest splint.
So Adam, brother of mine, still want me to come visit your delightful bunch in Texas? Sissy, still trust me to watch your beloved youngins? A question to ask yourself before placing your own flesh and blood near me.

ps. Lizzie and I. We spin no more.

*We got some follow up X-Rays done a week later and they said there was an injury (probably a compression fracture) but with the astounding ability of young bodies to bounce back, it has already pretty much healed completely.

Kate is also convinced that Lizzie may have gotten some revenge on her. I, of course, think my daughter is too innocent for such a thing, but the circumstances are intriguing. To appreciate the purported revenge, it needs to be known that we carved some pumpkins before Halloween. Lizzie helped Kate clean out the pumpkin:

And also wanted to decorate her own:

Here are the finished carved pumpkins:

Kate carved the Boo pumpkin and I carved the Superman one (surprise!).

Anyway, we'll copy and paste from Kate's blog again for the supposed tale of Lizzie's revenge:

Silent Revenge

I didn't think she was mad at me. Lizzie didn't seem to hold any grudges against me for the incident involving her arm.

In fact she seemed to love me even more. She still wanted to play with me and still wanted to sit with me. And even tried to get me to spin with her.

She was just bidding her time.

Plotting her next move.

Earlier this morning Lizzie was playing in the front porch-like-thing area. (there's not really a name for it) Where the newly carved pumpkins are kept. Lizzie plays there often. Its like her own little sanctuary.

I heard a small thud. A strange little noise. I went to investigate.

I found Lizzie looking up at me, a small hint of a little smirk on her face. Uttering a slow, low, almost a whisper-- Uh-oh.

She had shoved my carved pumpkin off the table, thus causing it to break. Not her dad's pumpkin that was right next to mine, but just mine. She knew. I know she knew what she was doing.

She understands life very well for someone so young. Her logic: You break me, I break something of yours.

You might think she didn't do it on purpose. That she had no clue, and it was just an accident. Oh so naive. This little girl has proven on a number of occasions she is capable of great trickery and is not afraid to use it.

I warn you, never cross this sweet-face little girl.

And that's Kate's version of events. I'll leave it to each of you to judge if Lizzie knowingly took out Kate's pumpkin in retribution for the arm incident.

Halloween and a Violation of the Social Contract

2010-11-02T22:21:00.000-04:00

Our church had a Trunk-or-Treat for all the kiddies. This is a nice safe (and compact) way for the young-uns to get loads of candy. Lizzie is almost two and now routinely asks for a treat before bedtime so I figured she would be all over the idea of people just handing her candy.

Unfortunately, Lizzie did not grasp this concept at all. So while I was handing out candy, Emily was watching Lizzie run in the grass and hide in the bushes. That's all Lizzie wanted to do. After twenty minutes I was nearly out of candy and Lizzie had not gotten a single piece. I feel this was a violation of the social contract on some level. As parents there is an understanding that we hand our candy to the children, but simultaneously our kid is getting a wide variety of candy with which to replenish our candy store. What we lose in volume in this transaction, we more than make up with in variety. The parents will then go through the kids bag and pick out the good stuff. A win-win for everyone involved.

But because Lizzie was busy playing in the flora our stock wasn't getting replenished. The whole trunk-or-treat thing was winding down when I took matters into my own hands and picked Lizzie up and walked around to five or so cars so that we had something to enjoy when we got home...oh, and so that Lizzie would enjoy herself. And she did start to get the idea that people were giving her candy, but once she had a piece in each hand, she was good. Sigh...Lizzie better get the system down next year.

Here are some pics:

Happy Birthday Emily! (several weeks ago...)

2010-10-28T10:27:00.001-04:00

Emily's birthday is the tenth of October. That means this year her birthday was all sorts of awesome because it was 10-10-10. Naturally, there is only one thing you can do with such an awesome birthday: throw a Binary Birthday Bash. Emily and I put our heads together to come up with some ways we could incorporate 1s and 0s into her birthday party (along with my sister Kate who was around to help plan). We used the food to highlight the date.

All the food was paired in shapes of 1s and 0s.

Carrots and cucumber slices, apple slices and grapes, round and straight pretzels...

Meatballs and Lil' Smokies...

Onion rings and french fries, and the condiments in appropriately shaped dishes.

And instead of cake, cupcakes with appropriate decorations.

Hope you had a Happy Binary Birthday, Emily.

P.S. During the party Lizzie joined a toddler herd, which was also fantastic:

The Surprising Side of Santa

2010-10-16T15:20:00.003-04:00

coauthored by Joe and his sister Kate

You may think its a little too early to be talking about Santa, and it really is. BUT this just could not wait. Last week we took a trip to Frankenmuth, a German town in MI, while my parents were in town. We stopped by Bronner's--the world's largest mega huge massive Christmas store. Open 361 days of the year. Closed: Christmas, Thanksgiving, Good Friday, New Year's.

Due to our discoveries there, I bring to you the October Christmas post.

It's just not every day that you see a lawn mower weaving through a Nativity Scene.

These pics just don't do it justice. But this store was MASSIVE! There were 16 sections, which were then divided into even more sections. So you ended up wandering through 10C and found yourself completely lost in a magical Christmas wonderland. (Slight disappointment did occur when we walked out and realized, it's still only October.)

Lizzie learned a new word there: Santa. She did get a little tired while there walking through the vast expanse of Christmas merchandise.

It had all the typical things you might expect a Christmas store to have, ornaments, Nativity sets, Christmas Trees (artificial), Christmas books, stuffed animals, outdoor decorations....the list is endless.

There were some unique surprises...
Scary Polar Bear, Lazy Tiger, and Gigantic Santa Claus.

However,
No one expected to find this.

Flirty Santa
Please note the ridiculous manner in which he is laying on his belly, with a foot cocked into the air, and he is coyly lifting his glasses off of his nose. All in all it is an inappropriately flirtatious position in which to find a beloved Christmas icon.

But, no judgment here, if this happens to be your cup of tea, you yourself can have your very own flirty Santa for only $2,000. I believe Bronner's offers free shipping and no sales tax on purchases over $100.

This was shocking to find once in the store. Little did we know how enamored Bronner's was with this interpretation of Santa.

After exiting the store we came upon a display window dedicated to Flirty Santa.

And then, we discovered that Bronner's has chosen to seduce passing motorists with a Flirty Santa perched atop the store sign, offering come hither glances to vehicles.

As a final surprise we turned a corner and saw a brand new model of Flirty Santa.
We call him Coquettish Santa.
Price: unknown.

More Picture Collages

2010-10-10T21:28:00.002-04:00

What Lizzie is doing these days:
Lizzie is officially in the toddler zone. She's a petite creature, but she does not lack in energy. Her vocabulary is increasing like crazy. She knows important things like distinguishing between Superman and Batman. She knows how to ask for chocolate (now look here, don't judge; I admire parents who have kept sugar a secret from their kids; however, I have not). Her favorite friend right now is her stuffed monkey, "George". She loves playing outside or "side" and taking walks in the stroller or "loller". She loves to draw and play with stickers. At night when we put her to bed, I always close the routine with singing. Right now she's on a "Wheels on the Bus" kick. I start singing out the traditional song and then she calls out what is on the bus. These call-outs range from Mommy and Daddy to monkey to babies to sheep to cars to bikes. I have to be very creative.

Anyhow, Joe took Kate and Lizzie to campus last Friday to see the ducks on the river and to romp around in the woods. Here are some of the pictures from their day. Enjoy.

Here is Kate. She took most of these pictures. As she was trying to get cute pictures with Lizzie on the log, Lizzie kept scooting away. Kate called her a punk jokingly and Lizzie said, "Punk," right back. You just never know what word they're going to repeat.

Writer & Artist of the Future

2010-10-06T11:23:00.001-04:00

Joe's sister Kate is visiting us to help watch Lizzie as Joe and I dissertate. I took the following from her blog. (Yeah, I pretty much just plagiarized your blog Kate. Although, it was our camera, so I guess we're even.)

Kate says, "One day last week we went out to play in the backyard. Lizzie was good with playing on her own so I had brought out a book and notebook. Lizzie promptly stole my notebook and pen and started drawing. And then things got adorable. I quickly grabbed the camera. You must now brace yourself for the cutest pictures. EVER."

She said it not me. "Cutest pictures. EVER." You'll understand.

These pictures make me nervous for 14 years from now

2010-09-14T16:16:00.002-04:00

Sorry for our recent blogging absence. In the interim we've moved, Emily defended her dissertation proposal, and had various other adventures. Here are a couple pictures of Lizzie to kick off our renewed blogging plans.

Lizzie and the laundry basket

2010-07-23T08:14:00.001-04:00

You never know what's going to entertain a kid...

I suppose if Hulk gets to go to the tea party...

2010-07-16T12:47:00.003-04:00

...then it's only fair that Princess Jasmine gets to ride in the 1940's era Batmobile.

Greatest Tea Party Ever: A Story in Two Pictures

2010-07-08T12:32:00.002-04:00

Lizzie and the Marshmallows: A Story in Two Pictures

2010-07-06T23:55:00.001-04:00

Iron Toddler

2010-05-20T11:22:00.002-04:00

If you know Joe, you know he was exceedingly excited for Iron Man 2. Well, he wasn't the only one in the family to catch a little Iron Man Fever (though Lizzie won't be seeing the movie for many years...). Lizzie calls the mask her hat, and will try to strap it on herself every now and then.

A few thoughts on LOST

2010-05-18T11:12:00.002-04:00

Emily and I are huge LOST fans. We've watched every episode, we have friends over on LOST night, and we discuss the themes and mythology of the show.

But beyond the fantastic narrative the show has given us, it's pretty amazing that this show was produced in today's entertainment industry. Here are a few things that if had going against it:

1) It was a simple concept that became more complex

Television networks love pitches and concepts that can be explained in a single sentence, and LOST actually began that way. A network executive at ABC came up with the idea of doing a scripted version of the CBS reality show Survivor. That’s how the show started. The exec wanted, essentially a tv version of Castaway, but with massive group dynamics. It was pitched out to some producers, and a script developed. I’ve heard that this first pilot script (before eventual producers J.J. Abrams and Damon Lindelhoff came aboard) ended with the survivors of a plane crash having built shelters and bowling on the beach at the end of the episode using driftwood and coconuts. Abrams came aboard and said, forget that, the first episode needs to be the first hours of life on the island, not the first weeks. He also added things like a monster, a polar bear on a tropical island, a mysterious radio signal…and the network accepted it. Not only did they accept it, they let Abrams direct the most expensive episode of television in history. For the pilot they actually had a real plane destroyed and placed on the beach. At that point the network had only ordered 13 episodes, and they allowed them to have that sort of creative control and budget. Network notes are typically to simplify shows, but they let the producers have the biggest budget in history and go nuts.

2) A tv series with an end date

Television shows are bought by networks to run forever. Especially on the main broadcast networks (ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX). LOST (eventually) said, sorry ABC, but we have this much story to tell and that’s it. And the network, rather than firing the producers and hiring new ones (which networks have done before), said “Okay.” This just doesn’t happen very often in the entertainment world. I heard in a podcast with one of the LOST showrunners that they were talking with very longtime television producer (who had launched more than 60 shows in his career) who said that he never once was able to end the show the way he wanted to, the networks always had mandates to change things.

LOST definitely struggled towards the end of the second season and the start of the third. During the first season they had broad ideas about the island and the mythology (they brought in the Adam and Eve skeletons with the white and black rocks back in the sixth episode, and just explained them last week), but they didn’t have a firm map of the mythology. Between the first and second season they figured the big ideas behind the island and knew more or less what the mysteries and answers were, but they had no idea how long the show would be on the air. So how quickly can they reveal mysteries?

The pace was pretty clearly slowing at the end of the second season, and the third season started with a six episode mini-season, went on a several month break, and aired the final 16 episodes. The six-episode mini-season had several of the main characters sit in cages and not really do much at all. I heard one of the writers say that, though they didn’t realize it at the time, the cage story arc was a metaphor with how they felt as creators: trapped with nowhere to go. They knew what they wanted to do, but couldn’t move forward so long as the show was meant to go on forever. After that mini-season they negotiated with ABC to end the series after two more seasons (the writers strike messed that timing up, hence the sixth season). That means that, unlike most shows which find out it is their last season partway into that very season, the creators have been writing towards an end date for a three years now. The tail end of the third season definitely picked up the narrative pace. Having the end date for this story allowed for an entirely different kind of story telling than is possible in most tv shows. Some cable shows do get this kind of creative control (choosing the number of episodes per season, choosing how many seasons to produce), but very few network shows do.

3) A big genre mash up

What is LOST? It’s a drama, but it also deals with time travel, alternate worlds, god-like beings, immortals, ghosts, smoke monsters, mental displacements, etc. And yet, it doesn’t act like a “genre” show (see: Heroes), it acts like it's a straight up hour long drama. It’s a crazy sci-fi, fantasy, horror, paranormal, occasionally sit-comy (Hurley, Miles), romance with love triangle with whatever else they want to toss in. That sort of mash up comes across as very unfocused to networks, who favor simplicity of concept (easier to sell to an audience, appeals to a wider audience). It’s amazing that this show did not get “noted to death” as they sometimes say to describe the process of network heads sending down regular notes to what to change on a show (“Get rid of the polar bear!”). Some shows have tried to mash up genres but without much success (a sci-fi western like Firefly: awesome, but canceled).

Any one of those three factors (a basic premise that is made more difficult to explain, going against network’s wishes for the show to go on forever, and a mix up of genres) would be enough to kill most shows. In fact, between greenlighting the pilot and the pilot airing, the ABC exec who picked up LOST was fired, reportedly for allowing such an expensive and “incomprehensible” show to be filmed. ABC had spent so much on the pilot there was no way it wasn't going to air, but apparently they were very concerned that they had just made an insanely expensive mistake.

Emily Swensen Darowski: Savvy Shopper

2010-05-17T20:55:00.006-04:00

The Scene: Toys 'R Us (please imagine I magically made our "R" go backwards...)
The Players: Emily, Joe, and Lizzie
The Purpose: Purchase a sandbox for Lizzie

So there we were, mulling our options at the store of awe and wonder. We had looked over the selection of sandboxes which would fit on our balcony, most of which were $70 or more. That seemed a hefty price to pay for a six inch round plastic wall.

Then Emily scanned the walls and saw the $9.99 kiddie pools.
"Won't those hold sand?" she asked me.

"I imagine," I replied.

Sixty dollars in savings later Lizzie has her sand paradise on our balcony.

Bubble Bath Beards

2010-05-16T20:45:00.003-04:00

Lizzie thought she loved bathtimes, then we introduced her to bubble baths and she realized we'd been cheating her all her life up to that point. She's a huge fan of bubbles. And, of course, creating bubble beards.

At first Dad would put the bubble beards on Lizzie:

But pretty soon Lizzie decided she wanted to apply the beards:

And she took extra care to make sure she got it just right:

Here we are again...lazy bloggers

2010-05-15T22:27:00.001-04:00

Just last month we were on fire. Posting left and right, having regular visitors. Now look at us.

Pathetic.

Once again, we'll promise a daily post this week (and most likely almost meet that goal, just like last time). To start us off, I offer the following picture sans context:

There's no way this is comfortable

2010-04-27T00:11:00.003-04:00

Kids' bodies must be made of rubber and play dough. I'm pretty sure if I slept like this I'd be telling Emily for years, "Remember in early 2010 when I slept funny? I still can't turn my head to the left without my right leg aching."

And behind door #1...

2010-04-14T23:37:00.001-04:00

When I was packing for my trip to St. Louis, Lizzie decided she wanted to come along:

First Impressions

2010-04-11T14:19:00.005-04:00

Joe and I met at an ice cream social. It was the second day Joe was in Michigan. He said he saw me amongst the crowd and thought, "Now there's an attractive soul." My first impression of him was that he was an incoming reckless freshman (his arm was in a sling and thought maybe he'd done something immature to warrant it). Turns out the long thoracic nerve in his shoulder was dead and needed to regrow; in the meantime nothing was holding his shoulder blade down if he raised his arm. He gets the A+ for accurate first impressions... I flunked that one.

We both went home for Thanksgiving and met some of each others' family and the same was planned for Christmas. My family was having a family reunion, however, which meant he would get to meet all 7 of my siblings, 5 of which are brothers. No pressure.

Although my brothers were certainly going to size Joe up and make sure he treated me right and deserved me, I think they also wanted to make a good first impression. Apparently, there was a discussion that certain things were to be kept in line (i.e., manners) so Joe thought I belonged to a good, intelligent family. And I do. My brothers have always been great examples of educated, hard working, righteous men. However, boys will be boys. And there are 5 of them. It turned out Joe's introduction to my brothers skipped the formalities.

Travel plans ended up being that Joe and I arrived later than most at the cabin where the family reunion was at. We were with my oldest brother Mark. Upon arriving, my brother John came out of the cabin to greet us and help bring in luggage.
His first words were, "We've got a gas problem."
I immediately said emphatically, "Not yet!" with furtive glances towards Joe and the possibility of dashing all of my dreams with the wrong first impression. Both brothers were smirking.
Turns out, there was an actual gas leak in the cabin's furnaces. Ahem.

Joe told me he loved me during that reunion. So first impressions aside, it all worked out for the best.

We were THIS close to getting the daily blog post

2010-04-10T23:38:00.005-04:00

Alas, we didn't get a post up yesterday. We were so close to keeping our promise of having a daily post. Sigh. Now all the trust we've built up with friends and family through the years is irrevocably lost.

Moving on, Emily and I have decided that to 1) have some quality time with Lizzie and 2) preserve our sanity each Saturday one of us will take Lizzie on a Daughter Date. We'll alternate weeks, and whoever gets Lizzie that week gets to take her to do something for two hours, and the other person gets to do whatever they want (sleep, nap, doze, play video games) for those two hours. Those two hours are guilt free. This was our first week, and I took Lizzie to a park where we played, I pushed Lizzie on the swings, and we saw lots of squirrels. Lizzie would point and scream "Sacrhamahciuoeriaa!!" when she saw a squirrel. I'm sure coherent words will come some day. Here are some pics:

Meanwhile, at home Emily, with her two guilt-free hours to do anything she wanted, took a nap (wise choice) and then...cleaned the bathroom!?! I hope she doesn't think she's established some sort of precedent, because when she has her daughter date with Lizzie I don't think I'll be scrubbing the toilet. I guess we just have different ideas about what is relaxing.

A couple conferences

2010-04-08T22:52:00.004-04:00

The last two weekends Joe had conferences. The first was The Michigan State University Comics Forum. Joe has helped organize the conference for the last two years. Joe's brother John came into town to go to the Comics Forum, and then they both went on to St. Louis for the national Popular Culture Association Conference.

Lizzie's first sledding experience (it was over a month ago...)

2010-04-07T20:28:00.003-04:00

During our embarrassing lull in blogging it snowed quite a bit here in Michigan (the sun also shone quite a bit, it rained quite a bit, it was night pretty regularly...it was a really long lull). One enterprising resident of our apartment complex made a rather large mound of snow, which happened to be just about the right size for Lizzie to sled down:

Why yes, that is a trash can lid serving as an improvised sled. It was clean and sanitary, and just the right size for a little gal like Lizzie. But Lizzie had the most fun riding on Mom's lap:

Things we do to have FUN around here

2010-04-06T16:45:00.004-04:00

Build forts out of couch cushions

Play peek-a-boo fingers underneath any and all doors: Lizzie runs to a door and shuts it leaving the parents on one side and her on the other. Then she pokes fingers underneath and giggles like a madgirl when we grab them. Then she knocks on the door when she thinks the game is over.

Bubbles! Lizzie got regular sized bubbles and Joe got mega sized bubbles in their Easter baskets.

Chillin' with Hulk and Baby with her oh so becoming winter hat.

Getting ready with Mom in the morning (sometimes Mom realizes she wasn't paying enough attention to exactly what Lizzie was playing with on the counter top)

Treating the crib as a jungle gym= bouncing and laughing and falling down (this trick may come back to haunt us when there aren't rails on every side)

Cleaning. Lizzie sometimes has to be the one to say, "Enough is enough- those crumbs on the kitchen floor have got to go."

Baking treats and tasting our wares.

It's been THAT long since we updated this blog?

2010-04-05T10:26:00.002-04:00

So we've been pretty terrible bloggers of late. So, here's the plan: some sort of blog post will appear everyday this week. It might not be a huge post (as you'll see with this one), but something will show up daily.
Today's post consists of a single picture from Lizzie's first Easter egg hunt. Lizzie thought she had found the mother of all Easter eggs, but was a little disappointed when she tried to put it in her basket:

Encouraging your Child's Interests

2010-02-18T14:58:00.005-05:00

I decided to write something so the forlorn message in the bottle would start moving down the list. For those who are interested, E.S.D still does not have a PhD, but she's trying to keep trucking along.

-----

I've always imagined I would be the type of parent that encouraged my child's interests and talents instead of pushing my own ideas of what they should be talented at, as long as those interests were wholesome. I think Joe is pretty much the same way except he is all about providing the 'right environment' so that certain things just might so happen to get ingrained in their system. They don't have to like superheroes, but if superheroes are in the toy basket, on the bookshelves, on our blankets, on our towels, on our dishes, etc., it's not his fault if they turn into pop culture nerds like he is, right?

Well, for awhile now, Lizzie has had a keen interest in a certain type of thing. You might wonder why I would let a child develop such an interest in this thing or things, but they seem to give her hours of delight. What is the thing, you ask?

Rubber Bands. Yellow Rubber Bands, Red Rubber Bands, Brown Rubber Bands, Blue Rubber Bands, Thick Rubber Bands, and Thin Rubber Bands.

We had a bag in our 'Bat Cave', aka storage room, and although we try and keep that room closed, she sneaks in there sometimes and one day she must have found our bag of rubber bands. And not knowing what joy would erupt from that baggie, we opened it and Lizzie's world changed. She even sniffed out her Grandma Swen's bag of rubber bands in her apartment and usually goes to find it within 5 minutes of entering the premises.

She doesn't eat them (well, on rare occasions she does wait for you to look at her and then smiles and sticks one in her mouth) and she doesn't seem to flick herself or others with them or cut off circulation in any of her phalanges.

Instead, she puts them in buckets and cans, any type of container really, and then she dumps them out. And sometimes she stands tall with a handful of them and lets them rain down. Other times she takes them behind furniture and stores them there. Pretty much our floor is constantly covered with rubber bands and at night it takes about 3 or 4 sweeps to collect them all from the crevices. Well, not all of them. I'm pretty sure we have some in random places that we'll find years from now.

My question to you all is this: How do I develop this interest?

Bottle Washed Up on Shore

2010-02-15T15:33:00.003-05:00

I need help.
I am a doctoral student.
I am kind of tired of being a doctoral student.
The end is near and yet a marathon away.
Sometimes (and sometimes always),
there's just a million other things I'd rather be doing.
I need help.
E.S.D.

Hair Commentary

2010-02-15T15:15:00.003-05:00

I just want to say (this is Emily), that we are aware that Lizzie's hair is still, shall we say, noticeable.

After viewing some of the pictures of her, you might say one of the following to yourself,
"Why don't they just cut her bangs?
Seriously, how is she going to develop normally if she can't see anything?
Are they such poor grad students that they can't afford bows or headbands or ponytails? Maybe I should spot them a couple bucks.
Do they know the meaning of gel or hairspray?"

To these and others, I reply,
"I'm a fan of no bangs. She's too young to contest or choose for herself.
We like to think of the vision block as a game. You know, like a constant game of peek-a-boo. Now you see it, now you don't. Plus, the human brain is quite efficient at filling in the blanks (visual, in this case). This is one of it's clever features.
We have plenty of bows and headbands and ponytails and we often implement them in hair control. This morning I told Joe I was putting in a bow and he bet it would last 30 seconds. It was more like 3. Ponytails do work, but they usually do not get implemented until after breakfast. And let's face it, sometimes they don't get implemented for several days.

End of story: I'm waiting for her hair to grow a bit longer and then just you wait. You've never seen the cutest, cleverest, creativest things I can do with little girls' hair.

I'd like to give a shout out to my friend Katie. She just started a blog and she's funny. She makes me laugh (not just on her blog, but in person too). I was just trying to be a bit funny too.

Lizzie and the Smoothie

2010-02-15T12:37:00.006-05:00

This morning Emily and I were enjoying a delicious and nutritious smoothie. Lizzie, as she is wont to do, begged for what Emily and I were eating. I figure, "What's the harm?" What followed was one of those moments which I have had a few times as a parent where I was faced with conflicting reactions. Those two reactions were: 1) AH! Stop her, she's making a mess! and 2) I should get a camera and take a picture.

As I said, this has happened on more than one occasion as a parent. The only other time in my life I remember facing a similar situation (though with a very key difference to be addressed in a moment) was on my mission in Mexico. While living in Dolores Hidalgo I reached under my bed and pulled out my luggage which dislodged a scorpion which fell next to my bed. My mission companion and I each had conflicting reactions to seeing a scorpion on the floor. Namely: 1) AH! KILL IT! SMASH IT! SMOOSH IT! END IT! and 2) I should get a camera and take a picture. Obviously the key difference I referenced above was the strong urge to smoosh the scorpion flat as contrasted with a concern for the mess that Lizzie was making, but the conflicting urge to go grab a camera was the same.

In both instances the urge to grab the camera won. So enjoy some pictures of Lizzie making a mess with a smoothie:

Trying the videos again

2010-02-03T22:02:00.002-05:00

We've been made aware that there may be some issues playing the videos in our last post. So I'm going to try posting them again. Here's the one where the train ruins her peaceful ruminations:

And here she is playing in the snow:

And tasting the snow:

Lizzie and Snow

2010-02-01T23:39:00.006-05:00

Lizzie has lived a pretty sheltered life during the winter (inside the apartment, car, church, car, inside the apartment, with occasional visits to the grocery store and the doctor sprinkled in). Such is life for the wee ones in chilly locales. But, one day we let her get to know snow. She was only out for about ten minutes, but she seemed to enjoy it well enough.

First, this video is pretty funny. Lizzie is minding her own business, when suddenly she hears a train in the distance, and it freaks her out.

I think we can all see the thought process that goes on in her head in between the next two photos.

SCIENCE!

2010-01-17T22:51:00.001-05:00

It appears young miss Elizabeth is not immune to static electricity.

2009-12-20T21:21:00.001-05:00

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2009-12-20T21:18:00.001-05:00

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The wonder of frosting...and cupcakes

2009-12-19T22:24:00.007-05:00

Like most parents, we thought we would give Lizzie the chance to overdose on sugar on her first birthday. We assumed Lizzie would go nuts with a cupcake, but she took a more delicate approach.

But, after a bit, she developed a bolder approach.

Here are some pictures from the event:

And, after it was all over she laid back and relaxed.

Happy Birthday, Lizzie!

2009-12-15T21:27:00.001-05:00

We'll post some more pictures and video later.

Lizzie discovers the Christmas tree

2009-12-13T21:15:00.004-05:00

Lizzie took a step!

2009-12-06T22:07:00.000-05:00

She promptly fell down, but Lizzie took a step today.

Lizzie loves piles o' stuff

2009-12-06T21:29:00.005-05:00

Lizzie has found herself at the center of many various piles of late. She seems at home.

Lizzie Ladybug

2009-11-01T21:15:00.006-05:00

For Halloween we went to visit Emily's brother, Eric, and his family in Indiana. Lizzie is too young to appreciate the beauty of Halloween, but her cousins certainly understood the magic. Even if she didn't know what was going on, she looked adorable in her Ladybug outfit.

2009-10-30T22:41:00.001-04:00

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Classical Conditioning: Pavlov was right

2009-10-25T22:38:00.002-04:00

Lizzie on the move

2009-10-25T21:44:00.005-04:00

Lizzie is much more active and much more capable of getting into things. We knew this day would come, but our apartment could probably use a touch more baby-proofing.

Lizzie has proved adept at learning how to open containers and dump out the contents:

But she still wants to make sure it's empty:

She's also regularly pulled the DVDs off the shelf:

Sadly, she learned that inside of each box is a shiny prize, and now she tries to crack the outer shell to get to the inside whenever she plays with the DVD boxes:

Because of her mobility, we've been forced to adopt measures to protect the kitchen cabinets:

Of course, not everything in the kitchen can be easily belted shut:

Here are a couple videos of Lizzie demonstrating her newfound powers of locomotion:

Happy Birthday, Emily!

2009-10-10T14:58:00.002-04:00

It is Emily's birthday today. Lizzie and I celebrated by letting her sleep in as long as she wanted.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies (Healthy)

2009-10-05T16:33:00.003-04:00

One of my friends had a recipe for a pumpkin dip (I'm trying it tonight) on her blog. Anyway, it got me hankering for pumpkin chocolate chip cookies. I wanted a healthier version so I found this recipe at grouprecipe.com. Our batch made 40 cookies, which after doing the math, comes out to about 67 calories per cookie. Not bad. They are kind of the consistency of a muffin, but I thought they were still delicious (and Joe agrees).

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies (Healthy)

1/4 C. egg whites or 1 whole egg
1/2 C. unsweetened applesauce
1 (14 oz) can pumpkin puree
1/2 C. Splenda granular (or use all sugar)
1/2 C. sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 C. mini chocolate chips
3 C. whole wheat flour
2 tsps baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tbsp cinnamon
1 tsp pumpkin pie spice

Directions
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.
In a large mixing bowl, mix egg whites and then blend in applesauce, pumpkin, splenda, sugar, & vanilla until well mixed. Stir in chocolate chips.
In a smaller bowl, mix flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, & pumpkin pie spice.
Add dry ingredients to wet and stir until well mixed.
Drop by heaping, rounded tbsps onto parchment lined baking sheet.
Bake for 12 mins.
Let cool on baking sheet for several mins before transferring to a cooling rack.

I didn't do this because I forgot, but you could add chopped nuts (pecans or walnuts) to the recipe.

Mega Epic Super Update of Death

2009-09-27T22:17:00.010-04:00

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.