Gymnast Lizzie

Like all infants, Lizzie has the flexibility of a boneless Ukrainian Olympian, and really enjoys grabbing her feet and pulling her legs into positions which would make my muscles and connective tissues rip, tear, and snap. Here are some examples:

Lizzie and rice cereal

We've hit that exciting stage where Lizzie is starting to get solid foods. The starting level for this is rice cereal, which is nowhere near solid, but still more solid than milk. Emily's done most of the feeding, but I've taken a stab at it as well. I think the experience is comparable to trying to shovel water up a slide, because so much of the food ends up on Lizzie's bib, face, and hands. But, she hasn't started smearing it into her hair yet, which I suppose is inevitable. Here are some photos from her first experience:

At first Lizzie seems wary of this new food product:


But after we get some to stay in her mouth she gives it thoughtful consideration:


And decides she likes it enough to want to be in control of the delivery process:

Fancy that

Last month as I was traveling back from New Orleans I wandered about an airport bookstore. To my pleasant surprise I happened upon a stack of X-Men and Philosophy, a book which I have an essay published in, being displayed in the store. Not a big deal, really, but it was not something I expected to come upon in an airport.

Semester Winds Down

The semester is winding down for us. Finals week starts Monday. Finals week just isn't the same as a graduate student, especially when you are done taking classes. There isn't that intense build-up and the counting down of days until your last final. Instead, we've been grading papers and dealing with student complaints.

My sister Melanie and her husband John stopped by for a short visit this past week. They came to Chicago on business and drove out to Lansing for a day or so. We ate at an Asian buffet and then they both were kind enough to help me sort about 500 papers/assignments alphabetically. It was quite the production. It was great to talk to them and catch up on each others lives. Being the youngest, I have always been waiting for the time when I would finally 'catch up' with my older brothers and sisters. I don't know if that will ever be completely possible, but it was good to talk to my sister and her husband as adults pursuing education/careers, as parents, and as friends. Thanks for taking the time to visit us Melanie and John!


This summer, Joe will be working at the Writing Center on campus. I will be teaching an online course during the first 6 weeks of summer. Throughout it all, we both need to start writing our dissertation proposals. If we can, we'd also like to make it back to Utah/Idaho to see family. We haven't been back there since Christmas 2007 and most members of our family have not seen Lizzie. We'll most likely take Lizzie to the beach on Lake Michigan for her first time and go to the swimming pool a couple times and take walks with her in the sunshine.

Lizzie is getting bigger and gaining new skills. She now rolls over, mostly from back to stomach, but we've since a few successful stomach to back rolls. She also blows raspberries, as the previous post demonstrates. She has found her toes as well and is starting to pull them up towards her mouth. One more thing to suck on. Below are pictures from the recent past.

Joe won this shirt at the Popular Culture Association Conference he went to in New Orleans.

It just keeps getting longer and longer and won't lay down.

Sleeping Crazy.

Sleeping Beauty.

Reaching High.

Reaching Low.

Trip to the Temple.

All Smiles with a Bit of Sly on the Side.

A father couldn't be prouder

Lizzie learned a new skill!

Quick Catch UP

Since our last post several events have occurred which merit discussion: 1)Michigan State lost very badly in the national championship game, 2) Emily successfully defended her comp exam and is now one bureaucratic step away from being ABD (All But Dissertation) for her PhD in Psychology, 3) I spent most of last week in New Orleans at the National Popular Culture Association Conference (around 2500 academics presenting their research on pop culture in four days), and 4) Lizzie can officially roll over. Busy times. Discussion follows below (as one of the benefits of this post's organizational scheme, you may conveniently skip any topics which did not pique your interest):

1) I won't talk much about Michigan State's dismal performance in the Championship Game. I think MSU overachieved to reach that game (they're a very young team) and UNC was obviously the better team on the court. Hopefully MSU will be even better next year with all of their players a year older and more experienced. I actually had UNC beating MSU in the championship game in my bracket, so I won all the groups I was in.

2) Emily defended her comp and passed without any revisions required. Which is freaking fantastic. I don't know how she did it. She had a baby in December, and defended her comp in April. And I know for a fact that she has not had a full night's sleep in between. I lucked into a pretty amazing lady in the ol' marriage lottery.

3) To celebrate Emily finishing her comp exam, I flew out to New Orleans the next day. I've been to the Pop Culture Association Conference every year since I started my Master's Degree. This conference is fantastic. At any given time there are academic papers being presented on superheroes, Twilight, Red Sox fans, The Beatles, etc. This year alone I saw great papers on the home video revolution, the shifting portrayal of violence in Captain America comics from WWII to today, screwball comedy in television sitcoms, and the role of the audience/camera in The Office. That's just a sampling, I saw a bunch of papers. There is a thriving Comics Studies area at the conference, which is where I've presented my papers. My paper this year was on The Death of Superman, a storyline from 1992-93, which I analyzed in relationship with America seeking a new identity following the end of the Cold War. While in New Orleans I was able to go out to eat at a restaurant owned by Food Network personality Emeril (that was very tasty grub) and a restaurant that the Food Network declared to have the best fired chicken in America (I can't speak for all restaurants in the nation, but it was definitely the best fried chicken I've ever had (if you can't tell, we're fans of the Food Network)).

4) Of course the fact that I was gone from Tuesday morning until Saturday evening meant that Emily had Lizzie to herself for most of the week. That was stressful at times, but Emily handled it better than I would have (I'd still be curled in a fetal position in the corner). While Lizzie had rolled over once or twice before I left, she developed her talent more while I was away. And now I'll post a few photos of Lizzie:

Go State!

As Emily and I were coming home from church, we talked a bit about the MSU Spartans' chance against Louisville in the Elite Eight. The game was going on at the time, but we had no idea what the score was. I opined that Louisville was playing better than MSU in the tournament. Louisville had beat Arizona by something like 378-10 in their previous game. I thought that Louisville was capable of blowing out MSU, but MSU was not capable of blowing out Louisville. I said if MSU was clicking they would have the game close with a chance to win it at the end, but that I doubted they would be in control of the game at any point.

When we got back to our apartment a student was running down the hall and he yelled "MSU is up by 13 with 3 minutes left."

Final score: MSU 64-Louisville 52

I've never been so pleased to be so wrong in my sports analysis. Michigan State will be playing in the Final Four in Detroit this weekend.