Our Favorite Hippie

There was a ward Halloween party tonight. We weren't going to dress up but Halloween is no fun without costumes! I quickly whipped together a costume for me and Madeline. She was a little flower child and I dressed up 80's. We tried to find another decade for Ian to dress in but we were unsuccessful. Anyways, here are some pictures.

At the party there was a chili and cornbread cook-off. Ian signed up to bring cornbread. He made a really delicious cornbread recipe that had green onions, jalapenos, and bacon. What isn't delicious with bacon? He ended up winning best cornbread! Here was his prize...more cornbread.

The Art of Sitting

So one thing that we have learned over and over about Madeline and her growth is that things happen suddenly; it looks as though she isn't even close to being able to do something, and then the next day she does it perfectly. The latest example of this is sitting.

Amy has been concerned for a while that Madeline wasn't progressing in her ability to sit up. The blame for this 'shortcoming' falls to me since I am with her most of the time. However, this past week I started to put stuff in front of her to entice her to stay balanced. The result is that she can now sit up for a minute or two on her own now. Here are some pictures:



This is one of Madeline's new favorite toys. It does the whole 'A B C' thing and it lights up, so I suppose it isn't stunting her mental growth, so I'm all good with it. Although, I must be honest, the songs it puts out drive me nuts (it is a jazzed up version of the ABC's; just leave well enough alone).


Here she is gaining a conceptual understanding of shapes and colors well beyond her age...or she might just be drooling on the toy; who knows for sure.

And this picture is the reason for the post. We think she is amazing and wonderful, and even better when she is in a good mood. If only she could always be this happy.

More Dr. Seuss

Ian's sister, Liz, left a comment on the last post saying that the Cat in the Hat picture was the second great Seuss picture Ian has taken. I had totally forgotten about this picture! It used to be the background on my computer (actually about 30 copies of this picture in a tile pattern) when Ian and I were dating. I found it on Liz's blog and stole it to show everyone. Doesn't he look so cute?!

Pictures Plus a Little About My Job

It's been a little while since we have put pictures up. Madeline is getting so big. She will be five months this week. So old! She has learned several new tricks the past few weeks. Here are a few...

Madeline has learned how to roll from her front to her back. She can't do it all the time but is getting better.

She learned how to eat more solid food (rice cereal). We started feeding her rice cereal. She is a little on the young side for solid food but she is so big and it seems like she is hungry all the time. She caught on really fast to eating from a spoon.


I guess she wasn't so interested in eating in this picture.


Ian also figured out how to do this trick with Madeline. It scares my mom when he does it. This picture reminds me of Cat in the Hat.


I pretty much think that Madeline is the cutest baby in the world. I hate having to be away from her half the day!



She has such big BLUE eyes!



Work has been okay. I have been there a month now and am fully trained (or so they say). I like the job okay, although I would not want to work there for the rest of my life or anything. I think I would like it more if I didn't have to drive almost an hour each way. A typical day for me, in case anyone is interested, goes like this...

I get to work at 5:15 am and inspect all the equipment until 6:00 am. I make sure that it is clean and tell the sanitation crew to fix anything that is still dirty. For the next couple of hours I test the samples of food from the day before to make sure they meet company specifications before they are shipped to the customers. For the testing, I taste the samples, look at the color and watch for defects such as lumps, test the pH, sugar level, and viscosity (thickness). If any of the products fail, I test the color using a machine called a colorimeter and set the samples up for management to decide if they still want to ship the product out. For the rest of the day, I collect samples from products being made, check the big kettles before each batch to make sure they are clean, check magnets and metal detectors, and generally make sure that people are keeping things clean and following good manufacturing procedures.

I am usually standing and walking around the whole eight hours and sometimes I get very busy and a little overwhelmed. It becomes difficult because the workers usually can't start something new until I get there and it usually turns out that they all need me at once. I have to try to time my lunch so that not too many people will be stuck waiting for me. It is also difficult because almost all of the workers are hispanic and only speak a little broken english. I really wish I had Rachel and Peter's spanish skills!

Overall, I think I am starting to get the hang of the job and am settling into a good routine but it makes me sad to be away from Ian and Madeline for so long everyday.