What Madelyn doesn't know is that there's a nearly identical picture of her Daddy doing the same thing when he was about the same age.

Is this the happiest baby you've ever seen?

Happy Birthday Erin!

Today is Erin's 30th birthday. If you get the chance either drop her a line or give a call and welcome her officially to the other side of the hill. I understand she has a big day of mall-crawling with my Mom, Sarah, and the girls planned. Watch out Woodlands!

The Continuing Adventures of a Wanna-be Doctor

Good morning from Indiana. I've dragged my carcass back into to work today, and after a couple of hours working this morning I thought I'd take a break and do a quick blog post. The dissertation train keeps rolling along here, although slower than I'd like. We're deep into editing, and I'm finding out how much harder editing exisiting material can be than the actual creation of said materials.

On the plus side, I did manage to sneak down to Texas to see my girls this past weekend. It's amazing how much they can change over the course of just two weeks. Olivia is busy trying to learn how to crawl and defend herself from her older sister. Madelyn, meanwhile, is busy learning how to talk. She has become a virtual parrot. In fact talking to her is not unlike talking to yourself in a very large cave...everything is an echo, albeit an ill enunciated echo, but an echo nonetheless.

Erin is holding things together admirably well down there. She is quite busy as a full-time mommy these days. In addition to handling all of the child care, she has also managed to begin the home hunting process. We went out and saw a couple of homes, and came away with one or two promising prosepcts. I have to say after seeming perpetual relative childhood as a man-child in academia, nothing makes one feel as though they're suddenly having to grow up as the thought of getting a mortgage. Nevertheless, we're both looking forward to becoming proud homeowners in the not-too-distant future.

Anyhow, I'll leave with my quick dissertation stats:

Chapters Drafted: 7
Chapters Remaining: 1
Total Pages: 212
Editing Status: The 7th circle of the inferno--Chapters 1-6 currently being re-read, chapter 7 coming soon.
Morale: Anxious
Fatigue: I fall asleep in my chair...do dissertations lead to narcolepsy??

I hope all my friends and family are well, and I'm looking forward to rejoining many of you once this process is completed. Until that time, I appreciate all the support being given--in all forms--to not only me, but my little family as well.

Jake gets into "Dad" character by breaking out the 'stache. 

Madelyn takes a break from asking Dad "Why?" to get her picture taken. 

Olivia gets a rare moment in her walker without any assistance from her big sister. 

Not to be outdone by her sibling, Madelyn demands posing time with Dad's red hat. 

Olivia shows a little love for Daddy's alma mater. 

Olivia shows off her nascent sitting abilities; Madelyn shows off her professional-level milk-drinking abilities. 

Madelyn and Olivia log in some couch lounging time while Mom and Dad pack 

Another Gulp

At long last I've finally polished off another chapter. All that leaves now is surviving the editing process, throwing together a sumary and conclusions chapter (much of which was will probably be taken from the most recently completed chapter), slapping together some appendices and convincing my committee to sign off on the thing.

Let's review our quick dissertation stats, for those of you playing along at home:

Number of Chapters Drafted: 7
Chapters Remaining: 1/2 to 1
Pages-to-Date: 225
Morale: Flat--mainly as a result of the family moving
Formatting: Appendicies are my enemy

As mentioned above, Erin and the girls are heading to Texas on Saturday. While I'm excited for my family that's in Texas to begin getting extended time with my wife and kiddos, said excitement is considerably muted since I won't be able to get down to Texas until sometime in September. Nevertheless, the apartment is almost finished being packed, and Erin and the girls seem like they're ready for the big trip. I suppose it's time for me to resubmerge into deep end of the dissertation pool, so I'll sign off for now.

Sick Day

Well, it's a sick day today at the Bice household. Something got into Olivia's tummy which rapidly propagated to Madelyn and now Erin. Thus, Dad is taking the day off to watch his little girls, Erin is napping, and Madelyn is running experiments in bottle-feeding Olivia (with limited success). I suppose its only a matter of time before my turn with the bug comes, but here's hoping that whatever it is, it decides to wait until I finish the chapter I'm working on. In the meantime, I'll take the opportunity to post a few more pictures I took of the girls today.

Madelyn Lines up her shot.

Madelyn ponders her next move

Daddy's Big Girl

Tired of her eternal imprisonment, surrounded by brightly colored plastic and stuffed animals, Olivia plans her eventual escape.

Yet Another Blog

The circle of trust just keeps growing around here. Shamus Yoder and his lovely bride have jumped on the band wagon. That makes three old mellos with blogs; I wonder if this indicates a trend. In any case, click Jason and Laura's link (on the sidebar) to go see what Air Force flyboys do when they're not out defending freedom through full-service gas stations in the sky.