Elizabeth and Elizabeth

Here is Elizabeth with Elizabeth!

Two prettier girls it would be hard to find!

Janet & Tim

How great it was on the 26th to have Janet and Tim head down from Los Angeles to visit with Elizabeth (and us of course!).

I have known Janet and Tim since 1985--when Janet and I were big publishing execs in New York City-oh yeah! Those were the days! I consider it wonderful luck and a marvelous act of faith that Janet and Tim moved to Los Angeles in the early 90's and then I followed in 1994! I guess you could say we were meant to live close to one another!

Now if we could just shorten the distance we have to drive on the 405--that would be divine!

Elizabeth loved her Aunt Janet and Uncle Tim. And (don't tell Marty) I think Tim had Elizabeth take her first step!!! Woo hoo! Not to mention that Aunt Janet taught her a few dance steps!

Visits!

Here are a few photos from Christmas Day. Marty's parent's came by with dear friend Joann (Elizabeth's aunt!!!) and Elizabeth had a great time with them--as usual!

I love the box on her head!

More photos of the last week to come soon. Hopefully a little later today. We have had a lot of activity that I have been wanting to post but I have been a little behind in posting owing to a number of things-including Elizabeth's tendency to try to kamikaze into the computer every time I try to post anything! I know that soon she will be wanting a computer of her own

Christmas has come and gone....

So Christmas has come and gone.

And what a Christmas this was.

At this risk of sounding like a new age California kook I just had to post my horoscope for Chistmas Day since it was so on target...

Dear Marybeth,
Here is your horoscope
for Tuesday, December 25:

You're feeling pretty sentimental, or even a bit upset, depending on the circumstances of your life. It's important to let those feelings stand, but not to let them interfere with the life you want to live.


I have to admit that I really haven't had a happy Christmas since my mom hasn't been with us. Most years I run away and try to avoid the whole thing.

But this year I stayed put. And of course we have Elizabeth and what an amazing gift she is.

While there was an element of the "bittersweet" to Christmas this year as I thought about my mom and my Aunt Monica and how they would have gotten such a kick out of Elizabeth. I let myself feel those feelings but I also knew that my mom and Aunt would be pretty annoyed with me if I allowed myself to wallow too much and miss the joy that little Elizabeth has brought.


What an amazing Christmas present I received this year!

Sunday on the Island

Today we headed down to Balboa Island for lunch and a little walk. It turned out to be a beautiful day. A passer by offered to take this photo of me and Marty with Elizabeth. My first instinct as a former New Yorker was to say, "oh no, that's okay." But luckily Marty said, "sure" and we got this nice photo!

.

Since I have been so overwhelmed with just getting through the days since we got home on November 16th, I haven't exactly had time to really decorate the house for the holidays. Also I figure Elizabeth won't really notice too much at this age. But I figure if I take lots of pictures of her in front of other people's Christmas decorations at least she'll see that I wasn't denying her a Merry Christmas! Is that cheating? Yeah, sure-I guess so. But heck, "desperate times call for desperate measures!"



Elizabeth gets about as close to a real snowman as she is going to get this year.



Here we are outside of one of the very decorated houses on Balboa Island. Every year there is a contest on the Island for the best decorated. This house usually wins--and you really have to see it at night...the lighting is something else.

Beware of Dog

I just had to share this photo that Marty took during our Balboa walk. I think it is hysterical. I am not sure if the owners intended it as a joke or not....but if they didn't that is even more funny! This dog looks as if he wouldn't hurt a fly.

The Michelin Baby

So with Elizabeth feeling better and the doctor saying she was fine to go out, I figured I had better make sure she was bundled up this morning when Marty took her for a little walk around the neighborhood.

The first thing I thought when I saw her all bundled up was, "Michelin Baby." She does bear an uncanny resemblence to the Michelin Man in this outfit, don't you think?

She also seems to be saying, "why the heck do you have me dressed in this outfit?"

Noteworthy to add that it was a frigid 60 degrees this morning which is about the equivalent of 45 degrees back East. We were at the hardware store last night and people were buying electric heaters and lots of firewood-- and they were all complaining about the cold-- maybe it got to the low 50's last night which is practically Arctic weather for Californians.

Having lived in New York City for 34 years I find it funny that I can't seem to remember at what point the heat would get turned on in our apartments. In NYC you don't really have much control over your heat when you live in an apartment--which most people in the city do. The "Supers" turn on the heat at some predetermined temperature, but I can't remember what that was. I am pretty sure, however, that it was well below 65 degrees.

I think for Elizabeth the bundling up when it "isn't exactly freezing" is pretty much in keeping with what she experienced in China. In China they "bundle" children in multiple layers even when the weather is warm. In fact when we were out with Elizabeth there were a number of times when a tiny piece of skin was peaking through her clothes, and inevitably someone would come by and cover her up! They should have seen her today. They would have been proud!

Michelin Baby



Michelin Man

Doctor Visit

So...Elizabeth has been on the mend and finally today she seemed a little more her smiley self by nightfall.

And we did have our doctor visit. This was a visit that was already scheduled to review lots of tests Elizabeth had to take owing to the fact that we know virtually nothing about her genetic background and also to verify if all of the medical information in her orphanage medical report was accurate. I got to the doctor's office my normal state of panic whenever I am waiting to receive any kind of medical test results.

I sat in the waiting room with Elizabeth and had a pit in my stomach afraid that some of the tests would reveal something dire (yeah, I know I am neurotic). As we waited I watched the nurse and receptionist to see if they had a look of "oh I feel sorry for her"...or if they were smiley or serious when they were talking to me. I was somewhat relieved to see them smiley and playing with Elizabeth as if nothing was wrong.

The Doctor called us in and closed the door. With a large folder in his hand he said, "sit down we have a lot to talk about." Of course, at that point I nearly passed out. I remember thinking, it has to be bad news. If it is good news what is there to talk about?--you just say, "everything looks good".

So there he went test by test, result by result and he would say, "so this looks good, so this looks good,--every time he said that I wanted to say "so tell me which result is the one is the one that is going to scare the hell out of me?" But I resisted the urge and just hoped and prayed that all the tests would be fine. He finally got through the last result and said there was only one issue which was slightly under the norm but he wasn't concerned about it since her overall blood counts were quite good.. And also that a low blood count of that sort was very common in Asian populations. He may retest her in a few months to see if it is still low. When he finished, I said, "so , other than that all of her tests came back okay?" He said, "yes..everything looks okay and her immune system looks good."

I was almost surprised that he said everything was okay. I kept thinking he was going to pull something out of the file or say, "well we really need to worry about this or that." The only thing he said was to expect lots of changes in the next three months and that Elizabeth will soon be walking and starting to say a few words. WOW!


Walking out of the doctor's office I realized that my happiness was inexorably tied to Elizabeth's health and happiness. If she is happy, I am happy. If she is sick, I am sick. I guess that is what family is about isn't it? Of course I should add "family and friends"....as I have friends who are just as dear as family to me.

Elizabeth is sleeping now and I am going to try and curtail my natural tendencies to worry ..and also not to focus on all the zillions of things that there are to worry about!

What me worry?

Under the Weather

I haven't posted in the last couple of days...mostly owing to the fact that poor little Elizabeth has not been feeling so well.

It started with a little cold last week and by Friday she had a nice little cough which kept me up most of the night. Interestingly she slept fine--except that she coughed every 15 minutes in her sleep. Every time I went to check on her she was asleep. Although I can't imagine it was the soundest sleep with all that coughing.

It seems Elizabeth is likely also teething. Two white little bits of enamel are peering out of her gums next to her front two teeth.

Elizabeth's cold and teething have combined to create one miserable little girl and one panicked mother. Yesterday she was weepy and clingy like I have never seen her. Every time I put her down she cried. If you didn't let her have one of the many dangerous household items she longed for--she went into a full blown wail. So unlike her. She didn't smile much and what was most worrying to me was the fact that she seemed totally uninterested in food. She refused her formula and lots of other things I try to entice her with. I knew we were in trouble when she refused avocado.

She was also sleeping a lot and at about 8 P.M. I realized she hadn't had much to eat or drink all day--maybe 6 ounces of a water and juice mix, 2 ounces of formula, one banana and a little bit of yogurt. I thought there was a possibility she would sleep until morning. Marty's instinct was to let her sleep since she was obviously exhausted. I, on the other hand, decided to check the source from which I had earned my own self awarded PHD in medical research--the internet! Of course I read that if a child goes more than 3 hours without a wet diaper she could be dehydrated! And dehydration could be very bad. ENOUGH SAID. I did not walk, rather I ran to Elizabeth's room and woke the little darling from a sound sleep.

She was in a good enough mood once I woke her, but still refused any and all attempts at food or drink. Panic set in and I of course kicked myself for not having taken her to the doctor on Friday. So what if I looked stupid for taking her in for a few sniffles...I would rather that then be in a panic on Sunday night (when all medical problems seem to be at their worst) wondering if the little one had some serious issue. Also for me it is worth the effort of taking her to the doctor--One visit to the doctor and I now have a new partner in worry and an expert to boot-and last night I needed it.

At 8:30 I called our friend and expert mother, Kenya and she did a lot to reassure me that it takes a fair amount for a child to dehydrate it also seemed that Elizabeth did not have any signs of dehydration. I suppose I found that information on the internet but hearing it from Kenya made me feel so much better.

So the update at the moment is that Elizabeth went back to sleep an hour and a half after I disturbed her peaceful slumber. The good news is that I managed to get a little more than half a jar of baby bananas into her before she went back to sleeep

I resisted my natural inclination to take her to the doctor on Friday afternoon. I had a oouple of people tell me, "you can't run to the doctor everytime the baby gets a cold." My answer to that after last night's worry fit will now be, "just watch me--especially on a Friday afternoon!"

Guacamole Girl

As you can see here--Elizabeth LOVES avocado. How fitting for a California girl!

The Kitty Kat

Yes, Bodhi our kitty kat is still adjusting to life with Elizabeth. At least the hissing has stopped and he actually walks right by her without any visible signs of distress. Actually, we think he finds her entertaining-although he is not yet at the point where he thinks his life has improved since her arrival. Here's hoping.

This little clip shows Bodhi trying to have a nice little time for himself.

Not a great afternoon...

Today Elizabeth had to have blood drawn for some diagnostic and routine blood tests. Now, she has already been through two vaccines and one TB test needle and came through those relatively unscathed. I had worried needlessly about those doctor visits and it turned out she was a trooper. A few tears were quickly erased by a teething biscuit.

I had a feeling today would be more difficult owing to the fact that drawing blood takes more time than a simple vaccine. And difficult it was.

Poor baby Elizabeth. We walked into the lab office and the look on the technicians faces when they realized that little Elizabeth was the patient sort of tipped us off that we could be in for a rough time. "Oh, she is the patient?" one of the technicians said as she eyed her colleague and they each looked as if they wanted to run for the hills. Oh ,well, "we'll have to take her to the back room," she said. Back room as in "far away so no one will hear her wailing". And wail she did.

It was really just about as awful as I might have imagined. First they sat Elizabeth on the examining table and asked me to place her in a suppine position. Elizabeth saw these two women coming at her with needles and tourniquets and you could see it in her face, she was thinking, "I am in for it!". She then proceeded to wail and scream like I had never seen her wail before.

The really scary part was that I got the sense that these two women technicians really didn't have a good sense of how to proceed. They were a little too tentative for my liking. They spent a lot of time looking at her arm and examining the veins and then looking at one another, almost as if to say, "gee, this looks tricky". All the while Elizabeth was screaming. I did not have a good feeling. It seems to be when you are dealing with children--you want to work fast!

Finally they started the procedures--with Elizabeth now in a true state of hysteria. And after about 5 minutes of doing who knows what trying to find a vein, they finally got the needle in and began taking one of the 4 vials needed. Meanwhile I was charged with with holding Elizabeth's legs down. This was bordering on torture for me. Then the techies hit a glitch --Elizabeth must have moved and suddenly there was blood pouring out of her arm and none going in the last vial. Nice. Very nice.

At this point I started thinking, "get us out of here". This was a busy lab but it seemed to me that they specialized in adult patients. I thought, "heck let's take her to the lab at Children's Hospital of Orange County--surely they know how to take blood from a baby there."

The technician left to find out if the 3rd vial had enough in it and returned to say that her boss said it wouldn't be enough. So, she needed to go through this ordeal once again.

"Not today", I said. I couldn't bare to see her cry anymore. Then the boss came in and said he could easily draw the blood. Nice. Really nice. Where the heck was he when Elizabeth was hyperventilating on the table.

And so we said, "okay" knowing that it would probably be worse if we had to go through this the next day--and she needed to have these tests done. So boss man was right. I left the room since I couldn't bear to watch anymore and Marty stayed with her. The good news is that Boss man seemed to know how to find the vein and get the blood. It did however still take a couple of minutes and I stood outside the office and had to hear Elizabeth crying madly.

It was harder than I ever would have thought to hear Elizabeth so terribly scared. I realized at that moment how lucky we had been up until then. Except for my incident with Elizabeth crying in her car seat --we have really not had to hear her cry for more than 3 or 4 minutes since we have had her. And it is a good thing since I don't think my heart can take it.

For a moment while I was standing outside the door I thought, "oh no, this could ruin Elizabeth's happy personality." I feared that we were traumatizing Elizabeth for life. I feared that she would turn into a scared and timid little baby. I feared that she wouldn't trust us anymore. I started to really panic.

Then Elizabeth emerged. Her littles eyes were red and almost swollen shut. She was holding on to Marty and still hyperventilating. I was sick seeing her like this. And then, not expecting a reaction, I offered her an Arrowroot baby biscuit and she opened her little mouth an her frown started to turn to a smile and she grabbed that little biscuit and started chewing.

That was one of those "magical moments" for me. I knew she was gonna be alright. Once we left the office she reached for her bottle and gave us a smile. On the ride home she was laughing. And once we got home she had the most wonderful time in her "exersaucer". In fact, she was almost giddy with excitement.

Elizabeth amazes me with her obvious resilance. Perhaps this is a quality that all babies possess. I don't know.

There are so many amazing things about this little girl. And so many things that she is helping me to realize. I could go on...but I have talked enough tonight. I will follow up on some of these things later.

Sleep tight baby Elizabeth. We love you so.

Elizabeth meets Santa

Last night Marty and I attended a get together with the FCC group (Families with Children from China. There were lots of families who had adopted girls from China when China first opened it's doors to adoption over ten years ago. In fact one of the girls had just made her Bat Mitzvah!

It was so great to see all the girls doing so well. There were a few girls under 4 and one little girl who was 13 months old who Elizabeth will see again for some play dates.

Elizabeth had a lot of fun even got to sit on Santa's lap.
Of course she already had experience on that score--she had a visit with Santa at Fashion Island last week.

And the last photos shows Sara who is now 13 and was adopted when she was 2. Sara was a darling girl and fell in love with Elizabeth and played with her the entire night--which was really sweet to see.

Sunday Laugh

Of course you know Elizabeth has a great laugh...so this is one I had to share. I figure if we can keep her laughing everyday for the next, oh, 25 years---then I will consider this a job well done!

Elizabeth Makes Friends

Here is Elizabeth with my friend and neighbor Susan. Elizabeth really likes Susan and I think the feeling is mutual!

We feel really lucky that Elizabeth is so social..and of course so easy to love!

Elizabeth with family and friends

Just a few photos of Elizabeth at her grandparent's house. She also got to spend time with our friend Joann and of course, she loved that. She is a very social little girl--I hope she stays that way!

She also has an uncanny ability to nod "yes" as if on cue and has me convinced that she understands everything people say. And she finds laughing infectious--if you start laughing--she will laugh right along with you. It is, as you might imagine, utterly charming!

Exersaucer

Here it is...the toy to end all toys it seems! This is a pretty long video but she was having so much fun it was hard for me to stop filming!

Elizabeth

Sorry I didn't post this sooner, but here is a video of the day Elizabeth became "ours".
Oh, what a day that was.
I will write more about that day later....but the video speaks volumes!

Sunday in the Park

Today Marty and I headed down to Laguna Niguel to meet our friends Jan and Gary and little Kaila. If you take a look at the new video I just posted yesterday of Elizabeth on the day we received her, you will see Kaila and her parents at the end of the video and the girls looking at one another.

It was great to see Kaila, Jan and Gary yesterday and to let Elizabeth and Kayla get to know one another better. Although the girls seem to sort of gloss over one another I am glad that they are getting to spend time together and hopefully when they are older they will appreciate the fact that they have been friends "from the beginning" of our lives together.

We had lunch at Mimi's cafe and we all had a great time--except of course for the old fella at the table next to us. He took himself and his company to another side of the restaurant--it seems Kaila's exuberant vocalizations and Elizabeth's banging on the table were just too much for this man to bear. I wholeheartedly sympathize--had I been seated next to the likes of us a few months of us--I'd have run for the hills.

After lunch we headed over to an inviting park where the girls spent time on the swings and brave little Kayla took a few slides down the sliding pond.

We didn't really do anything too extraordinary or terribly important--but somehow I had the feeling I had really accomplished something.

It seems that when I actually get Elizabeth out and in of the car and her car seat and to our destination and back again without any major meltdowns or difficulties I am amazed it all works out--I feel as if I have sent man to the moon. I feel the same way when I actually get Elizabeth to bed and to sleep at a reasonable time without much difficulty--a major accomplishment --not to mention relief!

Technical Difficulties

As you may have noticed I am having some problems uploading video..going to work on that tonight. I may have to post it to YouTube (how trendy are we?) so that you can view it.

I have a little time tonight since the little princess (I once promised I would never call her a princess-but darn the names just fits so well, I can't help myself!) is asleep. I put her to bed at 8 P.M. and am praying that she sleeps 12 hours--which is what she did last night! Woo hoo!

Shake Rattle and Roll

Here is Elizabeth in her newest toy - the exersaucer. My friend Laurie recommended this toy since her daughter Avery adored it--and I think Elizabeth and she may have something in common on that score.

The toy however was quite something to put together. We had to enlist the help of Rick who is a home remodeler and builder to put this darn toy together--it had about 78 parts. It took Rick and his helper about 40 minutes to put the thing together--about the same time it would have taken them to put up the wall of a house!

Nonetheless, it seems well worth the effort-Elizabeth seems to really enjoy the thing. Although we have learned it is best to have her play in this earlier in the day--getting this worked up before bed time is clearly NOT a good thing.