Elizabeth shows her Signing skills

Here is Elizabeth doing a few cute things--which isn't hard for her. Opps...am I bragging?

Elizabeth Goes to The Supermarket-in Style

I didn't realize that she would look like the Pink Princess when I put Elizabeth in the shopping cart the other day. But that is exactly what she looked like. She has one of those shopping cart covers that protects her from nasty germs when she decides to chew on the cart. And it just so happened on this day she was all decked out in pink from head to toe (okay so she has A LOT of pink clothes). She definitely takes after her Grandma Fran in the clothes department--she always looks fabulous!!!

She looked so cute I just had to grab the camera and take a few photos.

One might say she is also auditioning for the Miss America pagent. When she goes anywhere she waves and says hello to just about every person who walks by. It is really adorable--and she is quite a charmer.

You may have to click on the photos get a good look. The photos have not been photoshopped as you can see. It is amazing I have the time to get them on the blog.

Marty says that I am always complaining that I have no time to do anything for myself since Elizabeth demands 100% of my time from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. (true)--and then when she goes to sleep I spend the rest of my time posting pictures of her or ordering toys or clothes for her! Funny, eh?

A few more photos

Here are a few photos from Aunt Erica and Uncle Mark and Jonathan's visit! Elizabeth really loved being with them.

Here is Erica and Elizabeth at Balboa Peninsula beach!



Elizabeth and Jonathan Once Again


Elizabeth had a lot of fun jumping around on Mark!






We got a chance to play in the sand. Elizabeth loves the beach.



Elizabeth and Mama!


Elizabeth really had zero fear of the water. I think she would have run right into the ocean if I hadn't been there to stop her. Oy Vey!

Jonathan meets Elizabeth

Last week we were lucky enough to have my dear friend Erica (whom I have known for "ahem" 37 years--yeah, since we were 2!) and her husband Mark and son Jonathan come for a visit to California --all the way from Philly.

There was only one bad aspect to the visit--it made me really sad about the fact that we live so far away from one another. But I will continue my campaign to get Erica and her entire family--(yeah that means you too Barbara) to move to California. We will see how persuasive I am.

We didn't get nearly enough photos and I will post more later but wanted to get this cute shot of Jonathan with Elizabeth. As you can see they really got a kick out of one another!

Van Gogh She Ain't

So, this afternoon I figured I would see if Elizabeth has a touch of artistic genius in her. Well, let's just say that the Met does not need to set aside a separate room for her artwork just yet. As for painting it seems Elizabeth is way more interested in eating the paints than she is in putting color to canvas. Now, the box with the "Kadoodle" paints assures me that they are non-toxic and as of this writing Elizabeth is doing fine so I guess we shouldn't worry!

A few more photos

Just a few more photos from Sunday-

Here is Elizabeth doing a little dancing for us.


Here is Elizabeth sitting on G'ma's lap playing patty cake.


He we are at lunch with Elizabeth. As predicted she is becoming a little more difficult to take to restaurants since she is no longer entirely content sitting in her little chair--not when there is a whole world to explore and a restaurant full of people to meet. Lately the only relaxed meals I have are those in my dreams.


Here she is with Marty's sandals. She is so cute when she thinks she is going "bye bye" she walks around saying "bye bye" and brings us our shoes.

Pretty Girl

We actually got a few nice photos of Elizabeth in her dress...more later.

The Blue Dress

So I can tell you this...last week Aunt Janet came down from LA to visit Elizabeth and brought her this gorgeous blue dress. Janet wes also right on in telling me it was time to get Elizabeth out of her "California Casual" look and into her New England little girl duds! And what a transformation! The minute I put the dress on Elizabeth--she transformed into a little girl who made me think about summer in Cape Cod!

The only problem here seems to be that she is not one to "pose" for a photograph--as you can see here we were unable (after about 50 trys) to get a decent photo of Elizabeth in her lovely dress.

Here she is running away from the camera --once again.



I finally got Marty to hold her still for a photo--the only problem here is that Marty was unaware that I was really trying to capture the essence of the dress--he didn't exactly have her posed for a fashion shoot.



I try, in vain, to keep Elizabeth still for this shot. Oh well.



More stuggles with the darlin' If you click on the photo and expand it, you will see just how relaxed she is for the fashion photographer--NOT!

Elizabeth Says Happy Easter!

Here is Elizabeth with her Easter Ducky. She scored this as a special promotion at Macy's! The especially nice thing about the Duck is that the saleslady who waited on us is from Elizabeth's birthplace-- Guangzhou.

As for Easter..those of you who know me pretty well know that I am not really into any formalized religion, but being raised Catholic I can tell you that some of our most wonderful memories were shopping with our mom for Easter clothes, dressing up and eating lots of chocolate--all of our cousins and Aunts and even our dear Jewish uncle Abe joined in the festivities!

Hey, when it comes to candy and celebrating--count us in!!!!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Under the Gate

Here is a video of Elizabeth as she deals with the reality of some of our "babyproofing" efforts.

How Much Can One Baby Eat?

I was going to title this post, "can a baby explode?", but that sounded a tad extreme. Tonight, however, I was truly astonished at how much little Elizabeth seemed to "pack away".

I can tell you that she ate the better portion of an entire package of brown rice--which was really intended for Marty (opps), along with 4 ounces of sweet potatoes, 4 ounces of apple and mixed grain baby food, 2 ounces of cheese and 4 slices of turkey. No joke here. On top of all that she polished off a full bottle of soy milk before going to sleep about an hour after dinner.

Can a baby eat that much? I guess so. I think tonight may be record for quantity eaten. I calcuate the calorie count for her dinner to be about 650-700 calories!!! The rice really adds up and I figure she ate about a cup and a half of rice.

For those who are concerned that she might be eating too much, I can assure you that the doctor says that her BMI (body mass index) is on target and that she is just a big baby! Besides that-- all the nutrition books say that babies have an inate sense of when they have eaten too much and as long as you feed them healthy foods--their bodies will do the rest. Also, it is critical at this age (for brain development especially) that she gets a good amount of fat and carbohydrate--pretty much the opposite of what a dieting adult would eat!

Besides that--for the last couple of nights I experimented with telling her when she was done (or when I thought she had enough) for dinner. What we got out of that experiment was a baby waking up at 3 a.m. making the sign for "bottle" and crying until she got one! So much for that.

If we notice her getting pudgy, we may have to adjust her intake, but for now she gets to revel in being a baby and eating anything she darn well pleases--and as much of it as she wants.

Lucky girl, eh?

Elizabeth Walking in Sunshine

Here she is walking outside. As you may gather, this is "after her big fall" so I am a tad nervous. But all in all you can see how darn happy she is to be walking around outside. Excuse the technical difficulties here!

Elizabeth's New Shoes

So in my attempt to feel some sense of control over Elizabeth's falling all over herself and onto the ground lately (ouch) I decided that we had better invest in the best shoes possible to rule out any accidents caused by faulty shoe wear.

So off we went to Nordstroms to get a sturdy but still cute pair of walking shoes. In addition to her practical new shoes, I spied an absolutely adorable pair of baby shoes covered in pink and red sequins. I immediately informed Elizabeth she just had to have them. Luckily the salewoman assured me that they were as supportive as they were pretty.

When we got home I couldn't help but be immensely tickled by this shoe purchase--something about these shoes. And that is coming from someone who has never understood most women's fascination with shoes--for me shoe shopping has almost always been a necessary evil-go figure.

But these shoes were different. And then I thought about the red sequins and that got me to thinking about Dorothy's ruby red slippers. And don't you know it--they were covered in red sequins. So you might say that Elizabeth's has the toddler version of Dorothy's Ruby Red Slippers.

So, Elizabeth, "click you heels together three times and remember-there's no place like home!"

Elizabeth and her Remote Control

Here is Elizabeth with one of her many favorite toys--the remote control. Actually this is a "dummy" remote control that we gave her in hopes of keeping her away from the real thing. She is so funny when she walks around pointing it at the T.V. and wondering why it isn't working.

Actually (knock on wood) she has been a good girl in terms of keeping away from things we don't want her touch--for the most part. Hopefully she will continue her compliant personality (just for her parents of course) and maybe,just maybe we can get through the next year with a modicum of our sanity intact. Yeah, sure.

She's doing fine

Just a quick update to the last sad little post about Elizabeth's boo boo.

Elizabeth has been fine and dandy since falling and scaring us out of our wits. Actually within 15 minutes of the incident she was a pretty cheery little girl.

Today we went to the playground (sorry I forgot the camera) and she was running and laughing and doing all sorts of things that were making me sweat--including trying to climb up the 8 foot tall jungle gym. My friend Patty was there with her daughter Maria and I am sure Patty now thinks I am the worlds' most neurotic mom--I didn't let Elizabeth get up more than two stairs on that jungle gym unless I was right behind here and holding on to her for dear life.

And this little girl is not a lot like her mama who was one of the least athletic kids on the block. Not Elizabeth--she is a runner and a climber. I tried to redirect her to the kiddy swing and interestingly she is petrified of the safe little swing. She cries desperately the minute you put her in it. But as for climbing up to the top of a ten foot slide and barreling down--with that she has no problem.

I looked at lots of the equipment at the playground and somehow I can't remember these sorts of things when I was a kid. They have all these giant jungle gyms and climbing posts that look like an accident lawyer's dream. There were even 7 and 8 years old at the park that I was worried about up there. I truly don't know how people can let kids climb up on these things that have all sort of doors and cliffs that drop off at least 8 or 9 feet--no joke. Sure there is a soft substance on the floor--but you fall that far and something has to break.

Maybe it's me.

Now I just have to figure out how to keep Elizabeth from climbing when we go to the playground.

Good luck, eh?

Hello ER, Bye Bye Coffee Table

"Your life can change in an instant". I remember my old boss telling me that over lunch one day. For some reason it has always stuck in my mind. And this morning those words were reverberating in my head.

So at approximately 8:29 A.M. Elizabeth was joyously running around the family room and I literally thought to myself, "she seems so happy and jubiliant"--I actually went to check the sugar content of the fruit and granola bar she had just eaten. Nope, not too much sugar--it must be that she is just so happy--and how nice is that!

And then in an instant Elizabeth went from laughing and cavorting to running head first into the edge of the coffee table. What then ensued was a lot of crying and screaming and me trying to comfort her and hold her close. I then screamed for Marty and took Elizabeth up the stairs all the time yelling, "we have to get rid of that table--NOW!". It wasn't until I pulled Elizabeth away from me and I actually looked at her that I realized this was no little "bump on the head". She had a huge gash across her forehead along with a massive swelling that was already black and blue.

"We have to take her to the emergency room," my instincts told me, this isn't something to just "wait and watch". We immediately called the pediatrician and he said, "take her to the emergency room." I have to say that at that point everything went into fast forward. I realized I had to at least get out of my pajamas and then thought, "or should I just go like this?" No, my instincts told me I could at least get dressed. Marty was ready in a minute (believe me that is saying A LOT!) and I grabbed my shoes and socks and we were in the car whisking Elizabeth to Hoag Hospital emergency room by 8:40 A.M.

It was not a fun drive. Elizabeth was in pretty good spirits but looked a little sleepy and I tried as best I could to keep her awake. I started to panic when she wouldn't track my finger...Marty had to keep reiterating that I shouldn't panic and that she seemed to be fine an in good spirits. Oh, and it really pained me to look at the nasty gash on her forehead.

It all happened so darn fast. The intake nurse was sweet but I burst into tears when I started explaining what happened. And when the nurse picked up the phone to call for one of the doctors and said, "infant head injury" I felt physically ill.

Marty was a lot more composed and being of a naturally more optimistic nature when it comes to medical conditions, he seemed to be sure Elizabeth would be fine.

Luckily when the ER doctor examined her, he said he thought she would be just fine. He did however ask us to keep her in the ER for about half an hour so that they could observe her. Happily after the half hour was up the doctor came in to find Elizabeth dancing to the Wiggles video that the nurses were sweet enough to put in the room.

We left the ER with a list of things to watch out for and a great sense of relief.

And I thought as we were exiting the emergency room doors about all the others that were in the emergency room and how their experiences were likely much more traumatic than ours. And yet, at any moment --you just never know. Your life can truly change in an instant.

And I suppose that is why we should cherish each moment that we have...and the cliches about "if you have your health, you have everything" seem to come to life when you are sitting in the emergency room.

Friends have said, this is a "rite of passage" and I suppose in an way that is true. But we knew this coffee table was a potential hazard. We reasoned that she hadn't had a problem in four months so it should be fine. LaLa you was right. Well, needless to say at 3:45 P.M. today dear friend Matt took time away from his family and brand new baby girl to help Marty cart the dastardly coffee table into the garage where it belongs.

Bye Bye coffee table.

The challenge now for me is to not view everything in Elizabeth's path as a hazard and potential emergency room visit. I took Elizabeth to the neighborhood park this afternoon and I have to admit that I shadowed her every move and my heart jumped every time she took a spill.

Welcome to parenthood.

Ay Carumba.



Here is a photo of the gash on poor baby's forehead. You can't really get a sense of the bump here...but believe me, it is a real shiner.


She is such a trooper, she was smiling 15 minutes after she fell.



And here is where her bangs come in handy to hide her nasty Frankenstein gash. Oh my poor little pumpkin. Oh yeah, she can have ice cream tomorrow--and whatever else she wants!

She's getting big...

I sort of startled myself when I opened this photo tonight. I can see Elizabeth as a "little girl" and not just a "baby". Yes, she is growing up. Yeah, she still has quite a ways to go, but there are so many hints of the girl she is going to become.

Oh, in case you didn't know --if you click on the photo you can see it in larger format.