Photos

Here are a few random recent photos of Elizabeth. It has been a rough 10 days or so with all of us alternating stomach viruses. It seems today though that everyone is pretty chipper (knock on wood). Hopefully that spell is behind us. (okay...no pun intended!) Funny, I know!

What Baby Reads

Elizabeth was so taken with this book The Arthritis Cure, she carries it everywhere. What can I say? When you have parents old enough to be your grandparents you learn some things earlier than most kids! Did I hear someone say, "medical school?"

Oh, and as for the tummy ache...it was the stomach flu. Or shall I say "still is" the stomach flu or something like it. Yep she got it from Dada it seems. I even managed to get it and sorry to say the babysitter went home sick to her stomach on Friday. We even have neighbors who are sick! Yikes.

Poor Elizabeth woke up Friday night crying and I wasn't sure if her tummy hurt or not so I indulged her and let her stay up--that was at 4 a.m. Needless to say, Saturday was a blur.

Considering how miserable Marty was when he had this thing, Elizabeth has been in pretty darn good spirits.

She is so cute when she wakes up in the middle of the night. Even when I am exhausted I have to laugh when I go in to check on her. The minute she sees me she sits up, looks down at her crib and waves and says "bye bye"--once I pick her up she looks down at the crib and says, "bye bye".

She pretty much says bye bye all the time now. It comes in handy as she lets us know when she is ready to stop doing something or to leave somewhere. It was also pretty cute when I took her to the doctor the other day for a shot--we walked in and she took one look at the nurse whom she knows as the one who administers the shots and cried and said , "bye bye" and turned to walk out the door. Everyone in the waiting room got a kick out of it.

Candy from a Baby

Here is a video of Elizabeth and her ice cream cone. Before you think I am cruel for trying to take it away from her...I can assure you that this baby has more than a touch of lactose intolerence.

After her ice cream cone Elizabeth went to bed and proceeded to awaken at midnight and was up (along with mama) until almost 4 a.m. I really paid the price for her little daliance with that cone. And as it turns out Marty has been pretty ill with a stomach virus--so now I am not sure if Elizabeth has the stomach flu or just the standard lactose intolerence symptoms. I am really hoping for the latter.

Can you say stupid mama?

No more ice cream or chocolate for Elizabeth.

No Way.

P.S. If you look at the post just before this one you will see that she did get her cone back after all. Unfortunately, however, I don't think chocolate agrees with her either. Opps.

Chocolate Lovers

Don't mess with a girl's chocolate...here you see Elizabeth did get the rest of her ice cream cone back.

More Cute Hair

So here she is with another one of her cutiepie hairdo's. Yes, Sandy was here today and I think she has caught on that I really like Elizabeth's hair in these ponytails. Is this the cutest baby you have ever seen?



Here is her smiling self...






She is a charmer when she is laughing...



She looks like such a big girl in this picture. FYI as of yesterday she weighted 27 pounds. She is in the 100th percentile for height and weight! You go girl!



This photo got into the mix ...but I decided to include it since she looks so cute. "Hey who are you calling a couch potato?"

Mother's Day Reflections

So Elizabeth decided to usher in Mother's Day last night by waking at midnight and not heading back to a deep sleep until about 4 a.m. I think it had something to do with the frozen yogurt I let her eat last night...but who knows.

So I sleepwalked through most of the day but it still find sort of surreal and odd. I suppose when you go through 47 years not being a mom on mother's day it isn't too surprising that everytime someone said "Happy Mother's Day" to me I looked behind me to see who they might be talking to.

But a mama I am. And to the most beautiful little pumpkin I could imagine. And I am so touched by the cards and flowers and phone calls from friends and family who wanted to say "Happy 1st Mother's Day". I certainly didn't expect it and it was really quite sweet.

I hope everyone had a wonderful mother's day. And if your mom is still here I hope you gave her a great big hug today. And if like me, you mom is no longer with you physically--I hope that your memories of your time with her give you more joy than sadness on this day. For me still, Mother's Day can be a little rough. It makes me think about the movie Shadowlands, when Anthony Hopkins talks about how..."the sadness today comes as a result of the happiness you had yesterday."

How true.

Cute Hair

So of the many benefits of having a mother's helper around --new hairstyles seem to be high on my list. Sandra managed to give Elizabeth that adorable ponytail on the top of the head look that I love so much. Doesn't she look adorable?





Another benefit to having Sandy around is that she does a spectacular job of trimming Elizabeth's fingernails and toenails--something I have failed miserably at. I am so darn afraid of cutting her skin that I barely get any of her nail when I am trying to trim them. Those of you who have been injured while playing with Elizabeth will appreciate this new feature.




Here is Elizabeth looking quite the toddler watching one of her favorite shows. She is learning "sit don't stand" when it comes the the couch. But you still need to be eagle eyes around her--as you might imagine, once you take your eyes off of her--there she goes flying head first off the couch.



She is picking up some style tips here...oh, and don't ever leave your sunglasses lying around if you want to see them again. Elizabeth's theory on everything that exists is this--"if I can get my hands on it--it's mine!"



Vogue--here is your next cover girl!

If the Phone Doesn't Ring...

I keep thinking of that Jimmy Buffet song--the lyrics basically go something like this "if your phone doesn't ring, it's me". I think he is talking about a girl he once knew and about how even though he doesn't call her, he thinks of her all the time.



That is pretty much how I feel about my life outside of Elizabeth. Somehow Elizabeth seems to consume my every waking moment and often my sleeping time as well. Without going into detail-- suffice to say that the last six months have been a little like "baby basic training" for me and Marty. And you could say Elizabeth is our darling little drill Sargeant to whom we have to answer.

So....all this to say that if I haven't called you, emailed you or visited you--it is not because I don't think of you a lot. It is not because I don't want to spend time with you. Oh no--I assure you it is not that.

The good news is that we have gotten a little bit of help with a nanny/mother's helper who will be here 2 days a week until mid-June. After that we have Elizabeth scheduled to attend preschool for a few hours a day during the week. I think she is going to love it because she is so darn social. She loves everyone--with one exception being the housecleaners who come once every two weeks. They are the sweetest couple you could meet and yet every time she sees them she screams for dear life. She doesn't even want to be in the house when they are here. It is really odd since she runs up to some up the scariest looking people on the street and asks them to hold her--and yet with sweet Mr. & Mrs. T she is petrified. Am I going to have to worry about her judgment of people? Oh man, wait until she starts dating.

On a brighter note, now that Sandra is here and certainly in June when Elizabeth heads to preschool, I hope to be able to resume at least a smidgen of a social life. Well, at least maybe a few phone calls a week.

A few photos

Here she is clowning around with one of her books. Like her dada she has about 5,000 books. She does not yet, however, have any bookcases--we are working on it. I am however trying to keep furniture in her room to a minimum at the moment since most furniture seems to double as just another place for her to hit her head. In the meantime I found some nice little linen buckets for her to keep her books in for now.



This photo shows her "sad" little face. If you are around her enough you start to learn her "crocodile" sad face and her true sad face. This is a crocodile sad face. She is also developing a little habit of crying and whining to get what she wants sometimes. (yes, even she does this) When I catch her doing it, I imitate her and start whining and pointing or crying just as she does and then she bursts into laughter. I get the sense that she really knows I am imitating her and finds it hilarious. She has a great sense of humor--which I am soooo happy about.



She looks pretty darn good in yellow. I am slowly moving away from the "pink on pink" ensembles.



Here she is in her pretty white shirt. I hear that in a few months she may be voicing an opinion in terms of what she wears. I can imagine that may make dressing her a tad more difficult.

Happy Sunday

Flying High

Here is Elizabeth having a little fun...

Panda Sweater

Here are a few photos of Elizabeth in her lovely Panda Sweater. I love this first photo where she looks a tad "posed".

And of course I love the one of her with her mama. How could I not?