2 Kids

Doesn't Marty look so relaxed in charge of two little toddler girls.

Hello Monday

Elizabeth just wanted to pop in and say,"Happy Monday" and she hopes you are having a great day.

Elizabeth Mary Shoe (Shu)

You may or may not know that Elizabeth's third middle name is her Chinese name Shu (named after a Chinese friend who helped us to bring Elizabeth home). And seeing as how Elizabeth is fascinated with shoes (not to mention feet), her name is befitting her for sure.

Here she is trying to wear my shoes. She did a pretty darn good job of getting them on and managing to walk around the house a bit with them on her feet.

Whenever she sees a pair of shoes anywhere in the house she runs to them and brings them to us and and shouts "bye bye". Shoes to her mean, "it's time to go out". In order to avoid some stress I have learned to put all shoes away until it is time to go out.

Fatburger

So in case you think all I ever post are flattering pictures of lovely Elizabeth...this post will prove that thought wrong.

Here is evidence that one shouldn't deviate to far from a healthy diet. Poor Elizabeth went crazy at "Fatburgers" hamburger joint and the first two pictures show her after her feeding frenzy. She really is used to eating so healthy all the time and I take her to Fatburger occasionally and always order her the "Veggie Burger"--which she loves. Once in a while she gets two or three of the french fries that come with the meal but she is usually disinterested in them. Not this time. Suddenly she had a "french fry attack" and gobbled down an adult portion of french fries! Opps. Well, she enjoyed them--and since life is short I figure once in a while is okay. But next time we head to Fatburger I am going to tell them to "hold the fries".

Wiggles

Here is evidence of Elizabeth's extraordinary love for the show Wiggles and the four Austalian fellas who make up the show--she also loves Dorothy the Dinosaur as you can see here!

Dressing Herself

Elizabeth has been making all sorts of attempts to do things herself these days--including dress herself. She does a pretty darn good job with her shoes and manages to get them on the right feet about as often as I do. She has also been trying to put on pants and shirts but let us say that she as a bit of a ways to go.

Tonight I put her dinner shirt on (read old tee shirt that I don't care if she messes up) and then she insisted on putting her shorts on herself. Only problem is that she tried to get them on by putting them over her head and the result is evident in the pictures here. She was so darn proud of herself when she got those shorts over her head. I know the look and it is one of surprise and pride. She ran to the mirror and looked at me as if to say, "can you believe I did this--and don't I look great?". I didn't have the heart to take them off and put them on her the right way so I let her wear them around her neck for a while and got another pair of shorts for her to wear.

A Couple of Photos

Here are a couple of photos of Elizabeth with her friend Kaila who traveled home from China with us. In the first picture I am holding Kaila--who is just adorable too! Interestingly Elizabeth looks small in this photo but she actually weighs five pounds more than Kaila--and is eight months younger!

She and Kaila had so much fun playing with a fire hydrant at Fashion Island. I must have walked by that hydrant a hundred times and never thought of this use!

They had a really great time together at Fashion Island on the fourth of July. We had dinner at the Yard House and Elizabeth ate an entire plate of buttered noodles not to mention and entire frozen fruit pop. Ummm...good.

Here are some photos of Elizabeth and her new found food obsession--Wheat Thins. The other day she managed to meander over to the pantry and somehow reach and OPEN a whole box of wheat thins which she proceeded to eat right out of the box. I have to admit it was pretty darn cute when she took the box and plopped herself in front of the TV in her little easy chair. She looked so adult--if not a little like Joe Six Pack!






Here is Elizabeth sitting in one of her little cubby holes holding her favorite bottle of water. She also has organized a dozen or more bottles in the cubby. She seems to really like to organize items once she finds them. We can only hope this habit holds up. I could use some organizational help around here.






Here she is with Marty who is using his academic prowess to teach Elizabeth how to "slap me five".

What's Going on

The last month or so has been pretty hectic and I know I haven't posted much about what is going on with Elizabeth--although I have managed to get a few photos up!

Firstly she is doing wonderfully and really starting to communicate with us. You can really start to see her personality develop. She is curious and happy and full of energy like you can't believe.

There are two things going on right now that are taking up a lot of our time and attention. The first was having Elizabeth in a part time child care situation. She started two weeks ago and our plan was to have her there for 3 hours a day. The first three days (after some transition) the director of the program told me she was doing so great and having so much fun that I could let her take her nap there two days in a row--so she was there for 5 hours which I now realize was way too long for her.

After a week in the program she started waking up with night terrors-- both after her nap and also soon after she went to sleep at night. She has never done anything like that before. The screaming was scary. She was also so clingy and generally much more difficult at home. In addition to that, on three separate occasions when I went to pick her up at the center I found her crying at a little table with snot (sorry) running down her nose. My instinct at that moment was "we're out of here". But I did go home to think about it.

What Marty and I have figured out so far is that we can't be certain that the daycare situation put her into a funk, but there is enough doubt in our minds that we eased off and did not send her last week.

I think in the end that having someone at our house would be better for her but I may give it one more try tomorrow and try bringing her in the afternoon (she went mornings originally) and stay with her for the whole time and see if there are problems with the program itself (ie. crying snot filled children) and also if she seems comfortable there. If it is going to cause her difficulty we will not keep her there.

Ultimately I think we should be able to figure out a babysitting situation that works for her and for us and hopefully we will figure it out before she is old enough to drive!

On another front which relates a little to the daycare dilemma, it seems baby Elizabeth has an issue with her eyes. It is a condition called Strabismus, which is a fancy name for "crossed eyes". This should have been detected earlier but aside from kicking her pediatrician that is not much I can do about that. In addition she may have developed a bit of "lazy eye" which causes the vision in her left eye to be poor due to lack of use as she favors her right eye which is not crossed.

Long story short--so far we have taken her to two doctors. One prescribed glasses and exercise and did not mention her vision problem in her left eye and the second doctor said forget the exercises and throw away the glasses--you need to patch her good eye.
Needless to say I was not comforted by their differing opinions nor did I appreciate the second doctor who left her with a bruised eye!

What is a girl to do? There is where my hypochondria and medical doctor obsession kicks into full gear. I found the guy who "literally" wrote the book on strabismus and we have an appointment to see him at the Jules Stein Institute in Los Angeles in early August.

I will fill you in a little more on Elizabeth's eyes and the childcare situation but I have rambled enough for now and I have to run and get Elizabeth ready for her playdate with her little friend Maria who is also adopted from China! I will try to get a few pictures and post them asap!