Hi-tech Baby

Here is Elizabeth working on the laptop. She is VERY interested in computers as you may gather from the photos. We are not allowed to work on our computer while Elizabeth in the vicinity--unless of course we are willing to let her take control of the computer.





Here she is at the Apple store, trying out a few Macs.



And the nintendo addiction is the funniest thing. One day she made this motion as if she was writing with a pen--and then we realized she was mimicking the nintendo pointer action --she then headed over to the kitchen and pulled the nintendo out of the drawer and wouldn't you know it--she can play the darn thing!

Glasses

On Monday we took Elizabeth back up to L.A. for her follow up visit with Dr. R who did her surgery in December. As it turns out she may have to wear glasses for a little while.

Elizabeth's case is what he calls "borderline" in terms of needing another surgery. Her correction needs were not that significant to begin with--which made the surgery that much more tricky. Dr. R did not want to adjust the muscle too much and over correct the problem. Therefore, he was conservative with the initial surgery--as he explained to us from the beginning. As it turns out Elizabeth's eyes are still a tiny bit "off" in terms of working together.

The doctor is recommending a conservative course for now--which includes having Elizabeth wear glasses. We also still need to patch her eye for a few hours a day. We will do this for two months and see if it makes the correction she needs.

In the meantime, she looks pretty darn cute in her Cinderella frame glasses. I will have to snag a picture of her when the glasses go into their "sunglass" mode--she looks very Hollywood when they turn dark in the sun.

She wore them all day on Tuesday but we have to take the glasses in today for some adjusting. Hopefully she will continue to be as happy to wear them as she was on Tuesday.

And, the good news is that her vision has vastly improved from the surgery and we are going to do as much as possible to make sure she qualifies for a pilot's license when time time comes.

Elizabeth and her Dog Friend

I may or may not have mentioned that Elizabeth is quite fond of doggies. In fact "dog" was one of her first words. She would scream out "dawwwww" everytime a dog would pass us by. Of course early on she thought every animal including chickens were dogs but I am happy to say she has learned to differentiate.

This dog was outside the Mexican restaurant in San Clemente...and as you may have guessed he is 100% not real. I think she understands that--but who knows.

Elizabeth and La La

Last weekend cousin Laura (Aunt LaLa to Elizabeth) came to visit and as you might imagine--Elizabeth was thrilled. We managed to tour a lot of Newport Beach and found ourselves at a few of Elizabeth's favorite eateries--and a new one or two.

We took a nice drive down to San Clemente and Elizabeth was such a good girl. We were sorry that Aunt Re couldn't be here--last year when Ann Marie was here, Elizabeth learned her classic "Ann Marie face"--which is her wide eyed open mouth exclamation look.







Here she is at the Cannery-- a nice restaurant in Newport Beach. She is pretty darn good in restaurants (knock on wood). Heck, she should be--she has been eating a good percentage of her meals at them since she was 10 months old. Our first two weeks with her in China we were eating in restaurants for all of her meals.



We visited Avila el Ranchito's down in San Clemente and Elizabeth had just a good a time there as she did at the fancier Cannery restaurant--as you can see here.


Yeah, Elizabeth likes to eat, and she likes the good stuff. Laura was amazed when Elizabeth turned down the french fries and chicken nuggets kids meal and went right for the guacamole and Mexican rice. She's not big on french fries anymore--I guess that was a phase. Her new phase is buttered noodles. She will eat them anytime, day or night--the more butter the better.





Here she is with mama.




Elizabeth makes this face fairly often to express displeasure. I think she gets her point across pretty well.




Here she is with the car keys. She has learned that if you point and click the key at the car you can open it up. She hasn't quite figured out yet that it doesn't work on every car. Although the other day she did actually help me by pressing the key and locking our car while my hands were full.

I think about all the technologies that have come about just since I was a kid and I wonder how that affects how kids see the world. Things like pointing at things and they magically open, and then there is the whole DVR "Tivo" effect--you can fast forward, rewind and pause things at will. The other day on the playground I noticed a kid yelling at another kid, "pause!!!". I think in my day we would have screamed "stop!".


Here is Elizabeth standing outside the house. She looks like such a "big girl" to me now.

Matching Dress

Here is Elizabeth in the beautiful dress that Joanne and family gave her for her birthday ...and it is stunning I must say. It is also adorable that it comes with a matching dress for the doll. I can't wait for the weather to get just a little warmer so she can wear it.

I also have realized that I can no longer save her "good clothes" for special occasions--since Elizabeth doesn't go to that many fancy dress parties or events and by the time she does --she has outgrown her fancy outfits. So, if you ever see her at the playground in a satin dress--you'll know why!

Also...we did a pretty good job of matching up presents with cards but somehow the pretty pink Princess frame and the Dora play figures set got separated from their cards. If you were the sweet person to give that to E, can you let me know! :)