Last Day at the Beach!

So...before we left Los Angeles, Elizabeth took Mommy and Daddy down to El Porto for one last look at the beach!


And here she is keeping warm on the car ride home!

Yep...that's Auntie Sammy's sweatshirt, swallowing her from head to toe!

It's Halloween Time!

Well, not quite...but for Elizabeth, it is! Before we left Los Angeles, Elizabeth had a fun little photo shoot for Carter's, modeling a green and orange witchy sleep set and an adorable Ladybug costume! Here is the link to the Carter's website for pictoral evidence of her short-lived career: http://www.carters.com/category/CategoryT4E.aspx?categoryId=56

Bikini Car Wash

Somehow, Elizabeth got wind of the controversial "Bikini Car Wash" in San Antonio, Texas. And, while she doesn't yet own a bikini, she seemed to think the concept of combining swimsuit with car washing was grounded in a strong foundation.




So, this afternoon, she decided to start a business of her own...on our front lawn...washing Mommy and Daddy's cars! Whoohoo!












Oh, and for those of you non-Californians who are thinking it is ghetto to wash your car on the grass (I know what you are thinking b/c when I first saw that, I thought it, too!)...it's actually a standard practice here, due to water supply issues in SoCal. You can read more about Water Conservation here: http://www.monolake.org/waterconservation/ and you'll see that tip number 8 under "Ten Ways to Save the Most: Outside" is-- "Drive your car onto a lawn to wash it. Rinse water can help water the grass." :-)

Conked Out!

The 2009 Acura NSX races from zero to sixty in 3.5 seconds! That's fast...but not quite as fast as Elizabeth's sixty to zero! ;-)

Today, after our weekly excursion to Polliwog Park with Erin and Emily, the four of us stopped at California Pizza Kitchen for lunch (sadly, there is no CPK near Lansing...and no Erin & Emily there, either :-(...so I have to get my fix of both before we leave!) It was approaching Elizabeth's nap time, but she was so busily chatting and gobbling up some bread that I thought she would easily make it through lunch!

Suddenly, however, I noticed her blinks getting a little longer, and--bless her heart-- she was trying to use her little hand to support her sleepy head! Erin cleverly whipped out one of Emily's "spare" dresses for Elizabeth to use as a pillow against the table, and, within a matter of seconds(!) she was out like a light! Needless to say, we ended up getting our meals in to-go boxes! But, before we left, I had to snap this picture of the sleeping beauty!

Convention

So, I just returned from Alpha Phi Convention in Arizona, and, while I was gone, Elizabeth had a fabulous time with Daddy, Grammy, and Pop-Pop!

Since I took the camera with me, I don't have pictures to post of Elizabeth, so I am posting some pics taken at Convention instead!

Here I am with my fabulous roommate, Laura, at the Red Dress Gala!


As you can see, we were all smiles...but that is before we spotted the giant Texas-sized cockroach crawling all over my dessert plate! EEK!

Here are some of the fabulous ELCs who will be traveling for Alpha Phi this year! Left to right (from memory!): Monica, Emily, Becca, Megan, and Kat! Whoohoo! Not pictured are the two Ashleys, Sarah Beth, Sam, and the incredible Courtney McCallum!

And finally, there are too many photos to choose from...so I will just add one more. Here is a picture of me with our fearless leader, Laura M-S...AKA "the big cheese"!

Elizabeth-In-The-Box!

"Did you have fun?"..."Did you play with toys?"...These are just a couple of Elizabeth's favorite questions to ask! (I guess we've asked these questions of her so many times that she now asks us this when she is trying to tell us that she had fun and played with toys!)


At any rate, she loves having fun and playing with her toys in the back room! Especially when the fun includes pulling all of her toys out of the toy box and climbing inside it!

Donna Martin Graduates!!!

Er...I mean Auntie J graduates!

And Elizabeth was happy to be there to share in the occasion!








Here she is with her Auntie Sammy!



And Daddy, too!

And "Happy J" again...at the after graduation soiree! Whoohoo!

Curious Monkeys and Big Yellow Hats

Hmmmm...something about this monkey looks very familiar! ;-)













Elizabeth loves "Daddy's hat"...and I know you do, too!

Hey...don't be jealous...you can pick one up for yourself on Santee Alley in Downtown LA for just $5! ("For you, pretty lady?...$4.99!")

Okay, Okay...I'm UPDATING!

Some of you have been hinting in subtle (and not-so-subtle) ways that I have been neglecting Elizabeth's blog. So I am vowing to post a little more regularly--at least for the next week or so! haha!

Here is Elizabeth at Daddy's last rugby game (about a month ago). She is completely content to run around the field pointing at the planes!








(As luck would have it, the rugby pitch is in the flight landing path for Santa Monica Airport!...and despite the fact that she just LOVES her Daddy, he can't compete with THAT!)

Coffee Beaner

It's official...Elizabeth is helping to enable Mommy in her Coffee Bean habit!











Here she is enjoying a cup of whipped cream at the Coffee Bean in Playa Vista! "A cup of whipped cream?!?!" you ask...












Well, you didn't think I was gonna give her COFFEE, did you?!










Yeah...this is what I like to call uber-responsible parenting! ;-)



Need any tips?...you just give me a call! haha!

My Pod!

Let me share a little story about our secret weapon that keeps Elizabeth COMPLETELY HAPPY in the car! It's this magical invention called the "my pod" or "my mp3"--or, as Elizabeth calls it "ABCs"--that is made by the folks at Parents' magazine. It plays 14 different nursery rhymes that she can change herself with a touch of a button! The songs are catchy little tunes sung by children with British accents...and most are songs anyone would recognize, like the alphabet song or her new current favorite "me shout"--er, "I'm a Little Teapot"...go ahead--sing through it once to yourself and you'll see why she calls it that!) And, as you can see, she totally digs it!

A couple of weeks ago, though, we had a near tragedy on our hands when it looked like ABCs had BROKEN! Daddy even cleverly changed the batteries (usually the most obvious solution to "fixing" any toddler toy these days!)...but it still didn't work! So, since she asks for ABCs EVERY time we get in the car, Mommy found herself on a quest to find a replacement! Should be easy enough, right? I mean, after all...they sell it at TARGET! Or...so Mommy thought! After different trips to multiple Target locations, searching it out online, and even enlisting the help of Grammy to scour her local Target stores in Houston, we soon discovered that the nursery rhymes version has been replaced by the new and improved CLASSICAL MUSIC version! OH NO!!!! And, mind you, I have nothing against classical music...but when your toddler wants to hear ABCs and Me Shout, then Beethoven's 5th Symphony simply will not do! ;-)

So, after even more super-sleuthing, I was able to locate ONE store on the internet that carried this "must-have" toy--and went to put it in the "shopping cart" only to find that I was blocked from navigating to the checkout page! AAAAAAHHHHH!!!!! Alas, if you are still reading this, then you deserve some reward for sticking with me through this long, drawn-out, Peter-like telling of this story to find out what happens, so I will end the suspense now by reassuring you that, in fact, it does have a happy ending! It turns out that the internet store that was selling the mymp3 is located HERE in Los Angeles! So I simply called them and had them reserve one for me! The kicker is...on the morning we were set to go get it, Elizabeth picks up her "broken" one, clicks away at the buttons, and all of a sudden...it's playing music again as if it were brand new! UGH! But, not willing to take any chances, I trekked down to the Kidsland store on Wilshire and Western and bought my "back-up" mp3...so now we are armed and ready if tragedy strikes twice!

Quick Fix

Just in case you are going through Elizabeth withdrawal...here are a few recent pictures!

Our Little Reader

Just wanted to post some cute pictures of our budding little reader!

Sometimes, when she is roaming around the house, it gets a little quiet...so I go searching for her.













And, inevitably, I find her hunkered down with Mo and a good book! :-)

Yep...Daddy's little girl!

Here Comes Summer!

Elizabeth faced today's 92-degree heat head-on with daring tenacity by slipping into her new summer sun gear and heading outside to run around in the backyard!

She played in the sprinklers for a short while (which she wasn't so sure about at first)...and then, Daddy let her take the water hose and go to town!




Boy was that a HUGE hit!

















She soon discovered that it was a great way to get wet ALL over!









Plus, it made getting a cool drink pretty easy!











And somewhere in the midst of all that fun, she even found time to stop and admire a ladybug!

The Miracle Worker?

So, Elizabeth has become a little bit obsessed with the water fountain in Auntie P's backyard. Here are what we like to call some "Hellen Keller Moments" with Daddy. All we are missing is the audio of her repeating over and over again: "Water?...water?...water?"