Lily's Big Sister Party

Lily Joy will be a big sister any day now!

Last Sunday her parents threw a big sister party to get her psyched. Barb and I are both youngest siblings, so Elizabeth had to do the heavy lifting of representing the older sibling. She did a good job. There were other friends and neighbors there with their kids -- big and little -- to offer whatever guidance or nuggets of wisdom they chose.

Above, Elizabeth and Lily are playing a memory game like Concentration. They had a minor difference of opinion on how to play it, which explains the look on Elizabeth's face -- that's consternation, not concentration.

When we were leaving the party, it was snowing! Snowing! In Portland, Oregon! On March 18! Two days before Spring! Kinda crazy.

Then we went to Grandma's for a delicious home-cooked meatloaf dinner. By that time the weather had turned clear and some gorgeous late-afternoon sunlight was drenching the room in photons. Both girls had a great time playing on Grandma's cushions and throw pillows.

All in all a very nice weekend.

The Dentist

After a year hiatus, Elizabeth returned to the world of professional dental hygiene. Because her original dentist wasn't a preferred provider, we had to switch her over to Barb's and my dentist, Nappy Lam, DDS. The man's name is Nappy Lam!! It's the best!

Elizabeth was very excited and a little scared to be going to the dentist. We actually left a St. Paddy's Day party to go to our eleven o'clock appointment, and she didn't even freak out. The sadness of leaving Lily and Jasper and the party was balanced by the awesomeness of seeing Dr. Lam.

The crazy motorized superarticulated dentist's chair gave Elizabeth a thrill equivalent, in her words, to "a ride at Oaks Park!" The hygienist, Carrie, kept Elizabeth entertained with stories of her own 18 month old finger sucker. Dr. Lam counted Elizabeth's teeth, said things looked A-OK, expressed some concern about her overbite ("We're going to need to look into early orthodontic intervention," said Dr. Lam. "Time to get a second job, or a second mortgage," is what Daddy heard.)

Elizabeth was allowed to pick a prize from the toy basket on the front counter. She bypassed the Groucho-nose/glasses and the balsa airplane and the toy wristwatch (not actually a timepiece) and picked a golden necklace.

She was even more thrilled by the grab-bag of dental equipment that Carrie gave her: an Ariel (aka The Little Mermaid) toothbrush ("for ages 5-7" -- another thrill for our four year old); a package of dental floss that is white threaded with blue; and a tube of real (as opposed to training) toothpaste branded with the insidious Spongebob Squarepants.

I was so proud and thrilled when Elizabeth skipped out of the Dr. Lam's office crowing, "I love going to the dentist!"

Yes.

Talking

Suzanne is talking up a storm, learning new words every day. Garden, redecorate, you name it!

Edit: Today she said Elizabeth for the first time!

Elizabeth-style

Elizabeth Rose has a very distinct and highly developed fashion sense. She is experimental. She knows what she likes.

I find this notable, because neither of her parents do (at least at this stage in our lives). She seems to have come on it by herself.

Part of her style involves wearing baby clothes. She will raid her younger sister's drawer for onesies and tiny sweaters and diaper covers and baby caps &c. She also likes "fancy," and will incorporate it any way she can, as for instance a pleated skirt over a snow suit.

Daddy's Birthday

This was actually a lot more fun than it looks from the pictures above. The late-winter sun was giving us some spectacularly dramatic lighting, leading to the couple of chiaroscuro photos you see here. (I've said it once, I'll say it a million times: thank you, spot meter!) It just so happened that the best pictures I snapped of Elizabeth and Suzanne both show them with grumpy countenances.

Maybe they were a bit grumpy... . This was fifteen minutes before the pizza arrived, and they were probably pretty hungry. As you can spy in the first photo, above, Jasper was with us on my birthday.

It was a good day.

Cooper Spur

On Thursday of last week we got snow in Portland. It was a minimalist dusting that left some patches of one-flake-deep snow on our lawn. When Elizabeth woke up and looked out her window, she was gripped by the snow-mania so common to kids who don't grow up in grim, snowbound places like upstate New York. "SNOW!" she shrieked, pointing at the patch of white that wouldn't seem out of place in Syracuse in early June.

I was suddenly very glad that we had accepted the Long-Loughran's invitation to join them for a weekend above the snowline on Mt. Hood. It was time for Elizabeth to learn about snow.

We got a cabin at a place called Cooper Spur, a resort of sorts one mile down from a ski slope of the same name. The cabin had a deadly-t0-kids spiral staircase, a fireplace (not as deadly to kids as the spiral staircase), beds for eight, and lots and lots of snow. Elizabeth was thrilled, then exasperated (snow in boots, snow in mittens, snow up sleeves -- welcome to my childhood, kid!), then re-thrilled by the awesome novelty of it all.

She proved, once again, to be an adventurer. For instance, she wanted to take a ski lesson. (The timing, along with Mommy and Daddy's desire to see it happen, didn't work out.) When Barb wanted to hike around the cross-country ski trails, Elizabeth insisted on being carried, because the baby was being carried. No go, said her parents. Her fit was nipped in the bud by herself, and her idea to trek into the woods with Daddy. Forget the lame cross-country ski trail, let's hit the wilderness! So Daddy trudged through thigh-deep snow in his corduroys while 36lb. Elizabeth walked on top of the snow like Legolas. Delight!

Above: The Larrison girls toast the their tootsies at the fire.

Elizabeth's ideal snowsuit: purple and pink.

A couple of Larrison girls, and Charlie Poodle.

Riley is a pretty good photographer, but no match for Daddy (see below).

Suzanne Hovey on the run. Thank you, spot meter!

Elizabeth and Teresa enjoying the sun and snow.

Elizabeth on our wilderness hike communing with nature.

Barb photobombed by Teresa.

The cabin at Cooper Spur.

Happy Fourth Birthday, E!

Elizabeth's birthday parties are ramping up in complexity, something Barb and I would both like to cap. Still, just three guest kids at a fourth birthday isn't bad. Neighbors Grayson and Reed, and best friend Lily. Four kids if you count Uncle Pat, pictured below (and looking, it might be worth noting, a lot more like a Northwesterner than a Southern Californian -- finally!).

Above: Uncle Pat, looking Portland. Also, Elizabeth Rose: glamor personified in shades from Grandma.

Four for the fourth: (clockwise from Elizabeth) Elizabeth, Lily, Reed, and Grayson.

The dress: Daddy's idea, Grandma's choice. Almost a week later, Elizabeth still likes telling the story of how I wanted to buy her a blue dress, but Grandma insisted on a pink one.

Where's Ectasy? Elizabeth could not be more thrilled by Grandma's gift of a new Where's Waldo book. Just look at that face!

One of the gifts from the Wheeler-Kay-Cohen clan was a game called Headbanz. I was at first dubious of the "For Ages 7+" imprint on the box. But it was perfect for little kids. Put the card in your headband and have the other players give you hints. (They're supposed to answer your questions a la 20 Questions, but that subtlety seems to elude three- and four-year-olds. So for example I'll be wearing a dragon card on my headband and Elizabeth will give me this hint: "You're a lizard that breathes fire!!" Hmmm.)

Despite some to-be-expected meltdowns (there was a grip of three- and four-year-olds, after all), we had a great time at the party. Besides the dress and the book, Elizabeth got a (more than slightly used) 16" bike (way too big, I discovered when she got on it) called "Little Rosie." It was very gratifying for Daddy, who was worried by just how used this thing was, when Elizabeth exclaimed to Uncle Mark over the phone, "I got a brand new bike!"

Artiste

I don't think Elizabeth was drawing and painting with this level of puissance when she was 15 months. Note how Baby S grasps the paint brush: not like a baby. To this day Elizabeth, who is a pretty awesome drawer, still holds the pen/brush/crayon in her fist.

(Photo by Barb, by the way. Nice one, Barb!)

Two Friends

Elizabeth is beginning to let Suzanne into her room, into her bath, and into a chair at her art table. This seems indubitably to be a good thing. Suzanne certainly seems to think so, even if sometimes she expresses her fondness for Elizabeth's largesse by biting, scratching, swatting, and pulling hair.

Sometimes she hugs and kisses, too.