The first legible mother's day card.

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Elizabeth and I biked to the park while visiting Auntie Karen and Xander. Elizabeth's started to ask who she can give her stroller to, "now that she doesn't need it anymore". Three is apparently an age of whiplash between baby Elizabeth and Big Girl Elizabeth. Actually, we usually have two "children", just one is invisible. Big Girl "Lizabef" can buckle herself into the carseat, but often morphs into baby "Eliani Jake" who needs a baby toy and soother (pretend ones are acceptable). After all, big Elizabeth is obviously sitting on the booster seat. Pointing out that six year old neighbour Noemi still uses the exact same carseat we do has had no effect. When we reach our destination, the baby stays in the car, but the Big Girl climbs out. Babies don't ride bikes...

 

Xander and Elizabeth rode on the teeter-totter together and the swings. It was apparently Xander's first time on the teeter-totter. Elizabeth was pretty tired because napping doesn't always fit into her busy schedule. Sometimes she completely refuses to take one, and other times she is begging to be "'llowed to nap wite, wite NOW Momma!" It got harder to ride the bike when she had to stop to rub her eyes, but she managed to make it all the way back to Xander's without mishap.

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Elizabeth had a follow-up appointment at CHEO today.

We now have a tentative date Summer 2013 to remove the hemangioma on her nose, to be firmly decided next April. The doctor now believes that none of the remaining marks are likely to resolve on their own.

 

Interestingly, Elizabeth gets far fewer comments now than when she was a baby (when we routinely got chased by complete strangers wanting to know "what happened", and sometimes asking about her life expectancy!). Since removal is cosmetic, we've decided that we're going to let Elizabeth have a fair amount of input into the timing.

 

At first Elizabeth was determined that she wasn't even going to go to the doctor, let alone let the doctor touch her nose.  "I want to keep my birthmark!" she said. I told her that we'd see what the doctor had to say, but that she could help Mommy and Daddy decide what to do after that. Apparently she is afraid that removal might hurt! Dr. Duncan is really great with kids though and Elizabeth submitted to being poked and prodded without any protest. Later Elizabeth confided that we'll have matching faces after she turns four.

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Elizabeth biked 1.3 km to Bronson and Queen Elizabeth Drive. Then she mostly ran back with cousins Erika and Maria.

 

The girls demanded to have their photos taken in front of every other bed of tulips, so it took us a while to walk home. Then they discovered a number of "tree forts" and Erika announced she wanted to sleep there. Thank goodness we had some snacks available for distraction purposes!

 

When I'm taking pictures I usually ask them lots of silly questions in a vain attempt to get some more natural expressions. Elizabeth almost always says whatever Erika does, as does Maria. Yukiko and I had trouble keeping a straight face with all the echoing going on!

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Proving that she's all better now, Elizabeth spent much of the day outside helping Mommy and Daddy build new raised garden beds.

 

She quickly got distracted by the hose and dirt. I neglected to get a photo of the finished product - these are relatively early in the process. She made a "sink", frying pan, muffins and many, many mud pies before settling down to "paint" her arms. "These are my new sleeves", she said.

 

I ended up hosing her off, clothes and all. Then I stood her in the sunshine to dry off a bit.

 

 

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