Laurel Elisabeth Stevens

Well, I feel like my Grandmother here: I just inserted all these pictures in the proper places in the text from Christmas Day, and I clicked on publish and they were gone. Where did they go? So I'm trying again, and you'll have to imagine them in the right places. Sorry! Grandma Gray presides over the caroling on Christmas Eve. This was the biggest year yet--the family keeps on growing! Bitsy's not so sure about Santa Claus Grandma Gray sits on Santa's lap

Merry Christmas! I'll have to post the pictures later, for so now, just a hundred words or so. I thought we were doing a good job of teaching Elisabeth what Christmas was about--she was learning about the angels (Angel said "Don't be fwaid") and Mary and Joseph and a "baby named Jesus." She knew that wiseman wore crowns and rode on camels, and a few days ago if I asked her "Whose birthday are we celebrating?" she would answer, "Jesus." Alas, today after opening lots of presents, I was putting her down for her nap and I said, "Whose birthday is it today?" "Bitty's!" without a bit of questioning in her voice. She knew right away it must have been hers. "No," I said, "Whose birthday is it?" She went through the list: Mommy's, Daddy's, Grandma or Grandpa. And Jesus was never among them. I suppose she's right since we don't know when he was actually born, and we are the ones who'v...

Right now Elisabeth loves to look at pictures. I will be downstairs and she will be upstairs and I get worried, thinking, she's so quiet, what is she doing? And when I go check on her, she is standing at the computer, watching the screen saver slide show go through countless pictures. Right now her favorite pictures are of "Bitty and Minny" (Bitsy and Timothy). So here are a few favorites.

Loving the "tunnel house" as she calls it. Her favorite thing to do is "meep" in it (sleep). But I think the cutest is when she looks out the window. Elisabeth enjoyed her first few sugar cookies--only the best recipe from Grandma Marva will do. Here she is modeling a sweater from Grandma, but she hardly gave me time to take the picture. She has figured out that she can see "pictures of Bitsy" on the camera, so she is always rushing around to see them. And as far as she knows, the only pictures on the camera are of Bitsy. That is nearly true.

Elisabeth is very particular about her clothing. It is a little scary. She gets out of bed and wants to pick out her clothes. She is only 2! If I choose something she doesn't like, there is no hope. The best I can do is pick out 2 outfits and let her choose. But sometimes she just wears funny combinations. But with this particular Christmas outfit, we got lucky. She loves it. This morning, just an ordinary Thursday, she was intent on wearing it. Since it is washable and warm, that was fine with me. But the shoes--she won't wear black shoes! She has two cute pairs of them, but she wants nothing to do with them. So it is the scuffed up white ones that she wears. Hopefully one day soon they won't fit. Other fun things: Uncle Josh and Aunt Sarah gave Elisabeth a set of instruments for Christmas--a tamborine, a harmonica, etc. I'm proud to say that to Elisabeth, Chritmas music consists of carols sung by Chanticleer or First Presbyterian Church Chancel Choir. We discovered th...

A few weekends ago we went camping with some friends who have a three year old boy. Jennifer and I have known each other since before we were married so things have changed a bit over the years! Somehow they got the impression that we were big campers. This trip was the 2nd we've taken with Elisabeth, and our 3rd trip in 2 1/2 years. I don't know if that counts, but in any case, it was a good reason to brave the outdoors for a toddler sized camping trip. We headed to Lake Houston State Park which is petitioning for a name change, as there is no lake in the park. It is also becoming a city park soon, for better or worse. In any case, it is less than an hour from our house, so that is a big plus. Since Elisabeth woke up Friday morning in her crib she started saying, "Doh namping!" (go camping). She said it all day long, as we packed the car, and headed out only to get stuck in traffic. As we sat there on FM 242 (that is Farm to Market) she kept saying, "Doh namping...

Here's another picture of Elisabeth doing what she loves best: reading books. Grandma Marva is the lucky reader this time. Elisbaeth's request comes out as "Mommy, weed buht to you you." How can I refuse? Her favorite book right now is "Yiyul Bat Yambo" aka "Little Black Sambo." Reasons for censorship aside, this book sure knows how to win a child's love of repetition and animal noises. When the tigers are saying Grrr she says it with gusto 2 lines too early: "Diuhhh!" (no /g/ or /r/ yet for Elisabeth). Sometimes she likes to have Pooh Bear sit on her lap. Sometimes she sits on Piglet's lap. It gets rather crowded, but happy. Other recent favorites have included "Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day" (how can she relate?) and "Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel." We never finish Mike Mulligan, but I found a great sound recording of the story accompanied by a symphony by Steven Simon. We ...

It is hard to call it fall here, but we're trying. It helps that we do have a few trees changing color, and some with bright red leaves--rare for Houston. A week and a half ago, Elisabeth went to her first Halloween Parade. After perusing a box of costumes from Grandma (that is John's mom, if you didn't know), Elisabeth decided she wanted to be a doggie. I wasn't certain that she would keep the costume on, since the top consisted of a jacket with a doggie head hood. But the cooler weather we had that day helped our prospects. I took her to the park to meet the other kids in her playgroup, or is it better said that I went to meet the other moms in my mom group? Almost as soon as we got there, the top of the costume came off. She ran around most of the time with her red Cherry Festival t-shirt and her little brown pants with a tail. The cutest part was that the tail wagged as she walked. There she was climbing up the ladder and going down the slide (a skill she had recent...