Grandpa Leonard

It has been a while since I have posted.

Grandpa Leonard went to heaven 13 days ago.

It is moments like these that words somehow fail to convey the depth of feeling and emotions that our hearts hold.

Leonard was an amazing man. If you knew him you know what I mean. Larger than life was the way I and others described him.

And he will be missed. By those who knew him and certainly by Elizabeth

Grandpa was an emotional, loving and caring man. And in spite of his sometimes gruff manner her had an amazingly maternal nature. And nowhere was that more evident than the way he doted on Elizabeth. Of course it was also so apparent in his devotion to Frances and to his much beloved son, Marty. And even to me. Early on, he told me, "I don't want to call you daughter-in-law--that makes it sound like something legal." Leonard was someone who wanted to "connect"--and that he did--with almost everyone he came in contact with.

From the first moment they met, Elizabeth and her grandpa had a special relationship.

Grandpa and Elizabeth had their own their silly games they played together. Grandpa took great joy in explaining things about the world to Elizabeth--everything from how magnets worked to taking her on a tour of his backyard and explaining why green lemons on his lemon tress weren't ripe enough to be picked.

And I still remember the afternoon he fiddled with making homemade lemonade adding just the right amount of sugar--waiting for Elizabeth to declare it "perfect" and ready to drink.

And toys, grandma and grandpa's house is filled with toys for Elizabeth. From her first bike (which grandpa put together when she was barely able to reach the pedals) to a whole set of plastic orchestra instruments. Grandpa would laugh such a hearty laugh when Elizabeth took the role of conductor and directed everyone in the family "band".

And grandpa had a knack for picking just the right gift. There was the mini DVD player which grandpa bought when she was not even two years old. How handy that came in on our drive up to Jules Stein when Elizabeth was having her eye surgery in December 2008. She was kept entertained watching Elmo DVD's while mama and dada nervously paced the hallways.

And then there were the globes, the bubble maker machine, the life size Winnie the Pooh bear, the talking Mickey Mouse, and the list goes on and on and on.

Leonard loved to give Elizabeth rides on his electric scooter. And she loved sitting on his lap scooting all over the place--and especially at the Balboa Bay Club. And in spite of my protests that maybe it wasn't such a good idea (I don't know who I was more worried about) I still have this image of Leonard speeding down the hallway of the Bay Club on his scooter with Elizabeth just beaming.

Every day Marty would talk with Leonard...sometimes multiple times a day. And without fail, Leonard wanted to know what Elizabeth was up to, how she felt, what she was doing in school. He never tired of hearing about her.

And I will remember always the last day I spent with Leonard. He was not well. In fact he was extremely ill--and in spite of his own pain and extreme difficulty in speaking he asked me if I Elizabeth was in school today and you could see the smile in his eyes when I told him of her latest antics.

I think about coming back to Leonard's house after he had passed and looking at Len's IPAD..it seems the last thing he looked at on his IPAD was Elizabeth's blog. And I would bet you good money that Grandpa is up in heaven checking out Elizabeth's blog.

Grandpa got such great joy out of spending time with Elizabeth and watching her grow. And she knew how much he cherished her. I could see in her eyes that she knew how tickled he was with her.

How sad that Elizabeth will not get to spend more time with her grandpa. But what a gift they did get to give one another. And as I explained to her, she may not be able to touch grandpa but he will always be with her. And we will make sure as she gets older that she knows how much grandpa loved her...

And that loves never dies.

The Bunny's Bentley

These photos harken back to April when Elizabeth excitedly met the Easter Bunny over at Fashion Island. She was quite enamored of him and I think the interest grew greater when she spied this Bentley in the parking lot with a big "B" on it. She was convinced that the "B" stood for Bunny and we didn't do anything to dissuade her from this belief. That Bunny must do pretty well in tips.





Here she is with Mr. Bunny...she happened to have a picture of a bunny that she had colored in the car that day and we had to make our way back to the car so that she could return to present Mr. Bunny with this gift.

Birthday Party

Elizabeth attended her school mate Maxine's 5th birthday party last week and had a lot of fun. It was a "tea party" with all the girly trimmings--so Elizabeth was totally in her element.

She got a manicure, face painting and pretty headbands and bracelets. What more could a girl want?

Model child

Lately Elizabeth has been thinking about the modeling world it seems and has been developing her pose.

For the Birds

If you think Elizabeth doesn't look to happy here, you are right. It has nothing to do with the Mango sorbet she snagged at Haggen Daz...rather the birds that are flying a little too close to her personal space.

I know that I can take a good part of the blame for her dislike of birds (I blame Alfred Hitchcock) but she takes it to a whole other level. She cannot be within 10 feet of a bird without some distress. Forget about eating outdoors.

I am working on the problem and hopefully they will be able to manage somewhat of a peaceful coexistence.

Easter at Emma's

On Easter Sunday Emma was nice enough to invite us over to her place for a nice time hunting for eggs and general merriment.

The girls looked adorable and later I will post some video which will reveal Elizabeth's keen egg hunting skills.




And here she is at home with her Easter candy stash. Interestingly and luckily she is not that focused on candy. Unlike her mama, she had no interest in the chocolate bunnies. I can remember at Easter time polishing off a couple of solid chocolate bunnies in no time flat.
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Learning about the holidays

During Passover, Elizabeth's grandpa got down on the floor to explain the rituals of the holiday. She loves holidays and pretty much calculates time based on "what comes after" what holiday.