Bobby and Elizabeth are a father and daughter who live next door to us. Elizabeth (who just turned 12) loves Lila and comes over to play with her at least once per week. This works out very well for me because she usually comes over just in time to distract Lila while I cook dinner. In fact, this is our arrangement: she distracts Lila, we feed her. Occasionally, we make something that she just doesn't like, but she's always a good sport and tries it.

It's really very cute. One time, Elizabeth said, "I wish Lila were my sister." Ack! How sweet is that?!? Lila is starting to get pretty fond of Elizabeth too. The last time she came over, Lila got excited and started clapping as soon as she heard Elizabeth's voice. Yesterday evening, she was over again and I let her use Doug's computer to get onto her MySpace page. (we can discuss at another time why myspace annoys me.) Lila wanted to get up in her lap and then stayed there, staring at the computer very seriously (see photo), for about 20 minutes! I couldn't believe it.

On another note, I'm not sure whether I'm excited or in denial that Christmas is five days away. Someday I'm going to refuse to be stressed about the holiday. I'll just refuse to do it. I mean, really, what does it accomplish? If I feel overwhelmed by all that needs to be done, then I should get up and do one thing. Don't try to do it all or to be perfect - just make one little dent in the to-do list and things will be better than they were before. I actually did pretty well this year until I missed my goal and then it all went out the window. Alas...