Still alive, despite our mortal nature.

Well, Eléa's turned three, and is now more willing than ever to inform relative strangers of the fact.  She's got a whole list of things that she will do, of people she will become, and of places that she will go when she turns 4, but for the time being she appears content to enjoy 3.  And why not?  Did the ancients not hold this number in high regard?  While we're on the subject we should turn our attention to those photos more directly related to the celebratory day.

 To the left is the wonderful cake that Tia-o-Tia made.  She first tried to make a cake using $20 natural food coloring, purchased at Whole Foods and made by some college graduate in her parents' basement.  These colors, once added to the flour and other ingredients, apparently gave the batter the color (if not the texture) of clay or concrete mix.  Conventional food colorings quickly came to the rescue and saved the day.  The happy result was a delicious cake (and large number of similarly colored cupcakes).




Now, since Eléa is oh-so special (a fact with which all readers of this blog will surely agree, regardless of the percentage of genes that they share with our adorable protagonist), she in fact needed two birthday parties.  (This was actually because one set of grandparents was going out of town.)  Here is a pensive Eléa at her first bash.  And also a random shot of her in a chair at a Thai restaurant (Thai Fresh).

The other big event in Eléa's life since the last blog post was the visit of Darcie, Reese, and Sylvia, also known as the Evanston mob.  Eléa took to Reese and Sylvia quite quickly (and I like to think the feelings were mutual), and had what in effect amounted to a week-long slumber party, as the two girls slept with Eléa in her room.  In fact "slumber" might be the wrong qualifier for what actually occurred.  Sleep or no sleep, Eléa had a very enjoyable week with her two new friends, and her parents enjoyed the company as well.

While they were visiting Cindy began her part-time job as a foam-pit temporary replacement part.  (She's standing in for three missing foam blocks.)  Here are the kids visiting her at work.

And of course the ladies had to ride the train.  Sylvia was very patient with her less senior company

Other activities that the three enjoyed together included playing in hammocks, making ice cream (out of Play-Dough), visiting the botanical gardens, crying, finding dinosaur footprints, and playing hide-and-seek.

I should note here before I forget that Eléa's iron levels are very high.  I like to attribute this to her consumption of molasses, but I don't know if this is in fact the reason.

Three to seven is the age of make-believe, I recently read, and this seems to be confirmed by what we have witnessed in chez Eigler-Thompson over the previous few months.  Once upon a time Eléa was content to hang with just mami and papi.  However recently we have found ourselves in the company of frogs, tigers, crying babies, hungry babies, sleepy babies, tiger mommies, baby ladybugs, and not a few cats.  Eléa's baby has become particularly sensitive to temperature, her own nudity, and loud noises.  This despite the fact that she seems not to mind when thrown down stairs or stuffed into a suitcase by her own self-appointed mommy.

 

Here are some of the activities that occupy Eléa during her inside hours at Habibi's (of which there are very few).

Eléa has made two good friends as school, and the three have become an inseparable trio.  We anticipate the day when one of the three is excluded or relations go sour, but so far nothing of this nature has occurred, thankfully.

Here is a selection of random photos from mid-July to mid-September, 2013.