Introducing Madame Eléa

Eléa Anne Eigler Thompson.  Born July 15th, 2010, in the most densely populated county of the US.  Weight: 8 lb. 12 oz.  Height: 21 inches.

Her names:
Eléa is a sort of combination and modification of the names of two individuals.  The first is Ella, Cindy's paternal grandmother.  Ella was born in the Austro-Hungarian empire near Kraków (in modern-day Poland), grew up in Vienna, and emigrated to Venezuela in 1939 with her husband.  The second is José Eleazar López Contreras (known as Eleazar López), the president of Venezuela from 1935 to 1941.  Cindy's paternal grandparents were allowed to leave the port of Hamburg in Nazi Germany in 1939, with the assumption (on the part of the Third Reich) that they would be denied entrance to every port of call.  And they were indeed refused entrance to every American and Caribbean nation at which they stopped.  Venezuela was their last port of call before they would have no choice but to return to Hamburg.  They were initially refused entrance in Venezuela too, but during the night, as they were anchored off shore, Eleazar Lopez decided to allow them refuge and thereby saved them from almost certain death.

Eléa is pronounced as follows: (1) the initial "e" sound from "elephant," (2) "lé" is like the first syllable in "lego," but making it into a diphthong (and thus pronouncing it as "lay") is fine too, (3) "a" is like the initial "u" of "under" or "a" of "above."  The emphasis is on the second, not first, syllable; hence the acute accent on the second "e."  So, to make it simple, say "Princess Leia" (from Star Wars) and just add the initial "e" of "elephant" to "Leia" without changing the way you are saying "Leia."

She is named Anne after one of Luke's aunts, who passed away six days before Eléa's birth and to whom we so very much wanted to introduce Eléa.

Her last name is Thompson, not Eigler-Thompson, but we wanted to keep Eigler as a second middle name.

Greetings

This is a test posting of sorts—to make sure we know how to create postings.  We were hoping to have something as aesthetically pleasing as the blog that our friends Chris and Darcie created for their children, but neither Cindy nor I have the requisite internet skills.  In any case, we'll post photos, videos, and all the news that's fit to print about Eléa at this site.  And as Seren pointed out, since Blogger is owned by Google, it probably won't be disappearing anytime soon.

lamenting the current state of affairs

Eléa is 24 days old today.  I fluctuate between thinking she looks rather large and still quite tiny.  Cindy and I are already very used to her.  It is difficult to imagine what life was like before she was around.  Cindy has been trying to get a "nice" photo of her so that we can include it in our thank-you letters.  Unfortunately, the faces that Eléa has been making this morning, while certainly humorous, do not fall under the heading "nice" in the mind of Mrs. Cindy.  I thought they were fine.  But yes, it is true that we don't want our family and friends to think that our little DNA vessel is perpetually scowling, as they might make subsequent inferences with regard to our parenting skills (or assumed lack thereof in this case).

Then again, her scowl quite pleases me.  I like to think she has a discriminating mind, and that she is already showing her displeasure with our plebeian ways.  That being said, I would hate to think that she is getting too big for her britches, or diapers as the case may be.  Perhaps we shouldn't have given her an elite toy at such a young age.

with her elite toy

"Elite toy" you say?  Yes.  Her auntie, Ariane, has given her an expensive French toy.  It is a rubber giraffe named Sophie, which is supposed to be excellent for teething.  Apparently this is what all elite babies play with.  Ariane actually received the toy for free from a colleague who happened to have a brand-new, unused Sophie.  Why social workers in the south Bronx have extra elite toys lying about, I don't know.  In any case, we're not ones to look a gift-giraffe in the mouth, especially when it's French and its name ends in "-ie" rather than "-y."  So now cute little Eléa is the proud owner of a handmade, non-toxic, even-toed ungulate citizen of la République.  Vive les giraffes!