Elise's 3rd birthday

Today was a regular birthday extravaganza here at the Steingruebl household. Andy took the day off from work, and the three of us had a fabulous time playing together and doing the various things that make birthdays so much fun. (Look at the page of pictures if you don’t believe us!)

We decided presents were best opened in the morning, so after reassuring ourselves that the engines upstairs in the toy room (it’s also a guest room, friends!) were settled and the cat was fed, the unwrapping commenced. It’s all very distracting, because as soon as you open one present you have to play with it and you kinda forget the others are there...

For breakfast we made cinnamon rolls, fresh from the Pilsbury can. Yum! Elise heard the timer while she was jumping around/in/on the wrapping paper and started chanting, “Beep went the microwave, crash went the paper, crash went the kiiiiiiiiid!”

Sesame Street hand puppets can be the center of quite a lot of confusion. For example, if Mommy and Cookie Monster are feeling silly a big girl will probably have to tell them, “You don’t eat cars, you driiiiiiive them!” And, if nobody’s looking, Elmo will drink coffee straight from the toy coffee pot. (That explains a lot, doesn’t it?)

Elise has started asking for stories at breakfast, and she doesn’t settle for just any story. This may be due to the fact that Mommy is occasionally not on her game at 6:30am and has resorted to Grandpa Karl’s old standby about Jack and Ory. (Is it “Ory?”)

“I’ll tell you a story about Jack and Ory and now my story’s begun. I’ll tell you another about Jack and his brother and now my story is done.”

It didn’t take long for Elise to start saying (with some coaching from Daddy), “I want a good story, Mommy!” Today was Daddy’s turn and he pulled out Hansel and Gretel. Talk of eating candy furniture in gingerbread houses is all well and good until someone takes it literally and starts gnawing on the furniture in a non-gingerbread house.

After a thoroughly exciting day, Elise put the finishing touches on her cake and even helped cut it. She really does like chocolate.

We can’t believe we’re all entering our fourth year together. Babyhood was amazing, toddlerhood was fascinating, and now we walk hand-in-hand with a healthy, happy child. Life is full of wonder! We are so proud of our big, beautiful, bright girl.