Life: Idiotropic

Today was Elise' 3rd birthday.

As usual, the girls all got up and stumbled into the playroom. Aria and Luci started getting dressed and ready for school. And, as usual, Elise plopped herself down on the bench ready to watch morning cartoons - a VHS recording of PBS cartoons that my dad made for us.

"Happy Birthday, Elise!" This was my cheery morning greeting to my special birthday girl.
"No! Don't say that!!!" That the grouchy reply complete with furrowed brow and terse tone.

Being her mother, I couldn't just let it go and allow her to be a grouch on her birthday, so I sat gently next to her and hugged her and explained that she isn't two anymore but three and now when people asked her how old she was, that she should say, "three." Then I had to test it.

"How old are you, Elise?"
"I'm two."
"No, you're three now."
"I don't want to be three! I WANT TO BE TWO!!!!!"

I got the hint and left her alone. We finished the morning routine, got the sisters off to school, then met with some friends and went to a absolutely fabulous cafe in Beeck for an all-you-can-eat (which is VERY rare in Germany) breakfast. While sitting next to me eating her toast with nutella and chocolate cereal decorations, my friend asked her, "Elise, how old are you now?"
"Four." A completely deadpanned response.

So there you have it. Three is not possible here. She is two or four, may be even five. Who knows.

The rest of the day was good. We played. We baked cupcakes. Then late tonight, after Tiara's 3-hour dance rehearsal, we decorated our own cupcake, sung happy birthday, then opened presents. She was very calm about the presents - no emotion or excitement. But as soon as she was done, she sat down to play with one and handed the other two to Arianna and Luci to share, so they each could play with something new. It was nice. We'll do a "party" in a couple weeks with friends, but Kirk is still in Italy, so we just did the family thing today.

Photo: All my girls with their cupcakes. Mom is here visiting and she brought these 4 darling silicone cupcake cups with feet, so I baked the cupcakes in those and the kids decorated them. They enjoyed the silliness.

Unrelated: Today Tiara, along with the rest of her 6th grade class, spent the day with the 7th grade at AFNorth International School in The Netherlands. She took the bus from our house and rode with some older friends in our neighborhood. She was REALLY nervous, but came home happy and excited. She just got her hair cut yesterday so she'd feel good today and I let her wear a TINY bit of eyeshadow - something that always makes her feel more grown up. So, my first baby is growing up... and I couldn't be more proud of her. She's a great kid.