The Number Field

One shiny balloon is all it takes to fill Elena's birthday cup to overflowing. At naptime Jenny let Elena have it and she played with it for an hour before Jenny had to remove it from the room and deal with the crying. When I put her to bed this evening she cried uncontrollably until I let her have the balloon. Jenny warned me about the possible repercussions, but this time she was tired enough that she went right to sleep, still clutching tightly to the string--after I was sure she was asleep, I recovered the balloon.

I left for work just as Elena was waking up and didn't go in to see her. Jenny said that when they came downstairs, Elena spent several minutes looking around and admiring the balloons and streamers we put up last night. Other special morning moments included a special big-girl breakfast of three scrambled eggs and chocolate milk, an early screening of a Barney episode, and fun time with the "Happy Birthday" 3D window decals that may now be hidden somewhere under the covers of our bed.

I took a long lunch and met Jenny and Elena at Five Guys , their first time there. The food was as good as we hoped, but Elena only wanted to eat fries and smile at the people in line. She even got one kind man to sing to her. After lunch we enjoyed the sun with Elena running back and forth for some pictures, but not for too long because it was still very cold.

When I arrived home, I found a package at the door--a present from Aunt Heidi, Uncle Gerrit, and Cousin Ginny in what may be a continuation of Operation Birthday Treat . They must have known how happy I would be that Elena is now old enough for peanuts and peanut butter, since they sent peanut-butter chocolate cookie cups.

We followed up that snack treat with an after-dinner trip to Baskin Robbins, where Elena chose Chocolate Peanut Butter Swirl. There is no better way to learn to love peanut butter than when it is paired with choclate. We can teach her about jelly later. No cake today; that will wait until Saturday when we have a party with her grandparents. I'm going to try to make pie-cookie-cake . I hope it turns out better than the ice cream cake from Jenny's birthday.