THREE

Edith celebrated a relatively quiet but happy third birthday yesterday, marred only by the onset of a cold toward the end of the day. What a blessed three years it has been for her parents.

Tom was in the thick of finals this past weekend, so we didn't host a party, but our weekend was made festive by Mor-mor's coming to visit. She arrived Friday afternoon just as we'd begun to clean the apartment in anticipation of her arrival...so Edith set to work demonstrating her dusting skills for her grandmother.

Saturday morning we got breakfast at Wegman's (a nicer option than it might sound to those unfamiliar with this particular grocery store and its built-in eatery) so that we could pick up a few ingredients for a cake and so that Edith could finally indulge a long-held dream: to play in the store's playroom while we shopped, an option available only to the potty trained. Edith calls the playroom "the castle"--which is what the faux streetfront facade must look like to her--and didn't look back once when we signed her in.

Then Edith, Mor-mor and I headed to Howell Living History Farm for sheep shearing day, Edith's choice. The weather was disappointingly gray and chilly, but we still enjoyed ourselves.

Mor-mor and Edith watch the shearing in process

Back home Mom helped me construct this Cinderella cake while Edith took her nap

When she woke up it was time for another annual tradition that coincides with her birthday weekend: the Kentucky Derby. Edith nervously followed her pick through the back turn. If she's as enthusiastic about horses, dress-up, and tea parties next year as she is now, we may have to have a Derby party when she turns four.

On our way out to dinner at Macaroni Grill, we stopped by Harrison's to see whether he would share some birthday cake with us after we returned. Harrison greeted us at the door in his birthday suit, appropriately enough. Though she was about to bathe him and put him to bed, Campbell graciously agreed to keep Harry up and bring him over for an injection of sugar right before a delayed bedtime. She also took this great series of three pictures.

After cake, Harry agreed to help Edith inaugurate her "big girl bed" with a "nap." I had just that afternoon noticed in the printed instructions that Edith's crib can be converted to a toddler bed by removing one side rail. I asked Edith whether she wanted to do this, and she was very enthusiastic. (Since then it has been a mixed bag: She can climb in by herself, saving us some wear and tear, and she can get herself up and out the door in the morning--even if only to come into our bed--but she still seems a bit unnerved by the new arrangement in the middle of the night and has been waking up frequently.)

Some good alligator wrestling in process

Though Edith hadn't been positive who her cake represented at first, she took possession of the doll and was in a Cinderella fantasy land of her own most of Sunday. To get Cinderella to fit in the cake, I had to temporarily dismember her. Unfortunately, I snapped her left hip joint in the process, making her a permanent amputee. To our relief, Edith hasn't minded in the least. You only need one foot for a glass slipper.

After church Mor-mor, Edith and I went down the street to the diner where we frequently have Sunday lunch, while Tom taught a spring adult ed class he has been running. We've been going to this diner for four or five years now, maybe once or twice a month. We were so surprised on this visit when the wait staff asked the customers to please stop and pay attention, because they had a birthday to celebrate. Then they brought Edith a plate of silver dollar pancakes with the candle in the butter (her favorite part) and sang to her. Afterwards, Carol (featured here) told Edith that she remembered when Edith was in her mommy's belly and then when she first came to visit them on the outside, at three days old. It was really sweet. As Tom observed, it is indeed nice to have a place where everybody knows your name...

Two little girls were sitting with their parents across from us, and after all this they looked vaguely upset. It turned out that the younger one had turned 3 just the day before and didn't understand why she had been left out of the celebration. Her mother chatted with us a bit; she determined that she and I were on the maternity floor of the same hospital at the same time and figured that the girls were probably bassinet neighbors in the nursery. Then they were off to continue their celebration at Chuckee Cheese, a place Edith doesn't know about yet.

On Monday Edith's birthday proper dawned sunnier, and she set off for school with Cinderella under her arm. I set out with zucchini-carrot muffins under mine, the same treat we've brought for school snack for Edith's birthday for the past three years now.

When we arrived Ms. Bela gave Edith a crown, Sarah invited me to read Cinderella to the class, "since it's Edith's birthday," and Harrison brought over a full plastic meal he'd been carefully cooking all morning for Edith's birthday breakfast.

Having dined on plastic peppers, Edith and her classmates awaited another snack

Actually, because it was Cinco de Mayo there were special chips with chicken salsa sauce and quesadillas in addition to the muffins. A buffet!

When Edith and Torrey were done eating they took to the dance floor, along with Tom

Tom and I left then to get a few things done--me to work and Tom to hand in his final final! Once that was submitted, he returned to get Edith and enjoy a daddy-daughter lunch with her. Then they headed to the public library to get Peter Pan as a special treat--Edith knows the story but hadn't yet seen the movie. While they were gone I returned home and labored about 90 minutes to set up Edith's birthday present, a classic wooden train set, feeling every inch the parent as I struggled with the incomprehensible wordless directions. Edith has known about the train set for months, ever since she discovered the box it was in (we found it on deep discount after Christmas, thanks to a timely alert from a friend). But that didn't dampen her enthusiasm when she finally received it. I'll have to get some pictures soon.

One nice thing about having a Cinco de Mayo birthday is that even if you don't have your own party, someone else is bound to be celebrating. After watching Peter Pan we headed across the street to the neighbors' cookout. Or rather, eat-out. It was remarkable for being the first neighborhood outside dining experience we've had here in the last three years at which the grills were not fired up--and of course, the first to which we brought hamburger patties. Some of us are destined never to get the cookout thing right.

Edith enjoyed a second round of birthday cake

Lining up for a chance at the pinata

Tom had a church meeting in the evening, so Edith and I headed up town with him so we could continue our annual tradition of visiting the maternity ward where she was born. But it was becoming clear that she had a cold, and by the time we arrived at church she was sacked out. So she slept in my arms for 90 minutes in the car, a good 25 pounds heavier and 1 1/2 feet longer than when she did the same three years ago.