Elia April 2015. Just by starting to walk this month Elia somehow stopped being a baby and is a full-fledged toddler – including her run-in with the concrete at the end of the month – at 16 months her center of gravity is still in her head and the stumble turned into a fall. Elia’s motor and cognitive skills just seemed to explode at the same time, it is as if a switch was pulled and all of the sudden she “got it.” When Curie walked she had a similar growth explosion and did many of the same skills that Elia is exhibiting now.
Elia can now do “itsy bitsy spider,” point to her nose or yours when asked, imitates the “Old-MacDonald” cow by kicking when it kicks, started eating off a plate without turning it over (3/29), insists on using a fork even for soup. In addition, she loves to write and draw, stands up to give Curie a hug when asked, and sometimes when she is not asked, cries when something is taken away from her and will do things to simply crack herself up. She is so proud of herself when she stands on wobbly things, pulls off her socks, or eats a popsicle by herself.
When she laughs these days, she will wrinkle her nose and cover her mouth with one or two hands as if to say “oh my goodness!” Elia loves to dance to almost any music, but she especially likes to dance to “Creature Report” from the Octonauts, and does so with multiple dance moves. If she drops something or someone has an accident, she will say “uh oh!”
Elia loves to climb up onto stools, chairs, and her high chair either to sit or stand and rock holding the back of the chair. We began moving turning the stool over and moving it away from counters to discourage her, but she has begun lifting the stool (this would be like us moving a 60 inch TV by ourselves) and moving it into position so that she can stand up at the counter.
Elia has become afraid of dogs and cats, but more attached to family and teachers. She transitioned from the infant classrom to the flex classroom, but we find her with her infant classroom teacher often. Recently she has been spending time with Albert and wouldn’t let him go at the end of a night, or when she is off to school, or even when he leaves a room. She will imitate whatever Curie is doing to the best of her ability including holding the camera to her face. She even loves to pick up the D700 and try to move it around.
These last few weeks have been particularly hard for us, but the silver lining is that we are stronger as a family, watching less TV, eating better, and getting good exercise in. We cherish the importance of family and the perspective that it is so important. We have only 15 years, 5,475 days until Curie goes off to college 6205 until Elia does (Erin read an article about counting down the days to appreciate the time you have now); considering how fast this much has gone already, it will be done in a heartbeat, and we will be old with only memories of moments to cherish. The point is this, life is hard but it gives us family to keep perspective, experience love on many levels, and appreciate the good things of what life has to offer.