Our little girl keeps growing up but is no less cute. So the kids are doing well with the move. Curie has mentioned the old house once, but Elia doesn’t really remember it, or if she does, doesn’t know how to talk about it. In the new house Elia’s favorite thing may have to be the garage; the garage is magical to her particularly because of the automatic garage door opener. She insists on going through it and pressing the button every time we come home. This often means that Albert let’s Curie in the front door and then goes back out to open the garage door for Elia.
On second thought, her favorite thing may be her bed. The kids rarely slept in their own room in the old house and never slept together, in the new house it is where they want to sleep, much to Erin’s chagrin. Elia is so territorial about her bed too, no one can sit on it, not Curie, not Mommy, not Daddy, no one, only her. “My bed,” and pushes everyone else off.
I don’t remember when she stopped calling herself “Yeh-yeh,” but she now refers to herself as “me;” “me do it!” “Me open it.” “Me try.” And she will to she won’t let you open anything until she has worried it for a while, tried to use her teeth (when did she learn that?) and has given up, then she will as for help: “Momma, Daddy, hep open pease.” We miss “Mommai” and “Daddai.”
Elia is becoming quite the contrarian deciding to do whatever you tell her not to do, this can mean throwing something you told her not to throw, or wanting juice when you poured ginger ale and vice versa. It is part of her feeling out borders but is as cute as it is infuriating. She thinks it is a skill.
As we mentioned Elia started sitting forward together in the car which has meant that Erin has started driving the yellow car again. They pass each other snacks, and hold hands at the most random times. She will repeat the phrases Curie uses or at least a close approximation; She will copy the words you say just to try them out. She likes to count these days only missing seven (like Curie was doing in Spanish) when she counts. She points out colors, sings to herself – Eeieeio and Go! (Old Mac Donald and Let it go!) are her favorites. Each day she becomes more conversational.
She is so good-natured and loves to laugh; every so often she will “hee-haw” her way into until she covers her mouth. The other day she said “Dada funny, Jie-jie funny, Ivy (her friend at school) funny, Mommy funny (and covers her mouth to laugh), “me funny,” she says after she does so. Really, she will laugh at almost everything
Elia is really cute in pigtails, and has fantastic hair, it is full and wavy and she likes brushing it out of her face with her whole hand. Recently she has been obsessed with Superman and Iron man pointing them out when she sees them. When she wears her shirt she raises her fist up like Curie did and makes superhero sounds. When she runs and pretends to fly she runs with her hands behind her back a la Naruto.
She is quirky and cool, eating seaweed in the kitchen, toting her Camelback bottle everywhere and sitting in her overstuffed chair to watch TV. We put out a shoe rack and she put one shoe on the top rack and the other in the middle, then she proceeded to do the same with the rest of our shoes, one on the top rack and the other in the middle.
Curie talked so early that we didn’t get to see this part of her as much. Elia is a toddler, learning her words, practicing them and generally being a sweetheart. Just don’t climb onto her bed, try to take away her bottle, or pick a show that she did not already pick, if you do prepare to hear inconsolable crying. She is a daredevil, likes to jump with her fists in the air and will take risks other kids won’t try. This past week while Erin was away Elia would tell Albert each day “Mommy tip,” until today; today she said “Mommy back,” even before we picked Erin up. How did she know that? It is because she understands everything as easily and quickly as Curie, she just hasn’t vocalized it yet.