With fall has come some getting sick, some time away on business, and a lot of farms for apple picking and festivals. Elia has been commuting with Albert a lot since Curie has gone to kindergarten and Erin remarked how she hadn’t realized how much time she had with the kids when she picked both of them up from school.
In the car one day Elia burped and we called her out in it because she loves saying “I bupped.” But to our surprise, she said “no, I farted, I farted in my mouth,” and was so pleased with herself for telling a joke. The crazy thing is this, when Curie was little, before Elia was born, Curie said the same thing and we have never told that story in front of Elia.
The games in the car have changed. Erin invented what color is that sound with Curie, or let’s make Elia say a word. Albert and Elia have been identifying cars with colors and getting a point for every car identified. When he says, “you have a point!” Elia grins and says “yo turn!” The songs have changed too. When Erin was driving, she would teach them songs from her youth, now with Albert and Elia, they are singing “The Wheels on the Car” where he actually uses the windshield wipers, the windows, and the horn. Another song they sing is “Old MacDonald has a Zoo” because Elia said that there were no monkeys on the farm.
She loves going to pick up Curie at Martial Arts and is fascinated by the people working out there. She keeps telling us that she wants to do the Tiger Tots, which she has to be four to join (she is almost three now). She is also obsessed with soccer, or more specifically a soccer uniform from Soccer Shots, so we enrolled her in the program. The shirt has taken forever to get to us, but it finally did arrive. She was obsessed with seeing some teams on a field practice soccer in the park and wanted to go play with them. All of soccer is Soccer Shots for her and it is probably because her friend Sophia is in the program that she is so aware of it. Now she is in the program too, she loves it and will perk up and be more attentive if you mention it.
Elia is exploring and pushing her boundaries more, as should be expected; she is also discovering imagination. One day she was opening the door and put her finger up to the door lock and looked at Albert and said, “dis my finger key,” which is really quite remarkable. She looks at tall buildings and calls them castles and tells you to look at them, so we do from her perspective and everything looks amazing. She still loves sitting in your lap, asking you to read or play, “Dada, play with me,” “Mama, play with me,” taking your hand and pulling you to her level.
With Curie, she is Elia’s hero even if she expresses it in different ways. She will give hugs and kisses, or withhold them, want to have whatever Curie has, or do whatever Curie is doing, and fairness is important. If someone else gets something she should get it too.
We have been to a lot of festivals and parties lately with jumping and slides as a theme in most of the places. At the Burke festival, Elia loved riding the long carpet slide with Albert and Erin, but was tired and unwilling to ride it at Butler farms, later we learned she was sick. The have been in many bounce houses and slides and Elia has been on every large slide she can find. Recently though, she asks to hold Albert’s hand if she is sliding down a normal slide.
Parenting is hard, when our children are sick we worry, when they fall, we worry. When they find adversity, we worry. When they learn, we worry – and work with them, and worry, and hold them and hug them and play with them and care for them, and cherish them. And love them. And while now when they cry and holding them can make it better, we’ll take that magic, and while we worry that is just another expression of love.