These days, we’ve been running up against each new curve ball we’re thrown as if they are some sort of conspiracy instead of just embracing that challenges are simply a part of life. Having more than one anchor is critical as we grow older; when things don’t go well at work, knowing your kids and your spouse still love you can be a revelation.
Curie has been maturing a lot recently; we don’t mean she is mature yet, rather she is learning to control her emotions more. Whether it is having a reward to work for, determining whether it is a small problem or big problem, or, more recently, behaving because Elia is not behaving (it is funny and interesting to watch – “I am behaving, right?” Curie is getting her feelings under control more and more – let’s say 60% of the time right now.
Cure is also working on giving and sharing with Elia. Albert told his mom this and was surprised to hear her tell him not to let her concede all the way – perhaps something that happened when he and his brother and sister were kids. Curie is very aware of our treatment of Elia and how we encourage her. There is a sense of unfairness she feels and wants attention and time with both of us; she actually gets more attention because of it, but she doesn’t feel like she does. Elia has been tellling Albert that he is “her Beast” in reference to Beauty and the Beast, but it comes across like claiming posession to Elia especially as Elia acts up at bed time and Albert has to take her to a different room. Elia gets calmed and Curie sees it as Albert and Elia having quality time.
We have been to many birthday parties lately and recently while attending a birthday party for a friend from pre-school, another guest and former playmate came up and said “Hi Curie! I’m XXXX, remember me?” Curie’s response was “I don’t remember you.” Candor at that age is pretty brutal. “Daddy, you have a big tummy,” or “you have a big butt!” Part candor part getting a rise out of us. We know we have to work on it with her, but it is pretty funny sometimes.
We’ve been working on schoolwork as well. Both of us need to be better at afterschool lessons with her. She doesn’t have homework per se yet but we need to build the habit. Curie loves lessons with us, it gives her one-on-one time and affirmation. Projects she has had to do at home recently include making a poster for being the class VIP for a week where she listed ten things she loves (family, Wonder Woman, the beach, bunnies, cats, rainbow ponies, ramen, Robin, and snow). We let her draw and write and printed pictures she wanted; as much as we wanted to help, letting her make her own was wonderful to see. She is so proud of it. We are too, we even framed it. Part of being the class VIP was to take care of Curly, a teddy bear in a backpack with clothes and books. The assignment was to do something with Curly and log it in his journal, like Flat Stanley. We went on a walk in the woods with the kids’ bikes and took a picture for his journal.
Curie tested for her white belt with stripe at “martial arts (tae kwon do).” It was amazing to see how much she has improved; her kicks are on, her push-ups are adorable (15 of them!), and her sparring was great. She is the smallest and youngest at the school (and at her actual school) we went in and saw the small kids and looked again to see Curie standing behind the small kid looking smaller. Erin’s family came to watch and she was so proud when she passed. Elia loves going to see Curie at martial arts and really wants to be a Tiger Tot when she is four. Curie loves martial arts so much that she did not want to take swim lessons because she thought it might make her miss martial arts (it wouldn’t, we have to sign her up still).
Curie is still sensitive. The day we went to the birthday party, we had met up with Natalie and Chloe at Michaels to paint bird houses. She loves hanging with the two of them and did not want to go to the birthday party. When we did go, she cried the whole way because she was missing lunch with them. She was also very good about not playing favorites when Natalie and Isabella, friends from preschool and kindergarten came on the same day for a play date (both of their mothers were/are pregnant and we wanted to give them a break). And the other night when we were worried about our taxes (all is fine), she saw that Erin was unhappy and told her that she wanted to take away all the sadness. We reminded her of the lesson in Inside Out where sadness is important to appreciate happiness. It reminded Albert of when he was in third grade and he asked God to take away Bernard’s bad grades and give them to him after Bernard got a D in first grade (Bernard has of course done great, and Albert has done fine too). To end on a lighter note, and speaking of Inside Out, Curie loves to do the Riley mooning and slapping her butt recently. It cracks her up. We are in Ottawa, hence the longer post. More next month.