Category: Curie Months

Curie continues to grow and become more sophisticated. She is in size 6 at this point and can think of the wind as God. She wants to be a to be a scientist or a chef, loves showing Elia how to do things and is proud of her sister when she can do the things that she taught.  She is trying very hard to be helpful and is generally so unless she is tired or Elia has taken something away, or she wants something Elia has. Her drawing has become more sophisticated too with her learning to draw giant eyes with sparkles in them like in anime or manga and will ask you if you want her to draw your picture with both eyes open or winking (the picture, not her while she is drawing. While drawing with Albert, they worked through the proportions of a face and she took to it very quickly (as did Elia).  Continue reading “Curie March 2018”

The months go by faster and faster it seems. Within a blink of an eye both girls are growing and learning and it is crazy to think that just a while ago both were babies. In February, we celebrated Erin’s birthday and Valentines Day, and while we decided not to celebrate Valentine’s Day between us, for the kids we buy big heart boxes of chocolate and extra flowers in addition the ones sent to work so that the girls have some at home. Both girls are so excited to plan and celebrate that they forget that you want to surprise at times. This means getting more gifts and chocolate making it a month-long celebration. Nothing wrong with that. Continue reading “Curie February 2018”

There is a constant anxiety in raising kids, whether it is reading, or the dentist, or screen time or bullying or any of it. In recent days, it has felt like there is always something, and unlike embracing milestones as when the kids were smaller, it is like waiting for the other shoe to drop. The best thing to do is to treat them like the milestones they are, but with the stress wearing from work, and life, there is a wearing down, of feeling run down so that it is not as easy to cope with the new issues. Other parents must feel the same way, there are memes and stories on Facebook and anecdotes from other parents that parallel our experience, but like adolescence, it feels like it is unique to you and makes you feel very lonely. All of this is more than balanced out by the joy of your child’s hug or desire to be with you, but it would be remiss if we did not document the challenges as well. Continue reading “Curie January 2018”

The problem about getting behind in writing is not remembering everything that happened in the month and resisting writing what happened after that month. We also did many things that have already been documented in December,. Disney World in particular was a great experience for the girls and though Curie couldn’t ride Star Tours again (it was in a different theme park than the ones we went to) she did get to meet princesses and ride other rides. The pearl she got was particularly special, as was the bubble wands that Alice and Derek graciously bought for the girls.  Continue reading “Curie December 2017”

A sign of our times perhaps, but one of Curie’s milestones is that she can make Alexa work on her own with voice commands. When we first got the Amazon Echo, Curie would try, but her voice was too high or something and Alexa would not respond. Elia still can’t reliably make Alexa respond. It is similar to the remote control, Curie is proud of the fact that she can turn on, select the kid’s profile, find a show, select an episode and fast forward, reverse, and pause or play her show. We are just starting to teach Elia. Continue reading “Curie September 2017”

It is difficult writing when behind as it is too easy to write about the now rather than the then. The biggest thing in August was that Curie began first grade! Not only did it feel like it came so fast, it was in fact faster because Fairfax county began school a week earlier than it had in the past starting the week before Labor Day. So it was that we only went to the pool once during the summer and that our vacation at the end of the time came close to ending right before the start of school. Continue reading “Curie August 2017”

This is the first year of summer camp for Curie and she really loved going to martial arts camp at EMA, but after going to Congressional Camp with her pre-school friends, she has quite fallen in love with the place. She likes being in the specialty camps learning different things and loves her counselors (they love her too) She has been to Congo Chemistry, Lego, Junior Architects, Eco Science, and will do Summer Adventures and Chess. The new schedule changed our commute with Erin taking Curie to camp and Albert taking Elia to school in separate cars. It has really allowed for some bonding with each kid, but it also means a bit of disproportionate time with each one. Continue reading “Curie July 2017”

So Curie graduated kindergarten; there wasn’t a cute ceremony with mortars and tassels, but it was a big deal anyway. Albert did not go to the beginning of his conference to be there when school got out; when he got there, the teachers and all the staff were waiting in the hall to give students hugs and congratulations. Mrs. Best, who is rumored to be retiring, told Curie to “persevere” which Curie has taken very much to heart. Mrs. Campbell is also leaving to go wherever her husband is stationed, so Elia will have a different kindergarten teacher.

That weekend, Albert went to Phoenix for work, and Erin’s parents came down to help out. The girls got haircuts to their shoulders which is significant since their hair had come down their backs before the haircut. Albert was worried since they liked braids and playing princess and queen, but Curie said “I look beautiful!” Alaying any fears.

Curie also began sleeping in her own bed for a few days after sleeping with Albert in the guest room for a while. Her comment was “I am a first grader now.” But with Albert gone at his conference, he wasn’t there to sit next to her as she fell asleep so got lonely in her room and went back to the “big bed.”

The end of kindergarten has meant the start of camp(s), where Curie started the summer with martial arts camp at EVA for two weeks. There she was so proud to be a white belt with stripe and standing in the front row because with the start of camp there were a number of new kids; tiger tots, no-belts, and white belts. Curie just needs her black tip to test for her yellow belt, but since she is going to Congressional Camp for the summer, it will likely take place after she returns. It was a little sad for us that she left martial arts for the summer, but to be fair, the other camps are pretty interesting. So much so that Erin made the comment that she wanted to go herself.

Mrs. Best also recommended that we keep up Curie’s reading, so we enrolled her into a summer reading program on Saturdays for five weeks where she and Erin would go and practice on Curie’s reading and work on it each night of the week.

Curie has been a trooper, working on her emotion control when she is tired, being remarkable when she is not tired. On the field trip to the Air and Space museum, Albert gave Curie $20 to spend on snacks there, and while Mr. Andre did not let the kids go to McDonalds there, he did let them go to the gift shop. Curie came home with a plastic space shuttle for Elia and nothing for herself. You know why? A long time ago, Curie got that space shuttle, her rocket, at the museum and Elia got a little die cast one; later when they were playing, Elia was upset because she didn’t have the plastic one. This was two years ago. We even bought Elia one later because she was so upset. This must have made an impression on Curie because she bought it because she remembered that Elia wanted it back in the day. Curie has a really good heart (so does Elia) and earned her yellow tip with that.

So Curie is growing up and she has new friends at kindergarten, and is going to go to camp with her old friends from preschool. She loves to wear her tsum tsum dress and her purple shopkins dress. She plays queen or mother with Elia, names her play acting “Rosa” these days. Loves little kids and makes it a point to take care of them. This summer she wants to go to the beach, ideally with Eleanor and Miranda, and will learn a lot at camp. She watches too much TV, though we have moved her and Elia to Netflix from “eggs” where she has started watching a broader range of shows than just “Sarah and Duck.” One morning though, Albert asked if she would snuggle instead of watch and the two of them slept on the couch together for hours instead.

Finally, two Curie quotes: Erin said one night “we’re going to have an eat whatever you want night,” To which Curie replied, “does that mean left-overs?” And, in describing our plants we are growing on our porch (we had little strawberries but the squirrels ate them, but our tomatoes have given us two which the girls ate): “That’s our strawberries, that’s our pumpkin, that’s our Chinese food (the Chinese “watercress” that we have been growing). That cracked us up. 

Back in November, we wrote about Curie being the youngest in her class (and school) and that Bright Horizons in Skyline had not prepared her as well for kindergarten in Fairfax as it could have. Mrs. Best reassured Albert that Curie would be fine. Well, Mrs. Best called Erin yesterday to tell us that on Curie’s developmental reading test that Curie scored a 187/193, a huge jump from her score of 90 when she started. We are so proud of her. Note, this follows countless hours of parental worry, diligence from Mrs. Best and Mrs. Campbell and hard work on everyone’s part, especially Curie’s!

We are grateful to Curie’s teachers and proud of Curie’s hard work. We made a cake to celebrate, but the cake mix was expired, so Albert went out late at night to get another one so that Curie could have her cake.

Cure has taken to her Tsum tsum dress as much as Elia with her Belle dress. It is flattering on her, and lets her twirl, but we suspect there is more. It is red and reminds her of Wonder Woman, and oddly she has made it a point to say that it isn’t fair that Elia gets to be Belle all of the time (we have not bought a Belle dress for Curie yet, but we might just to make it fair).

We have seen Beauty and the Beast four times in the theater now. This most recent time, we had to sit in seats apart (amazing that the movie can be almost full right before it will release for purchase). Curie wanted to sit with Albert and the two of them had a little daddy and daughter date. When we left she was intent on telling Albert that he is her prince – the same way Elia says it to her and when Elia said “You are my Beast.”

This month too Erin took Curie to two field trips, one to the National Zoo, to which Albert met the with Elia. The whole district went and while the kids had blue t-shirts, so did their entire school. One of Curie’s classmates was good and listened, but the other two kept wandering off. Curie was hungry when we arrived and insisted on seeing the ponies first, as her parents we did it. There was only two hours, which was really not enough to do very much. Erin also chaperoned the trip to the Natural History Museum which was easier, with just the kindergarteners going and Erin’s group being much smaller.

We spent time on Burke Lake, with Curie and Albert in one boat and Erin and Elia in another. Curie did seem to get a little bored by the end, but she really wanted to row even though we had a motor. In the end we blew bubbles and had a nice time. Along the same lines, we went to Huntley meadows and saw the animals, with Elia and Curie each finding a snake, and both pretending the tower was a castle. This was the month we had live crawfish and the kids picked out all the dead ones before boiling them. We staycationed at the Sheraton, and somehow got Susie and Isabella to come along Curie’s friend Etta even came to swim! We went to Curie’s schools entertainment day, saw Bella’s play and much more. At the end of the month Albert went to Cambridge to attend a certificate program at Harvard and Erin’s mother came down to take care of everyone.

In the middle of the month we noted that Curie has been turning to crying again when things don’t go her way and we could see that it was correlated with needing more sleep and eating better. More to the end of the month though she seems to be better about it, hopefully that means she is getting more sleep and eating better.

Curie has been getting more and more thoughtful. She has always been a sensitive, conscious girl, but recently she has taken to offering massages when we say we are tired. Of course this also means she wants one too and loves to get her back rubbed saying “ah, what a nice massage.” With reading she has begun reading to Elia, especially reading Green Eggs and Ham to Elia (which they have both memorized). Curie is growing up but she is still a little girl in many ways, playing with dolls, wanting to have playdates with us, and being unable to say “ravioli (raviloli)” and laughing about it.

Curie is a joy, a wonderful big sister, a great student, friend and daughter. We are proud not just because we are parents, but because in many ways we can look up to her and let our child remind us as a role model for appreciating life.