Category: Curie Months

What is the word for “you just did something so unbearably cute and touching that it melts my heart and almost brings me to tears?” “The aww feeling.” is the only thing that comes to mind, and yet it is not even a proper word. Sure there is no such word as “love” in some languages, and there are many many words for “rice” and “ice” in others. You would think that English would have a word for that feeling you have for your own kids when they do something adorable and amazing at the same time.” It is “love” but more, and more nuanced.

We tend to write about things that happen in our blogs to document the goings on of our kids, what they got for Christmas (train set and robot), where they went (Florida, Massachusetts, the White House), milestones (almost three feet), and their health (kids get sick a lot especially when they are in day care – sheepishly we used to be non-parents once- and it seemed like people’s kids were sick all the time – trust me, this is normal, you only hear about when they are sick, not the days they are healthy). So at the end of this year, and because we have already posted a lot of what we have done this month in separate posts, we wanted to take the time to write about the “aww” feeling.

<Some> non-parents may think the idea saccharine, but there is an overwhelming feeling when Curie says to Elia, unprompted, “I’m proud of you, little one,” or “be careful Elia, I’ll look after you,” or “Nana is in a better place now.” Sure they are mimicking adults, and yes, it is a mixture of pride love and the fact that it is a three year old expressing a complex behavior toward a one year old or toward a concept she does not yet understand, but there must be a word for it.

Forget about kids for a moment, think about your pets when you have a rough day and they, if they are a dog (or a pig), unprompted, lick your hand and give you the cocked inquisitive head of “is everything okay?”(Albert has never had more than a fish, so he does not understand), or they jump into your lap and purr if they are a cat (or some other purring animal- ferret?). You put your hand to your chest, blink hard, and hug your (insert dog or other animal, or child, if you are a parent, here) as hard as you can. They don’t understand, so they say “mommy, your squishing my frog,” or “ruff-ruff, eep!” or “oink” or “meow,” or “neigh (horse putting its head on your chest)…”  you get the idea.

So maybe it is just love, pride, and gratitude added to anthropomorphic mimicking, but it seems more real than the bad day, more vivid than the bad feeling, more wonderful, than just the idea of love in that moment it happens. Unprompted roses from you loved one, a hand of a friend on your shoulder, a kiss on your forehead from your parent or grandparent. The rat race continues, the unexpected misfortunes (and fortunes – but like kids being sick we seem to focus on the misfortunes) continue, the time bombs and mines of daily life continue unabated but are off set by this thing with no word, only a feeling and an expression of “awe.”

…oh yeah, something about Curie for this month: recently Curie likes to say that she is “so so hungry,” or “so, so thirsty,” with rolled eyes and shaking head when she is hungry or thirsty. What a ham. She also said “Mommy, I love my new cousins,” upon meeting them, and “where is my new best friend?” when talking about kids at Albert’s holiday party. Aww, that is our daughter.

Curie November 2014. Curie is of an age now where she gets frustrated easily and breaks down often as a result. There is this app with a monster who takes deep breaths and thinks through a plan that we reference that has been helping, but Curie is learning, often the hard way, that you don’t always get what you want. And the reality is, it is when she is tired that she gets fussy and frustrated. When she is rested, she is sweet, funny, loving and wonderful. I suppose it is just being three.

Over Thanksgiving, we met up with Albert’s family for our yearly get together where Curie and Elia played with their cousins, Elia got to meet her grandparents on Albert’s side for the first time, and met up with Luiz, and his family, Albert’s friend from Jr. High. With Luiz we ate at Lawry’s Prime Rib, one of Erin’s favorite restaurants, after with the family, we ate at Din Tai Fung, the Michelin star xiao long bao place that Tiffany wrote about recently – we waited three hours to eat there. Good, but not three hours good. Had a great turkey at Bernard and Agnes’s house (thank you), and ate twice at Mitsua’s for ramen and sushi. After Disneyland (turkey legs), we went to Sam Woo’s for our traditional Chinese “banquet.” A good eating time.

For non-eating stuff, we waited three hours for Din Tai Fung… just kidding, though during the wait, Curie picked out a Sesame Street school bus that somehow she loves over any of the other flashy stuff that she has or could have, it is quite adorable. Suephy’s son Jared was particularly nice to Curie taking care of her, and Miranda, who had been more removed the last time we met, was Curie’s best friend that night. The morning of Din Tai Fung, we went to Crystal Cove, a beach near Laguna where Erin discovered that Albert’s reluctance to go to beaches was not that he didn’t want to go to beaches, he didn’t want to go to New England and Mid-Atlantic beaches. Note, it was 85 degrees on November 25th. On Thanksgiving, Curie was on Albert’s football (yes Albert + football is an aberration) team for the Chen version of two-hand touch football.

The Friday after Thanksgiving we went to Disneyland with the rest of the family going to California Adventure. With younger children Disneyland was more our speed. We did buy a park hopper pass which let us go over to California Adventure to see the Pixar parade, the Newsie show and buy a very expensive sweatshirt for Curie because it got cold. Curie’s favorite things at the park were the Carousel, and the shows on the street (Elia’s was Smallworld). She loved seeing the singing and the dancing, which was refreshing amongst all the princess stuff. When she referenced Frozen, she chose an Olaf doll over the Elsa and Anna stuff (and when people called her princess she did still say “no, I’m the King, or I’m the Queen!” which was good as we don’t want her to have to be saved – we are relenting a little on this of course, with Elsa being a queen, and Mulan not being a princess at all but a warrior). And we discovered that Curie loves Lightning McQueen (and Mater).

Curie wants only to wear snow boots these days regardless of the weather. We had to convince her to wear crocs to the beach. She is well along on potty training, though forgets when she is having fun. She loves playing with her Mommy and Dada, as well as her cousins and friends. She would rather go home to play than go to Disneyland. She flaps her arms with Dada to make the plane take off, is a consummate traveler with her tablet and her headphones, and, and…is a joy to have as a daughter. Her parents may be having trouble balancing work and life, her parents may get have trouble keeping up as their kids grow and learn, her parents may feel at wits end on a given day, but Curie, and her sister Elia? Couldn’t be more wonderful.

Curie October 2014. Albert is in Brussels for a meeting, and Erin’s parents are coming up to help while he is gone (missing both Halloween and our Anniversary). Albert travels with one of the (now three) Jellycat bunnies that the girls has; this was the first time Curie realized this and she said “you can take Hoppa with you on your trip,” much to Albert’s relief.

This month, Curie got her first “hair cut” when Natalie, one of her friends and her were playing “hair cutter,” and Natalie actually cut a bit off of Curie’s hair, you could tell when it happened and you can kind of see it in the fourth picture on the back of her head.

We related when we all kicked-our-legs-like-the cow-in-bed-story earlier in a separate post, but something else that Curie has taken to want to do recently is to take family pictures with the timer. So a couple of times now she has asked for a family photo where she will tell us if we are blurry or if someone blinked so that we have to take it again. It is very sweet.

We say often that Curie is crazy smart, and this month she proved it again when she wanted to watch something on the phone. We try to distract her with car games, of which one is a bit of a scavenger hunt in the car. We ask her “what do we need to find today?” And she gives us a list. When we find them, she awards us points a la “Whose line is it anyway?” where the points don’t matter. So we said, why don’t we play a game? You can watch afterward (the game can take a long time), so she rattles off a list that is a little odd “dentist office, trees, dirt, a car (usually it is a taxi, a fire engine, a police car, a bus, and a train or similar). She then proceeds to find each of them in successive order totally playing us. She had picked what she could see from the car so that she could fast forward the game and watch something (wait, have we relayed this story already? We may have).

Albert wound up a year-long project of moving the company headquarters this month, and brought the family to see it. In the past she has been a little afraid because of the construction, and has not bonded with Michael, Albert’s boss, because there was no where to run around. This time however was different, after being a little shy, she bonded with Michael over wrapping bubbles and after returning home she said she wanted to go back “because I love it.” and said she wanted to go back to Michael’s office.  On a separate note, because of the building there was a Gala to raise money for needs-based scholarships. It was the first time we went to a business thing and had the kids with a “sitter,” in this case Erin’s sister Julie. Curie had a great time, but when we came back she said “don’t go to a party again!”

Considering how into trains Curie is, it is hard to believe it has only been a year since we went to Strasburg and she rode the train for the first time. Until then she had not developed an interest in trains. Earlier in the month we rode a small train at a local park and she was a little scared because of how fast it went. She wanted to go to the “train station” which refers to Strasburg and ride the big train, so we went up and rode the train, and bought Caitlin, a new engine to take home, and stayed over to go again (last year we had only planned to go one day and Curie asked to go a second so we stayed over). But the next day, she said to us that she wanted to go home to play with her trains at home. She wanted to play with Caitlin on her tracks instead of going back to ride. Albert found it amazing that she wanted to play together at home instead of doing the big “fun” thing. It was her call, so we went home instead.

This month she has taken to playing with her twin Curious Georges named Alice and John as twins, jumping crazy high off the couch, and going to the Halloween party that we wrote about earlier (this is being written before Halloween, so we will probably post that separately). She has become a little more needy recently, especially with the time away at the Gala (Albert remembers the first time they had a baby sitter too), and wants “mommy only, not Elia,” at times. Other times she wants to hold Elia and kisses her spontaneously. When Curie wakes, Elia often makes her smile (and she surely makes Elia smile). Albert often crashes on the couch after needing some downtime as an introvert, but recently Curie has been waking crying for “daddy to sleep next to us (and yes, contrary to what we thought we would do, we did end up with the family bed).” She is sensitive, and smart, considerate and precocious, needy and loving, and everything you would think of in a three-year old. It is not always easy, but it feels more alive to be a parent than it did when it was just the two of us, and really gives us insight on how we see how our parents see us too.

Curie September 2014. The world just gets better. When you are three, you can reach more things, pretend better, laugh at more sophisticated humor, understand nuanced conversation, make up funny words, do word play on names, say “I love you,” without being asked, and hold more stuffed animals in a hug. With a rollicking laugh you ease the stress of a parent’s terrible day. With a heartfelt hug you bring a grown person to tears. What a wonderful age it is to be three.

Curie is constantly checking to see if Albert is feeling better after a little incident he had. She tells him to eat or drink and wants to know if he is better (he is better BTW). We consciously do not hide if we are sick to her, though Albert remembers wondering if parents ever got sick.

Curie loves her pre-school, she is so proud of being there and has so much fun. She has long watched Caillou, a Canadian cartoon on PBS, where the main character, who is four, goes to pre-school; and when she chooses episodes, in general, she chooses going to school or going to the doctor.  Going to pre-school is a coming of age thing for her.

Potty training continues to go well, though she is becoming ashamed of not making it to the potty; as a parent, you never want them to be ashamed of anything. She covers her eyes when she gets her diaper changed after she poops. Everybody poops. But when she is having fun she chooses not to go to the potty, she doesn’t forget, she just chooses. What a kid.

We have been limiting Curie’s TV time, or screen time, in today’s parlance. This means on drives we have been playing more games. The picnic game, the car sscavengerhunt game, egg game, Erin’s stories on cars, and of course I Spy. When we see trucks we all scream “AHHH!” for big trucks, and whisper “ahhh!” for little trucks. We duck our heads with a hand over our head when we go under bridges or through tunnels. At home, Albert has been playing trains more with Curie who sees this as very valuable time; frankly, it must mean Albert does not spend enough time with her at home. Playing has become more valuable than watching something.

There is that study that Facebook makes you feel like everyone else is having a better time than you, and lately, Erin has worried that we are not giving them the same summer memories because we did not go to the beach or go away like many families on Facebook; but this September alone, Curie had three birthday parties, a trip to the Baltimore Science Museum, apple picking with the Tamanahas, a visit with firemen at the condo association meeting, eating at the “choo-choo sushi” restaurant, playing on the river front on K Street, going to Tim’s Rivershore, eating at Ben’s Chili Bowl followed immediately by “dessert” pho at a Vietnamese restaurant and a bit of something at IceBerry. And then there was the spontaneous staycation at the Sheraton Premiere in Vienna, where she proclaimed: “I love this place!” We do love that place. We do all right.

Its pretty wonderful being three, but for parent-to-be or young parents. beware. They say “terrible twos” but the threes are no walk in the park, and maybe even worse than twos. Fussiness, tantrums, testing boundaries, having friends outside family, having favorites between parents, all par for the course. And still it is all outweighed by the fact that they are starting to understand what love is, and what family is. What do you say when your daughter pulls everyone for a big hug and says “we’re one big family, ‘wight?” You say, “yes Curie, that is right.”

Curie turns three. It is hard to believe that our little girl is three. If you recall, she was 37 weeks, three weeks early, and only 4 pounds 7 ounces, barely fitting two hands. She perched on Albert’s shoulder to sleep and soothe. Unlike Elia who was rounder and more filled out even at 35 weeks, Curie was wrinkly from the drop in amniotic fluid and alert to the point of flight/fright. Elia smiled on day three, Curie’s first smile was a month after she was born.

And now, at three, Curie is precocious and gregarious with a fabulous sense of humor. She is discovering plays on words and how to pretend. She is remarkably sensitive and caring with a big heart to match her sharp wit. Never mind her sun-drenched hair and Hawaiian skin. She loves her Mama, and said her favorite thing is “to play with Dada,” and Elia is her best friend.

Curie loves to feed her sister, make her laugh, and breaks out in a grin even after just waking up to see Elia smiling at her. For her birthday, we had three parties, one for three of the girls from day care at Natalie’s house, one with just family, and one with close friends hosted at the Hoaglands. Erin’s mother says you should have the same number of kids as age for parties, and after the big party, we would agree.

Ever since Christmas, presents have mattered to Curie, not to collect anything or get stuff, but to open and be surprised. In fact, it is a lot like the eggs, you can rewrap a present and it would have a similar effect (though she is getting into the “I want this or that/what did you buy me” phase). For her third birthday, among other things, Curie got a slide from Albert’s parents, a basketball hoop and Mommy and Daddy Pig from Mommy and Daddy, clothes and paints from Erin’s parents, figures and books from the Hoaglands, and Octolinks from the Tamanahas. Her auntie Julie gave her and Elia books. Suephy’s family got her a purse (in which she puts her Play-doh containers), and Bernard’s family got her a Peppa Pig and a great books about Crayons going on strike.

Though more appropriate for her monthly blog, Curie is well along in her potty, about to transition to pre-school (along with a number of her classmates), and loves to be the “line leader/waiter.” At her party we learned that she apparently tells the class when Daddy is going to pick her up – and is disappointed when he doesn’t. She doesn’t like to be left alone, and will say “I need someone to look after me,” if we do.

When they say “it seems like yesterday…” it really does. When you are single or even when you are married, life is a bit in suspended animation in that it is only when you look at old pictures that you realize you are a bit grayer or a bit rounder. With kids you mark time with every new thing they do, and if you remember how a year seemed so long as a kid it is probably because so many things happen to you while you are growing up and that each year is a larger proportion of your life. Time gets shorter, life goes faster, and the moments get more precious.

Curie August 2014. Curie turns three in a few days and we will have a particular collage for her on her birthday, but here is the August one where we went swimming with the Yischons, played “golf-ball (mini-golf)” for the first time, rode the merry-go-round and exposed our daughters to art at Glen Echo Park, went to the DC Pen Show where Curie got a pen that looks like a car, and learned to play a little ping pong at the Hoaglands.

Curie has become obsessed with popsicles this summer and has had her first lolipop as well. When she gets hurt she has Albert wrap the part that got hurt in a cast of athletic tape and under-wrap. She loves being carried upside down and has learned to jump from the couch. She is fearless on the playground and will elbow her way to the slide if she feels it is her turn. She is fiercely independent and analytical, but will tell you if she is “a little bit sad,” or if something is “a little bit scary.” When Albert had a hard day at work, she told Erin that “Dada is a little bit sad.”

Curie loves Elia and often is the only one who can make her smile. Elia has become enamored of Curie and will follow her to play with her toys or do what Curie is doing. We bought two toy boxes for them to have their own toys, but Elia just wanted to play with what Curie had and Curie wanted to play with her old toys again. We told her that she had to ask Elia if she could play with them to which Curie asked, “Elia can I play with your toys?” Immediately following with, “Elia says ‘yes.'” When she plays with Elia she calls her “Little one,” and “Sweetheart.” On occasion she will call her “honey.” If she is calling for her attention she chants: “”E-Lee-YA!, E-Lee-YA!, E-Lee-YA!”

Curie most recently has been talking in her robot voice, which she finds terribly funny; started watching Jake and the Pirates, (Captain Hook) and Phineas and Ferb (Perry); and has taken to making up words and songs. This month she went to the dentist which left a very big impression: she will play dentist now as much as doctor, and give you a cleaning, including the water and how you need to close your mouth around the vacuum thing to suck the water out. And though she has the beginning of a cavity, she has was great at the dentist, and has taken to brushing better (and spitting) each night.

As a two-year old becoming a three-year old, she tests her boundaries, has trouble adjusting to having a younger sister who is growing, and is more susceptible to being fussy as she gets less sleep. She especially hates being left alone One night Curie was crying and ever since Curie was an infant, Albert will come up and say “Don’t worry Curie, I am here, I’ll always come get you.” If she was crying in the crib, “I’ll always come get you.” Or if she was playing alone and started to cry. “I’ll always come get you.” Well, after Albert came up and spent some time with her, he got up to get something – now she really wants people to watch with her when she watches TV or the phone, so she got him to come back by saying, “Daddy, stay. ‘Member? I was cwying.” Wow. And she will only get better at it as she gets older, right?

 

Curie July 2014. In a month, Curie will be three. She grew an inch and a half on the door jamb and was 25 pounds at her last doctor’s visit (from the rotavirus we referenced last post). Somewhere along the way she got her two year molars and we never noticed. She brushes, swishes and spits by herself. At a recent play date, she was a little bossy, and when she isn’t getting what she wants with us, she has started bargaining.

At two years, eleven months, Curie has started correcting some of her language and we have mixed feelings about it; as much as we want to hang on to the days, we are proud that she is growing. Where she used to say “I will” whether it was something you wanted her to do or not, she has learned to say “I won’t.” The hammer in her Ikea tool set went from “banger” to “hamber” to “hammer” in three days. She is just shy of three still though, and mints are “mintens,” and she likes to tell us that SHE is the “waiter!” When she means “leader.” Waiters are people of authority to her and she has great respect for them.

Curie’s other two authority figures are teachers and doctors. She loves to say “I’m the teacher,” and ask us to sit for circle time. She also says “Daddy is not listening.”  Then other days she is giving us check-ups as the doctor. At night she likes to say that she is the baby lion and that Erin is the mommy lion.

Non sequitur: The fact that Curie likes her homemade Duplo/Lego “Belle” and “Flynn” train and fire engine more than the pre-made ones kind of warms the heart. The fact that she rebuilds them daily to new configurations assures us that Legos are still about creativity and not just glorified models.

She wears so many t-shirts these days that we are thinking about more dresses for her. Her latest shoes are Stride-rites again and she loves them.  We did dress the girls up in the same outfits the other day, and finding it cute, we realize that somehow we became “those parents” in the process.

We have been concerned about not spoiling Curie and have been sticking to rules more often. It is hard, as you really want to give them everything they can, but the responsibility of making sure they are well equipped, forces you to be firm no matter how much it tears you up inside to do it. On the other hand, she is so good – she holds Elia and makes her smile and laugh. She cleans up her toys with just a gentle nudge. She is respectful, kind and good-natured.

She is growing though. We didn’t know she already knew how to ride a scooter until we saw it on the school pictures. When we were at National Harbor, she lay next to Albert and put her hands behind her head like he had. She is growing and says “I like Mommy the best,” or “I like Daddy the best,” to great effect. On the flip side, she likes to stand on Albert’s belly before jumping off (Hop on Pop), and when you have a moment of quiet and hold her tight, you say “I love you Curie,” and she says in the same quiet voice, “I love you too.” Three years old soon, holding on, but not too tight.

Curie June 2014. “Daddy, I like being with you.” Life’s challenges are mollified by “I love you Mommy, you are my very best friend,” or “it’s okay sweetheart (to Elia),” and “will Elia be friends with me?” Recently she has been asking, “Daddy, how was work?” Even on Saturdays when there is no work.

Curie fell off the bed for the first time this month and had a fever and bloody nose (not related to the falling). We suspect the fever is from teething. As for the bloody nose, Erin called down to Albert to have him rush up to find Curie covered in blood. She had used her forearm to rub her nose and spread it all over her face and arms. She looked quite the fright. Albert calmly wiped off the blood and talked to her gently to not alarm her about the blood (Erin who is not good with blood felt a turn in her stomach). Later Albert talked to Curie about how cool the blood was as not to make the sight of blood something she turns away from. She wanted to bring the tissues to school, which we did not do.

As we have written, June saw us in Ottawa visiting Eric and Taylor, driving instead of flying to Massachusetts for Grampy’s memorial, and celebrating Elia’s 6 months. It has also seen tragedy at Albert’s work, the end of the fiscal year for Erin’s, and a generous visit to the White House by David and the Hoaglands (Curie was unimpressed). At the BBQ festival in DC, there was a city bus on display for people see while visiting the MBTA booth. We put Curie in the driver’s seat and sang “The Wheels on the Bus,” while we pretended to ride. Imagine our surprise when the bus roared to a start because Curie loves pushing buttons. We hightailed it off the bus while the MBTA people rushed aboard.

Curie has always had a great sense of humor and it has only gotten better as she has grown up. Just look at her in costume, hamming it up at the White House, and eating corn. The picture of Curie and Elia in the corner is one of our favorites. She also loves shopping, and asks “daddy, what did you buy me?” When he comes home from work (he doesn’t always buy something).

Curie loves Elia, even when she doesn’t. Curie will ask to hold Elia and try to calm her down when Elia is upset. Though, Curie wants to be held by Mommy when she is upset, Curie will sing to her when Elia is upset. This morning when she woke up, instead of asking to watch something, or go downstairs, or even where Mommy or Daddy were, she asked where Elia was (Albert had her in the hall) as the first thing she thought of after being woken up. We think she was dreaming of Elia and couldn’t find her upon waking.

Sometimes it is hard to give yourself a break from the petty things to hug your loved ones a little closer, and  appreciate each moment. Take the break though, after all, life is fleeting.

Curie May 2014. The other day, we realized that Curie was no longer a toddler but a little girl (just as Elia is no longer an infant, but a baby and in another blink she will be a toddler herself). At a cookout the other day, a little girl spilled her bubbles, and though the other kids didn’t notice, Curie –unprompted, mind you, poured half of her bubbles into the little girl’s bottle so that she would also have some. We didn’t even witness it, some parents came to tell Erin. Apparently at that party, Curie also helped a little girl that the others ignored after she fell. Child care is doing a great job.

In another instance, Elia had gotten sick, Curie actually gave it to her, and when Erin’s father came to visit and he took Curie for some ice cream, Curie unprompted asked if Elia was all right, and wanted to make sure she brought Albert some apple juice. How she is so considerate, we should just appreciate that she is. She isn’t all a bed of roses though, she has gotten whiny in her twos (especially when she is sick) whenever she wants something or doesn’t want something and while it is normal, it is no less frustrating.

On a different milestone, she has gotten into the “whys?” And more recently into the “why not?” But it is not what we think of when someone says “why not?” Instead, she has put it together logically, the “not” is the negative for the “why,” it isn’t “why shouldn’t I?” Rather, “why is it not?,” literally. She also logically says “I will,” when you ask her not to do something. It means “yes, I will not do what you asked me not to do.” Edit: “why not?” is just why when she doesn’t agree.

She has been saying a lot of precocious things recently, if you say “excuse me Curie, she will say “oh sorry, I forgot.” When Albert pointed out some bikes during Rolling Thunder, her response was, “those are motorcycles, Dada (yes, on occasion she calls Albert “Dada” because once she heard that he liked it. Her personality is really developing and not just in precocious ways: she screams “SAND!” As if it were the most terrible thing in the world when she finds it in her shoes, and she has a fantastic sense of humor with great timing especially repeating Albert’s story time faux-faux pas. “Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss,” becomes “Three legs of ham and orange juice,” from Albert, and without prompting later she will repeat it with the right timing to make everyone laugh. And of course there is the Lion Cow incident.

Curie is learning her letters, exerting her personality, insisting on cutting things with her plastic knife – it is weird to hear a two-and-a-half year old say “wait, let me get my knife.” Potty training is on hold, but she doesn’t seem fazed other than being a little embarrassed when she has pooped. Erin’s parents visited, Curie played with her “best friend Bella (the Hoaglands), Quintin broke her arm (“why?”), Albert went to Denver for a Board meeting. and we discovered a new conveyor belt sushi place to replace the one that closed. Life is pretty good.

Okay, so this part of the blog is premature since it is happening while writing this (late) on vacation in Ottawa in June. Curie knows when Albert is not in bed, and in our hotel room with the single bed and crib, she will not sleep comfortably unless Albert is back in bed. She normally sleeps holding Erin, but in the last couple of days she has held Albert’s arm, and is resting her head on his shoulder right now. There is so much to do these days, work is stressful and can be consuming if you let it. Clearing your head for your children is difficult but really necessary – and if you don’t, it is not the risk of losing your temper that matters, it is more simple than that – you may not see the signs that they need you and you won’t take the five, or twenty, or fifty minutes to play with the paper ball and make up a game, or count eggs together, or hear – “Daddy (or Mommy), this is fun with you!” You may simply miss, the chance to be with your children while they are still children. Priorities right? So though, Albert has work to do tonight during vacation, Curie is on  his arm snuggled asleep and he is going to let the computer battery run out instead of getting up to charge it – after all, how many nights will be like this again?

Edit: When Curie asks “why not?” She still means “why?” She uses them interchangeably.