Category: Curie

Curie May 2015. Curie has been asking for us to teach her to read, and, most recently, asking us to teach her to write. Here is what we know so far: she can recognize most numbers and a good number of letters. She can pick out her name from a list of names. She can find letters she has learned in other words. She can copy letters in words and if you create structure like making boxes for the letters she can order them as well. Curie has never used the fist grip for a pencil or pen but has not yet realized that holding it closer to the tip will give her better control. She has us draw the letter with our finger to see how to write it. So, it is a start. and we could not be more proud.

In addition to learning to actually read and write, Curie loves to make cards and “writes” notes on them to people. She writes a scribble on every line on a credit card receipt or form (much like her cousin Miranda did at a similar age). On the reading front, books have become very important to her especially when she is on the potty, and when we can’t read to her we have encouraged her to read to us by describing the pictures in the book.

Her drawing has become more sophisticated as well. On our trip to California, Eleanor took time to teach Curie to draw flowers and other things, which may have sparked a new interest in drawing. Regardless, she likes drawing us with large circles as heads and bodies, she also likes drawing fish, and flowers. I am not sure what that means, but it is a joy to watch her draw. As a result, Elia loves to draw, as best as she can, as well. Curie takes her drawing seriously and calls it her “work.” Once, when we asked her stop and start again in the morning, she woke up and told us she had “work” to do and continued to draw.

The other big interest these days is a desire to work on puzzles. She has expressed an interest in the past, but she wanted us to do them then. These days she likes to do them herself and at Bernard’s house she worked on as many as she could over and over again. Agnes taught Curie how to play Candyland and Chutes and Ladders which she has also taken to. Curie, of course, idolizes her cousins and took to a large koi at the Cal State Long Beach Japanese Gardens named Bubble Gum because her cousins were enamored.

Curie’s vocabulary and diction have improved, to the point that you can have full-on, fairly sophisticated conversations with her. She will tell you things are “tremendous” and “awesome.” She interacts with the TV programs she watches now, particularly with “Little Einsteins,” which teaches kids about music, art, and dance, so she will tell us that “addagio” means slow, or she shows us an “arabesque” when she copies some ballet. She continues to give us her shows and loves big dresses to twirl around.

Because we only let her watch the music of Frozen, her interpretation of it is a little skewed, so we are considering letting her watch the whole thing so that she knows what actually happens. Right now, Elsa uses her magic “Frozen-powers” to keep everyone away so that she can be alone. She freezes Anna to keep her away. We wish Disney would stop killing parents as a theme in their films (along with glorifying princesses, but that is a different beast all together – Curie still does not identify as a Princess but as a Queen – we lost the King, but that is okay).

Finally, Curie has exhibited a really good heart before, notably with the sand toys at National Harbor, and she did so again with Mayar, the little girl from Saudi Arabia we mentioned in an earlier post. We see it most with her interactions with Elia; most recently, Elia has become much more interactive and Curie will share spontaneously with her. They have begun playing more and more together, but how we know that Curie really loves Elia? When they wake, Curie will want a hug from her sister; when they sleep Curie will cry if Elia ignores her; Curie asks to take pictures with Elia, and on planes, she asks to sit next to her and hold her. If Elia goes to one of us, Curie will ask Elia to come to her, and when Elia does touch her or hug her or kiss her, Curie will let us know. Elia is very loved by Curie, and Elia idolizes her big sister.

Curie April 2015. Curie has started saying “gesundheit” after someone sneezes and has begun talking about “responsibility” and “challenges;” her vocabulary has really taken off. Her self-proclaimed responsibilities include protecting Elia when bigger kids bother her, holding things when her parents’ hands are full, and wiping her boots on the front mat (something she makes us do ever since we bought it). Curie is also more considerate than either Albert or Erin and it is sometimes shocking how much we learn from her.At the gift shop, she insisted on buying Erin a cow candle and Albert a train (to share and eventually have for herself), instead of buying something for herself.

As Elia grows up and is more capable, Curie has enjoyed playing with her more, interacting more, and generally enjoying being the big sister. And besides the aforementioned protection for her little sister, Curie expresses more of a willingness to help Elia when she needs help.

Recently Curie has been trending toward longer dresses and things she can twirl in. She likes to play ballerina and Elsa/queen, but here is an interesting thing, she will say she likes princesses but because Albert has expressed that he does not like them as much, says that she is the queen instead. Same with Barbie, because Erin has expressed that she does not like Barbie, Curie will say “we don’t like Barbie right? Except the doctor one, right?”

When you ask her what she wants to do for her job, she takes the question very seriously and says “I want to clean up.” And because her favorite thing to pretend is to be the doctor, we ask “you don’t want to be a doctor?” She replies, I first need to clean and THEN I want to be a doctor.”

Curie has picked up hobbies as well including a rock collection (which takes some curating in that she needs to stick to smaller rocks), her figure/blind bag/box collections, drawing cards for grand parents, rolling Playdoh, and giving stage performances – dance, interpretive dance, and singing. At Cracker Barrel she insists on sitting in the rocking chairs and playing checkers – consisting of stacking the checker pieces and jumping checkers.

In addition to her Frozen obsession, Curie loves the big flashlight, and the LED magnifying glass. She loves being with her parents and loves to help when we do things, she says “I love helping, right?” And she loves to fix things, replace batteries, turn screws, and affix stickers. For being less whiny (on the blind bag scale) for a week she got an airplane by Battat which can be assembled and disassembled by an electric drill with bits. This is her favorite toy – we love that her favorite toy is an engineering toy so much that at Lucy’s party, rather than the Frozen and Disney princesses toys, this is what she wanted to give her.

So it goes without saying that in these challenging times, that our girls keep us going. On one particularly bad day, Albert was upstairs when Erin came home with the girls and Curie kept yelling for Albert who realized how much he would be missed if he weren’t there. From a self-worth standpoint, nothing is better than having your spouse and kids to remind you that health and family are really the important things.