Category: Elia Months

Elia has been waiting and waiting for her birthday ever since Curie’s in September. At Target she will take a toy and say “this for my burday,” so that we have quite a list. We are afraid that it only comes once a year, interestingly enough, Christmas will help with that.

Elia’s verbalization has really kicked up in high gear, and she loves to sing songs in the car. She had a cognitive moment the other day. Albert has been singing “Wheels on the Car” recently, but while he was singing, Elia suggested that they sing “Wheels on the Truck,” making the progression that the song could be about other things.

Her sense of humor has also blossomed (and takes after Albert like Curie). She is still finding boundaries so things anything you say “no” to is funny. We have been “hiding” and making “lion noises” which consists of “rawr!” and such, but when Albert asked her what sound does a lion make the other day, she said “mmm, mmm, mmm” which is the sound lions make when they eat zebras. We have been eating zebras recently; she said “I eat little zebra, you eat sister zebra,” associating little and big with her and Curie. As you might guess, she has made the conversion to “I” and not “me.”

One morning when Albert was getting Elia dressed she noticed that Albert was wearing black pants and she was too, she said “we both wear black pants!” then she noticed that Albert was wearing a black t-shirt, and then had a pout that she too wanted a black t-shirt, fortunately we found one (note, she was already dressed and wanted to change).

At night she does not like to brush her teeth and Erin has to hold her and brush them to great consternation and protest on her part. On the other hand she does remember that she had a great dentist visit and says: “I do great with dentist” and earlier in the month: “me do great.” She and Curie will go through candy and throw away anything that is too chewy or hard that might be bad for their teeth by themselves, pretty amazing. We have been giving them Tic Tacs for treats and bribing. At one calorie a piece it doesn’t seem too bad, but if you don’t watch out they will try to eat the whole box.

Elia has always been a restless sleeper, tossing and turning to get comfortable, even more than Curie. She will be at all angles in the bed, but lately she has been waking up at night and sometimes not being able to get back to bed. There is an IKEA comforter that she has recently gravitated to to sleep but will kick it off in the middle of the night and say “no blanket” so we have to dress her warmer than if she used a blanket (who are we kidding, ever since Albert started it when Erin was on a trip, we don’t dress them in pajamas, we just dress them in tomorrow’s clothes). The other day though, she found an old onesie and had Erin put her in it, she loved it but it was too small, so Albert dug out the last onesie that Curie wore which was fleece and hooded. Elia loved it.

There was one week that Elia wasn’t feeling well and threw up in bed, and we mean really threw up. Mostly on herself but that meant getting her in the tub and Albert washed her clothes in the toilet (which had just been cleaned the day before, and if you think about it was pretty brilliant considering the debris in the bath and the subsequent having to scrub the bathtub too (at 4:00 AM – so if you wonder why we are tired this is one of the reasons). This is pretty gross of course but we mention for a reason, because the next night for the first time she blows out in bed, and we mean poo on the newly laid sheets from the night before. New bath, washing clothes and sheets in the toilet, and more laundry at 4:00 AM. Oh and Erin gladly let Albert do the cleaning since it really made her gag, something that Albert seemed to not be concerned about (what does that mean?).

So next month we will write about her birthday which is in December, but her blog goes from the 16th through the 15th, but it was fantastic and she loved it. Since Thanksgiving Elia has been single-handedly been drinking all of the apple cider we bought, two and a half gallons, she will ask for her Hulk cup (she loves the Hulk) and ask for an orange juice and an apple cider. Erin wants to wean her off of apple cider because it has not calcium. We drink calcium fortified orange juice because the kids have not wanted to drink milk recently, something the doctor said they needed to do for their growth. Curie is probably not going back (we have been giving her chocolate pudding and yogurt in her lunch to compensate some, and eating mac and cheese – not Albert though -eating it we mean), but Elia started to say “me no like our milk” and  “our milk smell yucky” it turns out she didn’t like whole milk any more and likes 2% and low fat milk because it is what they drink at school. She is at an amazing age and we love being with her, and I mean all of us; Curie more than the rest, she loves her little sister and will tell us how cute Elia is – amazing.

Elia, what a sweetheart in these interesting times. If you have children, you know what a salve they can be to the world’s problems and perspective comes down to simply worrying about them not everything else out there. Sure they can be whiney and frustrating and you can be sick with worry, but these things are still about love and not about disdain or hate.

Elia is a joy – most times. She does love to provoke her sister, and seems to have inherited, along with Curie, Albert’s ability know what will frustrate you. She has not yet learned that it is not always funny and that when you say “no” it really means “please stop,” but then again she is just shy of three. Sometimes we will tell her we love her and she will respond “me no love you” with a big smile on her face.

On the other hand she is unbearably cute. Albert asked, “Do you love Jie-jie?” To which she responded, “Yes. I love Jie-jie. Curie loves me too!” Oh and yes, she is using “I” now, mostly, instead of “me.” This manifested recently when Albert said “I love you Elia!” And she said “I love you!” Erin then said “I love you too!” To which Elia replied “Me love you too!” Albert likes telling Elia that she is funny because Elia likes saying “Dada funny” or “Sophia sat on Dada legs, Sophia funny.” So when Albert says “Elia funny,” she says “‘Lea no funny,, Dada funny.” And they will go back and forth a few times with this.

Albert recently had a meeting but had time before it to spend with Elia which gave them a chance to really bond for a bit, as a result for a while Elia wanted only Dada and allowed Curie to spend time with Mommy. One thing that has become a favorite for Elia is hiding with Albert. This started with being in a sheet tent right before bed with Curie and they would hide in the bed to surprise Erin. But Elia has really taken to it and loves laying on Albert’s belly hiding from animals. “Me sleep yo belly, we hide from bea-os!” She will put her face up against Albert’s touching noses and say seriously in a whisper “hide dada! is bea-o!” Then she will make bear sounds “”Rawr” but more like “Wawr!” in your face. Or lions, or tigers, and sometimes dinosaurs. “Dada, hide!” “We hiding.” “Es Beawr”

Elia has loved going to parties with bounce houses and jumping things especially at EJ’s party where she wanted to climb up everything, even things that seemed to big for her. She is very much in the “do by my self” phase. When Curie got a new winter coat, Albert washed Curie’s old one and gave it to Elia as her new coat which she loved. It was still a little dirty so Elia said “wash my coat” in her measured way so Albert washed her coat. It was the morning and Albert was going to put her in a lighter coat because her coat was being washed. Elia, not knowing that washing took time started crying that she wanted her coat, her new winter coat. Albert fortunately found a vest that Curie never wore with a big 5 on the back that Elia loved. In fact she insisted on wearing it the next couple of days as her “soccer shots vest.” Oh and if you called a coat, she corrected you that it is “my vest.” That week was the last week for Soccer Shots (which Elia loves) and all the kids got medals for participation. Elia was so proud to wear hers. On occasion she asks about it and loves it all over again.

Her favorite show is Hi 5 House on Netflix and she can be seen singing and dancing to the show by herself as a part of the studio audience. It is adorable. We have all gotten into it singing “The Animal Dance,” “Action Heroes,” and more. She is so good natured and laughs with a beaming face that lights up your own joy. She calls M&Ms “em a lens” or “em a lems,” kisses everyone good night, unless she decides you don’t get a kiss to get a reaction out of you, points to the old car and pointed tells us that it is the old car, got a little sick and for Thanksgiving said “I thankful family” when asked what she was thankful about. She is a sharp one that one, and a joy to have all the time, especially in these interesting times.

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.

So with Curie taking the bus to kindergarten our routine has changed and the new normal is taking some time to get used to; each parent has to now pick up a different child from a different school with Albert picking up Elia from day care, and Erin picking up Curie from after school care at martial arts.

The silver lining to this is that each parent how has some more alone time with a child and it is evident that the children love the attention and focus. In the car, Elia, whose favorite song recently (and like her sister before her) has been “Wheels on the Bus!” Elia delighted when Albert changed the words to “Wheels on the Car!” and used the actual windows and windshield wipers (and horn) to sing to the song and of course she loved: Elia in the car says “ha ha ha!”

Elia has been saying more sophisticated sentences like: “dat car like us!” meaning “that car looks like ours!” And “my lock red,” meaning “my door is unlocked.” Even more, she has found that she can use her toes to unlock the door if she takes off her shoes and makes Albert re-lock it manually (because the electronic lock is broken). She also loves to share pretzels with Albert insisting he eat one if she does. Now Erin and Curie are also spending more time together which has meant three sugar cookies from “old MacDonald’s” after her martial arts class and singing the songs she learned from Ms. Best at kindergarten in the car.

Both kids are having adjustment issues with Elia hitting recently and pulling hair. She knows she can’t ride the school bus and misses her “Jie-jie” in the car. This is not to say that she has become a terror, but she is definitely pushing boundaries and testing what is acceptable and not. We have recounted her wanting Minnie to be buckled in the car and her learning to go to school on her own, it is two weeks still so it is early days yet.

Elia has had trouble understanding birthdays as well. She knows that Curie had a “big” birthday and got a lot of presents and attention. We gave Elia some small presents for her “little” birthday which she liked, but the very next day she said that it was her “big”birthday now. Fairness is a critical thing at this age, but fair in the kids minds, not the adults. Elia also tells Albert that after her birthday it is Albert’s which is totally true.

Besides the Rey costume, Elia has asked for Captain America shirt which we bought but did not make the collage, we will post it separately. It has a hood built in, very cute. She also has a mad face now; it is not her real mad face, it is another pose she has. She has her pose, the cute one, a super hero pose, her Elia freezing pose, and her mad pose (the one in the picture).

Elia is still fearless and can climb ladders on jungle gyms by herself (something Curie won’t do yet) and giving us heart attacks. She recovered quickly from a fall with Erin recently, and likes to jump down two stairs (and considers three) at a time.

Because of her time with Albert in the car, she has begun sleeping with him again. She will go up with Erin but cry for Albert some times and they will go to the guest room to sleep through the night. It also helps Albert in that he can’t binge watch Netflix or Amazon and midnight snack. There is something wonderful that Elia and Curie can tell when you move away from them when they are asleep; they will call to you in their sleep and quiet down when they feel you near them again.

August was our family vacation to Toronto and Niagara falls. We were originally going to Japan with our friends the Hoaglands, but with the house not yet rented we didn’t feel comfortable spending so much money. We ended up going to  Toronto and Niagara for a fifth the price.

Elia’s diction and vocabulary have really taken off this month. She no longer is measured in her speech when she makes sentences and has begun talking a lot. She is still working on learning new things but it is cute as all get out.

She uses “me” for “I,” so “me no no dat is,” is “I don’t know what that is.” Or simply Me no no,” “I don’t know.” Better yet, “What dat? … Me no no.” We love how she calls things at: the moment: “Um nom noms,” are M&Ms, “wipers” for “wipes.” Sometimes she runs around just saying “blah, blah, blah.” But she is pretty articulate when she wants to be, it is her syntax that cracks us up: “Me get another one book.” or  “Me eat another one bite.” “Dat too tary (scary).” “Me love Hi fi (Hi5).”

Then there are really cute ones like: “Me strong like Rey. Me strong like Rey and Finn,” or “Dada pay me, pay ball.” We introduced the kids to several versions of Cinderella this month with Elia entranced by the ball scenes. She LOVES the “Slippery and Rose” movie (The Slipper and the Rose), and Ever After. The best is that she calls Cinderella “Fa la le la” or just “La le la.” She has however started to say “lello” instead of “yellow,” and that might be a Curie influence as she says “lello.”

We’ll leave many of the Toronto, Niagara Falls exploits to that blog post, but there were a few things for Elia of note. She remembers the name of her pony “Merlin (her first),” knows that the ferris wheel was “too tary” for her, that the bears made her dizzy because Albert spun them “too fast.” It is better to just watch her description on the video. We bought her a plastic boat (jet ski) and she asked to roll the window down. Curie said she dropped the boat out the side, which we thought she meant on the side of her car seat, but Elia had thrown her boat out the window. Albert rescued it from the road, fortunately we were at the parking lot of the hotel. And then, Elia didn’t want to climb up the CN tower, until we explained it was only taking the elevator up and not actually climbing the outside, she said then said “okay.”

Elia had her first hair cut the same day Curie did and though she did not need holding hands, she did not smile until it was over. Instead of watching the video of Peppa Pig, she looked at the mirror to see what the stylist was doing.

So Elia is quite head strong, pushing bigger kids out of the way on the slide, she is willful too, having definite opinions (though many are either contrary or the same as Curie’s). She has begun hitting and spitting recently which initially Albert just rasberried back into Elia’s face, Erin thought Elia’s surprised reaction was hilarious, but we are working on a better way of handling her acting up than just reacting. Elia loves to make scrambled eggs cracking and mixing the eggs. The only thing she doesn’t do is actually cook them. She is still the daredevil, loving being lifted, and loved when Albert would drop a ball over her head only to catch it right before hitting her as she lay down.

Elia really wants the company and attention and will insist you sit next to her or near her, or she will sidle up to you or sit in your lap. She always wants “mouk” at the end of the day, but will insist on “mouk on the couch.” In the morning she wants to go “downtairs!” Insistently, right when she wakes up. She knows how to count,  sort of, and can tell you what the animals are and what sounds they make. She was playing with the animals and farm and kept saying “dis be?” Which we thought it meant “what is this?” Which we thought was surprising since she can tell you what the animals are, but we realized she meant “where do these go?” And then true to her nature (OCD inherited from Albert) she put them in the same places over and over again. Albert’s favorite Elia noise? “Onk onk.”

 

So we have been using Waze lately instead of Google Maps (maps has a better interface, but the crowd sourcing in Waze seems to give better directions). For a while we had T-Pain as our voice and the kids loved it, In fact, Curie would request putting the “new GPS” on. For those of you who do not know, T-Pain is an autotuned rapper who sings the directions: “I’m T-Pain, you gonna see, Ima gonna get you from A to Z.” So we would sing along to his directions and unconsciously sing it around the kids. Recently Elia had a great reaction, After Albert sang the “I’m T-pain…” part, Elia protested and said, “me T-Pain, you bad guys”

Another day, Erin had taken Elia into the bathroom at a restaurant and Elia spied a Windex bottle. She asked Erin “wat dat for?” Erin responded that it was for cleaning mirrors. Without missing a beat, Elia asked, “na spray mama face?”

The kids love to play frozen powers and heat queen to freeze and unfreeze. In the car, Curie was talking about frozen powers to which Elia said that she had “Star Wars Frozen powers,” which we can only imagine what that would be like. Speaking of Star Wars, Elia loves the Force Awakens and anything Star Wars. There is a giant First Order Storm Trooper that Elia loves to push its button as we mentioned before; most recently though she will go up to it, call it her friend, and hold its hand. We have a blue and green light saber at home (not real ones of course, that would be dangerous) and Elia has taken to fighting with them. Now, you really do need to defend yourself, because Elia goes all out and goes for your head and your face and swings really hard. She will walk up to you with both light sabers and hand you the green one (the blue one is Rey’s so it is hers), then once activated she will go at you at will. Steve was game for this kind of fight so played with her and would fall once hit. Elia liked this so much that she also wanted to fall melodramatically and drop her light saber; so her fight became one touch of the light saber against her opponent’s and then a melodramatic pretend-fall coming to rest on the floor.

The second time in the pool this summer Elia still liked jumping into the pool but at one point pushed Albert away seeing that most other kids were swimming by themselves; she did not want anyone to hold her as she swam with her floaties.  Because she did it first, it pushed Curie into jumping into the pool and swimming by herself. We’ll send them to swim class this summer.

Elia has been saying all sorts of funny things like “me baby” then after a pause “cute.” When she had a diaper rash she walked bow-legged and said “my butt hurts.” Which sound funny because Curie always said “bum” instead of “butt.” It is like hearing baby sailor talk. When playing with Albert once, Elia raised one finger to indicate that there was only on blind box left on her show. Albert raised his finger too and she laughed. Then she said it was her “thumb,” to which Albert corrected, “no, no, that is your finger, this is your thumb,” raising his thumb. Then she couldn’t copy it until Albert held her thumb and she closed her fist. Albert wiggled his thumb and she laughed hysterically. The next day, Curie and Elia were in the car, and after a period of quiet, Elia spoke up “Mommy, thumb!” Holding a thumbs up and very proud of herself. Right now if you ask her where is her thumb she will look at her hand for a while and then make the thumbs up sign.

Erin was away on a trip at the end of Elia’s month (ending on the 15th) which meant that Albert had the kids. Curie had a fever which Albert caught. So sick single parenting the kids ran a little bit wild. Albert fed them sugar-free Reese’s peanut butter cups and sugar free Squirt. But the saddest part was when Elia missed Erin and found her nursing cover. It must smell like milk and Mommy, because Elia held it crying and used it as a blanket crying herself to sleep.

In fairly stressful times it is always nice to know that if you sit with you child for a while and appreciate the moment, that you will forget the outside for just a moment and live in the bubble with your child.

Elia continues to blossom and is finding her identity in the family. She is territorial about her food like Dylan was but still wants the same things that Curie wants. She loves watching “eggs,” and wants to pick what we watch first “me pick!” And will even cry if she is not given the chance.

She is adorable and funny, almost not realizing she is funny. We asked the kids who has the best sister? Elia said “Jie-jie’s best sister” which could be interpreted as I think Ji-jie has the best sister, me, or Jie-jie is the best sister, either way, very cute. Continue reading “Elia June 2016”

Our little girl keeps growing up but is no less cute. So the kids are doing well with the move. Curie has mentioned the old house once, but Elia doesn’t really remember it, or if she does, doesn’t know how to talk about it. In the new house Elia’s favorite thing may have to be the garage; the garage is magical to her particularly because of the automatic garage door opener. She insists on going through it and pressing the button every time we come home. This often means that Albert let’s Curie in the front door and then goes back out to open the garage door for Elia. Continue reading “Elia April 2016”

The other day, we were at Target in the toy section, and Elia pointed out the large First Order Stormtrooper; she loves to push the button and make him say things. Well this time, she pushed the button and it didn’t say anything, Albert pushed the button, it didn’t say anything. They pushed all the buttons on all the Stormtroopers, and they didn’t say anything. Elia looked up at Albert and knowingly said, “batteries.”

He knows it is foolish, but ever since Albert went back to work, the kids seem to have grown faster, Elia especially, but Curie too. Not only did she know the word “batteries,” but knew that when a toy didn’t work, Continue reading “Elia March 2016”