Category: Elia

Elia has worn her Belle dress 10 days in a row now, though she did go to Huntley meadows in regular clothes. She has worn the dress so much that the hem is in tatters and the dress is faded from washing; Albert bought both girls a new one in a larger size but they are too long for them at the moment. He wants to buy another size 3 for Elia because she insists on wearing it every day. In an earlier time we would have discouraged this, but somehow it is more cute than revolting now and perhaps the realization that these are fleeting times lets us be more forgiving for the princess industry. Also, knowing that Curie graduated to superheroes helps a lot.

Elia loves to roar a lot and will do so in the car or in the house or a restaurant or anywhere prompting Curie to hold her ears and say “too loud!” This only encourages Elia to do it more. It is quite funny as Elia holds her two fists in front of her and pulls her elbows back when she does it. She roars to be like lions or like dinosaurs or simply to be Elia getting her energy out.

Like Curie, she also loves holding Albert’s thumbs, and climbing up his torso to be flipped over backwards and will do so as many times as Albert will let her. She also loves to stand on Albert’s belly still and jump while holding his hands. The “Hop on Pop,” The best though is how she is really into dancing, initially copying Curie, but more recently being graceful as she dances in any space with music. Much of this is inspired by Beauty and the Beast, but with both girls’ interest in ballet, they are their mother’s daughters.

Part of dancing for Elia is to sing songs so that there is music to dance and she is in that part where she makes up her own songs with very sophisticated lyrics like: “the world is not how it should be, for me.” We are not sure where they come from but it is evident that she is listening to everything and paying attention to everything. Albert plans on writing a little song for Elia just as he did for Curie when she was a baby (Curie asks for that song from time to time, so it only seems fair that Elia has one too).

Right around the time Curie graduated from kindergarten, our preschool asked if they could put Elia into the other classroom so that the older kids were in one and the younger were in the other. Though we were apprehensive, it has turned out well and so Elia graduated into Preschool 2 with new teachers and new friends – her friend Eva went to a new school at the same time. She is very proud of being big and going to the new class.

Because we are taking Curie to camp. we necessarily have had to change our commute once again taking two cars. This has meant Albert is driving Elia to school and Erin is driving Curie to camp resulting in each parent spending more time with each kid. Elia has been saying, “its just you and me” to Albert a lot, especially when Erin takes Curie to reading class on Saturdays. We probably need to address this and spend more time with the other child this summer. Elia is also insisting on having her lesson each night because Erin is working on reading with Curie.

While Curie has been in reading class, Albert has been spending time with Elia building big Lego structures around her and pretending she is Moana and the like. She seemed genuinely sad for a moment when Albert said that Erin and Curie were on their way home, but was instantly delighted when they came through the door, showing us that the kids need our attention and need the attention of each other.

Elia continues to idolize Curie, at the same time pushing Curie as Elia tries to interact and do the things that Curie does. Most of the time though they play mother and baby, or queen and princess or some game together. It is wonderful for them to play together and learn to share, though at times they find themselves in places where they need to work out differences, also healthy.

Both girls loved Sesame Place with Elia loving the first water slide, then tired, was traumatized by the waterfall at the lazy river and then again by the giant waterslide with the raft. She then got over it after playing in the sand box for a while and then getting drenched at the Ernie’s water table. At the end of the day when, again tired, she was overwhelmed by the other water thing with the Count. Both kids loved the park with the rockets being Elia’s favorite ride and though she got her foot caught in the netting, loved to jump on the ropes.  We went around the Fourth of July, but Elia remembering the noise of the fireworks at the Hoaglands the year before remarked pointedly: “fireworks are a little scary to me.”

We went to Huntley Meadows with Isabella’s family and had water balloon fights with the fast filing water balloons. She has been having fun with our plants outside waiting for fruit and vegetables to grow. One weekend we found a yellow and a red tomato and picked them waiting for Curie to share them. She initially wanted to eat them both, but when reminded that we wanted to wait for Curie was eager to share. In general, Elia is eager to share.

It is at once both fleeting and full of pride to watch our kids grow. Elia no longer sleeps with pull-ups for instance and has had only two accidents overnight. She talks about her Minnie birthday (we were talking about mini-birthdays, like we had talked about little birthdays for Curie around Elia’s birthday, but Elia heard it as Minnie), where we plan to wrap their existing toys, invite friends and each get one new toy. She is growing and yet she is cute and helps us fill with wonder looking with her eyes. This time is precious and we appreciate every moment and every day we have with our kids.

The girls are amazing, they are still whiney and frustrating at times, but truly they are amazing. Both girls have had a growth spurt with half an inch in a month. Elia wears Curie’s iconic old clothes making for a double take on occasion for both of us.

Elia continues to be cute and a laugh riot every day, she is also very aware and surprisingly sophisticated for her age. She still doesn’t have her “r’s” yet and her “c’s” are largely “t’s” and her “g’s” are “d’s” but don’t be fooled, her development is going crazy and she is sharp as a tack behind those words.

In the car Erin was pretending to cry about something to make a point and Elia spoke up and said Erin: “is this a big problem or a little problem?” Which came out “dis big pwoblem or little pwoblem.” And like the time she quoted us on smiling to be pretty/beautiful, i goes to show she is always listening and absorbing.

She knows what we value as a family as well. When driving with Albert she said: “you and me spending time together. Then when Erin came, she said “whole family spending time together.” And though Curie wasn’t there yet, she does not forget her. She said of Curie when giving us a hug: “Curie is the best sister in the whole world. I give her big hugs, squeezy hugs, Curie doesn’t like squeezy hugs but I do..” Albert said ” we miss Curie right?” Elia replied “that is because we love her so much.”

She tells Erin: “Mommy, why your drink not smell very good?” And holds her nose when thing smell even remotely bad. Her syntax is adorable with “please I open it?” to mishearing words and saying “Really, please?” When she means “pretty please?” In addition to being adorable with her speech and insisting on wearing her “Belle dress” every day, she also gives puppy dog eyes on demand.

Elia wants to keep up with Curie, wanting to celebrate her score too when we were celebrating Curie’s rise in score in reading at kindergarten. When she “reads” books out loud she speaks very slowly like Curie does when she is reading, like she is sounding out the words, but she is just reciting them.

We love watching her sing, she is very expressive, shaking her head on the loud notes and holding her hands up. She loves to ask us to dance too, wanting to be graceful and princess-like. She will make up songs at will going so far as to make up lyrics of an old soul like: “the world is not what it is meant to be for me.” She was drinking her pho broth with a straw and she said: “When I drink with this, my heart feels better.”

There is much wisdom coming from this little girl, and at the same time she sleep talks about broccoli, and when she is tired she will flop down and cry and when she cries she will let Albert pick her up and spend time in bed Monument on the iPad together.

Albert remembers deciding that greatness was going to be more than fame and influence, but rather working at being a good husband and father would be the greatest achievement. We won’t know until years from now if we did well or not, but we are hoping that as adults reading this then, that both girls will nod and say we did a good job.

When we started writing this draft, we had not yet sold the house and times were challenging for Albert at work it was to have started: “For the record, these are challenging times for us trying to resolve an issue with our house so that we can close on it. Emotions are raw, patience is stretched thin and the breaking point seems just around the corner. If we didn’t have kids to balance everything out things would be a lot worse.” The appreciation is still there but things are better now.

Every parent has stresses and many have more than we have, so it is not a complaint but an observation that juggling parenting with work, work travel, selling a house, dealing with finances, worrying about almost everything is very taxing on health, life, and relationships and it is taking the time to appreciate the little things, working on your relationships, and being present in the moment positively that gets you through the days.

When you are young parents you think that each year is the best and your favorite, and while there are arguments for each phase, advice that we received that yes, this is a great age, but every age is too (until teenage years I am sure, but the people giving advice did not have teenage children yet). Elia is in a remarkably cute phase, yes every phase seems to be cute, but you will have to bear with happy parents writing. She has been becoming more aware of her humor and her language, that what she says really makes people react and others, she says things that she doesn’t realize are amazing.

Once when we were getting ready for bed and one of us said “Elia, I love you.” Elia’s response was, “I know, I love Curie.” Her language development is coming along well, but she still says “t” for “c” and so it comes out “Turie.” She and Curie are also is really into “assage” meaning “massage” and they will proceed to rub your back. She is also processing words “duck, duckling, dog, dogling” in an adorable way.

Both kids sing a lot, either making up songs (Elia’s “my heart can sing and I will remember”), singing the ones they learned in school, or the classics, but as of late it has been Moana and Beauty and the Beast (the live movie edition). For Moana, Elia’s favorite song is “Away, away,” but she loves singing “Your Welcome even more. The best is when she sings “adowable,” and “the BOD!” If you know the song, you know what I mean. She also decided to no longer be scared of the crab song saying, “I brave,” even when, or because, Curie still doesn’t like it.

The kids have seen Beauty and the Beast three times in the theater now and we will buy it when it comes out. Elia was so proud that she was now brave to watch it. She knows most of the words and will sing it by herself, sing when we are singing it, and ask us to sing it. The most recent time we went the kids sang to the movie which was as entertaining for their aunt Julie as it was for them (Curie kept explaining plot points).  Elia loves the song “Belle” but for her it is “Bonjour,” “you play Bonjour?” “No, I want Bonjour!” but the best is when we play it. She is obsessed with her Belle dress and insists on taking the part of Belle “no, no, I Belle, you be the bonjour.” “The bonjour,” we love it.

She wants to play Belle when we sing and wants Albert to be the Beast “you my Beast” and either Curie or Erin to be the prince (yes two roles). But the other character she wants to be is LeFou, which she pronounces “M’Fou” (in Elia’s Maui voice, “its adowable), and wants you to be Gaston. So she loves “Bonjour,” “our favorite song (Gaston)” but most recently she asks for “kill the Beast” over “Tale as Old as Time” or the one where Belle and Beast discover Stockholm syndrome…rather when they start feeling something for each other. She also likes the new song that Beast sings. So as much as we resisted the princess for Curie (who laments that she wants to be Belle sometimes), it is really cute when Elia says “you put on my Belle dress?

A couple of other things, Elia loved being on the boat and took control of the motor at one point when we went to Burke Lake. She was fearless about playing with crawfish (she was wearing her Belle dress at first and told Erin that “I the Belle crawfisher” when we had live crawfish at home, became very proud of peeling crawfish and now loves to eat them, a relief because she was the hold out on loving crawfish for a while.

It turns out the Tinkerbell movie and sequels are really good, yes, yes, we were those parents that didn’t want the kids obsessed, but it wasn’t until the kids learned the “everyone who smiles is pretty, and beauty is in your actions and comes from within” lesson that we have relented (given in, caved, and capitulated). We still are opposed to the broad commercialization of it all though.

Final cute thing, when Curie was younger and whining we would tell her she has to use a strong voice or a nice voice. That didn’t really work (parents could probably have told us), so we asked her instead to use a robot voice, which she thought was hilarious and took her out of her unhappiness to say things in that voice. Well, the other day we asked the same of Elia, where she had a moment of internal conflict where you could see her not wanting to do it but really wanting the thing she wanted. Here is how we knew, and it is adorable (yes you are thinking Elia in Maui’s voice), Elia can’t do the robot voice without using her hands too in a robot way, so she was starting the hand motion even before she could articulate anything, much less in the robot voice. Someone said that she is a method actor.

Two final things, during prayers she said “I thankful for the sun,” which is subtly pretty sophisticated, and something of a favorite, “I am a little bit small and a little bit tall” to explain that she is still little even though she wants to be tall. It is wonderful being a parent even if life feels hard. More later, take care.

Life seems to go faster and faster these days. Blink, and we have been in our new house for a year already, blink and Curie is almost done with kindergarten. Blink, and Elia is a little girl and no longer a toddler. Try as we may, and we have many a staring contests to prove it, even if you try, eventually you blink.

The secret is to cherish each and every day, and kids, if you are reading this years from now saying, that we have already written this, I am sorry, we will likely write it again and again.

This month was hard, Albert had a Board meeting, we went to Erin’s conference in Ottawa, and in general haven’t gotten enough rest or had time to relax, but in between the busy things we have had a great time.

Elia has been saying great things. When we go to sleep we try to get the kids with heads on pillows and feet facing toward the other end, but things don’t always end up that way. We tell them that they need to be crayons in a box and Elia will say “I the yellow crayon,” Curie will say “I am the purple crayon,” and they will tell Erin she is the blue crayon and Albert the black crayon. Then Elia will say “I the yellow crayon, good night blue crayon, goodnight, purple crayon, good night black crayon!” And even before this we had said we are a sandwich with mommy and daddy being the bread and Elia the cheese, and Curie the meat. Afterward Elia said “I love you bread,” to which we replied, “I love you cheese.”

Elia loves to drink carbonated drinks and not just the sugar (diet) sodas, she loves sparkling water even though we tell her it is bad for her teeth (Curie loved sparkling water too). The other night we asked if she was drinking seltzer, she said “no, I drink Perrier, I the Perrier monster.” So brand is important too (she can tell Perrier has littler bubbles.”

We saw the live-action Beauty and the Beast twice in the theater with 3D glasses, and the kids left them on both times. Elia in particular has been captivated by the movie insisting on wearing her Belle dress, a tutu with Belle and  Phillpe on the front. She used to run around telling Curie or Albert “you my prince,” nowadays, she tells Albert “you my Beast.” When it came time to reward the kids for their behavior in Ottawa, Curie wanted a Belle doll which then became a Wonder Woman doll that she saw in the store. Elia initially also wanted a Belle doll, but when it came time to buy it, she changed her mind and wanted a costume instead and for days now has been wearing the yellow Belle dress. Oh my how far we have come since Curie wanted an Elsa dress.

Here is the thing, Curie is older now and understands the “anyone who smiles is pretty” lesson pretty well, and lo and behold, her little sister has been listening this whole time and absorbing everything, because one day she says to Albert from the back of the car, “I beautiful, look, I smiling,” capturing the essence of “anyone who smiles is pretty.” Now they understand that “beauty comes from your actions,” but they don’t always get there, especially if they are tired.

At school, she plays with her new friend Eva every day and they play mommy and baby or plays soccer with her, even though they don’t have Soccer Shots there. She and Eva get along so well, Elia will say “E like Elia, Eva, and Mommy!” She also is ready to do martial arts and tells us she will join Tiger Tots when she is four. She is willful and adorable, especially if we forget and let her have chocolate before bed time. She wants to play all the games we do and will play twenty questions and can even do the alphabet game a little when driving in the car. She is wonderful and fantastic and very considerate, even when she wants what Curie wants. When Curie wanted to be Elsa, Elia said, “I Lego Elsa, Curie is Big Elsa, I Lego Elsa.” We are biased, but we have the greatest kids and we are so proud of them. Elia the other night was so cute, we were playing with her Harry the Bunny and pretending to save him. She said, “you save Harry?” to which we replied “yes.” She thought a moment and said “you save me too?” Makes you want to smile, laugh, cry, all at the same time. “Of course we will darling, always!”