…Now with Curie and Elia
Happy 7th Anniversary 2014. Normally we simply write a blah blah blah message that is not overly sentimental, but Facebook sent an anniversary collage based on our pictures. Since we do a lot of collages, we decided to make our own.
This anniversary is supposed to be significant, so here we are, 7 years married and 10 years knowing one another.
Happy Anniversary!
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.
The Hoaglands (the people with the great Addams Family portrait) have a fantastic annual Halloween party to celebrate their children’s birthdays. Each year that we have gone we have been in themed costumes, from the very basic black like Matrix in 2007, to vampire hunters in 2008, to the “Princess and the Paparazzi” in 2009 to the first surprise costume of “greasers” in 2010 in response to Candace and David’s 50’s preppy (their children were Marilyn Monroe and Elvis). In 2010 we were the Red Hot Chili Peppers when Curie was born.
Then, coming back from a trip to Europe the night before in 2012, we were desperate for costumes so at Home Depot we were inspired and showed up as “safety inspectors” (Albert made Curie’s vest out of duct tape). David did not miss a beat and cried out to the kids “Oh no! The safety inspectors are here we have to shut down the haunted house!” All the kids went, “Oh no!” We wrote tickets like “improper storage of weapons,” and “misuse of time travel.” Since then, and with Steve and Julie to be with us, we have tried to top this. Last year in 2013, we came as party security and went even more meta with 50 VIP badges for kids, people weren’t sure even though Erin was pregnant and Curie was 2. Kids even thought you needed VIP badges to get into the haunted house (which they didn’t). A lot of people thought there was really security at the party and asked us questions to that effect.
This year we thought we couldn’t top last year when we were inspired and went even more meta. This year we crashed the party as “Concept Catering” saying we had always catered the party, fliered the party with 100 fliers with fake Yelp reviews that only highlighted good words from bad reviews. We even put an Ad for this year’s “Hoagland Chirstmas Party, even bigger than this one,” which does not actually exist. We put table tents on all the food (which we did not make) like “Cheesy Poofs, we only licked one,” and “Not Meat, Not Vegetable Either.” Curie handed out business cards (maybe 50 of them) that referenced a non-existent .ru web address. Curie was the best and seriously passed food on her tray. Albert followed and did passed hors devours in full character for an hour. One gentleman was mad when he asked Steve “when does more pumpkin bread come out,” and Steve, eating the last piece holding a beer said “I dunno.”
Someone there gave us a great idea for next year but we’ll see if we can pull it off.
Elia turns 10 months. It has been a big month for Elia. On the 15th, she got her first tooth, that week she said her first words, learned to “high-five,” and let go of both hands and stood for a moment. This month when you play music she sways or claps to keep time. She has always been a good eater and has begun to feed herself. She has branched out to more and more solids and it seems her baby food days were just a matter of weeks.
Early in the month she started to be more intentional about her words. “Dee-dee” when she saw a light, “momoma, or dadada” though not specifically toward us. She is so outgoing and her babbling seemed to be imitations of conversations. At the same time, we taught Curie that little sister was “Mei-mei,” and big sister was “Jie, jie;” and she wanted to know what to call everyone else – more on Curie’s blog.
In any case, we would ask Curie, “where is Mei-mei?” Or Elia, “where is Jie-jie?” So it is our theory that the Chinese names for family members lends itself to baby-talk, because one morning when asking “where is Jie-jie?” She says, “De-de.” But she says a lot of things. Then we repeated it, and she repeated it and looked to Curie. Curie’s first words were “all done!” And Elia’s is “Jie-jie,” big sister. She now says it regularly.
If you remember when Curie was one, her favorite song was “The Itsy-Bitsy Spider (or The Eensy Wincy Spider depending on how you learned it), Elia’s is “If You’re Happy and You Know It,” to which she will always clap, and like Curie, she perks up when she hears it. This is also courtesy of Curie; Elia had already been clapping, and Curie would sing it when Elia clapped. Now when you sing it, Elia claps as a result.
Around the same time we had gotten shaker eggs and miniature maracas from Guitar Center while waiting for dim sum, and found that Elia keeps pretty good time to music. We gave her some clave sticks and she hits those together pretty well too. That and her dancing and swaying makes for a happy baby when you sing to her.
So the second child seems to go so fast; its been almost a year. Albert loves that she sleeps on his chest and on his shoulder each night, Erin remarks how this is her favorite age. Curie keeps trying to play with her little sister, though she does want “no Elia, only Mommy” time more and more. Elia though, has hero worship for Curie, wants to play with what Curie is playing. Wants to stand on what Curie is standing on. She looks up literally to her big sister and you can catch her tracking Curie watching and learning. So it is befitting that her first words are “Jie-jie. A bit of Chinese heritage while letting her big sister know how much she loves her.
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.”
Elia turns 9 months. And like that, Elia is no longer a baby. She was an infant yesterday, waving with the closing of the hand one finger at a time. She then started clapping with open hands and keeping time to the beat when you played music. Then we started her on solid foods, green beans, rice, chicken and Cherrios at first, then when the pediatrician said that the guidelines for allergies have changed, she started salmon, and eggs, and everything (her favorite is tamago – sushi egg).
She sits on the high chair at the table, signals when she wants more by hitting the table and drinks water from an open cup. She always is smiling, wants to know what Curie is doing, and is curious about everything. She crawls everywhere, pulls herself up on anything, and has begun cruising. Soon the girls will keep each other company.
At night she is sleeping better, though she falls asleep while nursing or on Albert’s shoulder. Albert takes Elia while Erin helps Curie to sleep, and sometimes for hours Elia sleeps on Albert’s chest. Yesterday Elia got her first balloon, rode the firetruck stroller with Curie, and ate at the sushi choo choo restaurant Wasabi for the first time in a long time.
We just wrote about Curie’s third birthday, and while you aren’t supposed to compare the girls you can see different personalities even at a young age. And though Albert could not handle the pregnancy, having these two girls and watching them grow. laugh, and simply be, makes you want to have another.
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.
For the past two years, we have done a summary of family pictures at Curie’s birthday. We also do the same thing with our holiday card, and with Elia, we would do it again on December 19th, so in order not to repeat ourselves too many times and because our family pictures are of the four of us, we won’t do the family collage at the birthday and we will go to the holiday card for the summary of the year for those of you who don’t want to read every month, or wade through all of our pictures.
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?
Elia Turns 8 Months. Last month we were watching Elia develop her coordination, this month a lot of it came to a head. For crawling, she was up on all fours rocking trying to get moving, a phenomenon that still happens as she gets going, like a car revving. Elia began to crawl on the 8th of August, Father’s Day in Chinese. She crawls everywhere now, but doesn’t turn all that well. She will rest on her belly to turn or bump her head against a wall or obstacle repeatedly as if not understanding that it is in her way. In fact, she would do the revving thing and bump her head a lot.
When Elia started crawling, she still had not pulled herself to a sitting position, but would work to stand as much as she could. She would put her hands on Albert’s chest while he was lying down and bring herself to her feet. On August 12 she stood up holding her play saucer where Erin took her picture. Shortly after this she began sitting on her own.
In August, Elia started not sleeping unless she was held, something that Curie did as well for a while. When we put Elia down, she would start crying. She didn’t want to nurse, she didn’t want a bottle. Albert would pick her up and walk until the wee hours so she would have some sleep, then he would switch with Erin to hold her for the rest of the night. Untenable right? Albert was a lot grouchier at work (but did not let anyone go), Erin was shorter at home. Elia had been starting baby foods, and one night Albert just fed her an extra one, and she slept longer, so this meant she was hungry. We started giving her more for school and at home, and that helped. The other day, we had an air conditioning problem again and it was warmer upstairs – Elia slept longer still. She is still afraid to be alone, but we are hopeful that she will sleep longer – until teething of course.
Here is a crazy thing. Elia is trying to communicate with us. She is using the same sounds over and over in certain moods. We think she has said “mama” but that might be hopeful speculation. She claps one hand on a fist when she wants to be picked up or changed. When Albert feeds her water with a glass, she hits the glass with her fist to say she wants more.
This month Yischon’s family visited and we went swimming in the hotel pool with Elia. She went for much longer this time. She played with the mobile for the first time and was mesmerized – the mobile is in Curie’s room, and the crib is in ours. Elia rode in the shopping cart and Curie’s push car for the first time this month as well, prompting Curie to want to ride with her (Costco carts are two seaters).
As a mobile baby, everything is fantastic to her, she explores every nook and cranny prompting cries of “woah, not there!” and “Mommy, Elia wants my <fill in the blank>.” Still, it is pretty amazing. Curie is the only person who can consistently make Elia smile, and Elia is much more alert and interactive. This month they started to play together; a little rough-housing that needs to be monitored, but they are sisters: holding hands (Curie holding Elia’s hand), hugging (Curie hugging Elia), and playing together. As Alberta commented in a previous post, they are BFFs, best friends forever.
