…Now with Curie and Elia
Today we received a surprise package from Olivia and Sofia, in it was a Marie Curie (on the back) shirt that reads “Stay Curious” and Chewbaca, Darth Vader, and Yoda Itty Bitties. This is Curie in her new shirt (she is wearing it with a tutu – science and dance, right?). They wanted to say thank you (Elia got Darth Vader and Yoda), and we thought you might want to see Curie in the shirt. She wants to wear it to bed tonight.
Back to Thomasland! Two years later and they are more refined since 2015. Elia is at the ideal age and Curie, while she didn’t want to go initially, also had a great time.
The girls were old enough to ride by themselves for the most part and it was really cute to see Curie taking care of Elia on each of the rides. It meant the adults did not ride on as much. Elia was so proud to be above the ride height.
More fun in Marshfield. We should explain, the babushkas are because it was so cold the one day we went to the ocean. And the bottom photo we said “it is time for a silly picture,” to which the kids immediately reacted, but the grandparents perhaps not so much. 🙂 The contrast is fantastic.
Strangely the most relaxing thing on our trip was flying a kite as high as it would go.
The other day, Curie and Elia were playing mother and baby and while we were taking pictures I was struck by a similarity to a picture we have hanging in our house.
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.
So Curie graduated kindergarten; there wasn’t a cute ceremony with mortars and tassels, but it was a big deal anyway. Albert did not go to the beginning of his conference to be there when school got out; when he got there, the teachers and all the staff were waiting in the hall to give students hugs and congratulations. Mrs. Best, who is rumored to be retiring, told Curie to “persevere” which Curie has taken very much to heart. Mrs. Campbell is also leaving to go wherever her husband is stationed, so Elia will have a different kindergarten teacher.
That weekend, Albert went to Phoenix for work, and Erin’s parents came down to help out. The girls got haircuts to their shoulders which is significant since their hair had come down their backs before the haircut. Albert was worried since they liked braids and playing princess and queen, but Curie said “I look beautiful!” Alaying any fears.
Curie also began sleeping in her own bed for a few days after sleeping with Albert in the guest room for a while. Her comment was “I am a first grader now.” But with Albert gone at his conference, he wasn’t there to sit next to her as she fell asleep so got lonely in her room and went back to the “big bed.”
The end of kindergarten has meant the start of camp(s), where Curie started the summer with martial arts camp at EVA for two weeks. There she was so proud to be a white belt with stripe and standing in the front row because with the start of camp there were a number of new kids; tiger tots, no-belts, and white belts. Curie just needs her black tip to test for her yellow belt, but since she is going to Congressional Camp for the summer, it will likely take place after she returns. It was a little sad for us that she left martial arts for the summer, but to be fair, the other camps are pretty interesting. So much so that Erin made the comment that she wanted to go herself.
Mrs. Best also recommended that we keep up Curie’s reading, so we enrolled her into a summer reading program on Saturdays for five weeks where she and Erin would go and practice on Curie’s reading and work on it each night of the week.
Curie has been a trooper, working on her emotion control when she is tired, being remarkable when she is not tired. On the field trip to the Air and Space museum, Albert gave Curie $20 to spend on snacks there, and while Mr. Andre did not let the kids go to McDonalds there, he did let them go to the gift shop. Curie came home with a plastic space shuttle for Elia and nothing for herself. You know why? A long time ago, Curie got that space shuttle, her rocket, at the museum and Elia got a little die cast one; later when they were playing, Elia was upset because she didn’t have the plastic one. This was two years ago. We even bought Elia one later because she was so upset. This must have made an impression on Curie because she bought it because she remembered that Elia wanted it back in the day. Curie has a really good heart (so does Elia) and earned her yellow tip with that.
So Curie is growing up and she has new friends at kindergarten, and is going to go to camp with her old friends from preschool. She loves to wear her tsum tsum dress and her purple shopkins dress. She plays queen or mother with Elia, names her play acting “Rosa” these days. Loves little kids and makes it a point to take care of them. This summer she wants to go to the beach, ideally with Eleanor and Miranda, and will learn a lot at camp. She watches too much TV, though we have moved her and Elia to Netflix from “eggs” where she has started watching a broader range of shows than just “Sarah and Duck.” One morning though, Albert asked if she would snuggle instead of watch and the two of them slept on the couch together for hours instead.
Finally, two Curie quotes: Erin said one night “we’re going to have an eat whatever you want night,” To which Curie replied, “does that mean left-overs?” And, in describing our plants we are growing on our porch (we had little strawberries but the squirrels ate them, but our tomatoes have given us two which the girls ate): “That’s our strawberries, that’s our pumpkin, that’s our Chinese food (the Chinese “watercress” that we have been growing). That cracked us up.
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.
Click the picture to go to our vacation page.
My parents are not on Facebook, so we don’t often post about them but on Father’s Day I wanted to say that I wouldn’t be the father I am today without both the tough and gentle role model my father is to me, and the love from both of my parents. I wear a silver on silver watch, write with a fountain pen, and prefer to drive stick. My father had a silver on silver Bulova from my mother, wrote with a Shaeffer PFM, and taught me to drive stick. The bottom picture is one of my favorites, my father has always worked so hard for us and we haven’t always appreciated, but one day, my parents decided to go fishing in Woodbridge Lake (man made and really no fish in Irvine) to really take a break with us an relax. Even then I had fond memories of fishing with my parents in New Orleans as children, and as a high schooler often at odds with my parents at that time, I distinctly remember being nostalgic even then, hence the picture. Happy Father’s Day Papa!