It’s been a while since I have done portraiture. Here are the Hoaglands as the Addams Family.
Elia Turns 10 Months
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.
Family Time
We have this cow that we bought at Carter’s that sings Old MacDonald if you squeeze its arm; it kicks its legs when it plays and is pretty cute. We wrote earlier how Curie pretends to be the cow and kicks her legs when it sings, well, last night it became a family affair with Mommy, Daddy, Curie, and Elia singing Old Mac Donald at the top of our lungs and kicking furiously in bed. We did it until we were tired and our legs were sore. Elia even joined along, although she was a little perplexed at the craziness that is her family. We all have very busy lives – tempers can flare; patience is sometimes short – but it is times like these that we remember that one of our biggest jobs is making memories for each other.
Curie September 2014
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
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!
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.
Family Pictures
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 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
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.
Sisters :)
