Erin and Albert…

Curie December 2013. So I will admit I do not know how to do the collages going forward. To date these have been Curie’s but with the birth of Elia, I guess we will be doing two a month. So Elia is not shortchanged, I will do the picture a day collage of her on the 19th of each month just like we did for Curie in her first year; after that she will get her own monthly collage.

December was a challenging month with Erin on bed rest and Albert doing all the chores as well as bringing Curie to and from school. We relearned the power of friendship through the kindness of the Hoaglands, and paid it forward shoveling out our then also-pregnant next-day neighbors and salted the neighborhood walkways.

Curie loves the Sound of Music (Julie Andrews version) and sings “Doe a Deer” in its entirety (video clip sometime later). Her favorite song lately is “Love is All” by Playing for Change to which she twirls to. Curie continues her independence and wants to do things “on ma own.” She loves to play “basketball” with a hoop in the living room And loves to play “tunnel” with her blanket/comforter.

We are lucky that she was not born in Barney or Tele-tubbies, so Curie’s favorite shows are Curious George, Thomas, and Super Why. She does love to watch YouTube of people opening Kinder eggs and similar thing (anyone else seen this? It really doesn’t make any sense).

The biggest thing is of course Elia’s birth which deserves its own entry, but as it relates to Curie, she still hasn’t met her “baby sisser” yet though we hope that will be soon. In anticipation, Curie bought Elia a Curious George (and one for herself), has diapered her stuffed animals and knows Elia has been born: “baby sisser name is Eleee-a, she cute!”

So two daughters, one an independent young girl, the other an infant ready to take on the world. We haven’t even begun the feedings yet and we are exhausted and cabin-fevery – Albert thinks the reason for parental leave is so that you don’t make work decisions impaired.  Elia and Erin are doing great, Curie is a little needy, but that is from us going to the hospital all the time. Albert is a basket case, but has been since childhood.

One thing about having a child that applies to both Curie and Elia (Curie’s birth story is on our site, but not published yet): there is a moment before they operate where the husband sits in paper scrubs and a mask in a room by himself while they prep the mother for OR. In those interminable minutes, you remember how fragile life is and how precious what you have is. Then there is the flurry of activity, holding each other’s hand, the c-section, and the wait for the baby’s cry. For both Curie and Elia, hearing the doctor say that they are healthy and hearing them cry, at that moment, that was all that mattered; you think life is right, life is good, and anything that will happen will happen, and that too is right.

Curie November 2013. A little late in getting this out. Curie becomes a person – fully formed opinions: pie over cake, pumpkin pie over cherry pie, chocolate pie over pumpkin, chocolates over pie, vanilla ice cream over chocolate ice cream, and gummies over chocolate – most of the time.

In November, we had, as everyone did, Thanksgiving at home with turkey, and all the trimmings. We went to Erin’s Nana and Grampy’s family reunion in Massachusetts for the annual family reunion and Yankee swap. Albert once again emcee’d.

Erin dragged Albert and Curie kicking and screaming to a farm in Virginia, okay Albert, not Curie, which turned out to be very cool.  Pumpkin destruction, over-sized plastic cows, corn mazes and the like, but they also had playgrounds in the shape of Noah’s ark, castles, John Deere tractors etc. And then… watching Curie feed the ducks, bunnies, and chickens something magical. We ended the day with pie, french silk chocolate over pumpkin you know.

After our trip to Strasburg to see the trains, Curie has talked about “our train,” and her “Thomas,” so we donned backpacks and took the train to Baltimore and from there took the light rail to the science museum there. After a quick trip we took the train back and with a very happy little girl had dinner with friends at home.

Life can throw you a lot of curves, and there will always be the weight of what the day may bring, but when you have a family to come home to, people who love you, you understand the cliche of family as the bedrock. And when life gets you down,  and your daughter takes your face in her hands and looks at you with absolute seriousness and asks “are you sad?” You appreciate what love can do for you to mend whatever happened that day.

Curie October 2013. Halloween is tonight and Curie is going to be Superman. We don’t have a picture yet, but you probably get the idea from all the Superman shirts she wears. This month Albert went to Mexico City and Ann Arbor and Curie grew like crazy while he was gone. She converses with us now, and has a memory like steel trap. Erin asked Albert to buy apple juice in the morning and when he got home that evening, Curie, unprompted asked “daddy buy apple juice?” Then the next day when he did buy apple juice Curie clapped and said “good job Daddy!”

We have had to learn boundaries (must not let her get spoiled – though how do you not when the temptation to give her little things to make her happy is so great?), and Curie learned the concept of “after” one night. After a long while of crying and patiently explaining, we realized- she totally gets “after,” it’s “first” she wants.” Fortunately she was good with “after” and we are able to give her treats “after” dinner and not “first.” When she wants something she knows she shouldn’t have she says that she just wants “one more,” or a “leel bit” and holds up her index finger.

Erin made Curie a bedtime chart and we have started working on getting her to sleep on her own. She is good with getting stickers for bath, diapers, books, prayers, kisses, and such, but has not yet gotten the concept of putting the sticker in the right place. Free spirit that two year-olds are, she puts the sticker wherever she wants. Curie goes to the potty regularly, still proud, still claps, still empties out the potty herself and washes her hands. She cooks in her kitchen and wants to help with everything.

This month we went to Tim’s Rivershore for fried clams – a lot, Erin’s mother came down to help while Albert was gone, we went to the Hoagland Halloween party where we were Security this year (not really, last year we came as safety inpsectors), and we went to Strasburg to see the trains – twice, one day after the other because Curie liked it so much. She talks all the time about “our train” now and how after the first night, the  “train went home.” Curie was not that much of a Thomas the Tank engine girl before this, but now the trains are the best. She does, however, differentiate between “my train” and “my Thomas,” probably because our train (the 475) was not blue and did not have a face.

Curie has always been between 0% to 11% or so on the growth chart, at her last appointment she hit 11% in weight and 28% in height. Go Curie! She has been singing Happy Birthday, ABCs, and Old Mac Donald a lot. She accompanies herself on her “lil ‘tar” and her piano. Her piano is the funniest thing in the world to us, she stands on it and plays with her feet singing at the top of her voice. And at night she plays with her cow that sings Old Mac Donald and kicks her feet like the cow does. The time each day is precious and it is all we can do to try to hold on to each moment. A picture a day, a video on occasion, a high five, a bump, and a beep (our variation), and a kiss good night…”my piddow! My piddow! Daddy you sleep here, that Mommy’s piddow! You sleep here!” Ah – wouldn’t trade it for the world.

Curie September 2013. Something magical happens when you start to have conversations with your child for the first time. “Are you okay?” “I otay!” “Daddy otay?” “Daddy’s okay.” “Mommy otay?” “Mommy’s okay.” You learn things that may or may not be real – “How did you get your ow?” “I fall down,” “Where did you fall down?” “At home.” “How did you fall down?” “Na’lee did it. (Curie got hurt at school, her friend Natalie almost certainly did not do it because it is the same response for any “ow”).

As we wrote earlier, Curie turned two (see the Curie Turns Two pictures), and in that time she moved to the twos room at day care, exploded in conversation, independence “I dood it, I dood it!” got to eat gummies for the first time, and has taken to diapering everything from dolls to stuffed animals. For those of you who have suspected, Albert has continued his picture a day since Curie turned one and it is remarkable to watch her grow from day to day all over again (if you would like to see 365 Year 2, please go to our website photoblog – let us know if you would like the URL).

We went on a crab crawl in the beginning of the month, went bowling for Curie’s first time, and went apple picking in the days after her birthday which included a hay ride which she did not like and a cow that ate her apple, which left a very large impression – “cow ate m’apple!” -even a week later. Curie loves her musical instruments and loves the piano (thank you Taylor and Eric) and guitar she received for her birthday. In addition, she got one of those laptops that you hook up to a computer so that you can send her stuff, a drawing table and chairs, and a kitchen from Ikea.

We never thought we would buy her a kitchen, since it perpetuates the stereotype, blah blah blah (still no easy bake oven, Barbie dolls, or princesses – why be a princess when you could be President or King?), but in our family Albert does most of the cooking and Erin acts as sous chef. Whenever Albert cooks or grills, Curie wants to help -“I help, I help…I help daddy!” So we bought her the kitchen from Ikea. Albert had an issue with the light up burners that don’t make heat, but that is okay now. The most interesting thing besides the fact that she loves it (calls it her “chicken”), cuts all the wooden food for us, and makes us soup and pizza, is this: right away she said “my sink broken, it no work,” because it did not actually pour water.

Albert started a new job this month and drives to Bethesda now for work, it is better for us, YFU for those of you interested, but he leaves earlier now so can’t hang out with Curie in the morning like he used to, ends earlier, but doesn’t take advantage of that. Erin has taken on more at work and at home, she is more tired now and sleeps earlier so that she can work out before going to work. Curie plays with kids at school now instead of around them “I play friends!” She makes pizza in her kitchen, counts to three (or six) and jumps off her chairs, and falls to sleep watching “monkey.” Life is changing for us (took us a lot longer to get this out), but that is good. We get home, have dinner, do “bubbles (bath),” and then getting ready for bed, she will say “big hug (group hug)!” and tell Erin “I kiss daddy!” or tell Albert “I kiss mommy!” Lights out, with a sleepy family by your side. Life is pretty good.