Erin and Albert…

Curie January 2013. I remember when Bernard would get behind in his month updates for the twins and I would get frustrated waiting to read the update, well, now I can relate these days as it is the 13th already and I am only now getting to January. Here is a summary of what happened: Curie stayed up until 1:00 AM for New Year’s. She got two upper molars without too much pain. She talks a lot more, and even more in February. She can make the animal sounds of a cow and a cat, but for dog she simply pants because that is what a girl at school with a dog says when you ask “what does a dog say?” Very cute. She continues to love the guitar (“tar”) and piano, and turns up her hands for “I don’t know?”

She loves the game up and down which she learned in school and anytime she goes up or down she will say so. She learned to say “please” and “thank you” at school, and started climbing and jumping off of furniture. The thing that we found remarkable in January was that she learned to unload the dishwasher including big plates and trays. She hasn’t broken a dish yet. Oh, and she loves to make waffles in the toaster oven.

We went to the botanical gardens, the museum of natural history, went on a nature walk at Huntley Meadows with her first cousin once removed (look it up) Helen (okay don’t look it up Helen is Albert’s cousin), and went to the service day at the art colony (at the reformatory) on MLK Day.

This month’s notable milestone is that Curie got her big girl bed (and full length mirror which is 3 feet tall – and covers a hole in the drywall that Albert made). She has hated her crib since she was an infant. Erin and Albert also got a bigger bed, and we finally put up our photos on the walls using mostly canvas enlargements. Someone commented that the house becomes a home when you put up decorations.

Here is the thought of the month: Writing “my daughter brings me joy” gave Albert more likes on Facebook than most of the photos he has posted. And though Curie is getting a bigger vocabulary, the best conversations are the nonsensical ones that Albert and Curie have for more than 5 minutes at a time.

Curie December 2012. So we were planning on putting this great picture of the family up that Steve took over the weekend and we realized that we never made a collage for December. With the holiday card, we totally forgot. So, here we are.

We took Julie and Steve to Philadelphia for a quick trip, but Curie got very sick and we ended up staying in for much of it; we posted on how traumatic it was for us to give her medicine. We are happy to say that she has recovered with no worse for wear.

We were supposed to go up to see Erin’s family, but with Julie and her mom not being able to travel, we ended up having the holidays at our house and having Erin’s father down for the holiday. We went to Manassass Battlefield, which, if you have never been to a Civil War battlefield, is pretty cool. Curie, of course, made out like a bandit for the holiday with a monogrammed couch, a play tree house, a work bench (to off-set the kitchen), and a digital camera.

Curie has been practicing words when she hears them. When you say a word, she will whisper it after you but not be willing to say it aloud -“iPad,” “app,” “okay,” “strawberry” she whispers – and you say “What? Say that again?” And she just smiles at you.

When she plays, she, will now physically place your hands on her toys to have you play with her. She loves stickers, and guitars, and pianos. The crazy thing is that she holds a pen properly and loves to write or pretend to write -she will fill pages of writing in a sitting. She loves sitting at a desk and pretending to talk on the phone. She will pick up food with either fork or chopsticks, but will use her hands if she is hungry. The funniest thing, recently, is that she likes to take pictures with our little camera, she points it at herself, gives a photo grin and takes her picture. We will have to post a collage soon. The camera is inches from her face.

Parents love to tell us, not to worry, that though fleeting, every age is great, and so far we have to agree. A woman recently told us to cherish every moment, because when they are 19 and you want a hug, or want to hug them, they are not as likely to give it to you. So we hug Curie when we can, and give her muchas smoochas every night. Muchas smoochas? If you are not a parent, its best not to ask.

Curie November 2012. Isn’t terrible how the days start to run together as you get busy life seems to accelerate just beyond you? November was filled with a lot of changes and developments, but I find myself having to look at the pictures just to see what they were. Curie is still a peanut but is getting too big for her car seat. The regulation is 30 pounds or two years for rear-facing, but her feet are hanging over the side. She also outgrew her shoes which were expensive to begin with. We have begun shopping at the outlet stores for her shoes. It is hard to keep it straight without a reference, in fact it was in October, but we thought we went to Baltimore to see the fish.

In November, we elected a president, took a staycation at Tysons, went to Charleston, had a pre-Thanksgiving here in DC, and had a Thanksgiving family reunion in Atlanta for Albert’s side. At the staycation, Curie decided that she wanted to sit at the desk in the hotel room, and since then, that is her favorite place if we travel. She is very communicative and pats the chair to tell us she wants to get up. Very recently, she has started saying “up,” which is clear communication and makes it hard for us to pretend we didn’t understand. We took a page from Bernard’s playbook and took Curie to the pet store to see the animals. There we saw birds, ferrets, hamsters and cats, and of course the fish.

In Charleston, Erin went for a training with Albert and Erin’s mom coming down to take care of Curie in shifts. Curie’s favorite food became blueberries, and she started carrying bags everywhere, one in the crook of her arm (not because it is a purse, but because it takes it off the ground) and the other in her hand. She would run up and down the hotel room with the bags. We went to the beach, collected shells, went on the USS Yorktown, and visited the market. We had great food on the water including a bucket of steamed oysters for only twelve dollars.  While Erin was at training, Albert and Curie went to the Charleston aquarium to see the fish.

Julie and Steve did not go home for Thanksgiving, so we had a pre-Thanksgiving with them with all the trimmings.

In Atlanta, Curie is the youngest of the cousins by 6 years, so she didn’t get a chance to play with her cousins as much as she might have. The oldest cousin, Jared, was fantastic and took care of Curie a great part of the time (10 years old). He called himself her “protector.” We went to the New Coke Museum which wasn’t as good as the old one (ironic – New Coke vs. Old Coke… never mind) before everyone came. Suephy ‘s family hosted Thanksgiving this year, and Ed smoked the  turkey, which was fantastic. And in November no less, we went swimming in their pool. On Saturday afternoon, we went trout fishing with the family, but that morning we went to the Atlanta aquarium to see the fish.

So in summary, we had two Thanksgivings, took two flights, went to three cities, saw the fish three times, and all got sick. Curie, has become more vocal with distinct words and communication, she has gotten more fearless, which is unnerving. She is excited to see you and recognizes people even from a year ago. Curie loves to draw while lying on her belly, wave when you arrive and wave when you leave. She says “hi” all the time and is the toast of the daycare at school. The holidays mean different things to different people, family, thanks, spirituality, and giving. They can also mean blues, and reflection, hope, and stress, whatever they mean to each person, having a child changes your perspective on the time and the importance of family and tradition become more and more apparent to us. It was great to see Albert’s parents and his family and it was nice to host Erin’s sister and her significant other. Next month, Erin’s family, Christmas, and Albert’s birthday, all shared with a little girl who brings so much joy to her parents. And maybe we will go somewhere to see the fish.

October 2012. We put together a separate post for vacation and Halloween so we won’t spend too much time on that here. This month Curie’s bottom two teeth came in, she started saying “hi” to everyone (after her cousin Olivia kept saying it when she and Taylor came down for her birthday), loves to dance, play on the piano, and tap and strum on the guitar. She learned to eat with chopsticks and a fork (sort of) while in London, she takes off her shoes and socks when she is bored or mad because she knows she is not supposed to. She listens to instructions well, or at least understands them, following them is a different story. She likes to feed us when she has food an loves fish at the National Aquarium; in November we will be going to the Georgia Aquarium which is one of the biggest in the world. She likes to draw with her markers (thank you Crayola Wonder Markers), and on her Magna Doodle; and if you have a pen she will grab it and pretend to write. On the plane, 7 to 10 hours she ran back and forth in the space at our feet and made a very big mess with her snacks. Her hair is getting long, she is outgrowing her clothes, and soon she will be too big for her car seat. Where does the time go? At least she still sleeps on your shoulder in the morning and warms your chest and your heart.

September 2012. After the 365 day project, we weren’t sure what to do about pictures or summaries, so we took a poll and the consensus was to continue the updates but not worry about taking a picture every day; it is a hard habit to break though, and Curie changes every day. We then decided to do a weekly picture, for a  monthly report. There are four weeks in some months and five in others, so we will do a collage of six pictures, this will take a little time to refine. We will also document the family as well as the children at this point. Poor sibling, when the time comes for another child I suppose we should go back to a picture a day of the new child.

So, some of September has already been documented in the last update. Curie continues to walk more and more; at the doctor she is 17 pounds, still tiny but right on her growth curve. She is very independent now, likes to walk by herself, and falls a lot. At one, you are supposed to set boundaries, so there is a lot of “give that to mommy,” and so on. Curie will run to you to give you a hug, will do the “I don’t want to sit down” arch, and still likes to fall asleep on your chest.

In September, for her birthday, Albert’s parents came early, for her party, Erin’s family came later for a separate party, this included Erin’s aunt and cousins, family friends, and Curie’s cousin Olivia, from whom she learned to start saying “hi.” Julie and Steve, also at the party, moved into the area which has been a big help. Though it was busy for us, we went to Huntley Meadows, took the Water Taxi to National Harbor, and did the normal things to spend time with Curie. Next month is our vacation to London and Paris, so we’ll have more to say then. Curie is precocious, cracks us up when she cracks herself up, she is a joy and defines much of our lives.

Each month we were posting a family picture with the pictures of Curie. Almost as an afterthought, here is the year with the family. Suephy actually started this with these great pictures of Jared and her family on each of his birthdays, these are not on the birthday, but they are a nice look at our year. Think of it as a year in summary.