Erin and Albert…

Curie turns one. To be honest, I am not sure how to write this one. Erin started crying on Curie’s birthday and said that Curie wasn’t a baby any more. It begs the question whether second children born two years apart are a direct result of the realization that your baby is not a baby anymore.

This has been a busy month. We still don’t know how much she weighs or what percentile she is. When we go to the doctor, I will make an amendment, but a lot has happened. If you remember, a day before she turned six months, Curie started crawling. On Friday three days before her birthday, Curie started walking. Three steps, but she did it without aid and without thinking. Erin had tears in her eyes. We have a picture of it on our website. Curie actually started standing at the beginning of the month, walking is just the progression. She now does it every day, a little here, a little there, and every time she does, we clap and cheer.

Even before walking, Curie had started to do so many things. She got her two front teeth and has a cute gap between the two. She won’t eat baby food and won’t let us feed her often. She wants to hold it and bite it, even if she only has two teeth. She is very vocal about her opinions and loves the song “Itsy Bitsy Spider” If she hears the song she will do the hand motions. It has become her favorite song over “That’s Amore.” To be honest, she will do the hand motions to almost any song. If there is music she will sway and wiggle and recently she reaches for Albert’s thumb on his other hand when he is holding her to get into the ballroom pose if she wants to dance.

In addition to walking, Curie started talking as well. Her first words are “all done,” and “I did that,” which are technically sentences, but for her they are words. She can imitate other words now and can say “remote,” “hi,” and “water” if you say them to her, but she does not say them herself yet. She likes to pretend to read and says “ladiladiladida” with her tongue. She also has taken to pretending to write; anything that she can hold is a “pen” or “pencil” and anything flat is “paper” and that writes on. It is very interesting to us. As far as other behaviors are concerned, she learned to put things away, and is very proud to put toys into their place (this is an extension of the caps and lids). She gives things to you when asked, can stack blocks, and likes to put her forehead against yours when she is cuddly. She likes the xylophone and the piano, can recognize that her teacher played a flute the day before, and puts play dough into small piles at school. One of the cutest things though is the stuffed animal game she plays where she gives you her animal for you to hug. If you hug it, she will smile a huge grin, and reach for it back to hug herself, then she gives it back to you to hug.

This month Curie also learned to pick her nose, which made us very proud. She started to act coy, and has learned to turn away when the camera is pointed at her when she wants. She also likes to see her picture on the back of the camera after you take one. For firsts, she had her first Indian food, went to her first fair, and had her first non-sugar soft drink. At her birthday, she had her first cake an ice cream. For some reason she now has a lot of hats. Both sets of grandparents came to visit as well as Erin’s cousins and aunt. Erin’s sister and her boyfriend moved down to Alexandria. Curie really bonded with everyone, family is important.

Now a thought for you, the reader. Albert is in a conundrum; for the past year he has been taking a picture a day for the first year for the “365” project. It is actually “366” because of leap year, and “367” if you include her birthday. The year is over but it is hard to stop since it is so amazing to look back and see each day’s picture. And then, do we continue these updates? If you are interested in the “365” project, they are posted on our website in our photo blog. Curie’s birth story will go up as well. So what do you think? Do we continue the pictures? Do we just take the relevant ones? Do we do monthly updates? I know we are emotional right now since there is the sense that she is no longer a baby, but she is still a peanut, and we have a lot more time with her. Here is the thing, it goes by very fast and those of you without children (those with children probably already know this), you need to realize that your parents still see you as their baby when the years pass so quickly. That lump Erin and I have in our throats must be the ones our parents have when they see us and even if they don’t mention it often, your parents are proud of you and love you. How do we know? Because we feel that way about Curie every day.

Curie turns 11 months! Can it really be another month already? It seems unfathomable that Curie will be a year soon. With a trip to Boston, four visitors, work and other things, it has been quite busy. This month Curie began swim lessons, has eaten a lot of new foods, has learned to make new sounds, and has been learning new things. At school, she has graduated from the infant room and is in a transition room to learn new things. Curie thinks she is a teacher and holds the bottle for other children, pats them on the back to burp them, and pats them on the back to calm them down if they are unhappy – she also pats this one boy on the butt, has put her face up against his and had to have the teacher separate them.

Curie’s favorite thing to do right now is to put caps on bottles and lids on cans (which is pretty amazing). She is very proud of herself when she does it, and looks for you to be proud of her too. She knows when she is pushing her boundaries because she gives us a devilish grin before running off to do whatever it is she is not supposed to do. She likes to drink from a cup or water bottle, eats from a fork, and has tried to use a spoon. She can climb down stairs and couches, loves to wiggle to music, and likes to feed you from her own food. We applied for her first passport, introduced her to frozen yogurt, and took her to the zoo for the first time where she fell in love with a stuffed bird at the gift shop. Curie gets moody when tired, needy when held all weekend, and sometimes needs mommy and daddy to hold her both at the same time. While she is generally opinionated and stubborn most of the time she is just happy to be around; and that may be the joy of parenting, after all, music may sooth a savage beast but there is nothing like a child’s smile to sooth your soul.

Curie turns ten months! This month Curie has started clapping at everything – when she is happy, she claps, when she is getting your attention – she claps, when she is bored – she claps. It is very cute, one of my favorite pictures in the collage is her clapping. Curie waves at people now, and has learned to climb off of the couch – which if you think about it is amazing: the couch comes up to her chin, she turns around and shimmies back first. She can also climb up the couch if she has a foot hold. She went swimming at the hotel, Albert dunked her three times, has taken advantage of all the stays away from home by boycotting the crib and the playpen entirely, and has decided that she is going to feed herself and must hold her food. She eats cheese sticks, strawberries, Cherrios, meatloaf and anything else from the table. She will look longingly at whatever we are eating instead of what is in front of her.

Time really has gone by fast, we almost forgot to take a family picture. This month we had our air conditioner fail, we stayed at a hotel. There was a crazy storm that knocked out power in the “Tristate State Area! (courtesy of Doofenshmirtz)” where we lost power for five days in a crazy heat wave which meant two hotel stays and a stay at the Hoaglands. The Fourth of July was on a Wednesday, which was inconvenient (they should just make it Independence day and give us the Monday off), though it did break up the week. Curie got sick for more than a week this month, had a very bad case of eczema in both cases we went to the pediatrician and asked my sister for advice. Curie and Albert still have coughs, but they are getting better. In pigtails or ponytails, in overalls or onesies, in dresses or pants, she is still a peanut and very, very cute. No first words or teeth or walking yet, but in due time – in fact, we don’t mind if she takes a while, this stage is a great stage and part of us doesn’t want her to grow up so fast.

Curie turns nine months! This month Curie began clapping, started waving, and ate meat for the first time. She is very vocal, opinionated, and has started saying dada and mama. “Nyeh, nyeh” means mommy or milk. . She went to her first merry go round, spray park, boat ride, and pool (Albert put her face in the water). She loves the swing at the park and the soft room when Albert plays racquetball. Her hair is long enough for a little pony tail at the nape of her neck. She had her first cut at daycare, had thrush, eczema on her back, and diaper rash. She can be moody and needy but is generally good natured and happy.

Erin’s Texas trip worked out fine, we bought two iPads, and by the end, Curie could recognize Erin on the video. Albert let her gum corn (she loves seeing what we eat). She loves exploring and playing with anything that is lying around. She hates her crib and the playpen and the ultimate fighting ring. She also can climb out of her Bumbo now. She loves being held and running around the furniture. It seems like she will walk and talk any day now. She laughs and giggles and hates to go to sleep. With everything, very little is as precious as when she holds out her hands to you, and still, very little is as precious as letting her sleep on your shoulder when she is tired out.

 

Curie turns eight months – we went to Boston to see Bernard, Agnes, Eleanor, and Miranda. Our trip included a visit to the Children’s Museum, where we found the soft room for little kids and met with some other children Curie’s age. It was interesting to see the difference between Curie and the other children. We later met with Erin’s family and visited the JFK museum. This month was also the Portland trip for Erin’s conference. Albert spent the entire week with Curie in a hotel room. This consisted of building forts, conference calls while crawling and other activities. We engaged in food trucks while there and only went to one restaurant for Ramen. In addition to the Urban Hiking, we did some real hiking as well and saw waterfalls and a fish hatchery.

This month Curie began “cruising” which is standing and moving from one object to another. She can also crawl up entire flights of stairs, eating some table food, and is tall enough to stand in her crib and peek over the railing. One result of the Portland trip was that Curie became very needy right after. She had spent so much time with us that she would need both of us to be in the room with her or else she would cry. At one point she needed the two of us to hug her at the same time. It is to be expected after spending so much time with us for the week. A few weeks later and she is independent again in the day, very curious and constantly putting things in her mouth. She loves paper.

Finally, sleeping has been a problem. Curie started to sleep longer for a while and then began crying again. This could be teething, growing, nightmares, we don’t know, but it really put a strain on us as we worried about her sleep. We started a sleep routine and for a while she slept three nights through in a row. Curie is really a night owl and perks up right around bed time. We haven’t figured it out yet, but in the meantime, she is happy in the day, curious, very vocal. No first words or waving yet, but it is soon. As for us, though she is not sleeping much and we are very tired, there is something about having your child sleep on your shoulder at the wee hours that makes you appreciate being a parent.

 

 

A lot happened this month: not long after Curie began crawling a day before six months, she began pulling herself to her feet; we again had child care claiming they had not seen a baby that young pull themselves up in 10 years. And though all of this will wash out as she grows older, we are both grateful and proud of her. Curie also began sitting down from a standing position, which is supposed to be even harder, soon after. And, around the same time, she figured out how to climb up one stair (she hasn’t figured out multiple stairs yet, but she is working on it.) Finally, she started imitating drumming; if we drum on a nut can, she will drum on it after. She hasn’t gotten the rhythm yet, but she hits it with her hand.

“Mumumu” means something to her. She says it when she is upset and hungry. She put her pacifier in Albert’s mouth when he said it to her. She looks to Erin when Albert says it to her. Does it mean “mommy?” I’m hungry? I need soothing? We don’t know yet.

Curie’s doctor’s appointment showed that she is growing longer and her head is getting bigger, but she didn’t gain a lot of weight. As a result, we began feeding her like crazy, so now she has vegetables, and fruit mixed with rice cereal as much as she can eat along with breastfeeding. Recently she started meat, and crackers. What kind of programming this is at this young an age, we don’t know. We began using George’s chair that fits on the table, and that has been wonderful, oh, and Curie has begun using the stroller face forward as well as sitting in shopping carts.

Curie definitely prefers Erin, she smiles when Erin enters the room, has begun some separation anxiety when she leaves. Every so often though, Curie will crawl to Albert and put her head on his belly, which makes everything okay. Work has been particularly stressful for Albert to the point of getting sick. Erin has had to do a lot on her own which has been exhausting. If it weren’t for Curie, I think we wouldn’t be able to get through each day.

Curie turns 6 months –  it has been half a year already, and we are not ready for her to grow up so fast. In this month, she learned to sit by herself, then learned to pull herself up to a sitting position, got ready to crawl – rocking back and forth, and began to crawl on her hands and feet. She looks like a little girl, and it almost breaks my heart to see her first pictures so small and frail. . She has bows for her hair, books to read, and toys to play with. The teacher at school says that she has never seen a baby so advanced, and even though she must say that to all the parents, we can’t help but feel proud.

She is well over twelve pounds, she may even be over thirteen, our doctor’s appointment isn’t until the 15th. She outgrew her zero to three month old clothes and is in her three to six month clothes, though they are a little big. She has long feet and is growing out. She is curious and opinionated, tried to take a pacifier from another baby, and a little manic at times. She makes pterodactyl noises, and monkey noises, and baby noises, and laughs when you rub your face on her belly. She is small, feisty, angelic and perfect. When the days are long and wearing, Curie makes the weary go away with a smile and a head resting upon your chest. Happy 6 months, Baby – and thank you.