Curie April 2015. Curie has started saying “gesundheit” after someone sneezes and has begun talking about “responsibility” and “challenges;” her vocabulary has really taken off. Her self-proclaimed responsibilities include protecting Elia when bigger kids bother her, holding things when her parents’ hands are full, and wiping her boots on the front mat (something she makes us do ever since we bought it). Curie is also more considerate than either Albert or Erin and it is sometimes shocking how much we learn from her.At the gift shop, she insisted on buying Erin a cow candle and Albert a train (to share and eventually have for herself), instead of buying something for herself.
As Elia grows up and is more capable, Curie has enjoyed playing with her more, interacting more, and generally enjoying being the big sister. And besides the aforementioned protection for her little sister, Curie expresses more of a willingness to help Elia when she needs help.
Recently Curie has been trending toward longer dresses and things she can twirl in. She likes to play ballerina and Elsa/queen, but here is an interesting thing, she will say she likes princesses but because Albert has expressed that he does not like them as much, says that she is the queen instead. Same with Barbie, because Erin has expressed that she does not like Barbie, Curie will say “we don’t like Barbie right? Except the doctor one, right?”
When you ask her what she wants to do for her job, she takes the question very seriously and says “I want to clean up.” And because her favorite thing to pretend is to be the doctor, we ask “you don’t want to be a doctor?” She replies, I first need to clean and THEN I want to be a doctor.”
Curie has picked up hobbies as well including a rock collection (which takes some curating in that she needs to stick to smaller rocks), her figure/blind bag/box collections, drawing cards for grand parents, rolling Playdoh, and giving stage performances – dance, interpretive dance, and singing. At Cracker Barrel she insists on sitting in the rocking chairs and playing checkers – consisting of stacking the checker pieces and jumping checkers.
In addition to her Frozen obsession, Curie loves the big flashlight, and the LED magnifying glass. She loves being with her parents and loves to help when we do things, she says “I love helping, right?” And she loves to fix things, replace batteries, turn screws, and affix stickers. For being less whiny (on the blind bag scale) for a week she got an airplane by Battat which can be assembled and disassembled by an electric drill with bits. This is her favorite toy – we love that her favorite toy is an engineering toy so much that at Lucy’s party, rather than the Frozen and Disney princesses toys, this is what she wanted to give her.
So it goes without saying that in these challenging times, that our girls keep us going. On one particularly bad day, Albert was upstairs when Erin came home with the girls and Curie kept yelling for Albert who realized how much he would be missed if he weren’t there. From a self-worth standpoint, nothing is better than having your spouse and kids to remind you that health and family are really the important things.