One of Albert’s oldest and closest friends just told him that he has been in the hospital for nearly a month and had almost died. He is fine now and will be discharged soon (his wife only now let him have his phone). His advice to Albert, and indeed to all of us is to appreciate what we have and that he was glad to see us and the girls this past December. We take his words to heart and cherish our families and our children.
Curie started kindergarten less prepared than we would have liked; her pre-school, the one we just moved out of did not give her everything she needed, and as the youngest child in the class, she did not have as much time as others to get ready. That all being said, she started the year at 103 out of 193 on her diagnostic test and six months later is at 163 out of 193, a great improvement celebrated not only by us, but by her teacher as well. We have finally bought her workbooks and are working to help her in school (though carving out time is proving harder than we thought). She loves to write in the numbers on our receipts for tips and loves to read books with us each night (she is also proving to be a good role model for Elia who wants to learn).
She finally outgrew the forward facing seat and has transitioned into a new booster seat (Elia wants one too), got a new backpack (hers was 12 liters and the teacher asked us to get a new one, now 18 liters – Albert got it from REI and did not get a character backpack), and a new water bottle after we found out that we had not been cleaning the straw and bite valve as well as we should have. She loves having a wallet and money to buy snacks at martial arts.
Curie’s favorite shows are DC Superhero Girls (though she calls it Disney Superhero Girls), Sarah and Duck, and Moana clips on YouTube (“Eggs”). She and Elia sing the songs from Moana every day and likes when Albert spoofs them with “I am sitting at the edge with my daughter, because I am her father,” and “Awake awake, you have to be awake.” Albert bought the girls a 70% off Moana boat that pops up and the girls can play in it. It has been tremendous for the two of them, though Curie insists on being Moana, and Elia tells us she is the pig. The Moana clips even surpassed her “Egg” viewing and Sarah and Duck.
We documented the girl’s lesson in gift giving recently and are planning to do more. In martial arts, the students can earn tips for their belts, colored tape on the ends of their belts, for various things; Curie has an orange tip and is earning a red tip for her form. But one tip we want to get for her is the yellow tip, that a parent can do when a student does something great at home, and we feel that this may be the thing for which to award her.
Curie has been wearing long fancy dresses at school (Elia too), had her hair cut again (her hair is getting fuller), letting Albert brush her hair each day, and generally being a great kid that whines sometimes, but only when she is hungry or tired. We got a photo album for her pictures and she immediately took to arranging them. It is interesting how the physical picture is so precious. Her friends Navi and Natalie both took pictures home with them as souvenirs. We have been going to Little Sheep Mongolian Hot Pot a lot recently where Curie has liked both chicken and meat, and recently started to eat the meat in Pho rather than just meatballs. Her favorite is Chuy’s mac and cheese, though she loves to help cook, and recently did almost all the prep work except for cutting the meat for beef noodle soup. She is quick to use the kitchen scissors and now uses a sharp knife blunt nose tip knife for her cooking (under supervision of course).
These days, as rough and eventful as they might be for us at work and in the world, are still enormously special times for us where the kids love unconditionally, and play time is paramount in a child’s mind. Curie looks for more time with both of us, with her writing at school that she aspires to spend more time with momma. Besides playing school, and mommy and baby, and doctor, magic and queens, we spend time in bed pretending to be things. The other day playing with Elia and Erin, Curie said that she was queen of the pandas and that Elia was the baby panda, Albert was the daddy panda and Erin was the Mommy panda named Herrera. At least she didn’t call Erin the grandmother like Elia did.