Curie continues to grow and become more sophisticated. She is in size 6 at this point and can think of the wind as God. She wants to be a to be a scientist or a chef, loves showing Elia how to do things and is proud of her sister when she can do the things that she taught. She is trying very hard to be helpful and is generally so unless she is tired or Elia has taken something away, or she wants something Elia has. Her drawing has become more sophisticated too with her learning to draw giant eyes with sparkles in them like in anime or manga and will ask you if you want her to draw your picture with both eyes open or winking (the picture, not her while she is drawing. While drawing with Albert, they worked through the proportions of a face and she took to it very quickly (as did Elia).
Elia and Curie have both gotten a lot of fancy dresses since the new year, Costco has dresses for under $20, and we have let them wear them to school and at home whenever they want. When Albert asked if she was concerned that they were wearing fancy clothes to school, Erin replied that she didn’t that she didn’t care what other people thought; not surprising considering that Erin dressed Curie in a Superman shirt for preschool graduation.
So along with the fancy dresses and Moana costume, the girls have been playing Royal family, cats, and dance party. This means we do a lot of dancing right before bed (after reading and before brushing teeth). A funny thing about the dance parties though, they are family parties, when they went to Nora’s birthday party Nora had a dancing part there too, but Curie didn’t want to dance with the others (Elia would), preferring to play with their toys. At Charlotte’s party there was also dancing and Curie again chose not to be a part of it until it was a smaller group where she could get some attention from her friends.
As mentioned in Elia’s blog, Erin was in North Carolina and Albert at Harvard at the beginning of the month and Erin’s parents came over to take care of the girls by themselves for the first time. Fortunately there are a number of stories with this theme that it didn’t seem weird that we know and everyone made it through with minimal trouble. The girls seemed to love it, though they have not asked us to go away again, and Elia seems to be having nightmares about parents going away. It was more challenging for us and harder for Erin’s parents, but we are grateful that they were willing to come down and take care of the girls.
Curie had another tooth removed because of an abscess which was traumatic for Albert conceptually, Erin had to take her because of Albert’s dentist fears, but when it was done, Curie acted like it was not terrible which was a relief. We might have to review who we use as a dentist since our insurance is not covered anymore with Dr. Reardon, but it might not be a bad thing that we have to do so.
In addition to tae kwon do, Curie is interested in the piano and violin, and golf. When we go to Top Golf, Curie is interested in her swing and hitting the ball. We are not pushing her toward anything, but she really enjoys the driving range. For tae kwon do, she has one more tip before testing for her yellow with stripe. Because she is going to Congressional (Congo Camp) this summer, it will be her last chance to test before the new year. She is averaging two belts a year and is interested in continuing with it despite the concerns about sparring and Etta leaving. Isabella joining has helped a lot.
We found a new great bakery in the Mosaic district along with a cool hand washing machine at Choolah, an Indian fast food place. While the kids are still picky, their palates are expanding. Curie no longer wants hotdogs in her lunches, likes pork and brats and has learned to make dumplings (with Elia). Curie is interested in baking or cooking so she was very interested and proud to learn how to make the dumpling dough and we let her do it herself for her first batch of dumplings (we did a practice batch first). She will tell you how to know when it is ready by touch as well.
So it has been hard the past few months with Erin changing jobs, Albert’s work getting harder, and a lot of times feeling like we are just getting by. We are grateful too though and hopeful even in the face of a seemingly increasingly hostile world. We went to NYC for spring break with the Tamanahas, where Curie and Joachin bonded and they got a lot of toys, and we have worked hard at reading with her and are seeing her improve as she reads. One of the best part of writing these blogs is finding tidbits that we had already forgotten in our notes. Apparently Curie said that when she is glad she feels like a rainbow and when she is sad she feels like water. When she is just ok, she feels like a cloud. Mad, like a storm. Lonely, like wind. Poetic and sophisticated. Makes us proud.