Curie November 2014. Curie is of an age now where she gets frustrated easily and breaks down often as a result. There is this app with a monster who takes deep breaths and thinks through a plan that we reference that has been helping, but Curie is learning, often the hard way, that you don’t always get what you want. And the reality is, it is when she is tired that she gets fussy and frustrated. When she is rested, she is sweet, funny, loving and wonderful. I suppose it is just being three.
Over Thanksgiving, we met up with Albert’s family for our yearly get together where Curie and Elia played with their cousins, Elia got to meet her grandparents on Albert’s side for the first time, and met up with Luiz, and his family, Albert’s friend from Jr. High. With Luiz we ate at Lawry’s Prime Rib, one of Erin’s favorite restaurants, after with the family, we ate at Din Tai Fung, the Michelin star xiao long bao place that Tiffany wrote about recently – we waited three hours to eat there. Good, but not three hours good. Had a great turkey at Bernard and Agnes’s house (thank you), and ate twice at Mitsua’s for ramen and sushi. After Disneyland (turkey legs), we went to Sam Woo’s for our traditional Chinese “banquet.” A good eating time.
For non-eating stuff, we waited three hours for Din Tai Fung… just kidding, though during the wait, Curie picked out a Sesame Street school bus that somehow she loves over any of the other flashy stuff that she has or could have, it is quite adorable. Suephy’s son Jared was particularly nice to Curie taking care of her, and Miranda, who had been more removed the last time we met, was Curie’s best friend that night. The morning of Din Tai Fung, we went to Crystal Cove, a beach near Laguna where Erin discovered that Albert’s reluctance to go to beaches was not that he didn’t want to go to beaches, he didn’t want to go to New England and Mid-Atlantic beaches. Note, it was 85 degrees on November 25th. On Thanksgiving, Curie was on Albert’s football (yes Albert + football is an aberration) team for the Chen version of two-hand touch football.
The Friday after Thanksgiving we went to Disneyland with the rest of the family going to California Adventure. With younger children Disneyland was more our speed. We did buy a park hopper pass which let us go over to California Adventure to see the Pixar parade, the Newsie show and buy a very expensive sweatshirt for Curie because it got cold. Curie’s favorite things at the park were the Carousel, and the shows on the street (Elia’s was Smallworld). She loved seeing the singing and the dancing, which was refreshing amongst all the princess stuff. When she referenced Frozen, she chose an Olaf doll over the Elsa and Anna stuff (and when people called her princess she did still say “no, I’m the King, or I’m the Queen!” which was good as we don’t want her to have to be saved – we are relenting a little on this of course, with Elsa being a queen, and Mulan not being a princess at all but a warrior). And we discovered that Curie loves Lightning McQueen (and Mater).
Curie wants only to wear snow boots these days regardless of the weather. We had to convince her to wear crocs to the beach. She is well along on potty training, though forgets when she is having fun. She loves playing with her Mommy and Dada, as well as her cousins and friends. She would rather go home to play than go to Disneyland. She flaps her arms with Dada to make the plane take off, is a consummate traveler with her tablet and her headphones, and, and…is a joy to have as a daughter. Her parents may be having trouble balancing work and life, her parents may get have trouble keeping up as their kids grow and learn, her parents may feel at wits end on a given day, but Curie, and her sister Elia? Couldn’t be more wonderful.