Curie September 2013. Something magical happens when you start to have conversations with your child for the first time. “Are you okay?” “I otay!” “Daddy otay?” “Daddy’s okay.” “Mommy otay?” “Mommy’s okay.” You learn things that may or may not be real – “How did you get your ow?” “I fall down,” “Where did you fall down?” “At home.” “How did you fall down?” “Na’lee did it. (Curie got hurt at school, her friend Natalie almost certainly did not do it because it is the same response for any “ow”).
As we wrote earlier, Curie turned two (see the Curie Turns Two pictures), and in that time she moved to the twos room at day care, exploded in conversation, independence “I dood it, I dood it!” got to eat gummies for the first time, and has taken to diapering everything from dolls to stuffed animals. For those of you who have suspected, Albert has continued his picture a day since Curie turned one and it is remarkable to watch her grow from day to day all over again (if you would like to see 365 Year 2, please go to our website photoblog – let us know if you would like the URL).
We went on a crab crawl in the beginning of the month, went bowling for Curie’s first time, and went apple picking in the days after her birthday which included a hay ride which she did not like and a cow that ate her apple, which left a very large impression – “cow ate m’apple!” -even a week later. Curie loves her musical instruments and loves the piano (thank you Taylor and Eric) and guitar she received for her birthday. In addition, she got one of those laptops that you hook up to a computer so that you can send her stuff, a drawing table and chairs, and a kitchen from Ikea.
We never thought we would buy her a kitchen, since it perpetuates the stereotype, blah blah blah (still no easy bake oven, Barbie dolls, or princesses – why be a princess when you could be President or King?), but in our family Albert does most of the cooking and Erin acts as sous chef. Whenever Albert cooks or grills, Curie wants to help -“I help, I help…I help daddy!” So we bought her the kitchen from Ikea. Albert had an issue with the light up burners that don’t make heat, but that is okay now. The most interesting thing besides the fact that she loves it (calls it her “chicken”), cuts all the wooden food for us, and makes us soup and pizza, is this: right away she said “my sink broken, it no work,” because it did not actually pour water.
Albert started a new job this month and drives to Bethesda now for work, it is better for us, YFU for those of you interested, but he leaves earlier now so can’t hang out with Curie in the morning like he used to, ends earlier, but doesn’t take advantage of that. Erin has taken on more at work and at home, she is more tired now and sleeps earlier so that she can work out before going to work. Curie plays with kids at school now instead of around them “I play friends!” She makes pizza in her kitchen, counts to three (or six) and jumps off her chairs, and falls to sleep watching “monkey.” Life is changing for us (took us a lot longer to get this out), but that is good. We get home, have dinner, do “bubbles (bath),” and then getting ready for bed, she will say “big hug (group hug)!” and tell Erin “I kiss daddy!” or tell Albert “I kiss mommy!” Lights out, with a sleepy family by your side. Life is pretty good.