September was some time ago, and there is a temptation to write about October instead. In September we went to Meadowlark with Susie, Isabella, and Olivia, with the entire family dressed in purple. Both kids loved the fact that we were dressed in a themed color, which is not something they will do for much longer, so we took advantage and had a great time.
This month Curie and Elia really got into two cooking shows on Amazon Prime; they watched Kids Try, which has kids trying different foods over the past 100 years, and a show called Little Kitchen which has kids watching recipes online (Facebook), and then instructing chefs to cook, where the chef has to do what the kids tell them. The show is very cute and the results, as you might imagine is not always what the recipes originally intended. Curie wanted to do this with Albert, so Erin and Curie watched a recipe, went to GIant to buy ingredients and instructed Albert on how to make something without him knowing what they were making. It turned out they made fried rice, but because it was an Americanized recipe, it had ketchup, green peas, and carrots, which we did not like that much. It was very fun though. We will probably do it again.
The kids have a tendency to ask to go to the bathroom right when food arrives at a restaurant, and one of the parents end up not eating their food while it is hot when we take them to the bathroom. Curie could probably go on her own, but for the moment we are taking both kids. Recently we told the kids that they had to go before we ordered to make sure that they went before the food arrives. Albert told Curie that in polite company it was called “washing hands.” Both kids really liked that and have taken to telling us that they need to “wash their hands” before dinner. Sometimes when they forget (and the parents forget), they well say “um. I need to wash my hands,” even after the food arrives. One ancillary benefit is that Erin is happier not talking about going potty. Albert, with his potty humor, doesn’t care either way.
Speaking of potty humor, we started watching Mary Poppins as one of the new movies to see before the launch of the new Mary Poppins movie (Finding Mr. Banks would be another one). Now you may be wondering how Mary Poppins has potty humor, but then you would have to understand Albert. To be funny (in a puerile way) he started calling her Mary Poopins after watching too much Captain Underpants. The kids, of course, loved this so began calling her Mary Poopins. Curie then took it to the next level and called Bert “Burp” which sent them all in peals of laughter. Now bear in mind that Julie knows this next part – because Julie Andrews plays Mary Poppins, Julie became Mary Poopins to Steve’s Uncle Weird Beard. When we told Julie, she said it was consistent with Aunty Doody, which is what Curie (or was it Elia?) called her when they were little.
Erin went on a work trip earlier in the month and Albert took the kids to Dave and Busters (twice). The kids really missed Erin, especially Curie, who usually spends more time with her (because Elia spends more time with Albert). When Erin called, Curie told her that she had done an EMA show (instead of dance), and “on Wednesday, I went to Dave and Buster’s I got a mermaid flip blanket.” This let Erin know that Albert was not having quiet nights at home. Part of our work on writing that Erin came up with is having her write ideas for this blog – the Erin being away and the Dave and Buster’s part is from her. Curie continues to work on her reading and writing, and recently she had a fair amount of work to do on a math test. Albert and Curie spent hours practicing and Curie was able to score a 4 on her test, 65 out of 68, which made Curie (and her parents) proud.
Elia had to go to the dentist to get a tooth extracted, and Curie knew not to scare Elia about the dentist when told not to.. Elia is proud to know that Curie had had one taken out before, and Curie was very good taking care of Elia. Recently, Curie was very interested in having a fresh coconut. None of us had ever had one either, so we ordered one and Curie hated it. Albert tried it, and he hated it. Erin tried it and she hated it. Elia tried it and she hated it too.
Curie is amazing, she is a normal seven year old, working on her whining when she is tired, understanding what she can and cannot do, and learning all the time. She is insightful too and funny. She made what Erin thought was the shaka sign, and when Erin said, is that the Hawaiian sign for “hang loose?” Curie had a confused look on her face and said, “I thought that was the sign for Spiderman.” Albert has this hand squeeze code for “I love you” that he learned from his parents (inadvertently since it is a squeeze that his dad would do for affection since they did not explicitly say “I love you in his family”). It is something Erin says he did for her and he has since taught the kids. Curie’s own version is to make a longer version that means: “I really really love you.”
So a thought, we think people might wonder why we still carry Curie and Elia when they ask us to. Most parents talk about how their kids should walk, that they are old enough to walk, or that they are too heavy. Our kids are little, but that is not why. We do it because we don’t have a lot of time to do these things. Kate articulated it one day for us: one day they will not want to be carried, and then the last time you carried them will be the last time you carried them and you did not even know it. So for as long as they ask, we will likely carry them.