Elia August 2015. What a great age. Curie sang Elia Twinkle Twinkle Little Star late at night and Elia put her fingers together to do the twinkle then raised them above her arms and sang “ubabubawawahi” which, for those of you non-parents, is “up above the world so high;” it was cute enough to bring tears to one’s eye. We then sang a number of songs where she knew the hand motions, like Itsy Bitsy Spider and most impressively, Wheels on the Bus. Curie loved the song at this age too and did the hand motions, but for those of you who are wont to compare, it was like a first child all over again, because she was just discovering it for herself and the fact that she was so proud made you proud for her. Now, her wheels on the bus is like her “roll it” in Patty Cake, which is as if you were turning a giant set of bicycle pedals with your hands, but not really making a circle – well, more like if she was milking a cow, but for a 19 month old, so very cute.
When you sing or read to her, she wants to do it over and over again. Elia loves to stand on our lap (or Albert’s belly) and hold your hands to sing Row Row Row Your Boat, while she leans way back on each row. She will quietly mouth the words and sing an occasional “woh, woh, woh,” and something that sounds like “merrily.” She still does not talk so much as imitates words or sounds like “bread and butter.” or some song. She does have some new words though, she has added “bye” to “hi” when talking on Albert’s KRZR, and says something like “dada, call,” but we might be reading into it (in fact, Albert has taken to interpreting Elia’s words to whatever they sound like, no matter how off-color). In addition to saying “wuff, wuff, wuff” if you ask her what a dog says, she will say “baa” and “tu tu” for sheep and train respectively. Her favorite book is a Curious George book where she will point out the dog, cat, pigeon, and monkey.
At her last doctor’s visit she is still in single digits in percentile and, while she is okay, the doctor recommended that we add good fats to her diet. She is physically denser than Curie so it is weird to see that she is smaller and lighter. Also unbeknownst to us, Elia’s second group of lower front teeth came in.
Elia’s voice is lower than Curie’s and she definitely wants to do whatever Curie is doing, but does have some of her own things: she loves to play the full piano and will cry when it is time to stop; she will sit in the blue car or on the Kettler tricycle even when it is not moving; and loves her helmet (hats in general) and shoes.
All is not moonlight and roses however, as she went through a biting phase biting both of us separately. Albert on the shoulder and Erin on the neck. She fell down the stairs twice, once head over heels down four stairs and the other down half a flight that Curie saw; she is okay, but what a scare. She has fallen off the bed more than Curie now, and at a restaurant recently, fell off the bench and slipped between the table and the booth hitting her head on the wall. Mosquitos love her even more than Albert (which is amazing) where she had seven mosquito bites on one arm that were inflamed and angry. Elia doesn’t know how to scratch yet, so she would rub her arm like she was trying to take off a long rubber glove.
It isn’t that she is so much the daredevil that she has no fear, she definitely has that, she wasn’t comfortable ice skating (indoors) with either of us until Albert took her out with a hockey stick so she could lean against that in the crook of her underarm pit (Curie used a bucket to push around), so she is definitely afraid, but it might simply be that she wants so much to be able to do what Curie does that she thinks that if Curie can do it, so can she. And so she imitates, and not just Curie; Albert was resting his head with his elbow on the table and his fist against his cheek, and Elia put her own fist against her cheek, albeit without the elbow on the table, to imitate.
Elia loves letting Albert hug her, will climb up in your lap to eat a snack; holds hands with Curie when they walk around; drops (can’t really throw yet) pennies into fountains; bounces superballs – and lets them bounce away until she loses sight of them; picks up bowls and plates half-full of food to clean them up; points to her feet to put on new shoes or socks; points to her head to put on a hat; gives an impish grin, an upturned pout, or simply looks very proud of herself. She understands a lot more than you think, and can close a door, or throw away garbage when asked. She peeks around corners, keeps her fingers from the edge when pushing close a drawer, knows when the oven is hot, and knows how to push the buttons or a screen of a remote or a tablet. She climbs into your lap or up on your chest to rests her head on your belly or shoulder or leg. When she sits eating a popsicle,or watching TV, or reading her own book, she sidles up next to you so that your side is touching her side and without another thought, is very, very, content.