Elia February 2015. The wide-eyed wonder of a 14 month old – curiosity, imitation, hero-worship, pride and jealousy. Elia is almost walking now. She took a few steps in a fountain in Cancun (we were all in the fountain treating it like a baby pool), took some more in the living room.for Albert and with Julie, but Erin has not seen it, so it actually hasn’t happened yet. So though Elia has not decided to walk yet – each girl in her own time, she has learned to climb up the big Ikea step stools and stand up against a counter or a bed. Our favorite right now is how she is learning through copying; at the bathroom counter, went through Erin’s routine and wiped her face with a washcloth and brushed (or at least tried to) her hair with a brush – it was more like whacking her head, but it was really cute.
When she gives you a hug (she gives the best hugs, little arms around your neck) she will pat you on the back like we did when we were burping her. If you give her a paper towel she will wipe her face. In fact, Albert woke up one morning to find Elia slobberly kissing his face, wiping it with a a paper towel, then wiping her own face, all a couple times in a row. Even more recently she has started using a fork to imitate eating with it and has successfully fed herself with it. We will have to substitute a child-friendly/plastic fork for her, hm, and also probably substitute some age appropriate food instead of Albert’s dinner (though she loves the curry noodles).
Everything she learns that is new she is enormously proud of. She can now initiate “high 5” and all of us need to do it with her. When Curie was little we did “high 5,” bump, and beep with beep meaning you touch index fingers. Elia does not know how to bump but she does love the beep. In looking it up we don’t talk about beep or bump with Curie until she is two. Anyway she is very proud of her achievements and will precociously look at you for verification that you have seen it whether it is drinking out of a cup or straw, eating with a fork, climbing up her high chair, climbing up her little couch that Bernard and Suephy gave her, or climbing down the big couch in the living room. She will also do things without the need for verification that make you feel that she can be quite independent too. The other day she climbed up into the Ikea chair again and just sat in it watching TV – before falling off said chair trying to get down. She also loves the Magna Doodle and practices writing on it on her own.
She is an unsteady toddler trying new things, and not all things are copying; she will put her snotty nose on ours and rub her face back and forth just because it feels good. And if you rub back it starts a positive feedback loop where you are both saying “aaaa” louder and louder that means you pretty much have baby snot on your face – but feel good doing it. Almost certainly, this is the best way to catch a cold from your daughter. She loves to get her back scratched and will arch her back and laugh when you do it. If she could purr, she probably would.
Her relationship with Curie evolves. She is still in full hero-worship mode with Curie, doing what she does, coping what she does, wanting whatever Curie has, but other things are happening. She gets jealous now if Mommy is holding Curie and gives a mad face. She will go to hug Curie on occasion, try to throw a ball when Curie throws one to her. So Curie’s relationship with Elia is also evolving; she tries to play with her, playing catch with the ball, feeding her, tickling her when they wake up – “good morning, Little-one.” The nicest thing recently though, was when Curie held Elia’s hands and with Curie walking backward, helped Elia walk up and down the hall of our hotel in Cancun.
And finally, during a warm day in February, after we had held Curie’s hands to do “123, jump,” Albert was helping Elia walk in a field holding one hand and Curie ran up and held the other hand and wanted to do “123, jump” for Elia; wanting to make her sister happy. Sure there are times where Curie says “I don’t like Elia!” Or “Stop it Elia! I don’t like that!” Or “Go away Elia!” But you can see it, Curie loves Elia, Elia loves Curie, and they are building the bits that will make them friends for the rest of their lives.