Elia March 2015. Having children is like being on the cusp of something amazing almost every day. It may be as simple as Elia learning to climb down stairs butt first, or using a fork, or sitting on real chairs, but it is amazing nonetheless. On the other end, Elia officially walked March 13th at day care – because Erin saw it, but so far Albert has not. The staff of daycare was waiting for Erin to tell her when she went to pick her up.
And while walking is amazing and the milestone people are expecting, it is not the one we track and are most amazed about. Erin’s favorite thing is to put Elia in back of her and say “where’s Elia?” and Elia will put her hands on your back, lean over so you can see her face with a big grin, as if to say “here I am!”
Albert’s favorite thing is watching Elia try to open something, a bottle, an Easter egg or something where she will grunt like it takes great strength, but not actually try harder – she thinks the grunting noise is what opens things. It is like when Curie was one and would make the sneezing sound to get the “boogies” to come out of her nose because she knew that when she sneezed, it would blow her nose. False cause and effect; she does this with the remote too, she points the remote at the TV and expects something to happen. When she hits a button and something actually does happen she cracks herself up.
Curie’s favorite thing is to ask Elia to kick and she kicks her feet while sitting down a la the “Old MacDonald” cow we mentioned earlier. We will soon have to have a full family kick fest. We ALL love eliciting kisses and hugs from Elia on demand – Curie especially though. You say “kisses!” and she will kiss you. You say “hugs!” and she will hug you. She understands far more than you suspect.
Elia gets jealous of parent time with Curie now, she gets angry when she doesn’t get what she wants and cries angry too. She definitely has opinions as well; shaking her head if she doesn’t like a particular food or toy. She is intensely curious, and learning by mimicking; she will type on the keyboard simply because we do.
Elia likes to feed people by fork, or straw, or hand putting out the item until you either eat it or pretend to. She can say “apple” and “water” and “Momma” and “Dada” and Jie-jie.” She holds the camera as if to take a picture, she pushes the stroller, or shopping cart, or bike around to practice walking. She looks at books quietly to herself, and pushes her way to get the prime spot sitting between your legs or leaning against a parent, often eliciting indignation from her sister.
So Elia is 15 months now, not yet in size three diapers (massive mistake when we tried it), just in 12 month clothes, her boots fall off her feet, her hands get lost in her coat. She is a peanut, but proud and full of life, happy, full of laughter, opinionated, willful and strong. Everything you want your child to be.
Reporting on the parenting: we are doing well – recently, acknowledging that the difficulties of being C-level parents has meant that there will be days we get a “C” on our parenting, means that we are more apt to forgive one another for the little frustrations that a sane, rested, fed, unstressed person wouldn’t even blink at. It is like flossing, if you forget one day, you don’t just give up, you forgive yourself the one day and pick right back up the next. We had been letting guilt and anxiety build which translated into sniping and nagging – so this is hopefully a steam valve back into appreciating one another and being more considerate to each other. Its only been 15 days since the last post, so we will keep you updated.