So kids, as we write this it is already July 6th and we are 5 blogs behind, so in the interest of getting caught up, we will focus mainly on what happened and try to include a few funny sayings as we go. The more we fall behind the less we will be able to capture those funny things, so we want to get caught up.
At this point Elia has not yet finished Bright Horizons and we are worried that she will have a hard time adjusting to camp and then again to kindergarten, that the number of transitions would be a lot for one summer. As we worried, she worked in Ms. Chelsea’s class toward graduation and learned the lines to the Gruffalo play. She actually learned the other students’ lines before learning hers, or rather liked saying the brown mouses’ lines to us as she showed how much she remembered her lines.
At school one day, she and her friend Eric, who wants to marry Elia (so much that it was a little disconcerting), held hands as they walked out at the end of the day. For all of Elia saying she wants to marry Lucius, she had no problem holding Eric’s hand showing that this is all so innocent. Elia loves to go to the little Target and the little store, the store in the gas station. At Little Target, she loves to carry the basket and buy all sorts of snacks, cashews, pink cookies, Oreos, and an apple or two. She also loves the cheddar and peanut butter crackers. At the little store, she gets the chocolate muffin, or brownie, or nutella, or the saem cheddar and peanut butter crackers. She is crestfallen when Albert says there is not enough time, and loves to spend the time with Albert walking to the store rather than driving to it. They go sometimes to Safeway too, but the Little Target and the little store are the places to go.
Elia has actual homework in K-Prep and we create a collage of things that are healthy and things that are not. Albert makes one the night before (because she wouldn’t have had anything if he hadn’t) with pictures online, but, Elia edits it heavily the next day. Yes, the kids think french fries are healthy. In their minds there is a savory = food vs. sweets = bad for you thing going. Ms. Chelsea teaching them about flowers, Elia makes a sunflower in class, she then goes on to make rockets, and finger prints, and planets, and Korean writing and many many things. On the postal day, Elia brings home a few sheets of stamps and dresses up her black dress in stamps. For Mother’s Day she makes something for Erin and then takes a picture with a frame in the hall of the preschool
On family day, Elia dresses up in her Chinese dress and brings a poster much much too big for the class. You see, Erin had gotten the paper that she was supposed to make the poster with when she picked up Elia, but Albert not knowing that and reading the assignment while Erin is away on a trip, picks up some 2 x 3 foam core and proceeds to help her create a masterpiece of description where she shows her Asian and European sides. She is to give her presentation and is nervous because Curie, nervous about her play tells Elia not to be nervous. Elia does great, as one might expect, still it is funny. In fact, on picture day, when Elia knows it is picture day insists that she does not want to take a picture, but after drop-off Ms. Jasmine convinces her to take them and she has no problem there either.
Elia has been saying she is scared of things that she has normally not been scared of, like heights and bugs. She pouts more easily and has taken to call an angry or pouty face a “doo-doo face” in fact it is her favorite line these days where everything is doo-doo face.
Elia also has been recounting how we lost the green car at the supermarket, which is cute because we did before she was born, and she loves the story. She says Albert is the only one who wipes her still, or will wipe her after going to the bathroom (this is not altogether true because Alice wipes her when she visits). Elia will have accidents when playing too long and not judging the time to the bathroom well enough. She usually makes it to the bathroom and has her accident there. When Alice visits, Elia is so excited to show everyone the different rooms at Clydes that she went to when she went on her date with Albert.
We have a rather spontaneous spring break, going first to urban hot pot, and then to Brookside Gardens. We are all dressed in black to coordinate our outfits. Elia is wearing her black ballet dress and Curie is telling Elia that her own black outfit is for older dancers. The flowers were out in the garden and we got some good pictures, but Elia in her fear of bees (a level we did not know yet) hides under the umbrella in the wagon and sleeps. On the way up we stop at a sushi conveyor belt restaurant in Towson and end up in Philadelphia. There the kids dress in twin Hermione dresses, we go to the, Please Touch Museum, eat at Yamazuki Ramen twice(the second time with Yischon’s family,) have a great time with Reggie’s family, and have great pizza from Fermi’s in the hotel room. On the way back we pick up lavender plants and have an Easter Egg hunt in the back yard. The kids hide the eggs over and over to find them again like hide and go seek rather than opening any of them up.
After Urban Hot Pot, places start springing up all over the place, kind of like when Ramen took off a while ago. We try a new Hot Pot place with a robot that comes to your table in Arlington, but are not wowed. When Erin goes on a trip Albert and the kids go to Dave and Busters and try the new Impossible Burger 2.0. It is fantastic. Interestingly Elia really likes the patty, and Curie, on the other hand, insists that she can tell the difference. We will have to do a blind taste test when the Impossible Whopper comes out. The kids start to write a play and act it out. Elia is the writer and Curie is the director., they plan to act it out when Erin comes back from her trip but never really do, though Elia reminds us that we still need to do it. In fact, she still wants to write the comic book where we are Elisa, Karrie, Karen, and Robert.
We are really using this backyard more. Albert puts out fairy jars with LEDs in them, we put out bird feeders and start being amazed at the variety of birds and the tenacity of squirrels. In the midst of this Elia is more and more afraid of bugs and doesn’t want to go out for walks, then one day, Elia spots a blue jay in the parking lot and becomes proud of being able to identify wildlife in the field.
Watching what she is proud of is amazing too. She is able to wait for a cheaper price on Amazon for a Captain Marvel toy she wanted at Target (something that Albert couldn’t do as a child). At Tim’s Rivershore, Elia draws a person like Curie does and is very proud. Curie too, is so proud. Elia likes to stack Curie’s dixie cups in a pyramid and is proud of that too.
Other stuff happens: the kids give chocolate for teacher appreciation day. The girls go to the dentist, and while Elia is okay, Curie has even more to do, including losing another tooth. Our microwave breaks down and we remember what it was like to reheat food before microwaves. Curie breaks her second practice board, we make a pretend video, Elia likes to pretend to break it. We told the kids why Albert doesn’t sleep with them – that he keeps Erin up and now all of them up so now when he helps them into bed they all get very riled up.
Elia is amazing at this point trying so hard to be the same as Curie (we are reminded that Elia thought that they were twins, and was upset that she couldn’t become Curie’s twin). While she is not as naturally giving as Curie, but likes to take care of family and will give profusely there in her generosity and love. We couldn’t be more proud of her.