We may need to rotate Elia’s blog to the beginning of the month or at least title it differently since Halloween is at the end of October and will show up in November’s blog. We are also so far behind in blogging that it doesn’t matter as much to try to write a blog every 15 days. In any case, Elia continues to define her personality and her self. She tries hard to be funny, and can largely laugh at herself if she is laughing already. If we tell her she is cute or funny though, she can give us a “doo-doo face.” She likes to tell you to “look at my booty,” or say “a’ight” for “all right.” She continues to have a facility for dancing and loves to sing to songs on the “radio.”
We alternate whenever we have work trips and meetings as much as possible. Only once did we have to ask Julie to babysit the kids to sleep so far. When Erin is away we tend to go to the Dave and Buster’s and the mall, and when Albert is away we tend to go to Milano’s restaurant. This time when Erin was away we went to Dave and Busters and had dance parties, and yes, there were videos. As a result though, when Albert takes care of the kids they go to sleep too late and they don’t do their reading like they should.
Elia seems to enjoy school, and still likes the bus – it is funny to think how upset she was when she couldn’t go with Curie to school. Elia hates running for the bus though. When we are late, we can see the bus from our house, and have to run, she will be upset while she runs while Curie is more likely to just run. Even if we are not out yet and don’t know, she will ask if we have to run for the bus. Elia also likes being the first person on the bus. Kindergarteners get to board the bus first, but there are four kindergarteners at our stop and Elia likes to sit by the window to wave to us. In fact she is so happy when she gets that seat that you can see it in her face through the window.
Something the kids really value is when we eat lunch with the kids at school. It is not something we often get to do, but parents often do, and when we get to do it, it is really special. Elia introduced Albert to all the friends around her. One of her friends told them that he was a blue belt, which was pretty impressive until we found out that he was in Tigers where they are working toward a white belt. His blue belt was a Tigers white belt with blue stripe. Elia is in the after school program like Curie and her first belt would be the white belt. So as a “no-belt” William’s “blue belt” seemed very advanced.
Elia tested for her white belt a week before the photo shoot at EMA. Albert wanted to make sure she had a belt for the test, so when the belt test became inconvenient because of scheduling, we worked around and prioritized the date of her belt test. Elia was nervous but did great, she was well behaved and listened well. We were so proud of her. Curie watched the belt test instead of being in the test which was different, though we had done so for Etta and Isabella back when they had their first test.
This month we went back to Great Country Farms, – and for the first time did not ride the cow train, but did everything else, including the pumpkin canon, the corn maze, and the pig races. The kids loved the pumpkin canon. At Burke Nursery Elia loved rolling down a hill inside a pipe. We had worried that it would be too rough, but she loved it. The kids also loved when Albert spun the merry go round too fast. We also were able to have a play date with Agnes for the first time since leaving Bright Horizons. Curie has Natalie and Chloe as friend since pre-school and we want to make sure that Elia has the same opportunity. Elia did go to Eric’s birthday party at the zoo and she and Ezra spent time over summer break, but their parents did not answer when we asked if they wanted to have a play date, so spending time with Agnes was special.
Speaking of Natalie, we went to the Museum with Natalie and the kids and bought drawing pads and pencils to draw pictures of the paintings. We had a pretty amazing and cultural time drawing around the museum. We also went to Huntley Meadows in the month again and counted frogs, over 100 frogs.
We went back to Dishes of India and finally introduced the kids to Indian food. There was a new ramen shop next to the Dishes of India so we went there too. Ironically, it was owned by the same people who own 99c Hotpot. We had a great time drawing the pictures on the walls together. We were full but ordered anyway to try it out. Yido Ramen was excellent, the problem is that their restaurant and Dishes of India caught fire not too long after and will be a while before they reopen.
Erin has introduced the kids to the Bangles, Cyndi Lauper, and the Spice Girls, and the kids ask for “Wannabe” or “Walk Like and Egyptian,” and “Manic Monday,” or “Time After Time.” They dance to it and use it as their alarm. Elia continues to be well tuned to tempo in her dancing and loves to do ballet for us in their dance parties.
Elia continues to be funny and adorable. She works on her funny persona with “look at my booty,” and “doo-doo face.” One day, Albert showed Elia a picture of her in a fake moustache that she got at a birthday party. He asked, “who is this?” And Elia replied “Mr. Moustache. It is you when you were a little girl.” Love it.