Elia turns 6 months! Who knew that birth order had such an impact in raising children? With Curie we had all the time in the world to marvel at her milestones and growth, with Elia, we blink and it is six months, she can roll from back to front, has started teething, can hold an 0-ball, can put her pacifier back in her mouth, loves her exersaucer, is scooting along and has learned to sit (whew!), all in one month. With Curie, Albert would exercise her legs, hold her middle up with a blanket so that she could experience the sensation of crawling to practice, balance her to help her sit (okay everyone said Albert was trying too hard), with Elia, we have to split our attention between the two children while still managing all the other parts of life.
The other day, Jim and Brenda were taking care of Curie (or should I say Curie was playing with Brenda and Jim?), and we had a moment on the bed with just Elia, and Albert remarked, this is what it was like with Curie, and we realized that Elia does not get as much attention as Curie did even though we try otherwise. Then, Albert (a middle child) had the realization that with a third child, the oldest child can then help with the middle child and the youngest gets more attention. But, we are only having two, so Elia will be the “baby.”
This month we drove up to the Cape for Grampy’s funeral after our flight was canceled and Elia had her first car ride to New England. She did great and had the most sleep of all of us. She was quiet at the service and charmed Marsha when she woke. We went to Ottawa as we said in Curie’s blog entry and Albert let Elia fall off of a low bench at Taylor and Eric’s house which caused quite the scare (Erin did the same with Curie at the same age). All is well though.
Elia is happy and outgoing, she loves to get attention and will cry when left alone. She loves holding things and exploring the feels and textures of what she touches. She has started solids with baby food, though hates rice cereal. She loves bananas, and peas and eats the best while watching TV (don’t we all?). Curie loves her sister and calls her “sweetheart” and “honey” all the time. She smiles when you sing, when you pick her up, when you just enter the room. She lights up when she hears Curie or Erin and lights us up when she smiles.
Yes she is the second of our children, and yes, it is harder to make sure we take a picture a day, and yes, she has to sit a little longer because more than one child is fussy (we include Albert or Erin in this category depending on who is tired – meaning we can have up to four tired children), but that doesn’t change the fact that she is our daughter and we love her every bit as much. And on top of it all she also has Curie who loves her dearly, one more than when Curie was born. Oh and that last picture with the cute dress? Elia pooped on it right after we took her picture. She is in a cute overall today.
BTW people have been saying she looks like Julie, anyone else think so?
