Elia Turns One. Elia has not decided to walk yet, but on December 9th, Albert witnessed Elia standing by herself (rather he stood her up and she didn’t fall). December 10th is the official day, because – Erin says it didn’t count if she didn’t see it. Elia stands in spite of herself is probably a better description. she can balance when you put her in a standing position, but sits down to crawl immediately after when she is interested in something else.
Elia has five teeth, three teeth for most of the month, two top one bottom, and on her birthday two more breaking through one on top and one on the bottom. She will have the same little gap Curie does. With Curie, teeth began coming in, but with Elia, her second tooth was actually bloody (which Albert has always wondered why they weren’t) but the others have been without incident, we think her first tooth on the bottom cut the gum letting the second tooth come in. Yes a little explicit, so here is the cute thing, Curie likes to brush them, infants have a little training brush you put on your finger, and Curie likes brushing Elia’s teeth (more than she does brushing her own).
People said that we would take fewer pictures of our second, which obviously became a challenge to Albert. But it is true, there were fewer pictures even at the beginning because there were two children to take care of, not because we cared any less nor that we did not try any harder. The days are consumed with the routine and the stress; being worn out day-to-day is balanced by the excitement of discovery, and the joy of unadulterated love. Someone told Erin recently that the second child is harder than the third or fourth because they become old enough to help at that point – it is hard to imagine. Our friends with two say you can play man-to-man, and that playing zone would be so much harder. In any case, Elia also has a picture every day for the first year, and starting next month (even though we will continue to try to take a picture a day) we will switch to the six picture collage that we have been using for Curie.
This month, as mentioned, we went to California for Thanksgiving, where Albert’s parents saw Elia for the first time, she developed separation anxiety there but was good with Albert’s mom, by the time we went to Massachusetts to visit, Erin’s parents, it was in full bore where Elia needed to have “Muh-muh” or “Dadada” (by the way, not real words yet, just sounds she makes when we are around) instead of others. In Marshfield, Elia became particularly attached to Albert, seeking him out and wanting to be held by him. In Disneyland, Small World was Elia’s favorite ride, she was on her feet holding the bar rocking most of the trip.
Elia likes taking an empty confection can, or cup and say “aaah” into it, probably because it makes such a good vibrating sound. Albert likes to make whatever noise Elia is making (even if it means screaming nose-to-nose in glee at a supermarket), so Albert took the cup and copied her, then gave the cup back. THEN, Elia made her noise for a while and handed the cup back to Albert to play again. She and Albert traded this (at 10 PM mind you) for nine or ten times. Now if you want her to play you just get an empty cup and watch her smile before she begins the game again. She does play the drop-the-thing-so-you-can-pick-it-up game, but not nearly as much as the cup game.
Elia went to holiday parties at both Erin and Albert’s work charming people as she went. She is a good traveler like Curie, and loved the Sky Club lounge because she could wander off in relative safety. She still wants to play with whatever toy Curie is playing with (and she will for years to come) triggering the “no Elia!” response from Curie. Both kids want Mommy when they are tired or frustrated, which makes bed time especially hard for Erin. Like Curie at the same age, she likes to say “lalalalala” put things into containers and take them out again,
Friday was Elia’s birthday and we while we took Curie to school, we took Elia to lunch by herself so that she could have some uninterrupted Mommy and Daddy time. We gave her her first taste of cake at lunch, which she loved (Curie on her first birthday was unsure so passed her smash cake out to everyone). That evening, we went to a restaurant, opened presents, and had a cake with Julie and Steve; every present became Curie’s new toy (only because it was new) for a while Elia was truly happy to have new toys of her own, nearly beaning us in the head with the giraffe.
Tomorrow we had planned to have a bigger celebration with friends (it is also Albert’s birthday) but it is a little touch and go right now with Erin’s Nana so we are waiting to see how things turn out. It was beautiful seeing Nana hold Elia, when we went up earlier; they got to spend some time together and it was heart felt seeing them span the generations. In times like this, holding your children close and understanding that aging is balanced by new life is some consolation: “baby therapy” we call it, but it is a little more, it is the understanding that we are part of a bigger continuum and there is solace in that. We have sat awake many a night watching our children sleep, sometimes in the glow of late night television soothing the infant, or whichever one is fussier, the warmth of holding them reminds us of the miracles they are and the importance of being grateful for what we have.
We are praying for you Nana.
