Quarantined

I have neglected this blog and I must apologize. Our house has been under quarantine so pictures have been the last thing on my mind lately. Cam and I shared the stomach flu earlier this week and now Clem has a very drippy cold and an achy ear infection! Our poor girl.

Now that we are all starting to feel a bit better, I've been trying to take some pictures of the beauty queen. Here is a montage of the last few days:

Here is Clementine sitting in her high chair playing with a clear plastic lid. I think she looks funny.

Needless to say, there have been a whole lot of naps happening around here. I woke up from one of my naps to find Clementine and Cameron napping together on the couch. By the time I found the camera and came back, Clem was wide awake and quietly giggling to herself. Cam didn't even wake up!
I made a big pot of rice and Clem wanted to try some. It wasn't a huge hit but it was a huge mess.

At daycare there are all these raised tables for the babies to play on. I didn't even know Clementine was ready for this kind of toy but one day while dropping her off, she crawled over, stood up and played for awhile. We are so lucky because a friend gave us her gently used table toy! That very same day, I took it out of storage and had it ready for the beauty queen when she got home from school! She loves it!!!!
And here is a new favorite from Cam. Clementine is playing under the desk with an empty video game box. Cam says this is a sign she's ready to start playing video games with him.

Sharing is Caring

The adventures of daycare continue....

Clem's teacher reports that Clementine was holding and playing with a little rattly elephant a few days ago. A baby friend crawled up to play next to her and he was playing with a rattly tractor. Clementine was fascinated in the tractor he was playing with and suddenly the elephant wasn't as appealing. She offered him the elephant. He took it and held both toys for a few minutes. Clementine waited patiently and when she saw that her plan to distract this baby friend had worked, she took the tractor she wanted in the first place. How in the world did this girl learn to do this? She's an only child and has only been in daycare for eight days (not that I'm counting or anything)!
There's only one explanation for this amazing skill: she's a genius!


Keeping with the theme of sharing, I found enough kindness in my heart to pass the stomach flu along to Cameron. He appreciates the gesture, I'm sure.

Daycare Day 3

Today was Clementine's third day of daycare. Apparently, I am the only one having a hard time adjusting to this transition.

Dropping Clementine off in the morning was something I anticipated being difficult. Yeah, it's not. Once she's in her classroom and set down she crawls away from me so fast she leaves me standing in the dust! She can't wait to see what all of her new friends are doing. I'm not kidding when I say she is the most social creature I've ever known.
The last few days I have been sort of hanging out awhile to make sure she adjusts. But I'm ready to admit here that it's really a time for me to adjust. She doesn't notice or care if I stick around! She's too busy climbing, rolling, visiting her friends and kissing the mirror in her classroom.

I'm relieved that Clementine likes school so much. She has been having so much fun that she's plum tuckered out by the end of the day. I miss her while she's there during the day but I know she's happy and safe there. This is a big change for our little family but the new normal is a happy one.

I see so much of Cameron in our offspring. The cute button nose, the sweet little chin, those to-die-for eyelashes (I'm jealous I don't have those beauties) and her enormous feet. But every once in awhile, I see that she got a few of my attributes.

Take this picture for instance:

There are so many fabulous things to say about this picture: how much I love these two people, what a fun day we had, that Cam was wearing both long Carhart pants with TWO shirts (one of them long sleeved) in 90 degree whether.

Let me get back to my point, Clementine has one or two of my attributes. That hairline is definitely mine. But this picture shows the most unmistakable trait she got from me. Those EARS! I passed along the gene for large pixie ears to my beautiful bald baby. Eventually she will grow hair long enough to cover those babies but for now she's working 'em!

During the heat wave I gave Clementine my empty, super freezing cold glass. She loved playing with the cup. It cooled her down and it didn't take long for her to notice that if she growled or yelled into the cup, the sound was pretty funny.

Notice the *actual* baby toys scattered around the floor. All those choices and she goes for a cold glass!

She got a little carried away growling into the glass. This made Jack concerned for his baby sister. He came right over to investigate.

Jack is a very protective older brother. Clementine is a very goofy little baby.

Social Butterfly

Our little Clementine has always been a social creature; she takes after her father (har har). She loves to meet babies in the grocery store, pass other babies in strollers when we are out on walks and she lives for baby play dates.

Naturally, daycare is like Disney World to Clementine. She officially started this week. Yesterday I stayed there for about an hour before letting her stay and play for nearly two hours. Clementine did great, it was *ME* bawling like a 9 month old as I walked from her classroom to the parking lot! Seriously, I did the ugly cry and everything. I was crying so much I scared the dog when I got home!! (What? I'm sensitive!) Today was better; I did not cry at all and Clementine got to stay and play for 3 hours! She loved it! As soon as we pulled into the school's parking lot Clem was excited, kicking her feet and smiling. She's such a grown up girl!

She's a0lready picking up new habits--so far they are good ones. She is making new sounds, climbing better than ever and she slept wonderfully last night! Love that!

As much as I miss her during the day, I know how much fun she is having at school. She loves her new friends and is having a blast at daycare.

Bounce House

Clementine had her first experience in a Bounce House last week.
At first it was pretty fun...
she had the whole place to herself!

But then she realized she had the whole place to herself and wasn't so sure she liked that...

and like all good things, too much is just too much.


See her teeth?? Let me zoom in so you can get a good look in there!

Big Adventures

This weekend, Clementine and I went down to U.P. to spend the weekend at Ya-Ya's. Since it's a three hour drive each way, we broke up the road trip with a few stops.

First, we stopped to see our friends Madeleine and Bella!

Can you tell these kidlets are used to having their pictures taken!? Look at these adorable subjects!

Clementine loves to play with kids and especially babies around the same size as her. Bella is about 8 months older than Clementine but they had fun holding hands and reading books together.

There's Janna, my Mama-Mentor. She's helped get me through the last 9.5 months and talked me down off my freak-out ledge more times than I can count.
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After our play date we continued south to pick up portraits we had done a few months ago. Clementine was sick of being in the car by this time and the temperature was above 85 degrees! More poor girl was Over It and needed a break. We pulled over in the Marie Callender's parking lot in Federal Way, found some shade and chilled in the front seat having a bottle together.

Clementine liked sitting shotgun with mama with the air conditioning on and a delicious, cool bottle.

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We finished our errand in Federal Way, went to visit Ya-Ya at work then went to the mall. What a busy day!

The next morning we just chilled a bit as the temperatures were over 90 degrees on Saturday! Clem and Ya-ya hung out kissin' on the couch.


My cousin Brian was home from Japan so we went to a delicious BBQ with the whole fam at Aunt Carolyn's. Clementine had fun being a ham and entertaining the crowd.

*******

Now we're back in Bellingham, the weather is finally cooling off and we're ready to start our new normal routine that will include daycare. Clementine is excited to go to school (she told me so herself), I'm excited to start this new stage in our lives but I sure will miss our morning nap and free-f0r-all-snuggles!

Is that my daughter?? I think I can see all the way up to her brain!


Here are some Clementine updates:
**She is 17lb 7oz--putting her in the 20th percentile for weight and 28 inches long which puts her in the 40th percentile for height!! YAY! We finally broke out of the fifth percentile for height and weight!!!!
**She is super giggly all the time
**She talks and sings all the time. She says things like ma-ma, mo-mo, da-da, and wheeeeeeeeeeewwwwww. She still likes to blow raspberries and pat her mouth while she sort of hums to make funny sounds.
**She has learned to share and take turns in the last few days--she will chew in a washcloth, hairbrush, binky, remote control, etc. then offer me a turn to chew on it. Once I brush her hair in the morning, she wants to hold the brush to my hair, too! It's adorable!
**She is in love with Jack. At least nine times a day I have to say things like "Stop licking the dog!" Jack loves all the kisses he's getting. Unfortunately I caught the two of them french-kissing under the desk yesterday. Blech.

Uncooperative subject

It's pretty rare that Clementine takes a bad picture. She's one photogenic child (she did NOT get this from me) so most pictures of her just turn out adorably (if I do say so myself!). But last week we went to Aunty Sissy's house where I discovered that on her couch, during midday sun, the light is perfect for portraits. Unfortunately, I had an uncooperative/sleepy child who just did not want to smile or laugh. Instead I got the following pictures of Clementine's newest expressions.

Here's "What the heck, mom?" look. She must have recently discovered her eyebrows. She furrows them at me all the time.

The "Something waaay more interesting is over there" expression with sleepy sleepy eyes
The forced half-smile
And this one; the one where she chews on her poor little lips with her sharp shark-like teeth. Oh, those poor little lips.

Nudey-Patootie

Clementine has learned to say "I hate wearing clothes." Well, not in so many words but in her actions. In the last month, Clem has started taking her clothes off while she plays. She also takes her bib off while she eats. Come to think of it, she has alsomanaged to stretch out every single one of my shirts as she uses them to pull herself up to standing. Maybe she just hates clothes in general.

Here she is last week after she got free of her shirt
And today when she woke up from her nap

Sand in the City

Last weekend, we went to the Sand in the City Festival at Squalicum Harbor (where Sissy got married). There were some really cool sand sculptures there--and some that had sadly been washed away by the rain.

Atlantis in Sand (this one won first place)

Horton in sand

Kayaker and Whales in sand
My personal favorite, Wishing Well and butt-crack in sand

Drummmrollllll Please!

After countless hours, numerous trips to the Post Office, five interviews and 16 applications (seriously 16) sent around this little town...I have finally procured myself a job!

If I had sat down and dreamt up a job for myself it would look an awful lot like this one. I am now a half time Title I teacher at a very nearby school. (Title I is a federally funded program to help schools that aren't yet making Adequate Yearly Progress [AYP] toward state/district goals in Reading and Math on standardized tests).

Remember that Master's degree I finished about five weeks ago? I earned my Master's in Reading. In my new job I will be teaching struggling readers how to read better (I did that teaching 4th grade of course but this will be exclusively working with struggling readers).

This fabulous new job of mine will start out as half time and potentially become full time (or somewhere in between) once things get settled in the fall. This will give me time to settle into a routine with Clementine where she goes to daycare (*sob*) and I actually take a shower and get dressed in the morning (what? The dishes and laundry don't care if I've showered right now!) Clementine starts daycare in 10 days and I start my job about a week after that.

Cameron is already searching for houses online and I have the itch to buy school supplies and put up bulletin boards. On Friday Clementine went to the Pediatrician where there were several little girls there her age looking at the same fish tank. She immediately forgot about the fish and was fascinated by everything the other baby girls were doing. She waved and smiled to them and was pulling out all her friendly tricks. Seeing Clementine's happiness around other babies makes me feel so relieved about starting daycare. I think this is going to be a good start for all three of us.

Growin' Up

First there was this:
Clementine learned how to drink from a Sippy cup seemingly overnight. She's had the cup for weeks but has been ignoring the spout, preferring to lick the sides, handles and top of the cup instead. Finally, she discovered the spout and how to use it! Around the same time she learned to take good sips from a regular cup, too, but she can't hold onto those cups quite so well. This girl loves to drink water.


Then one day she was unusually quiet in the play pen. She wasn't sleeping; she'd figured THIS out!
Is there anything cuter than a sleepy-faced baby in yellow footie pajamas??

Obviously, the play pen's days are numbered. It's only a matter of time before she figures out how to turn the bucket of blocks over and use that as a step stool for her master escape plan.

These days she's standing in her play pen, using the couch to hold onto to stand and yesterday morning I went to her room when she woke up and she was standing in her crib licking the railing from end to end. She's such a goofball.

Poor Jack

Since Clementine learned to crawl, Jack has taken more than his fair share of harassment.

Clementine loves her brother but has a hard time expressing that love in canine terms. Instead, she shows him with her own special brand of affection.

The word "gentle" means nothing to our girl.
Notice the firm grip on Poor Jack's ear and the resulting bug eyed look:




Throughout all of these displays of affection, Jack is cool, calm and collected. He knows Clementine's intentions are good. He waits patiently while we show Clementine how to pet gently. For awhile things are more tender. And just as we begin to think Clem's got the idea.....

She body slams Poor Jack.

He is one patient big brother.