WWU Reunion

On President's Day my old Western roomates and I got together for a little reunion! This is the first time we've all been together in six years or so! Kirsten, Julie, Bekki and I all lived on the third floor at Buchanan Towers @ WWU 12 years ago (12 years???!!!) and the following year, Kirsten, Bekki, Cristi and I were roomates (Cristi couldn't come this time). Now Kirsten lives in Minnesota but she came out with her family for the Olympics.
We met in Fairhaven for brunch, then went shopping and hung out on the Village Green. Then we went up to Western and walked around reminiscing. Here we are in Red Square sitting at the fountain.

And here we are outside the Viking Union with all the offsprings. Mine couldn't be there because she'd been throwing up! Sad!

But a few days later, Kirsten and her family came to stay at our house. Their daughter Lenyn is one year younger than Clementine. Clem loved having a "baby" in the house and wanted to hold her--even though Lenyn is a little walking, independent cutie pie!

It was fun seeing the girls play together. Clementine and Lenyn loved hugging one another. Look at these cute, blonde future WWU roomates!

Kirsten and I with our girls.

Gay BINGO

Sissy's 27th birthday was a few weeks ago and she deemed it the perfect opportunity to cross one thing she's been meaning to do off her bucket list: GAY BINGO!
First we got ready at her house putting on gobs of make-up and I did her hair! We don't even look like exhausted mommies to toddlers here! Then we went to dinner and headed over to the Center of the Universe (Fremont). Gay BINGO is a monthly event and it is a HUGE one! All the proceeds go to fight AIDS. We had such a blast!

I think Sissy enjoyed it, too!

We had our own table reserved and there were all kinds of goodies-hot pictures of half naked dudes and "I Saw You" cards (that's an important part of the night).

It was such a big deal, Tina Fey even came out! Just kidding, that's my BFF Emma but she looks like Tina Fey with her glasses! AND she's just as witty.

Here's Sissy with her friend Heather.

Everyone knows I love to embarass Sissy whenever possible. This was a doozy and I wish I could claim it as my idea! Meg's friends Jodi and Rochelle came up with this one and it was hilarious! They sent it to the emcee of the event who announced it to the entire crowd.

She loved it! Happy Birthday Sissy!

She's drunk (kidding-only mortified).

More from Gymnastics 2.0

Here are a few more videos of Clementine at Gymnastics. She is swinging from the bar, balancing on the beam and tipping over the "house" mat.

This was a few weeks ago-each week it's changed up a little. This week, Clementine learned to touch her toes to the bar while she hangs, crouch down through an obstacle on the balance beam and more practicing somersaults, of course!

More from Gymnastics

Somersaults on the Couch

Here is my little engineer. She has set up her own gym.

Her little arm chair is behind the couch. She climbs it and propels herself forward for somersaults on the sectional!

Clementine this week

For Valentine's day, Cam and I let Clementine pick out her first pair of big girl panties (to accompany her big girl Pull-Ups, of course). She choose a pack of My Pretty Pony underpants. Somehow this small purchase was the push she needed. Clementine has been using the potty pretty much since!
Clementine now runs to the bathroom saying "Pee pee....potty...potty...daddy!" and Cam follows behind, gets her all set up and then leaves the room, closing the door behind. We've discovered the only chance of getting that pee pee in the potty is with the door closed-she likes privacy? Just wait till she discovers this blog!
So, she's done it! She seems to be mostly potty trained. That's not how I thought it would go (a phrase I repeated 200 times a day, at least) but it worked! Best $3.99 I ever spent!

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Here's a conversation I had with Clementine today on the way home from school:
"Clem! I missed you! Did you have so much fun at school today?"-me
"No fun!"-she (melodramatically)
"Did you get a snack?"
"No snack!"
"Did you go outside in the sunshine to play?"
"No outside."
"Did you play baby dolls and crawl through the tunnel with your friends?"
"No friends."
"Well, you must have gone pee pee in the potty today!"
"No potty."
"What was for lunch today?"
"No lunch."

She is 2 going on 13.

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Our entire world revolves around potty these days (can you tell?). We are always talking about it, always asking her about it.
Clementine wanted to play teacher/mommy this week and she asked me to lay down on a pillow that had fallen on the floor. "Lay down, mommy," she says to me. I oblige and she brings over the fuzzy green blanket, places it over my back and rubs me. I love it so I pretend to sleep.
"Night night, Mommy, " she says and starts to walk away. In a heartbeat, she's back--I hope it's to rub my back some more. But instead, she lifts up the back of my jeans, looks down and says "Mommy? Are you poopy?"
It's hard to pretend sleep when your giggling so hard tears are rolling down your cheeks.

Happy Heart Day

Clementine slept in this morning until 8 and I thought to myself "Gee whiz, this Valentine's day is off to a great start!" I made her heart-shaped blueberry waffles, sipped my coffee and we giggled and planned a lovely day together.

And all that went out in an instant an hour later when those blueberry waffles (and everything this girl has eaten, EVER) was yakked into my lap, on the couch, the carpet, etc. I trudged into the bedroom where Cam was still sleeping, dragging my shocked, dripping wet girl behind me. Without a single complaint, that man o' mine jumped out of bed, checked on Clementine and then cleaned the whole mess up while Clementine and I hosed off in the shower.

The day's plans would have to be rescheduled.

The rest of the day, our girl was glued to my side. Blanket, binky (eeek!), mommy. She let me hold her close, kiss her cheeks, play with her hair, and--get this--she napped in my bed with me! We watched Enchanted and Kung Fu Panda while sipping broth and 7Up, all three of us huddled together on the couch with every single cuddly blanket we own. When the coast was clear, we blew bubbles on the deck and admired all the growth in the yard.

This Valentine's day contained zero romance and all the wrong kind of excitement, but I got to spend it with two people I love more than I could ever explain. Wouldn't change a thing.

Clementine rocking out this morning with Cam's guitar.

She's singing "E I E I Oooooo" here!

Latest Project

Here is our latest (AND LAST) painting project.
We painted all the white walls on the first floor brown. We liked the green and wanted to compliment it. I think we did a pretty darn good job! David Braumstad would be proud!

Wrestle Baby Mania

I always thought our little girl would be a quiet, dainty, little wallflower. I imagined that we'd spend our days playing tea party, reading books and snuggling. Imagine my surprise over the last few years to discover that our offspring is the polar opposite of a dainty little lady. She is a rough and tumble girl! She loves to be scared (i.e. Daddy jumping out from behind darkened doorway), she loves to catapault herself off of things (i.e. the back of the couch) and she loves to wrestle.

This is our nightly routine. After dinner, we wrestle. Usually it's just Cam and Clementine and my wrestling typically takes the form of blowing blubbers and tickling.
Here I am blowing blubbers on the crook of her neck. You can tell she's just about to scream "UNCLE!"
And here is Cam givin' it his all! I love this picture so so much.
Most people don't know how theatrical Cameron is. It's pretty surprising actually. While wrestling he really puts on a show!
I love that Clementine is cracking up and licking his arm here!

A Sneak Peak

Clementine is such a big girl, she got to transition to the next-aged class at school already. It's for 2.5-3 year olds (Clem is 2 years 3 months) but she is ready (I am really grateful to have Clementine in a place that thinks outside the box, that takes into consideration what she is ready for and where her needs will be met best).

Clementine's best friends Taylor and Matthew were already in that classroom being a few months older. She was thrilled to join in (and we're thrilled that potty training is being taken to the next level).

I didn't realize that moving to this "big kid" classroom would mean I'd get a super early sneak peak of Clementine as a pre-teen. On her second day in this class, I walked her in and hung her coat on the hook as usual. Only on this day, when I leaned in to kiss her goodbye, she put her hand on my kissy lips and hissed at me: "Stop, Mama. Go." And then she marched away from me without even looking back.

Ouch.

FINALLY! Gymnastics

We finally got a new camera! Nothing fancy, as a matter of fact, we got it from a vending machine! But it does the trick and we took some great pictures of Clementine at gymnastics! (More to come, soon!)
Here she is bouncing on the spring board


And crawling through the Tunnel of Love



Bouncing with Daddy on the spring board


With super excited mommy on the balance beam


Doing an assisted somersault


What's going on here? Oh boy, this is a little high for me!!


Oh jeez!


Our beautiful gymnast



Clem doing the zip line with Teacher Tracy!


Clementine loves gymnastics class so so much. She just radiates happiness and pride while we're there! She loves the zip line and parachute most of all. She does the zip line over and over and over again until Teacher puts it away!