Always an Adventure

We don't do things the easy way in this house. Everyday is an adventure for all three of us as we stumble our way through each new experience.

Every morning is pretty hectic as the three of us try to leave by 7:45 am each day. Gone are the days when I had literally sweat my make-up off by 7:30 in an effort to make lunches, locate shoes, change diaper (which always seemed to become magically full again just as we were walking out the door), find cell phone, etc. We seemed to have hit our stride, each of us our own tasks to do and 7:45 had started to seem easy.

Until this morning....the routine morning went just as planned. We were actually a smidge early for once! Cam and Clementine were walking to the car as I locked the handle on our front door and closed it. My hand may have been off the knob for just under a millisecond when Cam said "I don't have the keys."
I didn't have them either.
And my coat was in the car.
So was Clementine's coat.

Did I mention it was raining?

Luckily our neighbor was home. She lent us a baby girl coat sized Clementine and a phone book to call a locksmith. While Cam made the call, Clementine discovered the neighborhood cats laying in the middle of the road. Why, oh why, couldn't they be in a yard? Clementine would not take "We don't play in the road with strange cats" for an answer. So she proceeding to have a major temper tantrum on the sidewalk. She dramatically rolled around in the cold wet pavement as I shouted "CAM! Tell the Locksmith to HURRY!" (My favorite part of the morning had to be when the folks across the street left for work and were witnesses to Clementine rolling on the ground, screaming bloody murder. The neighbors seemed to get a real kick out of this as they drove past us, waving and laughing.)

The three of us waited for the Locksmith on our front porch. We pulled out all of our distract-the-baby tricks: cell phone, apple, peekaboo. It took the locksmith nearly 45 minutes to get to our house and less than a minute to open our door.

Good times.

Oh, No

Clementine has been adding a lot of words to her vocabulary in the last few weeks. Last week, she learned five new words (see below). This week she only learned one new word, but it's a doozy. It's one I'd hoped we could put off for awhile.

This morning I asked Clementine if she was all done with breakfast. She looked at me like I was crazy, powerfully shook her head and said "No!"

Oh lord have mercy.

Naturally

Clementine loves whatever musical instrument that Cameron loves. Lately, that's been his drum set.
Here she is helping daddy play drums this week:


And, of course, the drum stick goes right into her mouth.

Clementine by Numbers

It's official! Clementine is a true toddler now. 18 months old; 100% genius.
18 months is my new favorite age. There are so many fun(ny) things to do with (to) this little lady!

I was going to do another "18 facts about this 18 month old" type blog, but I don't think I have 18 facts!
Let's see how far we get:

1. In the last week, Clementine has learned five new words (go, Kirby, pee-pee, night-night, and bear). Thankfully she is still oblivious to swear words
2. She is 32.5 inches tall
3. She weighs 27.75 lb
4. Her head circumference is off the charts. It's 50 cm! The developmental pediatrician had to be consulted! My head is also larger than average (58 cm) and Cam's is Guiness World Record worthy (64 cm). We had to be measured to make sure this enormous melon is genetic rather than worrisome.
5. Her favorite food is red bell peppers. It's gotten to be such an issue that before heading into the produce aisle I have to give her my keys or a packet of sticky notes to distract her. Once her sights are set on red bell peppers, there is nothing else in this world that matters more.
6. She has started singing and it's so beautiful! She sings like a woeful mariachi band "Aye yi yi yi......aye yi yi yi!!"
7. She knows where her belly button and nose are
8. She knows where my belly button is and likes to show strangers we meet in public this fascinating part of my body
9. She knows what a dog, cat, lizard and duck say
10. She can sign "more," "all done," and "friend". We're working on "please" and "poop"
11. She can kick a ball
12. She can CLIMB!
13. She loves to brush her teeth
14. She has discovered our cat Penny's tail. She has the scratches to prove it
15. She has 12 teeth totally in--three are working their way through the gums
16. She still thinks anything that fits in her hand and has buttons is a telephone. She makes a lot of phone calls--they mostly go like this: "Hello? Hi. Yeah. Hi. Yeah. Yeah." click.
17. She can destroy a shelf full of books in less than 5 seconds
18. She loves food but always seems to want what's on my plate more than she wants what's on her own!

We are so in love with this little bug of ours. She is such a sweetheart and she spreads joy to everyone she meets.

Our Plantation

This weekend we put together what I like to call a little vegetable garden.
It's nothing fancy but it's our first so I'm excited.

Before:



After:
Yes, I already put stakes in so that poor pepper doesn't fall over.

I Love This House volume 1

There is so much to love about this house; let me count the ways:

1. Love the storage
2. Love the skylights
3. Love that the roar of frogs at night is deafening
4. Love our fenced backyard (and so does Jack)
5. Love that the sun seems to flood our home at all hours of the day
6. Love the sunsets we see from the front porch
7. Love Clementine's cheery purple bedroom
8. Love my deck
9. Love the blank canvas (that would be our walls)
10. Love that it is ours

Easter

Easter this year felt like an actual Easter. Clem was able to help dye and find Easter eggs, we ate too much candy and the sky poured buckets and buckets-making it impossible to get outside this day!


The Easter Bunny came to our house during Clementine's afternoon nap. Her basket was filled with peeps, egg shaped sidewalk chalk and new pink spring sandals for more walks on the beach.


Clementine LOVED finding the Easter eggs. She loved it so much she hid them all in Cam's shoe and wanted us to experience the same joy. She was very pleased with herself.



She did not, however, love eating Peeps. She took one bite then tried to feed the rest to me or Jack. Neither of us were takers, so she wiped chewed up Peep on her drums. That was a fun treat for me to wipe up!