Mini Mommy

In my classroom there is a little quote hanging on the wall that says "Highlight my strengths and my weaknesses disappear." I don't know who said that or how this quote got hung on our wall, but this is the philosophy with which I run my classroom AND this is the way we are raising Clementine.

To say this current phase has been trying on us is an understatement. This girl is passionate and independent-minded. When her passion is thwarted or her independence smothered, we will hear about it--as a matter of fact, I think the whole neighborhood will hear about it!

This summer Clementine and I have been taking a Mommy & Me Class at one of the local community colleges here. It's the best thing I ever could have done for us. Our instructor has given me SO many helpful tips, a ton of encouragement and a whole file folder of ideas to try with Clementine.

The first one I grasped onto fit right into our philosophy; give Clementine "chores" and praise the bejesus out of her when she completes these jobs. The idea is that by highlighting what she is doing well, she will want to keep doing well...you get the idea. She was already sweeping (har har), now she has started to help vacuum, fold laundry and pick veggies.

Her most favorite new chore is feeding the dog each night. The first few nights the food just got dumped on the floor (Jack didn't mind one bit) and a few pieces of kibble were taste tested but Clementine has worked at it and now she can get most of the pieces in the bowl. Not only that, she likes to serve as cheerleader while Jack eats his dinner. She rubs his back and talks to him while he eats! Love this girl!

Up until now, we've really tried to keep Clementine's toys gender-neutral. I could say a lot on this issue, but I'll summarize. I didn't want to buy Clementine dolls (or a kitchen, broom, vacuum, etc.) but she clearly loves being a little mommy. I begrudingly bought her a doll last week. *sigh* Clementine loves her doll and that's all that matters.
I asked Clementine what she would like to name her doll and she told me "VanillaMommyDaddy."
I LOVE THIS GIRL!!!

Here is my beautiful girl burping VanillaMommyDaddy after her bottle

A Few More from Kangaroo Zoo

Tonight I was looking through our uploaded pictures from Kangaroo Zoo, thinking about my BFF Chunky Monkey (the pygmy goat) and I realized that I still had a ton of pictures to put on here!


Here is my best friend/goat I tried to steal. While I miss her terribly I am busy coming up with names for my own future pygmy goat that Cam will be getting me for my birthday (I think he's warming up to it). I think I'll go with Cam Jr. It works for either a male OR female!
Clementine's fearlessness amazes a former wall-flower like myself. Clementine is a social creature, she wants in on the action, she is an explorer. I love all these things about her and find them so amazing. She is afraid of nothing and I admire that.
Some of the animals at Kangaroo Zoo are for looking only. Clem wanted as close to those critters as possible. Here she is looking over the fence with a little help from daddy.

Look at this girl! She's just soaking it all in. I love her face!

There she goes!!

And here are the two of us feeding a "handsy" kangaroo. What you can't see on the video is how handsy this guy really is. He came up in my face several times--and this guy had some height! His hands (paws???) easily rested at my chest level. A little intimidating. That's why I'm holding Clem--that and because she kept eating the bread meant for the kangaroos!

Kangaroo Zoo

Saturday we trekked on down to Arlington for a little trip to the Kangaroo Zoo. The weather was perfect and we had such a blast introducing our fearless animal lover to all kinds of new critters.

For me, the best part of Kangaroo Zoo was this kid (get it, kid?). A 3 month old pygmy goat. When we got to the zoo she was lying on the porch greeting visitors. She followed us around the rest of the zoo. She was so cute and very cunning. She could shimmy underneath the fences and followed the group around waiting for rubs and snacks.

Seriously, I was so in love with this pygmy goat I was trying to think of ways to sneak her out with us. We had the stroller and I considered smuggling her out in the stroller. Cam said no. That's ok because I'm going to ask for a pygmy goat for my birthday--then I won't have to weed anymore!

On to the kagaroos! We got to go pet and feed the kangaroos in a couple of the enclosures. There were two guides there and they pointed out which kangaroos were into being pet and which ones to leave alone.

They gave us bread to feed the kangaroos. Clem kept eating the bread (it's ok, it was organic whole wheat) and staring at the other kids on the tour feeding them. I stepped in to guide her in the right direction.

She still didn't get it. But I got to feed the 'roo a bunch of times and that was really fun. They are very sweet and feel like rabbit fur.

As we were getting ready to leave this one's enclosure Clementine stepped on her tail! I mean, really stepped on it! I thought maybe the kangaroo would get angry or punch her, but nothing! Didn't even register.

There were a couple of llamas there, too. Cam made out with one-right in front of me!

Just kidding, we got to feed them alfalfa this way! What a trip!

We also saw peacocks-

and a male tortoise--his mate was sitting on a nest!
We also saw lemurs-

and a crazy ostrich!
Clementine was absolutely fearless on this adventure. There were several other kids on the tour with us that would squeal or run away or hide behind their mom's legs. Not my girl. She would have climbed right into the pens if we weren't looking!

She is a natural animal lover!

Miss Independent

Clementine is one independent minded toddler. She waits for no one. She sees something she wants and goes for it. On this day she spotted something on the counter that she wanted, scooted the bin of 0-6 months clothes that I sorted over, climbed on top and went for it, all without making a peep. And yes, my counter is always this cluttered. I hate it.
Clementine loves to clean. I love letting her have at it. I put her to work this week sweeping the garage.

She has always loved to help vacuum but now she's big enough to actually hold it up and push it. Again, I let her have at it. She's really good at vacuuming--seriously! She goes over the same spot until it is spotless!

Here she is getting vacuuming all the little nooks! Tongue out, of course, and when she found Daddy's sunglasses, she had to put them on! Love this girl!!!

Around the House This Morning

The countdown is on till I go back to school next week. I am sad to be going back to work because that means less time with Clem, no more puttering around the house and certainly no more naps for me!
At the beginning of summer I thought my mile-long to-do list was completely attainable. For the most part, I have gotten quite a lot of it done but the two biggest, most expensive projects (landscaping the backyard, painting and tiling our master suite) just didn't make the cut.

I did complete a lot of little projects (which always seemed to turn out bigger than I planned for). Here are a few of them:

Of course, the yard work--OH THE YARD WORK!!! The hours of weeding I've put into this yard are numerous. The number of dump runs Cam has taken with the bed of his truck packed full of yard waste has been ridiculous. And I still haven't touched the weeds on the north side of the house! EEK!
Here's what my veggies were doing this morning. Mostly basking in the sun. I love checking out their overnight progress. It seems like while I am sleeping all the produce is getting ready for me.
Look at this little surprise I found! Our first pumpkin! There are many many other starts in there but they just look like tight green fists. This guy is bigger than my fist and truly orange! YAY!

Another set of roses rescued from Cam's work several months ago! I doubted their survival but here they are! Their first set of blooms!

The other day I mentioned that our sunflowers were in an awkward teenage phase. Most of them still are but one decided to show it's pretty face to the word this morning! A yellow cheerful sunflower-our first-that was so full of bees this morning that the flower seemed to be humming!

Back inside the house I had several small projects that got ticked off the list.

I have been trying to fill in all the white walls this summer. Our green dining room wall became a picture wall with all of our favorite photos. When Clementine finishes eating, she gets up from her seat and goes down the row of pictures here saying "Baby, baby, baby, MAMA! Baby, baby, DADDY!"

I realize that I haven't put up pictures of Clementine's cheery room before. Clementine's room is the happiest room in our house. This summer, I've been working toward making this more a little girl's room rather than a baby's. I didn't have to do much. We've added a few details; like the flower and butterfly wall decals. I just put these up a few days ago and Clementine loves them. I also made the green pompoms in the corner there. I think I will add a few more to really fill this space in.

Clementine's changing table and summer dresses hanging up.

More decals on the entrance wall and closet doors.

As my favorite designer, David Bromstad, would say-this quilt was our "color inspiration" for Clementine's room. Great Aunt Jill made this pink and green Beatrix Potter quilt for Clem and we love it. It's so cheerful and we used the colors here throughout the rest of the room.

Lynden Fair

Last weekend we trekked on over to Lynden for the County Fair. I love fairs. I have very fond memories of the half days the UP school district would issue so that we could all skip school and go to the fair. They even passed out free tickets so everyone could go! Those were the good ol' days.

Enough about me, let's talk about Clementine's first fair experience. She LOVED it!
She got to try cotton candy for the first time: And check out all the animals. Cows are a big deal to this little girl. That's putting it mildly, actually. Clementine is obsessed with cows. Since we moved to the sticks we regularly see cows, horses and goats on our commute to town each day (I LOVE IT). In the car, Clem points out every single animal we see and will often say "OH WOW!" or "OH BOY!" then she follows these exclamations with the animal's sound. She can do almost all of them but cows are definitely the big winners.
When we entered the cow exhibits Clementine nearly worked herself into a frenzy. She was squealing and moo-ing her little heart out. It created quite a spectacle. We were able to get quite close to all the cows and we even got to see cows giving birth (I felt sorry for them). We spent the most time here letting Clem get her fill.

Then we got Clementine a turn on the merry-go-round. I wasn't sure how this would go and if she would stay seated. She did a great job and loved the ride.

In true Clementine fashion she had to check out how this operation worked.

Look at this big kid loving her carousel ride!

I wish the fair was every weekend!

The Last Days of Summer Break

Our summer vacation days are numbered so we are filling them up with as much fun as possible!

My Mama Mentor Janna has so many ideas for keeping busy girls entertained. She suggested this one for me. We got a bucket of soapy water and old scrub brushes and Clementine and I scrubbed down her playhouse. She loved it! Thanks Janna!

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Here are my enormous sunflowers. They are about 7 feet tall now and still don't have their faces!!

Here is what they do have; weird spiky face starts. You can tell they want to turn yellow and cheery but right now they are still gangly and awkward. This must be their teenage phase.

And here is what we pulled off the vine the other day. A bunch of cherry tomatoes and four beefy tomatoes. Only one pepper this year! Weird. The squash and the pumpkins are growing but will need more time.

Something strange is happening to my beefy tomatoes. They are mostly liquid inside and I don't know why! My little cherry tomatoes are fine but the beefy ones are just mush--even though their skin is unblemished!

Does anyone know why this is happening???

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We took a quick trip this week to our favorite spot in Whatcom Co. Hovander Park! I love this place!

Clem was sitting on the fence calling to the cows (which she calls "cooos") that were way off in the distance. I love pictures of her on fences!

We love Hovander because of the animals, of course, but there is so much for a busy almost-2 year old to do! There are plenty of wide open spaces to explore, old equipment to inspect and excellent portrait potential. This one isn't the great portrait, but I love her hair in this one! Isn't it getting so long!?? It's very exciting for me.

Gobbling with the turkeys

And the required bench hopping

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I am pretty sure Clementine is the messiest eater in the world. Learning to self feed means we go through a lot of rags, shirts and stain treater with this one. She is learning to get more self control with her eating utensils and drinking from a big girl cup--but push pops really are a little more difficult to master.