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!

Taste Sensation

Meg got me the most amazing birthday gift *E*V*E*R*! Her birthday is mere weeks away and I've got to find a way to top her! ;)

Check out her blog to see how our tasty tour of Seattle went!

http://meganclingman.blogspot.com/2010/01/chocolate.html

Look What I Can Do!

Tonight Clementine moved her mini lazy-boy chair over to the side of the couch, climbed up the chair, stood on the arm of the couch and jumped off. She sang "Happy Happy Nolan" the whole way home from school (a song that Cameron insists does not exist). She took off her own zipped up coat, velcro-ed shoes and too tight socks (without help from Mama). She did two somersaults (with help from Mama). She "stole" daddy's seat at dinner and pretended nothing was unusual about that. She helped me empty the dishwasher then tried to lick every dirty dish I put back in there. She refused to take bites of her dinner and instead swallowed several whole pieces at once. She laughed. She cried. She sat in time out (twice). She emptied the linen closet of all towels and washcloths and crawled inside to giggle and hide. She wrestled with Daddy and lost. She snuggled and kissed and gave Mama a hundred hugs.

She is a natural performer; I think she has a future in the circus.

She lights up our days (and our nights).

Some New Updates:

Right after Christmas I broke our camera so I have no new pictures to post! (BOOO!) While we decide whether to repair or replace it, here are some Clementine updates.
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Clementine's speech has become incredible! Her favorite topic is where people are. For example, she talks about all her friends at school who will be there waiting for her when we get there and she gets very excited the closer we get.

As we leave the house each day she says good-byes to everyone and everything that isn't going with us. She'll start with "Bye house!" then onto "Bye Jack! Bye Kitty! Bye cup, bye room, bye blankie..." and on and on. Then she does it again in reverse when we pull back in the driveway in the afternoons: "Hi house! Hi Jack! Hi Kitty!..."
She also loves the opportunity to tell the animals where to go "Jack-outside!" she says. Or "OFF!" To the kitty it's always "GO!" When she's not telling them where to go, she tells them what to do "NO NO BITES!" she says to the cat. The other day she said "NO NO bites bad-kitty!"
She also lets us know when she is fed up (mostly with me). As I left to run errands I tried to kiss her cheek. She blocked me and said "STOP!" I told her "I love you!" as I walked out the door and she hollered back "I KNOW!" (Who is this child???)

She also loves to repeat after us. Especially when we think she's not listening. For this reason, she may not be able to drive in the car with Cameron much longer. The other day we were driving to the store when Cam had a few things to say to the driver in front of us. Clementine repeated what she thought she heard: "Come on, APPLES!" she repeated. Whoops!
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Clementine has started gymnastics class. Once a week for an hour 2 & 3 year olds have a little class with parachute, bubbles, song and tumbling time. Clementine loves it. She's still figuring out how to navigate all the equipment but she just lights up when we go. This is the perfect chance for our fearless girl to really shine!
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Today we took Clementine to the doctor to have him look at a rash on her face. And because she's been extremely grouchy, clingy and--this was the real shocker--refusing to eat! When this child refuses to eat, we know something is wrong! Turns out she's getting TWO big time molars right now. The teething caused her to have a pretty substantial fever, the drool caused the rash and the soreness caused the crankiness/not eating! Our poor girl! But we did find out that she weighs 34lb 14oz! More good news: the Dr. checked her files (and her ears) and to our delight we discovered she's gone 11 months without an ear infection! Her ears are still clear and Dr. thinks she's grown out of the "danger zone" and we can rule out needing tubes! This made us both super happy!


Those are all the Clementine updates I can think of just now! I hope to have some pictures to post soon!