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!

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).