(2nd Annual) November: A Retrospective

November seems like a great month to reflect, generally speaking. November was the month we *really* became parents to this bright eyed girl and it seems like kind of the calm between her birthday and Christmas.
Here is Clementine's first November. She was just a few weeks old. She was little and hungry. We lived in Issaquah this November, not knowing BIG changes were coming around the bend (a move to a whole new city, new jobs for both Cam and I, etc. etc.).
Here she is in her second November. She'd just turned one and started walking. We lived in Bellingham in the smallest apartment. I had just returned to work and Clementine suddenly decided to ween herself. She was still pretty hairless! Change was sneaking up on this November, only this time we were working pretty hard to make this one happen. In the next month, Cameron and I would put our first THREE offers on homes. Luckily, number three worked out for us in the end!
November #3. She's just turned 2 but the famous terrible phase had started months earlier. Clementine's favorite word was "NO!" and her favorite sound was her own screaming. She was no longer in the 5th percentile for height and weight. She was in the 95th. She discovered carbs this year. We discovered gymnastics and went religiously; trying to find an outlet for this girls energy! We were living in our first house--trying to make it feel like a home of our own. Once again, change was right around the corner and, boy, did it catch us off guard. Cam was laid off from his job just a few weeks after this. It took months for our lives to return to normal.
Here is my beautiful girl this November. She is a three year old explorer/comedian/chef/swimmer/musician. We love 3. She finally has enough hair to put in pigtails. She's in the 95th percentile for height and weight still. She is absolutely fearless and totally bold. Clementine is potty trained and sleeps in a big girl bed. She gave up her binky ages ago. In every way, she wants to be a big kid. She is very literal--to the point where she cracks me up (if I call her "Sweetheart," or "Monkey-butt," she corrects me, saying "I'M Ten-Tine!").
Our lives are very settled now with Cam working at this new job the last 6 months. We keep working on making this house feel like a home--there are constant projects happening around here.
I'm excited (and a little nervous) to see what the next year brings us.

Pretty-ful!

This morning we woke up to several inches of SNOW! Just outside Clementine's bedroom is a sky-light. She saw the snow piled up on there and said "OOOH! Pretty-ful!"
Of course, we were out there playing in it at 7:30 am

It's hard to tell because the wind has blown some pretty deep piles in place but I think we've got about 6 inches of snow!

Here's my little Clem-sicle. She is rocking the pjs, bedhead and ladybug boots. Look at those pink cheeks!

Cookie Party

Clementine and I love to bake together. She has several super adorable aprons she loves to wear whether she's really baking with me or just pretending in her own play kitchen. For this picture I told her "Show me your pretty smile," and she brought out this cheesy grin. Now she does this everytime she sees the camera!!
Clementine really is a great baker. She works the Kitchenaid while I measure. Then she pours all the ingredients in. I love having a little baking-helper!

Big Wheelin'

I found a great deal on a Big Wheel bike for our little bug! Cam and I wanted to save it for Christmas but when we had a rainy day cooped up with little to do, we decided it was time to break out the Big Wheel.
Here she is still in her PJs riding around our house. She rode this bike for nearly 3 hours then sat in it to eat breakfast and watch a movie. She LOVES it!

Performance Artist

This girl lives to make people laugh. She has incredible comedic timing and isn't afraid to try new things in her act.
And then, of course, there's the shock value that gets plenty of laughs. Lately we've been noticing how quickly we go through mustard (or that the mustard container is all together missing). It's because of this: Clementine literally drinks it. She can get into the fridge by herself these days. She takes the mustard bottle and squirrels it away in her play fridge or under a cupboard somewhere only she will know. I don't know why it's mustard but she loves it.

Here is part of her stand-up act: fake sleeping.

Just Call me Martha

Even though Clementine has long given up naps, I still find time to get crafty every now and then. I seem to be suffering from the scrapbooking form of writer's-block but still have a TON of materials stashed away. I've been trying to find new uses for all this stuff.

On one of the decorating mom blogs I love, the writer posted about creating fridge magnets that aren't obnoxious. She listed her materials and I realized I had every single item myself, except for the wooden "coins". I picked those up at JoAnn's using my coupon for under $3.00!

I tweaked the instructions a little bit to suit our color scheme--painted the coins purple and green (using paint I had from the BLOOM canvas in Clem's toy room), hot glued the magnet to the back and used round letter stickers (that I already had AND they matched our colors! Dang, I'm coordinated!!).
Ta-da! 20 minutes later, here's what we had! (Yes, it does bug me that some letters are capital and some are lower case. I'm trying to get over it. This does not seem to bother Clementine one bit and, really, that's all that matters.)

It seems like every single crafter's blog I love has pictures of their decorated fall mantels. Our house doesn't have a fireplace or a mantel, unfortunately, so we decorate the tops of our books shelves. Here's mine for fall.

I spray painted ceramic pumpkins (again, from JoAnn's w/ a coupon!) as every other crafter seems to be doing these days. I'm not super thrilled w/ my results. I must have picked all the pumpkins with nicks and dings. Oh well, I'll get over it.

Then I stacked up some black hard-covered books, set a nest and green ceramic bird I had from Emma's "Love Birds" shower I threw last Spring on top. Then Clementine found a rock out back she thought needed to go up there. I set that next to a mini-house that says "Welcome".

My one splurge is this shadow box I keep on the mantel year round (I change out the inside of it seasonally). It's from Pottery Barn a million years ago. Pottery Barn is not a place I shop at frequently, nor is this a price I comfortably pay for a single item but I've had it for years and it's gotten a lot of use.

Again, scrapbooking items: green textured paper I had in my stash + felt pumpkin stickers + super cute picture of Clementine from her very first trip to the pumpkin patch. Voila!

Treat or Treat

Today we took Clementine Trick or Treating in one of my favorite places: Fairhaven!

We got our little ladybug all ready and hit the streets. We practiced saying Trick or Treat the whole way from our house to Fairhaven but it still came out Treat or Treat!
We got there just as the Trick or Treating event began. Each year all the Fairhaven shops pass out candy or other goodies to all the little ones.


Clem was a little timid about going up to people she doesn't know but this was good practice for her! She had great manners and was so excited about her very own bucket of candy (this is really the first year she knows what candy is)!
As time wore on, more and more people showed up. The sidewalks were crammed so tight we could hardly walk! When the older kids showed up, throwing their gangly elbows in front of the wee ones to get at a tootsie roll, we knew it was time to hit the road. So Clem hitched a ride on daddy's shoulders.
It looks like we were just in time, too! As soon as we started driving she was out like a light--with her candy bucket clutched tightly, of course.