Dance Party (in Full Effect)

Oops. Wouldn't recommend blasting this at work! (I thought it was the radio version; it's not!)

Fat Lip

When I was pregnant, before we knew whether this girl was a girl, my midwife said she'd never seen a baby in utero so active. She couldn't believe it. Trying to get a heartbeat from this pumpkin was impossible: she would kick the stethoscope, flip over and scoot all around. Sometimes we just had to skip it, but we would laugh watching her on ultrasound as she wriggled all over the place.

Fast forward four years and now I have this crazy-active three year old. She is never still. I mean n.e.v.e.r. I pictured myself with a sweetly shy, cautious little Clementine. We'd have tea parties and she'd hold my hand when we were out in public. Instead, we have this rowdy version. Yes, I have the kid who thinks furniture is for building ramps on which to launch ones' self off of. Mine is the girl who eyes the towel bar wondering how long she can hang on it. She fears nothing.


This week Clementine fell off the couch straight onto her lips. She bit into that poor little pout on the way down. She took a moment to put on a dramatic show and was right back to how it all happened. Nothing slows her down.

She is our fearless little adventurer. We wouldn't have it any other way.

These Days

These days we are seeking sunshine whenever we can get it. If that means playing farm on the floor so the sun can slightly reach us, we'll take it!

These days Clementine is quite a little helper! We love 3!!! Clementine has her little set of chores (turning off the lights when we leave the house, feeding the dog, etc.) and she love love loves to help on our weekly trip to the library. She carries our library bag on her shoulder (of course, she puts on a show about how heavy it is) and puts the books one by one into the return bin. The BEST part of the Library, though, has to be the self-scan section. She gathers all our books and does the sound effects ("boop boop beep") as she scans the books and places them in the bag. I love 3. I can't say it enough!

These days Clementine has taken to calling herself "Dr. Ten-tine" and "Captain Ten-tine." She loves saluting and saying "Yes SIR!" (which really sounds like "Yeah sure,") and taking orders. She loves her farm toys, cow shoes, dinosaurs, trucks and playing karate. She's my little tomboy, except that she loves to wear dresses. I love it.



These days, Clementine is sillier than ever. Take her old sillyness and mix it in with some cabin fever: that's the girl we know. In the above video Clementine is eating waffles and speaking for them, saying "Don't eat me, don't eat me!" This all started when Cameron told her the story of when he was a little boy eating broccolli pretending to be a giant. He would pretend to take over the broccoli forest while all the tiny trees cried out "Don't eat me!!!" Now Clementine does this with just about any food: here it's waffles' turn.

These days, Clementine is quite the swimmer. She just wrapped up her third round of swimming lessons. Her report card read "Clementine is so much fun! She is always happy!"

These days, Clementine is non-stop chatterbox. She wakes up in the morning as if we've left off a conversation and she's ready to pick back up. For awhile there around Christmas and New Year's she was sleep walking and talking. She would sit on the stairs and talk to herself or come downstairs to find us, mid-conversation. (Yes, we put a chain on the front door to help her stay in the house.) The phase of night wandering seems to be mostly over, thankfully. The other morning when I went to wake her up for the day, no sooner had the door opened and she opened up her eyes sat up and said "Where'd everybody go mama? Bring presents??" Christmas is still a hot topic of conversation around here!

Snow day

Last week our town got a smidge of snow and school was canceled. I was grateful because we had gotten several inches of snow out here in the boons (I hate driving in snow) AND I got to stay home with my favorite girl! (Cam still had to go in to work.)
Whenever we're home with an entire day on the horizon, I know we'll need to keep the day busy and structured for Clementine. If it were up to her, she would love nothing more than to stay in pjs and watch movies all day. That sounds lovely, but experience has taught me: this isn't a good thing.
Clementine has about a 2-3 minute attention span so any "activity" she does will be quick. Fortunately, she had plenty of good ones to choose from.
She filled up her lady-bug piggy bank,
Play doh, of course,

and made a snow-person/lump.
Clementine LOVES to wash dishes. Something I am so grateful for because our dishwasher broke for about a week. She was an amazing help! Love that girl!
We went for a walk and looked for animal prints in the snow.
And played in the neighborhood rock garden.
Back inside we warmed up and made a "snowball" letter S. My favorite mama to preschoolers blog is No Time for Flashcards. The mama-write is a former teacher and she shows ways to help develop phonemic awareness, sensory skills, fine and gross motor, etc. with your own kids at home. Our collection of letters (this S included) comes from her site.

Then, as I was putting in a load of laundry, I looked out the window and saw this: Clementine outside in the backyard in her underpants. Of course. You wouldn't think this would be comfortable but I could hardly drag this kid back inside. For some reason she loves running out the backdoor in various stages of nudity.
I finally did get her back inside only to find her BACK out there a half hour later again with her pants off (notice now she's rocking her cow shoes).
We concluded the day with yet another idea from No Time for Flashcards: a gallery wall! We hung up various kinds of coloring paper (with Frog Tape so as to not damage the paint underneath). My FAVORITE invention lately is this Color Wonder stuff from Crayola. Those are the markers that will ONLY mark on the special paper. No more colors on the floor or table. I love it!!
Clem colored and drew for quite awhile. We're leaving these up for awhile because she likes to add details here and there as the days pass.
Clem and I had a blast on our surprise day off from school but I have to say, I was exhausted by the time Cam got home!

Yearning for Spring

This winter already seems colder, darker, longer than any other I've experienced. Already, I am desperate for Spring. I'm ready to see those bulbs in bloom, get my veggie starts in the ground. My NW Gardening books have been out the last few weeks as I plan what to do in our front flower beds. I'm ready for Spring.


And so is this girl. She is tired of being cooped up in the house as we wait for the frost to melt. At 8:15 Saturday morning she decided she wasn't going to let a little ice (or temperatures still below freezing) to get in her way. Still in footie PJs she puts on her ladybug boots, puffy winter coat, super snuggly winter hat then she grabbed her "gardening materials" and hit up her favorite digging spot.
Look who else is ready for spring! My white lilac who I hope to see some blooms from this year! Signs are hopeful.
Back to our girl. We have itty bitty blueberry bushes planted here (hope to see some fruit this year!). She loves to sit off to the side mounding up loose soil.



Today there was just the slightest dusting of snow on the ground but the temperatures are actually higher than yesterday (33!!) so, of course, we go for a bike ride!
Clementine has a number of routines as we cruise the neighborhood. She blows kisses to every critter (real or not) in every neighbor's yard. As we pass the ceramic rabbits and donkey, the wooden black bear and plastic flamingo she blows a kiss and says "Bye! See ya later!" Today we ran across someone's new addition--one she didn't recognize. "Who is that?" she asked. "Buddha." I told her. "OK! Bye Buddha! We'll see ya later, ok?" she hollered out.


Her other big time routine is gathering a handful of rock each time we bike past someone w/ gravel in their driveway. We stop at every.single.driveway. for a handful of gravel, which she then collects in her bike basket.
I don't know if there's some kind of master rock gathering plan but it gives her bike ride purpose so she's happy.

Cheese! {a montage}

Christmas Morning

On Christmas morning Clementine woke up and immediately yelled over the monitor "DADDY! Is Santa comin'?" This girl was excited and more than ready to get this Christmas thing going.
Our new tradition is taking excited Christmas morning pictures on the staircase before opening presents. She got to open these Christmas footie pjs on Christmas Eve (Santa left them on our doorstep for her) and they look so comfy! In the picture of her walking toward me, she's saying over and over again "Mama, Santa? Santa's comin'? Kiss-miss?"
Of course,the first thing she found was the Clementine-sized guitar. She was so excited to have a guitar just like daddy's.

She was amazed that all this stuff was here for her. She started out opening presents one by one and playing with or modeling what was inside.
She got a light up Little People bus
and a Tinkerbelle mug (boy, does this kid love Tink!)
a snuggly hat
a harmonica
and here's when she got stuck. She got one of those walking wind-up cows and then she was done opening presents. She didn't want to open anymore, she just wanted to play with the cow and the other toys she'd already received so Cam and I finished opening her presents while she was playing.
A great morning was had by all of us!