Clemmie du

That's my favorite nickname for her.  I seriously can't believe how much she looks like Henry to me when I'm carrying her in my arms.  She has the exact same expressions and she thinks it's so funny when I look at her from my vantage point.  So she's actually standing up for long periods of time, but only when she isn't thinking about it.  Any time I try to get her to stand up while she's thinking about it, she gets that deathly afraid look on her face and fal ls to the ground, so I don't think she's the risk taking type.  I have seen her stand for at least 20 seconds before so I know she can do it.  Also, my carpet is constantly covered with dirt since she loves to dig in the plants.  I dumped a ton of fertilizer in my lime tree a while ago and I know there are still some chunks in there and I just hope she hasn't eaten any of them.  I think she's more after the dead leaves we throw back in the soil.  She likes to eat the fallen baby limes to, which will probably kill her -- perfect choking size. One thing is for sure though is that she really does not like the grass.  I guess she's hardly been on grass since I never put her directly on our hard, dirt clod of a yard when she was a newborn and then it was fall and winter so she really has never experienced sitting in the grass until just recently when it's been nice outside, but she does not like it at all and cries a lot after she feels around the ground at what she's sitting in and refuses to crawl in it.  Haha! She has the same reaction to those multi-color ball pits at game places.  Maybe she thinks it's just not stable ground.  I do really love that girl though.  She's just all smiles and goodness.  I can't even walk anywhere in public before every elderly person and single woman comes over to talk baby talk with her.  In the airport last weekend a huge black man asked me about my baby wrap and he wanted to see how it worked.  At first I was doubtful, but he said he was a product developer and gave me his card and we were in the airport which is pretty much the safest place in the world now, so I showed him how it worked while he held Clemmie and she was enthralled by his giant lips.  She started grabbing his lips and he was saying, "yes those are my huge black lips" and everyone in the store was bending over in hysterics.  It was truly hilarious.  

The Giantess Stands

First of all, Clemmie is starting to be known as the giantess because she's a super big and heavy baby who eats adult sized bowls of steel cut oats and blueberries every day and sometimes eats until she throws up.  She really doesn't know when to stop.  Anyway, even though I don't have a photo yet I have to document that today during church while I was hanging out in the nursery chatting with Franklin and Stefanie, Clementine stood up for about 15 seconds by herself.  Previously it had been only a few seconds so she's come so far during the weekend we were out of town! Justin and I went on our first real trip without the kids ever (unless you count less than 24 hours trip for the Indian wedding with Lucy with us) from Thursday night until early Sunday morning and I wish I could say it was heavenly!  Our flights were delayed on the way out there and had to stay overnight in Las Vegas, got no sleep, messed up the other nights with naps and took a red eye home.  We were interviewing for a job in Logan, UT and it went really well but I didn't get that night of sleep I'd been dreaming of for the past 5 years.  So while we were gone Clemmie started standing on her own and I'm so proud of her! She really loves standing up and especially when you make unstable noises like "woh, wooooh, wooh" as you hold your arms around her.  She laughs her head off.  She's officially 9 3/4 months old.  She's also just about the happiest and most independent baby around and rarely wants me to hold her just to be held.  She'd rather crawl around and explore alone and play with toys.  When I miss her, I run over and wrestle with her for a minute, blow on her tummy or chase her and that's enough to keep her happy. She has even started seeking out Henry and Bea because she knows they'll try to make her laugh(right before Bea makes her cry) and she really enjoys laughing.  If Bea is in one of her rampages, then I have to rescue her, but things are starting to get better so I hope it keeps up!

a day on the life of Clemmie

This is what Clementine goes through pretty much every day. I usually step in quicker but it's important to document Bea torturing her and then trying to console her and then pushing her again for no reason while she's in distress. Her pattern is torture, nurture, torture, nurture, etc.

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Angel face

A little slobbery but when do I ever get a photo without a wet shirt or slobbery face? I just want to eat her up!

Survival of the biggest

I haven't been updating Clemmie's blog as often as I should have, especially since babies change faster than older children, so I have to say that she's been crawling since Christmas time, is 99th percentile in height(takes after Henry) and gets attacked by Bea at least 20 times per day and is starting to toughen up about it -- she only cries half the time.  Recently Bea has poked her with a fork, sat on her, kicked her in the face, steam rolled her, stepped on her foot as she sat on the wood floor in Indian style, crushing her ankle, walked over her, tried to drown her in the tub, poured 10 cups of water over her head in sequence before she could recover and take a breath, pulled her hair, clapped her head in-between her swinging arms many times, pulled her arms back, and every time Bea hugs her, it's pretty much reminiscent of a WWF choke hold.  Good news is that now that we're not traveling every week, she's settled into my beloved normal baby napping routine and now they are only together for two hours in the morning(half of which Clementine is eating) and then she takes a two hour nap, then Bea goes down for her two hour nap at noon and right when Bea wakes up, it's my cue to put Clementine back to sleep for another two hour nap.  Then at 4 they are both together again, but most of the rest of the night is taken up with preparing and eating food so she manages to avoid Baby Killer somewhat.  One really great thing is that she is so big for her age(compared to Bea) that I think she'll catch up with Bea soon so BK won't be able to dominate over her so much. When she does get to play, she plays on the floor by herself for up to an hour and a half before needing something.  She loves music and being chased by me and Henry.  She rarely cries for anything other than being tired or when Bea gets near.  She goes down for naps with her binkie and a soft blanket to snuggle and falls asleep with no help from me.  Yea! I really appreciate that darling girl. 

All I want for Christmas is a nice round head

I don't know if i mentioned it before but Clementine had torticollis when she was born and she's been receiving physical therapy twice a week for the past few months to help remedy her crooked neck and flat head and we're proud to announce that she's not getting a helmet for Christmas.  Yea! For those of you who aren't familiar with the condition, here is an explanation of what it is.  Clementine got it from being squished inside my torso and now she has a depression on the side of her head and since she was so used to being in that position her head got flat in the back. To remedy it, I had to duct tape a rolled up towel onto her back which made her sleep on her left side and on the part of her head that wasn't flat.  A month of that was all it took to even out her head, but only time will tell if the depression will correct itself as her head grows.  But for now we're just glad Santa's not bringing her a helmet for Christmas

An update on her development...She's sitting up and almost crawling(taking after Henry which I'm not thrilled about), rolling all over the place, and just starting to eat some foods but not liking the mushy texture.  She would eat crackers all day long if she could and she makes a horrible mess every time I let her feed one to herself.  She basically sleeps all through the night and sleeps a total of at least 16 hours per day, more or less whenever we want her to.  She is extremely pleasant and has days when she never cries, like today.  I think she knows that she's going to have to play the baby Jesus in the family nativity re-creation and is practicing the "no crying he makes" part.  What a good little girl:)

First and possibly last apple picking

Clementine had her first experience apple picking today! I don't think she was able to enjoy it.  I did let her lick an apple but I don't think she liked it much. 

While we were walking around Clementine had a serious poop out and the poop was dripping all down her leg on to my shoe and all over the ground.  I just got bigger diapers for her and now the leg holes aren't tight enough to keep it in so it just drips out! The other diapers were too small to keep it all in.  What can I do!!?

Anyway, we had a great time picking apples and unless we can find a U-Pick orchard out west I think this might be our last apple picking experience.  It makes me sad because we've been doing it for the past 10 years almost.  This is one thing we love about the East.