Growing up is hard to do

If you look closely you can see the pearly whites at the bottom and the dimple.  Can't I just keep her like this forever?

Clementine officially stood up today and took four step without any support or aid.  She just up and walked! Part of me is so happy because I know it's frustrating her that she can't walk yet but part of me sees of vision of her toddling along and then Bea comes up from behind and slams her to the ground.  It wasn't as far to the ground when she was crawling, but from a standing position she's liable to get some serious battle wounds. 

She also has three new teeth coming in.  Two on top and another one on the bottom. Yea for teeth! She desperately needs teeth for all the eating and smiling she does, although I will miss the solitary two teeth at the bottom.  That just melts my heart when i see it with her dimples. 

Faces of the past

These are some really cute photos that I forgot to post or couldn't because our computer wouldn't let us access the internet for a month or so...

Eating some new food on Chinese New Year

Clemmie and Grandpa Tingey just before the Boston Marathon

Group hug!

Clemmie and Grandpa Hohl

on the swing with Bea

Clementine's first Easter!

Clementine, Bea and Henry on our playfort in their Easter outfits

It's wild to think that Clementine hasn't had an Easter yet because she's getting so old, but she was born 11 months ago and just barely missed it.  She was an angel all day long and was so incredibly darling in her Easter dress.  It's the one I made for Bea two years ago and it fit even better than it fit Bea back then.  Bea wasn't even crawling or standing at that point so Clemmie modeled it very well.  She was adored by everyone at church and was even my best smiler for the Easter photo shoot. 

Clemmie peaking through the rails

I have to say sorry to everyone who was distracted during sacrament meeting, Sunday school or Relief Society because her personality always comes out and she's so active.  Today she was extra vibrant in her dress and so distraction was her middle name today.  Clemmie ate a ton of Easter dinner and played with the kids without crying for hours.  She's such a happy and pleasant little girl.  Thanks for all the smiles darling daughter!

Clemmie outside on the blustery Easter egg hunt

No Comment

Well, I was hoping that people would comment on my last post but I guess I'm the only one who gets a kick out of the extremely gross(after the fact).  I also got a shout out from my cousin who applauded me on posting good and bad things that happen in my kids' lives saying that she rarely sees blogs where kids are portrayed as anything but happy and perfect looking all the time so thank you for supporting me in my attempt to accurately document my children's lives without leaving any of the details out (except for that one detail of our huge trip last fall.  I'll get to that eventually!) 

Here are some more bad phone photos of her with her buddy, Luke playing together. I caught them playing piano together and inspecting the pantry.  They had a blast and the funny thing is that I know they really weren't consciously playing together but they just naturally crawled to the same spots because why wouldn't you follow someone else who was crawling and when one stopped to look at something why wouldn't you naturally stop to check it out too?  I was in love with these two playing together in their own spheres.  I'm babysitting all these cute kids tomorrow so hopefully I'll get some more better photos with my real camera.

Eating her own vomit

This morning I thought she might be better after two days and nights of the flu so I let Clemmie eat some pieces of plain pancake and water for breakfast and she was pounding them down and crying for water as her weak little hands shook every time she reached for a bite. Three seconds later she threw it all up without even flinching or crying(so used to it by now) but she was still so hungry that she started eating what she had just thrown up and I almost threw up watching her eat her own vomit.  I had to get Justin to clean it up and when we took her tray away from her she cried so hard with such big tears that I almost started crying with her because I knew she was starved to death.  I ended up letting her eat more, but only gave her tiny pieces with rests in between and she kept it all down.  I really miss my smiley baby girl.

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!