Photogeina

Once again, dirty face!

Clementine is the photogenic one of the family.  Bea has her moments where she looks gorgeous, but can easily look quite scraggly, mainly because she has my same hair consistency(fine and thin) which rats into a giant nest after even just sitting in a car seat.  Clementine, on the other hand, wakes up from naps and in the morningwith perfect, slightly wavy tresses that are reminiscent of Rapunzel.  Unless there's a sucker stuck in her hair(happened more than once) I never have to brush it out to make it look nice.  I have some friends who just have that one child that is a natural in front of the camera and I feel that's Clementine.  I can never even decide on what photos to post because they all look totally perfect and she has a slight permasmile. 

Model pose

Easy smiler

Sweet farm girl with popsicles

Got this one on the move.  I wish it was in focus.  Love those dimples!

Manners

Happy and dirty farm girl

Clementine is at that critical stage where she can understand everything, can say just about everything she needs to say, but chooses to whine and cry for stuff first before I stop her to tell her to say "please" and "thank you, mommy".  I have been grooming her for a long time making her do the signs, but now she's speaking the words and believe-you-me, I make her say them every time.  I will still have to remind her for a few months, but hopefully she'll follow her brother and sister and ask "may I?" when she wants something and say "thank you" when she gets it.  I'm big on manners.  Just as it is not easy teaching Bea her alphabet now instead of at 18 months when it takes one month, I think it takes a lot of time to teach kids manners later on.  I'm also going to make it a big part of my home schooling curriculum and I have the Etiquette Bible so watch out kids!

Prayer

Here she is reciting her Alphabet

Clementine said her first prayer the other day.  She folded her hands and said the last word of every sentence I told her to say and then said "amen" at the end.  She is growing up so fast right now and I feel like this is such a great age to mold her little character and her dedication to the Lord.  She copies everything she sees and I'm so grateful that she is understanding that we say prayers at the dinner table and before bedtime.  When we mention prayer, she runs over, lays flat on the ground or kneels and folds her arms during the prayer. 

Last week, for the first time ever, all four(three) kids were kneeling and being reverent for the family prayer.  It was a literal miracle! Violette was at least quiet and not blowing bubbles.  That was a great moment.

Clemmie's Babies

Clementine loves to accessorize, especially with her babies.  She loves to sit in her little bench seat and watch ABC show together with her baby friends.  Love this girl.

Darling Dishwasher

Girl Colors

 Clementine is my new go to girl for unloading the dishes.  When I open the dishwasher to unload she knows exactly what to do.  She hands me the breakables and she puts all the girl colored plastic stuff in the girl drawer and the boy colors in the boy drawer.  She even knows where all the utensils go.  She's growing up right before my eyes. This time Bea got involved and I didn't even do a thing.  I love my girls!

Boy Cups

Happy little helpers

Eclectic Dresser

Happy girl playing outside with Daddy

Most moms I know have matching outfits for their kids.  Somehow, I just ended up with tons of non matching, hand-me-down patterned tops and bottoms.  Sometimes they look cute, but sometimes the combination is hideous, but we just roll with it.  I don't have the time or energy to care about their or my clothes.  This combo outfit isn't so bad. 

ABC Baby

 After teaching Henry the ABCs and watching Signing Time every day when he was a baby, I got burned out with it because that lady sings so horribly, so I didn't even take the time to teach Bea her alphabet which I now regret because it's taking a long time to teach her right now.  Clementine, however, is at the perfect age to learn the alphabet.  They both sit and watch a new ABC show once per day called Meet the Letters that is only slightly less annoying, but teaches both upper and lower case letters. I also supplement with my own knowledge of the letter signs so we don't have to watch Signing Time too much.  It has been about a month since we started with this show and they claim that after two months, "babies and toddlers will have complete upper and lower case letter recognition" and so far I think Clementine knows a little less than half of her letters and can recognize both upper and lower case in some letters, so I'm impressed.  She seems to be learning even faster right now and there's nothing she likes more than to open books and look and point to the letters she knows.  I can tell she feels really great about herself that she knows something.  She also tries to sign the letters but doesn't have the dexterity to do many of them yet, but it's really cute to see her flashing what really looks like baby gang signs.  lol.  She also loves to sign the animals, especially bird, dog, zebra, tiger, lion, elephant, penguin, and giraffe.  The most adorable sign she does is butterfly while she says, "fly".  I just love the sparkle in her eye as she communicates with me.  She just beams with knowledge!  I love you my darling girl.