Journal Entry for Clementine

6/29/10

Dear Clementine,

You just turned 8 months old and you are very, very fun.

It is summer out and you love to sit on the back deck and watch your brothers and sister run around the yard, yelling and playing. Are you wishing you could run too? By next summer you'll be joining them! You fell off the side one time and now you crawl to the edge but you haven't fallen off again. I do think you are a genius.

Each night I have to pull a dozen tiny slivers out of your very round, obese, squishy knees and thighs and the fat pads on the tops of your feet. Neither one of us likes this bedtime routine. I think you'll have to start wearing pants and shoes outside!

You have completely mastered crawling and "scaling". (I just read this term in a baby development book. It means pulling up on things, like my legs and the couch and anything else you can reach.) Better yet is that you can sit back down again without falling over backwards. You're even pretty nonchalant about only hanging on with a couple fingers of one hand. I'm guessing it won't be long before you let go completely and are standing on your own! Despite being about the chunkiest baby I've ever seen, you really get where you want to go with ease.

I love what a happy baby you are. So often you are content with watching your sibs or playing on the floor while our busy lives go on around you. You eat Cheerios in your highchair while I cook dinner, or you pull out the pots and pans, or you toss all the folded laundry out of the basket and onto the floor. You just seem happy to be a part of this family.

Of course, there are times when you aren't content to just do your own thing and you want - need - to be held, mostly by Mama. You come crawling after me as I whisk around the house doing things, wailing to be picked up, totally desolate until you're in my arms. This is when I'm most thankful for all my baby carriers. I just pop you in and you're quiet as a mouse, content to view the world from the vantage-point of Mama's hip.

You and I are almost inseparable. We go everywhere together. We went out for coffee and DQ the other night with Aunty Trish. We go shopping together lots (but not all the time - if you're napping I leave you home.) We are attached at the hip, pretty much. It was like that with your brothers too, but look how they're always off doing their own thing now. Is that going to happen with you too?? Promise me you'll never leave me, Clementine! Oh alright, fine, you may grow up.

Have I mentioned how chunky you are? You are super, incredibly, lusciously, edibly, obese. I love it. Babies should be fat, in my opinion. You have rolls of fat covering your knees that look like little butts. You have these thunder thighs that are incredible. Your calves are like marshmallows but they taper down into petite feet and adorable tiny toes. Your arms are so soft and squishy I just have to nibble them. Your cheeks are plump and dimpled when you smile and when you're crawling around naked, well, you look like a little pink piglet sans the curly tail. I can't get enough of you, baby!!

You are developing a sense of humor that is pretty fun to watch. You recently started shaking your head "no". I'm not sure how you picked up the habit but your sibs love to encourage you in it! They shake their heads and you watch and then shake your head. They laugh like crazy and you laugh and you all do it again. Sometimes when you're just sitting in my lap or playing on the floor you will stop and shake your head vigorously and then smile to yourself. Are you practicing for being a 2-year-old?

Here's a few other things:

• You smile and laugh a lot.
• You love hearing your name and I love singing it and saying it.
• You are very tolerant of me changing your clothes a lot and making you wear dresses and headbands and hats and all sorts of cute things.
• You are sensitive and cry when someone yells or if you bump your head.
• You don't like Papa's whiskery kisses but if he's just shaved his top lip you will sometimes kiss him back.
• You nurse a lot.
• You've just started trying to nurse and talk at the same time and I'm a little ambivalent about that.
• You like to be swaddled still and sometimes won't fall asleep unless you're wrapped up like a burrito.
• You nap well but you still wake up a lot at night. I'm okay with that.
• You sleep partly in bed with me and partly 2 feet away in your crib.
• Your hair is starting to grow, and it looks light-goldeny-brown. I hope it curls.
• You look like your brother Moses.
  
• You haven't eaten a lot of solid food yet, besides Cheerios. You didn't like the pureed food I made very much, and in fact I think that's where you learned to shake your head "no".
• Last night we grilled and you ate about a pound of watermelon and some pre-masticated pork chop. You like meat! Maybe I was just feeding you the wrong stuff.
  
• You are really, really fun and sweet and you light up my life and I adore you!!

(This is from April when she just learned to crawl.)