I haven't written about Clementine for quite a while. Oh, this girl. I love the age from one and a half to two and a half. And she's right in the middle of it, at 21 months. One of the cutest things about this age is the way they love to imitate everything they see around them. Clemmie watches Jude and Truman dip their graham crackers in milk about ten times a day (it seems that way to me at least- we consume a lot of graham crackers in this house, for sure). I'm guessing that's where she got her inspiration to always want a glass of water on her high chair tray when she eats. And the subsequent dipping of all food items into said water. Doesn't matter what it is- scrambled eggs, bread, chicken, broccoli...the less interested she is in what she's eating the more likely she to want to dip it in her water. It's grow. Everyone thinks it's gross. I'm the only one who thinks it's also a bit endearing.
She is talking quite well now, or at least, she says many, many things, though her pronunciation isn't too good yet. Favorite phrases are "Bye-bye, Daddy!" "Night-night!" " "I see?" (this is always said when someone is pulling up some picture or other on their iPhone) "Shoes?" (usually accompanied by her looking up at you imploringly with two shoes, perhaps belonging to someone else, perhaps mismatched, and repeated till the person she's talking to attempts to put the shoes on her feet) "I don't know" (when I ask what happened to her missing pacifier), "No..." (not actually a favorite phrase of mine, but she seems to like using it a lot). Her cutest thing is when I say, "Clemmie, guess what?" or "Clemmie, look at Mama." after I say either of those things to her, she replies with the world's cutest, "Eh?"
We love to give her phrases to repeat, the more ridiculous the better, because she copies it with perfect inflection but of course doesn't get the sounds right. "Clemmie, say: 'Trampoline', 'Love you, Cate and Grace!' 'Darth Vader', 'Lego Man', 'Spiderman', 'Captain America', 'Superman', 'Bucky Barnes!' " Actually, she does quite well with that last one. And what can I say- she clearly has lots of brothers.
She also loves to sing and dance. And that's about our favorite thing ever. It doesn't matter what the music is she hears- a rap song, a kids song, a Christian song, a classical piece, though the stronger the rhythm the better, in her mind. It's so cute to watch her bob her head up and down and occasionally copy some of the lyrics.
Well, that's Clementine Merriweather for you in a nutshell. And no, she really doesn't have enough hair to justify the barrette and the ponytail. But Grace wanted to at least try.
