Our Ever Changing Clementine

Man, Clementine is like a new person every time I come home from work. She's eight and a half months old. We've been signing with her since 6 months. Around a month ago she started using her first sign - "more." This last week she's unveiled her latest-- a combination of "milk" and "eat", the same gesture done either away from her body or at her mouth. It's so trippy to have her communicating back at us. It's a little eerie too. Allie was out for her weekly girls' night last night. Cleme and I were having a good time just hanging on the bed, reading and playing after dinner.  Suddenly, she idly starts signing "milk/eat" to herself. It was a little window into her thoughts. A lot of her new communication skills still have a small ambiguity. "Milk" also seems to equal mom right now. Cleme may be using her first spoken word too. She mastered the "ma" sound weeks ago and likes to bust it out randomly. Sometimes, however, she'll say it when she's really sad or when Allie leaves, or when Allie comes back. When I put her to bed last night, she saw the dark room, heard the white noise machine and was convinced she wasn't ready to sleep. She cried out "mamuh" repeatedly and started bawling. I think it's more than coincidence. I think it does mean Mama, but sometimes it also means "I'm sad," "I'm tired," "I'm hungry," and "I'm lonely." Mama of course, is the cure for all of these ailments.

Clementine is now a crawl master, though she does it flat on her stomach with her arms doing most of the work. She's obsessed with standing. It's hard to take baths lately, cause all she wants to do is pull herself up using the tub ledge. The combination of slippery wetness and hard enamel means this is not the best practice area. Here she is in her crib on April 8 after pulling herself up to a standing position.

Last night Cleme and I read Touch and Feel Farm Babies, an Easter gift from Grandma Pat. I encouraged her to touch the various furry spots on each page. I've been trying to teach her how to "use" these books without me having to place her hand on the spots each time. We finished the book and I let Cleme take it to chew on, as she loves to do. She did chew on it, but for the next TEN minutes she mainly picked the book up, opened it, closed it, put it down, opened it, closed, it and touched all the furry spots on all the animals. It was obvious, she understood the book now.

She's started initiating games as well. Allie plays a binky game where she puts the pacifier in her mouth. Clementine grabs it out of Allie's mouth and puts it in her own. Last weekend, as we all waited at a bus stop Clementine waived her clip-on binky at me. She pushed it towards my face. I leaned in to bite and take the binky and she gleefully pulled it away, laughing out loud. We did this game for several minutes and it was all her idea.

She still doesn't have any teeth but I swear I can see two on the bottom middle, lurking just beneath the surface of her gums. Meanwhile, she's moved past most baby foods and purees, considering them beneath her. She likes little chunks of food and eating like a grown up. Last night, she had potato, applesauce, Spanish rice, red bell pepper,  and zucchini--which she loved.

Anyhow, that's the latest on our little wonder. We hope to post more soon.