Bachelor Weekend & Cleme Update

This weekend was my first time alone in over 10 months. Allie and Clementine left me Saturday afternoon to spend the weekend with girlfriends at the coast. It was almost eerie having the house to myself that Saturday evening, Sunday, and Monday morning. I made Allie send me a photo on Sunday which was my first full day away from Clementine ever.

During my time alone I attached four bookshelves to the wall (to protect our standing/climbing baby), mowed the lawn, did yard work and cleaning, played Magic, hung out with friends, blasted country music albums on my record player, ate lots of tacos, and watched Youth in Revolt.

The previous Monday or so Clementine finally sprouted her first tooth—on the bottom middle—and when she and Allie came back from the coast she had another—one of her upper canines! Clementine got to play in the sand for the first time and visited Tillamook Cheese Factory where she enjoyed the free cheese samples and got a rubber toy of Tillie the Tillamook Cheese cow. Apparently, she grabbed it and immediately put her mouth on the toy cow udder! The girls finally got back around noon Monday to my great relief.

Clementine is really growing into a toddler. I keep saying, "She's so grown up!" She has stood freely on her own a few times (not holding onto anything), and has started walking while holding onto things. Last night she stood up, moved down the coffee table and grabbed a large, glass mug. She expertly put the lip of the mug to her mouth and tilted the cup back. Unfortunately (for her not us) the glass was empty. Still I was so impressed with her coordination.

Last night she pulled the screen shammy out of Allie's kindle case and was playing with it for 10 minutes or so. I kept talking to her about the shammy, the first time she's heard the word I would imagine. When she finally lost track of it and dropped it, I said "Clementine, where's your shammy?" She turned her little body around and looked back and forth until she spotted the thing, grabbing it in response to my query. I was so impressed that she had already learned the word—I know she is learning like crazy but since she doesn't speak back, it can be hard to judge how much she's actually picking up.

Clementine also reached a milestone on May 29. She turned 42 weeks and 5 days old. Meaning she has officially been out in the world for as long as she was in her mother's womb. She'll be ten months old on the 4th of June!