I'm slow to recap weekend trips these days because it takes a while to recover from them. Gone are the days when we could take off right after work on Friday and return after midnight on Monday (or Sunday if it isn't a holiday) without skipping a beat. The packing alone--do we have diapers? sunscreen? blankie? will she want Ella or Jack or Pilly or Lammie?--is exhausting, not to mention to burn of re-entry, the thwarted schedule, the general malaise at giving up the vacation mentality for a back-to-work one. The in-between stuff makes it all worth it, even if there is puking and peeing or general crankiness.

For Memorial Day we went up to the thumb of Michigan and, despite icky weather for a few days, had a wonderful time. Clementine, as always, loved looking at "the beach, the beach," and remembered very quickly how much fun it is to gather rocks to throw in the water.



She became completely addicted to her rain boots, which we used as waders to allow her to walk in the cold and unusually murky, slushy water along the shore. I think all kids go through this rain boot affinity, and it definitely helps that hers have eyes.



We took her to some of the cute lakeside towns and through antique and general stores, and I bought her a little bag to keep all her treasures in. We only brought one hoody and one pair of pants with pockets, and she had stuffed them all full of pine cones and rocks and sea glass. She was so enamored of these treasures that I decided to ignore the fact that she is showing the hoarding tendencies that have filled my basement with shit and my grandmother's entire house before me and encourage her to take the bits of the world she loves and wants to hold onto home with her. Besides, the bag is very cute. Cuter still was watching her pick through rocks and pine cones to find just the right one, discarding and rejecting those that don't fit her mysterious criteria.



It got sunny and warm Sunday afternoon and continued through Monday. We played a lot of croquet, and I've decided that since my hopes of being a roller derby queen have may just have to die unrealized, I will become kick ass at croquet.

But in case this sounding too idyllic, too vanilla a weekend away for my clan, let me assure you there was still an appropriate amount of bodily fluid and nudity to make the journey recognizable as a Clementine pilgrimage. For one, Clementine loves to be "nakie," and we allowed her to be more than a few of our fellow travelers probably would have liked. And why oh why oh why does my daughter repeatedly pull her diaper aside to pee in whatever method of conveyance she inhabits? First it was Nora's stroller; on this trip it was her car seat. Not just the once, mind you, when I horrified my friend Karen by putting the pants back on her after allowing them some time in the wind to dry, but twice. The second time I was actually wise to it and jumped across the backseat, thinking I could rip her hands away from the diaper, but it wasn't enough. I actually had to stop the pee, catch it with my hands, and then shove it back into the diaper to be absorbed. It wasn't pretty, although Clementine certainly found it hilarious and on our way to daycare this morning shouted from the back seat "I'm peeing," just to dissolve into giggles at my reaction.

I think Clementine is trying to tell us something with the refusal to pee in the diapers, but it's hard to know to take the next step in terms of toilet training, especially since it still seems so early to me. At home she asks to use the toilet a lot and is pretty successful, though it's hardly regular enough to be counted on. I've mentioned this to Julie at daycare a few times, but she reports that Clementine shows no interest throughout the day. Maybe it's a summer project. For now we're maybe a little too happy to oblige when she asks, as she's started to use it as a stalling tactic at bedtime.

We're home for the next few weekends, though it's amazing to me how quickly summer seems to be filling up with this and that. I think our goal through the month of August should be to get her inappropriately naked in at least 6 different states. Shouldn't be too hard.