Tiny toddler

We're all so charmed by Clementine now that she's walking. She seems too tiny to walk, but she does—and even runs now! She's so sure of herself, like she knows she's a person and this is how people get around. But then she can still be so wobbly and bumbly, like when she's walking on grass or up a hill or on dirt. I wish I could draw well enough to capture every shape her little body makes as she teeters and stretches and stumbles and catches herself. Sometimes she walks with her hands behind her back like a tiny lecturing professor, or rocks back on her heels like someone admiring a painting in a museum. It's too much!

The girls helped me take some pictures one lovely afternoon after we had a picnic in Payson Canyon. I haven't been there for a few years, and had forgotten how lovely it is! The leaves were at their peak!

Our picnic area was lovely too. There is nothing I like more than a picnic in October in some beautiful place!

The little yellow dress Clementine is wearing is from my counselor in primary, who went to Guatemala this summer and brought it back for her. It's one of my favorite dresses any of my baby girls have had, which is saying something! We had squeezed Clemmie into some too-tiny boots (why is it that all of her shoes are either too tiny or way too big?) and then we tried to get her to walk to us instead of wandering off into forbidden paths—a difficult task!

Oh she was cute, though!

Every now and then I tore myself away from Clementine to take a picture of one of the other children. :) Ziggy spent the whole time pretending he was a cross-country runner and commanding us, "Say 'woooo'! Say 'wooo, Go Herriman!'" We obliged (sometimes).

Gus followed Ziggy, more slowly

Rather a pathetic little stream, but fun to play in for all that

I love this picture of Junie running swiftly away after setting Clementine down for a picture.

Every time I turned around, Junie was up a different tree

Still running

Gus, honestly, is not a great deal better than Clementine at walking on uneven surfaces. He seems to do particularly badly on leaf-covered dirt. Here he is after falling once, poor fellow.

Explaining indignantly what happened

And…he's fallen again.

And again. Why didn't someone help him instead of just taking pictures of him? Very sad.

Oh dear, this is really the blind leading the blind

Toothy smile!

Malachi patiently worked on schoolwork while he waited for us, bless him. I love it when he comes with us on our outings—even though he may think he has better things to do! We love having him around as much as we can.

And we love this little toddler. She's everybody's favorite tiny yellow sunbeam!