With all of our sleep issues, I’ve been checking our security cameras in the morning to try to get a sense of when the kids are waking up. On Monday morning, the first video of the day showed Steven grabbing his Captain America necklace which promptly went missing and hasn’t been seen since. We have turned his room, their bathroom and Amaya’s room ups die down and it’s gone! Poor Steven spent the early part of the week distressed about how he’d call Captain America if he needs help. Sweet boy.

In Steven’s words, this week we had “a lot of hairstyles”. I’m still a work-in-progress with my braiding. Amaya’s hair is so, so fine it practically falls out of the braids. Sara told me to try wetting it which helped me a little bit on Monday but I still have a lot of work to do. I should practice on their Barbie head!

Steven wanted a braid, too, which was impossible in his hair so he settled on a “monkey pony.”

Now these kind of braids I can do!!

Steven was SO excited to have “three hairstyles” A banana pony, and orange pony and a blueberry pony.

On Friday morning Amaya was insistent I didn’t have her hair in pigtails (two ponies). She cried and cried and I finally convinced her to let me take a photo to show her.

Trying so hard to smile through her tears for the picture. (Surprise! Two ponies.)

This week Steven discovered button downs. It’s so cute. He loves them!

Taco came for a visit this week when her grandfather was sick. Taco loves her Big friends.

This week the kids got busy with a birthday gift from Megan & family – fairy gardens! They’re very cute and it’s a nice chance for Steven, Sammy and Amaya to follow in their father’s footsteps as 6th Grade Gardening Champion. (And Poppy Steven’s footsteps, too.)

Upkeep!

Resourceful Steven wanted to pick out his own cereal.

Wake-up times got earlier and earlier this week until we finally decided we needed a hard reset on Friday night. For two nights Steven slept in a different room and we also took all of the toys out of the kids’ rooms. The new rule is that they have to stay in their beds until the green light goes on on their clock (and Amaya needs to wait until I come in because she doesn’t like the red light). They can play with their sleeping friends but that’s. it. We’ll see how it goes tonight. Sammy struggles staying in bed and seems to be inclined to wake up Jason. Something had to give, though. 4am is waaaaaaaay too early.

On Friday at school the class made oobleck. New to me! Maybe we’ll have to check out the book.

Saturday was family picture day, rescheduled from 1/13 when Sammy looked like he’d been in a prize fight. The kids watched a TON of TV between 6:30am and 10:30am because I wanted to keep the house clean. So much TV. And a movie.

I’m excited to see the photos! This year we took pictures of the kids with their “sleeping friends” which I’m particularly excited about. Morminer is practically a family member and Puppy and Old Hoppy have been with Sammy and Amaya since they turned one.

It was nice enough to try some photos outside. A little too windy for the kids to get comfortable but we tried!

Amaya was tickling over Daphne’s head to get Sammy to smile, just like I do when I’m trying to get her to smile. 🙂

Remember when Sammy sent a card to Anna? He got mail in return from the Princesses! He was really excited. It’s currently hanging on his wall. (It makes me wonder if I missed a post card for Amaya in the midst of holiday junk mail.)

Sammy ended up with a fever and mild cold this weekend. He’s doing fine but had a headache and was just generally under the weather on Saturday night. No school for Sammy tomorrow but hopefully he’ll be fever free when he wakes up.

Puzzles! They’re getting into more complicated puzzles and it’s interesting to see how they all problem solve. Amaya’s patience serves her well.

New leotard for dance because the old one is already too small! “I want one that’s a tank top, please.”

And ball cards. <3 Stevens at putting his cards in little plastic sleeves to protect them. His favorite team is the Steelers – the “bumblebee team”. 🙂

This week the theme has been “cameras”. SSA looooove their new cameras from Savta and have been taking photos like crazy. Video, too!

Here are some of their first ever photos…

Sammy’s!

Steven’s!

A self portrait!

Amaya’s!

She set up an obstacle course with Sammy and then took photos of him completing the course.

That’s it for Steven, Sammy and Amaya’s first week as four year olds!

Steven, Sammy and Amaya are FOUR! I don’t know how it’s possible that we already have 3 four year olds. They’re such special people. It’s amazing to get to be their mom.

Amaya will smile for m&ms. 🙂

For the big birthday celebration, Nana, Papa, Savta, Aunt Sara, Charlie and Uncle Austin all came to spend the weekend. Charlie was able to join Nana for school drop-off on Friday morning. Sara got this picture of everyone showing off their new squishies.

It’s a big deal to turn FOUR in Miss Eugenia and Miss Faith’s class.

At Shabbat at school, everyone came to celebrate with the kids. In addition to the regular service, SSA got to go up front for Happy Birthday songs. One boy said, “Three kids are all four today? That’s crazy!”

Sister-Cousins. ♥

Sammy loves his Savta so much.

 

Charlie got to go up with her little cousins for Happy Birthday time.

Birthday’s got started early on Friday evening. There’s been a pile of gifts sitting in the library for a week and I think Steven, Sammy and Amaya were ready to get started. I’m impressed with their patience, to be honest! Steven was thrilled to get an R2-D2 plush from Auntie and Dod Shuki. All week he kept picking up one gift saying, “I think this is my R2-D2.” 🙂

SSA also got gifts from Charlie! She picked out Elsa, Anna and Olaf books and rings to give the kids. So sweet.

And the next thing we knew it was Saturday and Steven, Sammy and Amaya were FOUR! They’re still waking up way too early and I heard them a little before 6:30am. I saw Steven first and when I said “happy birthday” I got the biggest, longest hug from my boy.

Here were the cakes for the day! Amaya and Sammy were clear about their cupcakes, especially Amaya who wanted white frosting and colored sprinkles. Sammy picked police officers for his decor and Amaya asked for ballerinas. Steven does not have a taste for cake or ice cream and really wanted a “fruit cake”. I was happy to deliver! As a bonus, they had one with Olaf! It’s so cool to see their unique personalities and tastes.

It was a lazy birthday morning as we tried to stay quiet and avoid waking the whole house. These kids will never say not to lazy tv mornings!

We opened a few gifts including digital cameras from Savta! The boys, in particular, loooooove them.

There were even morning m&ms. It’s a big deal to turn four! This picture was actually Nana’s effort to get a photo for me of Sammy in his Anna shirt. I had this made for him because Amaya had an Elsa shirt and Steven had a Captain America shirt – all very important for their big birthday party.

Becaaaaaaause… our big birthday celebration included Anna, Elsa and Captain America!

I could tear up just writing about this. It was magical – as much for the adults, I think, as it was for the kids. The performers were fantastic. They were totally engaged and in character the entire time. (And the woman who played Anna is a triplet! Two girls and a boy. I met them out at the car and she was so excited to tell me she’s a triplet too and how excited she was to entertain at our party!)

The performers knew who they were there to see (Anna for Sammy, Elsa for Amaya and Captain America for Steven) and they were by each kids’ side the entire time. There was a grand entrance followed by games, songs, balloons and superhero training. Seeing Steven, Sammy and Amaya get into it was incredible. This was the perfect age for a birthday party like this.

We had a photographer come to get some quality shots of the interactions and I’m so glad we did. I can’t wait to see them!

I could just stare at this picture of Steven and Cap for hours. He was in his Captain America shirt when the performers first arrived and very quickly shared that he has a Captain America uniform, too. He was so excited to change into it and said, “Hurry Mommy! Captain America is going to be so excited to see me!”

This was during superhero training. Anna and Elsa were great about helping Amaya and Sammy participate. They were great about everything, really. Elsa remembered to tell Amaya about how they first met in Texas and Anna thanked Sammy for the card he mailed to her.

Amaya was so in her element. She looooooooved talking to Elsa.

Everyone got special gifts from their new friends. After gifts from Anna and Elsa, Sammy turned to Cap and asked, “What did you bring for us?” in his sweet little four year old voice. The gift, by the way, is a Captain America shield necklace that Steven is guarding for the family. He’ll tell you that we can all touch the shield but only he and Captain America can touch the chain.

Steven had a few cases of nerves early on and needed reassuring hugs from his mommy. It was so emotional. The entire experience was so emotional.

But you can see, all Steven needed was a chance at Cap’s shield to get right back in the swing of things.

Here are a few photos of Jason and I (and Aunt Sara) watching the happenings. It was amazing.

Some videos!

You can kind of see Amaya singing along here. (And, yes, Steven could have joined in but he was happy with his lollipop and standing by Captain America’s side.)

Happy birthday!! Honestly, if you’re only going to watch one of the happy birthday song videos watch Sammy’s. His little face is so sweet here.

And that was their party! Besides the gang in from NY and Pittsburgh we had Grandma Sunshine, Aunt Annette, Megan, Mikey and Taco join us! It really was the BEST.

Once the performers left it was time for food and more presents! And then, of course, time to play with the presents.

New puzzles and gardens from May May, Mikey and Taco!

My first board game with one of the kids! Sammy managed to beat me at Chutes & Ladders fair & square.

Steven and this hat. <3 It’s a gift from Aunt Annette and he’s just so cute in it.

Lots of lego sets to build thanks to Aunt Sara & Uncle Dave!

SSA’s big day ended with dinner out.

Sammy wanted to be sure to sit with everyone at the table.

It was a lazy Sunday that started when Steven work up at 4:30am. BRUTAL. And he didn’t nap either so, rest assured, he was a hot mess by bedtime. And asleep in about thirty seconds.

We went to Applebees where I had to take this picture of Amaya eating a cord dog slathered with vanilla yogurt. Sara’s face says it all.

We had time to play in the afternoon and then it was the time for goodbyes – which I hate! And Amaya hates, too! We were sad buddies together.

Steven, the doctor-astronaut.

Amaya and Charlie playing together.

Big goodbyes!

This was packed but I have just a few more updates from earlier in the week. FIRST, on Monday morning Amaya got sick when we got to school. I pretty much spiraled into a panic about the rest of the week and sickness and canceled parties. It turned out Amaya was only sick that one time but it was enough to totally stress me out. So much so, that I pretty much made myself sick on Wednesday night. Or I was sick, too. Who knows. (Sammy got sick on Wednesday morning, too, but – like Amaya – it was just one time. I don’t know what was going on! Doesn’t matter anymore because everyone was fine by Thursday and we had our party!)

I think Amaya looks so old here. I feel like I can see 15 year old Amaya in this photo.

And now she’s a happy girl!

Here’s a quick progression of Sammy’s eye which is almost totally healed.

Holding each other in dance class. <3

All week, these three were lined up read for the “real” deals to arrive.

And finally, me! Four years ago! I still can’t believe it. What an amazing, wild, incredible ride we’re on.

Have a great week!

I didn’t take a great before photo of Amaya’s room but you can see the difference the change makes. The biggest impact may be from moving the blackout shades behind the regular white ones! Such a big kid’s room. In fact, Saturday night Amaya was telling me that she’s a big girl. But there’s still some stuff she can’t do yet – like hop on one foot. 🙂

Amaya isn’t the only Cline kid with a specific sense of style. When Steven really wants to wear his red shorts in the winter, he finds a way!

Previously, I’ve shared Jason getting full service at the SSA Hair Salon. On Monday night it was my turn! Steven told me I had “a lot of beautiful hair styles.”

We reached another big milestone around here. Amaya can fetch me a beer! And she’s happy to do it. The kids’ access to the fridge means they can get food for themselves (and me) and they’re pretty good about only doing it with permission.

Love, love, love getting photos of happy kids after a morning at school.

The story of this week is Sammy’s eye. It was a little swollen on Tuesday night and looked worse on Wednesday morning. His eye, itself, was fine but his eyelid was red and swollen. I made a dr appointment and we decided to make a go/no-go decision based on how it looked after school.

And after school it was looking a lot better so we canceled the appointment!

The kids still had a car picnic for lunch because that had been the plan when we thought they were going right to the dr from school. Which, by the way, I wasn’t excited about because of the tons and tons of germs in dr offices this time of year. As hard as we try it’s really difficult to keep all three kids contained, with their hands to themselves, at an appointment. Why they have toys like legos in the waiting room is beyond me.

After two weeks of winter break, we’re back to dance class! Amaya has a ballet puzzle she got for Hanukkah and there are two male dancers in the scene. Steven and Sammy were excited to see that the men wear the same outfits they wear to dance class – white shirts and black pants!

So bedtime came and, uh oh, Sammy’s eye was swollen again. If it was still swollen in the morning we decided we’d make an appointment and keep it even if it looked better after school

Aaaaaand, the verdict was in. The good news is that Sammy didn’t seem bothered by it at all!

So, here’s how it went down. The kids get out of school at noon and I made an appointment for 1:30pm. The plan was for the kids to eat lunch in the car and then head straight over. At the same time, I had a 12:15pm teacher conference with Ms. Faith, rescheduled twice since November. Since I’m so antsy about germs in advance of their birthday on Saturday, I decided I’d take Steven and Amaya back to my office with me while Megan took Sammy to the dr. I’ve never done that but my schedule allowed for me to stay with them and I’m really anxious about pre-birthday illnesses. It worked out perfectly! Everyone was one with lunch just as I was finishing up.

[Sidebar – The conferences were great. The highlight was related to how Steven, Sammy and Amaya look out for each other. Amaya, in particular, really watches out for her brothers. On Monday, Steven was upset at drop-off. After I left he went to Amaya for a hug and Ms. Faith said she stood there hugging and rocking him for a good three minutes.

The teachers are trying to help SSA branch out and play with other kids. They’re particularly interested in doing this for Amaya because they feel like she’s wary of leaving her brothers to play with the other girls in the class, even though the other girls are interested in playing with Amaya. I’m told they’re seeing Amaya engage more with the other girls now. One of the ways they’re trying to accomplish this is by putting name tags at seats for snack time, and our trio is split over two tables. The other day, Steven and Amaya were together and Sammy was on his own. Steven jumped right into eating but Sammy was sitting at his table looking a little uncomfortable. Ms. Faith told me that Amaya went and stood right by his seat until he started to eat. Once he was settled, she went back to her own table.

I absolutely love hearing stories like this! My sweet girl.]

Back to Wednesday afternoon… Steven and Amaya were awesome at my office. I told them they needed to be quiet and Steven whispered the whole time lol. It was a quick appointment and Megan and Sammy were ready to pick them up within 45 minutes. It’s not something I can do regularly but I’m so glad we did it last week.

The verdict on Sammy’s eye was a sty that looked like the infection might be spreading. Simple enough to attack with eye drops 4x/day. Which is a whole lot simpler when it’s not an almost-4 year olds who needs these drops 4x/day. But we were glad we took him in.

We had family photos scheduled on Saturday and the doctor said it likely wouldn’t be better in time. The do we/don’t we decision was made for us a few hours later when Sammy tripped and fell, eye first, into a coffee table. The same eye was now red, swollen and black and blue. No family photos for us with an eye like that!

My friend Ames said there are youtube tutorials to get a look like that. 🙂

Friday morning… quite the shiner.

Amaya wanted me to look at her red eye, too. lol

Here’s how it looked after work on Friday. Even with a black eyes, his lashes are a stand-out.

And Saturday morning. A little better! (He’s still not loving the eye drops, by the way.)

Saturday was my BIG DAY. A a Hanukkah present, I asked for a WHOLE DAY alone in the house from after breakfast until after dinner. Today was my day!!! The longest I’d been alone in the house in 4 years!!

We started the day with puzzles. This is the ballet puzzle I referenced earlier. It’s 35 pieces and definitely one of our most challenging.

Steven tackled Dora.

A look of accomplishment!

And shortly after that, off they go to Grandma Sunshine’s house for a full day of fun!!!

Sally and I were home alone! She said “meow meow” which is a cat for, “I remember when it was just you and me, mama!”

(Jason would say she was saying, “Hey! Remember how great it was before you brought that boy home?” But Sally loves her Daddy.)

I took a little time to do a few chores and wrap birthday presents for the kids but then I spent hours and hours and hours just sitting on the couch. Sitting, sitting, sitting, sitting, sitting. Parenting is joyous but it’s also relentless. This day to myself was just what I needed.

Just a few more photos to round out the week.

This is me four years ago! Holy crap!! I was very pregnant. I was 32 weeks and had hit my final goal of my pregnancy. I still can’t believe what my body did.

Look at all of these letters Amaya wrote! P S A N T P A It’s fun to see letters that aren’t in her name. I didn’t know she know how to write all of those!

Steven is always very focused when he’s drawing and there’s always intent behind whatever he’s doing. I think this became a dragon.

Steven asked me, “Is this a fox or a cat? I can’t tell because they’re similar.”

Steven, Sammy and Amaya hide (in the exact same place) every day when I get home from work.

“Oh no! Where are Steven, Sammy and Amaya!?! I better lie down on the couch while I figure out how to find them.”

We get weekly class emails from the kids’ school and this week there were photos included. Learning the letter M.

Auntie gave us these cool puzzles where you find the pieces that go in sequence. Like apples, then baking materials, then apple pie. I love a lot of things about them, not the least of which is that everyone can play together.

Finally, Daddy and his sweety girl. <3

Have a great week! When I write next, I’ll have three FOUR year olds. I can’t believe it.