Steven, Sammy and Amaya are getting more and more independent. The kids love to get their own breakfast from the pantry and Sammy especially loves being FIRST to get downstairs. It’s the best motivator to get him dressed. On Tuesday morning I came downstairs and found Sammy sitting at the counter with his cereal at the ready. Such a big kid.

Tuesday afternoon was unseasonably warm and rainy so Megan took the opportunity to take SSA for a walk in the rain for some good old fashioned puddle stomping! We didn’t have rain boots so decided snow boots would have to do. Unfortunately, it turns out snow boots aren’t water proof. Oops!

Wednesday was a treat for the kids because Taco came for the afternoon! They were really excited to show her off to their friends in the Romp ‘n’ Roll room.

Amaya’s my little fashionista. She’s rockin’ the Cinderella dress and shades.

She’s obsessed with this sequin shirt. In fact, she wore it two days in a row and would still be wearing it if she had her way.

Day two, now sporting her brand new rain boots!

And rain boots for the boys, too! I was able to find boots for everyone to match their rain coats. Of course they wanted to take them out for a spin. There were no puddles but you can tell that didn’t dampen Steven, Sammy and Amaya’s spirits.

There is always time for cuddles with May May. We were at dinner on Saturday night and our waitresses name was Megan. Steven said, “Our waitress is May May like we have a May May.” 🙂

I got a new computer a few weeks ago so I decided that SSA could use my old laptop to learn computer skills. We tried it out while Sammy was a IKEA with Jason. Steven and Amaya were enthralled, and surprisingly adept, but managed to mess up the keyboard within an hour.

Meanwhile, Sammy and Daddy had a GREAT time together!

While they were gone, Sammy sent a special request for us to make a magatile robot. We were happy to oblige!

This weekend Grandma Sunshine came to visit so we could have a belated birthday celebration. The kids were so excited, especially because it was a sleepover visit.

Amaya came to help me get ready for dinner. She likes watching me put on my make-up. These days I feel like her eyes are almost more grey than blue.

The big birthday plan was to got to Benihana for hibachi. Steven took one look at the chef at a nearby table and promptly lost his mind. I hoped we’d be able to get him comfortable but he was in Jason’s arms and wouldn’t let go of the doorway to our eating area. Poor kid was terrified. We made the call to leave and ended up at Garage, with Sammy consoled by the promise of a trip to Benihana on a solo date with me. But everyone recovered well and we had our opportunity to celebrate Grandma!

We had a bit of drama this morning. I’ve mentioned before that we have a reward chart to use when Steven, Sammy and Amaya stay in bed until wake-up time. Sammy has been more consistent than Steven and Amaya and today he got his prize. Poor Steven lost it. It was so, so hard for him to see Sammy get a prize when he didn’t. And he knew what he missed out on, too, because I showed them their packs of stencils yesterday as motivation to stay in bed. He cried and cried and cried. It was hard for all of us. Rewards have no purpose if you earn them for just wanting it but saying no over and over again was hard. I think this is one of those times when it’s particularly difficult because they’re triplets. Instead of just competing with themselves to meet the goal, they also see someone else get the reward when they don’t. It’s a good life lesson, but still hurts my mommy heart.

Fortunately, Steven eventually recovered and Sammy was very generous letting Amaya and Steven use his stencils. Here, Steven’s getting some help from Grandma Sunshine.

The kids enjoyed the rest of the morning with Grandma. Lots of play time and lots of cuddles.

If you look at the bottom of the photo, you’ll see a cat door that Jason added to the laundry room door for Sally. Here, Steven is leaving a note for Sal so she’ll know the door is for her. ♥

That’s it for the week! Next week is Ruach week (spirit week) at school so SSA get to wear all sorts of themed costumes. We also have a Purim carnival at school and a visit from Nana. Have a great one!

When I posted the last blog I said I hoped, by the time it published, I’d be in the air on my way back to MI. That totally wasn’t what happened. Not even a little.

Around 4pm I got a notification that my flight was delayed until 8:00pm. Sad, sad, sad. To make the most of our time, we headed over to Auntie and Dod Shuki’s house to see my cousin Joe and his kids Eli and Dalia. In the midst of the travel chaos, it was a treat. Amaya took a little while to warm up but, by the time we left, she was loving playing with Dalia.

Our men were ready for us to come home!

By the time we got to the airport at 6pm, our flight was delayed until 9pm. 🙁 We settled in at a nice restaurant and Amaya was thrilled to get to watch as much tv as she wanted. She was a phenomenal travel partner right out of the gate.

So here’s how it went down. We got to the gate around 8pm and I had awful heartburn. Awful. I was doubled over in pain. Other passengers were coming over to me offering  me their meds. It was brutal. At 9pm we finally boarded our plane. At 10pm we got off our plane because of a mechanical issue. 😢 This picture of Amaya was taking at 10:30pm shortly before we boarded our new plane. Thank goodness I let her nap a little longer that afternoon. 10:30pm and she was still raring to go! (Randomly, the CEO and CFO of my company were on the flight we ultimately boarded for Detroit. Odd little meet up there at La Guardia, way too late on a Sunday night.)

Shortly after 11:20pm take off (finally!), I started feeling even worse and very sick. I told Amaya I was going to throw up and made a beeline for the bathroom. BRUTAL. It was absolutely brutal. I was so sick!! The flight attendant was amazing and tried to help me as much as she could. I couldn’t go back to my seat and poor Amaya was out there on her own. The whole time I was texting with my mom and some friends and am so grateful I had them with me while I tried to figure out what to do. After about 30 minutes, the flight attendant, Tia, told me that Amaya was starting to get anxious. I couldn’t take her in the bathroom with me so Tia helped me out and made sure Amaya was safe, happy and entertained for the rest of the flight.

I took these photos out the bathroom door. Way to go, Delta!!

My stomach started settling before we landed but my predicament was that I didn’t think I could drive us home. We were scheduled to land at 12:45am which somewhat limited options. My mom called the hotel at the airport but they were booked solid, probably from all of the flight delays. In fact, none of the local airport hotels had any rooms. If I could even get a car service, I wasn’t comfortable using one of their car seats and I didn’t have the strength to get to my car to uninstall and then install it in another vehicle. Fortunately, my mom was able to reach Jason who woke up the boys and off they came in their chariot to gather up their women. ♥ ♥ ♥

The other hurdle was that the pilot wanted EMS to meet me at the plane. UGH. It’s pretty mortifying to have the pilot ask the other passengers to remain seated until the EMTs can remove a passenger with a “medical emergency”. From what the flight attendant said, it sounds like he was particularly concerned because I had Amaya with me and he wanted to be sure I got out of the airport safely. Which I appreciate.

After I was checked out and declined transportation to a hospital, Amaya and I were wheeled to baggage claim to wait for our men.

It was 1:10am when we settled in to wait and, almost instantly, Amaya was asleep. What a trooper! I am so, SO proud of how she handled everything. The delays, the late night and, especially, my illness. She was incredible. ♥

Monday, Megan arrived at 7am so Amaya and I could sleep in. Thank goodness. We were beat.

I was so happy to be back with my boys.

Amaya was thrilled to get her “Rey” light saber.

For their birthday (or Hanukkah), Grandma Sunshine got the kids binders for their artwork. Steven is obsessed with his! It’s already full and I think he might be ready for a 2nd. It was such a fun idea and it’s really cute to see how Steven’s taken to it.

On the left is a picture in a book we have. On the right is Steven’s version. 🙂

I don’t know what happened but, as Jason was getting the kids to school on Tuesday, Sammy got sick. Look at those big, sad eyes. It looks like it was a fluke because he was totally fine for the rest of the day but SSA got a morning at home with daddy out of it.

One follow-up from our trip to NY was new hair accessories. I thought it would give me a chance to work on my hair styling skills but Amaya had other ideas and insists on doing her hair herself. Of course she does.

Doesn’t everyone sleep with 24 clips in their hair?

The Brothers always want in on the action.

Amaya has a new Rey shirt (she’s friends with Princess Leia) and put her outfit together in true Amaya fashion.

“I can NOT go to bed until this whole page is blue.”

Amaya’s regularly been falling asleep after 9pm which is an issue when she needs to be up at 6:30am. Then she naps hard, which seems to perpetuate the cycle of falling asleep late. At least for how her body operates. To help her get better sleep at night, we started cutting out Amaya’s nap. Instead, she can play with puzzles in her room while Steven and Sammy are sleeping. It’s been going well except for Friday when the desire to sleep proved too much for her. This is how Megan found Amaya at the end of nap time, snoring away.

Friday night, Jason and I went out for dinner. While we were out, Amaya asked Steffie to send me this photo of Amaya and Sammy sharing the step stool nicely.

Saturday, Steven joined me out for some errands. Looking at this, I should have realized he was under the weather. I can see it in his eyes in this photo. He was a great companion, though. “It’s just going to be me who goes with you, right Mommy?”

Sammy and Jason were deliciously lazy together. Look at how perfectly Sammy fits between Jason’s legs and how at ease he is, lounging there.

By lunchtime, it was obvious Steven was sick. He was glassy eyed and fatigued and warm to the touch. He had a fever and, when I asked if he wanted to just go to nap instead of eating lunch he said yes – and off he went for a 2.5 hr nap. Sweet boy struggled most of the night and ended up sleeping in bed with me. His temperature peaked at 102.5 which isn’t terrible but I’m a little more on edge this year with all of the flu reports and edge case stories of hospitalizations and worse. By this morning he was down to a low grade fever and had much better energy.

Sadly, Steven had to sit out of plans to celebrate our friend Nora T’s birthday. It was at a bakery/cafe and the kids were going to make pizzas and decorate cakes. He was so excited and made me promise we’ll find a time for him to make pizza and decorate a cake by himself. I’m going to work on it!

As you can see in these photos, Sammy and Amaya dressed themselves. Sammy’s shirts and shorts were on backwards. “I want to see just red on my front.”

The party was so much fun! Sammy and Amaya were a little clingier than most of the other kids, which was interesting, but Amaya did want to sit by her friend Shoshana which was cute. They decorated chef hats, held pizza dough, made personal pizzas and decorated huge mini-cakes. I was smart about the pizza-making and was sure to tell Amaya ahead of time that she didn’t need to use the red sauce if she didn’t want to. She hates pizza with red sauce and I know my girl. I could see that meltdown coming miles away if she didn’t know upfront that she could pass on the sauce.

A ton of people commented on how Sammy demolished his cake. He smashed it to bits!

When we got home, Amaya and Sammy were excited to give Steven his goody bag and watch him go through the contents.

Just two more quick things this week. We got some prints of our family photos and Amaya insisted on just photos of Sammy and Steven which she promptly taped to her wall, complete with gel hearts. I love that so much.

The letter of the week at school was R and the kids made rectangle robots. This art example is just like ones from last year where I could pick out Steven’s artwork even without names.

And that’s it for this week. Have a good one!

Amaya started the week with fashion flair. Four years old and her sense of style shows no slowing down.

When I dropped the kids off at school on Monday I saw these family portraits posted. I love that Sammy and Steven included Sally Cat. (Steven’s drawing is nearly impossible to see because of the colors he chose but I didn’t want to exclude his drawing.)

Jason was home sick on Monday and SSA asked him to sort his ball cards at the table while they ate lunch.

These poses are SO my kids. I feel like they capture them perfectly.

Steven drew a picture of Morminer! Totally unaided. He’s got her down.

I love his love for his friend.

SSA’s class made collages with loose items this week. Buttons, bottle caps, pine cones – lots of items that can be found around the house or in nature. The letter of the week was Q and we had two leaders this week. On Monday, Sammy brought Quarters. On Tuesday, Amaya brought Q-tips.

Dance this week! Mr. Steven had a difficult time following class directions, as you can see in these photos lol. Sometimes we leave our listening ears at home. It’s a work in progress.

We’ve had a lot of success bribing the kids to stay in bed until wake-up time. I’ll take it. We started with 5 days to earn a prize. Now it’s 7. We’ll go to 8 and keep creeping up to, maybe 10 days, as a max. It really is incredible to see the shift from waking up at 5am, sometimes earlier, to staying in bed and often asleep at 6:30am.

The first rewards were a Storm Trooper doll (Steven), Anna doll (Sammy) and Princess Leia doll (Amaya). Here, the Storm Trooper is giving Anna a medical checkup.

On Friday, Amaya and I set off for New York! “I can push the stroller by myself, Mommy.”

We landed around 9:30pm and it was off to bed once we got to Nana and Papa’s houses.

We had a nice lazy Friday morning at Nana and Papa’s house with visits from Savta, Auntie and Dod Shuki while the Goldberg family was at work & school.

Back in MI, it was a snow day for Steven and Sammy! Jason was home with them and the Cline men made a quick trip to Home Depot and Target.

And came home with light sabers! Chase looked at these photos and said, “this could go one of two ways.” lol Amaya was very excited to hear that there’s a light saber waiting for her at home, too.

Friday afternoon was a reunion for Amaya and her cousins. ♥ ♥ ♥

My first best guy.

Amaya and Charlie got dressed up and put on an show to “Let It Go”. They spent a good 30 minutes in Charlies room with Savta putting the details together.

Friday was our first Cline kid sleepover at the Goldberg’s house! The plan was for Amaya and Charlie to sleep in Chase’s room so all of the kids could be together.

They were ready! And it was short lived. Amaya was excited to sleep with her cousins but not quite ready. She just could not settle down. In the end, Amaya slept in Charlie’s bed and I slept on an air mattress on Charlie’s floor. We can try again when I have my next solo trip in June, with Sammy. April is all of the kids and we’re definitely not ready for that. At least, I’m not! 🙂

The morning plan was Chase’s soccer game and Amaya and Charlie were matching and ready!

We had a casual afternoon with Nana and Papa before everyone came over.

Amaya and Charlie spent the afternoon at a make-shift salon in Nana’s kitchen. It was hot pink hair all around!

This is what I get from my girl when I ask for a smile. She really knows how to through some attitude toward her mo.

This is what happens when she wants to send a picture to her daddy. Small difference, there. 🙄

The finished product! (Amaya insisted they take a selfie together.)

The kids had a treat and watched the Olympics while they ate dinner and then everyone called it a night.

Today is our last day in NY! We were scheduled for a 3pm flight which was intended to get us home before bedtime so everyone could spend time together before bed. The weather thwarted our plans and, after a canceled flight, we were rebooked on a 6pm flight that should get us home around 9pm. Booooo. At least we were scheduled early enough that the cancellation doesn’t get us home too late. I’ll have to wait until the morning to hug my boys.

Back in MI, Rosie brought supplies so the boys could make birthday cupcakes!! So much fun! She even put fruit in them because she knows how much Steven loves fruit.

The finished product. A for Amaya. S for Sammy. M for Morminer. ♥ Thanks Rosie!!

The Goldbergs, Savta and Auntie came over for brunch and the kids had a little more time to play.

Amaya asked me if I packed her nightgown for the trip “because you know I love Charlie.” It’s so cool to see the relationship between my kids and Sara’s. And we’ll all be back in NY in less than two months!

Right now Amaya is napping and I’m finishing up our packing. If all goes as planned, when this post is live Amaya and I will be up in the sky making our way home to MI.

Have a great week! And Happy Birthday, Grandma Sunshine!!!

Our family photos are here and I love them!! I shared some of these on Facebook already but, for anyone who saw those, there are a few more included here. I’m so, so pleased with how it all came together. I love our family. ♥

We took time to get photos of the kids with their special friends.

Steven and Morminer. I think she’s about as real to Steven as the rest of the family is.

Sammy and Puppy.

Amaya and Old Hoppy. She was originally just “Hoppy” but she got a new bunny from Nana and now has New Hoppy and Old Hoppy. Old Hoppy is her forever favorite, though.

It was Daphne’s idea to go outside and I’m so glad we did. It was just warm enough to make it happen.

My favorite people…

These three bears were gifts from Aunt Dale and Uncle Arnie when SSA were born. I love this picture!

And this one! 🙂

Same spot, three years apart. Amazing.

I can’t get over this progression. It’s so cool to have these photos in the same spot year over year.

If anyone wants to see all 250+ pictures, you can check them out here. You don’t need an account but you’ll need to enter your email address to access the site.

A few more photos from the the week.

Lots of hugs on Monday afternoon! I think Amaya was trying to pick Steven up. 🙂

Our gardens are growing!

The boys are definitely leaving their mark on their room decor.

Bedtime stories with Daddy

SSA’s class made a book with a page contributed by each child. It’s for a week of programming centered around Tu B’Shvat and trees.

Of course Steven’s seed would grow into Morminer. Sweetest. He’d want you to know that his drawing is brown just like Morminer.

I’m going to brag for a second and say that Amaya was the only kid in the class to write her own name on the page. Way to go, Little Mama!!

Here again. Amaya’s leaf brand is on the top with the blue leaves. She’s the only one who wrote her own name. Ms. Faith told me Amaya just knows to write her name on any piece of paper she gets.

Paper bag puppets!

Dance class this week! The kids are disappointed that we didn’t sign them up for the tap class after their ballet class. We’ll look into it for the fall, or maybe even the summer. They keep bringing it up!

Nice form, Amaya!

SSA worked with Megan on pop-up books this week! Steven was class leader on Friday and head to bring something that starts with P. I suggested a puzzle, a princess, play pizza. He said, “What about my pop-up book. P-p-p- pop-up.” I love seeing these dots connect.

Look at all these letters!

Steven did an awesome job, too! It didn’t look like he was tracing this, either, but I’ll need Megan to confirm. (Notice the brown paper? Like Morminer. Oh! And Steven told me that Morminer has a May May just like he does.)

Amaya made a card for a little girl named Lindy. We worked together to practice Ns.

And Cline!! Such big kid skills.

Making a tunnel and rainbows.

This morning we watched our first live-action movie – Beauty and the Beast! We had a lot of dialogue throughout, especially about how the Beast’s transformation from “mean” to “nice”. We talked about why he was mean and how Belle was able to help him open his heart and become nice. The talking housewear was a nice touch. It was fun to get away from cartoons for a bit!

Amaya generally fall asleep for nap more easily than her brothers and wakes up more easily. Once she’s up, she like to go help wake The Brothers. Today she did that by crawling into bed with them. ♥

Holding hands.

We had groceries delivered today but it was Steven’s turn to go out with Jason so, instead, he took Steven to Starbucks for a treat. So awesome!

Steven brought home treats for Sammy and Amaya, too.

And, finally, Amaya in the spirit for the Star Spangled Banner. “This is where my heart is.”

Have a great week!