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.