Monday morning Sammy woke up insistent on wearing a dress to school. Their school is very excepting of kids exploring and being kids so it was a good opportunity to be able to say “yes”, unlike the party at the bounce house place where “yes” wasn’t quite as easy. He wore it over jeans and was content all day.
Too cool for the playground.
Mike and Taco met up with Megan and SSA at the playground, which was a treat for everyone. They loved pushing her in the swing. Taco is almost 18 months old!
We got new cups for the kids and, for the first two days, Steven was very nervous about the transition. He doesn’t love change. On Monday, though, Megan helped him crack the code. He was so proud of himself!
Tuesday morning. Thank goodness for king beds!
The kids’ dentist appointment was scheduled for January and I had to keep pushing it out because of work conflicts. I had another conflict on Tuesday but really didn’t want to move it again so Megan stepped up like a rock star and took the kids on her own. For context, we’ve had tears at all of our past appointments and no one would sit in the chair. This visit was totally different. We had three BIG, BRAVE kids who sat in the chair without any tears at all.
On Tuesday night, Sammy scratched Steven as part of some kind of bedtime tussle. Sammy wouldn’t apologize and Steven was annoyed enough that he wanted to sleep alone. Fortunately, Amaya was very excited about the idea of sleeping in Steven’s bed so they made a trade!
We had an exercise at work that involved paint so I made this watermelon boat with a teacher and three students. Everyone was quick to point out, though, that it was more likely me with my kids. Funny how I work in threes.
Here’s a bedtime meltdown for you. Steven was upset that I went upstairs without him. “You left me downstairs alone!”
Wednesday night was another bedroom swap, and why not sleep in a bathing suit.
Poor Sammy. He had a rough Thursday morning because I told him there wasn’t time for me to make him pancakes. “Pleeeeease! Please make me pancakes!”
Apparently there were also some bad moods leaving school for the day, too.
The Honeybees class made an “I want to be…” book at school. Here are the Cline kid contributions. Interesting to see how their ambitions change from week to week. 🙂
More meltdowns on Friday night! Whoo! It helps to have my triplet group and see that this is just par for the course for their age, and not specific to our trio. But still… work to do helping them handle big feelings. To that end, I just ordered No Drama Discipline and The Whole Brain Child and plan to read them on some upcoming flights. I’ve heard great things about both books so hopefully there will be useful tips and tricks.
Here, Sammy is upset because Amaya took the fork he wanted. I can’t even remember why Steven was upset.
Friday night Steven and Amaya continued their swap but, this time, Amaya decided she’d prefer to sleep on the floor. Sammy joined in for a bit before realizing his bed is much more comfortable.
Saturday morning was awesome because I got to take Steven, Sammy and Amaya to a make-up dance class. It’s my first time taking them, other than last week’s costume photos! It was nice to get to be there with them and see the class in action. Either their following directions better at this point in the year or they just happened to be in great form in this particular class.
Steven and Sammy are warming up with twirls.
Amaya wore her construction goggles and, since it was a Saturday special class, Miss Christina said she could wear them for class.
Getting a little help with her ballet slipper strings.
Sammy’s got it down. Check out his perfectly placed arm above his head.
His pointed toe.
These arms above his head!
I’m already picturing him on stage in 16 years in the New York City Ballet.
I got a preview of their recital dance which I was happy about because I think there’s about a 5% chance the kids actually dance on stage and a 95% chance they just cry through the whole thing.
Sweet construction ballerina. <3
Jason held down the fort on Saturday afternoon while I got a haircut and some work done. Of course that meant ball cards! (This morning, Amaya was working on her ball card organization and told me she needed help with her “spacer”. I could tell what she was talking about but really had no idea how to help so we had to wait for daddy for the assist.)
Steven spent part of the afternoon drawing pictures of each of the planets. He asked Jason for a description and then set out drawing. When he was done, we put the pictures together in a book for him.
Some samples…
He also got up to some cute imaginary play at the doll house. He and one of the figures were working together on some handyman jobs, fixing broken chairs.
We wrapped up our Saturday with magazines, books and nose picking. <3
And, very exciting for the kids, they had a sleepover!! Amaya and Steven on the floor and Sammy in his bed. It was adorable and, remarkably, they fell asleep pretty quickly.
Today was beautiful and we spent 3.5 hours at a playground with my friend Nina and her four year old triplets. The kids played so well together and I think seeing how adventurous Sarah, Kenny and William are motivated Steven, Sammy and Amaya to try parts of the playground they might not have otherwise.
Amaya was so proud when she discovered she could make this walk.
Sammy rode his biggest slides yet.
Amazingly, the kids all spent nearly an hour playing together in the dirt around this tree stump. Two huge playgrounds right there and all they need was dirt and “nature” to keep them happy. “We’re digging for nature!”
Sammy and a bunch of other kids had races down the slides while Amaya and Steven took care of “ready, set, go!”
By the end of the day, Steven was comfortable enough to climb the rock.
Arrive in jackets and hoods, leave in a tank top!
Kenny spent a while sitting at the bottom of the slide reading to Amaya. It was really cute.
I’m so excited we found this playground! It’s 5 minutes from our house and has enough to keep the kids entertained for hours. They’re already excited to go back!
That’s it for this week! Next week I have a trip to Savannah, Grandpa Homey is coming to visit and we have a special birthday! Have a great one!