ahoy!

Every morning is another day of bus stop adventures for Team Cline and every morning is a bit of “hurry up and wait”. We’ll definitely need to think through our plan as it gets colder but, for now, we’re (mostly) enjoying our morning time outside. SSA like the hunt for caterpillars and interesting fallen leaves.

Steven self identifies as “silly, cute, adorable and lovable” and tries to reflec that in his pictures. <3

Sammy is really enjoying cooking, especially now that we’ll let him work at the stove. (Supervised, and the pot handle was turned in.) I’d love to see if we can find a kids’ cooking class for him.

Amaya came home with this school work! They had step by step examples to draw the animals which she followed well, and embellished all on her own. I also love seeing her writing. Kindergarten is so cool.

On Tuesday I remembered the kids are learning French at school and asked them to show me what they’ve learned. They’re learning French!

Tuesday was Steven’s glasses follow-up appointment to see how they’re working for him. It was so much fun to go to his school and pick him up early. Any chance to be in his building and see the school in action. (On that note, I have a work event on Tuesday that doesn’t start until after 10am which gives me the chance to do some out-of-classroom volunteer work at their school. I’ll be cutting paper for an hour, and thrilled to do it.)

The eye doctor said that the glasses are the correct prescription but, even with glasses, his right eye is not seeing 20/20. What has since been explained to me by another eye doctor is that, when a child isn’t seeing with binocular vision, the brain blurs the vision in one eye so that it can make sense of what it’s seeing with one eye. It’s not an eye issue, it’s a brain issue. One way to build the strength in the weaker eye is to patch the good eye for some time each day. After the eye is strengthened, vision therapy may also be needed to help the two eyes learn to work together. So, Steven is beginning his patching journey – 4 hrs/day for 4 months.

He’s a total trooper. He doesn’t love it but he’s accepted it so easily. We’re very proud of him.

Dance class! Week 2 had the routine down even better thanks to Gabby’s suggestion that we change at home rather than at the studio.

Amaya loves writing. She’s been asking us to tell her how to spell a variety of words. It’s cute to see the kids help each other with letters. (Amaya: How do you write an “F”? Steven: It’s a line with a hat and a mustache.”)

Cat, Dog, Diamond, Fairy, Jewel, Flower, Leaf. (The top, according to Amaya, is “cursive”.)

Passing time while we wait for the bus.

After work cuddles with Mr. Patch. <3 <3 <3

Side note: Steven’s started doing some rudimentary math (single digit addition and subtraction). He says it’s easy because he has his fingers for counting.

We got this glasses cover to use as an alternative to patching. As long as he keeps his glasses on and doesn’t cheat by looking over the top of his glasses, it can work just as well without the annoyance of a patch.

He thought it was so cool he chose to wear it to school on Friday!

“Ugh, Mommy!”

This week was fire safety work a school and the kids started bringing home library books. It’s such a great way to read new books with them each week. And now they’re pressing us for our fire safety plan at home – which is a good idea to have in place.

Amaya’s class during fire safety week. You can see her in the middle of the line of kids – a tall girl in rainbow leggings.

Gabby was sick on Friday so I got to surprise SSA at the bus stop. Such a great for me!!

After dinner we had a treat for all of us and went out for some frozen yogurt.

“Look! My shoes fell off!” Love his smile.

Friday night story time, featuring Steven and Sammy’s library books. I’ve really been prioritizing bedtime reading and it’s such nice, valuable time together.

On Saturday morning, Steven tried out one of his new, super cool patches. Tiger Steven! He liked the patch so much he even wore it out to the start of a birthday party!

On Saturday afternoon we celebrated Ethen, Steven’s friend from the JCC. We hadn’t seen him since May so it was nice to connect and the kids had fun playing on the playground, fighting with light sabers, doing artwork and eating cupcakes.

There was a rain storm when we got home so Sammy and I went for a quick walk to see what it’s like to actually be caught in a storm. The answer: cold and wet. But worth it!

Post dinner cuddles for Sammy and Daddy.

This morning, my little chef Sammy did the bulk of the work making oatmeal. He’s so careful and proud.

I’m so glad to know that we’re not past the days of dress-up. This little girl has a very clear fashion vision. 🙂

Today it was Lizard Steven! He made it 3 hours in the patch and then we switched to the glasses cover. (He does wear his glasses with the patch but he wanted to see how it looked without them.)

This afternoon was another birthday party for a pre-k friend – this time Emma C. The party was at stables where the kids got to groom a horse, take a carriage ride to pet goats and bunnies and then ride horses. So cool!

The Clines kids were the last of the bunch to try grooming the horse but once they gave it a shot they loved it.

Sammy, Hannah, Amaya, Shoshana and Steven

Sammy wanted to feed the horse but lost his nerve right at the end so I helped him out and we did it together.

Carriage ride! Sammy was very clear about not needing to sit with me.

This guy and his sister, on the other hand lol.

Goats!! Sammy and Steven went right in the pen. It was so cute. Amaya was scared but worked up the never, holding my hand, and stayed for about 2.5 minutes before she decided it was not for her.

Just after I took this photo the goat gave Sammy a little head butt. Sammy was startled but totally took it in stride.

Amaya and I hung out while Sammy and Steven played with bunnies. Amaya wasn’t thrilled that they were running around, uncaged.

Horseback riding! Amaya opted out pretty quickly (though later she said it was helmet related). Steven and Sammy were excited but quickly got nervous when it was time to get on the horses. Sammy got on and off quickly and then got his mind set on the miniature pony in the barn. Steven was also nervous but I was able to convince him to give it a shot, with my hands around the waist, and after a few circles around the stable he sent me to sit on a bench with Amaya because he was totally fine on his own. Proud mama moment.

Sammy was thrilled to get his shot on the miniature pony and I bet he’d try a big horse if he had the chance.

Now they want us to buy a horse lololol.

To wrap up the week, here are some recent creations from the boys.

This is Steven’s family fire plan. He started off with a map to the house next door but Amaya is afraid of their dog so he moved our meeting spot to the house two doors down.

Sammy looooooooves Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (and the sequel) so he wrote a 3rd part for the series narrating the copy and images for me to complete. Here’s his masterpiece which he asked me to mail to Savta.