I really can’t believe how Steven, Sammy and Amaya are taking off with their beginning reading. They’re all at different stages and all progressing on their own timeline. We practice site words and they spent their lunch today trying to spell words for me. Listening to them sound out the letters is one of my current favorite pastimes.

Sammy sounded out “October” as “Oktobr” which I thought was fantastic. Steven is absolutely flying through basic sight words. I’ve moved on to some harder words for him. And here’s a sample of a recent worksheet that came home with Amaya.

Here’s Amaya spelling. They love spelling! I’m having so much fun with this knowledge explosion, and their interest. They spent their entire lunch asking me to have them spell words.

Not a broken foot, just a new “Amaya pose.” 🙂

Steven, Sammy and Amaya love tracking their bus with me. As it gets colder, I’m happier and happier to have the app and we’re getting better and better with our timing.

Steven chose to wear some clips in his hair and we had our usual conversation:”What will you say if someone says clips are just for girls?” “I’ll say boys can wear clips if they want to.”

On Tuesday I headed off to DC for a trip scheduled to last through Thursday night which meant missing trick or treating at my office, the kids’ Halloween parade and party at school and actual trick or treating. When I arrived in DC I made a last minute call and ended up changing my flight to make it back in time to trick or treat with the kids.

My travels gave me a chance to have dinner with Aunt Ouize and Uncle Todd. Yay!

Halloween treats for the kids from Gabby. Thank you, Gabby!

Gabby took SSA to trick or treat at my office. It sounds like they had a blast. The kids were nervous about being able to go while I was out of town so my boss, Sean, made them a video inviting them to come trick or treat. 🙂

Not only did Steven get to take a picture in front of a tornado backdrop but one of my colleagues was dressed as tornado!

Making the rounds…

On Monday Amaya had her first kindergarten play date with Abby B, a friend she talks about all the time. I was so glad that Abby was also interested in having a play date with Amaya. I left work early to join Amaya. When we got there she ran up to the door and then took off with Abby. It was great to see how comfortable she was. In fact, Amaya had so much fun that she had an epic meltdown when it was time to leave.

At their Halloween party, Abby’s mom kindly took some photos of Amaya for me. I am so appreciative! We also got some pictures from her teacher. (Still no photos from the boys’ teacher, though.)

Abby B and Amaya. (Amaya is very impressed that Abby is already 6.)

Home in time to surprise the kids!! Sammy decided to be a ghost for trick or treating and poor Amaya realized her costume was not ideal for a cold, wet night. We made it to about 8 houses before the kids decided they had enough but, fortunately, those 8 houses pretty much filled their pumpkins.

Post trick or treating candy by the fire has become a fast favorite tradition.

Watching for trick or treaters. There were very few.

Shortly after 2am, Steven woke up Jason saying he didn’t feel well. Apparently that’s code for, “I’m going to throw up.” 🙁 And moments later Amaya was awake and sick, too. 🙁 We thought it might be candy but that idea was dispelled when Steven continued to get sick through the night. Sadness.

Sad boy in the morning.

I was really worried about how I’d convince Sammy to go to school without his brother and sister but he was so good about it. When Amaya told him he’d be the “only one” at school he said, “Well I’ll have my friends.” God, I was so happy to hear that. And incredibly proud when he got on the bus on this own without even a look back.

I worked from home while Steven and Amaya watched tv, threw up and napped. And napped. And napped. By early afternoon they both had fevers and Jason & I had to make a call about plans to go to Great Wolf Lodge this weekend and made the easy decision to push our trip out.

Sammy had a great day at school! He came in from the bus with a ton of energy and lots of excitement about his day. I asked him a question about a snack that was still in his backpack and he said, “We didn’t have time for an afternoon snack. We have so much to do on Fridays! There’s library and French class and reading buddies and American buddies and Thornton Creek buddies and assembly!” I know lots of kids go off to school on their own from the start but that’s not the experience for Steven, Sammy and Amaya so it fills my heart to see Sammy go off on his own so easily.

By Saturday morning, fevers were gone and Steven and Amaya were back to their usual selves. Thank goodness for all of us. And, miraculously, so far no one else has come down with whatever bug they had.

Spider-making Man

Sushi for breakfast is definitely a sign of a strong stomach.

The kids were so excited to help Jason with his laundry. Amaya was working on her Konmarie folding.

Sammy wanted me to take him to Benihana for lunch but Jason was able to convince him that we should all try Mongolian BBQ where he could still see the chefs cook his food. Jason snapped this picture of Sammy jamming to the music.

This was a weekend of games! I played Scrabble Jr. with each of them individually, Sight Word Swat with everyone individually, three games of Monopoly Jr. and one of Carcassone with all three and a game of Memory with Steven where he legitimately beat me.

In my game with Sammy, Amaya showed up with this “Go Mommy” sign. Can you even???? <3

Steven has taken to sleeping with my blankie. (It’s the Sesame Street sheet.) I’ve had it since it was a toddler and it’s so special to see my kids sleep with it but I’m pretty clear with everyone that it’s still mine.

We had an awesomely lazy Sunday. Sometimes it’s so nice to be home and do nothing at all. The whole weekend really felt like that. We were busy around the house but on our own terms.

I thought Steven was interested in what Jason was doing, but it turns out he was just waiting for Jason’s tablet battery to die so Jason could do something with him. 🙂

Three games of Monopoly so everyone could have a turn as banker.

Cuddles with Daddy

I’ll end with this – Today Sammy told me what he wished for when we were at the wishing well in Disneyland. At the time he said he couldn’t tell me or it wouldn’t come true. It turns out he wished that we could have a rainbow outside our house every day. How sweet is that child? Steven heard and said, “Couldn’t you have wished for 2 copies of Mommy and 2 copies of Daddy so we could each have our own mommy and daddy. But we’d still be triplets!” Another sweet child. <3 As is their sister (when she wants to be). 🙂