The Kleins: April 2013

Tuesday, April 30, 2013

Spring is finally here

Hi everyone! Finally Spring is officially here in Reno as the weather has been so sunny and beautiful! The babies are loving the outdoors right now, especially playing in the backyard. In fact, they go outside to play multiples times each day and have so much fun running around on the grass, playing with their toys, or exploring the plants, dirt and rocks. Luckily, no one seems to be interested in eating anything outside, so that's a plus! Seth and I enjoy having the babies play outside as it gives them an opportunity to burn off some energy. With the long winter we had, the babies often went a little stir crazy in the house all day, so this has been a nice change for them. Since the babies are going inside and outside many times throughout the day (after breakfast, before lunch, after lunch, after their nap, before dinner, after dinner, you get the point), getting three pairs of shoes on and off can be quite a pain. So, last week I purchased three pairs of crocs for each of the babies, and I must say, they are SO convenient as they slip off and on easily plus they're washable (not to mention pretty stinkin cute too). They know that when we put their crocs on that it's time to play outside and they get so excited!

These past few weeks I have finally had the time to do a lot of things that I have wanted to do for so long, but just never had the time or energy for. I redecorated the kids' bathroom, hung new family pictures around the house, sold a lot of their old baby items, and even planted some flowers in the front and backyard. In fact, I haven't planted flowers in over 2 years between being super busy last Spring with the babies and then being on bed rest the year before that. I even planted a few tomato and bell pepper plants in the garden and I'm so excited to see them grow. Spending time in the yard is one of my favorite hobbies so I am very happy to be getting back to some of my favorite pre-baby activities. Of course, everything is modified now as I still have limited time and can only commit a few hours each week to gardening and flower planting. Hopefully the babies will enjoy these activities with me as they get bigger and we can plant flowers and vegetables together in the future.

Here are some pictures from the past few weeks. Seth and I can't believe our kids are getting so big!

One of the few pictures we could get of the three of them

Caleb playing in the backyard

Madeline

Mischa

Say cheese!

Mischa and Caleb playing in their old co-sleeper bassinet

Madeline

Caleb - this was taken right after a haircut...not too shabby!

Mischa right after her bang trim...oops, it's a little crooked

Out for a walk around the neighborhood

Madeline

Madeline's yellow crocs

Caleb

Caleb's blue crocs

Mischa

Mischa's pink crocs...did I mention these are the best invention ever? :)

Seth and Madeline...what a daddy's girl

Caleb

Mischa

One of our pretty tulips

Here is a short video of the babies taking a bath last Sunday

Thursday, April 4, 2013

16 months old!

The babies are 16 months old today! This has been such a fun age. They love to play with balloons, read books, and play outside now that the weather is starting to warm up a little. Even though they are still crazy busy and super active, Seth and I both believe it's easier now compared to when they were little babies, but they are into everything and need constant supervision. Sometimes we both count down until 7 pm each night which is bedtime for the babies because we know we can finally relax and read a book or watch TV together. Some days are really hard and exhausting, but other days are so fun and enjoyable with the babies, so we both try to take each day one day at a time. It's so funny because Seth and I have a joke where the days I go to my job at the hospital I refer to as "my days off"...taking care of triplets is about a thousand times harder than my job as a nurse practitioner...HA!

One of the funnest experiences with the babies has been feeding them. Now that they have more teeth (Caleb and Mischa both have some of their molars but Madeline still has only 6 front teeth), we've been able to experiment with different foods. In fact, I haven't had to use my baby brezza machine to blend foods a lot like I used to. Now I just use the machine to steam vegetables or crunchy fruits and then cut them into bite sized pieces for the babies. Some of their latest favorite foods include greek yogurt with blended berries and softened granola, scrambled eggs with cheese, almond butter sandwiches (with the crust cut off), mashed avocado mixed with mashed bananas, and cheese quesadillas. As long as everything is cut up into small pieces, they love being able to feed themselves. In the past month or so, we've noticed that they babies are definitely becoming more picky and some of the things they used to love eating, they don't seem to enjoy as much any more. As with many other things, this seems to be a phase and will hopefully pass. They have taken a disliking to many vegetables so I have to be sneaky and add vegetables to foods like spaghetti or scrambled eggs. Seth and I love to order breakfast on Sundays at one of our favorite breakfast spots near our house. We used to order the babies plain scrambled eggs or pancakes with fruit, but then we noticed they started eating off of our plates more so now we order them the Joe's Special which includes scrambled eggs, ground turkey, spinach, onions, mushrooms and a side of cottage cheese. Ha, who would have thought they'd end up loving this meal more than pancakes? :)

Here are some pictures from today and earlier this week.

Mischa playing in the backyard

Madeline being silly

Caleb playing with the water hose

Mischa running away from me

Here she comes...what a BIG smile!

Caleb playing in the dirt...typical boy ;)

Caleb all cleaned up

Madeline in her new outfit from Grandpa Lanny and Grandma Lynn

What a happy girl

Caleb liked his new baseball outfit

"Let me out of here!"

Whoa, that flash was bright!

Me and Mischa

Caleb

Mischa

A short video of Madeline and Mischa from last Saturday

Mischa

Madeline

On a walk by the Truckee River

Madeline love these smoothies

Sweet Mischa

Caleb being silly

Getting ready for a bath tonight

Happy, happy Mischa

Caleb and his half smile

Madeline all clean

Mischa and my water bottle

Caleb loves to reach for the camera

Madeline

Thanks for stopping by! Oh, and a big Happy Birthday to Grandma Lynn! We miss and love you!

Monday, April 1, 2013

Happy Easter!

Hello! We hope everyone had a fantastic Easter. Seth and I took the babies to our friends' house for an Easter BBQ. Our friends have 16 month old twin daughters, so our babies had so much fun playing with their toys and exploring their backyard. There was even a mini Easter egg hunt in the backyard but the babies didn't quite get the concept of finding eggs, picking them up, and putting them in their Easter baskets. It was still so cute to see all these little toddlers walking around everywhere with their Easter baskets in their cute outfits. I made mini Easter baskets for the babies with sand buckets, pinwheels and plastic eggs with goldfish crackers inside of them. We tried our best to get a few pictures of the occasion, but Seth and I had a hard time keeping up with our little munchkins. They were either trying to eat rocks, playing with the knobs on the grill, or picking up food off the ground, so between the two of us and the three of them, we could hardly take our eyes off of them and enjoy the party. However, it was so nice getting out of the house and spending time with our dear friends.

A couple of weeks ago Isaac came to visit us and we had such a wonderful time. He stayed with us for one week during his spring break. He was such a big help with the babies. He helped us feed them, take them for walks, and big brother Isaac even read books to them...so sweet! On one of the days, Isaac and I took the babies a walk to a nearby Starbucks. Well, just as we were almost home, Mischa started fussing in the stroller so I gave her my wallet to play with (I know what you all are thinking...BAD idea)! When we got home, guess what was missing from the stroller....my wallet! Yes, she threw it out of the stroller and neither Isaac or I noticed. Poor Isaac went searching for my wallet for over an hour and couldn't find it anywhere. Fortunately, I was able to cancel my credit cards but I was so bummed to have lost my wallet. Well, about a week later, someone turned it in to the library near our house and I got everything back. What a relief! No more wallets for Miss Mischa!

Another funny story that happened involving Mischa was when we spent a week in San Francisco visiting family while Isaac was visiting. We stayed in a hotel suite for the week which had a kitchenette. Well, Grandpa Armin had given an envelope to Isaac which contained a monetary gift. Isaac set the envelope down on one of the end tables not realizing that one of the babies was going to grab it...and of course, Mischa took it upon herself to move and hide that envelope! The whole family searched the entire hotel room looking for the envelope. We knew it was somewhere in the room but we just didn't know where. The suite we stayed in had two bedrooms, a living room, a kitchen and two bathrooms, so there was no telling where the envelope was. Well, later that night when most of the family had gone home for the evening, I was cleaning up in the kitchen and happened to open the broiler door and there was the envelope, in the broiler! The funny thing is we all saw Mischa opening and closing the broiler drawer just like she does at home, but we didn't realize she put the envelope in there! Silly Mischa! :)

Despite the missing envelope incident, we had such a wonderful time in San Francisco hanging out with the family. We got to see Grandpa Armin, GG, Aunties Maia and Adina, and cousins Amelia and little Maia Claire...the newest addition to the Klein family. Wow, seeing 2 month old Maia Claire really reminded Seth and I how far we've come. Our three kiddos look like big kids compared to their sweet baby cousin. We stayed at our usual hotel right next door to Seth's work which worked out great. We had so much fun visiting Seth's coworkers and eating lunch with everyone. One of the days we spent at Pier 39 with Isaac and the babies which was crazy busy but also a lot of fun. We even got to spend the day with GG celebrating her birthday with most of the family. We did miss seeing Auntie Arielle and cousin Kaeden but maybe next time. Overall, we had a wonderful trip!

Well, here are lots of pictures from Isaac's visit, San Francisco, Easter and the past couple of weeks. Hope you enjoy!