The Kleins: More Summer fun

Hello! Everything is going great here in the Klein household. We're having a great summer and doing our best to keep the kids entertained. They are definitely at a fun age right now and they're quite the silly bunch on most days. With the days being longer, bedtime has been pushed back to around 8pm. The kids are still taking one nap during the day usually around 1pm. On some days, they wake up around 3pm but other days we have to wake them up once it gets past 4 pm or else bedtime really gets pushed back. As always, Caleb is the first to fall asleep and the first to wake up from naps and in the morning. They used to sleep in until 7am but with the sun rising so early, Caleb is usually awake by 6 or 6:30 am at the latest. I'm usually using our treadmill at that time, so lately he climbs out of his bed and comes into our workout room and lays on the floor with his blanket until I finish. I've been so fortunate to be able to squeeze a workout in, especially now that all three of them are awake earlier in the morning. My workouts are a huge part of my stress relief so everyone benefits when mom exercises!

The kids are still sleeping in their tents which are inside their cribs. Caleb and Mischa have gotten much better about not climbing out of their cribs but once in a while, we still have to go back in their room and tell them to stay in bed. We have to "lock" their tents occasionally, too, especially when one climbs out of bed and encourages the others. Madeline is still our one and only child who doesn't climb out of her bed generally and prefers to sleep with her tent open. Somehow she manages to sleep with her pillow, blanket, turtle night light and about 5 or more stuffed animals. Caleb and Mischa each sleep with their pillow and blanket and on some nights one stuffed animal or none. It's so funny to see how different they are.

While Grandma Lynn and Grandpa Lanny were here last month, we tried putting the kids into big kid underwear. The kids each picked out their favorite characters (Mischa chose Disney Princess and Hello Kitty, Madeline and Caleb both prefer Thomas the Train underwear). They didn't get the concept of using the potty chair and we're still working on it. They don't like the feeling of having wet underwear so they tell me when they've gone to the bathroom but we haven't gotten any of them to actually use the potty chairs yet. Caleb got close the other day and told me he had to pee. I immediately put him on the potty chair but he couldn't go. After he got up he peed on the kitchen floor... go figure! I'm keeping my fingers crossed that one will go in the potty chair soon so that the others can learn from example. We've tried not to pressure the kids to use the potty and are trying to be encouraging yet matter-of-fact. We will see what happens.

We also have recently started using "time out" with the kids...well, actually, Caleb mostly. He sometimes takes toys away from his sisters if he sees them playing with something he wants. Usually a mini dispute will occur and generally hitting and crying starts, so we have a blue chair we keep in the corner of the living room which we use for time out. Caleb has had the most time outs but he seems to be getting a lot better about not taking toys from his sisters. One minute in time out seems like an eternity to him, of course, but it gives him a chance to get away from a stressful situation and take a break. Overall, we're liking time out!

We are very excited that Isaac is coming to visit next week. The kids love when Isaac comes to visit. He will be staying for almost 2 weeks and we can't wait! We'll definitely have to get lots of pictures.

Here are some more pictures from last month and some from the past couple of weeks.