The Kleins

Sunday, April 27, 2014

28 months old, Easter and everything else

Hello there! Again, I apologize for the fact that I haven't posted a blog entry in almost 2 months. I just can't seem to find the time as much as I used to. The kiddos are doing great and keeping us extremely busy. Even though they are so much more independent than they used to be, they are so active and require a lot more attention. We are constantly trying to keep them busy with playing outside, going to the park or the museum, going shopping, going for walks outside, etc that life almost seems more busy now compared to when they were newborns and had to be fed every 3 hours. Well, I guess it's not quite that busy but it's definitely busy now in a different way. The kids are only napping for 1-2 hours during the daytime now after lunch and on some days, getting them to take a nap is almost impossible. Some days they go without a nap and that makes for a cranky dinner/evening time. We've also been having more trouble getting them to sleep at 7pm like we used to so bedtime has slowly been creeping to 8pm on most nights. Unfortunately, this doesn't translate to them sleeping longer in the mornings. Caleb is still the first one up and now that he can climb out of his crib, he often comes out into the living room as early as 6am.

I think I mentioned in the last post that all three kids were climbing out of their cribs multiple times each day at nap time and bedtime. So, were thought we had fixed that problem by buying pea pod tents which fit into their cribs and we're supposed to keep them contained. Well, leave it up to our kids to figure out how to unzip the tents with their little fingers so now our latest battle has been the kids unzipping their tents and still climbing out of their cribs! Seth and I have had several conversations about this and what would be best to solve this problem like transition them to toddler beds and really enforce the fact that they need to stay in bed. Call us crazy, but this just seems so exhausting with the three of them. In general, Madeline listens the best and will often stay in her tent and crib but once Caleb and Mischa climb out, then she's right there with them opening dresser drawers, pulling clothes out, playing with stuffed animals or just giggling and laughing up a storm. One night they climbed out of their cribs and had opened the three drawers on their dresser and were sitting in the dresser drawers. I heard a loud crash and ran into the room and found the dresser had toppled over completely. Fortunately, no one was hurt but that is just one example of the shenanigans these little ones are capable of. So after much thought on this subject, we finally decided that we give each child one warning not to climb out of bed. If they climb out, then we "lock" their tent by using a twist tie or paperclip to keep the zippers closed on their tents. This has actually been successful and the kids have adjusted pretty well to understanding that they have to stay in their tents when it's time to sleep. Once the kids have fallen asleep, Seth and I go in and take the lock off their tents. Sounds crazy, we know, but this is working for us for now.

We recently had our first "sick" child doctor visit a couple of weeks ago. It started with Caleb developing low grade fevers for a few days and then poor appetite, lethargy and wheezes in his lungs. So I took him in to see his pediatrician and he was diagnosed with bronchitis and a pretty bad left ear infection. Poor guy! He ended up taking antibiotics for 10 days and was much better almost immediately after starting the medication. Madeline and Mischa also had fevers but never did get quite as sick and Caleb, so they didn't require a doctor visit. Caleb has always been the one who seems the most susceptible to getting sick. We recently discovered that he has a peanut allergy. He will develop hives on his body even with just coming in contact with peanuts without even actually ingesting them. I was not surprised by this because as a baby he was the only one to have eczema. He also tends to have mild seasonal allergies. Their is something called the "trifecta" which refers to the combination of eczema, peanut allergy and allergies/asthma in kids. So, with him recently wheezing, I'm curious to know if he will develop asthma. Fingers crossed that he doesn't but we will see. I have seasonal allergies but that is the only link that we know of since Seth doesn't have any of these. Overall, we are so fortunate that the kids have been so generally healthy thus far. The doctor couldn't believe that our kids are almost 2 and a half and that one of them just now required a doctor visit other than routine check ups. We are truly, truly blessed

Other than the recent sickness with the kids, everything else has been going well. The weather has started to warm up (on some days) so they've been outside more. They get so restless and wild if they stay cooped up in the house for too long, so letting them play outside has been beneficial in so many ways. Seth has been working from home more which is great in that he can take the kids for walks and to the park while I either clean up the house or lay on the couch and veg out. My mom has still been helping me so much with the kids. She recently got sick from the kids and had a cold which lingered for about 2 weeks. Luckily, Seth and I didn't get sick. We've had our little routine lately of taking the kids to a few places to let them run off some energy such as the children's museum, the play area at the mall, the jump places (huge warehouses filled with air-filled jump houses), the toy store or even the play areas at the casinos. They tend to sleep better when they've had the opportunity to let off some energy and that means more quiet time and rest for me and Seth!

Here are some pictures and videos from the past few weeks! I'll really try to be better about posting blog entries more regularly. :)

Madeline playing in the backyard

Caleb - he's getting so big

Mischa - can you tell she picked her own shoes?

Sisters

The kids love to climb into our bed

Mischa, Caleb & Maddie (Caleb & Maddie had their first real hair cuts)

The ladies at the salon were so sweet to take this picture of us

At a friend's Easter party

Caleb & Mischa looking for eggs

Sweet Mischa

She did great finding eggs

Eating Easter dinner

Madeline

Caleb

Mischa

Easter goodies for the kids

They recently discovered popcorn and LOVE it

Silly kids

Having fun at Boomtown

Madeline loved the carousel

Caleb did too

Mischa loved this brown horse

Seth and the kids

More riding fun

Caleb

Mischa

Tuesday, March 4, 2014

27 months old!

Hi everyone! I am so sorry about the lack of posts lately. Seems like we have been busier than normal the past few weeks. I have been working three days a week instead of my usual two days, so that has definitely contributed to my lack of time for posts! Unfortunately, Seth and I got hit hard on taxes this year (thanks, Uncle Sam) so I've been working a little extra to prepare for our big upcoming tax bill.

We also recently made a trip to San Francisco to attend our niece's 5th birthday party and to hang out with family. I've noticed that the trips gets a little easier each time we do it and we seem to know what items to bring, where to make pit stops, and what hotels can accommodate triplets the best. However, this particular trip was a bit harder than past trips in that on the very first night there, all three kiddos decided to climb out of their pack-n-plays multiple times ALL night! Caleb was the first to try it and next thing we knew Madeline and Mischa were out of their pack-n-plays too, running around the hotel room screaming and laughing, picking up the telephone, opening cabinets and looking out the window. Needless to say, it made for some long nights there! I guess the time has come when they are transitioning into big kids and don't necessary need to be in pack-n-plays anymore, but I'm not quite sure Seth and I were prepared for this. These little munchkins would not go to sleep each night until about 10 or 11 pm and they wouldn't nap during their usual nap time either. So, Seth and I made the best of it and tried to really wear them out during the daytime going for long walks throughout the city and along Pier 39. For those of you who have Fit-bits, I got my all-time record of 33,500 steps one of the days we were in San Francisco (that's 17 miles! :). Besides the kids climbing out of their pack-n-plays, we had a wonderful trip. It was so nice seeing the family and attending Amelia's birthday party.

Now that we have been back at home for a week, the climbing out of bed madness and continued...in fact, the very first night we were back in Reno, the three of them decided to climb out of their cribs at home multiple times at night and during their nap. Madeline is the only one that can open doorknobs since she is the tallest, so Seth and I would be watching TV in the living room, and the next thing we know we hear giggling and squealing coming from their nursery and then they're out in the living room with us laughing up a storm. We've discussed transitioning them to their toddler beds, however, Seth doesn't think it's the right time for this since they will not go to sleep once they are out of their cribs. They are climbing on top of their dresser, pulling out clothes from the drawers, slamming the closet door and basically having a party in there. So, after a little online research, Seth ordered these toddler tents called "Pea pods" which basically can be put inside of a crib or used alone as a tent on the floor for traveling. When they arrived in the mail, the kids loved playing with them and climbing in and out of them. However, when nap time came around, Caleb did not like being inside his tent and basically cried for about 30 minutes until falling asleep. Madeline and Mischa did okay and fell asleep in theirs. We have kind of alternated using the pea pods and not using them this past week. We put them in their normal cribs for naps and bedtime and tell them not to climb out of their cribs...then we give them a few chances and if they continue to climb out, they go inside their pea pod. The past few nights we have not needed the pea pods but Caleb has needed it for nap time. Fortunately, he doesn't cry anymore and does pretty good overall as long as he has his blanket. Goodness...these little stinkers!

Other than the crib escaping saga, everything else is going good here. The kids are all talking up a storm and learning so much in terms of animals, shapes, colors, letters, numbers and objects in general. Madeline has recently started referring to herself as Maia or Maia Claire. Maia is her aunt or Seth's sister and Maia Claire is her one year old cousin. It's pretty cute and funny to hear Madeline call herself a different name! Out of the three, Madeline definitely acts like the big sister. If she see Caleb or Mischa doing something they're not supposed to be doing, she shakes her finger and says, "No, no!" Caleb is still obsessed with his trains and cars and he loves to be chased throughout the house. I can be hiding behind a corner waiting to get him and he just cracks up laughing and sometimes forgets to breathe because he is laughing so hard. Too funny! Mischa has recently become especially attached to me and follows me around everywhere. She wants to be with me no matter what I'm doing and if I'm not near her, she comes looking for me. She is definitely a mama's girl! Seth is doing great and has been traveling for work quite a bit instead of being in the office in SF but also has been at home a little more when he's not traveling. In fact, last week was his first time working from home the entire week without traveling to SF or anywhere else. I worked three days last week so he was on daddy duty. Not to embarrass him but we had two near fire incidents. The first one occurred when he didn't notice the kids and left a pillow in front of one of our space heaters. He smelled burning but didn't know where it was coming from until he finally noticed the black pillow case! The second incident occurred last weekend when I was grocery shopping and he accidentally placed a rubber bib on top of a lit candle on the stove. Oops! That caught on fire and melted rubber was all over one of the high chair trays. But, overall, all the kids were safe and the house was still in one piece, so I guess that was a successful week!

Here are some pictures and videos from the past month!