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Peek a Boo!!!

👻

It’s been a while since I’ve written a blog post, and since I’m up and not going back to sleep 😴 , I figured I would get the followers updated information about what the trio have been up to.

For starters, they are back in school 🏫 in person 5 days a week and are loving it. This is week 3 now since the schools reopened in Placer County. The Rocklin Unified School District came out with a pretty comprehensive 29 page reopening guide. It outlines how they will keep students and teachers as safe as possible and the protocols that will be followed should anyone become sick with whatever. Our kids actually now wear face shields with cute animals at the top of the shield to make it fun. Those get wipes down with disinfecting wipes when they get picked up in the afternoons. So far, 3 weeks in and no colds or the usual crud kids come home with at this age.

Ah, yes and the trio turn SIX on October 23rd! The party will not be like it was in previous years thanks to this blasted pandemic. Really tired of this “new abnormal” – it has altered the fabric of social interaction in mind boggling ways 😒

First day of Kindergarten in person!
You can see the personalities in the photo

They have quickly made friends at school, and that is no surprise as they are very outgoing. There is an AM cohort and a PM cohort, and our kids are in the PM cohort and all in the same class, which has 7 students total. So they make up a majority of the class! 😂

Here is a quick summary of the kids’ interests:

Michaela: fashion, gymnastics 🤸‍♀️, art 🖼

Emma: Singing 🎤 (she can carry a tune!!! 🎶), drawing and reading

Christopher: riding bikes 🚲, building things and helping out others with stuff . He will do anything for his sisters, and they take advantage of his height. He is the distributor, handing out vitamins each morning and melatonin at night.

Leader in $50 copay visits to the ER: Christopher (3) 😂😘

They have a new play area out back now that we have had a patio cover built. They play out back for hours, role playing and building things. My wife had other idea for the space, but the kids said otherwise 😂

Kitchenette and Barbie house located outside now. If only I could get them to pick up after themselves 🤔🤭😂

Christopher has been doing speech therapy sessions with Kaiser and now also with the school 🏫. He is doing great and is finally sounding out the “L” in words. He initially slowed down and paused and caught himself and now it is second nature. He charmed his speech therapist at Kaiser my showering her with custom drawings made just for her. That resulted in her giving him more than one M & M treat repeatedly. 🤭😊

Our resident tree 🌳 climber Emma
Christopher is ridiculously tall. You’d never know he was a preemie and the last born. Everyone thinks he is the older brother! 🤷🏾‍♂️😱. He will be taller than his Daddy for sure
Tis the Halloween 🎃 season! A photo from Daddy’s one on one outing with Michaela
Michaela @ The Fountains ⛲️ at Roseville Galleria
The kids enjoyed their first extended beach 🏖 experience after a getaway to Santa Cruz, CA
Emma gliding across the crashing surf in Santa Cruz, CA

Dynamics

The dynamics with our trio have changed significantly. Michaela and Christopher used to be really tight, but now it has shifted to Christopher latching on to Emma and at times excluding Michaela, who has noticed and now called him out for it. Her new favorite word to spell is actually “excluding” 😂.

Michaela and Christopher fight for Emma’s playtime attention. I think she likes being in demand by them both. Oh, to be a “middle child” 😂.

They “rotate” turns spending the weekend at Grandma and Grandpa’s and keep close tabs on who’s turn it is and how long someone stayed (sometimes someone gets a third night). That is when we noticed the dynamic really started to change. Two kids on a weekend is a piece of cake. There is very little fighting and us parents can get adult stuff done and actually think without three flavors of constant demands. It’s not all fun and ice cream and whatever else goes on there in terms of spoiling – there is intensive learning happening when they visit. They read a lot, make crafts, read some more and have plenty of breaks in between.

When they return through, something switches and the organized chaos ensues 😂

Audiobook

The audio book 📖 🎧 project is coming along and I am excited about releasing an audio version of the book soon so it can be listened to. It is being narrated by yours truly 😊

Book

The book has been published for over a year now. The kids don’t quite grasp why they are on a book cover that will be out there for folks to read long after I’m gone, but the story of how they got here remains remarkable.

I created a form so that people can request signed copies of the book. If you’re interested the link is below:

Triple Blessing Book

They rounded off the oddly unsocial summer attending a birthday party 🥳 for a new playmate they had met before COVID-19 pandemic. They wore masks when entering the house but other wise not when outdoors and they had a wonderful time. This little angel is drawn to Emma. Can’t imagine why 😊

Thanks for reading!

Cheers,

M.

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“May” the Force Be With Us

May has been a challenging month. There was a lot going on, with my brother’s birthday (May 9th) mine (May 11th), Mother’s Day and Angelique’s birthday (May 14th) all falling on this month. My father’s birthday falls on May 29th, and he would have been 74.

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A Happy Mother’s Day huge from Christopher to Mommy

The Kiddos

The kids have been keeping us busy. They sleep, they eat a ton, they grow, and grow, and grow some more. I’ve tried to get them out for bike rides and/or walks as much as I can, but they have still found plenty of opportunities to go crazy. Blame it on cabin fever, but as much as they love being outdoors, they are noticing that they have been unable to interact with other kids for quite some time now. It’s kind of weird. My kids love to say hi to folks, and it seems that a lot of parents have instructed their kids to say nothing back and run the other way. So now we’re not only seeing social defiance as people flood back into cities around the globe, but also anti-social distancing taking shape. Everyone is almost immediately skeptical of the other person and almost treats them like they’re infected. This new normal is going to be interesting!

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Up and back down the hill at the park…4 times in the heat!

They long for the day when “the world feels better”, as they like to say. Like me, they thrive on interactions with people, so this is starting to frustrate them being largely confined to their home.

They’ve all had a turn getting their first chiropractic adjustment, which has been great for them.

Grandma showed Michaela how to sew. They sure do love learning!

Kindergarten starts in August at the new school. It’s close enough to where if they cooperate in the morning, they can either walk or we can ride bikes to school with them – we’ll see. In TK, Christopher and Emma were in the same class. In Kindergarten, we were given a choice, and we decided to see how they do with each in their own class. Christopher does whatever his sisters tell him to, and Emma took advantage when they were in the same class, so we’re hoping that this helps them be even more independent of one another. We shall see how it goes.

Christopher was getting speech therapy at the other school before it was all closed down due to COVID, so we lost some momentum in that arena. However, I’ve partnered with my mother in law and we make Powerpoint presentations using our own voice and we have them all practice. I’ve made extra ones for him with words that he can improve on, and I expand upon it as I hear other words to add to the list. They love hearing familiar voices.

I tip my cap to all working parents trying to navigate this shelter in place order. Even with things opening back up, it is challenging as the days seem longer, and, at least in my household, the chaos seems magnified. I think I’ve got the new grey hairs to prove it 🙂

But there’s one constant no matter what: lots of LOVE

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Book sales have picked up in May and people are liking what they’re reading in the book. You can order your copy at http://tripleblessingbook.com

I’m still waiting for the first iPhone/iPad order to come in through the Apple Books app. It is a really fun experience reading the book on an iPad or iPhone through the books app. You can find it by searching for the words Triple Blessing Michael Cave. Be the first to order it through that path!

Cheers,

M.

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2020

It’s another year in the books for the Cave Family. The kids continue to evolve at a rapid pace and we continue to try and keep up. Feels like treading water at times but maybe it’s because there are three of them.

Michaela

Michaela has been doing what she does best – leading the charge. She’s a bundle of energy and is really determined to figure things out. She really likes to practice what she learns in school. You can find her sounding each letter out early in the morning while she practices writing. She also likes to draw. She is very popular at school and is the resident chatterbox at home. Talks from the time she wakes up until she passes out for the evening.

Emma

Emma has been mixing it up more and more with her siblings. She likes to play pretend with Christopher and Michaela and loves to lecture them. We are deep in to the tattling phase right now. Emma loves to tell on the other two. They manage to work out the dynamics between the three of them. Emma and Christopher are in the same class at school and look out for each other. Emma takes advantage of Christopher’s kindness and has him do things for her at school. We found that out in the progress report for the teacher 🤭

Christopher

Christopher is a very thoughtful boy. He happily brings his sisters whatever he grabs, whether it be something from the kitchen or their girls’ toothbrushes when it is time to brush teeth. He likes to like things up in order and is detail oriented. His latest thing is that he is now afraid of the dark – typical 5 year old for you. He had his first play date with another boy from recently and he really enjoyed it – boys play different.

They miss school. They have been asking why it is taking so long to go back. Fortunately they return to school tomorrow after the holiday break.

Cheers,

M

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November and December Updates

November was pretty busy.

They are enjoying school, making a lot of friends, and attending various birthday parties. The holiday season is upon us, and it is time for Christmas preparations. Our tree goes up right after Halloween, but that is usually because it is tough to find time otherwise.

The kids have been sick most of the month, but in between all of that I managed to get some cute pictures of them. They continue to blossom and get cuter and cuter by the day.

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Cr3w Pit Stop

The title is fitting. We’ve been going 200mph lately with these three and I figured I’d make a pit stop to provide updates.

We can start with Christopher, who is obsessed with all things Lightning McQueen. He’s got an impressive selection of Cars-themed underpants, and can usually be seen wearing something featuring either Lightning McQueen himself or Mater. He also usually likes to wind down in the evening watching one of the Cars movies.

Emma

Emma is our resident conversationalist, educating us on what she’s doing and thinking about every step of the way, lecturing her siblings about what’s right and wrong, asking if everyone is ok, and (still) trying to get everyone to do stuff for her. She’s the most reserved of the three, but also the most talkative as she has the clearest command of her impressive library of words. Complete sentences, emotion in her tone, cause/effect, ability to recall memories, you name it, she’s spewed it 😂. For example, if I leave in the morning for work without giving her a hug, kiss, high five, fist pump, and a repeat of any combination of the above, I hear about it first thing when I get home, and Angelique has to hear about it the whole day until I return.

Michaela

Where do I start with this little firecracker? Oh my word she’s going to be a handful as a teenage girl 🙄. She’s very strong willed and smart as a whip. She has “strategies”. She leads with trying to wear you down with nagging hoping you give in – quickly cycles through your typical toddler tactics 😂. With her siblings, she used to just take what she wanted with no pushback – now there is pushback in the form of arguments, fighting and attempts to distract and then take. I’ve seen her try and negotiate, sometimes successfully, and she’s had to adjust to not getting her way with her siblings. Sometimes her go to strategy is to hover like a gnat, chase and when none of that works, meltdown. This past week featured a meltdown over nighttime PJs, where Emma, not Michaela got to wear the Ariel shirt 👚. This resulted in Michaela on a time out outside for several minutes. She started throwing objects at the slider. It got louder and louder, which meant that she was finding things that were heavier and heavier, so I fetched her and we had a little talk 😂. Piece of work, she is.

General Stuff

Potty training was a relatively quick process, with them all being day trained. Very few accidents along the way. The worst of them were due to the occasional desire to not stop what they’re doing and go potty. This has mostly been Christopher. Still that’s all to be expected and we are very proud of them! They tell us that they have to go still and still would like us to escort them, but they are getting increasingly more independent in that area.

It’s quite funny to watch their banter back and forth over pee and poop. They actually talk about it with each other. They like to inspect each other’s efforts in the toilet and congratulate one another. They even go as far as to describe it. This morning Emma invited Christopher to come take a look and he said, “Wow, good job!”, and then flushed it for her. 🤷🏾‍♂️

We ventured to Jelly Belly recently

The result of this trip was that we needed to rethink road entertainment, as the bickering over which movie to watch on the long ride was out of control – nobody was happy! We ended up purchasing 3 kindle fire 🔥 kids edition tablets with headphones so they could each do their own thing. Best. Purchase. Ever. A few weeks in and they have figured them out. The girls both know how to unlock theirs, and Christopher has filled his up with Cars stuff and monster trucks. It has helped them improve their fine motor skills as well. They are also much better at problem solving. Michaela has somehow figured out to install her own apps. We haven’t put time limits on them yet but that will come one day I’m sure.

They all start pre-Kindergarten in the fall at something called Adventure Club in Roseville. We evaluated a few of the schools that had availability, made our selection, and enrolled them. It starts in September. They are all very well socialized already, and with as much as they apparently know already I’m sure they will be fine and will thrive with the new flavors of structure they will be exposed to. And Angelique will get a much needed breather for a few hours a day, Monday, Wednesday and Fridays! I commend Angelique for her efforts with the kids. Managing 3 demanding evolving toddlers is no joke and it’s tough to stay sane! Anyone interested in basking in the madness? 🙋🏾‍♂️

She’s befriended a few mothers with young tots in our little community here and is a mentor of sorts to one with a newborn. After all, Angelique’s been there, done that times three, so she’s got the experience and wisdom! Everyone has a different motherhood journey, but it’s nice to be able to pass along tips and offer support to someone just embarking on their own journey.

Identical twins and fraternal triplets in the same Jeep!

The more things change, the more things stay the same…

Thanksfor reading!M.