Peek a Boo!!!

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Itโ€™s been a while since Iโ€™ve written a blog post, and since Iโ€™m up and not going back to sleep ๐Ÿ˜ด , I figured I would get the followers updated information about what the trio have been up to.

For starters, they are back in school ๐Ÿซ 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 โ€œnew abnormalโ€ – it has altered the fabric of social interaction in mind boggling ways ๐Ÿ˜’

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! ๐Ÿ˜‚

Here is a quick summary of the kidsโ€™ interests:

Michaela: fashion, gymnastics ๐Ÿคธโ€โ™€๏ธ, art ๐Ÿ–ผ

Emma: Singing ๐ŸŽค (she can carry a tune!!! ๐ŸŽถ), drawing and reading

Christopher: riding bikes ๐Ÿšฒ, 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) ๐Ÿ˜‚๐Ÿ˜˜

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 ๐Ÿ˜‚

Kitchenette and Barbie house located outside now. If only I could get them to pick up after themselves ๐Ÿค”๐Ÿคญ๐Ÿ˜‚

Christopher has been doing speech therapy sessions with Kaiser and now also with the school ๐Ÿซ. He is doing great and is finally sounding out the โ€œLโ€ 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. ๐Ÿคญ๐Ÿ˜Š

Our resident tree ๐ŸŒณ climber Emma
Christopher is ridiculously tall. Youโ€™d never know he was a preemie and the last born. Everyone thinks he is the older brother! ๐Ÿคท๐Ÿพโ€โ™‚๏ธ๐Ÿ˜ฑ. He will be taller than his Daddy for sure
Tis the Halloween ๐ŸŽƒ season! A photo from Daddyโ€™s one on one outing with Michaela
Michaela @ The Fountains โ›ฒ๏ธ at Roseville Galleria
The kids enjoyed their first extended beach ๐Ÿ– 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 โ€œexcludingโ€ ๐Ÿ˜‚.

Michaela and Christopher fight for Emmaโ€™s playtime attention. I think she likes being in demand by them both. Oh, to be a โ€œmiddle childโ€ ๐Ÿ˜‚.

They โ€œrotateโ€ turns spending the weekend at Grandma and Grandpaโ€™s and keep close tabs on whoโ€™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. Itโ€™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 ๐Ÿ˜‚

Audiobook

The audio book ๐Ÿ“– ๐ŸŽง 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 ๐Ÿ˜Š

Book

The book has been published for over a year now. The kids donโ€™t quite grasp why they are on a book cover that will be out there for folks to read long after Iโ€™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 youโ€™re interested the link is below:

Triple Blessing Book

They rounded off the oddly unsocial summer attending a birthday party ๐Ÿฅณ 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. Canโ€™t imagine why ๐Ÿ˜Š

Thanks for reading!

Cheers,

M.

“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 ๐Ÿ™‚

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.

The Cave Household During COVID-19

Greetings,

Life is certainly interesting in the Cave household during this shelter in place period as a result of COVID-19. Here’s a list of some of the key differences:

  • Streaming more content – even picked up a Disney+ subscription along the way and bumped up the network speed
  • Doing more laundry (and triplet households do a lot as is)
  • We are using a lot more soap. The kids really like to wash their hands. Luckily we dilute it to make it go far. But looking for handsoap when things started to fly off the shelves was an adventure when we were in stock up mode. One trip I ended up going to 5 different places and coming up empty. Got really familiar with Rocklin as a result though!
  • Using more water and electricity
  • The kids are eating more food – so the grocery bill has exploded as we are buying more food
  • Buying more items off of Amazon
  • We’re cooking 3 meals a day (plus whatever snacks they require) 7 days a week
  • We’re using the dishwasher a lot more – it already required a maintenance visit via the home warranty
  • The kids are at each other’s throats more
  • With school essentially a wash the rest of the academic year, we go through whatever the teacher e-mails us, but after that it can be challenging to keep them learning and occupied. The Chromebooks we got from the school are essentially paperweights. They require too much intervention by parents and at these kids’ age, they don’t hold their interest for very long
  • Believe it or not they go to bed earlier than usual…around 5:30-6:30pm. It’s a product of them playing so hard most of the day and eating earlier
  • They are stirring up three times more mischief than when they were in school
  • They get injured more, regularly alternating between out front (falling off bikes) or out back or the side of the house

I just completed 5 straight weeks working from home. I have commandeered Michaela’s room as my new home office until this is over.

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Yep that’s a TV. Go big or go home!

Emma’s once consistently immaculate room has given way to the force of 3 tornadoes routinely blowing through it to play as a group.

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I might make the girls share a room for a few years after this…

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The dining room table has been converted to a craft table. Wrapped in two coats of paper as they love bingo markers now…

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The Megabed has returned! It is stationed in the family room until further notice. In case they pass out there we can just leave them.

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My old office has been taken over and is featuring more and more of their toys. It was out in the open and I was exposed when I first started working from home, so I needed to migrate my teleworking operation to some place with a door. Now they’ve gotten good at making excuses to barge in…too cute.

Other than the chaos in the house and the frequent bouts with cabin fever, they are healthy and happy, which is really all that matters at the end of the day. The stimulus check arrived mid week via direct deposit, so that was a really nice infusion to prop up this massive operation.

I have picked up some hobbies before and after work. I have a passion for foreign languages, so I’m back to building my French vocabulary using DuoLingo in the mornings, and a little German as well. French is much easier for me having lived there in 2001.

I’ve also picked up going for bike rides every day. Now I’m not riding with a pelaton pack of cyclists but I do get out of the house for some exercise so let’s not get carried away!

And in the next week, we’ll probably get the OK to turn on the solar that was recently installed on the roof. That’ll help keep the electricity bill at bay. I’m also getting a 220 electrical outlet installed and bought a Level 2 charger so that I can charge my electric car faster when I’m driving again. 5 straight weeks teleworking has been a blessing in disguise. I had been averaging more than 1000 miles a month when I commuted into work, so not having to drive anywhere far consistently has brought the average mileage down. It’s a leased car with 12,000 annual miles and I was over that, so with another year or so to go I should not exceed the cap when it is time to turn the car in. It’s a nice car, though.

I’m looking forward to all of this craziness being behind us. It has really been an odd time. I do wonder what the new normal will be like for the country, communities, etc., though. Everyone has this look of panic on their faces – everyone is guarded and proceeds with caution like the nearest person to them is sick. It’s ridiculous but kind of toย  be expected.

I look forward to seeing isles stocked with Clorox wipes, paper towels, toilet paper and whatever else is producing these regularly seen barren shelves again. I wonder how some businesses will recover, especially businesses that rely on capacity. I wonder how testing will be approached for illnesses of concern moving forward. Will people decide to stop trying to power through being sick if it is getting others sick in the process? Is reliable data/information the new world currency? Things that make you go hmmm….

Cheers,

M.

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 ๐Ÿคญ

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

We’ve Been Busy!

To say we’ve been busy is a bit of an understatement. So many changes! For example:

School

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The kids have been enjoying school. Michaela is in her own class, the Honeybees, while Emma and Christoper are in the same Sea Turtles class. They enjoy (and we think prefer) the hot lunches.

We Moved
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We moved from Granite Bay to Rocklin. The move took 8.5 hours and 2 runs for the movers. The kids stayed at their grandparents’ for 3 days while we got situated. They got spoiled…haha! But that was the first time that they spent a night away from both their parents. The key was letting them fall asleep and not waking them up to collect them and take them home. Moving sucks. So much stuff and what seems like not enough time. Plus it was really hot the day we moved.

Book Launch

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My Book was released on August 27th and that has been a fun experience. The eBook launched on September 17th and is in being widely distributed. I am getting a lot of requests for author signed copies, which is wonderful. It will take some time for our story to get out there, but there is no book out there like it – all it will take is the right opportunity for the book to catch on and go viral. Who doesn’t like seeing cute kids on the cover?

Settling In

We had a lot of stuff having had at one point a 5 bedroom, 3 bathroom house, so it has been a process to scale down into a smaller home. We’ve sold some stuff that doesn’t quite fit or look right in this home, and have also re-introduced items that work better with this floor plan. As a result, it is really starting to feel like home.

The kids have their own bedrooms, and, miraculously, have been sleeping in them most of the night by themselves. Lately we are noticing that they are getting up and going to sleep with a sibling. Michaela has been leading the way in this arena, invading both Emma and Christopher’s space. Both have commented on it. It’s been going well though. Emma really likes having her own room she keeps it clean and doesn’t exactly like the others in her space. We’re working on helping her be more accommodating.

So, yeah, we’ve been a little busy!

M.

 

Book Release!

The Book, Triple Blessing, A Father’s Story of Infertility, Hope and Love, was released on August 27th, 2019.

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The book is available on Amazon and can be purchased at this link.

Signed by the author book plates are available by registering your name and mailing address here.

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Below is a photo of me with the book. Purely coincidental that my tie colors matched my book!

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Don’t forget to pick up your copy! It’s being distributed worldwide!

And a special Thank You goes to my wife Angelique, whose extraordinary efforts helped bring these beautiful children into our world!

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Best,

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Michael Cave

Author – Triple Blessing

 

 

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 ๐Ÿ˜‚. 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 ๐Ÿ™„. 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 ๐Ÿ˜‚. 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 ๐Ÿ‘š. 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 ๐Ÿ˜‚. 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. ๐Ÿคท๐Ÿพโ€โ™‚๏ธ

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 ๐Ÿ”ฅ 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? ๐Ÿ™‹๐Ÿพโ€โ™‚๏ธ

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.