Oops it's February

Kinda been neglecting the blog lately, so thought I'd try to do a catchup. What have the Kleins been up to lately?

I took the kids to see my grandmas. They are both 90 years old and live in the bay area. I was all psyched up to travel all by myself with the kids for the first time but I was saved from that test by having my brother to fly with us. I love my grandmas and it was so special to have the kids there, even just for a few days. Seeing other relatives (below, plus uncle bill who left before the photo) was also fun. It had been a while since we'd all been together!

 

We were struck by the plague. All of us. Dan is still coming out of it. We've been sick sick sick. The boys seem to have been hit a lot harder than us girls. Not a fun two weeks, that's for sure.

About Nory. Nory is "three and a HALF!" and is so fun. Lots of dress up, lots of BK time, lots of crafts. A few interesting things about N this month:

• Swimming across the pool all by herself in swim lessons (What the heck!!!!??? Mommy was very surprised. This just happened today)
• Counting to 50 (if you aren't picky about needing 15, 25, 35, or 45)
• Reading the names of everyone in her preschool class as well as Mommy, Daddy, and Elliott
• Writing a few of those names including her own
• Gymnastics Class
• CRAZY jumping on our home trampoline

About Elliott. Oh. My. Goodness. This boy will be the death of me. To say that he is not a cautious child would be like saying the ocean is not dry. Do NOT be fooled by the cute grin or darling shoes or easy going personality. This boy is T.R.O.U.B.L.E.

To quote Dan, how am I supposed to keep this thing alive??? Some other interesting Elliott tidbits:

• Today our nanny said, "Elliott is becoming VERY independent." I'm fairly certain that is nanny-speak for "he was a huge pain in the rear today."
• He is almost potty trained. He wears a diaper all the time but is pretty consistently telling us when he has to go for almost all poops and a lot of his pees. After our next trip I'm going to start leaving his diaper off at home and see how it goes.
• He is still tiny - not quite 24 pounds at 22 months. He's finally growing out of his 12 month clothes which seems encouraging. What he lacks in height he makes up for with his huge belly. So. Cute. We sometimes call him Belly-ott which is terrible, I know.
• He freezes his way through swimming lessons every week but still loves going
• He is a superstar for his awesome bouncing ability at gymnastics.
• He prefers to go down the stairs at our house by hopping, two feet at a time, not holding anything. JUST LIKE SISTER. This kid is giving me an ulcer.
• He eats everything except meat.
• He doesn't talk much yet, but Nory was a late talker so this time around it doesn't phase me.
• He is giving up naps, yes you read that right, GIVING UP NAPS. Before the age of 2. It was taking me an hour to get him to nap, and when he did, it would often take 1-2 hours to get him to bed that night. When I gave up and started letting him skip naps, he wasn't really any worse for it except for being a bit cranky at dinner, and he goes straight to sleep when I put him to bed. (Nory naps about 1/3 of the time and it also makes bedtime difficult. I'm thinking of just cutting them both off although it makes for difficult evenings, and of course the house doesn't get clean and the laundry doesn't get done and dinner doesn't get made. See photo above for the reason why I can't do chores when E is awake.).
• He's remarkably tough and wonderfully good natured. Love this kid. Really hope he makes it through toddlerhood.

Don't worry, if these cell phone and Instagram pictures aren't your thing. We are going on vacation soon and Dan will have NOTHING TO DO BUT TAKE PICTURES while we are gone :).