8

He's 8 today.  Well at 4:56pm he is.  That exact moment, on October 31, 2006 will always be so profound.

At 8 he:

Loves doing "the talking thing" every night.  Which essentially is where Paul or I hang out and just spend time with him one on one each night at bedtime.  Sometimes we read books (he reads a page, I read a page alternation sort of deal) his current favorite - Captain Underpants (thanks to Nana for introducing him to this series!) 

Sometimes we talk about Spiderman/batman/legos/etc.  Sometimes he wants to just hold/be with Hartley.

 

 But every night I try to just say yes to his request for "the talking thing" even when it is tough.  He is a kiddo of affection, and quality time does wonders for him.  As a mama of 4, it is usually never very easy to be attentive and focused for long, but I do my best to give him my full attention for these 10-15 minutes often times while Hartley is screaming because she is overly stimulated/wants to nurse, or Jovie is fussing downstairs because I forgot to give her a pony tail/she is thirsty/she needs to go potty, or Kip is complaining because the cat is in his room...7:00-7:30 is the chaos before the calm.

Loves building with legos.

Was recently introduced to Minecraft (a "game" on the Ipad where he builds stuff, and he is pretty amazing at it. He has built an area with all the important things so far: a house, a place for his 20 dogs, a birthday cake so that on 10/31 his minecraft guy can eat it, two swimming pools, a train, and a school.

Loves to battle.  After this swim lesson session, I'm signing him up for Karate.  He hasn't been able to do both yet, because they are on the same exact days/times each week.  He's so excited to try something new, and I'm excited for him.

Is strong willed as ever.  Both a blessing and a curse.  He is a whiz at school, but doing things that require coordination are a struggle for him.  Not because he can't do it, I know he can and WILL someday.  But because he get so easily frustrated with himself and quits out of frustration.  We are working on riding a bike without training wheels.  He has mastered his scooter, so I think the balance issue is moving in the right direction.

Is the MASTER of Uno.  I adore his love for playing games.  Being a kiddo from a generation of electronic obsessed kids, the fact that he still wants to play cards/board games makes me smile.  Again, I think the quality one-on-one time with his mama/dad are a motivating factor.

For $5 (encouragement from his dad) he learned to pump his legs, to keep himself swinging on a swing.  Just yesterday.  Again, that coordination issue gets to him.  His little face of determination as he tried to figure out when to thrust his legs forward and when exactly to lean back to soar up higher, priceless.

LOVES to run and jump.  And goodness he is fast and has endurance.  He is highly inspired by American Ninja Warrior and makes all things, an obstacle to overcome.

He constantly attempts to be a mini-dad around here.  So typical for being the oldest, but goodness this boy sure loves to think he is in charge of his younger sibling, trying to boss them around. Despite his sometimes bossy behavior, his siblings sure like him.  Honestly though, they do play well together more often than they don't.  In fact, some days the noise that these three make playing well together is sheer chaos.  They are incapable of using inside voices under extreme excitement, and when they are all together it is always a state of extreme excitement.

 Sitting on "Ryk's stairs" they are his stairs because they only lead to one place - his bedroom.

To our Ryker Paul Loprinzi, Happy birthday to an awesome kid who continues to teach us everything we need to know about parenting.  So lucky he is the one leading the way in our parenting journey, he does a stellar job of keeping us on our toes.  Favorite firstborn ever.  Eight is going to be great, I just know it.