My Ryk

Something about his gentleness, and the way he is with his siblings just gets to me.  Yes, there are times when it isn't all perfection, when he will scrunch his little face up in that frustrated way, grumble and then say things that he will later apologize and feel terrible about...but those are few and far between these tender moments.  5.5 years old is lovely, and I just want to cherish him, this way, forever.

This little guy, oh goodness, I am so happy and proud of this little gentleman. I see it daily, the holding of his little sister's hand at the park, or the way he just rests his hand on his brother's shoulder.

It is such a blessing to just sit back sometimes, and watch their life happen from the sidelines.  As much as I love playing side by side with them, it is more of a thrill to see this.

I am so thankful that I get to watch this sibling bond form, and so very thankful that it is forming.

*****
on a side note, my camera is on the fritz again :(.  I WILL find a way to get it fixed, because I won't miss out on getting these moments, that are slipping by much too quickly, captured.   

Rain water

These three, goodness.  They are wild, and loving, and keep me able to rightfully drink Pepsi in order to keep up.  The caffeine, it is needed.

*****

We had storms here last night, storms that filled up this little pool to the brim.  Thunder and lightning, and well, I guess my kids are getting use to this weather, as they all slept right through it.

*****
When you give two little boys a pool filled with rain water...

They are going to have relay races filling up sand buckets, racing around to water all the trees (you know because they needed it after that storm last night...)

The middle little will also make a silly face while running with the bucket, because apparently that is just how he rolls.

 

and then when their shirts get soaked, they are going to ask for help getting them off.

and when the pail is empty they will remember to run back and fill it up again.  Oh.my.goodness, my toddler-gets-hair-cut-turned-big-boy, would he please just slow down on the growth spurt already?!

and these boys, with such great running form :).

return of the crazy face...

and once the pool gets too empty to continue the relay races, they will want to come up with another cool plan.  So...R will tell K, "butt bomb right into the pool Kip, just do it."

and so he does, cause he thinks R is king, and well, wants to be cool.

and once he realizes that butt bomb, into pool while wearing undies = "my wiener, its cold mom, Ianna towel, now, quease?!"

and once the pool gets too shallow to fill up the pail, well they will tag team to dump the rest out creating a mud puddle.

and since there is a mud puddle, the will jump on in.

because when you let boys be boys, well it is memory filled, and messy, and creates an afternoon of laughter.

The kid with the new haircut...

Life, lately.

Today Jov decided to stand up while in the swing at the park, mid swing.

It didn't end well. 

I swore, right there, in the middle of the crowded park.  She was fine instantly but goodness did it scare me to death.

*****
With 90+ degree weather and park trips a plenty I knew it was time to transform my middle guy's hair.  It was way, way overdue.  So, Kip got a haircut, eliminating his massive 'burns.  With a pack of fruit snacks and just 5 minutes of some busy buzzers we made out toddler transform into a giant kid.  Oh, haircuts, I love em' and hate em' at the same time.  Kid looks like a stud.

*****

In 3 days we sign papers that make us homeowners.

Today Paul leaves for san francisco for the next 3 days cause he picked a profession that gives him paid for "vacations" and I might or might not be extremely jealous. 

We move in 5 days.  We have 0 boxes packed. 

Looks like on top of writing a paper for school, and doing this parenting thing solo the next three days, I will be attempting to pack us up too...good thing I have my superwoman cape handy, which is a much better alternative to the broom my husband would of said was my superpower in use today...

*****

Today, I will rock it, even after being up all night playing my role of RN.

Xccvweerryuoop

A day at the park

I am suppose to be writing a paper, APA format, pretending that I am scholarly.  I don't like scholarly writing - hence the reason why I am going to be a nurse practitioner...the only writing I'll be doing will be in the form of progress notes, discharge summaries, or on a prescription pad - thankyouverymuch.  So I'll fake it till I make it, and in the end maybe learn a thing or two about scholarly writing. 

 So it is clear, I am in grad school.  Still not sure about all this going back to school bit, but I am sure about the outcome so I'll just deal with being in school the next 2-3 years.  We are also in the process of buying a home - our first home - and packing, and moving, and working full time, and in love, absolutely in LOVE with family life.

So this year, by my 27th birthday - we'll be settled.

Which is, perhaps, the best gift...ever.

Until then, my head will be spinning like mad to try and keep up.  I'm not keeping up, but we are okay with that.  June 1st will come, we'll sign papers and get keys, and in between working night shift we will move.

Until then I'll leave the clothes to pile up on the sofa, who needs a sofa when the weather is in the 80's anyway?

And so we go to the park.  Every.single.day.

Today's choice - was a hit.

First J went down the slide solo, and her face of scared to death meets absolutely thrilled was priceless, her squeal paired with Kip's reasurrance of "it okay Jovie, it okay!" left me with a parenting high.

K played "ready, set, go" with J.  He said "Jovie's to slow, way to slow, Piplin's fast!"

I play Batman, I'm ALWAYS the bad guy.  We play hide-n-seek, till I freak cause I couldn't see Ryk, and well we are at a big park, and I have three little loves, and maybe hide-n-seek isn't such a safe idea anyway.

The boys race down the slides, R always cheats which is silly cause he doesn't even need to.



The kids swing, and it is set up for my kids perfectly per R, "baby swing, baby swing, big kid swing" and he sure is right.  Ideal for this mama who is the almighty pusher of the 3 swings.

 and K decides that he wants a "big boy swing" and my giant baby doesn't look so giant to me anymore.

 J and K snack break, while I wrestle R.  Then mid wrestle R gets distracted by a monarch - and then tries to catch it, but freaks out when he almost touched it. 

and after 2 hours we ran out of water in our water bottles, and R got hot, and J had snot and needed tissue but a bird busted off with it, and K spilled the goldfish everywhere, and the van all the sudden seemed parked so very far away.

So perhaps we won't stay for 2 hours tomorrow...but the mini melt down at the end of the park day...totally worth it for the million memories made with my little loves today.

Kip

Ready for this little man to catch a break.

Fever of 102.8 at the doctor's office this morning.  This visit rounded up visit #3 of the week for Mr. K.  They know us by name there now.  Even the Target pharmacist said - "Again?" as I walked up to the counter to drop off the prescription.

Bilateral ear infection and pneumonia.

The next 10 days of medications should leave him with diarrhea and feeling jittery.  At least he is getting use to the nebulizer mask - we don't have to hold him down while he screams for the 10 minute treatment anymore...

Have I mentioned I HATE allergy season.  My poor guy!

Full

"you've got your hands full"

It's not the first time, or the last time I will hear it.

Each and every time I'm not exactly sure how I am suppose to respond.

Quite frankly, I'm not really even sure why people feel the need to point this out.

 Today at Target, while trying to purchase that darn spacer for K's inhaler, the check out lady said it.

I didn't even look at her, and replied "it is a good full."

Because it is.

Out all day

We started the day off at 8am outside in the back. I found a new bike at the consignment store last night, it wasn't even new-to-Ryk, it was new-new (and put together, and $12 - WOOT!). He was eager to try out his new wheels. By 8:30am K and R were bickering "GET OUTTA MY WAY!" and so it was time to come inside.

And hours of Mr. potato head, duplos, and play-doh created a disaster in the Loprinzi home (when isn't it?) and so the clean up song commenced.  After singing/hearing more rounds of "clean up, clean up, everybody, everywhere..." than I had hoped for, it was finally lunch time.

I utilized nap/quiet time by ironing (more wrinkles into) Paul's work clothes, cause I like to pretend I am a domestic housewife sometimes.

A poopy wake up call dismissed K's nap prematurely - if he'd just poop in the toilet...Anyway, after sweet J woke we headed to McD's, cause we can, so we did. I wanted a large diet, cause I'm healthy like that.  I justified it by walking there.

They boys played, screamed in the tubes at McD's.  R was in a foul mood because he didn't want to help K "every second" apparently he had been helping him for "twenty-two-five-thousand years" and just wanted a "stinking minted to be ninja Ryk."  So K and J self entertained, while R ninja warrior-ed that play place...

and then we got free kid cones

which seemed more like adult size cones

minus the adult sized price.  SCORE!

J gave it a couple licks before deciding she was over it, and so I might or might not of snagged some of hers - which might or might not be absolutely gross.

The boys were loving their cones.  R asked me "what does melted vanilla ice cream taste like?"  I had no idea, so I told him "white milk."  He said he didn't think that is how it would taste cause he LOVES vanilla ice cream but HATES white milk.  He is probably right, and I totally agreed with him.  I offered for him to let his cone melt so he could see, but he wasn't willing to sacrifice any of his tasty cone for such an experiment.  Smart kid.

We got a redbox DVD for good measures.  R picked it out - "the Chipmunks of course"

Then we walked home, utilizing a crosswalk.  The same crosswalk R had told me how to "press the button, wait for the red hand to turn to the white walking man, then walk quickly while looking both ways" - while on the walk to McDs.  Turns out after waiting through THREE traffic cycles, I realized that the crosswalk to get back home wasn't working.  So we book it across the crosswalk, probably at the wrong time.  R was screaming "THIS ISN'T SAFE, YOU ARE GOING TO GO TO JAIL MOM!" as he frantically scurries to keep up with me, his little arm pulling onto the side of the stroller.

I assured him it was okay to do that since the light was not working, he said it was a "terrible idea and we should of just took the van"

All because I wanted that darn large DIET COKE...

We get home and load up into the van cause K said "Ianna swing mama, quease, Ianna swing.  Lets go a park quease."

I couldn't deny his perfect politeness, so we loaded up in the van, despite thinking that this was more than likely going to end terribly...tired kids, bickering this morning and then bickering at McD's, and now attempting an outing at the park.  I must be insane.

After being there about 10 minutes I look at K, who was once running rambunctiously through the play structure.  He looked scared to death, and couldn't stop coughing.

So I grab J from the swing, yell at R to come here, and pick up K.

His little chest was just heaving, and his wheezes were audible from several feet away.

Poor guy.

My hear was racing as I loaded them up in the car.

I drove like a mad women through a 25mph speed zone, and took him straight to his pediatrician's office.  I bust in there, without my checkbook to pay the copayment, and said "He needs to see Dr. P, immediately!"

Within seconds K had a room, and was set up with a breathing treatment.  Several hours and 3 breathing treatments later his oxygen saturation was back above 95%, so we could go home.  I carried two fussy/tired babies, a diaper bag, and a nebulizer bag full of goodies out with me, while politely asking R to open every door for us.

Well hello there Kentucky pollens, seems K has asthma, and it is wild.

Later at home R tired to ease the neb treatment for K by joining in.  Turned K's hysterical cries into hysterical giggles momentarily.  Hopefully his fear of these masks eases up, as it seems we are in for many treatments to come.

My poor guy is feeling rather crummy tonight.  After the day we had, I was so thankful that I was able to get that large Diet coke earlier in the day.  Sure needed it today!

Stroller snafu

Since we are moving into the country soonish, hopefully - still waiting to hear back from the seller about our latest and greatest addendum to our sales contract - I've been trying to savor every moment we have left of being walking distance to places.

So we walked up to the gas station for slushies.

It was a great idea, really.

R thought so.

I pulled out the double stroller, I hate that thing, and went because he wanted to.

It was about a 20 minute walk, I told him it was far, but he said "dude, I'm a stud, don't be so silly!"

and I listened to said stud, and buckled my babies in.  After about 15 minutes he was asking to ride in the stroller - he was at preschool that morning and they had gym and went outside = tired kiddo.

I told him just a bit further.

We finally made it, with a prized blue slushie in hand I figured there would be no gripping on the walk home.

I was wrong.

With about 8 blocks to go it was Loprinzi melt down central.  K dropped his slushie, it exploded all over the 85 degree pavement, along with his temper.  J decided she was absolutely tired of being in the stroller, and R decided he "absolutely can't take another step" or he'd die.

So I whipped out the sling, strapped J on my back, put R in J's stroller seat, left the litter of the exploded blue slushie in the street, and started running.

We looked crazy.

as in tiny mama with a kid strapped to her back, pushing stroller of fussy screaming boys (one tired, one pissed cause his slushie was all gone - "Go get it mom, go get it quease."

So instead of walking, I started running.  I pictured J's head sloshing around with the stride of my step, but as soon as I heard her giggles I knew the pace was just fine for her tiny head.

J's fussing turned into giggles, K forgot about his slushie snafu, and R was just happy to be in the stroller.

I was smiling - my kids were happy AND I was getting a work out.  Just when I thought this trip wasn't a total bust, the front wheel of the stroller fell off.

I just sat on the curb and laughed, and then all three kids followed suite.

R pretended to be Handy Manny for us, asking K to hand me a wrench (all pretend of course) and started singing "lets get going, and fix it right, twist and turn, make it tight.."

Alas there was no wrench needed.  Just a little balance and some muscle.

I bent over with J still on my back, attempting to hold the stroller of boys upright, swore under my breath as my finger got pinched, and put the darn wheel back into place.

Mamas gotta do, what mamas gotta do.

Soon we were back strollin' in no time.

Perhaps not one of the greatest ventures out, but memorable.

At least I got a good nap/quiet time outta all three :).

For every moment that plays out in this sequence...

There is another one playing out like this...

 

or this

 

and all of it - the grumbles and fights and snuggles and love - is a treasure.  Watching these kids, my kids, grow together as siblings, goodness I feel so blessed to get to be part of this.