Friday favorite phone photos

Sick little boy

 Shoes that are still sweet, 26 years later.  The same shoes that I wore, now adorn my sweet ladies feet.  Perfect, tiny, & white.  Some styles never fade, or maybe some mamas don't care if the shoes are outta style, she just wants the sentiment.

 2 "wheelers" for two boys.

 

 

My brother's got new rides, and all I got was this empty box.

 

 My little string cheese.

 Munchkin doughnut for my munchkin.

Garbage-turned love note, left on the dashboard of the car.  My Mr, yep, after 7 years he still has it.

A boy and his birds.

What, your kids are classy in the aisle of Walmart?  Parenting moment failure.

World's greatest daddy.

Wrestling brothers.

Cheese!

 Um, yes, the reason I needed to run extra this morning.  Totally worth it.

 Mr. gives in to neighbors offer.  Our lawn mowed in 15 minutes instead of 2 hours.  Cardiovascular workout I think not. 

 She wants the peel left on now.  Growing up.

Loprinzi gals.

 Trains in the tub, why not?

 

Found a couple sets of love birds at the toy store.  Adorable.

 He turns his light on, all night long.  It is a battle.  We turn it off, he wakes, and turns it back on.  A phase, I think.

Sibling sweetness.

 This morning's run interrupted by a little lady that wanted to pretend to be mama.

 Girlfriend has good form.

 A day spent entirely outdoors with my loves.

 Bubble stacking and crashing

Night country run

I drove 50 minutes, sat in class for 3 hours, and drove 50 minutes home.

I was less than excited about this graduate course, but I'll get through it.  I always do.  But there will be fussing and complaining, of this I'm sure.  I've decided I am absolutely clinical minded, and anything research drives me batty.  

I was going nutso by the time I finally got home, mostly because I had been sitting for 5 hours, and partly because of the dreaded class.

After so much sitting and being stuck indoors, I had to run, and it HAD to be outdoors.

I didn't care it was almost 10pm.

P said to bring mace.

Which made me laugh.

We live in the country.  What, am I gonna mace a deer or something?

I suppose it would come in handy should I encounter some rodent or something.

But as I got on those back, dark, country roads, I thought about all those Lifetime Movie Network movies where girl goes running, in the dark, alone, and then get swooped up by some serial killer who just happens to be in a remote part of the country.

and so I was happy I had my mace, not that I'm sure it would really make THAT much of a difference should I ever be put in a situation.

But...

I'm a fast runner.

At night.

I wish I felt that way during the day.

I think this night run things is going to become a ritual, as it is probably the only time I'll be able to muster the energy to run between working nightshift, graduate school, and being mama/wife.

4 miles.

Sick already?

He made it 8 school days before bringing home some sort of yuck. He denies being "sick," and since he didn't have a fever he went to school (he wanted to).   P tried to convince him to bring tissue in his pocket, better the tissue than the sleeve of his jacket, but R played out the scenario in his head before verbally explaining in great depth about the numerous reason why that is a bad idea...and if you know my kid, he is a talker, so well...he went tissue-less.  I'll be washing his jacket when he gets home as I'm sure the sleeve will be all snot covered, cause he is a boy, and he is classy with his bodily fluids.  Actually the kiddo hates having anything gross on him, but on his clothes...it is just fine.

Don't mind the bruise...boy meets banister, banister wins.

 

Now she, is coming down with it. Her tiny voice asking for a "tiss-you pwease" every few seconds might just be the cutest sound ever.  This picture might be the cutest photo ever.

She is a diva, who picks out her own clothes and accessories already at 18 months.

and she is clingy since she is sick, and I am soaking it up.

He is rowdy, and asks every morning at 6am when he wakes up if he can go outside and ride the "wheeler."  Three year old is yet again, proving to be more terrible than two, and we are rolling with his temperament.  Parenting is so sweet the second time around, because instead of being freakishly worried that my child is rotten, and I've somehow screwed him up indefinitely, I know that this phase will pass.  His emotional outbursts will soon be replaced with logical rational followed by a verbal explanation of his feelings...and so we are working on speech with this little man.  Goodness I love him to bits. 

My Mr. and I are both back in the classroom setting.  Fortunately for him, his doesn't involve any homework.  I am in denial/shock about willingly signing up for 2-3 years of graduate school, it is going to be a journey.  Today is day one.

3rd birthday gift...

Sprinkle dance to celebrate Friday

School is now in session, but that doesn't mean summer loving is over. Enter the Loprinzi kids Friday after school sprinkler (sprinkle) dance -

The cotton candy clouds, clear blue skies, green grass, and these three littles = ultimately beautiful! 

Playing in the water outside makes my kids so very happy.

His dimple smile.  Love it!

Could this littlest guy get any cuter?

and a side by side comparison of my boys, because these pictures show how identical their hairline is...I promise the done-free-at-home-haircuts aren't that terrible, they both just have a crooked hairline, that curves down to the left.  Goodness my boys while distinctly different have so many similarities.

 

She, oh yes she, cracks us up.  She is shirtless because K asked for his shirt off, and so I let her live it up.  Soon enough it'll be inappropriate for her :).  Despite SPF 50 all summer, girlfriend has managed to get a shadow of a swimsuit tan line...  

****Two rather large packages came in the mail...as soon as they are ready we will be surprising the boys and a video will follow.  Thanks from Nana and Papa, I can't wait to see/hear their reactions (the boys, and my parents)!

a boy and a bus

He rode the bus, for the first time August 16th.

He was all excited about it the night before...

but this was him at the bus stop that morning.

Nervous, apprehensive...scared.

"mom how am I gonna find my classroom?"

and so I did what any mama of a first time school bus riding kindergartener would do, I walked right on the bus and told the bus driver "this is R, it is his first day riding a bus, and he wants to make sure he will get to Mrs. C's class."  She assured him he would, and introduced him to another one of his classmates.

I told P as I walked in from sending him off on the bus, how scared R looked.  Daddy bear wanted to drive right to that school and make sure R got to his class...isn't he amazing?!  I told him it is best to let R figure it out, and figure it out he did.

 

and looking at this picture now, makes me teary eyed.  He looked so scared, so tiny on that big bus.  There have been many times this last week that I second guess this.  That I think I could easily teach him here, at home.  But then I think about what he would miss out being here, with me.  Ultimately I want him to be happy. I want him to run inside his classroom, feel excitement as he slowly closes that awkward phase of newness and begins real, nurturing friendships.  I want him to experience the opportunity that exists between those walls of that ancient school, in those books, through these someday soon friends. It is just this inbetween stage, that I'm not liking.  The same point of school that I'm sure the teachers dread each year.

And just as I begin to wonder if he should be a carpool kiddo instead of a bus rider, he comes home after day #2 of riding the bus with his great cheese ball smile.

 

So I continue to encourage him to step out of him comfort zone, to be brave when he isn't feeling so brave.  To ask questions, and work hard.  I praise him as he completes his homework, and as he shows me proudly his work that he did during the school day.  Brother can write a pretty amazing lowercase m.  His writing is improving like crazy, a skill he'd constantly eyeroll when I'd ask him to work with me at home...The "highs of this week so far" per R - "PE with Mr. B, cause we get to be all rowdy and wild, and Nilla wafer cookies in my boxlunch, and getting picked up from the bus stop by my Kip."

One more day till the weekend baby, gonna soak it up like crazy with my school aged kiddo.

My little guy is stretching and growing, and changing, and it is exciting, and nerverwrecking to see.

Up next, graduate school this week for me...let the chaos begin!

3

He turned 3.

With the addition of a little celebration at home, and a play date with the neighbors, the day was rather typical.

But he liked it, and so it was enough.

He did have a wish to go to McD's and get a happy meal, but something about living in the country, and having a pending storm, kept these NW transplant folks home.  So today, he'll finally get to eat those tasty nuggets.

Happy Birthday little guy!