It's OK to Talk About it Now

We were obliterated.  Stepped on.  Humiliated.  Put to shame.  Enough time has passed that we can all laugh about it (well, maybe not all of us Coloradans - some are freaky deaky Bronco lovers).  To commemorate the big Bowl our town went orange and blue bazerk.  It was festive and fun for the weeks leading up.  And then we all buried our orange and blue into deep corners of our closets.  Until next season and we'll do it all again. Our block was adorned appropriately that morning, as were our children.  We had a rompin party in the basement that ended prematurely.  It was just too horribly sad to celebrate what became of our rock solid team that day.  I had to at least share shots of our cute kids from that day in Colorado history.  Congrats to our Seahawk loving friends and family.  If we could have chosen who was going to make us look like a Peewee Football team, we couldn't have chosen a finer team.    

The day kicked off at the Donut Shop.  We might have even skipped church.

Meet Boris.  He's the neighborhood mascot.  Our friend, Christopher, constructed this 8 legged friend a couple years ago for Halloween decor and the neighborhood kids can't get enough.  The children go crazy all around the hood when Boris makes an appearance.  He comes out randomly and the Super Bowl was definitely a worthy event for Boris to show his Bronco pride.

 Mmmm hmmmm...Randy's face was pretty much frozen in this pose the entire game.  It rang true for the group. 

I love Dude's face in this shot.  And Riley is seconding his anguish over whatever fumble had just taken place.  Or interception.  Or penalty. Or player tripping over his own feet.  

All done with that event.  For fun, here are the kids' valentines from this year.  They both missed their parties since we boarded a jet plane to Seattle (more to come soonish) but they handed them out prior to our departure.  Tim accidentally printed the "adult" version of the raccoon valentine, so we had to go back and re-print those again.  We didn't think it was appropriate for Squirt to tell her 3 year old day care friends that she wants to "make some noise after dark" with them or "rummage through their garbage anytime."   

He Peed on a Man's Shoe

Not just any ole' shoe.  A suede shoe.  Before each neuro-integration therapy appointment, I make Dude visit the men's room.  Last week, I noticed 2 professional gentlemen walk into the restroom before Dude bounced his size 13's in behind them.  As I stood there, head against the wall and arms crossed, I heard squeals coming from my son, centering around "all the pee" and "crazy pee!"  I sunk a bit, dug my hands into my coat pockets and had nowhere to hide.  Then I heard one of the men say to the other, "Do you know this kid?"  "Nope.  Sure don't." More squealing from my six year old and a proclamation that "Well, looks like you guys are gonnna have to clean this all up!"

The two men exited the bathroom.  I was forced to make eye contact.  One says, "Well, things got a bit out of hand in there."  I apologized in an uncharacteristically sheepish voice.  He says, "Apologize to this man.  It was his shoe that paid the price."  Oh shit.  Shit, shit, shit.  I didn't have words (this is not common for me) and so I simply closed my eyes and nodded.

Dude bounded out of the bathroom and said, with shining eyes, "MOM!  I had two pee streams in there and one of them went CRAZY!  Like, all over the place!  It was totally awesome!"  I knelt down and looked my joy filled son in the eyes and said, in my most rational and with-it Mom voice, "Did you pee on that man's shoe? (the men were still in the hall conversing) "YES!  It was crazy mom!"  "Ok.  Honey, THAT is disgusting and totally inappropriate.  This is not funny."  Was that completely true?  No.  It was rather funny, but I couldn't let on to this factoid.  My son looked at me like I had just slapped his little cheeks.  He was shocked to learn this was all very inappropriate.  I asked him to go back into the bathroom, clean up the floor (or whatever else fell victim), flush the toilet and wash his hands for 2 rounds of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.  He did so willingly, walked out of the bathroom with a slight skip in his step, approached the two men and said, "I'm sorry for being inpropriate.  I just had so much pee."  They accepted, told him we all learn from life experiences and we went to the brain doctor.  Seemed a very appropriate place to be after our little pee filled extravaganza.  I texted Tim the horrific details.  

Phase II of the pee story:
Today, as Dude bounced into the men's room, the pee on the shoe man walked toward us.  Really? Out of all the minutes in a day this old man could choose to pee, he chose this block of time?  Dude sees him and says, "Hey again.  It's my buddy!  Do you want to be buddies?"  The man is very sweet and entertains conversation with my oblivious son.  From the echoey bathroom I hear my monkey say, "Well, if we're gonna be best buds, we should probably share our names.  I'm Rylan.  Nice to meet cha!"  A minute later, the pee shoe man exits, looks at me and says, "Now THAT is one sweet kid maam."  And he walked away with a smile and a bit of a chuckle.

That's my kid.  He has a way of squeezing his way into your heart.  Pee streams on your suede shoe and all.

       

Amy DeYoung, the Great

These have been burning a hole in their virtual folder on my hard drive for quite some time now.  Consider them RELEASED.  One of my besties, Amy DeYoung is the very best photog you'll ever come across.  And I don't say that because she one of my dearest treasures in this life.  She just is.  Check her out for fun. You'll get enveloped in her world of capturing true heart language and joy in her subjects.  Forgive the outpouring of photographs below.  I couldn't narrow it down any further.

 "Yeah, pretty sure your just had your finger in your nose Reagan."

 Be still my heart.

 My assumption is Tim had just placed that reed of grass in Dude's ear.  

 

 

 Introducing my favorite picture out of the bunch.  

 This one is the near the top too.  Amy captured this gem as I helped my kiddo run like a super hero to get through the itchy grass.  That's kinda life these days.  Mama helping him through the weeds.  

 These two shots are so NOT my husband.  Which is why I have them framed in our master bath.

Thank you magical Amy.  We heart you and your mad skills.