the Rosenlof's

We have these friends, we kind of like them. In fact, Noah is "engaged" to one of them. The older kids are excellent babysitters. They take us to Costco. They give us the latest scoop on things. They tell us about dance and swimming lessons. They invite us over and let us eat their good food. They let us borrow Wii games. They let us borrow staple guns for over a year. They give us refrigerators. They call to remind us to sign up for storytime or to register for Kindergarten. They give us advice. They are experts at many things. They watch our kids when we don't want to get a babysitter. They give us books. They make Jacob laugh, a lot. And sometimes they make him scream, but a good scream! They like to play Canasta with us, even when the game lasts forever. They play Fact or Crap with us, too. They bring me Dr. Pepper. They are moving. We are a little sad about it. Luckily, they are going to Utah, and they still have family here, so we do still have a good chance of seeing them again. We've enjoyed the time we've had together. We really will miss you. A lot. Good luck on this new journey of life.

paint.

<
Our friends came over the other day. Kristyn always has fun activities for the kids to do. I always feel like an awful mom when she comes over with her paint, shaving cream, books, and more in tow. But, it's always fun. Usually very messy {which is probably why she comes to MY house, huh? ;-) Just kidding, Kristyn!}, but they are fun! This day was paint. We rolled out the paper, gave the kids some paint on their hands, and on the paper, and let them go for it. There was even some homemade finger paint, consisting of flour, water, and a little food coloring. It was perfect. And it was the perfect day for it. They painted, got extremely messy, and then rinsed off in the little pool. Perfect. The doctor had called earlier that morning to tell me that it would be okay to take Jake's cast off. But since I'm paranoid, I thought I would just keep it on while he played, in case he fell or anything, and I'd just take it off after. He was in HEAVEN! He loved painting and playing in the water. After not being able to for 3 weeks, he was such a happy camper! His cast was pretty gross afterwards, but it was so well worth it!

smart kid.

Jacob is pretty cute. Wouldn't you agree? I was getting him out of his carseat today, and he flashed one of his signature grins. Those dang grins always make me melt. I gave him a good squeeze and said, "Jakey, how did you get to be so cute?" I wasn't expecting a response. But then he said, "Oh, Dad." He said it so matter of factly, like he was so old. And then just grinned. That kid. He's smart, his dad is pretty cute! ;-)

another one bites the dust...

Noah got an unexpected visit from the Tooth Fairy last night. We were playing with friends yesterday in the pool in the backyard, one thing led to another, and the next thing I knew, Noah was screaming with blood running down his chin. Something had been thrown at him, and knocked his tooth out, it wasn't a loose tooth...I had just wiggled all his teeth the night before. We never found the tooth. Which made Noah very worried. He didn't think the Tooth Fairy would come without the actual tooth. So, I assured him that if we wrote a note and put that under his pillow, telling the Tooth Fairy that the tooth was in the backyard, he'd be okay! It worked. The Tooth Fairy came! Although, unintentional, the dollar was very much accepted, anyway!

{I chose the sepia tone for the close ups as to not gross you out by the pre-morning brushing of the teeth!}

Our home teacher came over last night and told us that when he was younger, he fell on the sidewalk, when he got up his tooth was missing. But they never found his tooth. His gums started swelling, so his mom took him into the dentist, after x-rays they found out the tooth hadn't been knocked out, but it got pushed back up into the gums, and eventually came back down. We didn't find Noah's tooth, maybe the same thing will happen. Adam told Noah if it does, he'll have to give the dollar back to the Tooth Fairy. He didn't like that idea!

Cast-free

After three weeks of the cast, it's finally off! {I don't have a picture yet...the camera is in the diaper bag, which is in the car parked in the Institute parking lot. I'll have to wait until Adam is done teaching...} Jacob is a very happy camper. I let him play in the water today, and he was in heaven. And then we took a bath and scrubbed that little arm very clean. It still has a little bit of a stench, but that's a given when you have something wrapped around your arm with not a lot of air circulation! Hopefully it's all healed and we can be done with casts and broken bones for a long time. A VERY long time. {Yes, I knocked on wood...}

planes and bikes

We have a new obsession in our house. Jacob absolutely loves planes and bikes. Everytime we hear a noise outside, he assumes it's a plane and point to the sky and screams, "PLANE!" And then he'll run to the window to see if he can see it. I'm pretty sure the plane obsession got bigger when we actually rode on the airplane, he was pretty excited about it.

{this was on the airplane to Seattle last month.}

And then the next thing he absolutely loves right now are bikes. He would just sit on Noah's bike all day long if I let him. Funny, kid. I think he might learn to ride a bike before the other two. He REALLY wants to. I wonder how Noah would feel about that?

It's funny how different kids are. They have the same toys and everything, but they like totally different things. I love watching them discover new things. Jacob can now say, "Go bike, peas." I guess if these "obsessions" help language development, we're all for it!

and now we have white...

Jacob really likes his cast. A lot. A little too much, I guess. He plays with it quite a bit, he's always putting stuff in it, and pulling on it. And apparently, his arm is getting skinnier. And what happens when you combine the two? Well, it will fall off!

Yes, the cast fell off. I was taking his jammies off this morning, like I have been doing every morning for 2 weeks, and this time, the cast came with them.

The look on his face was priceless, he had a HUGE grin on his face and started turning his arm around looking at it, he was pretty excited! But then he started touching it and saying "Ow. Ow. Ow." I didn't know if it really hurt, or he just remembered it hurting. After my attempts to put the {bent} cast back on his arm failed, I called the doctor. However, the only appointment I could get was at 4:45 an hour and half away. So, knowing that it was Friday, and I'd have to wait until Monday, I took it.

We were late getting down to our appointment, traffic wasn't what I expected. We live in Santa Maria...there isn't ever traffic. Until tonight. We have a freak "rush hour" at 3. Seriously, I have bad luck. I did call and tell them I would be late. And then they called back and said that the doctor had an emergency surgery, so if I was late, we may have to reschedule. They called when I was 11 miles away. I was not going to miss this appointment, dangit! We get to the office, I rush the kids in, we get to the door, and there is a big sign, "WE'VE MOVED"! Could this day get any better?

Why, yes, it could. We missed the doctor, he went to surgery. But, lucky for us, he would come back afterward, and recast poor Jakey's arm. We waited around for at least another hour. He did come back, and he did recast it, this time we didn't get a cool color. It's white. And it's called a "soft cast", but it's still kinda hard, its hard to explain. But, the good thing about it, you don't have to get it cut off, you just peel it off in a week. Jacob cried when the doc didn't put the blue one back on, so he just kept it. And he held it all the way home! Funny kid!

And, to make it an even better story. We decided to have a little "office get together" tonight as well. Adam invited his whole office over for pulled pork. I already had 16 pounds of pork cooking, we couldn't cancel! We were an hour and half late for our own party. Good thing Adam was home! Jacob passed around the marker and was so proud of people signing his cast. He likes to show it off, and gives you the pouty face, too. He's very dramatic...it kinda worries me! ;-)

bathtime.

After Jacob fell in the bathtub, resulting in lots of blood and stitches, he hated the bath. Everytime he would hear the tub water, he would scream, "No, No, No Bath!" He didn't even want to look at the bathtub. And it wasn't just our bathtub, any one! We slowly transitioned him to liking it a little bit. And then he liked it a lot. And then he broke his arm.


Poor kid. He REALLY wants to take a bath, really bad! We attempted to wrap it in a ziploc, and then tie it with an elastic, but he didn't like that so much. It was manageable, but he wants to play, dangit!

One more week, however. Just one more week. And then this smelly cast will be gone!

YAY!

little ballerina

{May 22nd}



Macie was enrolled in a dance class through the college here. She loved it. It was every Wednesday for 45 minutes. One of her best friends was in the class with her, and the teacher was in our ward, which also worked out to our advantage. Macie loved going each week and spending that time "with just girls. No boys."
Every day I would ask her to show me what she learned, or try to practice different ballet things with her, but she wouldn't do it. She wouldn't do anything about dance outside of dance. It was funny! And then it came time for the recital. She was very excited. We got her adorable tutu and wings and she was ready. At the parent observation day, I learned that Macie isn't the most graceful ballerina, she's got a little tomboy in her, and she runs full speed and hops instead of gracefully leaping through the air, but that's okay! That's Macie. I'm sure with time she'll get better! During the observation day, she was a little shy and didn't like me watching her, and froze. I was a little worried that she wasn't going to actually do the dance for the recital.

Recital day came. I was the nervous one, she really didn't have any idea. So, I got her in full costume and make up and took her to rehearsal in the morning. I left her there and was going to come back in an hour to pick her up. When I got back, they had been running behind so she hadn't actually danced her dance yet. But, she saw me in the back, and got a little nervous. Her little friend had gotten scared first and was crying a bit, and I think when Macie saw me she thought she should be a little scared, too. I don't know what happened, but she cracked. They went on the stage for their first run through the dance on stage, and Macie cried. She sobbed. All the little girls were pushing her to go for her turn, which made things worse. Her teacher, came to the rescue and carried her throughout the rest of the dance. And then I got worried. Was she going to do this for the recital performance? Was I making a bad decision to send her out?
We went home, talked to her about it, ensured her it would be fine, got a milkshake, ate lunch, played a bit with Momo, Pa, and Cory who came for the big day, and then went back for the recital. I was so nervous. I dropped her off, then dropped the boys off with a friend, and headed back. I seriously was sick. I was so nervous. I don't know why. And then it started. The little girls class was the second dance of the night. She music started and I was sweating and panicking {which I learned later, so was her teacher! ;-)}. They all came on stage, and Macie did awesome. She had to push her way through the line a few time, but she did every move, every leap, every twirl, everything. I was so proud of my little girl dancing up there on stage, and yes, I cried. Having three kids has turned me into an emotional basketcase! But, she did it! She finished the dance with a smile on her face. Afterwards, she was so proud of herself, too. She didn't stop smiling all night! Daddy gave her pretty long stemmed red roses, and Momo gave her a Barbie. {I think she enjoyed the Barbie more, sorry Daddy!}

{Macie loved having her friend Aliyah in her class. They stuck with each other the whole time. It was pretty cute!}

< {Miss Frankie was the "student" teacher. Macie talked about her all of the time, she loved watching her dance.}

When it was all through, she wanted to do it again, I guess that's a good sign, right? We'll be signing her up in the fall. She's such a cute little ballerina. She looks pretty cute in make up, too. I'm thinking beauty pageants next. What do ya think? ;-)

blue

I took Jacob to see the Pediatric Orthopedic doctor. He was a very nice doctor, I could definately tell he liked what he did and was good at it, too. At first, he thought about not casting Jakey's arm, but just leaving the splint on, but after I told him that Jacob already fell on his arm from just a stumbling accident, a cast seemed like the best option.

Luckily for us, however, it's only going to be on for 3 weeks instead of 6. Babies heal pretty fast. The doctor showed Jacob the colors, and he picked pink. I didn't know how Adam would feel about that, so we went with blue. The dark blue. It would get the least noticably dirty!

Little Jake was such a trooper. He was so cooperative, he didn't cry, he didn't even squirm. He let the doctor put the cast on, and then waved as we were leaving. He likes that he can knock on his arm. He thinks it's pretty cool.


As sad as it is to see him with a cast on his little arm, he sure does make it look cute.

poor Jake.

Yesterday morning the kids were all playing in the backyard. I had just been out there with them, and came in the house for just a second. And then the screaming started. A very loud, uncommon Jacob scream. Noah ran in telling us Jacob had just fallen from the slide. We ran out there and poor Jacob was still laying on the ground with a huge scrape and goose egg on his head. I picked him up and carried him inside. When we got in, I noticed he was holding his arm weird. And then he kept pointing at it and saying, "Ow!" We gave him some medicine, and hoped that everything was okay. We checked for a concussion, but he seemed okay. The doctor was not in, since Monday was a holiday, so we were waiting it out. He cried himself to sleep, poor kid. He wimpered in his sleep. When he woke up, he was quite a bit happier! We went on a little drive to Nojoqui Falls, and hung out there for a while, went to Solvang for a bit, and then headed home. He kind of had had a rough time, crying more than usual. He was running around and fell down...on his arm, and screamed again. I knew we needed to take him in. I wanted to right away, but was hoping that I was just overreacting, which I do often! I headed to Urgent Care, registered him, and was waiting to get called back. He vomited everywhere. It was so sad. He was probably just in so much pain! They did the x-rays, and sure enough, he had a broken bone near his wrist. {The distal radius, if that means anything to you!} It was an incomplete break, however, but still a break. They put a hard splint on it, and wrapped it up. We go in tomorrow to the Pedatric Orthopedic doctor to probably put an actual cast on it. He's a trooper, though. It's so sad to look at his little arm. But, he loves his built in weapon! Watch out, it hurts!

Independence.

Happy Birthday, America.

We are so grateful to live in this county and to have the Freedoms that we have.

We are proud to be American!

The Big 2-0!

Cory is 20.
My BABY brother is no longer a teenager.
That's pretty weird.
Happy Birthday, Cory.
We love you!
You're great.