Happy 28th, Papai! (and happy 23rd, Mamãe!)

After Joseline’s 6 month check up last Wednesday (yes, Joss’ half birthday is Papai’s birthday!), we wanted to surprise Papai for his birthday with cookies for his class. Well, the nurse took a little longer than expected to get Joseline her DTaP vaccine, so we didn’t get over to Russ’ class until about 10:50, and he gets out at 10:45. His motorcycle was gone. He went home for lunch, not knowing we were coming to surprise him.

Anyway, we went to a little playground on the post to wait for him to get back on post so we could give him his cookies. I figured that by the time we got to the house, he would be already on his way back to class.

I called our house phone about when I thought he would be there. The conversation went something like this:

Papai: Hello?

Me: Hi, honey!

Papai: How did you know to call me at home? (he had lost his phone earlier in the week, so I hadn’t had a way to get a hold of him)

Me: We’re sitting outside your classroom.

Papai: Oh! Well, I’ll pack up my sandwich and come back

Me: Okay, we’re waiting at the park across from your class.

Papai: Okay, see you soon.

What I didn’t realize was that “we’re waiting at the park across from your class” sounded to him like “we’re parked across from your class.” So we saw him drive right past us. I even flapped my arms like a dummy. But he didn’t see us.

The end of this story is happy – we finally met up outside his classroom, and ate really yummy frosted chocolate cookies. It was a pretty fun birthday party for Papai. And Vince loved playing at the park.

The family eating dinner at Olive Garden in Salinas (thanks, Mom and Dad Rowley!)

We didn’t get pictures of our family at The Fish Hopper in Monterey, but we also went there to eat (thanks, Mom and Dad Werner!)

Our birthday week was perfect -

Tuesday, my birthday, we got a sitter and went out to the Monterey Farmers Market. We ate burritos, quesadillas, and tamales. They were delish. Then that evening I got to have a girls’ night. It was fabulous.

Wednesday, Russ’ birthday, we did the whole surprise-that-ended-up-not-being-a-surprise. Then we went out to Olive Garden in Salinas. On the way back, we picked up Russ’ birthday gift at Walmart – a workout bench – decline, incline, and flat bench. So now Papai can do his workouts at home!

Friday we went out to The Fish Hopper. I had a scrumptious salad with all sorts of fishy food on it, Papai had fettucine alfredo (of course), Vince had spaghetti and meatballs, and Joseline at some bread.

Our birthday week was nice and quiet this year – just our family. And it was really nice.

in a tube

This is where we waited for Papai to get back to post for his birthday surprise. Vince loved the tunnels, and the sand, and the swings… of course, he loves parks.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

There were two deer across from the park when we were there. Vince thought they were hilarious. The deer didn’t care about us. They were just laying around, and then one walked off. Obviously we were pretty boring company.

The chains on the swings were covered in the yellow plastic stuff. Vincente called them “macaroni and cheese.” Brilliant. I love my kid.

My First Flower!

An iris flower has finally bloomed in my front yard.

  These irises were taken from a huge clump in our backyard. When we first moved in, I thought it was just a grass, because it was so dense and stuck together. When I started watering the backyard (trying to get some grass to grow), the iris started to bloom! I thought, what a waste of iris sitting here in my backyard, I’ll replant it to the front yard!

Well, I had to dig underneath the big clump and then pull (and cut) apart the bulbs (which are actually not bulbs, they are rhizomes – you learn all sorts of new things when you get a new hobby). Anyway, the leaves had a fungus (I’m sure due to the extreme humidity here, and the clumpiness of the irises. They were so thick that the leaves were never able to dry out completely. That’s my theory, anyway.

Before I knew that’s what they had, I had planted all the irises in my front yard. I then learned that you are supposed to cut down all the infected plant parts. So a few days ago I went a-hacking away at my plants. They look kind of shabby, but I think the hacking helped this particular plant flower.

All of the irises are currently putting up new leaves, so I hope to have a garden in full bloom in a few months.

 

 

 

 

My torch lilies and peace lilies are also putting up new shoots and leaves, so I am going to need to get my sweet pea flowers started so I can have oodles of flowers. I can’t wait to take a picture of my flowering garden!

And on a side note – I started new tomato and bell pepper plants. This time I’m going to keep them in our office (usually the sunniest, and warmest, room in the house) under saran wrap and a lamp. I think that will help them grow better. It’s kind of chilly outside to be starting plants out there.

I also planted basil and chives in some little planters I made at our RS super Saturday. I’ll have to remember to post some of those pictures, too – but I’m a little behind on blogging, so those may have to wait.

Vincente Takes Pictures

 

 

 

 

 

 

When we replaced our camera and Vincente saw me going camera crazy, he decided that he wanted to be a little photographer, too! So he found our old horrible $20 camera and started mimicking Mamãe. Wherever I went, he would go with his little camera. Whatever I tried to take a picture of, he would as well. Whatever position I assumed to take each picture (crouching, laying down on the bed/ground) he would also assume. It was hilarious. And way cute.

Since Joseline was the main subject of my photo shoot that morning, Vincente decided he was going to take pictures of her as well. If I tried to take a picture of Vincente, he would tell me “No, take picture of Joseline!” (It’s also really funny how he says her name in English. If he says it in Portuguese, he can pronounce it just fine, but in English it gets all mushy.)   

photo shoot

 

I went to our ward Relief Society’s Super Saturday today. I made a few little planters (in which I will plant some herbs), silhouette pictures of the babies, and little flower hair clips for Joseline. I put the pink one on her and decided that she looked cute enough for a photo shoot. I wish I’d had a pink head band, but black worked well enough.

I’m also excited that I am losing weight – I’m almost back to my pre-pregnancy weight! So I feel much less self conscious when I’m in a picture with my whole body.

Joseline was originally playing with the little orange and yellow ring, but it was hard to get her to look at the camera, so I took the little ring and threw it off to the side. The look on her face conveyed the message that she was most definitely not finished playing with that toy. And she still wouldn’t look at us – her eyes were on the little toy. Finally Russ put it behind her back so she couldn’t see it.

We got some cute shots of Joseline with the little flower clip in her hair. I made a bunch of other ones, but I’ll take pictures of those when I post pictures of all the other crafts from this weekend.

She is growing up so fast. And getting mobile a little too fast for my taste. Of course, Vincente was a little more mobile at this age, so it’s kind of nice that she’s taking her time (a little – she wants to get everywhere, she just really doesn’t know exactly how). She’s getting even better and better at sitting up on her own.

 

 

   

 

 

 

 

 

 

      So now Joseline has little flowers to wear in her hair, and I know how to make more. So I am going to make more. I love hair accessories - I was just never brave enough to try them on my own. I should have made hair accessories back when my Springville ward did their super Saturday, but I was determined that I was going to have a boy, not a girl. But man, I love having a girl.

She is so sweet.

enough already!

I know – blog posting overload. Sorry, I’ve just really been going through camera withdrawals, and now that I have a camera I can’t help myself! But I’m also not blogging fast enough to keep up with all the pictures!! 8-o Such is life.

On a side note – on a whim, I pulled out our old camera. The lens was still stuck out, but I stuck some batteries back in the thing, just to see what would happen. Well, I pressed the power button, the camera turned on and the lens went retracted and then came back out. At first I thought, well, it probably still won’t take a picture.

The picture above (and the look on Russ’ face) is proof that the “broken” camera does indeed work, and take pictures. Yes. Too bad I didn’t try the camera a week or so ago. I spent DAYS trying to get it to work back when it “didn’t work.” I guess it just needed a hard core reboot. Seriously – back when I “broke” it, I took the batteries out, let it sit for a while, put the batteries back in, messed with the buttons. I even tried to take the dang thing apart! Stupid camera. Anyway, now we have two cameras. We decided we’ll keep this one and see if we use both cameras often enough to warrant keeping the old one. Otherwise we’ll sell it and put the proceeds towards our Utah trip for Thanksgiving (Russ still won’t say we can go, but I feel like I’ve almost got him convinced that we should go!)

I am going to stop blogging for tonight, but I’ll start up again tomorrow. I don’t think anything exciting is happening tomorrow except maybe a BYU football game and a BBQ with some friends. Nothing too exciting, so I shouldn’t take too many pictures. Then comes Sunday, and I rarely take pictures on Sunday, so that should be a good day for catching up as well. I think I will start making a book out of my blog at the end of each year. Kind of to cap things off. And one of these days I’ll start with my digital scrapbook. In between there I should type up all my old journals. Nothing like Family History to make life crazy.

more rowleys

Last week I borrowed my neighbor’s bike and bike trailer to take Vincente to Parents’ Place (the playgroup at the Community Center – it is a lot of fun… I’ll have to describe it in more detail at another time. Maybe next time I’ll remember to take my camera!) Anyway, it was pretty much the stupidest thing I have ever done. I didn’t even make it half way up the hill on Gigling road. It’s not a very steep hill, it’s just a LONG hill. It didn’t help that I haven’t ridden a bike for almost a year and therefore am not very good at using the gears. (didn’t help either that a bunch of the gears didn’t work anyway… including the gear that was probably the best for the big long hill). 

Our usual daily routine is when Papai gets home, he plays with the babies while I finish making dinner. Then we eat dinner together, Joseline included (see post about Joseline eating) and then Papai plays with the babies some more until about 8:00pm at which time we commence the bedtime activities. These include, but are not limited to, cleaning up all the toys, changing into jammies, brushing teeth, reading books, saying family prayer, and giving cuddles and loves before getting tucked it. Having Vince and Joseline sleep in the same room has actually been working out just fine. They both sleep great together, so there are no problems.

If Joseline is in her crib and Vincente wants to play with her, he asks me to get her down. It’s adorable. The other day I put her down on the floor in their room, and her shoosha (pacifier) fell out of her mouth just at the end of her reach. Her first order of business was to grab the shoosha, of course. And then watch Vince drive his motorcycles all over the place. She loves his toys. Loves them. And loves her brother. Loves him.

motocicleta

(motorcycle)

 

  At almost any time of the day (except maybe when we’re playing outside – see previous post) you can find Vincente driving his cars, or more often, his motorcycles, on the floor, on the couch, on his bed, on his toy box. And it is very likely that his eyes will be level with the wheels, watching them turn. In fact, if something happens to the wheels of his car or motorcycle, it is practically the end of the world for him.

He is fascinated with the motion of the wheels – round and round as they drive across a surface. It’s actually quite intriguing to watch. It makes me wonder if some day he will be interested in physics and engineering. He seems like that kind of boy. Whatever he chooses, we’ll encourage, of course. Right now it seems like he really loves the phenomenon of the friction between a wheel and the ground causing the wheel to move around in circles, propelling the vehicle forward. Ah. Good stuff.

These are the Days

 

Since we’ve been watering the front lawn, playing outside has been a lot more enjoyable. And the weather is warmer, so the evenings are pretty good for sitting outside on the lawn. We’ll spend the hour or so between naptime and dinner outside on the front lawn. Vincente runs around like the crazy head that he is, and Joseline practices sitting up. The lumpy uneven front lawn is more conducive to her sitting up, because it provides little pockets for her little bum to sit in.

One of Vince’s favorite things to do is run super fast and then fall down as if he’s sliding in to base. I bet he learned that from watching Russ play softball earlier in the summer. He does it all the time.

Joseline is getting really good at sitting up. So good that sometimes I forget that she’s still not perfect at it, and I’ll leave her sitting up and walk away. Then she falls over. She usually doesn’t even care, but sometimes, if the ground is hard enough, or if she falls just the right way, she will protest.

With the weather so nice, we spend a lot of our time outside. I love the fresh ocean air (and the lack of pollution… one of the many things this place has over Utah). I love being able to spend so much time outside comfortably. It’s not too hot, not too cold. And it’s been like this about 90% of the time we’ve been here! Good weather makes me happy. :)

Joseline in Red and Orange