Joseph's broken arm

well, this last summer we all stayed at Tanya's parents house in tremonton, and spent a day in lagoon. a couple days previous, Tanya had decided to get the boys some new bikes, and because the front driveway at her parents house is a bit larger, to have them break them in there. Now whereas the front driveway is pretty comfortable, the driveway leasding up to the house is about 30 yards long and with enough of a slant to it that makes me not want to drive up it with even a little bit of snow, maybe 10 degrees. As i am taking all the tags off of Jospeh's bike and putting all the elbow and knee pads, and the helmet on Joseph, i am stressing to both boys, not to get to close to the edge of the driveway. I send Joseph on his way and start getting James outfitted, and not 5 minutes later, I hear Joseph's bike going really really fast. I look over to see him going all out down the driveway, crissing the cul-de-sac and being stopped by the over grown weeds, (or nature, whatever) on the opposite side. Once he is stopped i start running, like I froze i guess, but i really was transfixed into seeing how this would turn out. I get to him, pull him out f the tangle of him, bike and shrubbery, and stand him up on the road.

at this point, it is important to remember that Joseph had just had his caste taken off the week before. We had actually pressured the doctor a little because we didnt want Joseph going to Lagoon with a cast on.

Joseph wasn't crying at all when i pulled him out. I stood him up, he looked at me and then started balling.

'Where are you hurt, Joseph?'
'No where.'
'Where does it hurt at, Joseph?'
'No where.'
'Why are you crying Joseph?'
'Cause I don't want you to be mad at me!'

In hind site I guess i shouldn't reflect on the fact that my son was that scared of my reaction at his disregard for the first bike rule, as he should have been comforted in knowing that i was scared and concerned for his welfare.

'I'm not mad, Joseph, I'm not mad. You can stop crying, OK?'
he starts to calm down a little bit.
'Are you hurt anywhere.' I mean seriously, this kid just went down a good incline that gave him enough speed to cross the cul-de-sac and push him 3-4 feet into the bush. I would have expected some branches impaling him at the least.
'No.' at this point he has really stopped crying, and is looking ok.

We take his bike back up the driveway, and him and James spent the better part of the weekend on those bikes.

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About a month after he had his cast off, Joseph tripped at a park while trying to step up to a water fountain and get a drink. he caught himself with his arms, just like before, and broke his right arm again, in the same spot as before.

Having already seen this show, i left him in the hospital with mom, and took the rest of the kids for ice cream.

Well, not as cold hearted as that. i mean, both of us didn't need to be there, and the kids still needed dinner, and ice cream just naturally came up after,...

man i love my kids, and hope that they forgive any of the stupid father stuff I've done.

Where the first broken arm looked really straight after it healed, this time there looks to be quite a bit of bow still in there. the orthopedic doctor states that with little kids, that amount of bow will naturally come out as they grow, but we should probably expect there to be bow to it for the next 6 months to a year i'm guessing.

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I was cleaning the bathroom 2 days ago, and the plunger found it way to the back step, where i forgot about it, (crap, its still there, I'll have to get that in the morning). Tanya tells me that she caught James, who has recently had a thing for Karate, swing it around like a sword.

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Tanya got the kids started in cloggin, and every once in a while, Ben or Emma will show us a step or so. We once got James and Joseph to show us the whole performance of what they had learned so far, and it wasn't even a minute really, but it was choreographed, and they kept up with themselves pretty good. Ben wanted to show us what he had learned yesterday, so he put on his shoes and started to tap in the living room. i told him i wanted to hear him at it, to go the the tile by the front door. Emma soon got in on it too, and you could see some moves and steps that they must have learned, but also alot of noise, and kicking the tiles. I dont think they could have broken a tile, but i made them stop anyway. it got kinda loud and annoying after a couple minutes.