How Instagram Killed my Blog

After my more recent series of catch-up posts, I realized how much of this information was redundant to what I was Instagramming about.  And then all of my motivation to blog went out the window.

So I've been trying to decide what to do with my blog.  I buried my other two blogs a long time ago.  And Instagram is such an easier way to post pictures (it takes forever the way I do it on blogger) and keep track of our day to day life and adventures.  I need a place to share my thoughts and things I normally wouldn't Instagram about (or would be way too long to Instagram about.)  This seems like the perfect place to do it.  So even if blogging (the way it was 8 years ago when I started) is dead, I'm still going to keep my little corner of the internet going...just mostly sans pictures.  Of course there will be the occasion when one of my traditional blog posts just makes sense.  So stay tuned for my thoughts and ramblings...and maybe even someday a DIY project I completed!  (And if you'd like to follow me on Instagram, my username is @emilyjh36)

A Post About Boy

If I had to sum up Boy, it would be that he's just such a...boy!  Seriously!  I'm not saying there is no drama with him, but when he gets mad or sad, he gets mad or sad, and then he's over it.  I'm not saying Bean is overly-dramatic or anything, but as Boy is getting older I am noticing that there is definitely a difference between the two!

• Boy spends most of his days with me.  We keep busy around the house in the morning.  He is still napping at least 2 days a week (and for 3-4 hour stretches!)  I still love nap time but honestly, it is so much more convenient to just go and do things without worrying about being home in time for naps.
• Boy and Bean are absolutely best friends.  It is kind of sad to see Boy wander around when Bean leaves for school.  When Bean is home, they will disappear and play together all day long.  I love it.
• Boy loves watching Agent Oso, Super Why and Word World.  His favorite food is candy.  Luckily he's actually very reasonable so his love for candy is what I bribe him with to get him to eat a fairly well-balanced diet.
• A month ago S decided to trim Boy's very long locks into a mohawk.  I'm not sure we intended to keep it for as long as we did, but we loved it.  It suited his little personality so well.  I was sad to see it go...

• Like a typical boy, Boy is content spending his days sitting in a pile of dirt or rocks.  S has taken advantage of this and had Boy start helping him out more in the yard.
• Boy is a Momma's Boy.  I cannot leave the room without him telling me 'goodbye' and 'I love you' several times.  And most the time he wants to come with me.  And if I don't wait it's a complete melt-down.  It's nice to be loved.
• It is not nice to be loved that much at 4 in the morning.  Boy is currently back in his bad habit of waking up in the middle of the night and screaming at the top of his lungs until someone comes in.  And then it's usually just cause he wants water.  
• We recently went camping and found that Boy is obsessed with our trailer.  He and the other kids we went with were content playing in their 'cave' the entire time.  I'm pretty sure if we left it up all summer, Boy would be out in it every single day. 

• Following up on Speech Therapy from last year, Boy and I have been attending an articulation class on Tuesdays.  I have a love/hate relationship with the class.  Boy is S-T-U-B-B-O-R-N and would hardly cooperate with anything I or the teacher asked him to do.  But I have noticed lately that he is starting to enjoy it more.  And the results of the class have been pretty remarkable: he went from being 40% intelligible to 75% intelligible.
• And speaking of improvement, putting him in preschool this year has been the best decision, both for his speech delay and for his confidence.  He is a SMART little guy!  (We can probably thank Bean since he emulates her in every way he possibly can.)  Academically he's ahead of where he needs to be which was shocking to me, considering the speech delay.  However, we are still leaning towards starting kindergarten a year later, just because he has had these delays and is still so small for his age.  Also, I want to drag out this 'having a kid at home' thing as long as I can.

As any family we have our good days and our bad.  And if I'm being honest I can think of several parts of our short almost-4 years together where the bad days outnumbered the good.  But this past year Boy has exponentially made up for the rough start--he is absolutely such a joy in our family.  I wish I could capture his little personality and keep it forever.  I don't want him to change a bit.

A Post about Bean

A few things about Bean at this moment:

(Picture taken at Grandma J's playing playdough)

• She received a huge pack of construction paper from Santa this past Christmas and is the most creative little girl.  She can make anything out of paper, markers, glue and tape.  
• Along with her paper creations, she loves to write stories and often reads these stories to Boy and I at bedtime.
• She discovered Legos last summer and consequently has received several kits since then.  I happen to love Legos too, so we've spent quite a bit of time the past few months building castles and creations.
• Bean is at that age where she is really testing her independence (and our patience.)  She is still fairly shy, but when I see her interact with her peers and Boy, I can tell she is a natural leader (oldest child trait??)
• Bean and Boy as a combination can be very goofy and silly.  This is a lot of fun...up until 8 o'clock at night.  Sometimes story-time is a challenge, but we get through it.
• Bean lost a lot of her bike-riding skills over the winter.  I know she wants to learn to ride a bike, but this one is going to take awhile.
• She loves to dance!  She kind of grumbles when she has to go--she'd rather stay at home and play after a long day at school.  But once she comes home I can't get her to stop dancing around the house.
• Along with that, I've been teaching her piano over the last 6-8 months and it was a Real struggle at first.  She always argued with me and no part of it was fun for either of us.  But sometime around Christmas we took a long break and since the beginning of the new year, she's really starting to understand the concepts she's learning.  One of her favorite pastimes is to play through her book up until the song she's at.  We have her on a list for a teacher in our area, but this is working really well for the meantime. 
• I've discovered that the thing that Bean craves most is time.  If S or I can just sit down and play or read with her for awhile, she is so much happier.  She's like me--she tends to push people away, but really she needs to know that we are there.
• Bean's personal goal for these next few years is to run faster.  At school she likes to race all of the boys and, according to her, she is starting to outrun them.

And speaking of school:

(Bean doing homework amidst her art projects.)

• Bean is one smart cookie.  She is already reading at an M (which best I can figure is what 3rd graders read at.)  She was invited to School of Rock--a supplementary program for advanced readers in her school.  They would read and discuss books.  Bean's reading comprehension is even better than mine.  I'm such a fast reader that I often have to go back to figure out what I missed.
• Bean also passed the requirements to become a Math Ninja (her school's way of recognizing mathematical success.)
• Her favorite subject in school is recess.  Obviously.  But really, I don't think there is anything about school that she doesn't like.
• Bean needs to definitely improve her handwriting.  Her teacher suggested she practice fine-motor skills, such as coloring and building with modeling clay.  I also think maybe she just needs to slow down.
• And speaking of her teacher, we have absolutely loved Mrs. C.  She is so kind and patient, yet firm and demanding (in a good way.)  We're going to miss her next year!

Every time I stumble across an old picture of Bean, I can't believe how little she looks...and how big she's gotten!  She is almost up to my shoulder in height.  It's fun (and challenging) to watch her try and figure out her place in the world and in our family.  We are so blessed to have her BE a part of our family!

...and everything else up until today.

The end of December was great.  I love that the kids are entertained by new toys for hours on end.  Plus we actually had some great snowstorms this year.  Bean built her first snowman all by herself!

S and I finally went to see the last Hunger Games movie and, when we got home, our sitter told us that Bean's obnoxious tooth was bleeding again.  I say 'obnoxious' because this darn tooth had been loose for weeks but wouldn't budge.  Unfortunately Bean's teeth all grew in very close together which means this kiddo is going to start orthodontics later this year.  Anyway, on this occasion, enough was enough: S grabbed some floss and I grabbed Bean and amidst screams of terror we finally got this stubborn tooth out (and of course she was still screaming because she didn't even realize it had been pulled...)  After she calmed down I got a picture of one happy tooth-gapped girl.

Bean has been begging us to take her ice skating for a really long time.  It's not that we had low expectations for her, it's just that she's afraid of nearly everything that has to do with falling or getting an Owie.  So naturally we were shocked when she took to ice skating like a fish in water.

Boy, my normally brave child, was Mr. Fraidy-pants.  We spent much of the time not skating but watching from the sideline.  (S was nice enough to take the kids for a few minutes so I could do a lap by myself!)

 After some really decent snow all of January and February, S and Bean built the most awesome snowman yet.  It lasted for quite awhile, too!  When the forecast showed the weather warming up, I figured I'd better take a picture before he melted away--good thing, too!  Two days after this picture, he was only half a snowman.  Literally.

Parties have been fun for Bean's first grade class.  I took a different approach this year: I planned all the parties and then delegated supplies and help.  I'm kind of a control freak.  I had major anxiety last year when 2 of our moms (who had planned games) ended up not showing up until halfway through the party.

For Valentine's day we did the traditional Valentine Card trade.  We also did a heart walk, Valentine Memory, a love bug craft, and decorated heart sugar cookies.  It was so easy and my favorite party yet.  I love this age group--they still think everything is fun.  Sixth grade is going to be a challenge!

Boy took advantage of warming temperatures to go play outside in what remained of the snow.  I caught him eating snow.  I can pretty much guarantee our snow is not clean.  Ick.

Mid-February my friend and I went to the new Provo Temple open house.  It is such a beautiful building on the inside and out.  It reminded me so much of the newly dedicated Payson temple.  Now that it is dedicated, I imagine the number of people going is going to be tremendous.  We can't wait for a chance to go ourselves!

Once all the snow was melted, S got busy working outside.  This, in my opinion, is the best time of year for gardening.  The sun isn't blistering hot, and everything old is new again.  Boy took advantage of this and went outside to 'help.'

Starting the first week of March, I, too, headed outdoors and spent the first half of the month pruning and raking.  It felt so good.  The kiddos joined me and made dinner creations while I worked.  I love their imaginations.  I never want them to grow up!

I surprised Bean with two tickets to go see Disney's Frozen on Ice.  I actually bought the tickets clear last April when we were still watching Frozen daily and everything in Bean's life revolved around Elsa, Anna, and Olaf.  Well...a lot changes in a year and just a few short weeks before the event, Bean informed me that she no longer likes Frozen and instead likes Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.  Darn first graders.

Obviously, I was still going to take her to the show and I just crossed my fingers she would enjoy herself.  I kept it a secret until we got there, and once she realized what we were doing she was SO excited!!

I hoped she would enjoy it.  I didn't expect to enjoy it as much as I did, though!  The special effects were pretty amazing!

S, Bean, Boy and I are rarely home together on a weekday anymore, so when Bean was off of school one Friday, we took advantage of this and took her and Boy to the Clark Planetarium.  They had never been before.  Bean thought it was amazing!  And Boy keeps telling everyone he sees (including complete strangers) that he took a rocket to the moon.

Bean is my little scientist which makes me one proud mommy.  She and I both thought the thermal imaging was pretty great.

Afterwards we bought some astronaut ice cream and walked around the Gateway.  The weather wasn't too bad so we even braved going to the fountain.  The kids loved it!  We are definitely going to have to make a repeat trip down there again this summer.

The next day was terrific weather.  We played at the park that morning and, after S had to go to work, we headed up to my parents to finish our yard work.  Winter was really long and hard on us this year.  I can noticeably tell a difference in our kids when they spend a decent amount of time outside.

Bean told me a few weeks ago that she really wanted to build a leprechaun trap this year.  I found the idea for using an empty Kleenex box on Pinterest.  Bean decorated it and we set the trap.  If you follow me on Instagram then you have already seen that the leprechaun got away after playing all sorts of tricks on us.

S told me that the leprechaun is committed to stop by from now on.  I told him I didn't really mind!  These are the moments that make being a parent all fun and no work!