The weather and my work schedule finally coordinated so that we could go to Wheeler Farm again this year. I am so glad because I feel like we kept getting Bean's hopes up and then, inevitably, on the day that I would go over to my parents' it would be raining.
The first thing Bean had to do was get on her tractor again. I thought I would post some comparison pictures from the past few years just to see how big she's grown!
That just feels crazy to me.
My favorite animals have and always will be the pigs. I blame this on the movie Babe. I was really excited to see that they had two little ones this year!
We actually got the turkeys to gobble at us. A lot!
And this was Boy's reaction to the gobbling turkeys. No joke.
They had moved the horses to some smaller pastures closer to the other animals. Last year Bean would come to this pasture and feed the horses. I think she was bummed because this was her reaction to seeing cows where the horses should have been. It made me laugh.
We've already been back one time since these pictures were taken. Here's to a summer full of visits to the farm! And bringing the horses back.
I never posted about Bean's Christmas recital because none of my pictures turned out very good and I shouted her name in the middle of the performance so I didn't want to upload the video here.
I shouted her name in the middle of the performance because she had stood on stage playing with her fluffy white tutu for the better half of the performance and, finally, at the end, decided to start dancing. It was very cute. She was the crowd favorite. And no, I'm not being biased.
Anyway, Bean's Spring Recital was at the end of May this year. It promised to be one crazy, hectic day but Bean was so excited to dance that I even found myself feeling that nervous excitement that I felt all of my years of dancing.
They held a practice at the amphitheater that morning. At first I wasn't crazy about going but in the end I'm very glad we did because I think it gave Bean a good idea of what to expect. She is a really timid little girl and is resistant when it comes to new situations. (Hmm, wonder who that sounds like...)
She looked so big sitting on that stage with all of the other dancers! I also loved how so many of the 3-5 year olds showed up with curlers in their hair.
Bean did her entire dance during the practice and she was so proud of herself: "Mom I DANCED!" I recorded it just in case she didn't dance that night so she would have something to show for the past year of classes.
The amphitheater was beautiful. The walkway had some waterfalls that Bean wanted to have her picture taken by.
Bean and her one-armed hyperextended half-bow.
Bean was so excited to have curlers put in her hair...and it's a good thing because her hair turns out so cute with curlers! Here is Bean right before the show:
She had complained that her tutu was scratchy when she first got it so I was concerned that she wouldn't be able to stand wearing it for 3 hours. But she was really excited when she got to the show and saw all of her friends wearing the same thing! It was Bean's turn to go dance. Again, they all looked so grown up lining up to go on. This time I recorded it without exclaiming her name :) Bean is the one on the far right.
That girl sure can take a bow!
I had the opportunity to be one of the moms that got to sit with the girls. It's nice to be able to keep an eye on Bean and I get a pretty good seat as well. Here they are taking their final bow (see arrow--Bean is sort of hidden behind the class helper:)
We headed back to my parents afterwards to celebrate my dad's birthday (which happened to be that day) and Bean insisted on a mini photo shoot. She's such a funny girl!
We changed both the kiddos into their pajamas and put an exhausted Boy to bed while the rest of us stayed up and had pie and ice cream. Bean and her Papa J sure are best buds!
While everyone visited that evening, Bean decided that we needed to play "dancing show" and she was the teacher and I was the dancer. She helped me walk onto "stage" and then made sure my feet were placed just so. I laughed because, if you watch the video again, you can see Bean constantly making sure that her feet don't move from the position that they were placed into on stage (even when she was supposed to move them!) I'm guessing they were told to "stay in their position" several times during the previous months' practices!
It was time to go home. S, who had taken the evening off of work to come to the recital, had to go back to work so I woke up Boy and took 2 exhaustedly happy kids home. The only trouble I had was when Boy swiped my phone and I took it away.
To Bean's delight, our rainy days returned towards the end of May. This called for an immediate playdate with the rain.
We decided to venture down to a local park one evening, in between rainstorms.
Bean had to wear her spring jacket, but the slides were all pretty dry. Despite it being a chilly evening, we had a lot of fun.
I can't believe I get to live in such a gorgeous place!
I'm not exaggerating: as soon as we got home it started to pour again, which means that either my timing is excellent or I'm just really, really lucky.
A few nights later we got home after a busy day. It started to pour again! Just as I was getting Bean ready for bed I looked outside and saw these clouds:
I don't know that I've ever seen anything like it! I must have not been the only one because similar photos started to pop up all over facebook!
Our most recent happenings in the H household have been, well...challenging. It seems like Bean has suddenly realized the down-side to having a little brother. Why the change? Boy is suddenly incredibly mobile and into everything which, more often than not, includes Bean's things. I don't know that she is necessarily possessive over all that is hers, but more than likely just doesn't like her things being slobbered on. Which Boy is certainly good at, being a champion teether and all.
So I've suddenly found myself becoming a referee. I'm not sure this new title is going to end any time soon...
Another "fun" thing is that Boy has suddenly found his voice...meaning his scream. I've never heard a kid shriek as loud as he does.
So the scenerio goes like this: Bean is playing quietly. I put Boy down long enough to do something, which is also long enough for him to get into whatever it is that Bean is playing. Bean starts to scream. She yanks whatever Boy has grabbed out of his hands. Boy starts to scream. Referee. Repeat cycle. *sigh*
It was incredibly therapeutic to go through my pictures this evening and find some gems. It reminds me that not everything is screaming and fighting all of the time. So enjoy the rest of the pictures...
As I said, Boy is getting into everything which definitely has it's advantages. For instance, he can now get his toys out by himself.
Boy's gag reflex has continued to be a problem. It is certainly trying my patience to have him so slow to learn to eat real people food. I did, however, learn that if I give him his more solid baby food on his tray, he finger feeds it to himself and then doesn't gag quite as easily. The result is this lovely mess, which I'm not sure is any easier to clean up, but at least he is getting nutrition!
Now that Boy isn't as fragile, I have started bathing him and Bean together. This is possibly the best part of my day. Boy loves splashing in the bath--so much so that whenever he hears the bath water running he makes a beeline for the bathroom. Bean loves being able to suds up and rinse Boy. So, win-win.
Bean also loves giving Billy-cat his baths. Billy doesn't like his baths nearly as much as Boy does. I took advantage of the millisecond I had after rinsing Billy before he tried to escape the tub to snap this picture. Love it.
We decided to pull Boy off of his super-expensive formula and try sensitive formula again, which Boy ended up tolerating really well! Our success was so good that I decided to try to put him on Soy (which we had unfortunately stocked up on before we realized it would be a problem--I wanted to use it up before it expired.) Apparently Boy has a Soy allergy because within a few hours he was vomiting everything up and refusing all of his bottles. Not fun. He took an awesome nap and we tried the sensitive formula and he did a lot better. S offered to take us out to dinner that night; I was worried that Boy would throw up when we tried to feed him. He inhaled saline crackers during dinner and was a perfect angel the whole time! After dinner we took the kids to see a fountain (we had to explain to Bean why there was so much money in the bottom of it. Then I had to give her a penny to throw in as well...) So what started out as a not-so-great-day ended up being really great!
I left our pantry open just long enough for Boy to get inside and pull himself up. Of course I had to snap a picture. Immediately after this picture was taken he pulled down a basket of vegetables and scraped up his nose. Way to go, mom!
We needed to get out of the house one evening so I asked Bean if she wanted to take her dolly Lisa for a walk. So she got her stroller and I put Boy in his and we went out for an evening stroll.
