Sunday, July 5, 2009

Little Firecrackers

The 4th of July always makes me think of those old Classic movies, James Cagney dancing on the table in Yankee Doodle Dandy, and one of my favorite numbers from Holiday Inn, when Fred Astaire steals the show with poppers in his pockets. "Let's say it with Firecrackers..."
Well, this weekend, we've been spending lots of time with our own favorite little firecrackers.
Daddy had the day off on Friday (as did many Daddies) and Chris and I got our very first alone date since the birth of Sam. It was nice and crazy, we went to a program at the library, Little Firecrackers. :) Chris colored a paper flag, used it in our own parade and made a drawing of fireworks with paint and yarn, which was cool. We checked out some new stories, and played a game on the kiddie computer. My favorite part was when we drove there and Chris kept asking Where's Sam? I told him home with Daddy, and he repeat what I told him earlier, Just Tris and Mommy? Yup. It was nice. I won't say perfect since he was a bit wound up, but it was nice. I know these Mommy / Son dates are going to be rare for a whilw so this was nice.

When we returned from the library, Daddy took Chris down to the zoo for a Daddy's trip with a few friends. Chris did great, had a wonderful time. They got there in time to catch the Elephant bathing, which was pretty crowded so he rode on Daddy's shoulders. After the girls skipped out, Chris followed to find the Mist-er machine (which I've been back there a zillion times and I didn't know there was a mister back there) he stood near the stream and told Daddy in no uncertain terms, "I tate a a bath like a Elephant!"
The boys even took the train ride, which is what Chris told Mommy All About when he came home. That and the Tit-ets.



While Daddy and and Chris played at the zoo, Mommy and Sam met their friend Amy for a lovely toddler free lunch date. Sam was excellent while we were out.



But beastly when we got home. About 20 minutes before Chris got home, he conked out in my arms, after much ado.

After naps the real party began when we went to celebrate cousin Alexis' 8th birthday!
Sam loves to sit in Lexi's arms, she just LOVES to hold him. She's getting so grown up, and smart as a whip, I'm so proud of her!



Meanwhile,Chris played like a maniac with his cousin Kaylee and our friend Jenna. In the sand box, in the grass, chasing and being chased by children and dogs, he had a great time. Grandma bought a couple boxes of Snap Pops, or poppers as we called them, and gave them to the kids to play with. I would've thought 3 1/2 was too young for such things, but with the big girls, Chris fit right in, throwing those poppers, and stepping on them, he was a champ! Uncle Ryan taught him a terrible new trick though, I was feeding Sam and looked up to hear Chris gagging, his face near purple. Apparently, Uncle Ryan had put a popper in his mouth and popped it with his teeth, then taught the Kids how to do it! Chris made a face, and was MAY HAVE just learned not to put them in his mouth again.



One bummer was during the birthday festivities, Chris was running too fast, tripped and fell down on the pavement. He cried and cried, and he only had a tiny scratch on his knees. Later he asked to go potty (yeah!) and when he got undressed we realized that he had belly-flopped and landed right on that dratted Feeding Tube, and it had bled really good. No wonder he was crying, he wasn't woosy, he had pulled that bugger and really hurt himself. Poor Baby. I felt so bad for even entertaining the notion that he was woosy.
He didn't sleep well that night, and it may have been because of that, but he seems to be much better now.

Saturday was the 4th and we managed to be gone from home for 13 hours straight with both kids, the rain wasn't putting any dents in our party! First Chris started out the day being a SuperChamp and filling in the last couple boxes of his potty chart (which had 25 boxes with a reward for a movie, we figured we'd take him to UP!). He had swim class at 10, and there was an 11 a.m. showing of Up! at Traders Point, minutes from his class. So we did it all. Swim class in the drizzling rain, which didn't phase him. Followed up by Up! the movie, for being such a good big boy, his friend and swim classmate Emily even got to come with us. From there we dashed to a cookout with Eric's Uncle Dean and Aunt Jan and a whole passle of Willman's, which was awesome and exhausting all at the same time. We got to drive the 2 miles to see Karl (Eric's 'little' brother) and his wife Erica's new home. They just moved to their first house last month. Chris took a big shining to their exercise equipment/room and the giant bathtub in the master. :) From there we zipped to another cookout (although only our crazy family and friends cook out in the rain anyway, because by gum, rain isn't going to rain on our parade)at our friend's Mike and Kathleen's. Sam and I spend most of the visit nursing and cuddling and watching TV while the kids ran wild. Chris and Emily got to take a bath together and pajamify then we watched the Capital Fourth fireworks. I think evening is not Sam's time. He SCREAMED his head off the entire way home, somewhere between 20-25 minutes Straight. Yuk. We were thrilled to go to bed.
Today, Sam didn't sleep in, but Chris did, so Eric was able to hit the grocery store and Lowe's before church! Our icemaker/fridge water thingy are dying and it's making a mess. There wasn't much nappage, though after the repeated late nights, we ALL needed it. But afterwards, we went to visit the boys' friends Bryn and Shay, and played there. There was lots of Daddy/kid time while the Mommies worked on a special kitchen project, and the kids had a great time going to the park and a pizza run. We even went so crazy as to come back to see the Postponed (on account of rain yesterday but the weather was fabulous today) Fireworks for the Town of Brownsburg. They were lovely, and Chris loved it for about 10 minutes, but he was more interested in crawling all over Bryn. I think we spent more time getting situated and parking than the actual show. Oh well, at least Chris had a good time. Ben had brought poppers, and the toddlers and most of the adults had fun stomping and tossting them on the way back to the car. Sam on the other hand, screamed all the way there, Slept through the fireworks show, and woke up screaming again once we got home.
As you can imagine we're all sleep deprived, exhausted, but it was such a great weekend, we got to see LOTS of friends and loved ones, and that really was the best part, rain or no rain. Most importantly, the boys had fun, and our family had fun just being together.

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