Okay, it’s getting back to normal at home after our extended stay over the weekend. And by normal, I mean constant chaos from a mobile baby on the verge of teething. We keep blaming her fussiness on the possibility of her cutting a tooth, but have yet to actually see a tooth.

I guess since Going Mom is still breastfeeding, she’s probably not trying to rush those chompy incisors too much!

Our 4^th of July weekend started with us frantically gathering random things around our house and putting them in the car to take to G-Ma’s (i.e. packing) all while doing our best to manage Avery and give her the attention she needed.

 

I credit my awesome wife for tending to Avery most of the time and I’m not sure what I would do without my beautiful partner in crime parenthood.

Eventually, we had everything packed, including all of the cloth diapers we own, and were on our way to G-Ma’s. With virtually little to no traffic (uncommon for I-35W), we made it in around 40 minutes and were exchanging hugs with G-Ma and her boyfriend Paul.

Avery enjoyed a short nap on the drive and G-Ma wasted no time getting her Avery hug time in. But now that she’s a crawler, Avery was anxious to get down and explore new territory.

Our long-time friends and neighbors just a few houses down always have a 4^th of July party, so we were going to head down there to swim in their pool and watch the fireworks at night.

G-Ma lives in the country where anyone can shoot off their high powered artillery. Kelley and I were excited for this because it would be the first time Avery gets to experience fireworks. #StupidNewParents

After a failed attempt at getting Avery to nap, we walked down to Tim and Melissa’s, our friends/neighbors, to go for a swim. I just finished an intense workout in the heat, and was in yearning to jump in!

We all spent a few hours relaxing in the pool and having a few drinks as Avery made her rounds.

 

Tough to please, but she kinda smiles if you tickle her a little. But not much!

She started to get cranky, even after Kelley fed her, so we decided to go back and try for another nap before heading back down to eat and watch fireworks that evening.

Avery had different plans; how about no nap and just staying up with everyone else. She had 10 minutes of this, which looked promising, but then woke up crying.

I guess she really wanted to see G-Ma! Despite her resisting sleep, Avery kept showing all signs of being tired, but she remained stubborn…..and awake.

With the sun starting to set and fireworks on the mind, we walked back to our kind hosts to enjoy food and fireworks. But first, we tried another picture with G-Ma in hopes of a smile…..fail.

Tim and Melissa have 4 boys with the oldest being Uncle Preston’s age and the youngest just about to graduate high school. Every year, for as long as I can remember, they would buy massive amounts of fireworks and always put on a big show. But this year, they said they were going to keep it low key….

Ummm, yeah, not sure what happened there.

Maybe we have different views of what “low key” means, but that looked like a lot to me. Oh, and that was just what they could fit in the wagon, there were more fireworks waiting to be loaded.

After eating grilled chicken and a colossal salad topped with their homemade salsa using veggies from their organic garden, we impatiently waited for it to get dark enough to have the fireworks begin.

Yes, “impatiently” because we had an increasingly fussy baby who needed to get some quality sleep!

But not before we made her wait to see bright lights and hear loud booms. Both great things to introduce to a sleepy baby, right?

Finally, the fireworks had begun, and instead of us watching as they exploded in the air, Going Mom and I were glued to Avery’s face to see her expression. G-Ma boldly held her as she actually showed a little sign of enjoyment!

The loud sounds and bright displays of light had her attention, but she hardly reacted as they went off. Not quite what we were expecting, but I guess that’s what happens after a long day of no sleep but a lot of swimming and having a fun time with G-Ma and Paul.

We hung around a little longer just to let “the experience” set in before Kelley and I returned to G-Ma’s for Avery’s bath and bed time.

As we walked back, it sounded as if we were in the middle of a warzone with the fireworks shattering in brilliant displays of light; not the best setting for a baby’s bed time.

With our white noise and a fan set on the highest setting, we hoped for the best as Avery was laid down for the night. There were fireworks still going off past midnight, but Avery actually slept through it all.

Kelley and I had to share the same room with Avery, which was difficult to try the whole “let them cry 10 minutes” thing, but we survived to speak of it today! I’ll share the day after in tomorrow’s post, and will leave you with what we woke up to first thing the next day.

How was your 4^th of July?

Do you have any babies that got to see fireworks for the first time, or remember when your kids experienced them?