Suburban Bliss

Yesterday at work one of my colleagues asked about our Fourth of July plans. "Oh, nothing too big" I said, "we're just going to the country club party on Friday night and then walking in the neighborhood kids parade Saturday morning." And then it hit me. Oh my God, we're suburbanites. And I'm happy about it.

The party tonight was such fun. Our real estate agent hosts a "VIP grove" on the 18th hole during the neighborhood country club's 4th of July event. We get to enjoy live music, covered seating, a fajita buffet, drinks, and a prime spot to watch the fireworks. We attended last year and Landon stood up on his own for the first time (showing off for an 18-month old lady baby who we met again this year!). It's amazing that in one year we've gone from a wobbly stance to racing around the green playing soccer with JP.

JP was constantly surrounded by summer league swimmers and their parents and made all sorts of new contacts for the swim school. Landon mostly busied himself with the patriotic beach balls. Action shot:

I made JP operate my scary camera so I could be in a picture. Landon's hair is getting a bit out of control.

The best part of the evening was the fireworks. We almost left - the idea of beating traffic, putting Landon to bed, and sitting in our air conditioned house was winning out over seeing yet another fireworks show. But then we ran into a group of summer leaguers who invited us to have a drink and it seemed rude not to at least stay and chat for a few minutes. Landon was surrounded by fans and one mom quickly had him decked out in Fourth of July regalia:

2 1/2 feet of pure patriotism

Moments later the first rocket was launched from across the green. The show was incredible. Not because the fireworks were anything groundbreaking (though they were Very good), but because I was watching it through Landon's eyes. He was enthralled, captivated, amazed -- I can't even think of a word to capture the look of excited wonder that came across his face when that first burst of colored light exploded in the sky. He was sitting in my lap, with my arms wrapped around him in case he was afraid of the noise, and he pointed, face turned up to the sky, and looked at me like, "Whoa, what was that?!" And he continued to point, clap, laugh, yell boom!, and intermittently attempt to attach words to what he was seeing. The red bursts were followed by "apple?", the multiple, little white bursts with a questioning, "bubbles?" I loved it- loved that he was embracing something so new and potentially scary, loved that I have such an adventurous child, loved reveling in the magic of fireworks from the eyes of someone who has never seen anything like them before. I think it's one of the most fun aspects of having a child- being able to re-discover the excitement of things that have become ordinary.

We pulled into the driveway at 9:45 and immediately gave our sleepy, sweaty little guy a sponge bath and tucked him in bed. As I was closing the door of his room behind me, Landon suddenly lifted up his head and said, "more boom?" and then fell asleep without making another sound. It's been a good 4th so far.