July 4th

I don't remember what we did on July 4th last year at night, but I know it didn't involve watching fireworks. I am pretty sure we put Joshua to bed around 7:30pm and Keith and I went to bed like lame asses by 9:00pm. (I guess when you have a child under 1, you can't expect much more).

Now, fast forward 1 year. Joshua is almost 2. He is still a baby, in my mind. He still has a 7:30ish bedtime and still is on a very predictable routine. I am 24 weeks pregnant. So between Josh's early bedtime and me being pregnant, we weren't exactly going out drinking all night long. My friend had a barbeque and after, we were going to walk to the fireworks. Of course, the fireworks don't start until after it gets dark, so they weren't going to start until 9 or 9:30pm. We weren't exactly sure if we could keep Joshua up for them, and we also weren't sure how he was going to react to the loud noises. So, we decided to play it by ear. Staying up past his bedtime. Check! Not freaking out at the fireworks. Check! Check! Joshua loved the fireworks. He kept smiling and reaching up to the sky and saying "boom boom". It was really cute. We really lucked out. (The only issue was that Joshua didn't really want to sit still on the blanket. He wanted to walk around.) Joshua stayed up until about 10:30pm without a fuss. He loved the fireworks, and it was a good night all around.