Lady Liberty

How lucky we were this 4th of July...as we celebrated our country's independence with a day full of fun! We also celebrated Olivia turning 8 months old! We have no idea how we got here so quickly. It feels like just yesterday we were bringing her home for the first time. In the past 8 months Olivia has turned into such a delightful, happy baby and we just love spending time with her. We have our very own little firecracker who loves being out and about and keeping busy...so we started our day at the zoo. We are trying to get as much use out of our zoo pass as we can. Olivia is starting to notice the animals more and more so it is lots of fun to take her and watch the reaction on her face when she sees something she likes.

Later in the day we attended the annual Watson 4th of July cookout. We had great weather all day which was perfect considering there were many kids in attendance that all wanted to play outdoors. Our close friend Kim was back in town for the holiday with her twins, so Olivia had some playmates her age to pal around with. Logan and Conner are about 16 months old and Olivia was fascinated with them. She practically bursts with excitement when other children come around. I think she was extremely jealous of the fact that they are walking. She thought that looked pretty cool and was probably wondering why she wasn't able to get up and move around with them. We did manage to get them to all sit still for a few moments to snap a quick picture. Here is Olivia with her little two boyfriends...

There are lots of grandchildren in the Watson family...nine to be exact. And since they are such close friends of ours Olivia is considered an honorary grandchild. This year she was included in the annual "cousin picture". Check out all of the kids in their patriotic duds...

As usual the food was delicious! After dinner it was time for some fireworks. The kids all had little poppers and snappers that they wanted to play with. These are my kind of fireworks. You know...the kind that really do not make much noise. I am quite sensitive to loud sounds and have never been much of a fan when it comes to fireworks. As a kid I would sit in the car with the windows rolled up and my fingers in my ears just waiting for them to finish. As an adult I have gotten a little better. I enjoy watching the fireworks but still have to plug my ears for the big ones. I know...sounds silly, but I just cannot help it. Well I thought Olivia would enjoy watching the streamers fly out of the poppers...but I was wrong. Once the kids started in with them it only took a few seconds and she burst into tears. Gripping onto me for dear life, my smiley, happy baby quickly became hysterical.

Being the mean Mom that I am, I started laughing as I was surprised that she would be scared by something as small as a popper. But I saw that she was not at all interested in fireworks at all so I took her inside to calm down. It was close to bedtime anyway so we decided to spare her the trauma of hearing more loud booms and head home. Her reaction may have just been a combination of being tired and hungry...or not. I cannot get frustrated with her as I can relate to how she feels...since I reacted the same way as a child. I hope that she does not have the same sensitivity to noise that I do. I would hate for her to miss out on some nice fireworks displays by sitting in the car with her ears plugged.

So other than the melt-down at the end of the evening I think Olivia enjoyed her first 4th of July. Maybe next year she will handle the festivities a little better. I mean what is a 4th of July without a few fireworks...even if your fingers are in your ears?