New Fourth of July Entertainment

Once upon a time, before having kids, what to do on the Fourth of July was a no-brainer. Go out and watch fireworks, of course! While we enjoyed two shows last year, it never occurred to me that it was going to be much more complicated when the baby was there. Parents always warn you you'll never sleep in on Saturday mornings again for awhile, but never tell you about decisions like this. Initially I planned on going. I even invited the grandparents to come along. BUT the closer the date got, the more and more I started to wonder if it was really a good idea. After observing how late bedtimes on Fridays were throwing Liam off, something was telling me it might be better to skip out this year. I couldn't even be sure if we did go, Liam wouldn't just be afraid and cry the whole time (though knowing him, I doubted that).

I must have asked everyone I could think of what they did and if they had any advice. I wasn't seeking anyone to tell me what to do, just was curious. One person really called me out though: my real issue had nothing to do with Fourth of July fireworks, it had everything to do with how to be a mom and balance the rest of life. This is exactly what my deeper question was, but I failed to put my finger on it myself. This is something that is very important to me as well. Moms who seem to be able to balance it all are my role models! I'm still learning the ropes. I'm still learning how to balance being a mom while still being Lisa on an individual level too.

Really, each and every family will find a different system to make even seemly small decisions like this one. At least this year, Mother Nature practically made our choice for us when cool and rainy weather lingered on our area. It sounded (and by the trash on the street the next morning looked) like our neighbors threw pretty good show last night, and was impressed instead how Liam could sleep through it. He woke up as I went to bed, but with just a little quiet reassurance he was able to slowly fall back asleep on his own (despite being startled by the booms a little at first).

We still had a great day. Michael and I completely organized all the draws in the dining room during one of Liam's naps. He enjoyed playing with some of his new toys from his baptism (I just saw some of the first pictures, still don't have access to any yet to post though...forgot about it at my sister's birthday party!). Here are some of his coordinated crawling moves:


The cats also provided a lot of entertainment, especially for Liam who loves laughing at them (especially when they are wrestling).