Our Family: Happy Fourth of July! (a week late)

We just hung out and relaxed for the fourth of July weekend. So, J has this trike with a steering handlebar on the back so we can push and steer him. Up until now he has just sat there with his feet barely reaching the pedals and didn't have much of an attention span for it at all. Well, something clicked last week and he all of the sudden realized that when you push the pedals, you move! Now, he can still barely reach the pedals when his legs are extended and whenever he turns, but he just rides and rides now. We have even been able to take a couple of walks around the block where we mostly push him but stop every so often and he pedals himself. I think it makes him feel like such a big boy! He is so proud of himself and so are we. My baby is riding a bike!

We made our first trip to the community pool over the 4th of July weekend. J had a blast in the water. Our community pool is pretty nice and I love that the kiddie pool part is a walk in design with little fountains. Not long after we walked into the shallow end and were up to about J's waist, he started staring at all of the other kids swimming around. Well, I guess he decided that couldn't be so hard and that he could swim too. He dropped down on all fours and started crawling around saying "I swimmin, mommy!". He even enjoyed going in the deep end this year which he wasn't too fond of last summer. He stayed in until his lips were blue :) We're so glad that he seems to love the water...I guess he's just like his mommy and daddy in that way :)

This is the first year we kept J up for the fireworks show. The fireworks didn't start until 9:30 and he started to get sleepy around 9. So, we headed outside to put off some of our own little fireworks and play with the sparklers we bought earlier in the day. We had also picked up some snaps. You know the ones that you throw on the ground and they pop. Well Dan decided that it would be hilarious to have J throw them at my feet and he told him to "Go make mommy dance." Well J chased me around for the longest time throwing snap after snap at me yelling "Dance Mommy! Dance!" He had a blast, I was nervous, and Dan was laughing so hard he was crying. I guess it was pretty funny :) We can see the fireworks the community puts off from the front of our neighborhood. So, we just took J up in a wagon with a blanket and sat on the grass by the road with a bunch of other people. When it was time to go watch the real fireworks, J thought it was the coolest thing to be awake and outside taking a walk when it was dark out. Overall, I think the fireworks were a big success.

Here is a slide show of our fourth of July weekend. Enjoy! (Remember to pause the music at the bottom of the blog during the slide show.)