Happy 4th!

This was Animalia's first 4th of July and probably the latest she's ever stayed up in a decent mood. Ever.

She met some other babies, some 5 month old twins that visited briefly on their way to another party. They were all put together in the Animalia's crib. I warned the supervising adults but they didn't listen and the Animalia went right for the eyes of one of the defenseless infants. She wasn't trying to hurt him, only pet him, but it didn't quite come off as planned. These twins were small and wobbly and I held one, remembering when Animalia was small and wobbly. Ahhh, the memories.

The Animalia also wanted to play with her cousins, boys who are 5 and 8 years old. They didn't want to play with her either as they were playing with a model plane with thousands of tiny parts. Later they would run in and out of the house and the Animalia would feel acutely left out as she is unable to run.

My cousin carried her around and occasionally disappeared with her, feeding her sweet potato puffs and keeping her happy and away from my uncle, just to be mean. When she finally gave her to him, the Animalia cried because she didn't want to leave her puffs. There was another cry, later, that said that she was tired, and I nursed her but the second I put her down she cried herself awake and just stayed awake despite Nana's best efforts to rock her to sleep. She can't sleep when people are hanging out and having a good time.

The fireworks didn't start til almost 10pm but she was awake, did a few oohs and ahhhs and clapped her approval a few times. The display was a little long though so she ended up distracted by one of the visiting dogs wandering around our yard. Was it worth throwing her off her sleep schedule? Hm. Maybe, maybe not. As of yesterday we weren't quite back to it. On the other hand, it was very cute for her to see the fireworks and entertain the guests with her extraordinary clapping skills, squealing, judgy looks and general cuteness and happiness to be held by many strangers.