July 3, 2004 - Saturday
Today was our local Indepencence Day celebration and Rip and his family joined us for the parade. There were also games and pony rides in the afternoon. Harry liked the jumping castles and slides, while Jeremy liked the pony ride enough to go a second time.

Tonight, though, was the first time Harry saw fireworks. As recently as a couple of days ago I had told Rip's dad that both of our boys were too scared of the noise to go see fireworks, but sometime or another Harry decided he was ready. Perhaps that because instead of watching trains on the computer, we've been looking at fireworks pictures on the web in the evenings this week and both boys seemed to like them. Jeremy, however, had no interest in seeing them firsthand and that's just as well, since it would be way past his bedtime. It was past Harry's bedtime, too, but Harry's a little more able to do without sleep than Jeremy.

So, Harry and I went to watch the fireworks together. I'd like to say that it was a memorable bonding experience, and it was in some ways. But, Harry didn't say very much and that was a little disappointing from that bonding perspective. As soon as we got to the field, some 40 minutes before the fireworks actually started, and until they were over Harry had his hands covering his ears. That made it a little awkward for carrying on much of a conversation. Oh sure, we talked about the crowd, and the first stars as they came out, and Harry called out the colors of the first few fireworks, but mostly we spent a quiet evening lying together on a beach towel in the middle of a field full of people. I am absolutely sure Harry enjoyed the fireworks, but he can be so coy. He did ask a lot of questions as we were leaving and driving home, but most of those ended up being about the traffic jam. Still, he was pretty excited.


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