Happy 4th of July!!!

July is here and what a force it is.... the heat wave hitting the northeast is 'brutal'.  But luckily we have air conditioning and a kiddie pool and live near the beach (although it's not cooler unless you are IN the water).

Our busy holiday weekend began with a family BBQ at my brother's house in NJ.  It was definitely nice to see my family and have them see the kids.  Unfortunately, the heat left the kids tired but not that cranky.  My brother has always been proud of his cooking skills and both her and his wife put on a great day full of good food and fun games.

One problem that did arise was getting my 3 yr old to share his toys.  Evan insisted on bring his baseball bag (wiffle balls, bats, bases) nerf football, bucket of golf balls and his golf club.  When Evan woke from his nap, he was in angst to see an almost 2 yr old playing with his football.  That is when Evan's sportsmanship shined (or NOT).  Evan began collecting his toys and demanding that we go home!  He was done b/c he didn't want anyone to play with his stuff.

It was a day trip for us and we hit the road around 9:20pm.  I remember the time because we had to battle the fireworks crowd on our way out of town.  And it was definitely a fun experience driving down the NJ turnpike and see various fireworks displays for that first 30 minutes of our journey.  And as MY luck has it, the next hour of that journey was stuck in bridge traffic.  And the humor is that I seem to have this luck of getting stopped on the highway due to an accident.... and not a small accident but an accident that closes the highway.  So I'll stay off the highways next weekend.

Then came the FOURTH of JULY!!!!

LORDY LORDY, LOOK WHO'S FORTY!!!!

That's right... Dan turned 40 on the 4th of July.  We didn't have a big blow out of a party for Dan b/c he's not the 'center of attention' kind of guy.  When asked what Dan wanted for his birthday, he said he already has" 2 wonderful kids and a beautiful wife" and didn't want anything more.... yes, he really did say that!!!

Haley turned 15 months this week and what a little girl she is.  She walks and has been trying to run after her brother for a game of chase.  Haley is also trying to master climbing... trying EVERY chance she gets.  She loves to climb up the stairs, onto the couch, into toddler chairs and onto everything she can.  Unfortunately, this activity must be supervised to prevent serious injury.  But with every fall she has off that little toddler chair, she quickly learns what she did wrong.  She'll be a master soon.  This week has also found an expanded vocabulary for the little girl.  She has added ball, mommy, bunny and up to her repertoire.  The other growing Haley has been doing is GROWING.  She wore her first pair of shoes in June and by the first weekend in July, she got a blistered from her shoes being too small.  She grew 1 size in 1 month.  So she and I went shoe shopping together.  Since it's warm weather and she is a kid, the goal was to buy  a pair of shoes that can wore for universal occasions.  But in typical princess form, Haley came home with THREE new pairs of shoes: sandals, flip flops and shoes (for those cold days/nights yet to come). 

Evan is growing in many ways as well.  He still has his obsession with balls and basketball.  But his logic and articulation is also expanding.  But my favorite new thing of Evan is his desire and ability to play on his own.  Using his vivid imagination, Evan creates that new fun world in the bedroom while I get to spend important quality one on one time with Haley (as Evan usually ends up demanding my full attention all the time, Haley has great imagination and play time).  One of the more interesting logics Evan has adopted is listening to my rules and then proposing "his" rules.  That's the funny part that I'm not allowed to laugh at.... but I do find sweet.

I can't believe the summer is already brought the warm heat of July.... that means the summer is official and the clock is ticking... not looking forward to the cool fall nights.