Friday night rolled around and this was where we were instead:
And this is where we were come Saturday morning:
Thursday afternoon, Caden woke up from his nap with a fever of 102. I couldn't get it to come down. At bath that night, he screamed when water got in one of his ears. And on the way to the last-minute doctor's appointment Friday morning, he threw up in the car. Out of nowhere, he suddenly had a raging ear infection in his right ear and viral tummy bug. So instead of going home to pack sleeping bags and goodies for the cabin, we went straight for apple juice and prescription antibiotics. Sigh.
But we managed to have fun that weekend regardless. Last year he was kind of too young to understand, or care, what he was seeing when we did family fireworks. This year? Not so. This year at my nephew's birthday party, I was kind of worried about how Caden would handle them. I shouldn't have. We about DIED watching his reactions; the bigger the boom, the bigger the startle it gave him, the more hilarious he found them, and the little stink couldn't catch his breath he was laughing so hard. Little adrenaline junkie. He played hard, laughed hard, stayed up till almost 10 that night, and it was all I could do to keep him from falling asleep and drowning in the tub during a quick hose down to get the firework smell out of his hair before passing out during story time.
Monday morning, he got to watch the parade with "Mama" and "Papa".
He loved the fire engines, the horns and sirens, the horses, pretty much all of it. My little Nugget was so tired when he got back, he fell asleep for his nap at about 1:30.....and I had to wake him up at almost quarter to 5. At one point in checking to make sure he was at least still breathing, he was so out cold he was on his stomach, legs spread, arms splayed out to the sides, big ol' drool spot on the fitted sheet. Totally and completely zonkered. So freaking cute. While this Fourth didn't go exactly as we'd planned, I definitely can't say it was a bad weekend.
I'm so grateful that I can even be writing this. God bless everyone that has ever stood up for, fought for, died for, sacrificed for this country. I am eternally grateful that because of you, my son can grow up in a healthy, stable, and safe environment, where the booms he hears at night this month are fireworks he loves rather than mortars he has to learn to fear. Land of the free, because of the brave.
