Festivities, Fireworks and Fears

Before the parade

We had a wonderful July Fourth. Guillermo, Maya and Will started the day by decorating our bikes for the parade from Weaver Street to Town Hall. For his trail-a-bike, Guillermo taped one red streamer to his handle bars "because that's all it needed. My bike is blue," he reasoned. He also taped a flag to the back and wrapped a wiry string of metallic stars around it. "I made a nebula," he declared. Maya and Guillermo wrapped blue streamers around Maya's trailer and attached another flag to it.

The parade is a pedestrian/bike parade that crosses about two blocks. At the end of the route is a festival with a bouncy house and slide, games, music, scraps from the Scrap Exchange and food. Maya wanted to play the ring toss and other games so she could win candy. Guillermo was content with the bouncy slide, but only once because the line was too long after his first turn. Later, we went to a friends' house for a wonderful barbecue and the kids played.

But the best part of the day, for me anyway, was taking Maya to see the fireworks at the UNC stadium. Guillermo wanted to keep playing at the barbecue so Will stayed with him and I took Maya. She loved watching the fireworks last year after a baseball game with my parents and on that 20-minute ride home repeated "Fireworks, show mommy, pretty-o" over and over and over again. She wanted to see them this year and we didn't want to let her down, although Will and I both feared the fireworks would be too loud for our suddenly loud noise-averse daughter.

Maya and I arrived at the stadium about 8:30 p.m. As we walked there, I showed her the hospital where she was born and she talked all about being a baby. ("Yaya and grandpa visited me there?" "Guillermo tickled me?" "You were so happy?") We bought water, watched the band ("they are wearing costumes!"), played with a friend and stood in a long line for ice cream as we waited for the 9:30 p.m. start. About 20 minutes before showtime, we found seats next to a girl from Guillermo's preschool and her mother. Maya ate her ice cream and then played with the girl, as happy and smily as could be. Finally, the show started with a woman singing the National Anthem. I picked Maya up so she could see and we snuggled close, cheek to cheek, smiling. It was so sweet and I thought about how this was becoming one of my favorite summers and this was one of my favorite nights. Something behind us distracted Maya and she turned to look and a few seconds later the woman ended the song. And, just as she ended, fireworks, LOUD fireworks, exploded. Maya flipped her head to the noise and her face, a few seconds ago full of joy, was frozen with terror. Her hands snapped to hear ears. "Too loud," she managed to say. It was loud. I hugged her closer, and told her it was OK and tried to point out the pretty colors. "Too loud," she said choking back tears. "Do you want to go?" I asked. "Yes," she said. And, we ran out of the stadium, about 30 seconds after the fireworks started.

I stopped frequently on the way back to the car so we could watch the fireworks explode in the sky, pointing out all the colors. Maya admitted she liked them and admired the "diamonds, gold, rubies and emeralds" bursting in the sky but after a few seconds each time, she covered her ears and said "too loud. I don't want to see them anymore."

We got back to the car at 9:59 p.m. She fell asleep six minutes later.

Hyena Droid Bomber and other Legos

Will took Guillermo to the grand opening of the Lego store a few weeks ago. Guillermo has been asking to go back ever since. 

We were lured to the grand opening weekend with the promise that the first 300 customers that spent $35 or more (or something like that) would get a free Lighthouse Tower Lego set. Guillermo got one, but he bought so many other things that Will didn't even show the lighthouse tower set to him (which was disappointingly small and came in a plastic bag). Guillermo came home with an Indiana Jones set, a Hyena Droid Bomber set from The Clone Wars and a bucket that he filled with Legos from the "pick a brick" section. 

Others, a lot of others, were lured to the grand opening for the same reason (that, and the promise that customers could help build a life-sized Yoda) . Will says the checkout line snaked around the store and around the shopping center. A security guard had to escort shoppers from one part of the line to the other part because some of the path was blocked by a fountain. Our friend, Thomas, went with Guillermo and Will and he was the hero of the day because he did most of the waiting while Guillermo and Will shopped. All told, they waited in line for two hours (TWO!!) to get to the cash register. 

Summer Reading

I signed Guillermo and Maya up for the summer reading program at the library. Guillermo was really intent on not just meeting his daily goal (30 minutes a day, 5 days a week) but on surpassing it by a lot. "We have to win, mommy. Let's get the prize." The first week he and I read for 4 hours and 40 minute (and a lot of the reading was from a gigantic encyclopedia-type book about Wonder Woman, whose real name, by the way, was Diana). We spent a lot of time reading when we returned home from the pool in the afternoon and Maya was asleep on the couch.

Maya wasn't as interested in meeting the goal or recording her minutes, but she likes to listen to books so she was on board and met her goal, too.

The prize: Four stickers, a book mark and a coupon for a free Italian Ice at Rita's. Maya chose chocolate Italian ice and Guillermo picked root beer.

Swimmingbowlingbuilding

Maya, painting her bird house.

Guillermo, working on his plane.

Today we: Built an Ewok village, went to swim lessons, ate lunch, played at the pool, bought socks, went bowling, bought chocolate chips and a snack at Whole Foods, built a model stealth bomber and a birdhouse (from the $1 wooden kits at Michaels), made muffins, made pancakes, read books and ate dinner before I escaped for an hour before bedtime books. I'm exhausted, but we had fun. 

Guillermo loved bowling, Maya said it was too loud. But, she loved the shoes. I think it's time to sign her up for some tap dance lessons. 

Bob

Guillermo, practicing a back float.

After just a week and two days of swim lessons, Guillermo surprised me on Tuesday.

"Look what I can do," he said as I met him in the pool after his lessons.

"Bob," he said, plugged his nose with his fingers and dunked his head under water.

Yay! I was so happy, so relieved. He finally can do it! He can put his head underwater. After years of sporadic swim lessons, he finally had the nerve to put his head underwater.

He practiced all day Tuesday and then yesterday, he put his head under water and then pushed off the ground so he would sort of glide underwater a bit before coming up for air. He's so excited to show off his new move to his teacher today at lessons.

Maya, on the other hand, has developed a fear of the water and will barely go in by herself, even in the shallowest spot. She will go in if I hold her, but she clings to me pretty tightly. Yesterday afternoon she was a bit more adventurous and walked down the ramp but that was only because her friend Chelsea joined us at the pool and she isn't scared of the water. I think she may be tired of going to the pool and we do go every day for lessons at 10:30 a.m. We have one more week of lessons before vacation and then she'll get a break.

Luke The Skywalker

Maya, playing outside this spring.

Yesterday, Maya and I were playing in her closet and it became evident just how much her brother rubs off on her.

"Maya, this could be your secret hideout," I told her.

"It could be a rocket ship," she exclaimed. "We could blast off."

Without pausing, she said: "I know, we could play The Clone Wars. I will be Luke The Skywalker. Who do you want to be?"

I suppressed my giggle at "Luke THE Skywalker."

"I will be Leia," I answered.

"Ok, blast off," she announced and for the next five minutes, we played Clone Wars and Guillermo wasn't even around. He was at a friend's, playing Star Wars no doubt. 

Father's Day

Celebrating with Will on Father's Day.

We treated Will to a luxurious day of lots of alone time. He slept in, went for a long ride, ate bacon and pancakes for lunch with the kids and then dropped Guillermo off at a friend's house while Maya and I went shopping. He had the afternoon to himself to watch the Cardinals. He grilled for dinner and, I think, had a great day. 

For father's day, the kids made him cards and gave him a coupon so he can buy a baseball glove. We are also going to buy tickets for him, Guillermo and my father to go see the Cardinals play when we are in St. Louis next month.