3rd of July

We were able to continue our annual Oshel-Friedler tradition of going down to Salem to light off a bunch of fireworks with my dad. It was touch and go, with Henry's original plan of being in the hospital for the fourth, then not being able to. Then, briefly he flirted with a fever, dad had a cold/allergies, but ultimately, even on a few hours of sleep, it worked out. We had a fun afternoon of play. Henry was crawling all over the place!
You'll have to turn your head (since I couldn't rotate the picture), but here is Henry with the NG tube placed earlier that day, playing with some kitchen toys mom had in the bottom drawer.
After a yummy dinner, we moved on to dessert. Dad had requested an apple crisp for his birthday, mom added rhubarb for extra yumminess. After singing, we all took our first bites. Owen said, "yummy... but missing something." We all started to laugh, WHAT could this be missing? "Cold milk" Owen replied. Very true. Yummy desserts are always better with milk.
(but seriously, where does he come up with these sayings!)

SMILE! Look at all those fire works.

An amazing brotherly kiss!

When we did a trial firework at home, it scared Owen. Maybe petrified would be a better term, but he did NOT care for them. When we were in Salem, we told him he could sleep through the fireworks in Grandma's bed, or stay up late and watch them. He thought about it for a moment, then decided, "stay up, but watch INSIDE". Good choice.

So, Owen, Penguin and myself watched the huge neighborhood fireworks display from the comforts of mom's dinning room. He said they were more pretty and scary, but did requiring an arm around him most of the time.

When the display was over, Owen looked at me and said, "mom, you're the best friend I ever had." I love this kid. Hands down, that was one of the best hours I've had in a long time.