My little firecrackers

For our little family, it was a year of firsts this fourth of July: Laney's first holiday party, the first hot and sunny 4th in western Washington in ages, Luke's first time trying the slip and slide, and maybe most exciting of all, Laney's first five hour sleep stretch in the night! Granted, she hasn't done it since, but now we know she has it in her!

Here are Luke and Laney before spit-up and the slip and slide ruined their outfits.

The past two years, Luke would have nothing to do with the slip and slide. His cautious nature has never let him experience the fun before, but yesterday we couldn't get him off the thing! He has been fighting a cold for a few days, so I finally made him sit for a few minutes because he was coughing and coughing from running back up the hill. I hate to make him rest and really believe that he will self-monitor his activity level, but he wasn't letting up and his cough wasn't either.
 

Here is Rog telling Luke how proud he was of him for finally giving the slide a go.

We felt like Laney was a little too young to try the slide, so while brother was slippin' and slidin', little miss was happily being passed around from arms to arms. I so clearly remember Luke's first fourth of July. He was 6 months old and we were a month out from his second open heart surgery. I don't think I let anyone else hold him that day, for fear of him getting sick. What a freedom and joy to let Laney get passed around without anxiety setting in!

And who knows? Maybe 4th of July 2012 will be the year Luke finally stays outside to watch the fireworks!