4th Of July | Goddess in Progress

Archive for 4th of July

On Fireworks

By Goddess in Progress · Comments (5)· July 6th, 2010

My kids saw fireworks for the first time at Disney World. It wasn’t really planned. I was off having dinner with the Shredheads before my first 5K, the kids were with M and his parents at the Magic Kingdom. As happened every night we were there, time got away from us, and they were eating a late dinner. Just as they were getting ready to leave, the show began.

The kids were initially excited – a cast member dressed as Tinker Bell rides a zip line down Main Street to start the show via her magic wand. Rebecca was thrilled. And then, the first BOOM. She was so hysterical and clung so tightly to my mother-in-law’s neck, it is going down as near legend. Daniel might not have cried, but he most definitely hid in M’s arms and only occasionally peeked out between his fingers. In the months that followed, the kids will happily retell the story about Tinker Bell, the pretty colors, and the VERY SCARY BOOMS. “We were scared,” the story always ends.

I had no intention of taking them to see any fireworks this Fourth of July. Being the middle of summer, it doesn’t get dark until quite late these days. Not only were fireworks already established as SCARY, they were also entirely too late.

We spent most of the Fourth in the car. We drove down to Connecticut for a family party. 3+ hours down, 3 hours at the party, 3+ hours back. Naps were totally messed up (Becca slept 30 min as we arrived at the party, Daniel slept 2.5 hours at 6pm on the way home), and it was an all-around long day.

We had to drive into Boston to drop off my sister-in-law and her boyfriend, and there were crowds of people headed towards the river to watch the fireworks and hear the Pops. I tuned the radio to the live broadcast and heard the beginning of the 1812 Overture (woo for real artillery!) as we headed on the final stretch towards home.

All of a sudden, from the back seat, came an overtired but impassioned plea: “I wanna see the fireworks!”

Huh?

Both of them. BEGGING to see fireworks. As we got onto the highway, we could see a few towns’ displays in the distance. The big Boston show didn’t start for nearly an hour. And suddenly M remembered the perfect viewing spot. The roof of the Tufts University library (M used to work at Tufts) has a perfect line of sight to downtown Boston.

There were tons of people there (lots of summer school students – suddenly realizing how long ago 19 was…), eagerly awaiting the start. The minutes creeped by and the kids got loopier and more tired, but we waited.

Finally, they started, and we threw the kids up on our shoulders so they could see above the crowd. It was perfect. Easy enough for the kids to see (I couldn’t see a thing), but far enough away that you couldn’t hear any of the booms.

The kids only lasted a few minutes before they decided they were done, though of course there were some indecisive meltdowns on the way to the car, including Rebecca moaning pathetically, “I miss the fireworks!”

Next year, my dear. Next year we’ll see them again.

It was completely unplanned, hours past their bedtime, and from an objective standpoint, probably a terrible idea.

I’m so glad we did it.

Comments (5)

Categories : Holidays, Preschoolers, Toddlers

Tags : 4th of July, fireworks, late bedtime, spontaneous

Antidote

By Goddess in Progress · Comments (9)· July 6th, 2009

I was going to write a kind of sad, cranky post about how I had an underwhelming Fourth of July and how it got me feeling incredibly homesick and determined to move back to Chicago sometime in the next few years. And, well, I sort of did and you can read it over at How Do You Do It? (notice the new URL!).

I was still cranky Sunday morning and into the early afternoon, despite a sunny day and a visit from Aunt R on a rare day off from the hospital. Still feeling disappointment. Nostalgia. And still emotionally and physically exhausted from our month of rain. And then, something crazy happened.

At nearly 5PM, we started talking about what to do for dinner. M knew exactly what he wanted: a roadside stand-type restaurant with fried seafood, burgers, and ice cream. Something on the ocean. He had a very clear picture in his mind of where he wanted to go. So we decided to pile into the van and try to find it.

We headed east, toward the coast. I suggested we head toward my aunt’s house in Marblehead (the one person on my side of the family who doesn’t live in the Chicago area). She lives near the water and I had vague recollections of passing restaurants and shacks on the ocean on the way to her house. We gave her a call and said we were heading her way. She said her husband and son were at the beach at the end of their street, that it was low tide, and a perfect time to come by. Off we went.

We put our feet in the sand, though the kids weren’t thrilled about the cold waves on their feet. But the sun was warm, the ocean was calm. It was awesome.

And to top it all off, my aunt pointed us toward the exact beachside shack M had seen in his mind’s eye. Fried seafood. Burgers. Onion Rings. Ice Cream. And some raspberry lime rickeys that Rebecca couldn’t get enough of.

By the time we climbed back into the car to head home, it was an almost unheard-of 7:45pm. Normally lights-out time for the toddler set in this household. But you know what? Everyone was happy. They talked and sang songs and played peekaboo the entire way home.