Happy Independence Day!

We took Paxton to the Fourth of July parade on Friday. I love that parade. Our little town feels so All-American and charming when I see the line of local businesses, politicians and athletes parading down the road on the back of giant pick-up trucks, throwing candy willy-nilly. We've been going for enough years now that we have an established game plan. We know where to find parking. We know never to set up our seats too close to children, because they're quicker than us and they get to the candy before we can. Because we always run late, we never are able to get there early enough to grab a shaded spot. In a way, it's okay, because the parade seems to start so late that if we were to get there early enough to find shade, we'd have to commit far more hours to the event than I'd actually care to. As it was, we got there 30 minutes early, got a spot right in the full morning sun and subsequently watched a family with four kids set up right next to us. BOO!

I dressed Paxton in his finest red, white and blue, but forgot to get something for myself to wear. I made do with a blue t-shirt with a red(dish) tank top peeking from beneath. It was good enough. I figure when I'm walking with a gorgeous baby, no one's really looking at me, anyway. I actually count on that fact.

Once set up in his stroller, I taped some flags out of his reach to add to the patriotic feel. As expected, he was awfully darn cute. Unfortunately, like his family, he was awfully darn hot, too. And that parade took FOREVER to start. I was getting crabby as my feet got more and more fried.

When the parade finally came to us, Paxton was bouncing with great merriment at the marching band. The kid loves music. It's in his blood. Of course, when he's late for a nap, he bounces quite a bit anyway, so he bounced himself into exhaustion by the end of the parade. We managed to score some candy, but most of the paraders just glanced our way, saw that we were three adults and a baby and withdrew their candy-throwing arm with palpable disdain. When I saw bubble gum or tootsie rolls get tossed our way, I moved out of that chair with record speed. When butterscotch hard candy or peppermints were thrown, I just sat there with a sneer and let the children think they were winning when the swooped them up.

Living up to the adage that 'it's all who you know', I got a free Ace Hardware baseball cap when my friends drove by in the Ace float. Score! It kept my scalp from getting any further burned. Plus, it was red, so it added to my Fourth of July-themed garb. Can't beat it.

There was apparently some poor planning involved with the parade this year, because the floats were so incredibly far apart. Just when we'd assume that the parade was over, there in the distance we'd spot another float making it's way up the street. We kept trying to spot the culprit. There were a few clues. One "float" was just two little girls in an electric toy car. It was moving mighty slow. Their friend was actually running behind it, pushing it. One float had an abandoned unicycle tossed onto the back of it. Several of the floats had already run out of candy. After we had already walked back to the car, loaded ourselves and the baby inside and battled the traffic to make it to the road, we saw two more floats mixed in with the leaving cars!! One belonged to the Chamber of Commerce!! What is that about?!

Paxton was asleep the very second that the parade ended. He was so exhausted that he didn't even notice when I moved him from the stroller to the car and then from the car to the house and into his crib. He and I both napped for almost two hours. We are not sun gods, Paxton and I. The hot weather makes us crabby, sleepy and maybe just a little bit poisoned. Luckily, we both love to swim, so we can make it through the hot Texas summers with only mild complaints.

We came home with a bunch of candy that we don't really want, that we essentially took from children's mouths. It's sitting on our dining room table being ignored right now. I'm an adult. I can afford good candy. I don't need parade candy to get my sugar high. But it's the thrill of the chase. I don't hunt animals, but I ruthlessly hunt candy. It's much more delicious.

We wrapped up our 4th of July by boycotting the fireworks crowds and surrounding ourselves with the outdoor movie crowds, seeing Wall-E at the Corral with our friend, Jamie. It was Paxton's first experience at The Corral and he did amazingly. He watched most of it with great interest. When he finally got bored, he began to play with his feet. When he made a few small noises, it was drowned out by the robots' beeps and blips. He fell asleep three minutes before the movie ended and was jolted awake as we shuffled all of our possessions out to the car. He slept pretty well that night when he finally got to cuddle up in his own bed.

Just an aside, but the Fourth of July was my dad's birthday. I got a call from a friend of the family, letting me know that she was thinking of me and knew that it was a hard day for me. I felt a little strange because it really wasn't. I think the one thing I really learned from my dad was to appreciate life and celebrate each day as best I can. I know that he would be upset if I made his birthday a sad day. I spent a large portion of my life relishing opportunities to be sad. It's ironic that it took my dad's death to teach me to look on the bright side of life.

Just put the baby down for the night and we're about to eat some spaghetti for dinner. I'll post pictures from the parade before night's end.