Fireworks Holidays

It has been almost 30 years since I lived in a world that every time you heard any kind of loud noise it meant that a car bomb had gone off somewhere near by enough that you were able to hear the noise and sometimes feel the shake. As soon as the loud noise was heard, regardless of where you were - your house, your grandma's house, school, the store, the gas station - everyone within earshot said the same word "bomba". To this date, the second I hear a loud noise, regardless of time of day or where I may be, my heart sinks and in my head I hear "bomba".

That's why I am always caught off guard on days leading up to a Firework Holiday... and I am caught even more off guard when fireworks go off on a Non-Firework Holiday, like Thanksgiving or Halloween. 

My heart just sank about 20 minutes ago when my neighbors started firing off fireworks and all those memories from 30 years ago came back. Along with them came back Pellet, this is the first Fourth of July without him and it is such a bittersweet feeling. In a way it is peaceful because there is no constant barking, panting and running/sliding around the house for hours, which would in turn wake up Nico (because Benjamin can sleep through just about anything) and make Cali crazy. In another way, it is sad because I miss that dog so much and the house feels so empty. He was such a gentle giant and a protector. A big teddy bear that just wanted you to hold him and cuddle him. 

At least here we seem to have a head's up because the neighbors post (at least these did) on the community page a head's up that they will be shooting off fireworks, so we would've had a head's up and been able to give Pellet some calming treats to take some of the edge off.... 

As soon as I heard the first loud noise, once my heart came back from sinking and my brain realized the noise wasn't a car bomb, and Cali went upstairs to sleep, I went outside and enjoyed the show... for once.

I miss you Mellow! 

Both Can't Have Mickey

Benjamin has been wearing the same brand-type of diaper since he was itty bitty. They are Huggies and they have Mickey on them. Now Nicolas wears the same type of diapers and they also have Mickey on them.

The other day Benjamin was helping me change Nico's diaper and his little brain just could not process that both his diaper and Nico's diaper looked the same (although they are certainly not the same size)

So he got all of of Nico's diaper out of their basket and moved them to the basket where his are kept. The whole time he kept saying "no Nico diaper, Pepe diaper!"

A Whole Weekend

This year we celebrated Father's Day the whole weekend! I still can't get used to the idea that we can celebrate things like holidays and weekends together as a family! It is so awesome! 

So we started by taking selfies early on Saturday morning. Even Nico is in this picture lifting his little head up!

Then we headed over to Trenton, SC for the Peach Festival. It was so fun! And so hot...

 We got front row seats to watch the parade. After the initial scare once he saw the soldiers and heard the marching band, Benjamin really got to enjoy the parade!

He waved at all of the cars, tractors, fire trucks, motorcycles...

Afterwards we got to take a close look at the tractors!

"Front loader too"

"Red tractor Pepe picture too!"

We were home by 1:30pm - exhausted. We just hang out at the house, relaxed, spent time outside and enjoyed each other!

Sunday morning we went to Mass and came back to take pictures on our front porch! We are so lucky to claim Daddy Norm for our family. He works so hard to make sure that we have the best possible and is so patient to deal with not only me but crazy Pepe and now Nico (still to early to tell if he is going to be crazy too... there is a high chance he will though).

Benji loves selfies...

We spent the afternoon in "Pepe Pool" - we have an awesome pool in the neighborhood but it's more convenient to play in "Pepe Pool" mainly because of the little one...

Kisses for Daddy Norm!

Then Norm cooked a cowboy steak that he had keeping an eye on for about 2 months....

Dinnertime!

Rolling

Today Benjamin rolled down the stairs.

It was horrible.

He hollered and was all shaken up.

But then I said the word "Play-Dough" and he stopped crying and all was well in the world.

On a lighter note, here is a picture that shows what a good sport Baby Nico is... sticker on his forehead and wristband all the way past his elbow...

Cows in the Farm

A Chick-fil-A has recently opened here in our little suburb of Augusta. So today for lunch, my mom, Benjamin and I (and of course Nicolas) went there for lunch. We figured we would go check it out and battle the crowds. Surely they probably had some sort of giveaways and fun things.

When we got our food and sat down, Benjamin noticed the big cow mascot walking around outside the restaurant greeting the cars in the drive through. He was fascinated. "Cow! Cow! Moooo! Mooooo!"

A little while later, the cow came inside the restaurant and Benjamin started freaking out a bit "Pepe no see cow. No cow! No cow!" in borderline tears, however, he would still want to look at the cow, just not go anywhere near it. Thankfully the cow stayed away from us as all the other little kids (and grown ups) took pictures with it.

Finally we saw the cow go in the back, towards the kitchen. Relieved, Benjamin said "Cow go farm".