M & A enjoyed some traditional 4th of July holiday traditions today – a local parade, complete with marching bands, old-fashioned cars, clowns, fire engines, and local politicians; watermelon and a moon bounce after the parade; a barbecue at Grandma S’s house with hot dogs and ice cream; and a jar of fireflies by their bed tonight. I even let them watch the fireworks on TV tonight snuggled in bed with the lights off, while their dad and grandparents R&D were downtown watching in person. A liked the popping and M was happy to see that some fireworks were orange.

A couple of cute things of note:

• M saw a photo on Grandma S’s refrigerator of M & A in the bathtub. It was taken when they were about 1 or 1 1/2. M said, "that’s an OLD picture!" Funny to think of any pictures of them as "old," but that was half her lifetime ago! From her perspective, I guess it *is* old.
• A friend of ours with a 3 1/2 year old son came to the barbecue tonight. As they were leaving, the little boy was saying goodbye to M, and she looked at him coyly, stuck out her manicured fingernails, and said, "Look, did you see my fingers??" He was, of course, completely clueless as to what the nail polish was and never would have noticed it. I laughed – welcome to a lifetime of that, M!

Happy Fourth of July!