Stars, Stripes and Stores

This 4th of July holiday was celebrated very differently than in years past. We enjoyed a quiet morning and early afternoon, playing with Norah and watching over Justin. Later in the afternoon we went on a field trip with the kids to Petsmart. Norah loves looking at all the animals and being able to run around a big place that isn't our house.

She squealed with great excitement over the fish and dogs and ran haphazardly through the entire store. She entertained the other shoppers and employees a great deal, along with some of the animals too. I don't think the birds were big fans of hers after she smacked the glass and woke up all of them. Sometimes she's just too fast for us. Justin slept contentedly in the cart while she terrorized the rest of the store. We knew it was time to leave when she started trying to chew the dog toys, although it did entertain Jeff when she picked up a football shaped toy she knew we didn't want her to have, giggled and ran away from us. Jeff took the ball away from her, then reviewed her Game stats- 1 carry for 15 yards. On that note, it was time to head to the mall.

Once at the mall we did a couple of laps, allowing Norah to stretch her legs and giving all of us a change of scenery. We decided against going to see fireworks this year as we didn't think either of the kids would be interested in them for any appreciable amount of time- at least not interested enough to fight the crowds, traffic, and bugs, especially around bedtime!

The real fireworks came later that night when Justin started screaming inconsolably. Much to our frustration, it became glaringly obvious that he does in fact have acid reflux. Hopefully we will be able to resolve it much faster now that we know exactly what's going on!