JAMES' FIRST FOURTH

Happy 4th of July blog readers!

We're a pretty patriotic family, and we LOVE the 4th of July! We get to sing patriotic songs at church, wear red-white-and-blue, and play with fireworks (our favorite). As per usual, we spent this holiday at the beach with some of our friends and family. James slept through the fireworks (it was past his bedtime, and he's a creature of habit these days), so we enjoyed them from the front yard this year instead of the beach, baby monitor in hand, just in case (he didn't even flinch). We did get some sun, sand, and celebrating in with him earlier in the day though...

Here is James getting his toes in the sand for the first time: (We only buried his feet, don't worry. And he did most of the work himself)

He thought the sand was great, but wasn't as impressed with the cold water. He squealed once when a tiny wave washed up his pant leg (that is a sensitive area, of course), and again when Jay dripped water on his arms to cool him off. He seemed to enjoy sitting in a shallow puddle in front of his Daddy best:

We spent the day with the Mulleins, whose two little girls are adorable, sweet, and super happy, and the Birdsongs. And you all know how much we love Jackson. The kid is just so much fun! He really wow-ed us this trip... singing songs, saying the Pledge of Allegiance (perfectly, I might add, and he's only 3-years-old), "cooking meals" with Worcestershire sauce and Paprika (yes, he said those words), and just making us laugh in general. Some of our favorite quotes from the weekend include "Mommy, I want you to do the 'sugar butt' (a dance, of course)" after he complied with her request for a recitation of the Pledge (it's only fair, right?), and "Am I full yet?" while showing his bare belly to his Mommy. How cute is that? He's going to be a superhero when he grows up you know, and his super power is going to be Spiderman. He shoots webs of sour cream. That's not weird though... Jay shoots webs of jello and Betsy uses guacamole. Go figure.

Here's the whole gang, minus John and Geoff (they were out in the waves):

Once again, the water wore our boy out! So, we let him nap in his awesome new tent, courtesy of his Grandma (thanks for protecting his precious pasty skin):

He was still sleepy as we left the beach (but dry and cool, and plenty sandy): Next stop was the Birdsongs residence for a BBQ and poolside fun. We saw all the Birdsongs (except for Greg and Dianna), and Ryan and Amber. James had another dip in the pool:

And again, he passed out as soon as we dried him off:

In fact, he slept a lot on the 4th. Here he is in another strange napping position:

And a shot with his Daddy for good measure, to end the day:

James was awesome all weekend, but especially on the holiday. Everyone thought he was pretty darn cute, extremely cuddly, quite the drool monster, and fun to play with when he was awake. Thanks James, you made us look good!