As with every July 3rd, there will be fireworks tonight.
And as with many summer activities this year, I felt I had to pass. It just seemed to risky with a 9-month-old.
Even though Nate works on the lakefront and offered to reserve a space for me and our daughter Anika, I still think it's a lot of effort that might not work in our favor. True, it would be nice for us to spend some family time together, even though he will be busy working. But since we work opposite shifts, there is a comfort when the family is together in a close physical proximity to one another.
But it's late and it will be crowded at the lakefront. It will take effort to beat the crowd, park, find a place to sit ... and if all that trouble leads to an overtired cranky baby who finds the fireworks too loud, I'll be the cranky one.
This morning I told Nate my concerns that our daughter Anika would not enjoy the fireworks and I won't be upset to miss them this year. We'll do it next year. Case closed, so I thought.
While I was at work, Nate bypassed my good judgement and called my sister, invited them to his lakefront spot. My sister and her two children, ages 4 and 7, each responded with an enthusiastic "woop, woop!"
Nate clearly knows my weak spots - and it's for my nephews' woop woops. My sister and I have changed many a plan, stayed later at a festival, stayed extra days on a vacation due to the woop, woop. I'm sure Anika will someday learn the secret of the woop woop from her cousins.
Sure, call us suckers. It would be true, but it always ends with more fun, so you can't blame us. We're suckers for family fun. So now I am faced with two woop woops and everyone is excited. How can I say no to enthusiasm?
When I get home, I'm going to encourage Anika to take a very long nap, pack her up for her first Independence Day celebration and cross my fingers. May the woop woops be with us -- all night!
