"Love follows knowledge."
"Beauty above all beauty!"
– St. Catherine of Siena

Monday, July 8, 2013

Matthew Monday: Putting Out The Flag on The Fourth of July

It was a quiet weekend.  I took Wednesday and Friday off around the Thursday July 4th holiday.  Matthew and I hung out Old Glory on the fourth of July.

Quick little story.  I was dressing him that fourth of July morning and I told him that later tonight we would stay up and look for the fireworks.  He was standing on the bed when I told him this.  He started jumping on the bed shouting, "Yay! Yay!  Fireworks, fireworks!"  Then he got quiet and looked at me and said, "Daddy, what are fireworks."  LOL.  I tried to explain, but it's very hard to describe it to a child with no reference point of explosions.  In the end I told him you'll just have to see.

Here's a picture.




We did stay up and I took him out on the deck at dusk hoping that the fireworks might be seen above the trees.  But it was disappointing.  I did catch sight of one through the trees but I'm not sure he saw it.  Also I could swear that three bats flew right over our heads.  I had not seen bats in the neighborhood but these didn't seem like birds.  It was hard to make out.  I told Matthew bats just flew by, and he ran inside to tell his mother.  "Mommy bats just flew by."  She was incredulous.  "Are you sure?"  He turned to me and said, "Daddy, are you sure?"  "Didn't you just see it?" I said.  "I don't know," he replied.  "Yes, we did," I said.

Then we decided to hang out in front of the house and see if the fireworks would be visible.  One finally did and he stood with his mouth open.  It was a burst of bright colors in the night sky.  "Is that cool?" I asked.  He just nodded.  We could hear a whole bunch going off in the distance and I guessed they were lighting them by a school yard, which was about a quarter of a mile away.  So I decided to walk there, and when we got close we saw a bunch of rockets burst in the sky.  He enjoyed it, and he got to stay up to ten o'clock.  The next night he expected more of the same.  I told he had to wait until next year.



7 comments:

  1. That picture is priceless!

    That is a shame about the fireworks but even a few is enough for a little one to remember.

    Perhaps next year you will have better luck!

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    1. Yes, perhaps next year I'll take him to the harbor where the city puts on a big fireworks show. I just don't particularly like hanging out with the crowd.

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  2. Well if you lived in Utah, you would have an even bigger fireworks display on July 24th, which is officially known as Pioneer Day, but commonly referred to as Mormon Day by us Gentiles. It's a big-big-big dealio.

    That is a really cute pic.

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  3. During the last summer we spent in Italy we were, as always, vacationing in Ischia, and we made a point of taking Etna to see the fireworks on the sea. It's one of the few things he remembers!

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  4. Thank you both for your interesting notes.

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  5. Matthew is such a cute and funny little kid. I really enjoyed this blog. I hope he will be able to see fireworks next year and maybe a couple of bats too. lol

    Thanks for sharing, Manny. :)

    Sheherbano

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