Fourth of July 2014

We always stay close to home for the Fourth of July because our dogs need to get tranquilized and Sean has some sensory processing issues that make this holiday very stressful for him.  So I always try to make the day at home extra fun to offset the horror when the mortars start later!

 

We do still get some poppers, sparklers and this year we got a couple "bigger" fireworks, because Sean seemed to want to before the holiday.  This year I had ear plugs and ear muffs, but it was still too much for him.  I'll invest in true noise cancelling ear muffs for next year and save the muffling ear muffs for the movie theater when he actually does need to hear a little. Taylor loved all of the fireworks and thought the loud noises were hilarious!  I managed to coax Sean into sitting in our car in view of where we were outside so I could get some photos of Taylor and the festivities while the car provided another layer of muffling for Sean.

 

 

I love how Ryan and Taylor have the same expression!

 

 

Throwing some poppers!

 

 

My poor little man! He didn't even want to watch the fireworks, so complete noise cancelling ear muffs for next year for sure!

 

Sparklers....

 



 

...and a few 'bigger' ones too! Taylor thought they were all great and running after him to keep him away was a workout.

 

 

Much happier inside with cartoons on a little louder than normal to help drown out the noise. I cooked up hamburgers, chicken, salad, strawberry shortcake and paleo brownies which also kept everyone busy!

 

 

This is the next day. I knew that if there weren't loud fireworks going off outside Sean might actually try the poppers. He really struggled, but after I encouraged him to try and we could stop if he didn't like it he did try. And he loved it. He was still nervous that the other fireworks were going to start up but after awhile realized they wouldn't.  He did not want to try sparklers and that's okay.

 

 

As I am finishing up this blog post, Taylor is napping and Sean is coloring near me, he hands me this picture. He said, "It's you Mom in your dress and that's me and the fireworks and I loved them."  I love my boys so much! I'm glad Sean has good memories even though I held him on my chest as he was shaking and sweating to exhaustion, finally falling asleep despite the mortars behind our house and in the culdesac. I waited to put him upstairs until 11:30pm when the ones near our house stopped, just to be safe as we didn't want him waking up to hear them so close!  All-in-all a great, but exhausting Fourth!