Happy Independence Day

What a special day today...Lucas' 1st Independence Day as a US citizen and it was Alexander's 4th! And the sun, that wonderful sphere of warmth in the sky, was finally shining. Our section of town has it's own 4th celebration with a parade and festivities for kids at a local park. I still remember vividly Alexander's 1st Ryal Side parade and how he sat in the stroller looking quite overwhelmed. He was only home a couple weeks when we had subjected him to that :). Lucas has been home 4 weeks and also had that "what is going on here?" look. Once we walked to the park and he got a balloon and a pinwheel he was back to his usual self. We kept him in the Ergo the whole time and he did fine. He also fell asleep the last few minutes of the walk home - great timing kiddo! Alexander truly had a blast...we decorated his bike and he participated in the kids bike section of the parade. He also ate 2 hotdogs, went into the bouncy-bounce, played in the playground and had a pony ride. We also brought Lucas' to his 1st cookout this afternoon. It was a small gathering and everyone gave him his space. He mostly stayed close to Paul and I but started venturing around a bit towards the end. We finished the day with getting some ice cream. Needless to say they are both zonked out right now and I'm getting there soon. Photos below!

In addition to all the fun, Lucas has been putting in some hard work lately. He has learned a couple new words....'up', 'uff uff' (for dogs) and we think he said 'hi' today and has been vocalizing mama and papa but not exactly towards us or even when we're around. Though I swear he went over near Paul today and said 'papa'. He has been signing very consistently for 'more' and 'eat' for several days now and we think we saw the 'all-done' sign tonight at dinner. He's also back to having some struggles going to sleep at night but I think is starting to realize that I'll stick through while he cries and not leave him. He had a doozy of a time last night but finally was able to settle and looked at me while I rocked him to sleep.

Alexander is also working some things through. I won't go into detail because some of what he said is personal but let's say he's vocalized some fears in the past couple days that blew us away. Thank goodness he is comfortable and open enough to share his thoughts and since then he's seemed a lot more like his old self. The good definitely outweigh the hard times, but it's still only a month since Lucas' has been home and Alexander is probably feeling the adjustment the hardest. He and I are going to the fireworks tomorrow, just the two of us, and it will be fun to have this memory with him.

In addition to the 4th pics I've included a few other pics from last week or so. Enjoy :)

Laura