All of Braden's first holidays are great, but this first 4th of July was made even more special by a special visitor, my little brother Sam.
Sam & his wife Amanda have been living in Kenya since I was about 5 months pregnant with Braden. The last time I saw them I was just finishing my first trimester. The only proof they ever had of Braden was that bloated little belly of mine- followed by the many pictures I have of Braden all over the internet, of course.
So it meant a lot to me that they could finally meet my son. My brother is a great guy, and my baby is a terrific baby- so of course getting them together would have to be awesome. And it was.
We spent the 4th picnicking and boating at the lake (Braden stayed back on dry land with my mom and the dog) and enjoying a feast of a barbecue back at our house. Then we spent the weekend at Philadelphia's 4th of July celebrations, including food at Taste of Philly, ice cream at the all-you-can-eat fair, and watching fireworks over the water on a rainy night at Penn's Landing.
Everything was fun, but mostly I just enjoyed watching Braden with his aunt & uncle. I often feel bad that he won't get to see them much. I grew up constantly surrounded by aunts, uncles, and cousins, and it was great. I wish I could give that to Braden, too. He gets plenty of that from Bill's side of the family, but the only person he really knows from my family is my mom, and that makes me sad. So you can imagine how happy I was to have a house full of family surrounding Braden with love for almost four whole days!
I hope we get to see Uncle Sam again soon. For now, I just really cherish the moments of watching Braden laugh while Sam was drumming for him, watching him crawl right to Aunt Amanda's leg brace any time she entered the room so that he could try to get the straps off, and opening his mouth wide and cracking Sam up while he tried to feed him oatmeal.
It was the best 4th of July I could have asked for.
