Born on the 4th of July

Ok, no one was born on the 4th in our family, but it makes for a great title. Right now I'm Comin' atacha live from San Luis Obispo or, as the locals say, SLO. Isn't that exciting? Ok, it's not, but once again, it sounds kind of exciting...or not. We're up here visiting Jake and Amy again for the weekend. This summer's all about taking many short(er) vacations (Zion was only about 4 fill days I think). Tonight we went down to the little open air market night and got some food, hung out and ate some delicious little donuts that Jake has a weakness for. The rest of the time here we're going to spend swimming, taking in more local restraunts, checking out some museums and generally just shillin'. By the way, shillin' is our own way of chillin' which comes from the term "chilling" which comes from "chilling out" which I assume comes from the idea of being "cool" which comes from not being easily excitable or irritable, like the opposite of a hot potato which no one wants because it's hot and easly excitable and...I don't know what I'm talking about.

Anyway, on the 4th we didn't have our camera, but Heidi sent us some photos. We spent the day at my parent's house swimming and barbequing. In the evening we headed over to Ontario to Heidi and Ned's place which is right next to Whispering Lakes Golf Course where we watched the fireworks that most people see from Westwind Park (we went over there for a bit to check out the little carnival....no thanks....).

So, here are a few photos. I'll have to get some more photos from Louise since she had her camera and took photos throughout the day. By the way, the next post will be a mega post with the photos from Zion.

From 4th of July Pics

Claire was VERY tired before the show started.


Once the show did start, however, she was mesmerized. Notice the ear plugs? I insisted since I thought loud noises are bad for babies ears. Everyone thought I was crazy and, alas, they were right (see below).

Exposure to Loud Noise

My daughter is 3 months old. Is it safe to take her to a fireworks show or will it be too loud for her ears?

Your baby will let you know whether this is a welcome experience for her or not. Some babies are transfixed with joy and others cry early and long.

Sitting a little farther back will increase the chances that she will like it and it will decrease the noise to protect her ears. All of our ears are vulnerable to loud noises, especially sustained loud noises (but she is not at any more risk than you are in that regard).

Some of kids' senses aren't as well developed as ours (vision, for instance), and others are even more acute, such as taste and hearing, so the fireworks may sound louder to her (and food tastes stronger to her), but this does not make them any more risky for her.

I wouldn't recommend taking her to a rock concert or sitting and watching a jackhammer together, but 20-minute fireworks show should be fine if you are both enjoying it.