Breakthough Moment

Today I noticed that Mason’s first tooth is breaking through. It’s the yucky time when your gum has opened up, it’s swollen, and there’s a little teeny, tiny hole where your tooth should be. I can feel it, and even see the very tip of it… but it’s not big enough to photograph. Poor guy. I suspect we’ll have a few days of crying and popsicles.





But yesterday, boy did we all have fun. It was Independence day here in The U.S. and we took advantage of some of our freedoms.

1. Took the day off of work!
2. Went to the swimming pool and wore bathing suits (not chador and hijab)!
3. Ate red meat that we knew would not kill us or give us infectious diseases.
4. Biked to the park -- because we wanted to, not because driving would waste gas rations.
5. Sat on a blanket in a public place and listened to live music, danced, ate/drank at will, and said pretty much anything we pleased.
6. Visited with a friendly police officer who invited Cooper to sit in his hummer – painted fancy, not in police state khaki.
7. Watched the fireworks with our TWO kids – both children we got to keep, and didn’t pay state fines for having.
8. Lit our own fireworks at home on our own driveway – isn’t it great to own land?!?!?
9. Talked to or at least waved to our neighbors because we weren’t worried that they would wage a genocidal conflict against us (think Hutu v. Tutsi).
10. Went to sleep, each of us in our own room/bed – no sharing a 1-room apartment around here.

Hope you enjoyed your day, and your respective freedoms appropriately. Here are the picture highlights of our day:
Highlight Set #1: All manner of getting ready to go to pool and being at the pool:





Highlight Set #2: All manner of getting out of the pool, drying off, and hanging out until firework time:



Highlight sest #3: All manner of watching fireworks, please note it was too dark to take pics. So, Steve kinda cut off my head and then Mason's head... but oh well: