4th of July weekend

Happy birthday, U.S.A.!

We celebrated the holiday weekend with some family time. We went to Como Zoo on Saturday morning. Colin is really starting to appreciate the animals more now than when he has been to the zoo on previous visits. He roared at the lions and watched the wolf pace back and forth. He liked watching the monkeys, and was really interested in the baby animals.
He attentively watched the Sparky the Sea Lion show. Como Zoo is great because it's a very inexpensive outing, and it's small enough that you can see all the animals in a 2 hour time frame before all hell breaks loose because of a tired little boy.
After we got home from the zoo, I became increasingly worried about Colin's red, swollen, oozing ear (see the above picture. See how his ear is sticking out from his head?). I called my mom, and after putting a check mark after all three symptoms she asked me about (red? warm? oozing?), and after hearing that it could be cellulitis, I decided to take action. I went to both minute clinics in town and both were closed for the night. I asked the pharmacist at Walmart what she recommended I put on it or give him. She said she thought it was cellulitis and to try some Neosporin, but to also take him to the ER if it got worse. I talked to my mom again when we got home and she told me I should really set my alarm every two hours during the night to check on it. That didn't sound like fun. That sounded like a worrisome, sleepless night. I decided to play it safe and take him to the ER to just get the diagnosis over with. Sure enough, it was cellulitis. The doctor said it was most likely caused by eczema that Colin scratched and got infected. Colin was prescribed an antibiotic that tastes "ocky." It's a 2-man tag team medication administration twice daily, but his ear is so much better now. I'm glad we didn't wait to take him in.

On Monday, we went to Kevin's parents house and hung out and grilled some food. I made my 4th of July dessert (brownie with a whipped cream/white chocolate/cream cheese topping, and then strawberries and blueberries on top of that!), Colin did some work on his workbench,
enjoyed a Bomb Pop (which he ingeniously hung upside down between licks)
and four-wheeler rides.
When it got dark enough Kevin did his most favorite thing in the world--launch fireworks. Colin stayed up and watched all of them this year. I had to cover his ears because they were too loud for him, but when each set was done, he asked for more. We didn't get to bed until 11:00, and it was a rough night and an even rougher morning waking up. But isn't that the way the 4th is supposed to end?

As we were getting into bed, I reminded Kevin that next year we'll have a 3 year old and a 7 month old on the 4th of July. That's so hard to believe!