Happy Fourth of July!

Regan's "fake" smile. If I smile will you hurry up and take the picture so you can sit down and quit interrupting the parade?!?!?

The parade is over so lets go!
Regan had a small snack of yogurt. She was done and so I took her out of her highchair. She was too quiet and when I looked about 1 minute later, she had gotten the yogurt off the table and was feeding herself. She is becoming quite independent! The fun ended when she started spoon feeding Daisy.

Regan's first fourth of July was awesome. It especially meant something this year to think of my little baby first becoming a US citizen. I remember the touchdown of her feet making it official. I thought about being in the hospital and my brother brought me some mail saying it looked "official" and it was! It was her certificate of citizenship.....something I hadn't even thought of given the past couple of weeks we had had.

We went to a little parade and Regan loved it. I thought the sirens of the police cars and firetrucks would scare her to death, but it didn't. She kind of looked at them like "why are you making so much noise", but didn't get upset. She also looked a little puzzled everytime the floats would throw candy at her and I'm sure she was wondering why we were sitting on the side of the road letting people pelt us with hard objects. Oh! And people would blast you with water guns! All and all she had a good time.

We decided to forego fireworks for three reasons. 1. My grandparents were coming for a visit and they wouldn't want to go. 2. I thought Regan would hate them because of the noise. 3. Regan is SOOOOO sensitive to bug bites and the doctor said to be very careful because bug bites are a common site for infection and we don't want her in the hospital again.

I have become a pit paranoid about the bug bites. Here we are in the mosquito capital of the world and Regan is a magnet. The mark on her face was from a bug bite about two weeks ago. I'm afraid it might scar. Her first bug bite was on her arm and she was walking over to me and her arm was all swollen up and red and I was shocked because I couldn't figure out how she had gotten so injured and I didn't know it! Then, I figured out it was a bug bite and I am amazed at her sensitivity. I slather her up with bug spray and try to keep her inside after dusk when the bugs are at their worst. We do have to live but, I figured we celebrated the Fourth and we were okay. We went in the front yard and the neighbors had such a huge selection of fireworks that we felt like we hadn't missed anything.

Regan didn't sleep so great and she was crabby when we headed over to my mom's house to visit. I thought she would be a nightmare and we wouldn't be staying for long. I was so wrong! She was charming and immediately went to my grandpa to hug him and try to get in his lap. She then would hang over my grandmother and kiss her and play with her. She was absolutely wonderful and showed them all her stuff. They adore her and it is so nice to see. My grandfather just kept saying how smart and pretty she was and he loved to see her smile. He would then play with her, tickle her, and just be goofy so that he could see that smile. I am so lucky to have the family that I have been given. They have been absolutely amazing through the entire adoption process and these last six months. I couldn't ask for more support and it is wonderful to see Regan loving on her great-grandparents and them loving her back. Family is an awesome thing.