{"id":2323,"date":"2011-07-04T10:46:19","date_gmt":"2011-07-04T17:46:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/?p=2323"},"modified":"2025-11-02T20:26:15","modified_gmt":"2025-11-03T03:26:15","slug":"fourth-of-july","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/?p=2323","title":{"rendered":"Fourth of July"},"content":{"rendered":"

The 4th of July is no longer fun for me anymore.\u00a0 Living in Southern California fireworks are restricted.\u00a0 Because we live in a high fire zone AND a “high” “drunk” “idiotic” zone.\u00a0 So handing them minor explosives isn’t logical!<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

But we USED to.\u00a0 When I was growing up in Burbank I clearly remember the adults gathering in the street and setting fire to spinners and all sorts of firecrackers.\u00a0 Every kid had sparkler after sparkler.\u00a0 All writing our names in the air.\u00a0 And the big finish was some concoction in a coffee can set alight under the street light.\u00a0 A giant gush of colored flame would stream up trying to get bright enough to trigger the street light to click off.
\n<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

By the time I was in high school.\u00a0 All that was over.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

It wasn’t until my then husband (now Ex) and I took our children to visit his family in Wisconsin that I got to play with fireworks again.\u00a0 We timed the trip to include his family reunion and 4th of July.\u00a0 So I could give to my kids a little of the childhood I had. <\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

What I didn’t realize was that at 3 & a half and 1 & a half, my kids were too young to be playing with sparklers and too ADHD to care about fireworks.\u00a0\u00a0 (My youngest was barely a glimmer of thought at that time)\u00a0 My in-laws must have thought I was a crazy mother.\u00a0 And looking back I sometimes wonder if THAT’s why first born children often mature faster than their siblings.\u00a0 They HAD to because their parents were “learning” on THEM!<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

I “learned” that 3 year olds will NEVER find the concept of sparklers fun or not painful.\u00a0 And I “learned” not to let a kid with ADHD run around a Fireworks tent as it is NOT childproofed.\u00a0 Luke ran straight between two clothed areas, completely NOT seeing the bar that joined them.\u00a0 Head first into the bar, poor boy.\u00a0 Lucky he’s got a hard head.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

My Ex learned that if you pose a 1 year\u00a0 old on steps for a picture, do NOT step out of arms reach to take the shot.\u00a0 He WILL step toward you and go head over heals down the steps to skid mark HIS head on the cement.\u00a0 My poor baby.\u00a0 Again, lucky hard head.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Two years ago the kids & I (and the Ex who was still married to me) went to Arcadia to enjoy fireworks at a friends.\u00a0 By this time the kids were 11, 9 & 7 and MUCH more able to enjoy the spectacle.\u00a0\u00a0 Although my auditory sensitive oldest had a harder time of it.\u00a0 So while they haven’t had as many 4th of July experiences as I growing up.. they have had some.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

This year I don’t have them for the holiday.\u00a0 Which is almost relaxing.\u00a0 I’m lucky I’m not going into the office, although I’m sure I’ll do some work on the computer sometime today.\u00a0 And seeing fireworks is fun but its also money &\/or a pain in the ass to try and arrange.\u00a0 I’m just as happy sitting in Sex God’s apartment, naked, watching a movie & eating ice cream.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

The freedom to eat Ice Cream… naked…\u00a0 that’s my idea of Independence!
\n<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The 4th of July is no longer fun for me anymore.\u00a0 Living in Southern California fireworks are restricted.\u00a0 Because we live in a high fire zone AND a “high” “drunk” “idiotic” zone.\u00a0 So handing them minor explosives isn’t logical! But … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2323","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-joy-of-family"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2323","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2323"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2323\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3177,"href":"http:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2323\/revisions\/3177"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2323"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2323"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2323"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}