Caitlyn is exploring doing things herself. The other day, this happened during a game of Flop. (To play Flop, first be sure you have lots of throw pillows piled just at the end of your mattress on the floor. Stand near the head of your bed and say, "Mama push me," then wait for your parent to gently push you forward into the pile of pillows. Shriek with laughter.) After picking herself up, pushing the pillows back together, she'd come to the head of her bed and instead of asking to be pushed, she'd say, "Caitlyn push me." Then she'd put her hand behind her back, pause, then throw herself forward. This version was just possibly funnier than the usual, Mama-enabled version.

While this year marked Caitlyn's second Fourth of July, this was the first year we actually attempted to notice the holiday. We spent yesterday afternoon by Lake Washington, where Caitlyn occasionally put her toes in the water when she could be pried away from the sand. She jumped in the sand, she ran in the sand, she fell down in the sand, she shoveled the sand, she carried the sand. She also asked whatever family member was handy, "I need more water, PEAS!" I'm feeling particularly pleased with myself for being aggressive about the sunscreen, even remembering to reapply it after a couple of hours. She's only the slightest bit pink on the shoulders today.

Fireworks in the summer in Seattle are a rather late affair. The big displays don't get started until after 10pm, since that's the earliest it's dark enough to appreciate them. We joined friends in West Seattle and perched on a hilltop to watch the shows over Alki Beach and the Seattle Center, as well as whatever else was visible. Caitlyn spent the minutes before things got started saying, "I wanna see fireworks. Where are fireworks?" over and over again. Once things got going, she ran around in circles, flopped on people, shrieked and giggled, and screamed, "I see fireworks!" She would look at the fireworks if you pointed them out, but they weren't as attention-grabbing as I expected them to be.

But her best reactions were after the big shows finished. Someone just below our lookout had a handful of rather large fireworks. These went up much closer to us than the shows we'd been watching (at least one of which was on the other side of the bay). Caitlyn seemed to appreciate the first one. But by the time the third one went up, we realized that she was squeezing her eyes shut. The rest of the mini-show was spent trying to convince her that opening her eyes would be good, but covering her ears might help her be more comfortable. For the last one, she had her eyes closed and her arms wrapped around her head, duck and cover style, but left her ears completely uncovered.