Monday, July 7, 2008

Elijah’s Least Favorite Holiday




You can flip through your official HamannEgg’s Volume One hardcover book to find last year’s July 4th post. Or you can use the navigation on the right if you want to be, um, smart.

As you can see, Eli was a mess last 4th. No nappy, stomach churning with acid. Zits. I distinctly remember standing in the sweltering heat, watching Eli thrash in my arms clad only in a diaper and thinking, “Whoever came up with the idea that a holiday should be celebrated with gunpowder and fire truck sirens should be punched in their red, white and blues.”

I didn’t have high hopes for this year’s celebration. Eli was still coming of his illness. Diana diagnosed it not as Toe Eyelash Bellybutton Disease, but something else that I can’t remember. Let’s call it “Whining Baby Syndrome.” I’m not joking when the book says one of the symptoms is “Increased neediness and irritability.” For the kid or the parents? Hey! I’m here all week.

Eli was better than last year, but still miserable. He needed to cling to Diana the whole time, which makes eating corn on the cob a challenge. But he still managed to croak out his “Mamma dada bye bye hi gro gro night night” vocabulary to the delight of everyone.

He was able to watch the entire Lisle “Eyes To The Sky” parade, though. Big step from last year. But we made the mistake of taking Grover, who was like a cartoon cat every time some Shriner’s gocart backfired. By the end he was leaping on me with a crazed look that said, “If this is the apocalypse, I’d prefer to ride it out under the porch.”

The best news is Eli is completely over his Whining Baby Syndrome this morning and was back to cackling at the antics of Elmo.

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