I think our next door neighbors must have spent well over five thousand dollars on fireworks. Seriously. They had an insane setup in the front of their driveway and they were going nonstop from sunset to about 1am. We live out of city limits, and so shooting off fireworks and firecrackers is (unfortunately) totally legal.

Around 10pm I managed to get Precious Babykins to sleep, comfortable in the knowledge that the fireworks would be waking her up every half hour at the very least. I was prepared for it. Shortly after I put her down the neighbors got really serious about their fireworks and starting setting them off at a faster pace, and shooting off the really loud screeching ones, and the ones that made enormous bangs, and then the strings of them that lasted a good five minutes and made it sound like you were in the middle of the Normandy Invasion.

And the baby slept. We couldn't believe it. That shit was LOUD! Every time there was a particularly huge explosion (the kind that would rattle the house) I'd look over at the monitor, just waiting for the "Waaaaaaaaaaaaah!"

Silence. She slept. I checked on her to make sure she was still breathing. We finally went to bed about 12:15 (and the only reason we stayed up that late was because the "World's Funniest Commercials" was on and it was hysterical.) We were kept awake by the fireworks until about 1am.

But the baby slept without a peep until 6:30 am. So, I now know how to get her to sleep through the night. I will buy a DVD of Saving Private Ryan and play the first fifteen minutes of audio in a continuous loop in her bedroom.

This day: 1999
This day: 2001