Worst Fourth of July Ever?

Last year on the 4th of July I wore my favorite maternity dress and we hung out at Eight West, the martini bar at the top of the Holiday Inn with our friends Joel, Alison and JC. We watched the fireworks from the balcony and it was sooooooo neat because we could see fireworks everywhere all along the horizon. It was really, really cool. This year we hung out with Joel again, and there were some explosions of a sort, but the night was definitely NOT COOL.


Early in the evening we were hanging out at home and Karenin pooped in the house for the first time in months. There were firecrackers going around our neighborhood all day long, and she never wanted to go outside to potty, so obviously she'd held it until she couldn't hold it any longer and let loose in the dining room. Poor thing. We felt bad for her, but still caged her and went up to my parents' house for a cookout.


It was a fun dinner, starting with homemade fried chicken, ending with homemade cherry pie and chocolate cake. Good stuff. That part of the night was great.


Then we were having Joel over after he came into town. (He's here for the week.) We ran home to prepare for him, and when I came into the kitchen with Anja, I heard Martin from the back saying some arrangement of curse words followed by "we have a sick dog." Turns out, Karenin had completely exploded INSIDE her cage and IT.WAS.EVERYWHERE. Martin marched Karenin, Anja and me outside where we sat in the backyard while he cleaned everything up. Most of the stuff in the mud room got thrown away. The cage got pulled outside and hosed off, and I dont know what he did to clean the walls and floor of the mudroom, but they were clean when I went back in. Not a very fun way to start our evening, that's for sure! The poor dog was absolutely freaking out.


But wait! There's more!


So once the place was cleaned up and I put Anja down for bed and my dad randomly came over to deliver a bottle of wine and ended up staying for a beer on the patio with the boys (while I was putting Anja to bed) we gathered back inside the house, in the living room to try to enjoy what was left of the evening. Ha! Karenin kept trying to poop on the floor in the dining room again, so Martin blocked her into the kitchen and we all congregated in there to visit. But we weren't there more than half a minute before Karenin squatted down and proceeded to explode her bowels all over the kitchen. It was amazing, to say the least!! Quite a show. Joel and I were standing on our chairs screeching and Martin stood out of the firing range and it went on for quite awhile before she was finished and the house smelled horrible and Joel and I moved the party out to the porch while poor Martin stayed back to clean up the kitchen. He sat in the kitchen with the dog and read his book all evening while I hung out on the porch with Joel and Tara. It was very sad. After our friends left we stayed up until a little after 1:00 until Karenin seemed to be empty and the fireworks were pretty much over for the night. What a bummer of a holiday!

On Saturday night some of our crazy neighbors were setting off HUGE fireworks in the library parking lot. Karenin freaked out again but not nearly as much. It was another long night.

We went to 7:30 mass on Sunday morning. It was a difficult mass (following the theme of the weekend.) Anja woke up on her own around 6:15 which on the one hand was good because we were all ready to go and made it to mass on time. It was bad because when she gets up that early she usually isn't really ready to get up and would like to be back down again about an hour later. We walked to church with the stroller in hopes that she would fall asleep and once we got there Martin sat down and I stood in the back pushing the stroller back and forth until she finally fell asleep As soon as we went in and I sat down though she woke up crying, so I held her and she was sooooooooo tired and upset, I sat back in the corner of the pew and nursed her until she finally fell asleep. It took her almost the entire mass to actually fall asleep, but once she did, she was completely out. She made the transition from arms to stroller without a peep, and continued to sleep while we walked home so Martin could change clothes, then we walked up to Vienna for coffee. I guess she woke up while we were there, but she was in a much better mood so we hung out for awhile before going home.

That was about the only nap she got all day though, and through the day I made tabouleh, pie crust pinwheels and two gooseberry pies! At 7:00 we met up with the Schaps, Tapias and Aikens at the Delphi Dairy Queen (our odd, but usual place of meeting) where we at ice cream and visited and exchanged GIFTS!!! Anja gave Aurelio a jar of the pie crust pinwheels I'd made. And I got a present too!! Behind my back, Martin and AnnLaura had gone in together on a lovely Didymos wrap for me!!!!!!!! It is shorter than the one I have, making it better for the hip cross carry which has become my new favorite way to wear Anja. It's blue and yellow and green. Soooooo pretty. I wanted to take pictures then but by the time I got my camera, Anja was already snatched up by her relatives and there wasn't any getting her back, even for a picture. But I'll get one soon.

The other fun thing about the weekend was the new porch swing that my mom bought for us!! It's gorgeous and is such a great addition. We pretty much spent the entire weekend on the porch. This morning Martin woke me up early and invited me out to sit on the porch to watch the thunderstorm! It was so great!! Anja slept through it, amazingly enough... some of that thunder was pretty loud, but she slept until almost 9:00! After Martin left and Anja woke up, she and I sat out there for awhile and watched the rain and the early library goers. It's so nice to have a porch swing.

Anja is so cute! Today she is wearing her favorite little french dress. It's her favorite, you see, because it's my favorite and I get to pick what she wears!!!

Anja had had some sunburn on her cheeks this week, so we limited our walks to early mornings and late evenings this weekend. Her cheeks are looking better today and if it rains for a few days that will be good... then we can start our daytime walks again and I will put sunscreen on her cheeks. I've never put it there because I get nervous putting stuff on her face...

This is a long post that has taken me three days to write!! WOW!