The Fourth of July

The fourth of July was yesterday. I was missing C all day. It was hard to hear all this stuff about veterans and see all these happy couples while knowing C was so far away. The small bright side was that he had a day off so he could text me all day. Even that will be gone soon. He starts MCT training on Tuesday and he can't use his phone there. Well, I still tried to make the 4th as fun as I could for G and A.

The morning started out excellent. A had slept through the night for the first time ever. Yay! I wasn't super tired in the morning! G and I went out for donuts for the family while my dad watched A. My family loves the Boston Creme ones, so eight of the dozen were Boston Creme and only four were patriotic. Oh well. They tasted delicious anyway.

My town does a parade down one of its main streets fairly close to my house. About an hour before, I put A in her stroller, packed a diaper bag, and got G ready to go. We walked the mile or so to the street. G was being very well-behaved and A was sleeping. We found a spot to watch and sat down. G didn't want to be in the sun so he sat behind the stroller in the shade rather than on the curb where he could see the parade.

About ten minutes before the start of the parade, some lady and her kid walk up to our spot and sit on the curb RIGHT IN FRONT OF US! They weren't even tiny people either. This was a fat, full-grown woman and her over 5 feet tall preteen son. They sat right in front of my tiny three year old! She even had the nerve to try to push A's stroller back so she could have more room! Good thing I had the parking brakes on so she couldn't move my daughter. I told G to sit on the curb right next to them so at least he would be able to see when the parade came by. Then the preteen's two friends come over and tried to join the two interlopers. They had the audacity to give angry looks to G for not moving off the curb so they could sit there. WTF! This wasn't even the worse part. Right as the parade is starting, the mother takes out a hooka and starts smoking RIGHT NEXT TO MY KIDS!!! I hate people so much! G wasn't into the parade that much either so he gladly left with me after only the first marching band came through.

The day got better from there. We met up with my sister-in-law and her two kids. One of them is only months older than G so they are great friends. The other one is two years old. She loves G but G is scared of her for some reason. It's pretty funny to watch her chase him while he runs away to be with his other cousin. My SIL had set up a pool for the kids and they had a lot of fun together. I got to eat a delicious tostada and enjoy some girl talk. The topic of pregnancy came up. We mentioned how funny it would be if I was pregnant because C and I only got to have sex once during his 10 day leave. I know it's possible but extremely unlikely. (Is it weird that I talk to his sister about our sex life? Clearly I don't tell her any details but she knows a lot more than I would want my brothers to know.) I invited her family to come to the fireworks with us but they declined.

Just G and I went to the fireworks. My dad watched A since she is still too young to go. We had fun. We played catch and ate snacks waiting for it to get dark enough for the show. We even danced when the band played one of his favorite songs. I love spending one-on-one time with G. He is growing up so fast and he without a doubt has his own independent personality now. I love getting to know who he really is even though it is exhausting most of the time.

The fireworks themselves were one of the worst ones I've ever been to. It was a windy night and the wind blew entirely in the wrong direction. Ash rained down on us for most of the performance. Bigger chunks fell too. I even saw some still lit embers falling within 6 feet of G. I wanted to leave early but G was enjoying himself. I didn't want to break the kid's heart. I spent the whole performance dreading the finale, so sure that something was going to hit us. Thankfully nothing did but it was still an awful fireworks year!