Our 4th of July weekend

First and foremost,

Happy 4th of July, friends!

Hope it was full of celebrations, parades, beaches, BBQ’s, beers, and good friends.

Ours didn’t exactly go as planned.

We were supposed to go on our first mini family vacation to the Cape (that’s Cape Cod for those of you that are not from the Northeast) to join our friends Inna, Michael and baby Michael and their families for some 4th of July fun.



But on Friday, Peanut woke up crying, coughing, sneezing, and running a fever.  After a doctor’s appointment, we found out that Peanut had a cold and an ear infection (again).  We asked our doctor if they thought Peanut would be in better spirits by Sunday and they assured us she would be.  So we still planned on going.



By Sunday, Peanut seemed just a little bit better and on her 3rd dose of the antibiotic for the ear infection, so we decided to go for it.  We left early and made it there in 3 hours (Peanut napped the entire drive!).



The whole day Sunday Peanut was doing great – she seemed a little fussy from time to time, but nothing a little Tylenol couldn’t help.  We ate delicious lunch and dinner provided by Inna’s family.  We sat out on the deck, drank some beers and sodas and laughed.  We watched our kids play, nap, enjoy the kiddie pool.  We had amazing conversations and just generally enjoyed the day.



By 7, the kids were tired so we were ready to put them down in their appropriate cribs and enjoy an evening of (GASP!) adult conversations and drinks.  Peanut threw a little bit of a fit at bedtime but generally went down by about 8pm.  We gathered in the dining room to enjoy a cup of tea (did I mention that Inna’s family is also Russian?) and amazing desserts.  That’s when things started going downhill.



Around the time I poured myself a glass to wine and was ready to kick my feet up, we heard Peanut’s cry on the monitor.  We thought it was a bit odd, so we gave her a little more Tylenol (she was still spiking a little bit of a fever and seemed to also be teething) and walked away.  She kept crying.  And crying.  Really loudly – worse than we’ve ever really heard her (and we went through the Ferber sleep training!).  She wouldn’t let me put her down or hand her over to anyone.  Jon and I talked it over and decided that we had to do what’s best for her, packed up and headed home.



It was terrible to leave our friends and a weekend of amazing trips to get ice cream, watching the parades, or just chilling out.  But we knew that this was a possibility before we left our house, so we sucked it up and went home.

Jon’s mom was staying at our house with the dogs this weekend, so we told her she was going to have some unexpected company.



After getting home after midnight and putting Peanut down in her own crib (she slept soundly the rest of the night! Woo!), Jon and I were ready to enjoy our Monday.  We went to the beach for a long walk before the crowd took it over and took Jon’s mom out to our favorite brunch place.  Then we hung out and planned our afternoon while Peanut took a nap.  Jon and I decided to take advantage of having a grandparent around to take in a movie – something we haven’t done since Peanut was born.  We were excited to see Bridesmaids and Gigi was happy to hang out with P. 



Then P woke up.  And cried. And cried. And fussed. And refused to eat.  And cried and screamed.  And generally, looked sick and upset.  So we stayed home.



The moral of the story, folks, is that parenthood is full of hard decisions, unexpected endings, and snot.