Fourth of July at the Shorter's

The Shorter family invited us over for July 4th dinner and backyard fireworks with the Sample and Lovelace families. More captions to come.

 

Second Fourth

It's hard to believe it's been a year since we took Jessica to last year's church 4th of July potluck.

I think the highlight of my Independence Day was a story told by a Hungarian immigrant in church the day before. (Picture a full-figured lady with bright clothes, matching hat, bright red lipstick, speaking perfect but always accented English.) She said she taught college in Hungary, where all of her colleagues were members of the Communist party. Only the older people went to church in the evenings, when they weren't likely to be seen. She resisted taking her employer's Sabbatical trip to America, thinking "Why should I go to a country just to see their wealth?" But she went. She was surprised to see a church on every corner in New York City, and people worshiping openly. She concluded "That is why America is so rich. This is God's country. His people love Him, and He has blessed them." She said she went to every church, and eventually joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. That story made me smile.

Our fourth of July was sponsored in part by Old Navy, Craiglists.com, (for the $5 baby bike seat), Grandma Robertson for the envelope of patriotic decorations, and the Bishop & teen girls for the pancake fundraiser at the church. On the Fourth of July, we took Jessica on her first bike ride. In her words: "Wow! Wooo" and 5 minutes into ride: "all done."

The breakfast was just cold pancakes and fake orange juice, talking, chasing balls, a token picture in the bounce house, and playing in the ice bucket.

The most memorable part was when the 15-foot high inflatable waterslide fell over, with 15 kids in the top. Luckily there weren't any broken necks--just an ankle and some bruises.

Then it started raining. We didn't beat it home, and got soaked. Which Jessica loved: "Wet!" Dave added to her fun by playing in the puddles with her.

The rained damped my spirits, since I like getting out of the house for holidays. We looked around the house, and all we could see to do was work. I didn't even cook anything red, white and blue; Dave just cooked burgers on the stove. We took naps and watched TV: "How the States Got Their Shapes" on the History Channel, a CNBC show about everything being made in China, and a CNN special about naturalization ceremonies for new citizens.

We wandered around the city's 4th of July celebration when the rain let up.

 

We watched a few neighborhood fireworks, put Jessica to bed, and watched Disney's "Secretariat", which moved Dave especially. 

It was a quiet day. I thought of all the Robertsons having their usual loud and crowded patriotic weekend. Dave said he wanted to shoot small fireworks for Jessica. Memorial Day, Mother's Day, Father's Day, and now July 4th without family or close friends to play games with. I played Angry Birds for the first time, and we ate we-appreciate-your-work-in-Primary microwave popcorn while I passed 60 levels and Dave watched.

Happy Birthday America

Ug, I can't believe it's been over a month since I've posted! Hopefully soon I'll post pictures of the adoption conference and our summer vacation.

Jessica update: she is 4 months old, and over seventeen pounds. The doctor said she was proportional and growing consistantly, so I guess we'll just have to build some biceps. She has chubby thighs and cheeks, and looks like 6 months old to everyone. She's eating a Tb. of rice cereal at night to stave off hunger through the night, and we'll be adding lunch soon, as 8 oz every four hours is not enough anymore. Most of it goes down her throat. She still sleeps 12 hours a night, hur-rah for that.

She doesn't sit up, yells instead of napping during church, sometimes will not cooperate with the spoon, and a new trick she just did today: pooped in the tub. So it's not all sunshine and daisies.

She is getting better at gripping things with her hands, and she's turned into Sunny Baudelaire: she licks & bites everything. All her original newborn hair has fallen out, except for 3 or 4 hairs that stick up at her swirl, and the rest is short light-colored peach fuzz that looks drawn on. (She smiles when I recite Fuzzy Wuzzy into her ear with extra zzzzz's and rub her head.) She knows a lot of words and commands:

"lick"

"kick"

"where's Mommy/Daddy?"

"ceiling fan"

"hold it"

"suck your thumb"

"point your toes"

"Rub the face/tired baby"

"who's a good baby?" & raises her hands

"hug giraffe"

etc. I'm sure she'll beat Smokey's vocab list rather soon.

And she's laughing more: yippy dogs, silly 5-year olds, the duck verse of "I Wish I Was a Windmill", the washcloth floating in the tub, and this great toy:

It just so happens Dave's dad says Dave's favorite toy as a baby was the Dorito's bag. And those Sunchips bags crackle even more.

We had a nice but quiet 4th of July. The rain has dampened the fireworks, and it tried to rain out the church picnic yesterday, but we enjoyed the cookout and volleyball (me) and donating blood (Dave). Jessica looked so cute in her watermelon dress. We got a sitter for our first date post-Jessica, and enjoyed Eclipse & the next night rewatched New Moon.

But I was halfway through Sunday dinner when I realized: oops, fajitas. Not very patriotic. But they were delish. Oh, and World Cup soccer. We were sad when Brazil was eliminated Friday (that's where Dave served his mission.) Jessica got her Dad a little Brasil shirt for Father's Day so they watch together.