God, My Daughter's Cute!

In February we cleaned up the balcony so Bella could play "outside"

AAAH, city living!

We went to the beach, and Bella made herself right at home.



And she started a few new hobbies - pushing chairs around and digging through the garbage and recycling bins.

This past week she went on a few excursions with The YaYos, started clapping her hands, went to a birthday party ...

Then she got sick and spent three days indoors blowing snot bubbles with her nose (don't worry. I didn't take any pictures of that).

What's that Floating in the Water?

It's pooh! Yes, that's right. Pooh indeed.

Part of Bella's nighttime routine is taking a bath, usually without soap but with a few dashes of almond oil to prevent her skin from drying out. I light some candles to create a peaceful mood, turn down the other lights in our house and put on some soft, soothing music. It's a great time for both of us to calm down.

A few nights ago, I was undressing Bella for bath time, like usual. Everything was prepared, the lights were off and the heater and candles were the only light in the bathroom. I quickly undressed her, then took off the diaper and quickly folded it over and left it on the floor to put in the bin later without paying much thought to it.

So she's in the bathtub. The lights are low, she's playing with her toys, I'm splashing her with water... We are gleeful. We could be in a damn Johnson and Johnson baby shampoo commercial. And then I notice something floating in the water. It appears to be a chunk of something... toe lint? No, wait. There's a lot more... And then I remember the diaper I so carelessly threw to the floor. Oh my god, I'm bathing my daughter in pooh!

This is when things get a bit fuzzy. I tried to drain the bathwater and use the water to rinse off the diaper in the toilet (all the while holding on to Bella's arm), but with all the extra movement, the drain hose came loose, and poopy water started spraying all over the floor. I went to plug up the drain hole, but couldn't find the plug. Where the heck was it?? Oh, there it is. Bella's chewing on it. Fantastic. I grab it from her, she starts crying. I plug it up, put the hose back in and continue draining the bathwater while I soap her up, which means I'll have to grab the shower head to rinse her. Unfortunately, it takes forever for the water to heat up, so I'm filling her bath with cold water... and remember, I'm doing all of this by candle light!!!

It was a mess. I finally called Alex to help me. He immediately turned the lights on and we put her in our bathtub for her very first shower. She loved it. Not that she thought the poopy bath was that bad, anyway. The most traumatic part of the entire situation for her was when I took the poopy plug away.

Breaking in and Whiplash.

**I wrote most of this just after the car accident, and after sharing a bottle of wine with Alex. I was going to edit it later, but upon reading it, decided just to let it lay. Why not?

What a month! Earlier this month our car got towed. It was soccer night, and since we live right behind the soccer stadium, there was no place to park. We parked next to the Westin hotel, and, of course, when Alex went to go to work the next day, it was gone.

Then, on Thursday night some freaks broke into The Bohemian Café by crawling into one of our high windows. They didn't steal anything, however. They broke an ashtray, pulled the paper tray out of the fax machine and threw it on the floor, but left the money in the cash register just above the fax machine. The alarm went off, but for some reason, it didn't connect with the main office, or connect with the police office. Wierd.

After talking to a few people in the neighborhood, it seemed as though this was a common theme - breakins without any theft. This was my theory...

Maybe someone was doing a study on bringing excitement into people's lives. He'd break into their places of business, which typically doesn't make a person feel violated in any way, and leave things fairly intact, just to create the notion of disorder and in doing so, bring the inevitable excitement that break-ins incite.... What do you think? Was it really a do-gooder in disguise?

The other theory was that it was a gang initiation and that they may have taken something, but just something small as a souveniour.

Two years ago yesterday, Alex proposed to me in The Bohemian while dancing to the song "Satisfy my Soul".

Yesterday he sent me red roses with a little note that made my eyes water.

So finally, today we were going to go out on a uncommon date to see the movie "The Reader" and afterward to a romantic dinner at the Japanese restaurant, Zen, that we've been wanting to try out for the past three years. Unfortunately it was raining. Rain to Valencia is like Snow to Seattle. People FREAK OUT when they drive. It's like all driving ability gets thrown out and we move back to primitive times, but with automobiles. YEAH...SCARY.
On our way to dinner, we were involved in a three car pile up. The car in front of us stopped suddenly, occupying two lanes (they do that frequently here), so we stopped just in time, but the two cars behind us didn't. We got smashed TWICE from behind and had to go the the emergency room. They are making me wear a neck brace, but Alex got off easy.

We did make it to Zen where we indulged in a bottle of WINE. No valium for me this time. I'm still breastfeeding. I get to cuddle up with my old friend Tylenol if there are any problems. Nice.