The day of the Zoo

I had an extra day in L.A. after Heather went back to San Francisco, and I was invited to go to the L.A. Zoo with Mary, David, Danny and his grand parents. Located near Glendale, my old neighborhood, I had actually never been to the zoo before and was happy to finally be able to see it.
The L.A. Zoo was much larger and nicer than expected, and it had animals you could actually see. I really enjoyed the primate exhibits, but I felt like I was kind of intruding on their home, and felt a bit awkward taking pictures of them. There was nothing awkward about the tigers:

Dannys 1st Birthday Party

The Big Day finally arrived! We went over to The Pants Department early to help out and have a great time. We picked up birth day cake, parked a car, filled up the kids bath ring with water, made salad, hosed the concrete down and quality controlled the snack food. At least I did.

Too soon the shadows grew long and the night was again signaling sleepy time for some of us. Lucia kept it going until she just stopped moving on the carpet.
Heathers step cousin Janice also came by for a visit coming all the way from Oceanside near San Diego:
with gifts! She had the cutest clothes for Lucia and a gift card to Babies-R-Us. We were sad to leave, the weekend went too fast, we hope to see them again soon!

Going to LA

We got off to a nice early start and noticed that there was not many people at the airport at all, which meant the nazis at airport security was checking everybody super slow.
We flew with Virgin America which we love because they treat you nice and have nice airplanes, it was a smooth ride too.
We were very excited to see Mary, David and Daniel but were most excited to have the wicked burgers they picked up at the bar Fathers Office for lunch.

Suspension update

The Miata has been riding on the springs for a while, which some may say makes for a very comfortable ride (like a Cadillac), but it has also been making weird noises, clunks and rattles. Actually I think the ride has been terrible, and it is not particularly safe either since the tires don't have as good traction when the shocks don't work.
I bit the bullet this week and dropped it off at a mechanic to have him replace the 135.000 mile old bushings, shocks and things like that. Changing the bushings is a pain in the ass and it is kind of a major operation because all the suspension arms, brakes and all has to come off the car. I therefore decided to put in parts that will perform better and last longer while costing about the same as stock (OEM) parts.

The interesting part
Now, the funny thing is that the Miata has somewhat of a cult following. There are hundreds of clubs around the country and a couple good websites that has a wealth of information, I think the best one is Miata.net.
It also has a forum where I met a guy called Bob. I went to see Bob in Cupertino to talk about the suspension and test drive his car to compare with mine, and since he's a retired aircraft mechanic I trust his judgement more than a Regular Joe off the street.

The really intesting part
I mentioned for him in an email yesterday that I had dropped the car off at the mechanic, and the next thing I hear is that he took a trip to the mechanic himself to take a look at it! He even talked to the mechanic and discussed the progress and seemingly made sure things went down well. I am amazed! He even made suggestions to install a special brace to keep a certain bracket from tearing. Wow. Can't wait to see the car on Tuesday.

The Lucia Crawl And Wave Video

More teeth

More teeth are on the way.

What? Who did this!?

We have been out looking at apartments quite a bit lately and have left Mrs. Baylee home alone. You may already know where this is going.
I left a big pitcher by the terrace door after having washed my bicycle here the other day and left a sponge in the bottom of it. Yesterday I found a little dog turd sitting on top of the sponge, just a little nugget. I ask Heather if she had moved a dog turd in to the bucket, but the reaction I get from her tells me she probably didn't do it or dare I say doo it?
Ah that dog! I actually think she is on to something good though. If she has to do her number 2 inside on the carpet, then by all means pick it up!

mmm deilig!

As you saw in the previous videos when we tried to feed her rice cereal or oats mixed with water or baby formula she hated it. Made her vomit even.
Then last weekend we had Mary and Danny visiting and Lucia got to see how it is done.
We also tried something different than the terrible cereals; mixing mashed banana, oats and water is now actually a favorite food. She also has a new cup just for water. Next up may be guacamole, broccoli or eyes-mouth coordination.
(Deilig = delicious.)

First tooth on the way

Just a little hint at this point, but put your finger and and it is really sharp. Nevermind the bumps and scratches in her face, she is fearless, unfortunately.

Up and coming

Lucia has been trying to stand up for a long time but over the last few weeks she has really started to figure out it is best to hold on to something with both hands when trying to get up.
Getting back down was a bit more difficult but it seems like she learned from Danny last weekend that it is better to fall on your butt first than go down like a timber.

Mary, Did you forget something here?

Really we're just trying to cover the bruises on her forehead (from tumbling).

Fun with Mary and Danny

David's loss is our gain. We had so much fun with Mary and Danny this weekend. I took off Friday, and we started the day with a walk. Mary didn't bring her stroller (for obvious reasons -- she had her hands full enough with a wiggly almost-1-year-old, luggage and every thing else), so I put Lucia in the ergo carrier and off we went. I don't carry her often in the carrier, and now I'm realizing I should: we burned a lot of calories, and I feel like a got a moderately good workout.

Anyway, then we went to lunch at this place, which was practically empty (to our delight!). We had a great lunch, and then went to Borders to pick up a book I had on hold. Then we went to this lovely wooden toy store, and Mary bought some toys for Danny. I restrained myself; Lucia isn't into toys really just yet. She prefers finding things that are not supposed to be toys: I found her chewing on a dirty sock today. Great!

Friday night we hung out, and Josh came over and we watched a funny movie.

Saturday we took another walk and then got all showered jazzed up and went to the fancy mall. Mary was looking for makeup, and I was purchasing my first reward for losing 5 lbs -- lovely lipstick.

Saturday afternoon Mary went to get a massage and Pete and I watched Danny. It was total chaos with two babies! But everything went great. Pete seemed to really enjoy feeding him and interacting with him. He's such a natural.

Sunday we cooked up a storm with the leadership help of our neighbor Mandy, who basically (and wonderfully!!!) took over cooking Easter dinner. God love her. We're hoping they don't move too far away (they're moving in July, we're moving in June). We adore them. We She cooked burgundy pepper lamb with mustard, smashed potatoes with rosemary, grilled carrots with grilled oranges, green olive bread, and Pete made a fantastic cake with fresh whipped cream and strawberries Mary and I had purchased at the farmer's market.

We both agreed we should live closer to each other, and that time together is just the greatest. We're going down to see them in two weeks for Mr. Danny's first birthday. We can't wait.

Squeeky Pumagirl

Engagement Party

We went to a wonderful and beautiful engagement party last Saturday. Our friends from the scandinavian club Jonas and Alegra are getting married and we celebrated at a beautiful winery in the Santa Cruz mountains. You can see more pictures here.

Standing around

She enjoys looking at herself in the mirror, and in the last week or so, pulling herself up and standing exploring new things above floor level, sometimes she pulls the items down and herself with them.

New heights

Lucia likes to pull her self up to expore new things.

Suckers + Teethers

We've been hearing about how Sophie the Giraffe is essential for teething. It doesn't have a lot of the nasty chemicals that are surprisingly in a lot of children's toys. Apparently it is shaped just perfectly so the baby can teethe on it. I've tried to buy one several times at our local store, but they keep running out, and it's the same story from online stores -- they're backordered.

Today folks, we got the Sophie. At a 20% discount, she was still $19, so Lucia better be in LOVE with this dang thing. I feel like a sucker.

Behind bars