A good end to a tough year

We had a lovely weekend, the kind of weekend that all weekends aspire to be. Saturday, FD went for a bike ride up the coast and then met us in Venice, for a walk on the beach. We watched dancing roller skaters, played in the sand, and that night FD and I went on a date. Dinner and a movie! Grandma W. babysat, and Froggy was FINE without us! It's great being needed, but it's even better when you're just preferred.

It's hilarious how much we took "going out" for granted before Froggy. You just don't know how much you'll miss dinner-and-a-movie when you become parents. We were smiley and smoochy all night, and I suspect our waitress was making fun of how kissy we were during dinner. We ate at a nice Chinese restaurant, and then saw THE KITE RUNNER, which was very sad, but well made. I love movies that are based on novels, where the story unfolds like a book, weaving in and out, without one main climax and resolution. I'd definitely recommend it.

Today we spent the day with Grandma and Grandpa at the Santa Monica Pier. Froggy loved the carousel, and had a fabulous time watching the street performers, musicians, tourists and fishermen. Froggy was a terrible toddler at dinner, shouting, jumping and acting like an obnoxious two-year-old, but fortunately we were eating at a place that welcomes that behavior, so we fit right in. No five-star-restaurants for us, thank you! There was a couple sitting next to us with a 3-week-old newborn, and when their babe started crying, the new dad apologized to us. I looked at him (while my own kid was sticking a crayon up her nose) like, "Are you kidding? That precious little cry?" The new dad took one look at Froggy and said, "But it looks like you're used to this kind of stuff. She's very active." He can say that again! Yes, she's very active.

We soooooo needed a weekend like this.