Home Sweet Home

It's so good to finally be home! We were only gone for four days and we had a lot of fun, but we spent a lot of time in the car. First we drove to the Bay, which probably ended up taking around five hours (because it was the south bay). Then we drove all around the south bay. On Friday we did some more driving around the south bay (although after getting lost on Thursday evening we were more careful with the GPS). Sunday's driving was from the south bay to the city to go to museums, and then to the north bay to the hotel, then back to the south bay to meet some of Paul's friends from school, then back to the north bay to go to bed. And that brought us to this morning. After getting up to go to Mass at St. Raphael's in San Rafael we drove home (we left the church at 10 and we got home at 4) and while Sadie slept for a solid two and a half hours, the rest of the time passed very slowly. Sadie was not entirely convinced that the time spent in the car was necessary and there was a great deal of whining (but blessedly little crying) and even more singing to make the whining stop.

To make up for all this driving I made Sadie a promise. The promise was that we would try to swim every day while we were away. With the exception of today, which was really spent getting home, we did just that. Sadie's first experience swimming was in the pool in town at the beginning of the week. Sadie was pretty scared when Paul brought her over and handed her to me in the water. By our second swimming experience, in Los Altos, Sadie had decided that pools can be fun. On Friday she was no longer clinging to me and would hold my hands and giggle while we twirled around in the water.

Yesterday Sadie truly became a water baby. When I went to get into the pool (I was going to have Nani hand her to me) she reached to go with me. We were twirling and jumping and walking through the water and Sadie was having a blast. She thinks it's hilarious when I hold her up above the water so that her face is above my face and then go under water and blow bubbles. Maybe that's when her new little idea started to form. When I was holding her hands she suddenly made a concerted effort to lean forward and put her face in the water. I realized what she was doing a moment too late to stop her, but I quickly lifted her up. She looked shocked for about ten seconds, and then the expression melted away and she looked pleased with herself. She tried another four time to put her face under water again, with varying degrees of success. Sometimes she only dipped her mouth in, other time she managed to get her nose and eyes too. She looked surprised each time, but she didn't cry or make a sound (other then one little surprised cough once).

As of today it's only a week until Sadie's one. I can't believe how fast time flies!