Baby Bug and I had a fun lunch date in Santa Monica today with my old friend Susan (aka my Fairy Godmother) and our friend Kelly. I love it when Bug and I have plans. It makes the day go by so much better. We’re both such social creatures by nature and we love getting out and chatting the day away. Plus, who doesn’t like a free lunch and good company? Not I, said the fly.

We needed this lunch date bad too because I’ve been a crazy woman on a mission lately. I’m working furiously on my website redesign project every minute that Baby Bug doesn’t need me. All this working and no playing has been tough on her because I’ve been keeping her cooped up in the living room (aka The Baby Bug Day Care Center). She has to practically throw herself on my stool to pull me away from the other baby my laptop so I can color or “twirl” with her. Don’t feel too bad for her though, she’s very good at communicating her needs. This Bug is not getting neglected. Cabin fever? Yes. Negect, no.

We banished the cabin fever and got lots of fresh air on the Santa Monica Pier. We arrived early and had plenty of time to walk up and down the boardwalk and explore the quite impressive gymnastics park that is open to the public. I wish I had pictures of it. The hanging rings were sooo photogenic with their funny shadows on the sand. At the time*, I still had the super-mini-can-only-take-three-pictures card in my camera and I was desperate not to waste. We stored everything up in our memories instead.

We watched two young girls practice all kinds of tricks that blew my mind. Gymnasts are amazing! You should have seen the leg muscles on these barely eight year old little flipping machines. They were like little fairies made of all muscle. I started getting really discouraged because I want Baby Bug to be able to take ballet or gymnastics someday and I realized that I’ve already started her out on a path of slothdom with all the junk food and cookies I let her eat. If she wants to be like these girls, she’s going to have to eat carrot sticks and learn to lift soup cans or something. Maybe not. But I do have to be careful. It’s always fun to see her glee when she gets some new treat but I don’t want her to grow up like me with a giant sweet tooth and no discipline.

Speaking of no discipline, we had a delicious lunch at Bubba Gump’s of Cajun Chicken, Pizza, French Fries and Dirt Pudding! Baby Bug loved the dirt pudding of course. Duh, she’s my daughter. She’s starting to insist that she can use a big person fork or spoon now and spent many many long minutes stabbing at her pudding cup. It was great entertainment for all of us. When that got old, she opted for the tried and true method of shoving as much in her mouth as possible with her hands. Mmmmm chocolate.

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Then we went exploring, not unlike the last time I met Susan for a little trip in Santa Monica. Except last time I was pregnant with Baby Bug and feeling very queasy all the time. Boy, I do not miss that queasiness of the first trimester. That was the worst. I want to have more kids but the thought of going through that again makes me want to adopt.

Baby Bug loved riding in the stroller, bumping along over the wooden planks of the boardwalk. Usually, I’m terrified to push her on the pier. I know it’s perfectly safe. It’s not like I’m just going to roll her off the edge but I have this crazy paranoid fear of having her near great heights. I almost get sick just thinking about it. (Shudder) The Santa Monica Pier is nice though because not only do they have the regular rungs of railing along the sides, they also have thick wire cording strung between the rungs. As long as Baby Bug is strapped into the stroller there is no way she could get through those wires and rungs and fall to the crashing waves below. I love the ocean but sometimes it just scares the crap out of me. The last time I took her on a walk down a pier, I had to drive the stroller smack down the middle and force myself not to look left or right. My friend, who was with me at the time, thought I was completely nuts. Obviously, she doesn’t have kids.

We finished up our little jaunt with a ride on the old antique carousel. You can never go wrong with a carousel ride. Baby Bug loves going up and down with the wind rustling through her hair. She’s not afraid a bit. In fact, this time she didn’t even hold onto the gold pole with both hands. Nope. She had to have one hand on her new pink monkey (from Kelly–who spoiled her rotten) the entire ride. She’s so funny that way.

Then it was home again home again on the stinkin’ 405 that always has traffic no matter what time of day you travel. I hate the drive. But a fun lunch with friends made it totally worth it.

*Susan gave me one of her extra SD cards at lunch and I’ve been snapping pictures ever since!