January 12,
Yesterday, Ken and I celebrated our 6th wedding anniversary. I was sick, and would have loved to do nothing else but sleep all day long. However, Eva was much more sick than I was. Around 2am the night before, Eva woke up screaming. She never does this. I couldn't figure out what was wrong. She didn't want to be in any position other than on my shoulder, resting her head there� she was SO tired though. Then, without warning, she vomited all over my shoulder and back. She continued to throw up every 5 minutes or so, for about 45 minutes. Finally, she wore out, and I was able to get her back down to sleep. About an hour or so later, she woke up screaming again, and repeated the whole process. I had Ken call the emergency hotline our doctor had given us. She has never thrown up before. It was really scary. The doctor on call asked me a lot of questions. She had this projectile vomit on and off for the next 24 hours. Luckily, it looks like she didn't get dehydrated, and last night, she slept through the night. We were back and forth with the doctors. She never had a fever, so the doctors thought it might not be a virus. The other options were an allergy, a toxin, or a head trauma. Not good options. She hadn't been introduced to any new food in awhile...the only food she had had the day before, was me, so THAT was out� except that I had taken her and Cooper to the playground and let her sit in the sand� She did eat a little bit of sand. If you licked the tip of her finger and dipped it in sand, then licked the sand off, maybe she ate that much, maybe less. It was really cold, and the sand was a little bit wet from the rain the day before. Cooper and Ellis are both recovering from colds, so it made the most sense to me that she caught some version of what they had. When Cooper comes over here with a cold or a runny nose, she sometimes gets a little sniffle or runny nose too, but usually much milder than his. Anyway, It turned out to be a virus after all. This morning, her diaper was full of diarrhea, which the doctors all said was a good sign that it was a virus, following a normal course of action.Wednesday was a nightmare for me. I called in sick, and then was so tired I almost couldn't function.

I couldn't do anything special to celebrate our wedding anniversary, and I couldn't get any sleep because I had to take care of Eva. Myrna had offered to take care of Eva in the afternoon, if we wanted, but I had to call her and cancel. I didn't want to give Cooper or Ellis this cold if they didn't have it. We did keep a baby-sitting date we had with Ken's dad. We dropped her off at 6:30, with 2 bottles full of water, and some cereal, with Ken's cell phone freshly charged and in his pocket, the doctor's number at the ready, and specific instructions for Eva. I worried about leaving her, but I trust Ken's dad, and I knew he'd call if she threw up or if anything unusual happened.Ken had reservations at a place called Forbes Island.
http://www.forbesisland.com/
It's a man made floating island. It was amazing. This guy Forbs Kiddoo, used to make houseboats. He made the island for himself, over years. It looked like a tiny island, complete with a lighthouse, some palm trees, a grotto, a dock, etc., it was so cool. Recently, he made it over from a private residence, to a restaurant. We ended up having dinner in the wine cellar. It was tiny, cold, a little dank, and very romantic. There was one small table, just big enough for two, lit by a Victorian style, stained glass lamp. The wine cellar was maybe 6 feet under water. The island was docked near those annoying sea lions at Pier 39, but the water muffled the sound, so we never had to hear them. We had a Caesar salad, and a wild mushroom and warmed goat cheese with brioche ragout for appetizers. The mushroom ragout was unbelievable! The combination of whatever was in there- mushrooms and heavenly morsels of melting goat cheese was divine. Ken ordered 2 glasses of champagne to go with the meal. "The cheap stuff" he said with a smile, looking at the menu. Even the cheap stuff was fantastic. The champagne flutes seemed to magically never empty, and we made toast and toast after toast.

This has been the best year of our marriage. When we look back over where we've been and where we are, both in life, and as people, we are so happy. Happy to be with each other, happy to be growing into the people we are becoming, happy to be married, happy to be parents to Eva, happy to be where we are in life. Everything seems to be falling into place for us this year. I looked into Ken's face. The champagne was golden and full of sparkles. The stained glass from the lamp reflected a soft, multicolored glow onto Ken's face, and his eyes were also glowing from the other side of the table. I swear I could feel the earth move. Then I grinned at Ken and he grinned at me. I DID feel the earth move, the island had turned its engines on and we were swaying with the tide. Whenever the island swayed from side to side, Ken and I stopped what we were doing, and stared at each other, grinning like idiots. It was possibly one of the most romantic evenings I have ever had. For dinner, I had very tender roasted Beef tenderloin, on a bed of braised greens, with parsnip puree, in a Bordelaise sauce. Ken had a roasted rack of Lamb crusted with herbs, with mashed potatoes, in rosemary lamb jus. Both were beyond description. The meat just melted in my mouth. Ken said he didn't even have to chew the meat; he just mashed it against the roof of his mouth with his tongue. Heh. For desert, we both had vanilla bean cr�me brule. It was perfect. cr�me brule is my favorite decedent desert. When we got back to Ken's Dad's place, Eva was feeling better.