2010 was off to a great start until...

I was going to blog about our great trip to Ljubljana, Budapest and Lasko, Slovenia, but we returned this morning to find our apartment had been broken into while we were gone. They took Cristiano's computer and the jewelry he gave me when Dylan was born. I'm sick, sick, sick over it. I am beating myself up over having left the jewelry here, but they are pieces I only take out for special occasions and we have an alarm system and complicated shutter/grate system on the windows, so I thought they'd be safe. We also have upstairs neighbors who are incredibly vigilant (to the point of being nosy at times) and whose parents live on either side of our building and are constantly monitoring the comings and goings here. The only thing we can think is that these guys broke in at midnight on Dec. 31 while the fireworks were going off and somehow disabled the alarm. They obviously knew what they were doing. From their muddy footprints and where they went in the house (they didn't even enter Dylan's bedroom) and what they decided to take and to leave, you can see the method to their thieving madness.

When I came in this morning, I noticed the hall light was on and my bedroom door was closed, which was odd as I'd been the one to lock up and that's not how I'd left the house. As soon as I turned off the alarm, it started screeching "intruder, intruder, intruder" and I opened the bedroom door to find the place ransacked and the balcony door wide open in sub-zero temperatures. There are muddy footprints on EVERYTHING from my comforter to the rug to all of the clothes they left on the floor.

What makes me angriest of all is that Dylan saw me crying hysterically and it made him so upset and he was anguished and begging me "Mommy stop crying. Mommy stop crying." Bastards. At the end of the day, the jewelry was a gift for his birth and what is important is that he is a happy and healthy little boy. With that, I leave you with some photos of the trip and hopes that 2010 can only get better.