A night out

Two weeks ago, Adam and I went out on a date – dinner and a movie – just the two of us. I should mention that up to this point, in Addy’s 22.5 months, we had been childless for a total of 13 hours (2.5 of which were the hours in the hospital before Kennedy was born). So, this was a pretty big thing.

The kids stayed at home with the sitter and watched The Little Mermaid. We had dinner at Outback Steakhouse, where we actually managed to keep our conversation relatively kid-free (oh, there was some kid conversation… but it wasn’t all), and then we went to see The Mysterious Case of Benjamin Button. Weird movie. A little long and not the best thing to see the first night without the kids, I’d say – but a movie nonetheless. We got some coffee (hot chocolate for me) on the way home (gotta love those 24 hour Starbucks drive-throughs) and were home 15 minutes early.

It was a fun night. And it’s something that we need to do more often. Once a month would probably be better than once every two years. But we both missed the girls. I can’t speak for Adam, but I missed them more than I thought that I would. I was so excited to get home to see their beautiful sleeping faces.

Kennedy was out – oblivious to the changes in the evening I think. Addy had woken up just as we pulled into the garage, but was back in dreamland by the time that we checked on her a few minutes later. However, as we were getting ready to turn in for the evening Addy roused again. After we each went into her separately and snuggled a little, she still seemed a little uneasy. Just a little unsettled.

So, in quite a departure from the norm, I took her into our room and the three of us snuggled on our bed and read a few books. Addy, more settled after that, went back to her room for the rest of her night of beauty sleep.

It was the best 20 minutes though and a good ending to the evening. Adam, as he saw me bring her into our room, said to Addy “this is for us too.” He was right. It did us all some good I think.

We’re planning on some more nights out in the near future and I'm excited about them, but I think that it would be ok if they all ended like that one did - just our little family of four (or four minus one if Kennedy is out like she was this first time) reading in the big bed past bedtime. =)