Saturday, May 22, 2010

Brave new world

Since N was born, E and I have really made it a point to maintain having dates with each other. Partially relationship-preserving, partially sanity-saving, and partially a way to accomplish errands that might not otherwise happen, we've really relished our time together. There have been a few nights that we've managed to convince family to watch our little man so that we could head out to dinner or a movie, or heaven forbid, both. For the most part, however, these dates happen on Friday afternoons. See, E and I both work half days on Fridays (typically), but we pay for the entire week of daycare. N is used to spending a whole day at daycare, and we trust these people with him, so rather than rushing to pick him up on Friday afternoons we try to catch lunch together and do something interesting.

These Friday afternoon dates are fantastic. I'd say that we get a good two or three in out of every four weeks, which isn't half bad. However, those elusive nighttime dates where we've managed to convince a family member to come all the way to Rockwall (!) and watch N have been few and far between. Why, you ask, did we not hire someone? I mean, family is wonderful, but couldn't we just hire someone to come out and watch him?

Sure. Of course. But WHO? It's not like we'd trust just ANYONE with our little man. I mean, he's our little guy - the most loved of all children in the entire world (at least, as far as we're concerned). Who exactly was qualified to watch him while we were away? It's not like any old schlub off the street was going to be able to do this. This is our SON we're talking about here.

Turns out one of the teachers in N's class does babysitting on the side. Why we didn't know this before now, I'm not really sure. But here's the thing - she watched him nearly every day for a year, and he LOVES her. We're pretty sure she's qualified. And she's also willing to come out to our house and have us pay her to watch our adorable little man, because guess what? She loves him too. Who wouldn't? He's awesome.

So tonight was the first night we hired someone to come over and watch N while we went out on a date. We went out to sushi (cooked only, calm down preggo food police) and then headed in to Rockwall for the Founder's Day Festival. Little did we know that Robert Earl Keen was performing! So we got to have dinner and watch a concert all while our little guy rested peacefully under the care of someone we trusted. It was fantastic.

E wants to put her on retainer. I don't think it's a bad idea.

Sunday, May 9, 2010

Happy 1st (just a few days early)


Happy birthday little man. We love you.

Thursday, May 6, 2010

F & C visit!

Our friends F & C stopped by for a visit last weekend. It was quick, but we were so happy to see them - all the way from Denver! They're the first of our Denver friends to meet N. He sure liked them! Makes sense - given they're some of our favorite people ever!