Date Night

Tonight (being Friday, even though it's after midnight, so this will post as being Saturday), Brandon and I went out on a date. Without Caleb. Can you believe it? It's only the fourth time we've been without our baby since he was born. Well, the fifth time if you count those lovely few hours that I was having surgery and we left Caleb at home with my mom.

The first time (not counting the surgery), was in Texas. We put Caleb to bed, then took the baby monitor and a key to our apartment upstairs to the guys living above us (who also worked for APX). We went out to the Cheesecake Factory (my favorite restaurant), but I was so stressed about being away from our baby that I made Brandon get our dessert to go and we ate it at home. Of course, Caleb was fine and the guys even came down to check on him once just to make sure the monitor was working right.

The second time, we were still in Texas. Again, we put Caleb to bed before going out. This time, another couple (who also worked for APX) came over and watched our television while Caleb slept. That was for my birthday. We went to BJ's because we love their pizookies -- although now that we have a skookie maker, we'll probably never eat at BJ's again.

The third time, we were back in Utah. My mom came down and stayed with Caleb...while he was still awake! We went to an early dinner at Ruby River Steakhouse. I tried so very hard to not talk about the baby while we were out and not stress about being gone from him. Let's just say we weren't gone more than an hour and a half. Brandon wanted to go shopping afterward, but I was too anxious to get home. I can't remember now if we actually went to the store (he wanted to go to Home Depot to look at kitchen stuff, since this was back before we remodeled our kitchen), but I think I probably insisted we go home.

Finally, that brings us to tonight. Caleb's nine and a half months old. It's the fourth time we've been on a date without him. And still, despite the fact that I know my mom is completely capable of watching my baby, I still stressed when we left him. I was all worked up about it and Brandon tried to calm me down. I told him that I'd be fine by the time we got to the restaurant. I'm not so sure that he believed me, especially since I kept remembering things I forgot to tell my mom before we left.

But I did good. We went to Iggy's for dinner, which is a sports grill place. They have HUGE televisions. As soon as we walked in, worrying about the baby or thinking of things to talk about other than the baby was no longer the problem. The problem was peeling my eyes away from the HUGE television showing the Detroit-Toronto basketball game. I love basketball. Absolutely love it. And did I mention how HUGE the televisions were?

After dinner, we went to Walmart to buy a humidifier since Caleb has a cold right now. Of course, despite our "date" and my great efforts to not talk about the baby all night long, the first thing we do in Walmart is check out the baby section. I know, I'm pathetic. But I'm just so in love with my kid. At least I did manage to skip the toy section, which was harder than it sounds considering we walked right past it.

We came home and put the baby to bed (who didn't care at all that we had left him behind). Then we went back out and saw a movie. Check us out! We're totally dating fiends now.

I think, overall, I did really good tonight. And maybe, if we ever make it to the big number five date without the baby, I won't stress out at all about leaving him behind. Maybe.