Babysitting Woes

Remember how I babysit Alana? So tonight, her mom came over to babysit Caleb while Brandon and I went on a date! I know! A date withOUT our child! Who would have thought?

Okay, okay, we did do half of the date with Caleb. I figured if we took Caleb to dinner with us then we'd have more time later to play instead of wasting time going out to eat. (In a perfect wife world, I should have just made dinner, but where's the fun in that?) We had dinner at Ottavio's where an accordion player serenaded us several times. Caleb LOVED him. Whenever he would leave to play for a different part of the restaurant, Caleb would climb all over the booth trying to watch him still. It was very cute. Especially when Caleb would clap after the guy finished each song.

So then we came back home and Brandon helped Caleb take his jacket off. So then Caleb volunteered to take Mommy's jacket off (since I obviously needed help with it -- I am a princess after all). After Crystal showed up, I put my jacket back on and immediately Caleb wanted to take it off again. He knew what was up. (We did hang out for a bit before getting ready to go to try and help him be okay with staying with Crystal. Eventually it got to the point that no matter what we did we knew he was going to cry when we finally left, so we just had to leave with him crying.)

After Caleb realized I wasn't going to take my jacket off, he went over to the coat rack and reached up for his jacket, trying to pull it down so he could put it on and come with us. It was so stinkin' cute.

I just hate leaving my baby when he's crying for me to stay with him (or at least to let him come with us). I hate it. Every time, I question whether it's really worth it to leave him. Is it really necessary? Last time we left him at Crystal's house, he was screaming so bad that I decided it wasn't worth it and ended up just taking him out with us. (Which is why she came to our house this time, in hopes that he wouldn't cry as much.) But Brandon and I had a really great time tonight, which made it worth it, at least tonight. I'll probably change my mind again the next time we try to have him babysat and he's screaming as we run out the door.