Date Night

Because of my severe Mother Hen instincts (Ash calls them "issues". Don't know what that's about), I haven't felt comfortable leaving our 2-year old son Ben with a sitter that wasn't related by blood. Because I sensationalize every thing, watch too much Tru TV, and am a product of Cultivation Theory, I just have this fear that whoever we let watch our kid isn't going to pay enough attention to him and he's going to end up ingesting bleach or pretending he's a superhero off the roof.

Ere go, since we moved to Florida 8 months ago, my husband and I have been out alone exactly three times, and all of those times were when family was in town visiting.

Thankfully, my "issues" are somewhat kept at bay by the Child Development Center. I feel more comfortable with Ben in that setting where all the employees have been trained in life saving techniques, he's in a childproof environment with kids he can interact with, and everyone who works there has a genuine love of kids.

As we enter the holiday season, the CDC is open weekend nights for childcare because of all the base Christmas parties. We are taking advantage of this lovely, lovely arrangement and going out THREE WEEKENDS IN A ROW!

We spent this past Friday night at Ichiban having a fantastic sushi dinner. Afterwards we went to a great little self-serve yogurt shop and then to pick up a few things at the bookstore.

As much as I love Child-O-Mine to death, it was incredibly nice not to have to fight him in the highchair or interrupt our conversation with phrases like, "I'm pretty sure there's poo running down his leg." I was able to focus on time with my husband instead of worrying that something bad was happening back home.

I also learned that Date Night time moves at warp speed. We dropped Ben off at the CDC at 6:30. It was almost 10 when I looked at my watch. Hand to God, I thought it was, like, 8.

Click to enlarge.

Next step: get over myself.