Date Night

Last Saturday Jim and I had our first official date night since Riesling was born.  That's right we pretty much haven't been anywhere except work without our little sweet pea in almost a year.  I guess we did go to my best friend's wedding in Charleston when she was about 7 weeks old but I don't really count that since we were within walking distance of our hotel and my "nanny" for the evening brought her to the wedding for feedings.  Anyways, we booked our sitter, got all fancied up and off we went to celebrate Jim's birthday like real adults. 

We started the evening dining amongst the 65 and older crowd with a 5:30 reservation at the Yardley Inn (one of our favorite restaurants) accompanied by our dear friends, The Crookers.  I must say early dining has it's advantages.  It wasn't too crowded, it was early in the shift so the servers were fresh on their game, and we scored a major three course early dining special. It was definitely a little weird to be without Riesling.  While we were waiting for The Crookers to arrive the table behind us had a 5 minute discussion about which bottle of Riesling was the best....it was like torture to listen to our little gals name over and over again while trying to ward off the guilt of leaving her behind for the night.  When Jon & Lorraine arrived and the adult conversation started to flow, we got over our mild case of guilt pretty quickly.  I honestly didn't know what to do with both my hands free. We even enjoyed a round of oysters (well none for the shellfish allergy stricken gal) and a three course dinner without interruption.  I had to keep reminding myself that it was Ok to eat slowly. 

Following dinner we headed over to the new brewery in Yardley, The Vault.  Jim has recently taken an interest in brewing beer and it was a desired trip to The Vault that actually prompted us to get a babysitter in the first place.  The men enjoyed some fine brews on tap while ladies aka designated drivers chatted over chilled water.  Good times were had by all.  By 9:30ish we were holding hands and walking through a sparkly dusting of fresh snow.  So romantic. 

We arrive back home only to find our darling Miss Riesling has decided to awaken from her slumber just minutes if not seconds earlier.  Not only is she not sleeping she is apparently wide awake and ready for a night of partying.  Our sitter apologizes, takes her cash, and sleeps out the door while I attempt to rock her.  After nearly 2 hours of rocking, singing, nursing, reading, snuggling, and every other trick in the book (that's right, very close to midnight) she was back asleep.  Jim has been snoring in a bit of a drunken stupor for well over an hour at this point and I exhausted and lying on the floor of Riesling's nursery holding her hand through the crib comforting her to sleep. Man I love date night. Stupid wasted oyster.