Date Night

Okay, so Eli and I had a date tonight. Let's just say that it was quite interesting and just a little different than it used to be. Let me explain.

We decided to venture out of our cozy little home tonight with our precious darling girl Ella. A friend from work was having an art show and we thought that we shouldn't miss such an event. So, we left the house after a diaper change, clothes change (Ella), diaper bag pack, cute little shoes on Ella, but they didn't stay, so changed back into socks, then finally ready to go. Strap the baby in and load up in the car. That was the easy part.

We get to the art show no problem. Put Ella in the Beco baby carrier and strap her on Eli. So far so good. We grin at each other and think, "see, we still have lives, we can still go out for a nice evening." We look at all the wood art, talk to a few people. Someone says, "what a well behaved baby", we look at each other and grin again. Okay, baby now starting to get a wee bit fussy. We have been there for about 10 minutes. It is about 6:15. Eli bouncing and swaying up and down now. Time to leave.

So, what about dinner? I am very hungry at this point. I haven't hardly eaten all day because I am going dairy free due to baby GI upsets and today just on a whim, I decided to avoid wheat as well. Got to figure out why she is not sleeping at night. We decide that sitting down to dinner would be a tragedy at this point. What should we do? Well, we start our walk back to the car and pass a cute little new restaurant called Chai Pani, a "street Indian fare" with a walk up counter. Perfect. We enter the restaurant. Ella is momentarily calmed. But then the fussing continues. So Eli decides what he wants, tells me and decides to walk around Asheville for a while while I order and wait for the food. So, I order while they continue on. I sit at the bar and order a $1 PBR. Can't beat that. This night is rocking! When the food arrives I carry it out and meet up with my husband and now quiet and happy baby. We continue our walk back to the car. We pass the local independent bookstore, Malaprops, and see a calendar in the window that we want to take a look at. Title, "Freaks in Asheville". We used to take some nice inexpensive date nights here. Sipping on some coffee and reading a little together. Why not?, let's enter. We walk in, find the calendar, flip through the first couple pages. Baby beginning to ramp up again. Okay, time to go. Quick kiss in the aisle so we can call it a date and back out onto the street and onward to the waiting vehicle. Strap the baby back into her carseat and drive home. She cries the whole way home. We are back in our snug and cozy home by 7:45. I eat my take-out Indian food while Eli puts Ella in her jammies. He eats while I nurse her. Okay, time to try to bounce her to sleep. Whew, she actually went to sleep. So far. Did anyone ever warn me that things would change after having a baby? It is a good thing she is so darn cute.