Date Day

Dates have taken on new meaning around here, after having kids.

In the last few years before becoming parents, most of our dates involved good food and maybe an adult beverage or two.  The rare late night out would involved friends and maybe some music or sitting around a backyard fire.  After kids, dates for the two of us are very few and far between. 

The last real date Nick and I shared was almost exactly a year ago, when I was about 6 months pregnant with Ruby.  We spent the night in Seattle while Cora had a slumber party with her Grammie.  The big night out consisted of a lovely dinner out and an extremely early bedtime for us.  A full night of uninterrupted sleep after good food was as much excitement as we could hope for, especially with chronic sleep deprivation and a very uncomfortable pregnancy.

But today Cora got to have a date with her Daddy, leaving me and Ruby at home to spend some quiet time together.  Usually during the rare times that they share time alone, they'll go on a bike ride to the park, or some other place that we visit often. Today they went for a new adventure together, and rode the train along the waterfront.

Cora was pretty excited.

Yes, all the photos are from phones.

On the train!

One of the many bridges

She was apparently very well behaved.  It must have been the novelty, since Nick did not have to carry her over his shoulder at any point.  I'll consider that a win.

And in the meantime, I got to have some mellow time with this little sweetie.  We got to hang out and trade smiles while she sat in the swing.

She got to dive into the sandbox and get her first taste of sand.

And I got to sit and watch her without chasing a squealing preschooler down the driveway.  No cajoling or bribing occurred.  No redirection or motivators to scramble for.  I did have to retrieve some sharp sticks, and swipe some leaves out of her mouth after she started gagging, but all in all it was calm and relaxed.

It was nice to have some one-on-one time with my little one, if only for a couple of hours.

But it was also pretty nice to welcome back my big girl and hear her excited answers to my questions about the train.  It was nice to feel refreshed, even if it wasn't quite a break.

As nice as it is to have time together with the four of us, it was exciting to mix it up and have some special date time with our girls.  We'll have to make it a habit more often.